Harris will skip SC presidential forum over criminal justice award to ‘lawless’ Trump
Kamala Harris is dropping out of a presidential forum in Columbia, South Carolina, on Saturday, citing an award event organizers gave this week to President Trump.
The Democratic senator from California will still be in Columbia this weekend as part of her campaign for her party’s 2020 presidential nomination. But instead of appearing at the 2019 Second Step Presidential Justice Forum at Benedict College, a historically black school, she will spend the afternoon talking about criminal justice reform at an “open event with students and the broader community,” her campaign said in a news release Friday.
The 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center, which is organizing Saturday’s forum, awarded Trump its bipartisan justice award on Friday. It was his first visit to a historically black college or university, and he spoke for about an hour, The State reported.
Harris called Trump a “lawless” president in a statement explaining why she’s skipping the event, accusing him of “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.”
“Not only does he circumvent the laws of our country and the principles of our Constitution, but there is nothing in his career that is about justice, for justice, or in celebration of justice,” Harris said.
Harris also cited the fact that so few Benedict students were included in the president’s visit as a reason she was skipping the forum.
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, a co-host of the forum, told McClatchy DC that 10 Benedict students would be admitted and said 200 Trump allies would fill auditorium seats.
Trump received the award for his role in passing the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill that he signed into law.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, another hopeful for the 2020 Democratic nomination, wrote on Twitter Friday night that he would be attending the forum.
“I saw what happened today,” Booker wrote. “And I, for one, will be there tomorrow. I have some things I think they need to hear from me—directly.”
According to the Bipartisan 20/20 Justice Center website, confirmed candidate speakers include former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren and several others.
In 2017, Harris won the award Trump received this year, according to the Post & Courier.
This story was originally published October 25, 2019 at 10:02 PM with the headline "Harris will skip SC presidential forum over criminal justice award to ‘lawless’ Trump."
