Harris returns to battleground Pennsylvania as Trump pursues Latino votes

WASHINGTON CROSSING, Pa. (AP) — Surrounded by more than 100 former Republican officeholders and officials, Democrat Kamala Harris urged GOP voters Wednesday to put “country first” and give up Donald Trump.

The Democratic presidential candidate did it presented their case to Republican voters that the Patriotic Choice is their party in next month's election because Trump is “unstable” and “unhinged” and would undermine democratic norms if he gets a second term in the White House.

“America must heed this warning,” Harris said at a rally near where General George Washington led hundreds of troops across the Delaware River to a major victory in the Revolutionary War.

Along with former lawmakers and government officials, Harris attended a rally in the Philadelphia suburbs and said: “Anyone who tramples on our democratic values ​​like Donald Trump, anyone who, like Donald, has called for the 'denial' of the Constitution of the United States .” Trump must never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States.”

The rally was part of Harris' efforts to appeal to a group of Republican voters in battleground states that she believes can still be swayed.

In 20 days, Harris hopes to woo every Republican or undecided voter by warning that Trump wants to rule with “unchecked power.” She has promised to nominate a Republican to her Cabinet and create a bipartisan council to advise her on policy issues if elected.

Meanwhile, Trump appealed to Latino voters in Miami, Florida. This is a group that has historically leaned Democratic, but Republicans have also made inroads into it.

Trump is walking a tightrope in his attempt to woo Latino voters.

On Wednesday, he defended his call for a mass deportation of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally while highlighting the need for immigrant workers during a town hall-style event on Univision, the country's largest Spanish-language network.

“We want workers and we want them to come in, but they have to come in legally and they have to love our country,” the Republican presidential candidate said during the event, which was scheduled to air Wednesday night. Trump answered a question from Jorge Velásquez, a farmworker, who said most people doing such work were undocumented and said food prices would rise if they were deported.

Trump then returned to criticizing Harris for being a key player in the Biden administration, which is responsible for an influx of migrants with criminal backgrounds.

The event included pointed questions for Trump, about his wife Melania's support for abortion rights, mentioned in her new memoir, and about the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the U.S. Capitol by his supporters who breached the building to protest abortion to stop certification of the 2020 election results.

“Your own vice president doesn’t want to support you now,” said Ramiro Gonzalez of Tampa, Florida, a Republican who said he was no longer registered with the party but wanted to give Trump a chance to win it back. Gonzalez was referring to former Vice President Mike Pence, who has distanced himself from Trump in light of Jan. 6.

Trump’s response: “Hundreds of thousands of people are coming to Washington. You didn't come for me. They came because of the election. They believed the election was a rigged election. That’s why they came.”

“From the perspective of millions, this was a day of love,” Trump told Gonzalez.

Harris was in Bucks County, a vote-rich suburb of Philadelphia where Democrats held a narrow lead in the recent presidential election. Her advisers believe she needs to improve her margins in Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs to win the state's 19 electoral votes.

Harris was joined at her rally by former Reps. Barbara Comstock of Virginia, Jim Greenwood of Pennsylvania, Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, as well as Republican officials from every administration since Ronald Reagan.

“No matter what party you are, no matter who you voted for last time, there is a place for you in this election,” Harris said. “The coalition we have formed has room for everyone who is ready to overcome the chaos and instability of Donald Trump.”

Several of the Republican surrogates said supporting a Democrat was awkward but necessary given Trump's rejection of election norms and support of the rioters who tried to prevent the certification of his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.

“You know, Donald Trump may be running as a Republican, but the truth is that he does not share the long-held Republican values ​​of supporting democracy, advocating for the rule of law and being faithful to the Constitution as a Republican,” Kinzinger said. “That makes me sad.”

Harris hired a couple, Bob and Kristina Lange of Pennsylvania, who had previously supported Trump, to introduce them at the rally. Bob voted for Trump twice and Kristina supported him in 2016.

“Never in a million years would any of us have thought that we would be standing here supporting a Democrat,” Kristina Lange said. “But we have enough. We’ve had enough.”

Some of the rally attendees who have voted Republican in the past said they wanted the party to return to its fiscally conservative roots.

“We need more Republicans to stand up and say, 'This is not what our party is about, this is not what we are about,'” said Sarah Larson, 53, of East Rockhill Township, who most recently voted for voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 2008, when John McCain was at the top of the ticket. “It’s no longer what we recognize as Republican values ​​– which is less government, more freedom – right now.”

While in Pennsylvania, Harris conducted an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier in which the two discussed, among other things, immigration policy and their changing political positions over the years. A week after she said she couldn't Think of any movement When Biden said she would have done things differently, Harris asserted, “My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden's presidency.”

Trump and Harris also campaigned Monday in Pennsylvania, where the Republican was in nearby Oaks while Harris was at the other end of the state in Erie County, one of Pennsylvania's most divided counties in the last two presidential elections.

Harris' easiest route to the 270-vote threshold in the Electoral College is to lead a trio of northern battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Harris campaigned in Detroit on Tuesday and planned to campaign in three Wisconsin cities on Thursday.

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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Maryclaire Dale in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, contributed reporting.