ATLANTA – Former President Donald Trump attacked Vice President Kamala Harris, his presumptive Democratic opponent, at a weekend rally in Atlanta while criticizing Gov. Brian Kemp for refusing to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential results.
In a rousing 90-minute speech to cheering supporters, Trump assailed Harris as a “California socialist” who has failed to secure America’s borders in her role as the White House’s “border czar.”
“Ninety-four days from now, we’re going to win the great state of Georgia in an epic landslide,” Trump declared during Saturday’s rally at the Georgia State University Convocation Center, the same venue where Harris had led a rally four days earlier. “We’re going to evict this radical incompetent administration from the White House.”
Seizing upon the immigration issue, Trump pledged to make the nation’s borders secure again, as they were he was president.
“On Day One, we will seal the border, stop the invasion, and send the illegal aliens back home,” he said.
Trump also addressed violent crime in Georgia and America, a key theme of his campaign ads, and tied it to illegal immigration. Specifically, he cited the murder last February of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student who was killed while jogging on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. A 26-year-old Venezuelan man allegedly in the country illegally has been charged with the crime.
“Kamala Harris let in a savage monster who murdered Laken Riley,” Trump said. “Laken’s blood is on Kamala Harris’ hands.”
Trump also criticized fellow Republican Kemp for refusing to call a special session of the General Assembly to address allegations of election fraud after Democrat Joe Biden narrowly defeated Trump in Georgia four years ago. Dozens of court rulings in Georgia and other states found no widespread fraud.
On Saturday, Trump accused Kemp of being disloyal after then-President Trump endorsed Kemp in his first run for governor in 2018.
The former president also went after GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who refused to help Trump “find” 11,780 votes in an infamous phone call early in January, 2021.
“The two of them are doing everything possible to make 2024 difficult for Republicans to win,” Trump said.
Trump’s running mater, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, preceded Trump to the podium, echoing Republican campaign ads attacking Harris as too liberal to appeal to American voters.
“America is never going to elect a San Francisco liberal who is so far out of the mainstream,” Vance said.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) put out a press release in advance of the rally accusing the Trump-Vance ticket of pushing an “extreme agenda” that voters will see through.
“Vice President Kamala Harris is the only candidate in this race who is prioritizing Georgia’s working families and fighting to restore Georgians’ reproductive freedom in the wake of a draconian abortion ban only made possible by Trump,” DNC spokesperson Cameron Niven said.
It looks like voters will get a chance to compare the two candidates on the same stage. While final details have yet to be worked out, Trump said he is open to debating Harris.