One day after taking a break from the campaign trail to deliver what was branded as her "closing argument" address against the backdrop of the White House in Washington, Vice President Kamala Harris was back on the road on Wednesday in the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
Harris was also set to travel to Madison, Wisconsin, later in the day after spending Monday in Michigan, rounding out the trio of "blue wall" states crucial to victory in next month's race.
Speaking to supporters at Walnut Creek Amphitheater in Raleigh and the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, Harris framed the final days until the election and her potential presidency as a “fight” for democracy and the country.
“We are fighting for our democracy. We love our democracy,” Harris said in Harrisburg. “It can be complicated at times, but it is the best system in the world.”
The vice president on Wednesday declared that there is “nothing in the world” that would keep her from fighting for Americans as president, citing her career as a prosecutor and attorney general in California in which she specifically noted she “won fights” against banks that the ripped off homeowners, for-profit colleges that scammed veterans, predators who abused women and children and cartels that trafficked guns, drugs and humans.
“I am not afraid of tough fights,” Harris said. “And if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf as president, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way."
Seeking to draw a contrast between her and former President Donald Trump, the vice president on Wednesday also cast her GOP opponent as someone who is “unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and out for unchecked power.”
“This is not someone who is thinking about how to make your life better,” she added.
She went on to specifically reiterate her condemnation of Trump’s suggestion that he would deploy the national guard or U.S. military on “enemies from within,” a line of criticism that has become a staple of her argument against the former president in the closing days of her campaign.
“We're actually fighting for a democracy and unlike Donald Trump, I don't believe people who disagree with me are the enemy,” Harris said. “He wants to put them in jail. I'll give them a seat at the table.”
Repeating her oft-used line that Trump would come into the Oval Office with an “enemies list” while she would come in with a “to-do list,” Harris declared that bringing down the cost of living would be at the top of such a list.
“That will be my focus every single day as President,” she said, before mentioning her previously unveiled economic proposals, including tax cuts for over 100 million Americans in the middle class, a federal ban on price gouging by food suppliers and grocery stores and requiring Medicare to cover at-home care for seniors.
The vice president further leaned into her pledge to work across the aisle, compromise and “seek common sense solutions,” a message she has stressed as she tries to win over undecided moderate voters.
“I am not looking to score political points, I am looking to make progress,” Harris declared. “I will listen to those impacted by the decisions I make and to people who disagree with me.”
The Harris campaign has put a significant emphasis on reaching moderate Republican and independent voters who may be put off by the former president, leaning into its Republicans for Harris-Walz organizing effort, sending the vice president out of the trail with well-known Republican figures like former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger and touting GOP endorsements.
Harris on Wednesday was introduced by North Carolina resident Jennifer Bell, who said she was an “outspoken Republican voter” until 2020.
“Join me in putting country before party,” she said to those on the fence in this election. “Let’s put our principles before partisanship.”
The vice president’s message of unity and her pledge to be a president for all Americans was complicated this week by a comment from her current boss, President Joe Biden, on a campaign call on Tuesday night in response to a comedian at Trump’s rally on Sunday referring to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
The GOP is insisting Biden called Trump supporters garbage while the White House is saying that the president was referring to the comments from the comedian at Trump’s rally and similar rhetoric as garbage.
Leaving Washington for North Carolina on Wednesday, Harris responded to the fresh back-and-forth between the White House and Republicans, emphasizing that Biden clarified what he meant and stressing she disagrees with criticizing people based on who they vote for.
"I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for," the vice president said. "You heard my speech last night: I believe the work that I do is about representing all the people, whether they support me or not. I will be a President for all Americans."
In Pennsylvania on Wednesday, Harris also sought to depict her campaign as being about the “promise of America.”
“This is about our joy and our optimism about what has yet to be done that we can do together as one community of people who love their county,” Harris said, going on to note that she sees the promise of America in women who “refuse to accept a future without reproductive freedom,” “the men who support them” and Republicans who are putting the “Constitution of the United States before party.”
At one point in Harrisburg she was interrupted by demonstrators, including some protesting the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza to which she replied: “Everybody has a right to be heard, but right now I am speaking.”
The vice president on Wednesday also warned that Trump could end the Affordable Care Act and enact a national abortion ban – the latter of which the former president has said he would not do.
She told voters in both North Carolina and Pennsylvania that she needed them to get to the polls for her – reminding them of early voting deadlines in their respective states.