VP Harris holds rally in crucial battleground state days before Trump at same venue

ATLANTA — Vice President Harris headlined a rally Tuesday evening in battleground Georgia's capital and largest city, where she stood in front of the largest crowd this cycle for the Democratic Party's national ticket.

Hours before the vice president arrived in Atlanta, the Georgia State Convocation Center was filling up with supporters. And minutes before Harris arrived, her campaign told Fox News that there were over 10,000 people filling the packed venue.

The rally, which featured a performance by hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion, appears to be another sign of the energy and excitement that's returning to the party nine days after President Biden's blockbuster announcement that he was suspending his re-election campaign against former President Trump and endorsing his vice president.

"We have a fight in front of us," the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee said to cheers from the boisterous crowd. "The momentum in this race is shifting. And there are signs Donald Trump is feeling it." 

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Biden's immediate backing of Harris a week and a half ago ignited a surge of endorsements for the vice president by Democrat governors, senators, House members and other party leaders and elders. Within 36 hours, Harris announced that she had locked up her party's nomination by landing the verbal backing of a majority of the nearly 4,000 convention delegates.

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Harris, near the top of her 18-minute speech, took aim at Trump over the issue of border security, which many Republicans see as the vice president's political achilles heel.

"In this campaign I will proudly put my record against his," Harris said, before highlighting her border security efforts as California attorney general.

Harris argued that Trump "has been talking a big game about securing our border, but he does not walk the walk."

She pointed to a border security bill with some bipartisan support that was making its way through Congress earlier this year before Republicans turned against the measure after prompting from Trump.

"It was all set to pass, but at the last minute Trump directed his allies in the Senate to vote it down," Harris said. 

She charged that the former president "tanked the bipartisan deal because he thought it would help him win an election" and pledged that "as the president I will bring back the border security bill that Donald Trump killed."

Trump, his campaign, and allied groups, have repeatedly criticized Harris over the past week over the surge of migrants over the nation's southern border during the Biden administration.

Harris was tasked by Biden in 2021 with leading the diplomatic outreach to tackle the "root causes" of migration in Central American countries. It led to her being dubbed the "border czar" both by the media and Republican opponents, although the White House has rejected that description.

The Trump campaign took to social media to respond.

"Kamala is actually *BRAGGING* about her record on immigration. HERE ARE THE FACTS: As Border Czar, Kamala ferried 15+ million illegals directly into our communities. She thinks illegal immigration "is NOT a crime." She wants to abolish ICE. She thinks you're stupid," the Trump campaign claimed.

Hours earlier, the Trump campaign - in its first major ad blitz of the general election - charged that Harris had "failed us" in securing the border.

Harris, in her speech, criticized the former president for not agreeing to debate her.

"He won’t debate but he and his running mate sure have a lot to say about me," she said, as she pointed to Trump and Sen. JD Vance's attacks on her in recent days.

To cheers from the crowd, Harris emphasized "if you have something to say, say it to my face."

The stop by Harris is a key test of the Democrats' momentum on the ground in the key southeastern battleground state where Biden narrowly edged Trump four years ago.

Once a red bastion, Georgia has become extremely competitive in presidential, Senate and gubernatorial elections in recent cycles, thanks in large part to the growing strength of Black and Latino voters, who make up a key party of the Democrats' base in the state.

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But Biden's disastrous performance against Trump at a late June debate that was held in Atlanta fueled questions about his physical and mental abilities to serve another four years in the White House.

It also spurred a rising chorus of calls from within his own party for the 81-year-old president to end his bid for a second term in the White House. 

Trump's edge over Biden in the key battleground states, including Georgia, started to grow in public opinion polling in the wake of the debate.

The former president is intent on winning Georgia in November.

And hours before Harris arrived in Atlanta, the Trump campaign announced that the former president and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, will hold a rally on Saturday at the Georgia State Convocation Center, where Harris held her event.

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Trump will likely also fill the venue as the former president has been drawing large crowds at his rallies since launching his 2024 campaign over a year and a half ago.

The Harris campaign, ahead of the Atlanta rally, highlighted the campaign's large ground game advantage over Trump's campaign in the swing states.

Battleground states director Dan Kanninen noted that the campaign has 24 coordinated offices in Georgia, far ahead of the Trump campaign, which opened its first office in June.

"This battleground advantage will almost certainly be decisive in a race likely to be decided by just tens of thousands of votes," Kanninen said.

The vice president, ahead of the rally, met with local abortion rights activists in another sign of how she plans to showcase the issue as a central part of her White House campaign.

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