ATLANTA — Vice President Kamala Harris, facing a new barrage of GOP attack ads seeking to define her early in her campaign, attacked back on immigration and border security before a fired-up crowd of thousands in an over-capacity arena Tuesday night.
Through chants of “Kamala” aimed at her and “lock him up” aimed at former President Donald Trump, Harris began her line of attack by citing her experience as attorney general of America’s largest border state, California.
“In that job, I walked underground tunnels between the United States and Mexico on that border with law enforcement officers,” Harris said. “I went after transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers that came into our country illegally. I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won.”
“Donald Trump, on the other hand, has been talking a big game on securing the border, but he does not walk the walk. Or as my friend Quavo says, he does not ‘walk it like I talk it,'” Harris said, referring to lyrics by the Atlanta rapper, who endorsed her moments earlier.
Harris’ remarks were her sharpest effort yet to rebut Republican assertions that she lacks the will and experience to secure the border, that she failed to do so as vice president and that she would again be ineffective on the issue if she is elected president.
“This is America’s border czar, and she’s failed us. Under Harris, over 10 million illegally here,” the new Trump ad says of Harris. The narrator finishes by saying: “Kamala Harris. Failed, weak, dangerously liberal.”
Immigration and the border has been one of Trump’s strongest issues throughout the election. Harris, holding her second rally as a presidential candidate after she took over from President Joe Biden this month, went on offense on immigration, bashing Trump for his role tanking a bipartisan bill that would have enacted tough reforms on the border, including a provision that would allow the president to shut it down if crossings hit a certain mark.
“Our administration worked on the most significant border security bill,” Harris said.
“It was all set to pass, but at the last minute, Trump directed his allies in the Senate to vote it down. He tanked the bipartisan deal because he thought it would help him win an election,” she said to applause, before she concluded: “Donald Trump does not care about border security. He only cares about himself.”
She also needled Trump for waffling on a pledge to debate her. Trump now says he will wait until the Democratic ticket is finalized after the historic candidate switch this month.
“Well, Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage,” Harris said, jeering at her opponent. “Because as the saying goes, if you got something to say …”
Harris was emboldened by a crowd that ate up every word, including her condemnation of Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, as “plain weird.”
She spent little time actually urging voters to head to the polls in November — largely because she didn’t need to. The nearly 10,000 attendees in Atlanta, the campaign’s biggest crowd yet, were well aware of the job expected of them in November.
The crowd got energized by a coterie of Atlanta dance classics, from Soulja Boy’s “Crank That” to Usher’s “Yeah!,” as well as a performance by Grammy-winning artist Megan Thee Stallion, before some of Georgia’s most prominent Democrats urged them to replicate the record turnout that sent Biden to the White House and flipped the Senate in 2020. Speakers also took their own whacks at Trump, who was indicted last year on charges alleging a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results just blocks away at the Fulton County Courthouse.
“The American people are the jury, we’re going to get the verdict right, and we’re going to send Kamala Harris to the White House,” Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock said.
Rep. Nikema Williams, the chair of the state Democratic Party, said: “Not only is he still a loser in Georgia, but he’s also a 34-count convicted felon. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m ready to make him a loser again.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said: “Kamala Harris has proven that she’s prepared to prosecute the case against Donald Trump. Who better to take on a convicted felon than a prosecutor?”
By the time Harris took the stage, the crowd was bursting with energy.
“If you’ve never voted before, make sure you get out to vote, because this is a real one,” Quavo said.
The Harris campaign’s Georgia office wrapped a weekend of events designed specifically to engage a base already enthusiastic about the woman at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Across Georgia, the campaign this weekend held more than 174 events, recruited thousands of new volunteers and opened three new field offices in an effort to boost its chances of keeping a state Biden won by the narrowest of margins in 2020.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
