Donald Trump, campaigning in North Carolina, turns his attacks toward Kamala Harris

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte on July 24, 2024. (Photo by Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)

CHARLOTTE — Former President Donald Trump launched a volley of attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris in a speech on Wednesday, calling her “stupid,” a “lunatic” and “ultra-liberal” in his first campaign rally since her ascension as the all but certain Democratic nominee.

Addressing several thousand supporters at a packed Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, Trump painted Harris as “incompetent” and “radical,” ticking through her voting record as a senator and declaring her the “driving force” of the Biden White House.

“For three and a half years, lyin’ Kamala Harris has been the ultra-liberal driving force behind every single Biden catastrophe,” Trump said.

Throughout he and other speakers’ remarks, almost every mention of the vice president prompted loud boos. And throughout his hour-plus speech, Trump repeatedly returned to her role in immigration policy — at one point referring to a “Kamala Harris border invasion.”

He took aim at her background as a prosecutor and attorney general, declaring that she “ruined San Francisco.” And he scrutinized her policy stances on criminal justice and policing, while mocking contrasts her campaign has drawn between them.

“They get me to that position and then the campaign says ‘I’m a prosecutor,’ and I’m a convicted felon,” Trump said, referencing his conviction in a New York criminal trial. “I don’t think people are going to buy it.”

Echoing an ad released by his campaign earlier this week, Trump branded the vice president “the most liberal elected politician in American history,” and the “original Marxist.” Both of these claims are demonstrably false.

“She makes Bernie look like a moderate,” he said. “(U.S. Sen.) Bernie Sanders, he’s actually quite moderate by comparison.”

Prior to the Wednesday rally, Trump last visited North Carolina in late May. Harris, who swiftly coalesced support from Democrats in North Carolina and nationally in recent days after President Joe Biden announced his decision that he would not seek reelection, has visited twice in recent weeks with events in Greensboro and Fayetteville prior to becoming the all-but-certain nominee of her party.

Trump on Biden’s exit: ‘He quit’

The former president swiftly addressed Biden bowing out of the race, telling supporters that “he quit.”

“He was losing so badly in the polls and down by a lot, so he quit,” Trump said. “But really, what happened was the leaders of the Democrat Party did a very undemocratic move.”

And though Biden no longer tops the ticket for November, he was still the target of numerous criticisms from his 2020 opponent. Trump called him a “fake liberal” while contrasting him with Harris, and recalled a conversation in which Biden was called “cognitively a degenerate.”

“I wish him well, but I don’t like him,” Trump said. “He’s not a nice person. He’s trying to put me in jail, why would I like him?”

Trump rallygoer: Harris campaign is ‘New Coke’

Those who attended the rally and spoke to NC Newsline expressed confidence that Trump would emerge victorious in November, despite now facing a new opponent.

John Yopp, a law enforcement officer and former candidate for sheriff from Jacksonville, North Carolina, called Biden’s stepping aside for Harris “totally undemocratic.” And he equated the vice president’s candidacy to the infamous “New Coke” marketing campaign.

“It got a lot of people’s attention, but it was superficial, it disappeared quickly,” Yopp said. “That’s what’s going to happen here.”

Another said he didn’t believe Trump’s chances of victory had changed despite Harris now leading the Democratic ticket.

“At the end of the day, her policies are Biden’s policies,” said Doyle Ball, who traveled from Tennessee to attend the Wednesday rally.

Ahead of Trump’s remarks, a circuit of NC Republican candidates

An array of Republicans that will appear on the ballot below Trump threw their support behind the nominee ahead of his speech Wednesday.

Mark Harris, who is running for Congress in North Carolina’s 8th House District, led the coliseum in prayer. It was “an act of God” that prevented Trump from further injury during the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, he said.

“It is by your grace and by your mercy and your hand that was upon President Trump that caused him to turn his head,” Harris said.

Speaker of the House Tim Moore, also seeking a seat in Congress, touted the Republican-led legislature’s priorities in recent years. And U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, running for attorney general, sought to tie his Democratic opponent to Harris, calling them “radical.”

“The last thing North Carolina needs, and America needs, is more prosecutors like Jeff Jackson and Kamala Harris,” Bishop said.

Harris campaign blasts Trump on abortion, Project 2025

Harris’ campaign gathered local officials for a press conference ahead of the rally — continuing to home in on abortion rights and Project 2025 as top lines of attack against Trump.

The wide-ranging conservative policy agenda from the Heritage Foundation has increasingly come into focus from Democrats, who say it is effectively a blueprint for Trump’s second term in office. The former president has dismissed the plan and tried to distance himself from its authors and endorsers, a number of whom served in his administration.

“Donald Trump’s Project 2025 threatens to roll back the rights and freedoms of the American people and give the presidency more power and less accountability than ever before,” Mecklenburg County Commissioner Mark Jerrell said.

The campaign also featured Hadley Duvall, a sexual assault survivor and abortion rights advocate who featured in a prominent ad for Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s campaign.

“Donald Trump has come to North Carolina today to brag about how he overturned Roe v. Wade and ripped away reproductive freedom from women and girls across the country,” Duvall said. “He is proudly responsible for each and every one of the cruel abortion bans across the country, including the one in effect here in North Carolina.”

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