Vice President Kamala Harris touted her record as a prosecutor and attorney general in a speech to her staff on Monday, saying she knows “Donald Trump’s type” and can take down criminals like him.
Harris, who appears to have broad support from Democrats to become the party’s nominee now that President Joe Biden has withdrawn from the race, emphasised her past work taking on a range of criminals while working as a courtroom prosecutor and the California attorney general.
“In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds — predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” she said. “So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”
One jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse last year, and another in May found him guilty on 34 felony counts in his hush money trial. Over the years, hundreds of people Trump has hired have said he refused to pay them. Earlier this year, a judge determined he had manipulated business records to obtain favourable loan terms from banks and insurers and ordered him to pay hefty damages.
Harris’ ability to play herself up as a tough prosecutor running for office opposite a convicted felon is thought to be one of the greatest potential strengths of her campaign.
“As a young prosecutor, when I was in the Alameda County District Attorney’s office in California, I specialised in cases involving sexual abuse. Donald Trump was found liable by a jury for committing sexual abuse,” Harris said on Monday.
“As attorney general of California, I took on one of our country’s largest for-profit colleges and put it out of business,” she continued. “Donald Trump ran a for-profit college, Trump University, that was forced to pay $25 million to the students it scammed.”
Trump, meanwhile, has been attacking Harris on social media, labelling her as “Dumb as a Rock” and a “totally failed and insignificant Vice President.”
