At Vice President Kamala Harris' rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Monday night, an unexpected guest star took center stage: former President Donald Trump.
Via video clips, at least.
In an effort to hammer the Republican nominee over his rhetoric and warn Americans what might happen should he return to power, Harris played clips of Trump calling his critics the "enemy from within" and suggesting they "should be put in jail."
“After all these years, we know who Donald Trump is,” Harris told the crowd. “He is someone who will stop at nothing to claim power for himself.”
The vice president painted the former president as "increasingly unstable and unhinged," charging that Trump is "out for unchecked power. That's what he's looking for."
"After all these years, we know who Donald Trump is: He is someone who will stop at nothing to claim power for himself," Harris said, before echoing comments from her "60 Minutes" interview and last month's presidential debate urging Americans to watch his campaign events. "And you don't have to take my word for it. I've said, for a while now, watch his rallies, listen to his words."
But this time around, instead of having her supporters seek out Trump's words, she brought the former president's rhetoric directly to them.
"He tells us who he is, and he tells us what he would do if he is elected president. So here tonight, I will show you one example of Donald Trump's worldview and intentions," she said. "Please roll the clip."
A large video monitor then played a clip of Trump saying, "The worst people are the enemies from within," from his rally in Coachella, California, over the weekend, before cutting to the former president saying at a Wisconsin rally earlier this month that "the enemy from within" is "more dangerous ... than Russia and China." She also played Trump saying last month that critics "should be put in jail" and his suggestion that "if you had one really violent day, one rough hour, and I mean real rough" would end property crime.
The clip ended with Trump's comments in an interview Sunday calling for the National Guard or U.S. military to be deployed on Election Day to handle “the enemy from within."
“We have some very bad people,” Trump told "Fox News Sunday," citing “radical left lunatics” and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who led Trump’s first impeachment trial, calling them worse than migrants who are “destroying our country” or foreign adversaries such as China and Russia.
“We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they're the big – and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military," the Republican nominee added.
"So, you heard his words," Harris said to a chorus of boos from the crowd. "You heard his words coming from him. He's talking about the enemy within Pennsylvania. He's talking about the enemy within our country, Pennsylvania. He considers anyone who doesn't support him or who will not bend to his will, an enemy of our country."
Harris' campaign on Monday ahead of the event launched a new campaign ad titled "Enemy Within," which juxtaposes his comments from recent rallies using such rhetoric with comments from former Trump administration aides Olivia Troye and Kevin Carroll expressing concern about the former president's return to the Oval Office.
"A second term would be worse," Carroll says in the ad. "There will be no one to stop his worst instincts. Unchecked power, no guardrails. If we elect Trump again, we're in terrible danger."
Harris' campaign previously said the former president’s comments are the latest in a trend that suggests he’ll seek to wield unprecedented power if elected.
“Donald Trump is suggesting that his fellow Americans are worse ‘enemies’ than foreign adversaries, and he is saying he would use the military against them,” Ian Sams, a senior campaign adviser, said in a statement. “Taken with his vow to be a dictator on ‘day one,’ calls for the ‘termination’ of the Constitution, and plans to surround himself with sycophants who will give him unchecked, unprecedented power if he returns to office, this should alarm every American who cares about their freedom and security. What Donald Trump is promising is dangerous, and returning him to office is simply a risk Americans cannot afford.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris' running mate, also took aim at Trump's comments at an event in Wisconsin on Monday.
“Donald Trump over the weekend was talking about using the U.S. Army against people who disagree with him,” Walz told students. “Just so you’re clear about that, that’s you, that’s what he’s talking about. This is not some mythical thing out there.”
“I tell you that because we need to whip his butt and put this guy behind us,” he said.
Harris on Monday night also talked about her economic proposals while calling Erie a "pivot county."
Erie, located in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania, is a key city in a bellwether county. Erie County is one of two that voted for Barack Obama twice, then Donald Trump, and then Joe Biden, and has picked the winner in nearly every statewide election for almost two decades.
Both candidates campaigned in Pennsylvania on Monday, highlighting the importance of the Keystone State and its 19 electoral votes to both campaigns. Trump held a town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, less than 20 miles north of Philadelphia.
Spectrum News' Maddie Gannon, Taylor Popielarz and Ryan Chatelain contributed to this report.