Sen. Kamala Harris took aim at President Trump and his polices Saturday when she warned graduating Howard University students of a “fight ahead” to define America.
“You are graduating into a very different time than it was when you arrived a few short years ago,” said Harris, who is herself an alumna of the historically black university in the nation’s capital.
“You are graduating into a time when … young people who were brought to America as children fear a midnight knock on the door,” she told the graduates. “A time when throwing millions of working people off their health insurance to give tax breaks to the top 1 percent is considered a victory to some. A time when we worry that a late-night tweet could start a war.”
Harris, who was elected to her first term in November, succeeding Barbara Boxer, has been outspoken in her criticism of Trump and his policies. She has called for a special prosecutor to investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
“Graduates, indeed we have a fight ahead,” she said. “It’s a fight to define what kind of country we are. It’s a fight to determine what kind of country we will be.”
She noted that the university has prepared “young black men and women to be leaders” for over 150 years, persevering even when “when segregation and discrimination were the law of the land.”
The school’s motto is “truth and service,” and she asked students to make those words their guiding principle in life.
“So whatever you plan to do next—whether you want to design the latest app or cure cancer or run a business. Whether you’re going to be a dentist, a lawyer, a teacher, or an accountant—let your guiding principle be truth and service,” she said.
