As Trump unloads on Harris, even his supporters see her gaining ground

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Even Donald Trump's supporters sense he suddenly has a tougher race on his hands.

As the former president unloaded on Kamala Harris in the swing state of North Carolina on Wednesday — calling her a “radical, left lunatic” at one point — faithful fans conceded that what had been a sleepy contest had abruptly become something quite different.

To some, it seemed like the vice president had momentum.

“Policy aside and everything, she definitely has the energy,” said Jessica Castillo, a self-described centrist from Charlotte who voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020 and was at the Charlotte event. “She is going to be a contender for Trump. Honestly, I think she’ll be more of a challenge.”

Taking the stage at the Bojangles Coliseum, his first rally since President Joe Biden dropped out of the campaign, Trump ripped into the vice president, casting her as “Lying Kamala Harris,” mispronouncing her name as he dubbed her “the most incompetent and far-left vice president in American history,” and repeatedly declaring that she would “destroy” the United States, if elected.

Trump has some reason for concern. Harris, after being endorsed by Biden to run at the top of the Democratic ticket, in recent days has seen a bump in polling compared to Biden’s lagging performance , including among independents, people of color and women, among other critical voting blocs.

“Now,” said Bryson Davis, an 18-year-old from Statesville, “he’s running against somebody that’s competent. “Kamala is probably going to come off a little more fiery than Joe would.”

Or as Castillo put it, “The fact she isn’t suffering from old age … it’s definitely going to give her a huge bump right away. She can talk. She can laugh, obviously.”

For the former president, Harris’ ascension was but a new invitation to fight — and the crowd ate it up. They cheered when he conceded he was “not going to be nice” about Harris, despite saying he “became nice” after the attempted assassination on July 13.

Trump on Wednesday fumed over the news coverage Harris has received as Democrats have coalesced around her since Sunday, insisting that his crowd sizes were still larger.

“Three weeks, four weeks ago, she was the worst politician in America,” Trump said. “Now they say, ‘Isn’t it amazing? Look at her. She’s beautiful. She’s so magnificent.’”

Trump this week agreed to debate Harris , and said he would be “willing to do more than one debate” against her. It’s a forum his supporters appeared eager for.

While predicting an eventual Trump-Harris debate would sway voters toward Trump, Jo Wally of Mooresville acknowledged the race seems closer now, “because she’s got the momentum.”

Sitting next to her, Kelly Henderson said she feared some women who are soft Trump backers will shift away from him.

Trump focused his attacks at the rally against Harris on her history as a prosecutor and senator, describing her as “more liberal than Bernie Sanders,” who “destroyed San Francisco with her policies” and will “destroy our country if she’s elected.” His new Harris talking points were apparently distributed to speakers who took the stage before him, with Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, offering nearly identical criticism.

What kind of attacks Republicans will consider in bounds is still a matter of uncertainty. After Speaker Mike Johnson this week chided GOP members about attacking Harris based on her race or gender — a warning that came as at least one Republican congressman called her “a DEI vice president” — Trump supporters at the rally Wednesday largely shrugged off concerns about whether her status as a woman of color would be used against her by Trump or Republican operatives.

Before the rally Wednesday, Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump, said the campaign hasn’t gone after Harris’ race or gender, and so they didn’t take issue with Johnson’s guidance. But asked if taking that approach was off limits for Trump, Cheung said that it wasn’t necessarily.

“I don’t know it’s off limits,” he said. “But it’s not something that we’ve done. So it’s not even on our radar.”

Similarly , Michael Whatley, the chair of the Republican National Committee and former chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, in an interview declined to say whether he agreed with Johnson’s remarks about staying away from Harris’ race or gender — instead, he said what he thought the party should focus on.

“Look, I think we need to talk about her being an extreme California liberal,” Whatley said, criticizing policies she supported in her home state, in the Senate and as Biden’s vice president.

Pressed again, Whatley said the Republican Party is “going to focus all day, every day on the American voters,” and telling them about Trump’s policies.

Even before Trump took the stage, the GOP’s focus — evident in speakers’ remarks before him — had dramatically moved away from Biden and onto Harris. While the vice president came up at times throughout Trump’s Saturday night rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, now all but certain to become the nominee, she was the center of attack Wednesday.

Twice in his on-stage remarks, Whatley referred to her as “Border Czar Kamala Harris,” and slammed her record in the Senate. Hudson one-upped Trump on describing Harris as a progressive senator, not only saying that she was “more liberal” than Sanders, but also Sen. Elizabeth Warren .

Criticizing Harris for failing to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s joint address to Congress earlier Wednesday, Trump falsely claimed that Harris, whose husband is Jewish, is “totally against the Jewish people.”

“It amazes me how Jewish people will vote for the Democrats when they’re being treated so disrespectfully,” Trump said.

Throughout the rest of his speech, Trump railed against transgender athletes, briefly discussed his attempted assassination, reiterated his position in favor of exceptions for abortion restrictions, bashed Democrats’ southern border policies, falsely claimed Harris wants to “outlaw red meat” and gave what has now become his standard shoutout to Hannibal Lecter, a fictional character from the movie “Silence of the Lambs.”

Asked whether Republicans would need to reevaluate their plans to spend time and money flipping blue states like Minnesota, where Trump is scheduled to hold a rally Saturday, Whatley said they were still focused on their 10-battleground state plan.

“Right now, we’re playing offense,” Whatley said. “Right now, the Democrats aren’t even playing defense yet. They’re circling the wagons and trying to figure out how they can put a new candidate who’s never won a single primary state in as their nominee, and how they can pick somebody to be the vice presidential nominee.

“It’s important to note they not only had a bad messenger, but they had a bad message.”

Kierra Frazier contributed to this report.