On Friday (March 31), during a joint press conference with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, Vice President Kamala Harris sidestepped a question about former President Donald Trump’s indictment, leaving the Zambian President to answer the question.
The press conference held at Lusaka, Zambia, came as Harris wraps a week-long conference in Africa.
Reporters asked the pair to comment on Trump’s indictment, to which Harris replied by explaining she wouldn’t “comment on an ongoing criminal case as it relates to the former president.”
A Manhattan Grand Jury voted to indict Trump on Thursday after a years-long investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and while Harris refused to answer the question, Hichilema chimed in with a statement that equated to Trump not being above the law.
Hichilema explained his thoughts on the matter from a Zambian perspective, repeating the question before saying, “Let’s remove names from [the] question.”
The Zambian President noted that the question should center around “what we decided we would do to govern ourselves in an orderly manner,” turning to the constitution and “other legislation” as the “framework” of law enforcement.
He added that in a universal context, “when there’s a transgression against law, it does not matter who is involved.”
The Zambian President then referenced the African country’s struggle with corruption, noting that when tackling corruption that “has taken away resources from children and the sick,” the names of senior officials could be “thrown into it, “creating perceptions “that are totally inappropriate.”
Instead, Hichilema insisted that when someone commits a legal transgression, “the name does not matter.”
