U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris
California Democratic Party State Convention
San Francisco, CA
June 1, 2019

What's up California Democrats? Good morning. Good morning, good morning. Come on guys, don't [inaud.] my time. I've got a clock right in front of me. Oh [inaud.] Good morning, good morning, good morning. Good morning. I love you guys, and I want to thank everybody here for your extraordinary leadership because California Democrats every day of the week, every year prove to be among the greatest leaders in our Democratic party and I want to thank you all for everything you do every day.

And the thing I love about California Democrats is we are never afraid to fight. And we know right now we've got a fight on our hands.

As most of you know, I was raised by a mother who was a fighter. My mother was all of five feet tall but if you ever met her, and she was at this convention many times, you would have thought she was seven feet tall.

And growing up, whenever we came home complaining about something, our mother would look at you, maybe with a hand on her hip and she would say well what what are you going to do about it?

So I decided to run for president of the United States.

And so Democrats we have a fight on our hands. And it's a fight for who we are as a people. It's a fight for the highest ideals of our nation. And Democrats, with this president it's a fight for truth itself.

And here's the thing. The Washington Post did the math for us. This president told 10,000 lies in his first 828 days in office.

Now, that's not leadership. In fact it is a pathological failure of leadership.

Remember how he said he stand up for working families. But what'd he do? He turned around and gave away a trillion dollars to big corporations and the top one percent.

Remember how he claimed he'd protect health care. But what'd he do? He turned around and tried to rip health care from millions of families and and deny people coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Remember how he said he'd bring back those good jobs. But what'd he do? He turned around and started a trade war. But let's call it what it is, it's a trade tax. I'd like to call it Trump's trade tax. And his trade tax is taking $1.4 billion out of working people's pockets every month.

And we've seen how this president has lied to divide. He blames immigrants, he bans Muslims, he paints the entire continent of Africa with an ugly epithet.

But Democrats we know the truth from a lie.

We know ripping children from their mother's arms is not border security, it is a human rights [inaud.]

We know transgender Americans who want to serve in our military should be treated as heroes and not have a door slammed in their face.

And we know another thing. With this administration it's all about a game of distraction. This president [inaud.] a wall that will never get built.

Meanwhile, and I've seen it—y'all sent me to the United States Senate two years ago, I've seen it—meanwhile quietly deregulating and deconstructing our government and our democracy.

[inaud.] with those crazy tweets, while he's gutting environmental regulations so children won't be able to drink clean water and breathe clean air, while he's protecting predatory lenders so students can't get out of their debt, while he's attacking civil rights and union rights and voting rights and a women's right to choose.

And let's talk about this so called commander in chief. He parrots Russian lies over the word of American intelligence and law enforcement leaders.

He denies that Russia interfered in the election of the president of the United States.

He obstructed justice and then hired an Attorney General to clean up the crime scene.

We need to see an impeachment proceeding and we need a new commander in chief.

So we've got a fight on our hands.

And I'm going to tell you Democrats, we're going to have to speak truth [inaud.] of California Democrats.

We need to fight hate wherever it appears, whether it is racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia—we have got to speak truth.

We have got to fight those who would deny women a right to choose what to do with their own bodies.

We have got to speak truth that in America women are paid 80 cents on the dollar, a black woman 61 cents, a Native American woman 58 cents, a Latina 53 cents. It is unacceptable and we are done and we are going to hold people accountable including the biggest corporations in our country.

Thank you Democrats. And I want your support. Thank you.
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Ed. notes: In her lead-off speech Harris focused on Trump and devoted little time to outlining her vision for America.