Kamala Harris attacks Donald Trump at first campaign rally as poll putting her ahead ignites White House race
Kamala Harris launched her campaign for president on Tuesday, framing the race with Republican nominee Donald Trump as “a choice between freedom and chaos.”
The Democrat went on the attack against Trump in her first campaign rally speech since entering the presidential race - as a new poll showed her leading the former president in the race for the White House.
The Vice President took to the stage in the battleground state of Wisconsin on Tuesday to Beyonce’s Freedom, telling the cheering crowd: “We will win this election, yes we will”.She said in her former roles as a US senator, attorney-general and courtroom prosecutor, she took on “perpetrators of all kinds”.
She told the crowd: “Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”
In the November election, she said, "it's a choice between freedom and chaos."
"In this campaign, I promise you, I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week," Harris said. "We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead."
She spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of supporters at a hall in suburban Milwaukee as her march towards the Democrat nomination continued following Joe Biden stepping down in the race and endorsing her on Sunday.
The Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and his counterpart in the House, minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, were among key Democratic figures who officially endorsed Harris earlier on Tuesday as her campaign continued to gain momentum.
She is said to have locked up enough support from Democratic delegates to earn the party’s nomination at the party convention next month.It came as a new Reuters/Ipsos poll showed she had opened up a marginal two-percentage-point lead over Trump after President Biden ended his re-election campaign and passed the torch to her.
The poll, conducted on Monday and Tuesday, followed both the Republican National Convention where Trump on Thursday formally accepted his party’s nomination and the Biden announcement on Sunday he was leaving the race and endorsing Harris.
Harris, whose campaign says she has secured the Democratic nomination, led Trump 44% to 42% in the national poll, a difference within the 3-percentage-point margin of error.
Harris and Trump were tied at 44% in a July 15-16 poll, and Trump led by one percentage point in a July 1-2 poll, both within the same margin of error.
A pollster with Trump's campaign played down any polling showing an increase in Harris' support, arguing that she was likely to see a temporary rise in popularity because of widespread media coverage of her new candidacy.
But Ms Harris appeared to have momentum and to have ignited the Democrat campaign as told the crowd of more than 3,000 - the largest event the Democratic Party campaign has held this year, on Tuesday: "This campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump. This is about who we fight for."
"We believe in the sacred freedom to vote," she said. "We believe that every person in our nation should have the freedom to live safe from the terror of gun violence. And we trust women to make decisions about their own bodies."
Mr Trump, by contrast, she painted as someone who conjures "chaos, fear and hate".
"Do we believe in the promise of America? And are we ready to fight for it?" she asked.
Trump said on Tuesday he would be willing to debate Harris.
"I would be willing to do more than one debate, absolutely," he said.
He later added: "I haven't agreed to anything. I agreed to debate with Joe Biden.
"But I want to debate her and she'll be no different because they have the same policies."