Kamala Harris calls Trump’s State of the Union address ‘full of lies’

Former US vice-president Kamala Harris did not mince words in her scathing critique of president Donald Trump’s latest State of the Union address, branding it “a tapestry of falsehoods” and accusing the president of painting a dangerously misleading picture of America’s economy, voting rights, and foreign policy.

Speaking to Aaron Parnas on his The Parnas Perspective Substack show on Wednesday, Harris described watching the speech as a jarring disconnect from the realities confronting everyday American families.

“I watched it. It was full of lies,” Harris said. “And, when it wasn’t lying… it reminded me of our children doing show-and-tell at school—innocent, naive, but completely removed from the real world.”

Rejecting Trump’s claim that the “state of the union is strong”, Harris painted a starkly different portrait of life for millions of Americans. “Absolutely not,” she said. “So many are weighed down by soaring prices, unaffordable healthcare, and housing they cannot dream of.”

She recounted a recent journey through southern states, meeting a mother in Mississippi whose weekly grocery budget for four barely reached $150. “Everything in that cart was for her children,” Harris recalled. “She told me she would eat whatever scraps remained. Then she went to get bottled water—because her tap water was brown and toxic. This is America.”

Turning to Trump’s proposed fiscal priorities, Harris’s criticism was blistering. “Who benefits when you slash Medicaid by $1 trillion, yet hand a $1 trillion tax cut to the wealthiest Americans?” she asked, her words cutting through the rhetoric of the speech.

On voting rights, Harris took aim at the SAVE Act, which Trump urged Congress to adopt. “Absolutely not,” she said, warning that the measure would require voters to produce birth certificates or passports—documents that she claimed roughly 40% of Americans lack. She decried what she framed as a deliberate campaign to “suppress and obstruct the people’s voice,” describing powerful forces that seek to undermine the very foundations of democracy.

Harris’s concerns extended to foreign policy, particularly rising tensions with Iran. She dismissed Trump’s claims of having “completely eviscerated” the Iranian program as “complete and utter BS,” warning that sending American troops into the region carries a grave risk of conflict. “The American people do not want another war,” she said, emphasizing that alliances are fraying and national security could be imperiled by such reckless actions.

When asked about the 2024 election, Harris struck a reflective tone: “Oh, I have many regrets. I wrote a book about it, right? But my focus is less on what could have been, and more on what we must do today.”

The State of the Union address, an annual moment when the US President outlines legislative priorities and assesses the nation’s condition, has once again stirred vigorous debate. With the 2026 midterm elections looming, the nation stands at a crossroads, poised to judge the trajectory of America’s domestic policies and its role on the global stage.

With IANS inputs