Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris Kamala HarrisTexas Democratic official urges Biden to visit state: 'I thought he had his own plane' The Hill's Campaign Report: Biden on Trump: 'He'll leave' l GOP laywers brush off Trump's election remarks l Obama's endorsements A game theorist's advice to President Trump on filling the Supreme Court seat MORE (D-Calif.) said Thursday that President Trump Donald John TrumpFederal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept. Former Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick MORE "sounds like a criminal" after he blasted a whistleblower and others who raised concerns about his interactions with a foreign government, suggesting they committed treason.

"He sounds like a criminal. 'Who snitched? Who gave up the goods? Let's find out who gave up the goods on us and make sure there's a consequence and it's serious and let that be a lesson to everybody else,'" Harris said during an interview on MSNBC's "Hardball."

"It sounds like it's straight out of some bad drama, but the fact is, this is the president of the United States," added Harris, a former attorney general of California.

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Trump was recorded speaking at a private event Thursday in New York in which he ripped the member of the U.S. intelligence community who had filed a complaint raising alarms about his July call with the president of Ukraine that a number of lawmakers have also said was concerning.

“Basically, that person never saw the report, never saw the call, he never saw the call — heard something and decided that he or she or whoever the hell they saw — they’re almost a spy,” Trump said in audio of his remarks obtained by The Los Angeles Times.

“I want to know who’s the person, who’s the person who gave the whistleblower the information? Because that’s close to a spy,” he added. “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”

A declassified version of the whistleblower complaint regarding Trump's July 25 call with Ukraine's president was released Thursday. In it, the whistleblower said that “multiple White House officials with direct knowledge” of the call told the person the president used the call for his personal gain.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and has said that the complaint was "fake news," though a reconstituted transcript of his call with the Ukrainian leader that was released by the White House on Wednesday appeared to mirror some of the details included in the whistleblower complaint.

"The concern that I have is that we have created a system for whistleblowers to come forward because we want people to be transparent about the abuses in our government," Harris said on MSNBC. "It should be the president of the United States above all who says that we welcome and will always protect people who are fighting for the integrity of our Democracy."

Harris is among more than a dozen people running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.