PITTSFIELD, Mass. (Associated Press) — The V.P. Kamala Harris In his first fundraising bid as the Democratic presidential nominee, he sharply criticized the Republican presidential candidate. Donald Trump They are determined to take away the freedoms of Americans.
Harris is visiting Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday and expects to raise more than $1.4 million from a crowd of several hundred at the Colonial Theatre, her campaign announced — more than $1 million more than the original goal set for the event before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
She told excited supporters that she ran the election as an “underdog” and expressed confidence that her growing campaign could defeat Trump.
“I will fight to move our country forward,” Harris said. “Donald Trump is trying to take our country backwards.”
Harris also criticized Trump and his running mate, Senator John F. Kennedy. J.D. Vancefor hurling bizarre attacks at her and other Democrats. The vice president appeared to be referencing a 2021 interview with Vance in which he slammed prominent Democrats, including Harris, for not having biological children. “A cat woman without children” The United States has “no direct interest.”
“You may have noticed that Donald Trump has told some outrageous lies about my record, and some of the things he and his running mate have been saying are just bizarre,” Harris said. “I mean, that’s what you put in that box, right?”
Harris’s call of the Republican candidate “weird” appears to be part of a concerted effort by her campaign to highlight some of Trump and Vance’s statements as questionable. Earlier this week, the Harris campaign called Vance “weird” on the social media site X. “Weird and creepy” Trump has come under fire for some of his positions on women’s reproductive rights, while he has used fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter from the film “Silence of the Lambs” in speeches.
“These guys are just weird,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who is on the shortlist to be Harris’ running mate, said in an MSNBC interview earlier this week. “It’s like they’re running for the He-Man misogyny club or something.”
Supporters of the fundraiser included many of the state’s Democratic Party’s biggest names, including musician James Taylor, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, former Gov. Deval Patrick and Rep. Richie Neal.
Ms. Harris raised more than $100 million in donations within the first 48 hours after Mr. Biden dropped out of the race, a presidential record, and aides said she continues to raise money steadily.
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“This is a people-powered movement,” Harris said, “and we have momentum.”
Harris, a former prosecutor in her home state of California, also condemned Trump’s legal troubles. She said Trump recently 34 cases of falsifying business records In New York, a jury tried the former president Take responsible In 1996, E. Jean Carroll, an advice columnist about sexual abuse, $25 million settlement The money was paid to participants in a now-defunct real estate seminar called “Trump University.”
“I’ve been around people like him my whole career,” Harris said, “so in this race, and I say this seriously, I’m always proud of my record and ready to go toe-to-toe with him,” she added.
Harris began her speech by praising Biden, who last weekend dropped his reelection bid and chose to endorse Harris after his campaign took a nosedive following a disastrous June 27 debate defeat to Trump.
She called Biden’s accomplishments over the past three and a half years “unparalleled in modern history.”
Speaking at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville on Saturday, President Trump slammed Harris as a “far-left lunatic” who wants to cut police budgets.
He said she was inferior to Biden but was probably the second-best candidate to challenge him.
President Trump told Bitcoin supporters that he would be more enthusiastic about supporting the cryptocurrency than the Biden-Harris administration would be, vowing to “replace the economic stagnation of the Biden-Harris administration with economic growth.”
The vice president told supporters at a fundraiser in Massachusetts that his economic policies contrast with those of Trump, who focuses on lowering taxes on the wealthy and improving corporate profits.
“Building the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency,” Harris said, adding, “To be clear, this campaign is not just about Donald Trump versus us. Ours has always been about two very different visions for our country.”
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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.
