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President Donald Trump released a statement on Monday morning blasting Vice President Kamala Harris for her remarks against celebrating Columbus Day.
The 45th president wrote, “Happy Columbus Day! Kamala Harris wants to get rid of this holiday honoring the hero that discovered a new world. In 2019, Kamala said she’d support renaming Columbus Day and ‘a review of Harris’ X account for her vice presidency shows she has exclusively celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day over Columbus Day each year she has been in the office.’”
Trump concluded his statement with a quote from Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Kamala Harris is your stereotypical leftist. Not only does she want to raise taxes and defund the police — she also wants to cancel American traditions like Columbus Day. President Trump will make sure Christopher Columbus’ great legacy is honored and protect this holiday from radical leftists who want to erase our nation’s history like Kamala Harris,” Leavitt told Fox News Digital.
Trump was referencing a 2019 Harris town hall event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she remarked, “Sign me up,” when asked if she would support renaming the holiday to Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Harris also declared in 2021 that the U.S. “must not shy away” from its “shameful past” of European explorers who she said ushered “in a wave of devastation for tribal nations.”
During a 2021 speech at the National Congress of American Indians’ 78th Annual Convention, Harris said, “Since 1934, every October, the United States has recognized the voyage of the European explorers who first landed on the shores of the Americas.”
She continued, “But that is not the whole story. That has never been the whole story.”
“Those explorers ushered in a wave of devastation for Tribal nations – perpetrating violence, stealing land and spreading disease,” Harris said. “We must not shy away from this shameful past, and we must shed light on it and do everything we can to address the impact of the past on Native communities today,” she remarked.
Columbus Day is a federal holiday to celebrate and remember Italian explorer Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas in 1492.
“Columbus is acknowledged as the first to establish contact between Europe and the Americas known as the Columbian Exchange whereby people, plants, technology, and other aspects of culture passed between the Old and the New World, transforming both and establishing the foundation for the modern age,” wrote Joshua J. Mark of World History Encyclopedia.