Vice President Harris repeatedly knocked former President Trump on the campaign trail in Arizona on Friday, making it clear that Trump will be sworn in again as president, days after the state Supreme Court upheld an 1864 law that made abortion a felony. warned against.
Harris brought up President Trump’s announcement earlier this week that abortion laws should be left up to each state, but also said she would not sign a federal ban.
“Enough gaslighting. We all know that Donald Trump would sign a nationwide abortion ban if he got the chance,” she told the crowd in Tucson.
“He basically wants to take America back to the 1800s,” Harris added. “But we’re not going to allow that, because this is the deal, now he’s not in the 1800s, he’s in 2024, and we’re not going back. We’re not going back. plug.”
Harris’ travel was announced shortly after Tuesday’s ruling, which includes a very narrow exception that allows abortions “if necessary” to save a pregnant woman’s life.
In Arizona, a key battleground state, Harris called the Supreme Court’s June 2022 overturn of Roe a “seismic event” and said Arizona’s ban, handed down this week, “is the most unprecedented. “This is one of the biggest aftershocks,” he added.
The vice president pointed out that the 1864 law was enacted before Arizona became a state and before women could vote, and said the state court’s decision meant that “the women here are the ones in our country. “It means we live under one of the most extreme abortion bans.” ”
She placed the blame squarely on Trump, which President Biden’s re-election campaign has used for months as a strategy to warn the former president of what a second term could mean for reproductive rights. .
“We’ve proven once and for all that overturning Roe is just a front act in a larger strategy to take away women’s rights and liberties. It’s part of an all-out state-by-state assault on reproductive freedom,” Harris said. he said. “And we all need to understand who is to blame. Former President Donald Trump was not.”
“Donald Trump is the architect of this health care crisis,” he said, adding, “He’s bragging about it,” boasting that the law was overturned by conservative judges Trump appointed in his first term. He pointed out that he had said that he was responsible for overturning Mr. semester.
While Harris was in Arizona, Trump held a joint press conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) at Mar-a-Lago. Harris noted that in his remarks, President Trump said state levies on the ban are working as expected.
In response to the Arizona ruling, the Biden campaign relentlessly attacked Trump and launched an ad campaign in Arizona highlighting the court’s decision. In the months since the Roe bill was overturned, the campaign has been trying to appeal to independents, women and other key voters by highlighting restrictive state laws, and to engage Trump over reproductive rights. He has attacked the Republican Party.
President Trump on Friday called on the Arizona Legislature to act “as soon as possible” to adjust the state’s abortion policy. On Wednesday, he told reporters he believes Arizona’s law goes too far and hopes it will be “corrected.”
In her remarks, Harris referred to Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) as the next Arizona senator. Gallego is running against Republican Kari Lake, a Trump ally, for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Krysten Sinema (I-Ariz.). Harris also said she was thinking about Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who is beginning treatment for cancer.
Biden and Harris won Arizona by a very narrow margin in 2020 (49.4% to Trump’s 49%).
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