VP says Trump, others should be held accountable
JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday that those responsible for the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and the ensuing violence at the U.S Capitol must be held accountable — even if that means Donald Trump.
“Let the evidence, the facts, take it where it may,” Harris said in an interview with The Associated Press in Jakarta, Indonesia, where she was attending a regional summit.
Federal prosecutors have indicted Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, for his efforts to cling to power in 2020. The former president also has been charged in Georgia in a scheme to subvert the will of voters who elected Democrat Joe Biden instead of giving Trump a second term.
“I spent the majority of my career as a prosecutor,” said Harris, who served as California’s attorney general before moving to Washington as a U.S. senator. “I believe that people should be held accountable under the law. And when they break the law, there should be accountability.”
The White House has been circumspect in addressing the issue of criminal charges against Trump, who has pleaded not guilty, to avoid any whiff of political meddling in the work of prosecutors, particularly as Biden seeks a second term in 2024. But both Biden and Harris have been outspoken about what they view as the very real danger to American democracy the aftermath of the 2020 election exposed.
“Democracies are fragile,” the vice president said in the AP interview. “They will only be as strong as our willingness to fight for it.”
Harris is representing the United States at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in place of Biden.
The president’s absence disappointed some, but the White House emphasized that it remained committed to the region, which Harris reiterated in her interview.
“We as Americans, I believe, have a very significant interest, both in terms of our security but also our prosperity, today and in the future, in developing and strengthening these relationships,” she said.
Southeast Asia is a critical arena for the rivalry between the U.S. and China, particularly when it comes to the South China Sea. One-third of global shipping traverses its waters.
Beijing recently released a new government map that emphasizes its disputed territorial claims to the sea.
“It’s a violation of the law. And that’s where I put that map,” Harris told the AP.
ASEAN has struggled to make progress on issues such as the military coup in Myanmar, but Harris said the organization “absolutely” remains a critical forum.
“The fact that so many leaders are convening in this one place at the same time to address some of the biggest challenges facing our world is a sign of strength of both the commitment that each nation has to the coalition and the potential for collaboration,” she said.
Harris sounded a strong warning about reports that Russia was talking with North Korea about obtaining weapons for its invasion of Ukraine, calling the possible alliance “ill-advised.”