Harris trolls Trump at Vegas rally and LA fundraiser, says her crowds are 'pretty big'

[September 30, 2024]  By WILL WEISSERT and COLLEEN LONG

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris poked at Donald Trump over crowd sizes, his refusal to debate again and his privileged background on Sunday as she hauled in campaign cash in California and held a raucous rally at the same Nevada venue where the Republican nominee had appeared just two weeks ago.

During the presidential debate, Harris appeared to get under the former president's skin when she said people were leaving his rallies early because of his rambling speeches. And she's kept it up on the campaign trail.

The vice president told donors at a tony Los Angeles fundraiser that, as she campaigns around the country, her “crowds are pretty big.” And then before a roaring Las Vegas crowd estimated at 7,500, she renewed her jabs at Trump over being reluctant to debate again, saying, “The American people have a right to hear us discuss the issues. And as you say here in Las Vegas, I’m all in. I’m all in.”

Harris’ four-day West Coast trip had dual purposes: She opened and closed it with stops in Sun Belt battlegrounds — Arizona and Nevada — where the vice president is trying to shore up support as Trump pounds her relentlessly over illegal migration. And her mid-stay in California was devoted to hauling in campaign contributions from donors in her blue home state.

Harris also moved into what Trump considers his terrain — immigration — with a Friday visit to the border town of Douglas, Arizona. It was her first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border since taking over for President Joe Biden atop the Democratic presidential ticket.

Harris’ border visit in Arizona seemed to irk Trump. The GOP leader has spent two days railing about the vice president during his rallies, upping his personal attacks against her, claiming she was responsible for a border “invasion,” and stirring up unfounded fears that she’d usher in lawlessness if elected.

Harris gave the same response she usually does to his insults, even despite Trump calling her “mentally impaired.”

“We just see the same old tired show from the same old tired playbook,” she told a Los Angeles crowd of donors on Sunday, some who shouted “boring!” in response.

Hours later in Las Vegas, she also revived her jabs at Trump for his “silver platter” background that nonetheless produced six bankruptcies, saying, "I come from the middle class, and I will never forget where I come from.”

Harris has warned the race is as close as it could possibly be, a “margin-of-error” race. But at the Los Angeles fundraiser, she added: “The election is here and let me be clear. We are going to win.”

That event was full of celebrities: Stevie Wonder, Keegan Michael-Key, Sterling K. Brown, Demi Lovato, Jessica Alba and Lily Tomlin attended and Halle Bailey and Alanis Morissette took the stage. It, and a fundraiser a day earlier in San Francisco, raised a combined $55 million for Harris' campaign.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a rally on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Harris was spending Sunday night in Las Vegas and had planned campaign stops in the city on Monday. But her office announced that she'd instead head back to Washington earlier than expected and will attend a briefing on the damage caused by Hurricane Helene at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Meanwhile, the vice president is continuing to notch Republican support. Former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake became the latest to endorse her. He credited Harris with a “fine character and love of country” and said he wants a president who does not treat political adversaries as enemies or try to subvert the will of voters.

Flake, a longtime critic of the former president, joins a list of anti-Trump Republicans who have said they will vote for the Democratic ticket, including Dick Cheney, the deeply conservative former vice president, and his daughter, Liz.

But Maryland Senate candidate Larry Hogan, a former Republican governor and a sharp critic of Trump, said Harris has yet to earn his vote, though Trump won't get it.

In Nevada, where Harris held her latest rally, all voters automatically receive ballots by mail unless they opt out — a pandemic-era change that was set in state law. That means most ballots could start going out in a matter of weeks.

Harris will be back in Las Vegas on Oct. 10 for a town hall with Hispanic voters. Both she and Trump have campaigned frequently in the city, highlighting the critical role that Nevada's six electoral votes could play in deciding an election expected to be exceedingly close.

Trump held his own Las Vegas rally on Sept. 13 at the Expo World Market Center, where Harris spoke Sunday. She's also held events at the same venues that Trump used in Milwaukee, Atlanta and suburban Phoenix.

During a campaign stop in Las Vegas in June, Trump promised to eliminate taxes on tips received by waiters, hotel workers and thousands of other service industry employees. Harris used her own Las Vegas rally in August to make the same promise.

Fully doing away with federal taxes on tips would probably require an act of Congress. Still, Nevada's Culinary Union, which represents 60,000 hospitality workers in Las Vegas and Reno, has endorsed Harris.
___

Long reported from Washington.

All contents © copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved