RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — kamala harris She called on Americans on Wednesday to “stop pointing fingers at each other” for trying to drown out comments by President Joe Biden that: Donald Trump supporters and “trash”.
“I know this election gives us an opportunity to look back at Donald Trump’s decade of trying to divide us and make us fear each other,” the Democratic candidate said of his Republican opponent. Ta.
Harris spoke in Raleigh, North Carolina, at the first of three rallies she was scheduled to attend on Wednesday. She will also head to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Madison, Wisconsin, as part of a blitzkrieg of battleground states in the final week before Election Day.
She emphasized unity and common ground and expanded on: Her best speech in Washington on TuesdayThere, she laid out what her team is calling the campaign’s “closing argument.”
AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports on Vice President Harris’ reaction to President Biden’s comments about Trump supporters last night.
“I’m not trying to score political points,” the vice president said. “I aim for progress.”
Meanwhile, Biden and the White House rushed to explain that the president was not talking about his on-stage rhetoric, but rather about Trump’s supporters themselves. Biden did not answer questions about his comments when he met with the Cyprus president in the Oval Office on Wednesday, but press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said he did not “consider Trump supporters or Trump supporters to be trash.” “I haven’t.”
Ms. Harris was introduced at the rally by former Republican voters who previously supported Mr. Trump, as her campaign seeks to welcome disaffected conservatives worried about the former president’s reelection. This is an example of our efforts.
The message was Biden threatened to weaken On Tuesday, Harris also spoke near the White House and participated in a campaign event organized by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino.
Biden used the opportunity to criticize Trump’s recent Madison Square Garden rally in which a comedian described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of trash.”
“The only trash floating around is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and un-American,” Biden said. “It goes completely against everything we’ve done and everything we’ve ever done.”
“I don’t agree with criticizing people based on who they vote for,” Harris told reporters before boarding a Second Air Force plane bound for Raleigh.
“I represent all Americans, even those who don’t vote for me,” she said.
Her words were an attempt to blunt the controversy over Biden’s comments and put distance between her and the president. she has had a hard time In the past.
Republicans seized on Biden’s comments, arguing that it was an echo of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s 2016 comment that half of Trump’s supporters belonged to a “deplorable group.”
“We know what they believe, because look how they treated you,” Trump said at a rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. “They treated you like trash. The truth is they’ve treated our entire country like trash.”
“Without a doubt, my supporters are of a much higher quality than Crooked Joe’s,” he said, using the president’s nickname.
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In attacking Biden, and by extension Harris, Republicans echoed Trump’s own insulting and demonizing rhetoric, including calling the United States the “trash of the world” and describing political opponents as “the enemy within.” We’ve glossed over history. President Trump has also described Harris as “stupid” and “extremely lazy” and questioned whether she was using drugs.
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Trump also rejected demands for an apology for his comments about Puerto Rico at the rally, acknowledging that “someone said something terrible,” but adding, “I can’t imagine it being a big deal.”
Political attack lines have a history of sometimes boomeranging back to those who use them. For example, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who is currently President Trump’s running mate, Formerly known as the Democratic Party for benefiting from “a bunch of childless cat women who are miserable with their lives and their choices.”
Vance’s comments from three years ago resurfaced when he became the vice presidential nominee, energizing Harris supporters, just as Trump supporters once cheerfully labeled themselves “deplorables.” , repurposed the label as pride of place on shirts and bumper stickers.
On Wednesday morning, Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, downplayed Biden’s comments in a television interview.
“Let me be clear: the vice president and I have made it very clear that we want everyone to be a part of this,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Donald Trump’s divisive comments must end.”
As she waited for Harris to take the stage in Raleigh, Liz Casal, 35, said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the election. She has volunteered for the campaign each week, making phone calls, knocking on doors with her young daughter and raising money for Harris’ candidacy.
“Hope for the best and plan for the worst,” Casal said.
___ Megerian reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Makiya Seminella in Raleigh, North Carolina; Adriana Gomez Licon of Rocky Mount, North Carolina; Thomas Beaumont of Des Moines, Iowa; and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.
