Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday that America is confronting its most “existential” and “consequential” election in November, delivering a forceful condemnation of former President Donald Trump as she auditions — even if reluctantly — for the top slot on the Democratic ticket.
President Biden’s disastrous debate performance has sparked a near-mutiny from Democrats and widespread questions about his viability, making Ms. Harris a nominee-in-waiting even as she vehemently supports her boss.
Ms. Harris ducked the debate around Mr. Biden’s fitness in a speech to a friendly crowd at the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority’s Boulé in Dallas, Texas, training her sights instead on Mr. Trump.
“This is the most existential, consequential and important election of our lifetimes,” Ms. Harris said “This is a serious matter.”
The vice president painted Mr. Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee who leads in most polls, as a threat to the rule of law.
“The Supreme Court basically told this individual, who has been convicted of fraud, that going forward he will be immune from activity we know he is prepared to engage in if he gets back into the White House,” Ms. Harris said, referring to Mr. Trump’s remark in December that he would not be a dictator — “except for day one.”
Ms. Harris said abortion access would be under threat, and that Mr. Trump would be willing to sign a national abortion ban despite saying he thinks it’s a matter for the states.
“We will not let him. We will not let that happen,” she said after highlighting the three Supreme Court justices who were appointed by Mr. Trump and voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, opening the door to state-based limits on abortion.
Ms. Harris, 59, is under an intense spotlight as Democrats either call for Mr. Biden, 81, to remove himself from the ticket or prove he is up for another four years on the job, given his track record of verbal stumbles and cognitive flubs.
Mr. Trump thinks Mr. Biden will stay in the race but says Ms. Harris is the most likely replacement if he bows out. He criticized Ms. Harris at a Florida rally late Tuesday, dubbing her “Laffin’ Kamala” and recounting her inability to tackle a lengthy to-do list from Mr. Biden.
“She was put in charge of the U.S. border security, and the border, and she never showed up,” Mr. Trump said at his resort near Miami.
“If Joe had picked someone even halfway competent, they would have bounced him from office years ago,” he said. “But they can’t because she’s got to be their second choice.”
While Mr. Biden met with NATO leaders in Washington, Ms. Harris received a raucous welcome from sorority members dressed in hues of pink and green.
There are signs that Black support for the Biden-Harris ticket is softening.
Three-quarters of Black voters in Pennsylvania and Michigan backed the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020.
Yet support for Mr. Biden sat around 54%-56% in those states in late June, as would-be supporters drifted toward third-party candidates or expressed doubts about Mr. Biden’s performance and fitness for office, according to a Suffolk University/USA Today Network Poll.
Alpha Kappa Alpha is a historically Black sorority that boasts hundreds of thousands of members. Ms. Harris is a member and said her aunt was initiated as a member in 1950 at Howard University.
Ms. Harris was born to an Indian mother and a Black father. She made history as the first woman, first Black American and the first South Asian-American to be elected vice president.
Democrats have long described Black women as the backbone of the party.
“You helped elect Joe Biden president of the United States and me as the first woman elected vice president of the United States,” Ms. Harris told the sorority.
Nine in 10 Black women supported Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris in the 2020 election, according to Higher Heights for America, a political action committee dedicated to electing progressive Black women.
The PAC said roughly 16 million Black women are eligible to vote and that two-thirds are registered.
National polls show Mr. Trump with a slight lead over Mr. Biden, so the campaigns will be battling over every vote in swing states.
Ms. Harris will be a critical voice in retaining minority support as she campaigns alongside Mr. Biden.
This weekend, she will try to lock down support from Asian Americans with a keynote speech in Philadelphia, a critical Democratic stronghold in swing-state Pennsylvania. She is scheduled to speak at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) Presidential Town Hall.
“Asian Americans have been a rapidly growing group of eligible voters in the U.S. over the past two decades, growing by 15% in the last four years alone and turning out in record numbers in every federal election since 2016,” APIAVote said Wednesday. “In 2020, a surge in Asian American voters — especially those voting for the very first time — in battleground states was crucial to President Biden’s victory.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.