MSNBC anchor Jen Psaki described Vice President Kamala Harris’ first campaign stop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday as a “delicious dose of trolling,” since just last week it was the site of the Republican National Convention, where many had expected to be facing off not against Harris, but President Joe Biden.
After noting the vice president’s historic influx of donations and campaign volunteers since Sunday, Psaki turned to Harris’ visit to the battleground state.
“She did it with a delicious—and I mean delicious—dose of trolling Donald Trump and the Republicans,” the former Biden press secretary said, noting the significance of the location. “Though her speech did not feature an authoritarian vision for the country’s future—obviously not. That’s not her vision.”
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“Nor did it include anyone who just recently left jail,” she continued, alluding to former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro being awarded a speaking slot hours after he completed his federal prison sentence in Florida for defying the House Jan. 6 Committee’s subpoena.
Harris’ event, Psaki continued, also didn’t include a 70-year-old former professional wrestler tearing off his shirt and bellowing some gimmicky lines about the GOP’s presidential nominee—a reference to Hulk Hogan’s appearance at the convention last Thursday.
“It had a very different vibe to it,” she said, rolling a clip of Harris’ speech.
“We believe in a future where everyone has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead,” the vice president told the crowd. “A future where no child has to grow up in poverty. Where every worker has the freedom to join a union. Where every person has affordable health care, affordable childcare, and paid family leave.”
Psaki noted that the crowd’s energized reaction to Harris “basically captures the feeling of most Democrats over the past few days.”
“Which is pretty encouraging,” she added, “considering the weeks before that were dominated by painful, gut-wrenching conversations inside the party about the future of a guy they all love: Joe Biden.”
