Much like the rest of the country, California Senator Kamala Harris is not letting the GOP make light of Donald Trump’s racist comments describing Africa and Haiti as “shithole countries.”
Speaking during a Congressional hearing earlier this week, the Democratic Senator delivered scathing — but warranted—remarks as she directly addressed Trump-appointed Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. During her own testimony, Nielsen gave her recollection of Trump’s outwardly racist comments, suggesting that she didn’t take issue with Trump embracing the idea of advocating for the U.S. to welcome more people from the predominantly-white country of Norway, referring to it as a “hard-working” country that doesn’t have much crime or debt.
In response, Harris offered a direct rebuttal, noting that Nielsen’s reaction to Trump’s comments gave off the vivid implication that people from Haiti and Africa are not hard-working.
“You spoke of them, according to the president, as the people of Norway—well, you know, they work very hard—the inference being the people of the 54 states of Africa and Haiti do not,” said Harris. “That is a fair inference.”
The former CA Attorney General also noted that Nielsen claiming not to know for sure whether or not Norway is a predominantly white country reflects poorly on her credibility as the Secretary of Homeland Security.
“You run the Department of Homeland Security,” said Harris. “And when you say you don’t know if Norway is predominantly white when asked by a member of the United States Senate, that causes me concern about your ability to understand the scope of your responsibilities and the impact of your words—much less the policies that you promulgate in that very important department.”
You can watch the exchange in full in the video clip above.