Kamala Harris calls the Democrats together, pumps up Biden and warns about Trump
On the final day before the South Carolina primary officially kicks off the election of Democratic presidential candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris urged supporters not to ignore a contest that is widely expected to be uncompetitive, but in which she and President Biden hope for a morale-boosting defeat. .
“South Carolina, you are the nation's first primary, and President Biden and I are counting on you,” Ms. Harris told a crowd at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg on Friday. “Are you ready to make your voice heard? Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in democracy? Do we believe in opportunities for everyone, and are we willing to fight for them?”
The meeting was Ms. Harris' ninth trip to South Carolina as vice president and her third of the year, an indication of the importance she and Mr. Biden's campaign have placed on a dominant performance to end the presidential nomination season. to start their match.
Standing in front of two banners with the slogan “First in the Nation” — with the word “First” underlined — Ms. Harris highlighted the Biden administration's achievements, including expanding high-speed internet access, increasing federal funding for historically black colleges and universities, and reducing the cost of prescription drugs.
She also warned supporters about what former President Donald J. Trump could do with another term in the White House.
“For years, the former president fanned the flames of hatred, bigotry, racism and xenophobia for his own power and political gain,” she said. “The former president told us who he is, and so it is up to us to recognize the profound threat he poses to our democracy and our freedoms.”
The Biden campaign has waged an intensive campaign in recent weeks to generate support in the Democratic primaries in South Carolina. The campaign's surrogates have been hitting the state's rural counties, an effort that campaign officials and local allies hope will result in strong turnout Saturday, which they can use as an argument that Mr. Biden remains popular with the party's base .
“For far too long we have been relegated to the back of the bus,” Jaime Harrison, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee and himself a South Carolinian, told the crowd at Ms. Harris’ event. “Now we drive the damn bus. I want you to understand what your power is.”
The Biden campaign has hired a group of senior advisers in the state — which is reliably Republican and not expected to be a general election battleground — before doing so in Arizona and Pennsylvania, which are sure to be hotly contested in the fall.
Mr. Biden's campaign has spent more than $172,000 on television advertising in South Carolina, according to AdImpact, a media tracking company. A supporting super PAC, Unite the Country, invested another $63,000.
Before the meeting, Ms. Harris met with a group of local faith leaders at a meeting closed to the news media. The Rev. Nelson B. Rivers III, a pastor from North Charleston, S.C., who moderated the session, said Ms. Harris faced questions about health care, student debt and gun violence.
“A lot of the questions were about the environment in contemporary America, the social environment,” Mr. Rivers said. 'She didn't dodge any questions. She answered them all honestly.”