At a campaign rally, the first since President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and Kamala Harris rose to the candidacy position of the Democratic Party, Republican nominee Donald Trump came hard on her, revealing some of his strategies against the revised party ticket.
Trump came out to mispronounce her last name as "Kamaala," then hit her with a shower of adjectives: "ultra-liberal," "left-lunatic," "Marxist," "ultra-left"—all of these were used at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, a state he had won in the previous two elections.
The rally was held inside a filled stadium, with some 10,000 in the stands and another 10,000 in temporary seats on the playfield, out of concern for security in the aftermath of the sniper attack on his outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
He showed no apparent bandage on his right ear, despite the recent ear injury from the assassination attempt.
The 100-minute speech was plenty of theatre and entertainment for his ardent supporters, reliant as it was on his showmanship and frequently hyperbolic, at times factually dubious, assertions.
He spoke of very few issues that would impact on India, including the reiterated threat to carry out the Trump Reciprocal Tariff Act which would levy retaliatory taxes on countries with high customs duties against US imports.
His speech, light on foreign affairs, included a pledge to create an "Iron Dome" missile defense system using domestic technology and manufacturing, and a claim that he would end the Ukraine War on his first day in office.
He also panned Harris for boycotting the speech that had taken place earlier that morning by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before Congress, accusing her of being "against the Jewish people," notwithstanding her marriage to Doug Emhoff, who was of Jewish origin.
Harris seems to be eating into the gap in the polls against Trump, though his lead remains within the margin of error, calling for a recalibration of his campaign.
According to RealClear Politics aggregation, Trump leads Harris by 1.7 percent versus 3.1 percent over Biden.
Trump, in a preview of his campaign, became focused on hot-button issues he might use against her: immigration, law and order, transgender men in women's sports—anything to make her sweat. Contentious topics like abortion rights and his conviction for a felony put him on his heels.
He said that as the "immigration czar," Harris had allowed 20 million illegal immigrants into the country, many of whom he characterized as "rapists," "murderers," or insane—a number roughly double the generally accepted estimate of 10 million.
Trump cited recent cases of illegal immigrants raping and murdering young women and girls, blaming Harris' policies that provided medical care to illegal immigrants for incentivizing "low-IQ" people to come into the US.
He also brought up her past statements, in which she equated immigration officers with the Ku Klux Klan and criticized police.
One of the toughest challenges for the campaign of Harris is abortion rights, very much more now after the Supreme Court ruling, which has made it a matter of the states, thus nullifying a previous ruling that had legalized abortion throughout the country. This gives abortion the much-needed élan to motivate women against Trump, since hardliners among Republicans wish to ban abortions.
During their recent debate, Trump asserted that Harris supported abortion up to the moment of birth, but he diverged from his party's absolutists in refusing to demand a national abortion policy and urging state-bystate decisions while supporting exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.
He subtly signaled that it might be necessary to give way on the intensely emotional issue of abortion in order to take the election, suggesting to party members that a total ban on it would jeopardize his re-election prospects.
Harris has highlighted her career as a prosecutor and contrasted it with Trump's conviction for 34 counts of criminal fraud over payments made to a porn star who claimed to have had an affair with him.
He named her the "worst prosecutor," reminding people of her time as prosecutor of San Francisco and laying the city's crime wave at her door based on her policies.
After training his fire on Biden, he said that with the former vice-president out of the race, dangerous people in Washington were pushing Biden out of the race and that they were going to move into action and have the president removed after a constitutional provision that allows Congress to remove a president who is incapacitated.
Besides, while Democrats and dissidents in his own party have branded him as a "threat to democracy," Trump has said Harris is the real one, claiming that she was chosen to disenfranchise other members of the party who voted for Biden.
However, he went on to attack Biden, accusing him of being the "worst" president the United States has ever had and a "fake liberal," with Harris being the true brains behind him and his "ultra-liberal" policies.
Speaking from inside the White House, less than an hour after Trump had done the same, Biden continued, clearly referencing the departing president as he said: "Do we still believe in honesty, decency, respect, freedom, justice, and democracy?"
Trump told of the July 13 assassination try and praised his audience, which he said could have stampeded when shots were fired, describing them as "brave people who love the country."
On domestic policy, Trump reiterated old promises to shut the borders to criminals and deport those guilty of crimes, as well as to cut taxes and eliminate all climate change policies by ending mandates for electric vehicles and allowing oil drilling and gas fracking.
Read also | Indian-Origin Canadian MP Targeted by Khalistani Extremists Following Temple Vandalism
Read also | Bangladesh Begins Recovery After Deadly Protests
