Donald Trump blasts ‘mentally impaired’ Kamala Harris in fiery speech
Donald Trump ramped up the insulting rhetoric against Kamala Harris after US officials revealed over 13,000 convicted murderers were at large in the US after illegally crossing the Mexico border.
Donald Trump has branded Kamala Harris “mentally impaired” and “grossly incompetent” after new figures suggested over 13,000 convicted murderers were at large in the US after illegally crossing the border with Mexico, as the two presidential candidates seek to burnish their ‘tough on illegal immigration’ credentials.
In remarks set to intensify the war of words between the two presidential candidates the Republican leader sought to blame the vice president for an influx of more than 425,000 convicted criminals, including 13,099 murderers, into the US, according to new information released by US authorities on Friday (Saturday AEST).
As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket—13,099 criminally convicted MURDERS!
— Rep. Tony Gonzales (@RepTonyGonzales) September 27, 2024
Americans deserve to be SAFE in our own communities. pic.twitter.com/fIoCAduJ9M
At a rally in the small Wisconsin town of Prairie du Chien on Saturday (Sunday AEST) afternoon Mr Trump, who has ramped up his appearances in swing states, unleashed on the Democratic presidential candidate, who a day earlier had visited the US border with Mexico in Arizona for the second time as Vice President.
“She travelled to the scene, in fact she stood near where I put up border wall; that was her backdrop to one of the most heinous crimes ever committed by any administration in American history,” he told a room of cheering supporters.
“Joe Biden became mentally impaired, Kamala was born that way; if you think about it only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country,” he added, using some of his strongest rhetoric yet against his adversary.
As of July 2024, 662,566 noncitizens with criminal records or pending charges against them were free in the US awaiting processing, according to information released by the Acting Director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Patrick Lechleitner, data that has inflamed an already vicious debate between the two candidates over immigration policy.
“If a Republican did what she did that Republicans would be impeached and removed from office and rightfully so, for high crimes and misdemeanours,” he added, arguing the new figures vindicated his oft made campaign claim that countries were in effect sending some of their worst criminals to the US.
With 38 days remaining until the presidential election on November 5 the former president centred his remarks at almost entirely around immigration, an issue on which he’s seen as the more capable manager, a day after the vice president sought to neutralise the issue by promising to pursue a tougher policy if elected.
“There’s no greater act of disloyalty to extinguish the sovereignty of your own nation right through your border; no matter what lies she tells Harris can never be forgiven for erasing our border,” he said.
Amid polls that show a neck and neck race for the White House, Harris on Friday (Saturday) visited the border for the first time as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, seeking to blame Trump for earlier this year skewering a bipartisan bill that would have toughened existing immigration legislation, and promising to sign a similar one as president.
“It was the strongest border security bill we have seen in decades. It was endorsed by the Border Patrol union. And it should be in effect today, producing results in real time, right now, for our country,” Harris said after the visit at a rally in Douglas, Arizona.
“But Donald Trump tanked it. He picked up the phone and called some friends in Congress and said, ‘Stop the bill,’” she said in her remarks.
A particularly angry Trump, wearing his trademark red tie and navy suit, told the crowd he had struggled to listen to “her bullshit”, accusing Harris once again of being a Marxist and lying about working for McDonalds in her youth.
“These countries are so dangerous the US state department warns Americans not to go there, yet Kamala is resettling those people here,” Trump said, promising closing the border would be his priority on day one if he were elected.
“We’re going to restore ‘remain in Mexico’, end ‘catch and release’, bring back Title 42 and send in law enforcement to every town that’s been taken over my migrant gangs and criminal aliens,” he said, referring to Trump-era policies the Biden administration changed or ended in January 2021.
US border officials are on track to record more than 11.6 million ‘encounters’ nationwide by the end of the Biden Harris administration in January, according to a report issued by Republican controlled House Committee on Homeland security issued earlier this month, or 274 per cent than during the Trump administration.
“We will begin the largest deportation in the history of our country because we have no choice,” Mr Trump said.
Democrats have argued the Republican’s deportation plans would be unworkable and cruel, amid polling that suggests most Americans are supportive, as immigration remains among voters’ top issues heading into the November election, an a major vulnerability for Democrats.
More than half of Americans including a quarter of Democrats back the former president’s plan to deport undocumented immigrants, according to a recent Scripps poll over 1,027 Americans conducted earlier this month.
“We’re going to do numbers too big to rig. There comes a point where they can’t cheat,” Mr Trump said at his rally, expressing confidence he would easily win the presidency in November.
“She had her little honeymoon period, people are finding out she’s not a smart person and she has no idea”.
Most polls give Harris the edge nationally, although those in the half dozen swing states that should prove crucial to November’s outcome, typically show either candidate with tiny lead within the margin of polling error.
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