Vice President Kamala Harris Tuesday taunted former President Donald Trump for failing to lock in a debate against her during a star-powered rally in Atlanta.
“The momentum in this race is shifting and there are signs that Donald Trump is feeling it,” Harris told the 10,000-person crowd crammed into Georgia State University’s Convocation Center. “You may have seen he pulled out of the debate in September he had previously agreed to.”
“He won’t debate, but he and his running mate sure seem to have a lot to say about me,” she said. “Well Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage because as the saying goes, if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.”
Harris also went on offense as Trump and Republicans politically attack her for being President Joe Biden‘s “border czar,” promising to sign the bipartisan border and national security bill that was negotiated by the Senate earlier this year. The White House and campaign remain adamant she is responsible for addressing the root causes of migration and is not Biden’s “border czar.”
“In this campaign, I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week — any day of the week, including, for example, on the issue of immigration,” Harris said.
“I was the attorney general of a border state,” she added. “Donald Trump, on the other hand, has been talking a big game about securing our border, but he does not walk the walk.”
Despite the bravado, Harris underscored former President Barack Obama‘s message in his endorsement of her last week, that she is an underdog before November’s election.
“Let’s level set,” she said. “We have a fight in front of us.”
Harris was introduced by Atlanta-born rapper and singer Quavo, with a special performance by fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion.
“I know my ladies in the crowd love their bodies,” Megan Thee Stallion said before she started performing her new song, “Body.” “If you want to keep loving your body, you know who to vote for.”
Although the vibe of Harris’s rally was in stark contrast to any of its Biden counterparts, her message was remarkably similar to that of the man she replaced on the 2024 Democratic ticket last week and is hoping to replace in the White House next year, including encouraging people to sit down before she started speaking.
“By many indicators our economy is the strongest in the world. But while inflation is down and wages are up, prices are still too high,” she said. “You know it and I know it … on day one I will take on price gouging and bring down costs.”
One difference included her discouraging people from chanting, “Lock him up,” something Biden did not do in Michigan earlier this month nor Harris in Wisconsin last week.
Earlier, Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock (D-GA), in addition to 2022 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams, helped to warm up the audience.
“Don’t know if you all heard about it, but apparently Donald Trump is too scared to debate Vice President Harris,” Ossoff said. “The candidate dodging debates is the candidate losing.”
It was Biden’s disastrous debate against Trump on June 27 that drew widespread concern about his mental acuity and kicked off the pressure campaign among Democrats that culminated with Biden bowing out of the race on July 21.
“Some days I feel sorry for Republicans because they’ve got to figure out how to run a criminal against a prosecutor,” Warnock added. “Kamala Harris is getting ready to prosecute the case. The American people are the jury and we’re going to get the verdict right.”
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Trump told Fox News Monday night he would “probably end up debating” and that the head-to-head should be held “before the votes start being cast.”
“So the answer is yes, but I can also make a case for not doing it,” he said.
