Former President Trump returned Wednesday to Pennsylvania for the first time since he was shot at a rally outside of Pittsburgh earlier in the month, where he sought to characterize Vice President Harris as a “phony” and welcomed a challenge to compare their records.
Trump repeatedly attacked Harris, who is the likely Democratic nominee after President Biden ended his candidacy, tying her to past positions she took during her own 2020 presidential bid but has since disavowed.
“Kamala is now being given a personality makeover,” Trump told a crowd in Harrisburg. “All of a sudden she’s the new Margaret Thatcher. The great Margaret Thatcher. No, I don’t think so. But you’re going to learn.”
Harris in her own campaign rallies over the past week has said she would “gladly” put her record up against Trump’s. The former president on Wednesday responded directly to those remarks, saying, “Well, Kamala, let’s go. Challenge accepted. Let’s compare our records, point by point.”
Trump highlighted Harris’ past support for a ban on fracking, for a gun buy-back program, for reforming spending on police and for a single-payer healthcare system. He also attacked her over the surge in immigration at the southern border, something the Trump campaign has particularly focused on in recent days.
“No matter how much Kamala Harris tries to change her image, she cannot change this fact: She is the most extreme liberal candidate in the history of our country by far,” Trump said, calling Harris a “radical left puppet candidate who is fake, fake, fake.”
In the roughly one week since Harris became the likely Democratic nominee, her campaign has moved to distance her from a series of positions she took when she was a candidate in the 2020 presidential primary.
She no longer supports a ban on fracking, a campaign official said, nor does she support expanding the Supreme Court. She no longer backs a single-payer healthcare system after previously endorsing a Medicare for All proposal, the campaign official confirmed, or a government-run gun buyback program.
Harris also supports additional border funding put forward by the Biden administration, a break from her 2020 primary stance that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should minimally be reformed. And the campaign touted her record as a prosecutor and the Biden White House’s support for additional funding for law enforcement in response to questions about her previous comments on the “defund the police” movement.
Earlier in the day, Trump drew backlash when he claimed Harris “became a Black person,” questioning her biracial heritage during a gathering for the National Association of Black Journalists.
Wednesday was Trump’s first rally in Pennsylvania since an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler. Trump’s ear was hit by a bullet, and one rally attendee was killed in the shooting.
The former president opened his remarks in Harrisburg by acknowledging the shooting and holding a moment of silence for Corey Comperatore, who died at the rally.
“In the wake of this heinous attack, we gather tonight more determined than ever. Our resolve is unbroken and our will is undeterred,” Trump said. “Nothing will stop us on our mission to make America great again.”
