DETROIT—Sounding like a fiery prosecutor, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris went after her Republican foe this fall, Donald Trump, for repeated crimes, from molesting women to planning to terminate the Constitution.
Speaking to a boisterous and overflow crowd in a Detroit airport hangar on August 7, and 128,600 more tuned in on C-Span, the incumbent vice president lambasted the former president for a list of crimes while declaring she and her running mate, Tim Walz, “have a vision for the future” and Trump “has a vision of the past.”
And it is a bad past—and would be a bad future, she warned.
“We stand for a country of freedom, compassion, and hope, versus a country of chaos, fear, and hate.”
Harris’s Detroit speech was her second stop on a campaign tour of swing states. It began the day before in Philadelphia—where she introduced the trade unionist Minnesota Governor Walz as her VP pick—and continued on through Michigan to Wisconsin and beyond.
In Philadelphia, Harris said the two Democrats were “underdogs,” a line she dropped from her Detroit speech. Earlier in the day, a new round of polls showed Harris and Trump are tied nationwide, with Harris even a percentage point ahead of Trump in the popular vote. They’re also even or ahead in swing states.
When Harris’s boss, Joe Biden, dropped out of the presidential race ten days before and endorsed her, he trailed Trump and Democrats were dispirited about his chances of winning the White House again.
The huge Detroit crowd, including United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain and hundreds of his union’s members, was anything but dispirited, especially when Harris laced into Trump by name. That’s a contrast with Biden, who named Trump only when forced to do so.
“As California Attorney General, as a District Attorney, and as a prosecutor, in those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds,” Harris began her anti-Trump pitch. The crowds started to roar as soon as she said that.
“Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Scammers who broke the law for personal gain. So hear me, Detroit, when I say I know Donald Trump’s type. I’ve been dealing with them my whole career!
“As Attorney General, I took on one of the country’s for-profit colleges that scammed students. Well, Donald Trump ran a for-profit college,” Harris declared.
She didn’t mention that Trump University went broke, leaving students saddled with debt and Trump cursing the judge who handled the case—an Indianan native whose parents migrated from Mexico.
“As a prosecutor, I specialized in cases of sexual abuse. Well, Donald Trump was found liable for committing sexual abuse.” New York courts ordered Trump to pay at least $8.3 million to the woman writer he abused, E. Jean Carroll.
Held banks accountable
“As Attorney General, I held big Wall Street banks accountable for fraud. Well, Donald Trump was just found guilty of fraud—34 counts, to be exact!”
“Lock him up! Lock him up! Lock him up!” the excited crowd chanted over and over again.
“Hold on, hold on, hold on,” a smiling Harris replied. “The courts are going to handle that, but we’re gonna beat him in November. We’ll handle that.”
Whether the courts “will handle that” is up in the air. New York State Judge Juan Merchan, has set sentencing for Sept. 18 “if necessary,” on that conviction. The crimes involve campaign finance fraud and hush money to shut two women up about past affairs with Trump
Merchan is pondering whether the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling giving Trump virtually unlimited immunity from further federal criminal prosecution, strictly because Trump was president, means he might have to throw the case out.
Which prompted another part of Harris’s speech, about the Supreme Court, the Constitution, and Trump.
Harris reminded the crowd that Trump appointed the Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett, who provided the votes to eliminate the federal constitutional right to abortion, just as Trump had promised. When Congress sends her the law restoring that right, “I’ll sign it.”
But that wasn’t Trump’s only constitutional crime Harris condemned. Without going into details, she lit into him for promising “to be a dictator on Day One” and promising to drop “parts of the Constitution I don’t like.” She did not mention that Trump aided, abetted, and ordered the Trumpite insurrection, invasion, and coup d’etat attempt which ravaged the U.S. Capitol three and a half years ago.
“Think about what that means,” Harris urged the crowd. “He has openly said he would be a dictator on Day One. He has openly said he will terminate the Constitution of the United States. Someone who says he would terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again stand behind the seal of President of the United States.”
Harris spent much of her speech, as she did in Philadelphia, talking about future plans should voters send her and Walz to the White House. They include enacting child care subsidies, cutting grocery prices—she promised to go after “greedy corporations” that raise them—a crackdown on Big Pharma and its expensive prescription drugs, and preserving the Affordable Care Act.
Trump, she said, wants to eliminate the ACA, a longtime Republican goal, leaving consumers at the mercy of health insurers. He also wants to give such big tax cuts to corporations and millionaires that they would pay less than a middle-class family does.
Gesturing and animated, Harris declared, “In this campaign, I’ll proudly put my record against his any day of the week.”
Protesters about the Biden policy of arming Israel for its murderous war on Gaza interrupted Harris twice. The first time, she said they, like she, have the constitutional right to free speech. The second time, she responded, “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.” The crowd responded with a long cheer.
Harris’s entire speech, including Walz’s introduction and his own speech, is on C-SPAN.
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