Kamala Harris Accuses Trump of Holding America ‘Hostage’ With Demand to End Investigations on ‘Colbert’
‘We cannot abandon our democracy for the sake of appeasing somebody who is completely focused on his interests only,’ the 2020 Democratic candidate declared.
The last time Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, she stopped just short of announcing her 2020 presidential run, answering the host’s question about her plans with the words, “I might.” Four months later, she’s sitting comfortably in the top tier of Democratic candidates.
And as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee she was particularly well-positioned to respond Wednesday night to President Donald Trump’s demand that Democrats halt their investigations against him or else he will refuse to cooperate with them on infrastructure initiatives.
Asked by Colbert if she and her colleagues were going to end their investigations into the president, Harris simply replied, “No.” After the audience’s cheers died down, she added, “Let’s just talk for a moment about this.”
“So he’s going to hold America’s infrastructure hostage, right, over the issue of the investigation,” Harris said, before trying to make the issue as relevant as possible for potential voters who may have been watching. “Stephen, almost half of American families are a $400 unexpected expense away from complete upheaval.” Then she asked the host if he knew how much it costs to get four new tires for a car on average: “About $400.”
“And why do people need new tires?” she asked. “Because the roads are falling apart!”
“If you want to talk about a representative government, and shouldn’t leaders lead on behalf of the people as opposed to self-interest, then just connect all the dots,” Harris continued. “Right now, families are suffering.”
Taking the “devil’s view,” Colbert suggested that Democrats could just “pause” their investigations, get infrastructure spending done and then pick up right where they left off: “He’ll still be corrupt later.”
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Shaking her head, Harris said, “No, this is a false choice. We cannot abandon our democracy for the sake of appeasing somebody who is completely focused on his interests only.”
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