Harris calls Trump ‘incompetent and unhinged’ and makes call to ‘fight fire with fire’

Donald Trump has proven himself to be an “unchecked, incompetent, unhinged president,” and his opposition must follow leaders who are ready to “fight fire with fire,” his 2024 election rival Kamala Harris has said.

The former Democratic US vice-president delivered those fiery remarks on Saturday evening while accepting an award from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in Washington DC – and after Trump’s fellow Republican allies have demanded that his liberal opponents tone down their rhetoric in the wake of the 10 September shooting death of rightwing political activist Charlie Kirk.

During a nearly eight-minute speech recorded by C-SPAN, Harris alluded to how the second Trump administration has cut healthcare protections as well as nutrition assistance benefiting the poor. She pointed to the administration’s implementation of tariffs that preceded a reported rise in consumer prices in August. She also mentioned the administration’s axing of $500m in funding for vaccines like the ones that helped end the Covid-19 pandemic, its deploying US military troops into the streets of multiple cities and other controversial actions as Trump’s approval rating has plummeted on average to -9.4% as of Saturday.

“Let us be clear – we predicted all that,” Harris said, echoing her 2024 campaign predictions that a second Trump presidency would be “a huge risk for America” and “dangerous”.

But Harris said what she never foresaw “was the capitulation” to him from once proud institutions. Top universities have agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to settle antisemitism claims. Law firms have acquiesced to performing pro bono work for causes that are dear to Trump – and to not engage in race-conscious hiring – to avoid executive orders from the president that could substantially slow their business down. And major US media platforms such as ABC and CBS have settled lawsuits, at multi-million dollar costs, brought against them by Trump rather than contest what pundits widely perceived to be winnable cases.

“Universities, law firms, media corporations, the titans of industry … have been so quick to kneel before a tyrant,” Harris said.

Harris held up what she considered to be a meaningful act of resistance: one centering on Jimmy Kimmel’s return to air after ABC temporarily suspended the late-night host’s show over comments criticizing the Trump administration’s response to Kirk’s killing.

Kimmel’s suspension was announced on 17 September after a regulator loyal to Trump threatened to revoke the broadcast licenses of ABC affiliates unless the network took action against him. The move sparked protests, free-speech concerns and a drive to cancel subscriptions to products of ABC’s owner, Disney. ABC reinstated Kimmel six days later, with his industry peers crediting that development to those who had boycotted Disney.

And by Friday, two companies that own a combined 70 ABC affiliates and had continued boycotting Jimmy Kimmel Live! despite the host’s reinstatement agreed to broadcast it again, effectively punctuating the show’s full on-air comeback.

“When a president with a fragile ego couldn’t take a joke and brought down the weight of the federal government to silence the voice of a citizen, folks spoke with their pocketbook, and Jimmy Kimmel is now back on the air,” Harris said.

Harris argued too many members of Congress were content to “bend the knee and fail to uphold their constitutional duty” to serve as a check to the presidential administration. That, she said, demanded Democrats win the 2026 midterms determining which political party controls Congress for the back half of Trump’s second presidency – and then “enforce checks and balances on this unchecked, incompetent, unhinged president”.

The ex-US senator from California subsequently called on the caucus to support leaders who know “we must fight fire with fire”.

Harris was Joe Biden’s running mate when he ended Trump’s first presidency by defeating him in the 2020 election. As she recounts in her new memoir 107 Days, Biden initially sought a rematch with Trump in 2024 but then dropped out less than four months prior to the election after a disastrous debate performance, endorsing Harris to succeed him instead.

Trump then defeated Harris in November, setting the stage for his second presidency beginning in January.

Asked by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on 22 September whether she had ambitions to contend for the presidency in 2028, Harris replied that was not her “focus at all”.

“It really isn’t,” said Harris, who in July ruled out running for California governor in 2026.