Trump On Biden Veep Pick Kamala Harris: ‘She’s Very, Very Nasty’
Donald Trump on Tuesday insisted he was surprised that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden chose senator Kamala Harris of California as his running mate, in part because she was “very nasty” to Biden as they vied in their party’s primary race.
“I was more surprised than anyone else because she did so poorly in the primaries,” Trump said at a White House press briefing shortly after the Biden campaign revealed Harris’ selection.
“Plus, she was very, very nasty … She was probably nastier than even Pocahontas to Joe Biden,” the president added, resurrecting his insulting nickname for senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, another of this cycle’s Democratic White House candidates.
He also said Harris “was very disrespectful” to Biden, adding, “It’s hard to pick somebody that’s that disrespectful.”
Despite Trump’s expression of surprise, political analysts of all stripes ― including those in the president’s camp ― for months had pegged Harris as the odds-on favourite to emerge as Biden’s running mate.
Trump also accused Harris of being “extraordinarily nasty” to Brett Kavanaugh during the 2018 Senate Judiciary hearings on his nomination to the Supreme Court. Harris and other committee Democrats hammered Kavanaugh over accusations that he sexually assaulted an acquaintance, Christine Ford, when they were in high school. Kavanaugh vehemently denied the allegations, and the issue became a cause celebre among some Republican lawmakers.
“I’ve been watching her for a long time. She was extraordinarily nasty to [Kavanaugh],” Trump said of Harris. “She was nasty to a level that was just a horrible thing ... the way she treated now-Justice Kavanaugh. I won’t forget that soon.”
Trump often uses the word “nasty” to describe women with whom he disagrees and as a way to demean them. He has used the same insult to attack his 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, house speaker Nancy Pelosi, PBS...
