Kamala Harris’ Comments on Columbus Day Go Viral, Drawing Attention from Trump Campaign
The summary addresses the resurfacing of Vice President Kamala Harris’s past comments regarding the renaming of Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day, highlighted by the Trump campaign. In 2019, Harris expressed her support for the change, emphasizing the importance of remembering history and acknowledging the negative impact of European colonization on Native American communities. Recent remarks made by Harris reiterated these views, criticizing the historical narratives surrounding Columbus and advocating for recognition of the injustices faced by indigenous peoples.
In response to her stance, the Trump campaign framed Harris as a typical “leftist” who aims to “cancel American traditions” and rewrite history. The discussion raises broader themes about American history and the legacy of colonization, with contrasting viewpoints about the significance of Columbus in the nation’s founding narrative. Columbus Day remains a federal holiday, but conversations around its relevance continue to provoke debate about historical representation and reconciliation with past injustices. The article also critiques Harris’s perspective as aligned with a contemporary narrative that emphasizes conflicts between “oppressors” and “the oppressed.”
The Trump campaign highlighted past remarks Vice President Kamala Harris made about her desire to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Monday.
In 2019, while running for president, Harris said, “count me in” for the change.
FLASHBACK: A resurfaced 2019 video shows Vice President Harris backing the renaming of Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day, with the Trump campaign accusing her of trying to “cancel American traditions.” https://t.co/0aZSNjtCkX pic.twitter.com/cflbdZeyv3
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 14, 2024
When asked that same year if she would support renaming Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Harris responded, “Sure. Yeah. We have to remember history.”
“Would you support efforts on a federal level to change Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day?”
Kamala Harris: “Sure. Yeah. We have to remember history.” pic.twitter.com/SIkCRT9RmD
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) October 14, 2024
After President Joe Biden issued a proclamation in 2021 recognizing the first Indigenous Peoples’ Day to coincide with Columbus Day, 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. 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,” she asserted.
“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,” Harris said.
Kamala Harris on Columbus Day:
“European explorers ushered in a wave of devastation, violence, stealing land, and widespread disease” pic.twitter.com/3XijDf5Ldo
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 14, 2024
Columbus Day remains the official federal holiday by law.
Regarding Harris’ views, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Monday, “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.”
Harris apparently believes in the view that is probably being propagated on most university campuses across the country nowadays: Europeans are colonizers, and hence America itself is a terrible colonizing nation.
Newsflash: the history of the world is colonization, from the Middle East or Africa depending on who you believe across the entire world.
The first North American “natives” are thought to have likely crossed a Bering Sea Strait land bridge, while those in South America probably came across the Pacific Ocean by boat.
Was the first tribe to arrive on North America’s shores the owners of the entire continent and was everyone else who came later thieves?
Obviously, there were grave injustices borne by the people who had been living here for centuries before the Europeans arrived and even in the history of the U.S., particularly in the 1800s as the nation grew west.
But before the first Europeans ever arrived, the native populations were warring against each other for the lands and resources they wanted.
The Founders established a country, based on the best of the Western Christian tradition, in which all, regardless of their ethnic background, would be treated equally, and it has come closer to achieving that ideal than probably any nation has.
Christopher Columbus and other European explorers to America that followed opened the way so the United States could become the greatest country in the history of the world.
Harris appears too caught up in the leftist view of American history as the ongoing struggle between the “oppressors” versus the “oppressed.”
We’ve seen enough of that mindset under Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Let’s continue to aspire toward the American ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence and give no ground to the Marxist worldview.
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