Vice President Harris on Wednesday pleaded with Republicans to join her team, telling them at a rally in Pennsylvania that there’s a place for them in her quest to defeat GOP nominee and former President Trump.
“No matter your party, no matter who you voted for last time, there is a place for you in this campaign,” Harris said in Washington Crossing, Pa. “The coalition we have built has room for everyone who is ready to turn the page on the chaos and instability of Donald Trump, and I pledge to you to be a president for all Americans.”
The event was marked by Harris being joined by a contingent of former GOP lawmakers who have publicly backed her campaign.
Harris was joined on the stage by more than a dozen Republicans, including former Reps. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), Barbara Comstock (Va.) and Denver Riggleman (Va.); former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan; and Bill Kristol, former chief of staff to former Vice President Dan Quayle. More than 100 Republicans joined the event , according to the campaign.
“I thank you all for everything you are doing and the courage you are showing. This is an extraordinary climate right now and we all recognize the courage you are showing to speak out, so publicly,” Harris said to the group supporting her.
She offered a rebuke against Trump, saying he “is increasingly unstable and unhinged and he is seeking unchecked power.”
“Our campaign is not a fight against something, it is a fight for something. It is a fight for the fundamental principles upon which we were founded,” she said.
The campaign event took place in Bucks County, a swing county in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania that President Biden narrowly won by 17,000 votes in 2020.
Harris noted that the rally took place near where President George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night in 1776, during the Revolutionary War. She used the imagery to talk about the Constitution and argue that Trump doesn’t respect it.
“The founders often disagreed, often quite passionately, but in the end, the Constitution of the United States laid out the foundations of our democracy, including the rule of law, that there would be checks and balances, that we would have free and fair elections and a peaceful transfer of power,” she said.
“These … sustained because generations of Americans from all backgrounds, all beliefs, have cherished them, upheld them and defended them. And now, the baton is in our hands.”
“Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Yet he refuses to accept the will of the people and the results of a free and fair election,” she added, mentioning the “violent” mob on Jan. 6, 2021.
Kinzinger, who is a known Trump critic, spoke before Harris.
“We must put country first. We must put our country over our party, and like you, I’m putting my country first,” he said. “Democracy knows no party; Democracy is a living, breathing idea that defines us as a nation.”
He also called voting for Harris “the conservative choice” and urged other Republicans to vote for her.
Harris was introduced by Bob and Kristina Lange, farmers from Pennsylvania, who said they voted for Trump in the past but now argued that Trump doesn’t care about “our commonwealth and our Constitution.”
The Bucks County rally was the second of a series of “Country Over Party” events, following a rally in Ripon, Wis ., which is known as the home of the GOP, with former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
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