Vice President Kamala Harris has confirmed that she and her team are prepared in case Donald Trump declares himself winner prematurely on election night coming on November 5. She shared these plans during an NBC News interview that aired Tuesday at the US Naval Observatory.
Harris told NBC’s Hallie Jackson that her team has put plans in place should Trump claim victory before all votes have been counted. “Of course,” Harris said, pointing to Trump’s past actions. “This is a person who tried to undo a free and fair election, who still denies the will of the people, who incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol.”
The aftermath of the 2020 election is still vivid in everyone’s memory. Even before the vote counting was completed, Trump asserted that he had won against Joe Biden. However, days later, the official results confirmed that Biden was the winner. For reasons known only to him, Trump then launched a media tirade, claiming that the results had been tampered with to ensure his defeat. To this day, there has been no evidence to support this assertion.
During the NBC interview, Harris gave a direct answer when she was asked about Biden’s debate performance that occurred back in June and his decision to leave the race. She called it “a bad debate” but stood by Biden’s achievements as president.
“I am running for president of the United States. Joe Biden is not – and my presidency will be about bringing a new generation of leadership to America,” Harris said.
However, Harris avoided questions about whether she would pardon Trump if elected. “I’m not going to get into those hypotheticals. I’m focused on the next 14 days,” she said. When pressed further by the interviewer, who asked if pardoning Trump could help unite the country, Harris replied, “Let me tell you what’s going to help us move on – I get elected president of the United States.”
On becoming potentially the first woman president, Harris expressed confidence in America’s readiness for female leadership. However, she mentioned that voters care more about ability than gender.
“I’m clearly a woman…. the point that most people really care about is, can you do the job and do you have a plan to actually focus on them,” she said.
Harris continued by stating that leadership should be earned through capabilities, not identity.
“I will never assume that anyone in our country should elect a leader based on their gender or their race, instead that leader needs to earn the vote based on substance and what they will do to address challenges,” she said
You can watch the full NBC News interview below.