California Senator Kamala Harris went after Trump on Monday night following his Rose Garden speech addressing the protests. In her criticism on CNN, Harris compared Trump to two of the most notorious political figures in recent American history.
“I think that Donald Trump has combined the worst of George Wallace with Richard Nixon,” Harris told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “When he talks about ‘end it now’ and then ‘dominate the streets,’ you know, dominate, it literally — one iteration of dominate is about supremacy and that’s what Donald Trump is about.”
George Wallace was the segregationist former Governor of Alabama who is known for his infamous quote “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.” Wallace was Governor of Alabama during the rise of the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-1960s.
Richard Nixon, as POTUS during the grassroots activism opposing the Vietnam War, found himself responsible for similar military actions against peaceful protesters. Nixon resigned from the presidency in 1974 while facing impeachment for the Watergate scandal.
Harris points to the President’s divisiveness in the interview, pointing to his use of the military against peaceful protesters in Washington D.C. for his photo op at the St. John’s Church nearby.
“What he is right now doing in terms of invoking the American military, threatening the American people with the American military, the use of the American military against its own people. He is not a commander in chief. He is a divider,” the former Presidential candidate said.
CNN reported on Monday that Trump in part used military force to remove D.C. protesters as a sign of strength as he faced criticism for sheltering in the White House bunker. The hashtag #BunkerBoy and #BunkerTrump was trending on Sunday after the news broke.
