Los Angeles— Vice President Kamala Harris poked Republican Donald Trump during a posh fundraiser on Sunday, telling donors that while she campaigned across the country, her “crowds are pretty big” – before flying to Nevada for a rally at the same venue where the GOP nominee appeared two weeks earlier.
During the presidential debate, Harris appeared to get under Trump’s skin when she mentioned that people were leaving his rallies early due to his rambling remarks. She’s kept it up on the campaign trail.
She also has 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’ four-day West Coast trip has been crafted with dual purposes: She was opening and closing 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’ 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, some who shouted “boring!” in response.
Harris has warned the race is as close as it could possibly be, a “margin-of-error” race. But on Sunday in Los Angeles, she added: “The election is here and let me be clear. We are going to win.”
The fundraiser was full of celebrities: Stevie Wonder, Keegan Michael-Key, Sterling K. Brown, Demi Lovato, Jessica Alba and Lily Tomlin. Performing for the crowd: Halle Bailey and Alanis Morissette.
The Los Angeles fundraiser and one a day earlier in San Francisco raised a combined $55 million for Harris’ campaign.
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 harsh opponent of Trump, said Harris had yet to earn his vote, which Trump will not get.
In Nevada, where Harris was hosting a rally Sunday night, all voters are automatically mailed ballots unless they opt out, a pandemic-era move codified in state law. This suggests that the majority of ballots could be distributed within a few weeks.
