Your support helps us to tell the story
Vice President Kamala Harris warned voters in a key Pennsylvania town that Donald Trump intends to take revenge on Americans who fail to support him if he succeeds in his push to win a second term in the White House, calling the former president “increasingly unstable and unhinged.”
Speaking to a crowd of supporters at an Erie, Pennsylvania, on Monday, Harris called the twice-impeached, felonious former president “someone who will stop at nothing to claim power for himself,” citing his long history of comments that express contempt for the Constitution and the recent Supreme Court decision giving presidents sweeping immunity from prosecution for any crimes committed while carrying out their official duties.
But Harris told the crowd, which a campaign official estimated at roughly 6,000, that they don’t have to take her word for it when it comes to Trump’s malign intent.
She asked staff to “roll the clip” on what she said was an example of Trump’s “worldview and intentions” — a segment from an interview he sat for with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo.
In it, Trump tells the financial correspondent — a strong and vocal supporter of his who repeatedly broadcast lies about the conduct of the 2020 election — that “the enemy from within,” his term for Americans who do not support him or vote for Republicans, are “more dangerous” than foreign adversaries such as Russia or China.
“We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they're the and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary by the military,” he said, facing no pushback from the Fox personality.
Harris told the crowd: “He's talking about the enemy within our country. Pennsylvania, he's talking about that he considers anyone who doesn't support him or who will not bend to his will, enemy of our country. It's saying that he would use the military to go after them.”
“Think about this ... we know who he would target because he has attacked them before,” she said, listing journalists whose stories displease him and election officials “who refuse to cheat” for him among Trump’s potential targets if handed power once more.
A second Trump term, Harris added, “would be a huge risk for America” because Trump “is increasingly unstable and unhinged, and he is for unchecked power.”
“He wants to send the military after American citizens. He He has worked to prevent women from making their own health care decisions and threaten your fundamental freedoms and rights, like the freedom to vote, the freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water, the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride,” she said.
The vice president called on supporters to “answer the call” by voting for her in November, closing her remarks by telling supporters that they “know what is at stake.”
Citing Erie County’s longtime bellwether status, she said “now is the time” for residents to “make your plan to vote.”
“The election is here, and we need to organize, we need to mobilize, we need to energize folks, and we need to remind everybody that their vote is their voice, and your voice is your power,” she said.
