WASHINGTON — Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said she is "very clear-eyed" about the attacks President Donald Trump will make against her in the coming months, telling The Grio in an interview out Sunday that she expects the president and his allies to engage in "lies" and "deceptions."
"Look, I am very clear-eyed about the fact that they are going to engage ... in what they have done throughout his administration, which is — let's just be very candid and straightforward: They're going to engage in lies, they're going to engage in deception, they're going to attempt to distract from the real issues that are impacting the American people," Harris said. "And I expect that they will engage in dirty tactics and this is going to be a knockdown, drag out. And we're ready."
The interview — Harris' second publicly released since she was announced as Joe Biden's running mate last week — comes on the heels of Trump's fanning false conspiracy theories about whether she is eligible to run for vice president.
Pressed Sunday by NBC News' Kelly O'Donnell about his latest birtherism claims, this time against Harris, Trump seemed to soften his earlier statements casting doubt on whether she can serve.
"I read something about it," Trump said, adding that he knows "nothing about it, but it's not something that bothers me." Moments later, he added, "If she's got a problem, you would have thought that she would have been vetted."
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Harris also warned about Black voter suppression, saying "it's going to be no different" this year than it has been in the past.
"Why are they trying to suppress our vote? Why don't they want us to vote?" she asked. "And the answer to those questions about why is because they know when we vote, things change."
