By Erica L. Green
Former President Donald Trump’s words thundered from screens at a packed campaign rally Monday night in Erie, Pennsylvania. But the event was for Vice President Kamala Harris, who was using Trump’s own words as her campaign amplified warnings of the dangers she says he poses should he win a second term in the White House.
Harris pulled few punches as she portrayed her Republican opponent as an authoritarian obsessed with his own power, pointing to Trump’s recent rallies and media appearances where he has asserted that his Democratic detractors were the “enemy from within,” more dangerous than foreign adversaries like Russia and China, and that they “should be put in jail.”
“After all these years, we know who Donald Trump is,” Harris said. “He is someone who will stop at nothing to claim power for himself.”
In a striking moment, Harris told the crowd of 6,000 that they didn’t have to take her word for it, that she had an example of his “worldview and intentions.”
“Please — roll the clip,” she said as the crowd groaned and gasped as Trump’s face flashed on screens.
“He’s talking about the enemy within our country, Pennsylvania,” Harris said to a jeering crowd. “He’s talking about that he considers anyone who doesn’t support him, or who will not bend to his will, an enemy of our country.”
Harris’ visit to Erie County, a bellwether county that is crucial to a statewide victory in a state that could be the 2024 tipping point, was her first as the Democrats’ presidential candidate since President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid and backed her. Trump won the county in 2016 but lost it narrowly to Biden in 2020.
Harris used the first half of her stump speech to lay out her policy proposals to build an “opportunity economy,” taking on price-gouging and expanding Medicare to cover home health care for the elderly and ill. She continued positioning herself as the underdog and argued that the stakes of this election were higher than in 2016 and 2020 because of a Supreme Court decision that vastly expanded presidential power.
She called Erie a “pivot county” and pleaded with those in the crowd to cast their ballots before November, as early voting has already begun in the state. “The election is here,” she said.
But it was the back half of her speech where Harris ramped up her attacks on Trump. She has increasingly engaged in the unusual campaign strategy of drawing attention to her opponent’s rallies. It was at their debate last month where she first encouraged people to watch his rallies as she called attention to violent rhetoric and erratic behavior. On Monday, she issued her most ominous warning yet, outlining how he has attacked officials who don’t find extra votes for him in an election, judges whose rulings he disagrees with and journalists whose coverage he doesn’t like.
“This is among the reasons I believe so strongly that a second Trump term would be a huge risk for America, and dangerous,” she added. “Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged.”
Harris’ campaign on Monday also released a new ad called “Enemy Within,” drawing on Trump’s recent comments, featuring two of his former national security aides, Olivia Troye and Kevin Carroll.
“I do remember the day that he suggested that we shoot people on the streets,” Troye recalls in the ad.
“A second term would be worse,” Carroll says.
The advertisement is similar to one the campaign began in battleground states this month, with top national security officials issuing dire warnings about Trump’s fitness for office.
The Democratic ticket’s attacks were twofold Monday night. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, struck perhaps his most fiery tone yet against Trump. Walz pointed to his own military service as he denounced Trump’s remarks, saying the notion of using the military against U.S. citizens made him “sick to his stomach.”
Walz urged the audience to realize Trump’s proposals were not normal.
“The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, said, ‘No one has ever been more dangerous to this country than Donald Trump, and he is a fascist to his core,’” Walz said, referring to statements from the former officials featured in the advertisement.
“Let that sink in, and don’t be a damn bit afraid of saying it, because that’s exactly who he is.”
Trump visited Erie County last month, where he railed against Harris, telling the crowd that she should be “impeached and prosecuted” for her handling of the southern border and suggested that “one really violent day” would quell crime in American cities.
As Election Day draws near, Harris has been goading Trump about his mental fitness, attacks that have intensified amid his rambling speeches at rallies.
Harris, who has insisted that Trump agree to a second debate, has maintained that he is hiding from engaging in normal campaign activity, like a “60 Minutes” interview. Over the weekend, she released her medical records, which found her in “excellent health,” and used another rally to question why Trump has not released his.
“It makes you wonder, why does his staff want him to hide away?” she said during a rally in North Carolina on Sunday. “One must question, are they afraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable to lead America? Is that what’s going on?”
But during the rally, Harris also drew one line when it came to her opponent. After quoting him as saying that he wanted to “terminate the Constitution,” the crowd began chanting, “Lock him up.”
“Here’s the thing: The courts will handle that,” she said. “Let’s handle November, shall we?”