Speaking at a rally with Republican former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who helped lead the January 6 Committee and was censored by her own party for her role in seeing Donald Trump impeached for a second time, Vice President Kamala Harris told the crowd that she had sworn to uphold the Constitution multiple times, in various roles. Each time, Harris claimed, she has honored that oath.
Positioning fealty to the Constitution as one of the most critical aspects of the upcoming election, Harris asked voters to consider: “Who will obey that oath? Who will abide by the oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America?”
To applause and chants of “Kamala,” Harris asserted: “I have never wavered in upholding that oath, and I have always executed it faithfully and without reservation.”
Contrasting herself on the point with her 2024 opponent, Trump, and citing what she characterized as “a profound difference between Donald Trump and me,” Harris said of the former President that he had “violated the oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America and — make no mistake — if given a chance he will violate it again.”
Vice President Harris: The most fundamental question in this election is, who takes their oath to the Constitution seriously? I have sworn and executed an oath to uphold the Constitution 6 times throughout my life. Trump violated his oath the one and only time he has ever taken… pic.twitter.com/fTrwFYHSZj
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 3, 2024
When the clip was posted to the Harris campaign site, commenters were quick to respond with recent footage of GOP VP nominee JD Vance saying this week that Trump won the 2020 election, a false claim Trump has made repeatedly and which led to his “stop the steal” campaign and, ultimately, to the riots at the Capitol on the day the vote was to be certified — January 6, 2021.
JD Vance refused to answer this question at the debate but he told us Donald Trump won the 2020 election. pic.twitter.com/VyGrnCVAaw
— The Good Liars (@TheGoodLiars) October 3, 2024
Cheney had spoken earlier to Harris’s crowd specifically about the increasingly vulnerable guardrails for democracy during a Trump presidency — and how these were upheld (barely) on January 6 by then-Vice President Mike Pence, who she praised for doing the constitutionally correct thing under pressure. (And with Dan Quayle’s guidance.)
Pence paid a political price, Cheney said, for his integrity — and it won him the enmity of MAGA Republicans and cost him the opportunity to be Trump’s running mate again, leading to Vance’s elevation.
Liz Cheney’s full remarks endorsing Kamala Harris for president pic.twitter.com/y5VbZNlYRg
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 3, 2024
If Harris’s claim sounds like hyperbole, those concurring with her assessment include dozens of former Trump administration officials and hundreds of top military figures and national security officials from both parties, none of whom can get behind Trump’s promise to pardon what he identifies as the January 6 “hostages” — and his reference to the rioters who attacked the Capitol as “patriots.”