Vice President Kamala Harris brought out hip-hop’s biggest stars and trolled Donald Trump with song lyrics and one-liners as she delivered a fiery speech at a campaign rally in Atlanta prosecuting the case against his candidacy for president of the United States.
“He does not walk the walk,” Harris said of Trump, her 2024 Republican opponent, on Tuesday evening at the Georgia State Convocation Center.
Countering the former president’s misleading accusations that as a “border czar” for the Biden administration, she failed to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, Harris said Trump has been “talking a big game.”
But, she continued, “As my friend Quavo would say, he does not walk it like he talks it,” referring to a song lyric from the rap group Migos, of which Quavo, who delivered remarks at the Atlanta rally, is a member.
The diverse audience of 10,000 erupted in thunderous cheers and applause to Harris’ colorful dig at Trump and others like it during her roughly 20-minute remarks.
“One thing I learned about working with Kamala Harris is that she always stands on business,” Quavo said in remarks before Harris’ speech. The 33-year-old rapper, real name Quavious Marshall, and Harris met during previous engagements to discuss the issue of gun violence following the murder of his fellow Migos member and nephew, Kirsnick “Takeoff” Ball.
Harris also summoned the star power of Grammy Award-winning rapper Megan The Stallion, who performed several of her hit songs while sporting a presidential-themed pantsuit and tie.
Before performing her hit song “Body,” Megan, real name Megan Pete, appeared to make reference to the national outcry after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The 29-year-old star told the crowd, “I know my ladies in the crowd love their bodies. And if you want to keep loving your body, you know who to vote for.”
In another standout moment for Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee called out Trump for refusing to commit to a presidential debate.
“He won’t debate, but he and his running mate sure seem to have a lot to say about me,” Harris said, adding a popular term used by Democrats as of late, “Don’t you find some of their stuff to just be plain weird?”
“Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage,” the vice president continued. “Because as the saying goes, if you got something to say, say it to my face!”
The vice president also hit talking points she’s used in previous campaign rallies painting a vivid contrast between her candidacy and vision for the country, which she described as forward-looking, and that of Trump, which she argued seeks to take the country backward.
“Across our nation, we are witnessing a full-on assault on hard-fought, hard-won freedoms and rights,” said Harris.
“The freedom to vote, the freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom to live without fear of bigotry and hate, the freedom to love whom you love openly with pride,” she declared.
She continued, “The freedom to learn and acknowledge our true and full history, and the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body!”
Harris added, “We are not going back because ours is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom across our nation.”
Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye, executive director of the Georgia Democratic Party, told theGrio Tuesday evening’s rally was “absolutely electric.” He pointed out that Harris’ 20-minute speech was likely not written to last as long, but likely went over due to the cheering crowd interrupting with applause throughout.
“There is a real energy in the Democratic Party around the candidacy of [Harris],” he said.
Olasanoye continued, “I have been doing this since 2006 as a paid staffer, volunteering in campaigns since 1998. I think only the Obama era, like ’07-’08 energy is the kind of energy that I have seen that looks like this.”
The Democratic leader praised the Harris for President campaign for “building a historic, energetic campaign that reinvigorates people and brings them into the process that may have been sitting on the sidelines.”
“She showed last night what we always knew. She was always ready. She was always qualified,” he told theGrio. “It doesn’t matter how many times they call her a DEI president or DEI hire.”
During her Atlanta rally, Harris acknowledged that Georgia, which she and President Joe Biden won in 2020 (a first for the Democratic Party in nearly 30 years), “the path to the White House runs right through this state.”
Olasanoye noted that the Biden-Harris victory of 2020, as well as the U.S. Senate wins for Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, were powered by more than 90% of Black voters showing up for them at the polls.
“The candidacy of the first Black woman president helps to continue to keep that coalition intact,” he told theGrio. “It is translating into a whole host of objective measurements that, put together, suggest that we are on a pathway to being able to win in Georgia.”
Olasanoye also said he had a “gut feeling” that Harris’ candidacy could boost races down the ballot in Georgia.
“If we’re doing our work here in Georgia and our counterparts in Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are seeing the same kind of things that we are seeing,” he said, “I think we are on a trajectory that is much different than the doom-and-gloom trajectory that we were on about a month ago.”