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By Monica Sager
Live News Reporter
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Donald Trump's campaign has criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for her past support to rename Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day.
When he was president, Donald Trump regularly praised the 15th century Italian explorer in his Columbus Day proclamations, while notably not mentioning Indigenous peoples.
"Kamala Harris is your stereotypical leftist," said Karoline Leavitt, the national press secretary for the Trump campaign, in a statement on Monday. "Not only does she want to raise taxes and defund the police—she also wants to cancel American traditions like Columbus Day."
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"President Trump will make sure Christopher Columbus' great legacy is honored and protect this holiday from radical leftists who want to erase our nation's history like Kamala Harris," Leavitt added.
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Newsweek reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
Columbus Day is a federal holiday on the second Monday of October, marking Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas in 1492. Some, especially within Native American communities, have argued to change the focus of the holiday in part because of the bloodshed the Italian explorer left behind.
In 2021, Joe Biden became the first president to issue an official proclamation commemorating Indigenous Peoples Day, also on the second October Monday, to "honor America's first inhabitants and the Tribal Nations." Maine, New Mexico, Vermont and D.C. have renamed the day Indigenous Peoples Day in 2019. Several states still have an official public holiday exclusively called Columbus Day and others like Nebraska or Pennsylvania celebrate both.
Trump's campaign said on Monday that Harris wants to "get rid of this holiday honoring the hero that discovered a new world."
Harris told a crowd during her first campaign as president in New Hampshire in 2019 that she would push for the federal government to rename Columbus Day to "Indigenous Peoples Day." "Sign me up," Harris said in response to a voter's question about her support in the renaming initiative.
While vice president, Harris spoke in 2021 to the National Congress of American Indians, saying the country "must not shy away from this shameful past" and instead "shed light" on the explorers who "ushered in a wave of devastation."
"Since 1934, every October the United States has recognized the voyage of the European explorers who first landed on the shores of the Americas," she said. "But that is not the whole story. That has never been the whole story."
"Those explorers ushered in a wave of devastation for Tribal nations — perpetrating violence, stealing land, and spreading disease," she said. "We must not shy away from this shameful past, and we must shed light on it and do everything we can to address the impact of the past on Native communities today."
In 2017, Trump issued an official presidential proclamation for the holiday, like those in office before him. He was criticized, however, for not mentioning Indigenous peoples. This was also the case the following year.
"Christopher Columbus's spirit of determination & adventure has provided inspiration to generations of Americans," Trump posted in 2018 to then Twitter, now X. "On #ColumbusDay, we honor his remarkable accomplishments as a navigator, & celebrate his voyage into the unknown expanse of the Atlantic Ocean."
In 2020, Trump spurred the crowd at a Michigan rally to boo the idea of replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day.
"So last week, Biden attacked Christopher Columbus by refusing to recognize Columbus Day. And he wants to change the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day. Who likes that idea?" Donald Trump asked the crowd, who responded by loudly booing. "What the heck are you saying? That's politically incorrect! What they don't understand is that they're politically incorrection. So he wants to change it to Indigenous Peoples Day. Not as long as I'm president."
In that year's proclamation, he said: "Sadly, in recent years, radical activists have sought to undermine Christopher Columbus's legacy. These extremists seek to replace discussion of his vast contributions with talk of failings, his discoveries with atrocities and his achievements with transgressions."
The Democratic National Convention marked the holiday Monday with a six-figure advertising campaign aimed at Indigenous voters. The "I Will Vote" initiative is targeting communities in Arizona, North Carolina, Montana and Alaska through digital, print and radio ads.
"We know that this upcoming election is critical for our Tribal nations, with our freedoms, access to health care and education, and the fundamental right to self-determination and Tribal sovereignty on the ballot," said Jaime Harrison, DNC chair. "The Democratic Party is taking no vote or community for granted, engaging every facet of our diverse coalition of voters in order to elect Democrats up and down the ballot this November."
Over 4.7 million Native American are eligible to vote in the United States.
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