Donald TrumpPresident Joe Biden, speaking at his first campaign rally since ending his re-election bid, directed a barrage of attacks on the vice president, the de facto Democratic nominee, on Wednesday. Kamala Harris.
“As you know, three days ago we officially defeated the worst president in the history of our country, Joe Biden,” Trump told a crowd in Charlotte, North Carolina. “So now we have a new victim to defeat: the liar Kamala Harris…the most incompetent and far-left vice president in American history.”
Trump admitted at the start of his 90-minute speech that he was leaving behind The sunnier themes of identity and unity he suggested he and other Republicans would stick to after surviving the July 13 assassination attempt. He repeatedly mispronounced Harris’ name and at one point used the old NBC reality show The Apprentice. ,” announced, “Kamala, you’re fired!”
“You know, I was supposed to be nice,” she said. “They say that something happened to me when I was shot; I became beautiful. And when you’re dealing with these people, they’re very dangerous people – you can’t be very nice when you’re dealing with them. You really can’t be. So please, I’m not going to be okay.’
The audience didn’t protest, they cheered loudly, and for the next hour, Trump didn’t hesitate to criticize Harris’ long career in public service.
Trump mocked Harris for failing the bar exam on his first try. He took aim at Harris’ job as San Francisco’s district attorney from 2004 to 2011, despite the good times he remembers there.
“Twenty years ago, San Francisco was the greatest city in our country,” Trump said. “It’s not a livable city today.”
Harris campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a statement, “Donald Trump’s run is over — he’s back with a weird, weird and crazy speech full of praise from the ‘late great’ Hannibal Lecter.”
Trump missed a list of progressive policy proposals, such as expanded health care coverage, that Harris championed as a senator from California and in his last presidential campaign, which ended before the 2020 primaries began. It placed him to the political left of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a Democratic socialist who ran for president that year.
“So if you want socialist health care, runaway 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,” he said. “She’s the one for you.”
Trump also leveled a central GOP charge against Harris — a failed “border czar” after Biden tasked him with leading the administration’s efforts to address migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Because of the appointment, Republicans have tied Harris to illegal border crossings.
“Anyone who willfully let such brutal criminals into America should never be trusted with power again, should never be trusted to be president of our country,” Trump said.
At one point, Trump invited Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents U.S. Border Patrol agents, to speak. Judd criticized Harris, saying he “refused to implement” the policies he recommended.
“This is the presidential candidate,” Judd said of Trump.
Trump, forced to adapt his campaign strategy to a new opponent, rarely mentioned Biden. He argued that Democrats were an affront to democracy by dumping him after the primaries because they were worried about his poll numbers. Trump, who is facing criminal charges in two jurisdictions for allegedly trying to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election, accused Harris of knowing more about Biden’s health than he has publicly disclosed.
“Now if we start beating him in the polls by 10 or 15 points, are they going to bring in a third candidate?” Trump was surprised. “It’s like, you know, ‘Trump is killing this guy, okay, get out!’ Let’s bring a new one.”
Trump also wrestled with what has become Harris’ central pitch: the campaign is now between a prosecutor and someone who has pleaded guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
“Their campaign says, ‘I am a prosecutor, and he is a convict.’ This is their campaign,” Trump said. “I don’t think people will buy it.”