Donald Trump should be held accountable: Kamala Harris

Former President Donald Trump must be held accountable like those found responsible for the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and the ensuing violence at the US Capitol, says Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Let the evidence, the facts, take it where it may,” Harris said Wednesday 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. He also has been charged in Georgia in a scheme to subvert the will of voters in 2020.

READ: Trump indictment adds uncertainty to presidential race (August 2, 2023)

“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 US senator.

“I believe that people should be held accountable under the law. And when they break the law, there should be accountability.”

“Democracies are very fragile,” she was quoted as saying “They will only be as strong as our willingness to fight for it.”

Harris also dismissed concerns about President Joe Biden’s age, 80, even though he’s widely seen as too old for office.

A recent AP/NORC poll showed that 77% of Americans and 69% of Democrats think he’s too old for a second term.

“I see him every day. A substantial amount of time we spend together is in the Oval Office, where I see how his ability to understand issues and weave through complex issues in a way that no one else can to make smart and important decisions on behalf of the American people have played out,” she told AP.

“And so I will say to you that I think the American people ultimately want to know that their president delivers. And Joe Biden delivers.”

Harris, who is next in line to the presidency, described the idea of possibly stepping into the role of president as “hypothetical” but said she was ready.

“Joe Biden is going to be fine, so that is not going to come to fruition,” she stated. “But let us also understand that every vice president — every vice president — understands that when they take the oath they must be very clear about the responsibility they may have to take over the job of being president.”

Harris added, “I’m no different.”