Former President Trump and his campaign are racing to define Vice President Kamala Harris, who has replaced President Biden as the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee.
— In his first campaign event since the presidential race was upended, former President Trump didn’t waste any time in trying to define his new opponent.
At a rally in the crucial battleground state of North Carolina, the Republican presidential nominee repeatedly took aim at Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he derogatorily called « lying Kamala Harris. »
Harris has succeeded her boss, President Biden, as the presumptive Democratic Party nominee after Biden — in a blockbuster announcement on Sunday — dropped his re-election bid and endorsed his vice president.
The embattled president’s immediate backing of Harris ignited a surge of endorsements of Harris by Democratic governors, senators, House members and other party leaders. By Monday night, the vice president announced that she had locked up her party’s nomination by landing the backing of a majority of the nearly 4,000 delegates to next month’s Democratic National Convention. She has also hauled in a staggering $129 million since Biden’s announcement, her campaign touted on Thursday morning.
Trump, speaking to a packed arena in Charlotte, aimed to paint Harris as the « most incompetent and far-left vice president in American history. »
Trump charged that Harris « has been the ultra-liberal driving force behind every single Biden catastrophe. She is a radical left lunatic who will destroy our country if she ever gets the chance to get into office. »
And pointing to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the far-left champion and two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination, Trump argued that Harris is « more liberal than Bernie Sanders. Can you believe it? »
Throughout his more than an hour and a half stream of comments, Trump repeatedly slammed the vice president over border security and crime, two top issues in the 2024 election.
The strategy by Trump, his campaign and allied groups, is simple: Define Harris, who is not nearly as well known to Americans as Trump and Biden, before Harris has the chance to define herself.
