In an interview with NBC News’ Hallie Jackson on Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris said she is bracing for the prospect that former President Donald Trump declares victory before the ballots are tabulated next month.
Sitting at her official residence in the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., Harris said her campaign is prepared for the potential that the Republican former president may try to derail the election, but she is focused on defeating him first.
“We will deal with election night and the days after as they come, and we have the resources and the expertise and the focus on that,” Harris said.
“This is a person, Donald Trump, who tried to undo the free and fair election, who still denies the will of the people who incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol, and 140 law enforcement officers were attacked, some who were killed. This is a serious matter,” Harris said, referring to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol where Trump supporters tried to prevent the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
Trump refused to concede that election, falsely insisting that a vast conspiracy to commit voter fraud had stolen it from him.
“The American people are, at this point, two weeks out, being presented with a very, very serious decision about what will be the future of our country,” Harris added.
Trump has for months been claiming the election is rigged against him, without evidence, and pointed the finger at a host of institutions and people whom he claims are interfering, telling supporters he needs to win by a margin “too big to rig.”
Experts have cautioned that Trump’s attempts to sow seeds of doubt now could be used to gin up supporters in the days after the election to try to seize power by claiming the election was invalid.
With just two weeks to go, Harris and Trump are locked in a dead heat. Polls show a neck-and-neck contest both nationally and in the seven critical battleground states.
Harris has increased her contact with the news media following a period of limited availability interviews in the weeks following her election to the Democratic presidential nomination in July.
