Sen. Kamala Harris said on Monday that President Donald Trump's Twitter account should be suspended following his tweets about the whistleblower whose complaint is at the center of the Ukraine scandal.
"The President's tweets and his behaviors about this are just further evidence of the fact that he uses his power in a way that is designed to beat people down instead of lift people up," the California Democrat and 2020 presidential candidate told CNN's Anderson Cooper on "Anderson Cooper 360."
"Frankly, when you look at what he's been tweeting today directed at the whistleblower, directed at so many people, you know, I, frankly, think that based on this and all we've seen him do before, including attacking members of Congress, that he, frankly, should be -- his Twitter account should be suspended. I think there is plenty of now evidence to suggest that he is irresponsible with his words in a way that could result in harm to other people. And so the privilege of using those words in that way should probably be taken from him."
When asked if she thought a suspension of his Twitter account would be seen as the social networking giant trying to silence Trump, Harris said it must be agreed that a US president's words should be "not about belittling, much less harming, anyone" and said Trump is using "his words in a way that could subject someone to harm."
"If he's not going to exercise self-restraint, then, perhaps, there should be other mechanisms in place to make sure that his words do not, in fact, harm anyone," she said. "And that's my point. What we want to make sure is that his words do not actually result in harm to anyone."
Trump has rebuked the anonymous whistleblower in a series of tweets, tweeting on Monday "#FakeWhistleblower," and has repeatedly called the whistleblower's complaint "fake." On Sunday, the President said he deserved to meet his "accuser."
Trump said last week that whoever had provided the whistleblower with information about his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is "close to a spy," and that in the old days spies were dealt with differently.
The comment prompted House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff of California, Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel of New York and Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings of Maryland, all Democrats,
to call on
the President to stop his "reprehensible witness intimidation" of the whistleblower.
