US President Donald Trump has scaled up his name-calling campaign against Kamala Harris — labelling her “nasty”, “phony”, a “mad woman”Since presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden announced Senator Kamala Harris as his Vice Presidential running mate, US President Donald Trump has scaled up his name-calling campaign against Harris — labelling her “nasty”, “phony”, a “mad woman” and even promoting a racist conspiracy theory that questions her eligibility for vice presidency.
But if past campaign financial records are to be believed, the political rivals have not always shared such a combative relationship.
Given Trump’s history of scathing and often baseless comments against Harris since he took office in 2016, it may come as a surprise that he repeatedly donated to the former California prosecutor’s advocate general campaigns earlier this decade.
According to official records, Trump donated a grand total of $6,000 to Harris during her first bid for California attorney general as well as her reelection campaign. Harris’ spokesperson, however, later clarified that Trump’s contribution had not been used to fund her campaign and had instead been donated to a nonprofit organisation, The Sacramento Bee first reported.
Last year, Trump even went as far as praising Harris’ campaign launch. “I would say, the best opening so far would be Kamala Harris,” he had said, according to the Washington Post.
But with the presidential elections inching closer, Trump and Harris are at loggerheads once again, with both sides launching damning attacks on one another.
Here is a look back at some comments Trump has made about Harris over the years
‘I heard she doesn’t meet the requirements’: Trump repeats birther conspiracy
FILE — Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), then a candidate for president, campaigns in Los Angeles on Oct. 4, 2019. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumpive Democratic presidential nominee, selected Harris as his vice-presidential running mate on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020. (Jenna Schoenefeld/The New York Times)
Speaking to reporters at the White House Thursday, President Trump had said that he had heard rumours that Harris, the black California-born daughter of immigrants, “doesn’t qualify” to serve as vice president of the United States, BBC reported.
Trump’s comments were prompted by a recent op-ed by a conservative law professor who questioned Harris’ eligibility as her parents are both immigrants. “I have no idea if that’s right. I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice-president,” Trump said.
“But that’s very serious, you’re saying that, they’re saying that she doesn’t qualify because she wasn’t born in this country,” he added.
Trump’s recent comments echo the false “birther” theory he had repeatedly promoted over the years to prove that former US President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
READ: How it happened: Inside Joe Biden’s search for a running mate
Trump calls Harris ‘Mad Woman’
FILE – In this Sept. 12, 2019, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, left, and then-candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. shake hands after a Democratic presidential primary debate hosted by ABC at Texas Southern University in Houston. Biden has chosen Harris as his running mate. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Trump called Kamala Harris a “Mad Woman”, referring to her questions during the confirmation hearings for his then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Earlier, he claimed that the way she “treated” Kavanaugh was “nasty”.
During the interview on Thursday, he stated that Harris was “so angry and such hatred with Justice Kavanaugh…she was the angriest of the group.”
‘She was nasty to Joe Biden’
Miami: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., gestures, during the Democratic primary debate hosted by NBC News at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Art, Thursday, June 27, 2019, in Miami. AP/PTI Photo
Moments after former US Vice President Joe Biden announced Senator Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate, President Donald Trump was quick to attack Harris for her comments against Biden during the primary debates.
At a press conference at the White House Tuesday, President Trump said that he was surprised Biden had picked Harris as a running mate after she allegedly disrespected him during the democratic debates. “She was probably nastier than even Pocahontas (Senator Elizabeth Warren) to Joe Biden. She was very disrespectful to Joe Biden,” he told reporters.
‘Slow Joe and phony Kamala embrace the radical left’
Soon after Biden’s announcement, Trump’s campaign tweeted out a video calling Harris a “phony”, and alleging that she had “embraced the radical left”.
“Voters rejected Harris. They smartly spotted a phony. But not Joe Biden. He’s not that smart,” the narrator in the campaign video says. “Slow Joe and phony Kamala. Perfect together, wrong for America.”
His campaign released a statement, which claimed that Harris had called Biden a racist and added that “Phony Kamala will abandon her own morals.”
SEE PICS: Kamala Harris: Some throwback photos from her childhood
‘Too bad, we’ll miss you’: Trump’s response to Harris dropping out of race
Soon after Senator Kamala Harris announced that she was dropping out of the presidential race in 2019 due to a lack of funds, Trump reacted to her withdrawal by tweeting, “Too bad. We will miss you Kamala!”
Too bad. We will miss you Kamala! https://t.co/QQd9SiFc0y
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2019
Promptly responding to the President’s jibe, Senator Harris tweeted, “Don’t worry, Mr. President. I’ll see you at your trial.”
Trump calls Kamala ‘badly failing candidate’ for skipping event
In October 2019, President Trump slammed Harris for intentionally skipping an event at a historically black college as the institution had previously awarded him for the work he had undertaken on criminal justice reform.
“Badly failing presidential candidate @KamalaHarris will not go to a very wonderful largely African American event today because yesterday I recieved [sic] a major award, at the same event, for being able to produce & sign into law major Criminal Justice Reform legislation,” Trump tweeted.
Badly failing presidential candidate @KamalaHarris will not go to a very wonderful largely African American event today because yesterday I recieved a major award, at the same event, for being able to produce & sign into law major Criminal Justice Reform legislation, which will..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2019
He claimed that the law, coupled with the “best unemployment numbers ever”, were far more than Harris would “ever be able to do” for the African American community.
‘I watched her poll numbers go boom, boom boom, down to almost nothing’
A day after Kamala Harris was announced as Biden’s running mate, President Trump had said that Biden made a “very unusual” and “risky” choice by picking Harris as his running mate, PTI reported.
“Look, he (Biden) made a choice. He picked her. I watched her. I watched her poll numbers go boom, boom, boom, down to almost nothing,” Trump had said. “And she left angry. She left mad. There was nobody more insulting to Biden than she was.”
He went on to claim that Harris had openly mocked Biden during her campaign. “I’m sure that’ll be played back not necessarily by me but others. It’ll be played back,” he added.
‘I think she would be a fine choice for VP’
Nearly two weeks before Harris was named Biden’s running mate, Trump had said she would be a “fine choice” for the Vice President position, according to a Washington Post report.
When a reporter asked what his take was on Harris running alongside Biden, Trump had said on July 29, “I think she’d be a fine choice, Kamala Harris. She’d be a fine choice.”
‘Best opening act so far would be Kamala Harris’
At the onset of Harris’ presidential campaign last year, Trump stated that her’s was the most promising “opening act so far”, praising the turn out and enthusiastic crowds at her launch event.
“I would say, in terms of the opening act, I would say, would be her. … I just think she seemed to have a little better opening act than others. I think … a better crowd — better crowd, better enthusiasm. Some of the others were very flat,” Trump said, according to a Washington Post report.