Trump tries out messages against Harris in speech to Turning Point

Former President Trump tried out several messages against a surging Vice President Harris during an address at an event hosted by the conservative Christian organization Turning Point Action on Friday night, generally settling on casting the likely Democratic nominee as more liberal than President Biden.

Trump also repeatedly called Harris a “bum,” describing her as a failed vice president in a manner similar to how he had characterized Biden as a failed president when he was the prospective Democratic nominee. 

“She makes Bernie Sanders actually look like a moderate,” Trump said, seeking to tie Harris to calls for defunding the police, banning fracking and abolishing Immigrations Customs Enforcement (ICE).

An official with Harris’ campaign told The Hill Friday that she will not attempt to ban fracking if she captures the White House in November.

Trump also said Harris “will appoint hundreds of extreme far-left judges to forcibly impose crazy San Francisco liberal values on Americans nationwide.”

“Now, you’ve seen what’s happened to San Francisco, it was the best city maybe in our entire country 15 years ago, and now it’s barely livable,” Trump said.

Harris previously served as the district attorney of San Francisco, with her time in the role ending over a decade ago. From there, she would later become her state’s attorney general and one of its U.S. Senators.

“She’ll appoint hardcore Marxists to the Supreme Court to shred our Constitution on all of our religious liberty,” Trump said. “She will do that absolutely.”

“She will try as hard as she can to add as many justices as possible to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Trump added. “We don’t want that to happen, do we?”

The Harris campaign hit back at Trump’s address in a statement, saying that the former president “generally sounded like someone you wouldn't want to sit near at a restaurant – let alone be President of the United States.”

"Tonight, Donald Trump couldn't pronounce words, insulted the faith of Jewish and Catholic Americans, lied about the election (again), lied about other stuff, bragged about repealing Roe, proposed cutting billions in education funding, announced he would appoint more extremist judges, revealed he planned to fill a second Trump term with more criminals like himself, attacked lawful voting, went on and on and on, and generally sounded like someone you wouldn't want to sit near at a restaurant -- let alone be President of the United States,” Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer said in a statement posted to the social platform X Friday.

Polls have suggested the race between Trump and Harris could be a tight one, with evidence mounting that Harris is closing a gap that had emerged between Trump and Biden.

Fox News polling released on Friday showed Trump and Harris tied in the key states of Pennsylvania and Michigan, with Harris behind Trump by a point in Wisconsin.

Democrats are hoping that Harris might be able to make things more competitive in three other states: Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

All six of those states were won by Biden in 2020, but he trailed Trump in all of them at the time he dropped out of the race on Sunday.