Vice President Kamala Harris interrupted rallygoers' "Lock him up!" chant to give her audience an important reminder about keeping their eyes on the prize amid former President Donald Trump's litany of legal troubles.
As supporters in the crowd at her rally on Wednesday chanted "Lock him up," Harris smiled and quieted down the crowd, delivering the following succinct message that is a world apart from Trump's own calls to prosecute his political opponents:
“Well, hold on, hold on, hold on. You know what? Here, hold on."
"Here’s the thing, the courts are going to handle that. We’re going to beat him in November. We’re going to beat him in November. We’ll beat him in November, we’ll handle that."
You can hear what she said in the video below.
In May, Trump became the first former president to be convicted of felony crimes. The jury found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels to illegally influence the 2016 election. His sentencing was set for July 11 but has now been delayed until September after a Supreme Court decision granting him sweeping immunity protections.
Trump was however this week dealt a setback after the Court, in an unsigned decision, declined to halt his upcoming sentencing. The justices' decision follows a lawsuit filed by the state of Missouri, which argued that the case against Trump violates voters' rights under the U.S. Constitution by limiting their ability to hear from him as he campaigns to return to the White House.
The Court's immunity decision has also had a profound impact on the federal election interference case mounted by Special Counsel Jack Smith as well as an ongoing case in the state of Georgia.
Trump previously asked that the Georgia case be dismissed on the basis of "presidential immunity" and his team says the acts described in the indictment are "at the heart of his official responsibilities as President," which means, for instance, that interviews with Justice Department attorneys can no longer be introduced as trial evidence.
Trump was previously charged with stealing classified documents from the White House. However, that case has been tossed out by Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who determined that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was improper, citing that it wasn't grounded in a specific federal statute and that he had neither been appointed by the president nor confirmed by the Senate. Cannon's decision is under appeal.
It's no wonder people want to "lock him up"—but Harris's message resonated immediately.
Democrats have framed Harris's campaign as a contest between a prosecutor and a felon.
However, party members have chosen to tread carefully around Trump’s criminal cases, aiming to keep his conviction in the spotlight without appearing to politicize the legal proceedings.
Meanwhile, the former president has embraced his court battles, painting himself as the target of a weaponized judicial system and alleging, without evidence, that the cases against him are coordinated with the White House.
Despite the need to strike this delicate balance, Harris' efforts have paid off and her campaign recently announced it raised over $310 million in July, with a record-breaking $200 million coming in during the first week after she became the presumptive Democratic nominee.
According to the campaign, last month's fundraising shattered several records, including the fastest time to raise a million dollars and a surge of donations following President Joe Biden's announcement that he would no longer run for president. Notably, two-thirds of the donations came from first-time contributors.
This surge in contributions and grassroots support has nearly eliminated the fundraising and cash advantage that Trump held over Biden earlier this summer, just in time for this month’s Democratic National Convention, which begins in Chicago on August 19.
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