Among the reasons the 2024 presidential campaign has become one of the most extraordinary in American history is how Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are trading direct and unrelenting vitriolic attacks on each other’s mental health. The personal venom is obscuring and trivializing the suffering of millions of Americans with mental health issues.
Trump began the assault last summer when he called Harris “dumb as a rock,” “Crazy Kamala,” “if you ever watch her laugh, she’s crazy,” and a “lunatic.” At a rally more recently, he called her “mentally impaired” and “mentally disabled.” He is reported to have said in a private dinner that Harris was “r – – – – – ed.”
Larry Hogan, the anti-Trump Republican former governor of Maryland who is currently running for Senate, told CBS that Trump’s blasts are “insulting not only to the vice president but to people who actually do have mental disabilities.”
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