Kamala Harris called Wednesday for Americans to βstop pointing fingers at each otherβ as she tried to push past comments made by President Joe Biden about Donald Trump's supporters and βgarbage."
βWe know we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who has been trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other," the Democratic nominee said about her Republican opponent.
Harris made her pitch in Raleigh, North Carolina, at the first of three rallies she was scheduled to attend Wednesday. She's also heading to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Madison, Wisconsin, as part of a blitz of battleground states in the final week before Election Day.
She stressed unity and common ground, expanding on her capstone speech Tuesday in Washington, where she laid out what her team called the βclosing argumentβ of her campaign.
βI am not looking to score political points,β the vice president said. βI am looking to make progress.β
Liz Kazal, 35, said she was βcautiously optimisticβ about the election as she waited for Harris to take the stage. Sheβs tried to volunteer for the campaign every week, including making phone calls, knocking on doors with her toddler daughter and raising money for Harrisβ candidacy.
βYou hope for the best and plan for the worst,β Kazal said.
Harris was introduced at the rally by a former Republican voter who previously supported Trump, another example of her campaign's effort to welcome disaffected conservatives who are uneasy about reelecting the former president.
It was a message that Biden threatened to undermine on Tuesday β at the same time Harris was speaking near the White House β when he participated in a campaign call organized by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino.
Biden used the opportunity to criticize Trumpβs recent Madison Square Garden rally, where a comedian described Puerto Rico as a βfloating island of garbage.β
βThe only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and itβs un-American,β Biden said. βItβs totally contrary to everything weβve done, everything weβve been.β
Biden and the White House rushed to explain that the president was talking about the rhetoric on stage, not Trumpβs supporters themselves. He did not answer questions about his comments Wednesday during an Oval Office meeting with the president of Cyprus.
Harris told reporters before boarding Air Force Two for her flight to Raleigh that she disagrees "with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.β
βI will represent all Americans, including those who donβt vote for me,β she said.
Her words were an attempt to blunt the controversy over Biden's rhetoric and put some distance between herself and the president, something she has struggled with in the past.
Republicans have seized on Bidenβs comments, claiming they were an echo of the time when Hillary Clinton, as the Democratic nominee in 2016, said half of Trumpβs supporters belonged to a βbasket of deplorables.β
βWe know what they believe. Because look how theyβve treated you,β Trump said at his rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. βTheyβve treated you like garbage. The truth is, theyβve treated our whole country like garbage.β
He also said βwithout question, my supporters are far higher-quality than Crooked Joeβs," using his nickname for the president.
In attacking Biden, and by extension, Harris, Republicans have glossed over Trumpβs own history of insulting and demonizing rhetoric, such as calling the United States a βgarbage can for the worldβ or describing political opponents as βthe enemy within.β Trump has also described Harris as a βstupid personβ and βlazy as hell,β and heβs questioned whether she was on drugs.
Trump has also refused demands to apologize for the comment about Puerto Rico at his rally, acknowledging that βsomebody said some bad thingsβ but adding that he βcanβt imagine itβs a big deal.β
Political attack lines have a history of occasionally boomeranging back on people who use them. For example, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, now Trump's running mate, once described Democrats as beholden to βa bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that theyβve made.β
Vance's 3-year-old comments resurfaced once he became the vice presidential nominee, energizing Harris supporters who repurposed the label as a point of pride on shirts and bumper stickers β much like Trumpβs supporters once cheerfully branded themselves as βdeplorables.β
On Wednesday morning, Harrisβ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, downplayed Bidenβs comments in television interviews.
βLetβs be very clear, the vice president and I have made it absolutely clear that we want everyone as a part of this,β he told ABCβs βGood Morning America." βDonald Trumpβs divisive rhetoric is what needs to end.β
Megerian reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, Adriana Gomez Licon in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and Tom Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
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