Former President Donald Trump released a barrage of attacks against his likely Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, during his first rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, since his former rival, President Joe Biden, suspended his 2024 campaign on Sunday.
Just days after Biden’s shocking suspension, Trump appears to be adjusting to having Harris as his chief rival, spending the majority of his rally denigrating Harris and arguing that her potential administration would devastate the nation.
“Basically she’s a very bad person and she shouldn’t be running for president. She is a threat to democracy, a true threat to democracy. She’ll destroy our nation,” Trump declared one day after Harris held her first public rally since Sunday in Wisconsin, another key battleground state.
He also complained about the media coverage surrounding the Harris rally on Tuesday. “The fake news said her crowd was amazing. It was amazing,” he complained after some media reports claimed there were 3,000 people at her rally. “She had maybe 1,000 people. I doubt it.”
The former president pushed back against Harris’s comments branding him as a “felon” while she highlighted her record as a former prosecutor. “’I’m the prosecutor, and he’s the convicted felon,’” Trump said, mocking Harris. “That’s their campaign. I don’t think people are going to buy it.” The former president claimed he “won” the classified documents case brought against him, but the case was actually dismissed by the judge presiding over the trial.
In his speech, Trump called Harris the “worst politician in America” and warned that if she won the 2024 election, she would be “the most radical, far-left extremist ever to occupy the White House.” He later went after Harris, a top abortion rights Democrat, for embracing “radical” policies against the unborn. “She’s a radical, crazy person. When you compare my position on abortion to that of Kamala Harris,” Trump claimed. “My position is eight points higher in the polls, and that’s because she is so radical. She wants abortions in the eighth and ninth month of pregnancy; that’s fine with her, right up until birth and even after birth.”
Harris, according to Trump, is even more liberal than Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the famously leftist senator who unsuccessfully challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and Biden in 2020.
“If you want socialist healthcare, nation-wrecking inflation, the death of American energy, and a lying, radical-left, liberal San Francisco extremist as your commander in chief, then Kamala Harris is your candidate,” Trump said. “Just like she destroyed San Francisco, she will destroy our entire country.”
He continued to slam Harris’s role as border czar. “And remember, there’s no issue on which Kamala has been more unhinged than her wild pursuit of open borders,” he said, referring to the southern border. “She’s crazy. She’s crazy. Who could want open borders? Who could want that?”
Trump claimed Harris was “suddenly trying to transform her personality to pretend she is tough on crime” in her quest to gain the Democratic nomination as he received the endorsement of the National Association of Police Organizations.
The former president also moved quickly to derisively name her “lying Kamala” in contrast to “crooked Joe.” The rapid response social media account for Harris’s campaign, quickly took to X to push back against Trump’s attacks linking him to Project 2025.
Democrats are hoping that North Carolina, where Trump is campaigning, will flip blue for the first time since 2008. The state’s governor, Roy Cooper (D-NC), is widely seen as a running mate contender for Harris. But Trump’s appearance is an indication that the GOP hopes to keep the state red.
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On the same day of Trump’s rally, the Democratic National Convention approved a framework that quickly limits the window of opportunity for any Harris challengers, with a potential virtual vote coming on Aug. 1.
Biden’s endorsement of Harris likely paved the way for Harris to become the party’s nominee, as she has already received the support of the necessary amount of delegates ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.