US Vice President Kamala Harris indirectly criticized former President Donald Trump on Sunday, suggesting her opponent in the November 5 election was a “coward” whose politics focused on putting down rivals.
The remarks came in a campaign appearance in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania with running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz before Harris heads to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which kicks off Monday.
“Over the last several years there’s been this kind of perversion that has taken place, I think, which is to suggest that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down. When what we know is the real and true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift,” Harris told a crowd of supporters. “Anybody who’s about beating down other people is a coward.”
She did not directly name Trump, who in a campaign appearance Saturday in eastern Pennsylvania referred to Harris as a “radical” and a “lunatic.”
“There will be a lot about what I believe is a way forward, a new way forward, and bringing everyone along in that,” she told reporters outside a restaurant.
On Saturday, Trump said he believed she would be easier to beat than Biden, 81, who dropped out last month under pressure from his party after a disastrous debate against Trump.
Pennsylvania was one of three Rust Belt states, along with Wisconsin and Michigan, that helped power Republican Trump’s upset victory in the 2016 election.
