LAS VEGAS — Vice President Kamala Harris said Sunday she would “double down” on Justice Department resources to crack down on cartels and stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., just hours after former President Donald Trump made his false claim reiterated that she wants to legalize the drugs. medicine.
“As president, I will redouble resources for the Department of Justice to go after these transnational cartels and take action to stop the flow of fentanyl coming into our country that is destroying entire communities,” Harris said in her speech here.
She made similar comments Friday during her trip to the southern border in Arizona.
At a meeting Saturday, Trump also discussed fentanyl, baselessly claiming that Harris wants to legalize it.
“She’s so radical that she even wants to legalize fentanyl right away,” he told a crowd in Wisconsin on Saturday, a claim he repeated to a crowd in Pennsylvania on Sunday.
More than 100,000 people died from drug overdoses last year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data showed that nearly 70% of deaths were linked to synthetic opioids, mainly fentanyl.
Trump has long argued that a Harris administration would usher in chaos at the border, saying at his rally Sunday in Erie, Pennsylvania, that people “were being killed because of its action at the border and that thousands more would follow in quick succession ” and called for her to be “impeached and prosecuted for her actions.”
Harris, who recently sought to confront political fragility head-on by visiting the border, highlighted what has become a common refrain when she talks about immigration, pointing to Trump’s successful effort to push a bipartisan border deal into Congress to crush February. She contrasted Trump’s vision with her goal of enacting “comprehensive immigration reform.”
“We need comprehensive immigration reform with strong border security and an earned path to citizenship, including for hardworking immigrants who have been here for years, including our Dreamers,” Harris said.
More than 7,500 people attended the rally, according to the Nevada Democratic Party. Sunday’s rally was Harris’ second in Nevada since she launched her presidential bid.
Nnamdi Egwuonwu reported from Las Vegas and Megan Lebowitz from Washington.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
