Harris Doubles Down On Renaming Columbus Day After Prior Remarks Resurface
Vice President Kamala Harris has reiterated her support for renaming Columbus Day in favor of the left-leaning "Indigenous Peoples Day," following the resurfacing of a previous video where she used the term during the holiday.
"This Indigenous Peoples' Day," Harris, 59, posted on X (formerly Twitter), "I am thinking about the young Indigenous leaders I met in Arizona last week. I am counting on their leadership and looking forward to our partnership."
Throughout her 2020 presidential campaign and her tenure as vice president, Harris has consistently voiced support for officially renaming the federal holiday to "Indigenous Peoples' Day."
"Count me in," Harris said when a voter asked at a February 2019 campaign event in Portsmouth, NH, if she would consider changing the holiday's name.
"People did not want to deal with, accept, or admit that we are part of a historical crime when it comes to slavery, Jim Crow, and institutionalized racism in this country," she remarked at the time. "We must be honest about that."
"If we aren't honest, we can't address the lingering effects of all that harm, and we won’t correct course or be true to our values and morals," she continued.
Similarly, Harris emphasized, "When it comes to Indigenous Americans, there is still much work to do."
In recent years, left-leaning figures like Harris have also pushed to rename professional sports teams and consumer products due to what they describe as "racist" depictions of Native American people. This movement led to the NFL's Washington Redskins becoming the Washington Commanders, Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians being renamed the Cleveland Guardians, and the removal of a Native American woman from Land O’ Lakes butter packaging.
In October 2021, Harris, alongside President Biden, became part of the first administration to officially declare Indigenous Peoples' Day, an event she commemorated with a speech at the National Congress of American Indians Conference.
"Every October, the United States has honored the European explorers who first landed on the shores of the Americas," Harris said in her speech. "But that is not the whole story. It has never been the whole story."
"Those explorers brought devastation to tribal nations — committing acts of violence, stealing land, and spreading disease," Harris stated. "We must confront this shameful past, shine a light on it, and do everything we can to address its impact on Native communities today."
The Trump campaign, in a press release, claimed that Harris "has exclusively celebrated Indigenous Peoples' Day over Columbus Day each year" since she took office, according to her posts on X.
"Kamala Harris is a typical leftist. Not only does she want to raise taxes and defund the police, but she also aims to cancel American traditions like Columbus Day," Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, referencing Harris' 2019 comments, as reported by the New York Post.
"President Trump will ensure that Christopher Columbus' great legacy is honored and will protect this holiday from radical leftists like Kamala Harris, who want to erase our nation's history."
However, not all Democrats have turned against Columbus Day. The holiday, first established in 1934, commemorates Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas in 1492.
On Monday, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is reportedly considering a run for New York City mayor, marked Columbus Day as "a day that honors and celebrates Italian-American heritage and the many contributions of Italian-Americans to our country."