By Robert J. Hansen | OBSERVER Staff Writer
In her first campaign speech after receiving the endorsement of President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris told the country Monday her positions on issues including abortion rights, the economy and gun violence.
“Over the next 106 days we are going to make our case to the American people and we are going to win,” Harris told the crowd in Wilmington, Delaware, where her campaign is headquartered.
She said that as a county prosecutor and as California’s attorney general, she took on perpetrators of all kinds: predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off customers and those who broke the rules for personal gain. “Hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said.
The vice president said she believes in a future for all Americans and gave a glimpse of what that would look like.
Gun Violence
Harris said she will fight to enact laws for universal background checks, red flag laws and an assault weapons ban. “We believe in the freedom to live safe from gun violence,” she said.
The Biden-Harris Administration has made several advances to reduce gun violence. It has provided resources and invested in community violence intervention programs, cracked down on ghost guns and rolled out new “strike forces” to reduce illegal gun trafficking in five key corridors to help stem gun violence in major cities.
On Tuesday, Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, Moms Demand Action and a coalition of gun safety groups announced their endorsements of Harris.
Harris will finish the job started by President Biden to end the gun violence public health crisis by passing common sense lifesaving gun policies, Po Murray, chairwoman of Newtown Action Alliance, said in a statement. “The historic progress the gun violence prevention movement made since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting will be erased if Trump wins and brings the NRA back into the White House. We must elect Kamala Harris as our next president to protect our children and loved ones.”
Harris said each American faces the question of what kind of country we want to live in: a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law, or a country of chaos, fear and hate. “We each have the ability to answer that question,” she said.
The Economy
Harris said she would continue President Biden’s work to improve America’s economy by adding jobs and increasing wages.
Under Biden, 15 million jobs have been created. In February 2020, before the country was shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment for Black workers was at 6.7%. When Biden took office in January 2021 unemployment for Black workers was 10%; by June of this year, the Black unemployment rate had dropped to 5.6%, according to Federal Reserve Bank data.
“We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not to just get by but to get ahead,” Harris said. “No child should grow up in poverty and every American should be able to buy a home, start a family and build wealth. Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.”
Reproductive Rights
Harris reinforced her commitment to fighting for reproductive freedom. She added her belief that Democrats will vote in a majority in the House of Representatives that will not tell women what they can do with their bodies. “If Trump gets the chance, he will sign a national ban to outlaw abortion in every single state but we are not going to let that happen,” the vice president said. If Congress passes a bill ensuring reproductive freedom, Harris said she would sign it into law.