At his first rally since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid, former President Donald Trump rallied his supporters against Vice President Kamala Harris, going after her record on immigration, health care, and the environment, painting her as an “ultra liberal” candidate.
“Just like crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris is unfit to lead. She’s unfit to lead, she’ll destroy our country in a year, this country will be destroyed,” Trump said at his rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday.
As Trump referenced Harris’ name dozens of times throughout his nearly 1.5-hour-long speech, he mispronounced her first name every single time.
Though Trump had previously called for unity in the wake of the attempt on his life by a gunman at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, two weeks ago, Trump put a nail in the coffin on his short-lived “nice” campaign.
Republican Presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks to attendees during his campaign rally at the Bojangles Coliseum, on July 24, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
“They’re very dangerous people – when you’re dealing with them, you can’t be so nice … If you don’t mind, I’m not going to be nice. Is that OK?” Trump said about Biden and Harris, which was followed by the crowd cheering, “Fight, fight, fight.”
The former president took a victory lap about Biden’s dropout, accusing Democrats of pushing him out of office due to his low poll numbers.
“As you know, three days ago, we officially defeated the worst president in the history of our country, Crooked Joe Biden,” Trump said. “So now we have a new victim to defeat. Lyin’ Kamala Harris – Lyin’, apostrophe – the most incompetent and far left vice president in American history,” Trump said.
Trump’s rally comes as Harris attacked him and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, on Tuesday, at her first presidential campaign event in battleground Wisconsin, on the issue of abortion and Project 2025, the conservative presidential transition blueprint fronted by the Heritage Foundation.
“We’ll stop Donald Trump’s extreme abortion bans because we trust women to make decisions about their own body and not have the government tell them what to do,” Harris said to raucous applause. “And when Congress passes the law to restore reproductive freedoms, as president of the United States, I will sign it into law.
In Biden’s address to the nation on Wednesday about his decision to exit the race, the president said, “There’s a time and a place for long years of experience in public life,” he said. “There’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices and yes, younger voices. And that time and place is now.”
The president did not address ongoing Republican criticisms about his fitness to serve.
Throughout Trump’s speech, he attempted to flesh out numerous attacks on Harris, specifically focusing on her handling of immigration issues, which he argued should disqualify her from running for the nation’s highest office.
“Kamala’s deadly destruction of America’s borders is completely and totally disqualifying. She shouldn’t even be allowed to run for president what she’s done,” accused Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Grand Boule at the Indiana Convention Center, on July 24, 2024, in Indianapolis.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
In March of 2021, Biden appointed Harris to oversee, lead, and coordinate diplomatic talks with Northern Triangle countries to address the root causes of migration. Republicans quickly labeled that assignment as the “border czar,” though Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is in charge of border oversight.
So far on the campaign trail, Harris has focused on going after Trump’s record concerning reproductive rights, directly blaming him for the rollback of abortion access for women. Trump attempted to respond to that argument by labeling Harris as a radical on abortion, pushing unfounded claims that she supports late-term abortions.
And as the Harris campaign paints the election as one between a prosecutor and felon, Trump on Wednesday called her “one of the worst prosecutors” who “destroyed San Francisco.”
“Their campaign says, ‘I’m the prosecutor and he is the convicted felon.’ That’s their campaign. I don’t think people are gonna buy it,” Trump said, touting he won the Florida classified documents case.
Going through her record as California attorney general, Trump criticized her past support for bail reform which he argued made her soft on crime. Hailing from California, Trump typecasted Harris as an extreme liberal, highlighting her support for the Green New Deal and a ban on fracking.
The Harris campaign declared that Trump’s attacks on Harris signaled his message of unity following his assassination attempt.
“Unity is over for Donald Trump – he is back with an unhinged, weird, and rambling speech,” Harris for President spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement. “But the American people won’t be fooled or distracted.”
