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Former Vice President Kamala Harris took aim at President Donald Trump's administration in her first major speech since leaving office.
On Wednesday (April 30), Harris delivered sharp criticism of Trump during a speech in San Francisco at the 20th anniversary celebration for Emerge, an organization that supports Democratic women running for office, per ABC News.
Harris' remarks came as the Trump administration touted the alleged accomplishments of its first 100 days.
"Now I know tonight's event happens to coincide with 100 days after the inauguration, and I'll leave it to others to give a full accounting of what's happened so far," Harris said. "But I will say this, instead of an administration working to advance America's highest ideals, we are witnessing the wholesale abandonment of those ideals."
Harris suggested that the Trump administration is attempting to incite fear within the American people.
"We all know President Trump, his administration, and their allies are counting on the notion that fear can be contagious. They are counting on the notion that, if they can make some people afraid, it will have a chilling effect on others," she said.
"But what they're overlooking, what they've overlooked, is that fear isn't the only thing that's contagious. Courage is contagious," the former vice president added, garnering cheers.
Amid Trump's sweeping tariffs, Harris said the president had spurred "the greatest man-made economic crisis in modern presidential history." The former VP also noted that Trump's agenda to shrink and privatize the government and give tax breaks to the wealthy has been "decades in the making."
"It's an agenda, a narrow self-serving vision of America, where they punish truth tellers, favor loyalists, cash in on their power and leave everyone to fend for themselves, all while abandoning allies and retreating from the world," Harris said. "And folks, what we are experiencing right now is exactly what they envision for America."
Harris added that Americans need to be ready to work together if "checks and balances" in government "ultimately collapse."
"I am not here tonight to offer all the answers, but I am here to say this, you are not alone, and we are all in this together -- and straight talk, things are probably going to get worse before they get better, but we are ready for it. We are not going to scatter. We are going to stand together, everyone a leader," Harris said.
"Always remember this country is ours," she concluded. "It doesn't belong to whoever is in the White House. It belongs to you. It belongs to us. It belongs to We The People."
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