MILWAUKEE — Vice President Harris on Tuesday encouraged voters in one of the key battleground states and repeated a debunked claim that former President Trump wants to implement a total “ban” on abortion during Biden’s first campaign rally since dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.
“We believe in reproductive freedom and will block Donald Trump’s extreme abortion ban because we believe women should be able to make decisions about their own bodies, not be dictated to by the government,” Harris told a raucous crowd of supporters in a school auditorium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Harris has made similar claims on other occasions, including in a post on X earlier this month. “Donald Trump would ban abortion nationwide,” she wrote. “President Trump would ban abortion nationwide.” [Joe Biden] I will do everything in my power to stop him and restore women’s reproductive freedom.”
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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump (Getty Images)
Her claims were made public by CNN, the BBC, the Associated Press, and others who used community notes (a platform’s way of providing context to messages that readers believe are false or lacking context). The New York Times That contradicts her argument.
X CEO Elon Musk, a Trump supporter, also weighed in, accusing her of “lying”.
“When will politicians, or at least the interns who run their accounts, learn that lying no longer works on this platform?” he wrote.
President Trump has said abortion restrictions should be left to states, and posted a video to Truth Social earlier this year detailing his position.
“My view is that abortion is now available wherever everybody wants it, and from a legal standpoint, each state will decide, either by vote or by legislation or both. And whatever they decide, it has to be the law of the land, in this case the law of the state,” Trump said.
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Supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris gathered in a high school auditorium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for their first rally since President Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. (Fox News Digital/Jamie Joseph)
President Trump has suggested that abortion should be restricted at some point during pregnancy, specifically after the 15th week.
Harris addressed the crowd for about 18 minutes – much shorter than Trump’s usual hour-plus speeches – and began by acknowledging the importance of Wisconsin as a battleground state.
“The road to the White House goes through Wisconsin. That’s right. And we’re counting on you here in Milwaukee to help us win Wisconsin,” she said.
She also praised Biden as a “terrific” president, saying serving as vice president was “one of the greatest honours” and claiming Biden’s achievements “surpass” those of any two-term president.
“I am incredibly honored to have Joe Biden’s endorsement in this campaign,” she added.
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Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at West Allis Central High School in Milwaukee on July 23, 2024. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
The loudest cheers came when Harris said she had enough delegate support to secure her party’s presidential nomination.
“I am incredibly honored and I pledge to work over the coming weeks to unite our party so that we can win the election in November,” she said, acknowledging there is “work to do” between now and the general election.
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She also continued to try to link Trump to the Heritage Foundation’s heavily scrutinized Project 2025, which she called “extreme” and which the former president rejected as “absurd” and “egregious.”
Harris was briefly interrupted by a protester who began shouting about the plight of Palestinians during Israel’s war with Hamas, but the individual was quickly escorted out of the event.
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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