Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) canceled an appearance at a South Carolina college scheduled for this weekend after the school honored President Donald Trump with an award on Friday.
Harris, whose presidential campaign has floundered in recent weeks, was supposed to attend a criminal justice forum on Saturday at Benedict College, a historically black institute of higher learning located in Columbia, South Carolina. The California Democrat, however, opted to cancel the appearance after the college honored Trump on Friday for his work in advancing criminal justice reform.
Kamala Harris' campaign says she will skip tomorrow's forum on criminal justice at Benedict College in SC, after President Trump was given an award there today. Instead, she'll host a criminal justice roundtable in Columbia
— Melanie Mason (@melmason) October 25, 2019
In a statement announcing the decision, Harris claimed as the “only candidate” running for president who had attended an historically black college or university, she could not be complicit in “papering over [Trump’s] record.”
“Today, when it became clear Donald Trump would receive an award after decades of celebrating mass incarceration, pushing the death penalty for innocent Black Americans, rolling back police accountability measures and racist behavior that puts people’s lives at risk,” she said.
Instead of attending the forum, Harris plans to host her own criminal justice roundtable in Columbia, South Carolina.
The move comes as the senator has stepped up her rhetoric against Trump, amid her campaign’s slumping poll numbers. In particular, Harris has pushed a controversial proposal to ban the president from using Twitter.
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