Vice-President Kamala Harris launched her presidential campaign on Monday by drawing a sharp contrast with her Republican opponent, stating, "I know Donald Trump’s type" from her experience prosecuting cheats, fraudsters, and abusers of women.
She framed the election as a clash of visions, describing hers as "focused on the future" and Trump’s as "focused on the past."
Speaking energetically at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, Harris was joined remotely by President Joe Biden, who is recovering from Covid-19. She has embraced Biden’s campaign, staff, and administration’s accomplishments, aiming for a historic campaign in the final 100 days before the election.
Biden encouraged campaign staff to fully support Harris, stating, "embrace her as you would embrace me."
Harris’s speech was greeted with enthusiasm, with campaign officials reporting a record $81 million raised in the first 24 hours since her elevation to the top of the ticket. Democrats are rallying behind Harris, buoyed by new volunteers and renewed energy following concerns about Biden's debate performance.
“In those roles,” Harris said, recounting for the audience her career as a public prosecutor from a district court in Alameda to being the Attorney General of California, “I took on predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheats who broke the rules for their gain. So, hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type."
Harris emphasized her early work prosecuting sexual abuse cases in California and referenced Trump's legal troubles related to allegations of sexual assault.
“As attorney general, California (I) took on one of our country’s largest for-profit colleges and put it out of business,” she said.
“Donald Trump ran a for-profit college Trump University that was forced to pay $25 million to the students it scammed.”
“As a district attorney to go after polluters. I created one of the first environmental justice units in our nation,” Harris said.
“Donald Trump stood in Mar-a-Lago (his current home in Florida) and told Big Oil lobbyists, he would do their bidding for a $1 billion campaign contribution.”
“During during the foreclosure crisis,” she said referring to the 2007-2008 financial crisis, “I took on the big Wall Street banks and won $20 billion for California families. Holding those banks accountable for fraud. Donald Trump was just found guilty of 34 counts of fraud.”
She highlighted her efforts against polluters and Wall Street banks during the financial crisis, contrasting them with Trump's actions favoring big oil and his own legal troubles.
Harris outlined the campaign as a clash between two visions for America's future.
“Make no mistake, all of that being said this campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump. Our campaign has always been two different versions of what we see as the future of our country, two different visions for the future of our country. One focused on the future, the other focused on the past.”
Trump, she said, wants to take our country backwards “to a time before many of our fellow Americans had full freedoms and rights”.
“We believe in a brighter future that makes room for all Americans. We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead. We believe in a future where no child has to grow up in poverty; where every person can buy a home, start a family and build wealth and where every person has access to pay family leaving affordable childcare. That’s the future. Together we fight to build a nation where every person has affordable healthcare, where every worker is paid fairly, and where every senior can retire with dignity. All of this is to say building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.”
“When our middle class is strong, America is strong,” Harris said, echoing a long-running theme favoured by Biden.
“Our fight for the future is also a fight for freedom,” she said, laying out her election prime.
“Generations of Americans before us have led the fight for freedom from our founders, to our farmers to the abolitionists and the suffragettes to the Freedom Riders and farm workers. And now I say, team. The baton is in our hands. We who believe in the sacred freedom to vote. We who are committed to fight to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the freedom to vote.”
“We will believe in the freedom to live safe from gun violence and that’s why we will work to pass universal background checks, red flag laws and an assault weapons ban. We will fight for reproductive freedom knowing if Trump gets the chance he will sign a national abortion ban to outlaw abortion in every single state but we are not going to let that happen.”
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