Donald Trump, speaking at his first campaign rally since President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid, redirected a torrent of attacks Wednesday against the de facto Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“As you know, three days ago we officially defeated the worst president in the history of our country, Joe Biden,” Trump told his crowd in Charlotte, North Carolina. “So now we have a new victim to defeat: the lying Kamala Harris… the most incompetent, far-left vice president in American history.”
Trump acknowledged at the beginning of his 90-minute speech that he was leaving behind the brighter personality and themes of unity that he and other Republicans suggested they would pursue after he survived a July 13 assassination attempt. He repeatedly mispronounced Harris’ first name and at one point, using the catchphrase from his former NBC reality show “The Apprentice,” declared, “Kamala, you’re fired!”
“You know, I should be nice,” the former president said. “They say something happened to me when I was shot; I was cool. And when you’re dealing with these people, they’re very dangerous people – when you’re dealing with them, you can’t be too nice. You really can’t be. So if you don’t mind, I won’t be nice.”
The audience didn’t care, applauding loudly, and for more than an hour, Trump was relentless in his criticism of Harris’ long career in public service.
Trump mocked Harris for failing the bar exam on her first try. He took aim at her work as San Francisco district attorney, arguing that she made the city worse, even though the good old days he remembered were during Harris’ tenure, from 2004 to 2011.
“San Francisco, 20 years ago, was the greatest city in our country,” Trump said. “Today, it is not a livable city.”
In a statement, Harris campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said: “The drive is over for Donald Trump – he is back with an unbalanced, strange and incoherent speech, complete with praise for the ‘late great’ Hannibal Lecter.” .
Trump then drew up a list of progressive policy proposals, such as expanding health care coverage, which Harris championed as a U.S. senator from California and in her last presidential campaign, which ended before the start of the 2020 primaries. political left of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the Democratic socialist who also ran for president that year.
“So if you want socialist healthcare, nation-wrecking inflation, the death of American energy, and a lying radical left-liberal extremist from San Francisco as your commander in chief, then Kamala Harris is your candidate,” Trump said. . “She’s the one for you.”
Trump also leveled a central GOP charge against Harris — that she failed as a “border czar” after Biden tasked her with leading the administration’s efforts to address the root causes of migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Because of the mission, Republicans linked Harris to illegal border crossings.
“No person who deliberately allows these types of savage criminals into America should be trusted with power again, should be trusted to be the president of our country,” Trump said.
At one point, Trump invited Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union that represents U.S. Border Patrol agents. Judd criticized Harris, saying she “refused to implement” the policies he recommended.
“This is the man for the presidency,” Judd said of Trump.
Trump, forced to adapt his campaign strategy to a new opponent, rarely mentioned Biden. He argued that Democrats had staged an affront to democracy by abandoning Biden after the primaries were over because they were worried about his poll numbers. Trump, who faces criminal charges in two jurisdictions for alleged efforts to illegally overturn the 2020 election results, also accused Harris of knowing more about Biden’s health than she has publicly let on.
“Now, if we start to beat her in the polls by 10 or 15 points, are they going to bring in a third candidate?” Trump wondered. “It’s like, you know, ‘Trump is killing this guy, right, out! Let’s bring a new one.’”
Trump also grappled with what has become Harris’ central argument: that the 2024 campaign is now between a prosecutor and someone who has been found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
“Their campaign says, ‘I’m the prosecutor and he’s the convicted felon.’ This is their campaign,” Trump said. “I don’t think people will buy it.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
