The Trump campaign accused Vice President Kamala Harris of wanting to “cancel American traditions,” citing comments she made in 2019 supporting efforts to rename Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day.
“Kamala Harris is a classic leftist. Not only does she want to raise taxes and defund the police, but she also wants to cancel American traditions like Columbus Day,” Trump campaign national spokesperson said. , Caroline Leavitt exclusively told Fox News Digital.
“President Trump will ensure that the great legacy of Christopher Columbus is honored and will protect this holiday from radical leftists like Kamala Harris who seek to erase our nation's history.”
Leavitt was referring to Harris' 2019 comments when speaking to voters in New Hampshire, about a month after her ultimately unsuccessful 2020 White House bid.
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Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a service at Koinonia Christian Center on Sunday, October 13, 2024 in Greenville, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
When asked by voters if she supported renaming Columbus Day to “Indigenous Peoples Day,” Harris responded, “Support me,” according to footage from the event.
In her response to New Hampshire voters, Harris cited her role in helping author a recent bill that would make lynching a federal crime.
“People accepted and didn’t want to accept that we were the scene of a crime in terms of what we did in this country with regards to slavery and Jim Crow and institutionalized racism. We have to be honest about it,” she said, as reported by the Washington Times in 2019. “If we're not honest, we're not going to address all the vestiges of that harm, we're not going to get back on track, and we're not going to be honest.”Our values and morals. ”
“Similarly, we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to Native Americans and Indigenous peoples. I appreciate and admire your points and efforts, and I trust you will support me. ” she said. Her support for renaming the holiday.
Columbus Day is a federal holiday that officially celebrates and recognizes the arrival of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492. This year it is celebrated on Monday.
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Portrait of Christopher Columbus, 1519. It is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Artist: Piombo, Sebastiano, Del (1485-1547) (Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
Activists have worked in recent years to separate the day from Columbus Day in favor of celebrating Native Americans, arguing that it celebrates colonialism and the genocide of Native Americans. Activists have also worked to remove Columbus statues from cities, including toppling one during the 2020 riots.
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President Biden became the first president to officially recognize Indigenous Peoples Day in 2021, but states are taking different approaches to how the day is celebrated.
In 2021, her first year as vice president, Harris said the United States “must not shun” its “shameful past” in which European explorers brought “waves of devastation to tribal nations.”
Former President Donald Trump has a wide lead over Vice President Kamala Harris among male voters, according to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll. (AP/Julia Demarie Nikinson)
“Since 1934, the United States has recognized the voyage of the first European explorer to land on the shores of the Americas every October,” she said. “But that’s not all. That wasn’t all.
“Those explorers brought waves of devastation to tribal nations, committing violence, stealing land, and spreading disease,” she said.
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Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to the media before boarding the Second Air Force after assessing the Hurricane Helen recovery response in Charlotte, North Carolina, Oct. 5, 2024. (Tama Mario/Getty Images)
“We must not run away from this shameful past and must do all we can to shine a light on it and address the impact it has had on Indigenous communities today.”
An examination of Ms. Harris' X account from when she became vice president reveals that she has celebrated only Indigenous Peoples Day, not Columbus Day, every year since taking office.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment on her earlier statements and Levitt's comments, but did not immediately receive a response.
