Vice President Kamala Harris said in an interview Tuesday that she is not only prepared for the possibility of her own victory in next month’s election, but that she’s ready to react should her opponent prematurely declare his own win.
The Democratic presidential nominee told NBC News that her team has “the resources and the expertise and the focus” to challenge former President Donald Trump should he try to subvert the election—again.
In 2020, Trump declared himself the winner of the presidential election with tens of thousands of mail-in ballots left to be tallied, something NBC anchor Hallie Jackson reminded Harris of during their sitdown.
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“What is your plan if he does that again in two weeks?” Jackson asked.
“Well, let me say this, we’ve got two weeks to go,” Harris responded. “And I’m very much grounded in the present, in terms of the task at hand, and we will deal with Election Night and the days after as they come—and we have the resources and the expertise and the focus on that as well.”
Pressed by Jackson, who asked explicitly if she had “teams ready to go,” Harris acknowledged that she was primed to respond should Trump baselessly sound off about another “stolen” election.
“Of course,” the vice president said. “This is a person, Donald Trump, who tried to undo the—a free and fair election, who still denies the will of the people, who incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol and some 140 law enforcement officers were attacked. Some were killed. This is a very serious matter.”
In the days and weeks after the riot, five officers who were at the Capitol on Jan. 6 died, four of suicide: Jeffrey Smith, Howard Liebengood, Gunther Hashida, and Kyle DeFreytag. A fifth, Brian Sicknick, died on Jan. 7 after suffering multiple strokes.
Harris framed the election as “a very, very serious decision about what will be the future of our country” being put to American voters.
“The choice before the American people is the choice to choose to turn the page on the division and the hate,” she said, “and to bring our country together knowing the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us.”
The vice president then demurred on the subject of whether she’d pardon Trump should he be convicted of any of the felony charges still pending against him, saying she was “focused on the next 14 days” rather than “hypotheticals” beyond them.
The interview also covered why Harris has been so hesitant to acknowledge or push her gender or race as a history-making factor along the campaign trail.
“Well, I’m clearly a woman,” she said, laughing. “I don’t need to point that out to anyone. The point that most people really care about is, can you do the job, and do you have a plan to actually focus on them?”
Harris also said that she sees herself as a candidate committed to serving the American people rather than herself—in stark contrast to Trump, whom she said is “constantly focused on himself.”
Still, Harris also reiterated that she believes that American voters are ready to elect a female president. “And I am seeing that in terms of every walk of life of our country,” she added.
“You know, I think part of what is important in this election is really not only turning the page, but closing the page and the chapter on an era that suggests that Americans are divided.”
