ATLANTA — Democratice vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris courted voters in the historically red state of Georgia on Friday as polls show a narrowing gap between her running mate, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his opponent, President Donald Trump. 

What You Need To Know

  • Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris campaigned in Atlanta on Friday

  • Harris said President Trump has failed to address four national crises: the coronavirus pandemic, an economic recession, racial tensions, and climate change

  • At a drive-in event, Harris encouraged attendees to also vote for down-ballot Democrats

  • Several national polls have shown the presidential race is neck-and-neck in the historically red state

“Atlanta represents so much about who we are as America,” Harris said to a raucous round of honks at a drive-in rally Friday afternoon. “Atlanta represents the hopes and the dreams and the fight to make real the promise of America.”

 

 

 

Senator Harris said President Trump has failed to address four national crises: the coronavirus pandemic, an economic downfall, rising racial tensions, and climate change. Harris particularly targeted Trump for failing Black Americans.

“A public health crisis, an economic crisis being compared to the Great Depression, a long overdue reckoning on racial injustice in America,” Harris said. “On the one hand, you have Joe Biden, who has the knowledge and the courage enough to use the terms and speak those words 'Black Lives Matter.' On the other hand, you have Donald Trump, who refuses and will never say 'Black Lives Matter.'” 

Harris took her condemnation of the president a step further, confirming that she does think the president is racist, saying: “Yes, yes, because you see it's not like it's some random one-off. We’ve seen that pattern.”

Not only did Harris root for her own campaign, she also encouraged attendees to submit their votes for all down-ballot Democrats. Georgia’s senate candidate Jon Ossoff and congressional candidate Nikema Williams were among the state’s Democrats running for office in attendance at the day’s events. 

“We believe in our democracy because we know that America's democracy will always be as strong as we - the people - are in our willingness to fight for those ideas.”

Earlier in the day, Harris defended her record as a prosecutor and promised that a Biden White House would push to “decriminalize marijuana” and “expunge” the records of Americans convicted under current federal laws.

She told a roundtable of Black men that she and Biden understand the barriers Black men face, including the U.S. criminal justice system. She said she discussed the matter, including drug laws, with rapper Killer Mike during a private meeting earlier Friday.

And she offered a spirited defense of her record when another musician, rapper and producer, Jermaine Dupri, asked her to address her history of “putting a lot of Black brothers away.”

Harris said she chose to be a prosecutor to “reform the system” from within, comparing her career path to “going up the rough side of the mountain.” She recounted prosecuting cases for crimes of sexual violence and human trafficking and that “people went to jail” but she framed her efforts more as making changes to steer defendants away from prison.

And she pushed back at the notion of Black prosecutors having to answer for a “flawed” system because “it suggests Black people shouldn’t be prosecutors.”

Both Harris and her running mate have been criticized for their previous criminal justice policies. 

During Thursday’s final presidential debate, Biden admitted that his support of a 1994 crime bill was flawed. Biden has called the law a mistake in the past, and he reiterated that Thursday, saying: “The fact of the matter is, there is institutional racism in America.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.