For Democrats still reeling from Donald Trump’s comeback, Kamala Harris’ return to Atlanta on Wednesday was less about reflection than redemption.
The former vice president didn’t dwell much on her defeat during her sold-out appearance at the Tabernacle. Instead, she transformed the stop on her book tour into a defiant critique of the Republican’s second term in the White House.
The 90-minute conversation on her memoir “107 Days” toggled between a joyous reunion with supporters and campaign-style broadsides against Trump. Harris set the tone the moment she took the stage: “He does not have a mandate.”
That was just the start. Harris, more pointed than at earlier stops in her tour, said Trump had already pulled off much of what she warned about in less than a year.
“We are witnessing a high-velocity event,” she said to a crowd that interrupted early and often with ovations. “It feels like chaos, but what it in fact, is, is a swift implementation of a plan that has been decades in the making.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
And she argued that Trump’s supporters had been duped.
“I do believe that there are a significant number of people that voted for Donald Trump because they believed him when he said he was going to bring down prices,” she said. “And he lied. Today, the cost of groceries is higher, unemployment is higher, inflation is higher. He made them a promise he has not kept.”
Though little of Trump’s agenda so far has surprised her, Harris said there was one exception.
“I still always believed, perhaps naively, that if push came to shove at some point, the titans of industry would in some way be a backstop to this kind of destruction,” she said. “And instead, what we have seen is some of the most powerful people in the world bend the knee to a tyrant in the most feckless way.”
Her memoir, which quickly climbed bestseller lists, argues that her compressed 2024 campaign never had enough time or party unity to defeat Trump, who had been running for much of the last decade. It doesn’t shy away from the internal tensions that defined it.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
In the book, Harris calls President Joe Biden’s decision to seek another term “recklessness,” writing that he resisted her help until after his disastrous debate in Atlanta. She also describes the delicate balance of showing loyalty to Biden while mounting a campaign of her own.
For many Democrats, it’s an uncomfortable rehash of an election that still stings, reopening old wounds in a party split over who’s to blame for Trump’s comeback. Harris lost all seven swing states to Trump, including Georgia, where she held rallies in the campaign’s final days, hoping to build on Biden’s win in 2020.
But back in Atlanta Wednesday night, Harris largely avoided relitigating that race beyond lamenting the misinformation campaign that she said helped Trump win power. Mostly, though, she focused on the road ahead.
“We cannot afford to put the blanket over our head and say, ‘Wake me up when it’s over,’” she said. “This is our country.”
As for her own future, Harris was circumspect. She’s already passed on a bid for California governor, and she hasn’t decided whether another presidential run is in her future. But she hinted at a return to public office.
“We all, in one way or another, have chosen, no matter what your profession or what you do every day, in some small or big way, we have chosen to serve,” she said. “And I’m not walking away from that.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
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