Harris Warns of ‘Profound Threat’ to America’s Freedoms

In a speech honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the vice president denounced laws rolling back civil rights and emphasized the fights that await future generations.

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Vice President Kamala Harris’s speech on Monday was part of a daylong trip to Columbia, her eighth visit to South Carolina.

Vice President Kamala Harris warned on Monday that American freedom was “under profound threat” in a speech honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in South Carolina, amplifying a message that the Biden administration has made a rallying cry of its re-election bid.

Ms. Harris used her keynote address at a South Carolina N.A.A.C.P. event to highlight curbs placed on civil rights by Republican lawmakers and the Supreme Court in recent years. She urged the crowd of more than 100 to continue to fight for the constitutional promises Dr. King spent his life holding America accountable for.

“If he were here, I think Dr. King would be the first to say that yes, we have come far, and though we have come far, in this moment it is up to us to continue that fight to cash that promissory note,” she said, making a reference to his “I Have a Dream” speech.

Ms. Harris criticized “extremists” who have passed laws rolling back voting rights and reproductive rights, orchestrated book bans and denied parts of the nation’s Black history.

“They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, in an attempt to divide and distract our nation with unnecessary debates,” she said, adding that under attack were “freedom from fear, violence and harm; freedom to vote, to live, to learn, to control one’s own body; and the freedom to simply be.”

She punctuated her speech by illustrating the fights that await future generations.

“This generation has witnessed the highest court in our land, the court of Thurgood, take a constitutional right that had been recognized from the people of America, from the women of America,” Ms. Harris said. “This generation now has fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers.”

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