For the first time Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris played a video clip of former President Donald Trump at one of her rallies, in a move popularized by her presidential election opponent.
Speaking to supporters in Erie, Pennsylvania, Harris said that Trump is unstable and warned of the dangers she saw in him winning a second term in the White House.
“We know who Donald Trump is,” she said. “He is someone who will stop at nothing to claim power for himself. And you don’t have to take my word for it. I’ve said for a while now: Watch his rallies. Listen to his words. He tells us who he is. And he tells us what he would do if he is elected president.”
The Democratic candidate then told her team to “roll the clip”—a montage of Trump talking about “the enemy from within,” which he has referenced in various interviews and rallies in recent weeks.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris watches as a video of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump is played during a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena on October 14 in Erie, Pennsylvania. Trump has often used video clips of his rivals at rallies during his three campaigns.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, the Republican candidate said that threats from China and Russia were lesser than those from within the U.S.
“We have some very bad people, some sick people, radical left lunatics. And it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military,” Trump told Maria Bartiromo.
That quote came at the end of the clip played by Harris, prompting boos from the Erie crowd.
Using Trump’s own words is not necessarily new for the vice president. She often quotes him in her speeches and her campaign’s TV ads have frequently included clips like those played on the big screen Monday night, but this is the first time she has chosen to show him at an in-person event.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Findlay Toyota Center on October 13 in Prescott Valley, Arizona. With leaders of the Border Patrol union in attendance, Trump pledged to hire 10,000 additional border patrol agents if reelected, intensifying his attacks on Democratic opponent Vice President Kamala Harris on the issue.
Rebecca Noble/Getty Images
The former president, meanwhile, has popularized the tactic during his three campaigns. He was not the first to use video of his rivals, though.
During the 2004 election, President George W. Bush‘s team showed clips of Democratic rival John Kerry to portray him as a flip-flopper. Then in 2012, Mitt Romney‘s campaign showed clips of President Barack Obama‘s supposedly problematic comments in speeches.
When Trump entered the race in 2016, he used video as part of his nomination campaign, including clips of Jeb Bush and other Republicans to discredit them. Once he became the party’s nominee, Trump showed clips of Democrat Hillary Clinton, again to show her as out of touch.
With Joe Biden as his opponent in 2020, and earlier in the 2024 cycle, Trump sought to portray him as mentally unfit or confused by showing select clips at rallies.
Following the switch to Harris as the Democratic candidate, the Trump campaign has frequently used montages of the vice president speaking, as well as interviews with voters who are unhappy with the current administration.
On Monday, Harris appeared to run with that dynamic, turning the attention on the former president’s remarks and branding him as “unstable and unhinged.”
“He, who has vowed, if reelected, that he will be a Dictator on Day 1. That he would weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies. He who has called for the, quote, ‘termination’ of the Constitution of the United States,” Harris said.
“Look, anybody who says they would terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States. Never again. Never again. Never again.”
In a statement sent to Newsweek on Tuesday morning, Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung doubled down on his boss’ claims.
“President Trump is 100% correct—those who seek to undermine democracy by sowing chaos in our elections are a direct threat, just like the terrorist from Afghanistan that was arrested for plotting multiple attacks on Election Day within the United States,” Cheung said.
“Kamala Harris has already made our country more dangerous by opening the southern border to migrant criminals who have terrorized, raped, and murdered American citizens.”
