Trump impeachment lawyers raise past rhetoric of Kamala Harris. Here are the facts
Vice President Kamala Harris engaged in the same sort of strong political rhetoric that prompted President Donald Trump’s impeachment, his attorneys said Friday.
Michael van der Veen, a Trump defense attorney, told the former president’s trial that Harris “said of the violent demonstrations (last spring), ‘Everyone beware.’”
The Trump attorneys were defending the former president against the charge that his Jan. 6 speech to supporters was an incitement to riot. They maintained that while political speech can get hyperbolic, that does not necessarily mean it’s a call to violence.
“In this political forum, all robust speech should be protected, and it should be protected evenly for all of us,” said van der Veen. “We should all reflect and acknowledge the rhetoric has gotten to be too much and over the top.”
And while it is often disturbing, he said, “The point is, when you see speech such as this, you have to apply the First Amendment evenly.”
Van der Veen argued Friday that prominent Democrats used potentially incendiary rhetoric. At one point, the Trump defense played a montage of Democrats using the word “fight.” Harris appeared in the clips four different times.
Trump’s defense team also showed a 2018 clip of a Harris interview by Ellen DeGeneres.
DeGeneres asked Harris “if you had to be stuck in an elevator with either President Trump, Mike Pence or (Attorney General) Jeff Sessions – who would it be?”
Harris responds, “Does one of us have to come out alive?”
The audience, as well as Harris and DeGeneres, laughed loudly, and DeGeneres clapped her hands.
Van der Veen also referenced a June appearance by Harris, then a U.S. senator from California, on “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in the wake of the May death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody.
On Colbert’s show, van der Veen argued, “(Harris) said of the violent demonstrations, everyone beware. They’re not going to stop before Election Day in November and they’re not going to stop after Election Day.”
He further cited Harris’ claims. “They’re not going to let up. And they should not. Such rhetoric continued even as hundreds of police officers across the nation were subjected to violent assaults at the hands of angry mobs,” Van der veen said of Harris’ comments.
Sen. Christopher Coons, D-Delaware, a Senate Judiciary Committee member, said there were big differences between Trump’s rallying cry on Jan. 6, when supporters rioted at the Capitol, and the Democrats’ rhetoric.
“All of us at some point have used the word fight in the in the context of, ‘We need to fight for healthcare or fight for clean air or fight for better schools,’ but none of us were saying that to a mob, which then attacked someone,” Coons said.
“None of us, if a fight had broken out or a riot had broken out would have, as President Trump did, failed to act in any way to restrain or turn back our supporters from doing that. So I don’t think it’s apples to apples,” Coons said.
Harris and Colbert
Harris appeared on Colbert’s show after protests had spread across the country following the May 25 death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody. Some of the protests turned violent.
Harris attended a peaceful protest in Washington, D.C., a few days later, where participants gathered in a park across from the White House and chanted “Black Lives Matter” and ”I can’t breathe.”
Harris later tweeted, “People are in pain. We must listen.”
Three weeks later, she and Colbert talked about the protest.
“People of every race, age, gender together, seeing the commonality...something that’s so very powerful,” she said.
“How important is it for these protests to continue?” Colbert asked Harris.
“It’s critically important,” Harris said. She recalled her experiences as a San Francisco prosecutor, and how black men she’s known have been victims of racial profiling.
“These movements provide a counter-force to provide us for where we need to be,” she said.
Colbert noted that he hadn’t seen much reporting lately on the protests.
“That’s right,” Harris said. “But they’re not gonna stop. They’re not gonna stop. This is a movement, I’m telling you. They’re not gonna stop.
“And everyone beware because they’re not gonna stop. They’re not gonna stop before Election Day in November and they’re not gonna stop after Election Day. Everyone should take note of that on both levels they’re not gonna let up. They should not, and we should not.”
The comment came after a lengthy discussion of the value of peaceful protest, and at no time did Harris suggest or imply that violent action was likely.
This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 1:10 PM with the headline "Trump impeachment lawyers raise past rhetoric of Kamala Harris. Here are the facts."
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