Fact Check: Is Donald Trump right about Kamala Harris not 'passing her bar exam'?
PLAM BEACH, FLORIDA: Former president Donald Trump recently brought Vice President Kamala Harris' qualifications as an attorney into question.
During a live stream with internet star Adin Ross on Monday, August 5, the 2024 GOP presidential nominee claimed his Democratic opponent never passed her bar exam.
Since becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee after President Joe Biden's exit from the 2024 race, Harris put forth a tight contest against the real estate mogul. According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, she is five points ahead, 42%, over Trump's 37% in the presidential race.
Claim: Donald Trump says Kamala Harris 'never passed her bar exam'
Donald Trump joined Adin Ross in the recent livestream posted on YouTube, asserting that his Democratic rival did not pass the bar exam, thus questioning her career as an attorney.
"Look, (Harris) couldn't even pass her law exam. She couldn't pass her bar exam," the MAGA spearhead said at around 12:40 timestamp of his conversation with the streamer.
"And I'm not saying that because I know other people couldn't pass their bar exam, but she thought she'd never be able to pass it. And this is who we have running our country. It's a shame," he added.
Proof: Kamala Harris has passed the bar exam
Donald Trump's assertion is false as it lacked additional context because Kamala Harris failed her first bar exam attempt.
A year later in 1990, however, she passed the exam, according to her 2016 The New York Times profile. She served as California's attorney general when the outlet created the profile. The State Bar of California website confirmed the Vice President was admitted to the bar on June 14, 1990. However, her license has been inactive since January 2, 2021.
Harris herself has disclosed that she failed in her first bar exam attempt in her memoir 'The Truths We Hold'.
"In November, the state bar sent letters out to those who had taken the exam, and, to my utter devastation, I had failed," she wrote about her unsuccessful shot at the exam in 1989 spring, soon after completing her law school. In the 2019 memoir, the presidential hopeful also added that she succeeded in her next attempt.
Harris' lifelong public service started with her work as District Attorney of San Francisco in 2004, and in 2010, she was elected Attorney General of California. Harris entered national politics with her Senate victory in 2016 and as Biden's running mate in 2020.
In her historic presidential race against the Donald Trump-JD Vance ticket, she picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
