Kamala Harris delivers first campaign speech since Biden’s withdrawal

Vice President Kamala Harris wasted no time in challenging former President Donald Trump in the first speech of her presidential campaign, immediately meeting the expectations of her supporters.

Harris spoke about her work as California attorney general and prosecutor, where she dealt with perpetrators of “women’s abuse, scammers who scammed consumers, scammers who broke the law for their own personal gain.”

“So listen to me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said to cheers.

Trump was the first former president to be convicted of a crime, when he was found guilty of 34 counts in a New York bribery trial in May.

The vice president spoke at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, which was previously home to President Joe Biden’s campaign, with just over 100 days to make up ground on Trump in Pennsylvania and other key battleground states.

She emphasized her sympathy and appreciation for Biden in a speech delivered a day after Biden withdrew from the race following weeks of concerns from Democrats about his ability to compete with Trump.

“We love Joe and Jill, we really do,” Harris said.

“It’s mutual,” Biden, who called into the event, chimed in. “I’m looking at you, kid. I love you.”

Biden endorsed Harris to take his place at the top of the ticket and quickly gained support among Democrats.

“Take her, she’s the best,” Biden said by phone at an event in Wilmington. “The name has changed at the top of the list, but the mission hasn’t changed at all.”

Harris, who entered the hall to thunderous applause as Beyoncé’s “Freedom” played, said she would do “everything in my power to unite our Democratic Party, unite our nation and win this election” in the coming days.

She told the group of about 100 staffers that she knew it had been “a rollercoaster and we’re all filled with a lot of mixed emotions.” She said she asked campaign managers Jen O’Malley Dillon and Julie Chávez Rodriguez to stay on and run her campaign.

The campaign to elect Biden will now focus on electing Harris and confronting Trump’s Republican Party, which has coalesced following the failed assassination attempt on the former president just eight days before Biden withdrew.

Republicans have already begun comparing Biden to Harris.

“It’s a whole new game, but the players haven’t changed much, so the game plan hasn’t changed at all,” said U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, a Trump ally. “We’re playing our winning game.”

Harris said the election is not just about defeating Trump, but about a completely different vision for the country.

“One focused on the future, the other focused on the past,” Harris said. “Donald Trump wants to take our country back to a time when many of our fellow Americans did not have full freedoms and rights, but we believe in a brighter future that gives space to all Americans.”

Harris urged workers in the room to work difficult in the coming weeks, saying the baton had been passed “from the framers to the abolitionists, from the suffragettes to the freedom riders and the farm workers.”

The crowd roared as she said she would fight to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, universal background checks and protect abortion rights.

She ended her speech with the words, “God bless you all, God bless America, and God bless Joe Biden.”