Fact Check: Is Donald Trump Right When He Claims Kamala Harris ‘Failed Her Bar Exam’?

PLAM BEACH, FLORIDA: Former President Donald Trump recently questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’ qualifications as a lawyer.

During a livestream with internet star Adin Ross on Monday, August 5, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate claimed that his Democratic opponent never passed his bar exam.

Since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 race, Harris has been running a tight race against the real estate mogul. According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, she has a five-point lead, 42%, to 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, claiming that his Democratic rival failed the bar exam, thus questioning her career as a lawyer.

“Look, (Harris) couldn’t even pass his law exam. He couldn’t pass his bar exam,” the MAGA leader said around the 12:40 mark of his conversation with the streamer.

“And I’m not saying this because I know other people couldn’t pass the bar exam, but she thought she could never pass it. And that’s how she runs our country. It’s a disgrace,” he added.

Test: Kamala Harris passed the bar exam

Donald Trump’s claim is false because it lacks additional context because Kamala Harris failed her first attempt at the bar exam.

However, a year later, in 1990, she passed the bar, according to her 2016 profile in The New York Times. She was serving as California’s attorney general when the outlet created the profile. The California State Bar website confirmed that the vice president was admitted to the bar on June 14, 1990. However, her license has been inactive since January 2, 2021.

Harris herself revealed that she failed her first attempt at the bar exam in her memoir ‘The Truths We Hold’.

“In November, the state bar sent out letters to those who had taken the exam, and to my utter dismay, I had failed,” she wrote of her failed attempt to sit the exam in the spring of 1989, shortly after finishing her law studies. In her 2019 memoir, the presidential candidate also added that she was successful on her next attempt.

Harris’s journey in public service began with her work as San Francisco’s district attorney 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 his historic presidential race against the Donald Trump-JD Vance ticket, he chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as his running mate.