Claim:

Vice President Kamala Harris once said, “These Trumpers think we care about the constitution. We have the power now. It’s time to end this. They really don’t understand. We will lock them up in the courts, we will use federal law enforcement and the military. After Joe delivers the death blow, I’ll take over. They will beg me for a loaf of bread.”

Rating:

In the months leading up to the 2024 US presidential election, social media users shared a quote (archived) attributed to Vice President Kamala Harris, which first circulated in 2021.

The passage claimed the Democratic nominee threatened to block her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, in the courts and use the military against his supporters. The full quote reads:

These Trumpers think we care about the constitution. We have the power now, it’s time to end this. They really don’t understand. (sic) We will lock them up in the courts, we will use federal law enforcement and the military. After Joe delivers the death blow, I’ll take over (sic). They will beg me for a loaf of bread.

Examples of Claim (archived) appeared on X (archived) and Instagram (archived) in August, September and October 2024.

(X user @EvanVokesMSc)

However, as Snopes discovered when we investigated first the quote from 2021, was no demonstrable evidence Harris ever said those words. For this reason, I have rated the quote as misattributed.

Some of the posts claimed Harris made the alleged remarks on January 21, 2021, the day after he was he swore as Joe Biden’s running mate. As part of the Jan. 20 swearing-in ceremony, Harris taken the oath of office, which read in part: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

As we noted in our previous article, there is no evidence that Harris said he didn’t care about the constitution, nor that he would use government powers to specifically target “Trumpers,” at either January 21, 2021 record the events. Those events consisted briefly calling in the winter meeting of the Democratic National Committee and Speaking by phone with the director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

There was also no evidence that Harris made the statement – ​​or anything similar – on social media. Harris’ official X account, @VP, has been shared four (archived) posts (archived) on January 21 none (archived) from which (archived) included the quote investigated here. The three (archived) posts (archived) from this date (archived) that appeared on her official Instagram account @VP did not include any quote-like statement. Her staff X account@KamalaHarris, she didn’t post that day, neither did her staff Facebook or Instagram accounts.

Reuters and USA TODAY both independently investigated the quote and also found no evidence that it was legitimate. In 2021, Sabrina Singh, who was the deputy press secretary to the vice president at the time, said Reuters that Harris never said the words attributed to him.

Snopes archives contributed to this report.

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