'Weak liberal on crime': Trump campaign hits back after Harris blames him for 'wave of violent crime'

The Trump campaign called Vice President Kamala Harris a “liar” and “desperate” after her campaign released a television ad claiming that former President Trump's policies had led to a “wave of violent crime.” The campaign told Fox News Digital that Harris is a “liberal with open borders and a weak stance on crime.”

Just one day after Harris accepted the Democratic presidential nomination in Chicago, the Harris campaign released a crime-focused television ad, claiming that “violent crime has declined” under Harris's tenure.

“Her record as district attorney and attorney general – locking up child molesters, online predators, violent criminals, and shutting down international drug cartels,” the ad says. “Under Donald Trump? A wave of violent crime. And Trump ordered MAGA extremists to overturn the bipartisan border security deal.”

“Trump only talks tough. Kamala Harris is tough.”

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Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris (Getty Images)

Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, called Harris a “liar.”

“The truth is that Kamala and Biden immediately rolled back every single one of President Trump's effective immigration policies upon taking office and opened the border to criminals, terrorists and drug cartels,” Leavitt told Fox News Digital. “If Border Czar Harris really wanted to secure the border, why doesn't she go back to Washington and do it today?”

“She won't do that because she's a liberal who supports open borders and is weak in the fight against crime.”

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that violent crime “has not decreased but increased by nearly 25 percent in 66 major U.S. cities, even though Kamala has been ahead in three of the four most murder-ridden years of the past 25 years.”

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“Under Kamala, the illegals she allowed into the country are raping and murdering our citizens in the most brutal ways,” the campaign continues. As district attorney, Harris was known for “taking a soft approach to crime while San Francisco had its highest murder rate in a decade.”

The campaign said Harris had become a “role model” for “Soros-backed prosecutors across the country.”

“Drug cartels have not been 'shut down,' they have devastated our communities by flowing deadly drugs across the border in unprecedented quantities,” the campaign continued. “The Sinaloa Cartel has made record profits under Kamala.”

As for the bipartisan border bill, the Trump campaign said it would have “accelerated the path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.”

Trump visited the border in Arizona on Thursday.

Trump's campaign team referred to American women such as Jocelyn Nungaray, Laken Riley and Rachel Morin, all of whom were allegedly killed by illegal immigrants.

Former President Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, comforts Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, south of Sierra Vista, Arizona, August 22, 2024. Rachel was allegedly murdered by an illegal immigrant at the U.S.-Mexico border. (Rebecca Noble)

Two Venezuelan citizens – 21-year-old Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel and 26-year-old Franklin Jose Peña Ramos – have been charged with capital crimes in connection with the death of 12-year-old Nungaray. The two men entered illegally entered the United States and are accused of strangling the teenager in June.

Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela, was charged with the murder of 22-year-old Riley. Ibarra entered the USA through El Paso, Texas, in 2022 and was released on parole. He initially lived in New York City, where he was arrested for alleged child endangerment before moving to Athens, Georgia.

Ibarra was charged with first-degree murder, premeditated murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, false imprisonment, kidnapping, obstructing a 911 call and covering up the death of another person in connection with Riley's murder.

The Salvadoran national allegedly responsible for Morin’s death, 23-year-old Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, was also in the country illegally and was detained by Border protection three times within a few days in January 2023 and February 2023 and each time returned to Mexico under Title 42.

Former President Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, speaks at the U.S.-Mexico border south of Sierra Vista, Arizona, August 22, 2024. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

He then successfully entered the United States near El Paso, Texas, in February 2023 as a “fugitive,” meaning he entered without being screened, admitted, or paroled by a U.S. immigration officer.

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During his visit to Arizona on Thursday, Trump invited Angel Moms to tell stories about victims of crime by illegal immigrants.

“We have made many trips to the border over the years and have told many stories of border casualties, including the stories of the wonderful Angel Moms,” Trump said. “Time does not heal all wounds, but we have never seen anything of this magnitude and viciousness as what we are now witnessing in our country.”

“It is an attack of violence.”

A Trump campaign official told Fox News Digital that the campaign's strategy will be to “continue to hammer home the immigration issue and Kamala's dereliction of duty at the border.”