‘Liberal weak on crime’: Trump campaign hits back after Harris blames him for ‘violent crime wave’

Trump’s campaign has called Vice President Kamala Harris a “liar” and “desperate” after her campaign team released a TV ad claiming former President Trump’s policies had caused a “wave of violent crime.” Speaking to Fox News Digital, she said Harris is a “liberal who has open borders and little regard for crime.”

Harris’ campaign, just a day after the vice president accepted the Democratic presidential nomination in Chicago, released a television ad focused on crime. The ad claims that under Harris’ watch, “violent crime has gone down.”

“Her record as a district attorney and attorney general — locking up child molesters, online predators and violent offenders, and taking down international drug cartels,” the ad reads. “Under Donald Trump? A wave of violent crime. And Trump ordered MAGA extremists to destroy the bipartisan border security deal.

“Trump just talks tough. Kamala Harris is tough.”

NEW HARRIS BORDER SECURITY ADS MARK 180 YEARS OF LIBERAL IMMIGRATION ADVERTISEMENT

Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris (Getty Images)

Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national spokesperson, called Harris “a liar.”

“The truth is that Kamala and Biden, right after taking office, rolled back every effective immigration policy President Trump had put in place and opened the border to criminals, terrorists and drug cartels,” Leavitt told Fox News Digital. “If Ms. Border Czar Harris really wanted to secure the border, why doesn’t she go back to Washington and do it today?

“She won’t do that because she is a liberal proponent of open borders and has little regard for crime.”

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that violent crime “has not decreased, but increased by nearly 25% in 66 major U.S. cities, while Kamala was responsible for three of the four most murderous years in the past 25 years.”

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“Under Kamala, the illegals she allowed into the country brutally raped and murdered our citizens,” the campaign continued, adding that Harris, as district attorney, “was known for being soft on crime, while San Francisco had the highest murder rate in a decade.”

According to the campaign, Harris became “the model” for “Soros-backed prosecutors across the country.”

“Drug cartels have not been ‘taken down,’ they have devastated our communities with deadly drugs flowing across the border in unprecedented numbers,” the campaign continued. “The Sinaloa Cartel has made record profits under Kamala.”

Regarding the bipartisan border bill, the Trump campaign said it would “put millions of illegal immigrants on a fast track to citizenship.”

Trump visited the border in Arizona on Thursday.

Trump’s campaign points to Americans like Jocelyn Nungaray, Laken Riley and Rachel Morin, all of whom were allegedly murdered by illegal immigrants.

Former President Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, comforts Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, Aug. 22, 2024, south of Sierra Vista, Arizona. Rachel was reportedly killed by an illegal immigrant at the U.S.-Mexico border. (Rebecca Noble)

Two Venezuelan nationals — 21-year-old Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel and 26-year-old Franklin Jose Peña Ramos — have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of 12-year-old Nungaray. The two men illegally crossed to the US earlier this year and are accused of strangling the pre-teen to death in June.

Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan illegal immigrant, was charged with the murder of 22-year-old Riley. Ibarra went to the US via El Paso, Texas, in 2022 and was released on parole at the border. He initially lived in New York City, where he was arrested for allegedly endangering a child before moving to Athens, Georgia.

Ibarra has been charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated assault, unlawful imprisonment, kidnapping, obstructing a 911 call and concealing the death of another person in connection with Riley’s killing.

The Salvadoran national believed to be responsible for Morin’s death, 23-year-old Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, was also in the country illegally and was caught by police, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Border Patrol three times within a few days in January 2023 and February 2023 and each time returned to Mexico under Title 42.

Former President Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, speaks at the U.S.-Mexico border south of Sierra Vista, Arizona, on August 22, 2024. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

He then successfully entered the U.S. in February 2023 through an escape system, meaning he entered the country without being screened, admitted, or paroled by a U.S. immigration officer, near El Paso, Texas.

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During his visit to Arizona on Thursday, Trump invited Angel Moms to share stories about victims of illegal immigrant crime.

“We’ve made many trips to the border over the years and told many stories of victims at the border, including the stories of the wonderful Angel Moms,” Trump said. “Time doesn’t heal all wounds, but we’ve never seen anything as big and as vicious as what we’re seeing in our country right now.

“It is an attack of violence.”

A Trump campaign aide told Fox News Digital that the campaign’s strategy will be to “continue to emphasize immigration and Kamala’s dereliction of duty at the border.”