PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Vice President Kamala Harris used her first fundraiser since turning into the Democrats’ probably White Home nominee to excoriate the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as decided to roll again Individuals’ freedoms.
Harris traveled to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday the place she was anticipated to lift greater than $1.4 million, her marketing campaign introduced, from an viewers of lots of on the Colonial Theatre. That may be $1 million-plus greater than the unique objective set for the occasion earlier than President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
She informed an excited group of supporters that she entered the race as an “underdog,” whereas expressing confidence that her surging marketing campaign may defeat Trump.
“I will fight to move our nation forward,” Harris mentioned. “Donald Trump intends to take our country backwards.”
Harris additionally poked at Trump, and his working mate Sen. JD Vance, for lobbing peculiar assaults at her and different Democrats. The vp gave the impression to be alluding to a 2021 interview with Vance during which he slammed some distinguished Democrats with out organic youngsters, together with Harris, as “childless cat ladies” with “no direct stake” in America.
“You may have noticed Donald Trump has been resorting to some wild lies about my record and some of what he and his running mate are saying, it is just plain weird,” Harris mentioned. “I mean that’s the box you put that in, right?”
Harris’ branding the Republican ticket as “weird” seems to be a part of a concerted effort by her marketing campaign to highlight a few of Trump and Vance’s rhetoric as questionable. Earlier this week, the Harris marketing campaign on the social media website X referred to as Vance “weird and creepy” for a few of his stances on ladies’s reproductive rights. Trump, in the meantime, has raised the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter from the movie “Silence of the Lambs” in stump speeches.
“These guys are just weird,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who’s on Harris’ shortlist for vp, mentioned in an MSNBC interview earlier this week. “They’re running for He-man women-haters club or something.”
Supporters for the fundraiser included musician James Taylor and lots of the state’s Democratic heavyweights, together with Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, former Gov. Deval Patrick and Rep. Richie Neal.
Harris took in additional than $100 million in donations within the first 48 hours after Biden stop the race, a presidential report, and aides mentioned she has continued to lift cash at a gentle clip.
“This is a people-powered campaign,” Harris mentioned. “And we have momentum.”
Harris, a former prosecutor in her house state of California, additionally derided Trump for his authorized troubles. She famous his latest conviction on 34 counts of falsifying enterprise information in New York, a jury discovering the previous president of being chargeable for sexual abusing recommendation columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996, and a $25 million settlement paid to attendees of the now-defunct actual property seminar referred to as Trump College.
“I’ve been dealing with people like him my entire career,” Harris mentioned. She added, “So in this campaign, and I say in all seriousness, I will proudly put my record against his any day.”
Harris started her remarks with reward for Biden, who opted to finish his reelection bid and endorse Harris final weekend after his marketing campaign fell right into a tailspin following his disastrous June 27 debate efficiency towards Trump.
She referred to as Biden’s legacy of accomplishment over the previous three and a half years “unmatched in modern history.”
Trump denigrated Harris as a “radical left lunatic” who desires to defund the police throughout a keynote handle at a bitcoin convention in Nashville on Saturday.
He mentioned she was worse than Biden however was most likely his second choice for a candidate to run towards after Biden.
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Trump informed the group of bitcoin supporters that he would embrace the cryptocurrency greater than the Biden-Harris administration has and vowed to “replace the Biden-Harris economic stagnation” with an financial increase.
The vp informed supporters at her Massachusetts fundraiser that her financial agenda would sharply distinction with Trump’s, who she claimed is squarely targeted on reducing tax charges for rich Individuals and enhancing the underside strains of firms.
“Building up the middle class will be the defining goal of my presidency,” Harris mentioned. She added, “Let us make no mistake, this campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump. Our campaign has always been about two very different visions for our nation.”
