Joining CNN on Monday night, former presidential candidate and California Sen. Kamala Harris criticized President Donald Trump's response to George Floyd's death and the ongoing protests.
"He cannot meet this moment that he has partly created because of his inability to understand the pain and the suffering," she said.
"Right now, America is raw. Her wounds are exposed. And instead of having a president who understands it, who empathizes, who lifts up the spirits and acknowledges the pain, we have someone who chooses to hold up the bible like a prop for his own political gain and for a photo op," she said, referencing Trump's visit earlier this evening to St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington DC.
She added that "America has never fully addressed the historical and systemic racism that has existed," and urged concrete change like investigation into the police or legislation to establish a national standard on use of police force.
Elections are important -- but they're not enough. "There is certainly truth in saying that it is overly simplistic to say if you vote, this will be solved. Because black folks have been voting for generations when we were allowed to. So it is not that simplistic," she said.
Instead, hope and change have to take root from "acknowledging truth and then fighting for what we know we can achieve. Understanding, for example, that the policing issue is the tip of the iceberg," she said.
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