Texas Senator Ted Cruz jokes that Vice President Kamala Harris might start mimicking former President Donald Trump‘s appearance given her recent policies, saying that next week she will “dye her skin orange.”
In Wednesday’s episode of the podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz, the Republican senator and his co-host Ben Ferguson spoke about newly named Democratic nominee Harris and her policy stances regarding taxes and the border, among other topics.
Cruz, who unsuccessfully ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016 and lost to Trump, said, “The first major policy provision she came out for was no taxes on tips. That was literally a proposal Donald Trump rolled out in Nevada.”
Trump and Harris have endorsed eliminating taxes on tips for hospitality and service workers, a stance Trump put forth at a campaign rally in Las Vegas in June.
Nevada is a critical battleground state this year. In 2020, President Joe Biden narrowly beat Trump by 2.4 percentage points in the state. Harris and Trump are now vying for support from the sizable coalition of service industry workers in the tourism-heavy state.
Cruz said that he introduced the proposal to the Senate in July.
He then discussed other policy areas, saying, “She also said this week she is not for an EV [electric vehicle] mandate. Suddenly, she loves her internal combustion engine.”
In an email on Tuesday, Harris campaign rapid response director Ammar Moussa wrote, “FACT: Vice President Harris does not support an electric vehicle mandate.”
Sen. Ted Cruz speaks at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 16. Cruz joked that Vice President Kamala Harris would “dye her skin orange” to copy former President Donald Trump.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
“This is truly the cherry on the top of the banana sundae,” Cruz said when introducing the Axios headline, “Harris flip-flops on border wall.” The article refers to Harris’ Democratic National Convention (DNC) speech, in which she said she would sign the bipartisan border security bill, which includes funding for border barriers.
Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, criticized the article in a statement, saying, “It’s DAY 37 of ZERO interviews and Kamala’s anonymous campaign sources are now claiming she supports President Trump’s border wall — this is a preposterous and false claim.”
Jokingly, Cruz continued, “I’m going to break news right now…next week, I am reliably told from leaks within the White House that Kamala Harris plans to dye her hair blonde, dye her skin orange, and buy enormously long red ties and wear only those in public appearances,” making fun of both Harris and Trump.
Newsweek reached out to the Harris campaign for comment via email on Thursday.
Ferguson quipped, “And you got to add, Beyonce’s going to be in there with her doing the same thing, right, because if we’re going to start rumors, whom as we go back to that one to get people excited.”
His comments were in reference to the DNC’s “surprise guest” rumors, which kept many on the edge of their seats, wondering if Beyonce, Taylor Swift, or other celebrities would make an appearance in endorsement of Harris.
Cruz added, “Beyonce is going to be blonde and also with orange skin.”
Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign manager, told Newsweek in an email: “Comrade Kamala has wildly changed her positions and copied President Trump’s policies because she is a fraud and a fake. Everyone knows she’s a dangerous liberal and Socialist who has decimated the economy, allowed criminals across the border, and oversaw the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal that led to American deaths.”
