On September 30, 2019, Kamala Harris, who was then running to be the Democratic nominee for president, tweeted: “Look let’s be honest, @realDonaldTrump’s Twitter account should be suspended.”
At the time, the California senator (who is now Vice President-elect) received a lot of flack for her position, including from within her own party. Many called her focus “small ball” in the grand scheme of things, even as she warned that Trump’s platform was directly responsible for threats to national security and the deteriorating health of democracy.
During a Democratic debate just a few weeks after her tweet, Harris defended her support of Donald Trump being muzzled by Twitter, saying, “Here we have Donald Trump, who has 65 million Twitter followers and is using that platform as the president of the United States to openly intimidate witnesses, to threaten witnesses, to obstruct justice, and he and his account should be taken down.”
Harris then pointed to the manifesto released by the mass shooter at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart in August of that year, which mirrored some of Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants.
Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, who ran against Harris in the Democratic primary, brushed off Harris’ warnings by saying, “I don’t just want to push Donald Trump off Twitter. I want to push him out of the White House, that’s our job.”
Crooked Media co-founder and podcast host Jon Lovett, at the time, also attacked Harris for debating Warren over the fate of Trump’s Twitter account. “Kamala Harris going after Elizabeth Warren on banning Trump from twitter is one of the more pathetic stunts I’ve seen in a debate,” he tweeted.
The president’s dog whistles and calls for violence are nothing new. However, they had deadly consequences this week when thousands of Trump’s supporters showed up to the U.S. Capitol building in Washington to attempt to obstruct Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s November election victory. The riotous mob seized the Capitol building, resulting in five deaths.
Trump had made multiple tweets encouraging the violence and statements of support for those who surrounded the Capitol, and as a result, Twitter finally announced a permanent suspension of the president’s account on Friday afternoon (January 8).
In light of the unprecedented move, Harris’ 2019 tweet is now recirculating with many in her mentions praising her foresight. “You were right in 2019 and every day after,” wrote one Twitter user. “Now THIS aged well!” another tweeted.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in during Inauguration Day on January 20.
