ATLANTA — Georgia voters who have supported and volunteered for Vice President Kamala Harris expressed deep concerns about the potential of a Donald Trump presidency, describing an America without freedom and dying in darkness under a Republican “dictator.”
Voters who attended an invite-only, get-out-the-vote event in midtown Atlanta Monday evening genuinely feared a doomsday if Trump is re-elected, a warning that has been driven by Harris in countless speeches since the summer.
The event was one of eight that the campaign hosted Monday evening in cities scattered across the battleground states to thank volunteers for their work and reiterate the importance of getting out and voting Tuesday. The Harris-Walz campaign intended to livestream the event by pulling clips from each party into a single stream, but largely kept it focused on Harris’s appearance at a Pennsylvania rally.
Harris gave a dark warning in her closing argument speech at the Ellipse in Washington Tuesday in which she labeled Trump as a “petty tyrant,” “unstable,” and “out for unchecked power.”
Tiffany Challis of Cobb County, northwest of Atlanta, said she feared for her transgender child’s freedoms, as well as women’s rights, but was most concerned that a second term for Trump would lead the United States into peril.
“Trump is going to turn this country into a dictatorship. I firmly believe that he is going to make sure that he appoints people that are only loyal to him,” said Challis. “He will suppress the press so there will be no press unless it is authorized by the government. I am worried about living in a North Korea environment where my protections are not valued.”
Glenn Zimmerman is a disabled veteran in his 60s who fought to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution. Trump, he said, would rip the document into shreds and rule on his own authority.
“I believe he will be a dictator and he will overthrow the Constitution,” said Zimmerman. “I fought to protect this country. I’m loyal to the Constitution and this country. I swore my alliance to this country.”
Reza Karim, an IT worker from DeKalb County, said the most important thing that Harris ought to do if elected is unite the country. That would not happen under Trump, said Karim.
“He’s going to be like the Hitler,” said Karim. “I don’t think he’s going to get there because we’re going to win so that’s why I’m not worried about that.”
Trump has warned that Harris is the one that poses a “threat to democracy.”
In an op-ed published in Forbes Monday, Mark Chenoweth, president of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, argued that the Biden-Harris administration had gone further than its predecessors in overstepping the authority of the executive branch.
“Harris poses the real threat to democracy in the presidential race,” Chenoweth wrote. “Her administration has turned loose the undemocratic Administrative State to wreak havoc on the American people in an unprecedented fashion.”
At the party, however, some said they viewed Trump as rotten to the core. Terri Latham retired last week from a career in medical supply chain and logistics. For Latham, Trump’s bid for president was his attempt to get revenge on the people who have prosecuted him since 2020 on various allegations, including paying porn star Stormy Daniels off in the 2016 election.
“Donald Trump is only trying to get elected to stay out of jail. I think he is trying to get elected so that he can go after what he considers his enemies, and his enemies are anybody that don’t agree with him,” said Latham, a Fulton County resident. “That’s a very dangerous situation to be in, to have the leader of the free world be out for revenge and not looking to solve problems.”
Jade Lene Schmidt, 27, said she opposed Trump as president because of his personal history.
“There’s court documents with him being accused of rape. There’s a million things,” said Schmidt, who lives in Clayton County. “Number two, he’s a liar. He uses religious propaganda and fear tactics against his own people. He calls Americans the enemy within and he also, he just instigates. And he’s a liar. He’s a terrible person.”
Zimmerman and Wes Cardwell of Fulton County said the Supreme Court was in danger if Trump won another term, given that the conservative-majority court had rendered decisions on major issues, including allowing each state to decide abortion rights, not the federal government.
“I’m worried about a couple of the older justices retiring and having some new, more, even more conservative justices being on the bench for life,” said Cardwell. “I do consider Trump to be a threat to democracy, and considering all of the things that he said, just kind of not knowing what the future holds under a Trump presidency when it turns to preserving our democracies.”
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Zimmerman said Harris ought to expand the nine-judge court to 13 members.
“We’ve got 13 circuits. We should have 13 justices,” said Zimmerman. “That will undo the imbalance that Trump did when he forced through three judges.”
