Donald and Ivanka Trump donated to Kamala Harris' previous campaigns
Donald Trump claims Senator Kamala Harris always was is "No. 1 draft pick" for Joe Biden's running mate, but she once was something else: An up-and-coming politician to whom he donated campaign cash.
The president's messaging about Ms Harris, a California Democrat and former state attorney general, has been all over the place in recent weeks. As she emerged as the frontrunner to join Mr Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, on the party's ticket, Mr Trump said she would be a "fine choice."
But his tone was much different Tuesday evening as he took a number of questions about her next week becoming the Democratic nominee for vice president during a coronavirus press briefing.
"She is a person that's told many, many stories that weren't true," he said without a hint of irony. He has uttered or tweeted over 20,000 false or misleading statements since taking office in January 2017, according to The Washington Post's Fact Checker staff.
"She is in favour of socialized medicine, where you're going to lose your doctors, you're going to lose your plans," he said. "She wants to take ... healthcare plans away from 180m Americans ... that are very happy with their health insurance. And she wants to take that away.
"So she was my No. 1 pick," the president added. "And we'll see how she works out. She did very, very poorly in the primaries, as you know. She was expected to do well, and she was – she ended up at right around 2 per cent, and spent a lot of money. She had a lot of things happening. And so I was a little surprised that he picked her."
But as recently as seven years ago, Mr Trump, via his check book, had a much different view of Ms Harris.
He gave a total of $6,000 in 2011 and 2014 for Ms Harris' campaigns for state AG in California, donating $5,000 in September 2011 and $1,000 in February 2013.
What's more, Mr Trump's daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump, donated $2,000 to Ms Harris' 2014 campaign.
But on Tuesday evening, Mr Trump branded her with a word he has used to try discrediting other women who have opposed or criticised him: "Nasty."
He called her "the meanest, the most disrespectful of anyone in the US Senate" during the contentious and bitterly partisan confirmation process for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The president did not respond to a question about his past donations to Ms Harris during his Tuesday evening briefing.
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