WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris said Tuesday that her team is prepared to challenge Donald Trump if he tries to prematurely declare victory in the 2024 election — but she's first focused on beating the Republican nominee.
Harris spoke to NBC News just two weeks before Election Day, as part of a media blitz meant to deliver her closing argument before as many persuadable voters as possible. She said she was not concerned about the role sexism could play in the election, as she stands to be the first woman elected to the White House, and again defended President Joe Biden's fitness for office.
Harris said the Democrats "have the resources and the expertise" should Trump try to subvert the election.
"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," she said.
Trump has been criminally charged with trying to overturn the 2020 election, and refuses to admit he lost to President Joe Biden. After a failed legal effort to overturn the results, a mob of Trump supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, attacking law enforcement in an effort to stop the certification of the race.
At Harris' rallies, some of her supporters chant "Lock him up," something Trump often said about his former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Harris often replies: "The courts will take care of that. We'll take care of November."
At a campaign stop Tuesday, Biden said, "We've got to lock him up," but Biden quickly added: "Politically lock him up. Lock him out, that's what we have to do."
"No president has ever been like this guy," Biden said. "He's a genuine threat to our democracy."
Speaking to supporters Tuesday, Trump criticized Harris for spending the day conducting interviews, appearing to try to sow distrust in the election. "She knows something that we don't know," he said. "I think she knows some kind of result that we don't know."
While partisan battles over voting rules have long been part of presidential campaigns, election litigation has soared in recent years. With money pouring in for legal fights and the number of outside groups involved in election litigation proliferating, the disputes are not likely slow down anytime soon.
Harris told NBC that she's not focused on pointing out the historic nature of her candidacy, saying, "I'm clearly a woman, I don't need to point that out to anyone."
She added that she's not worried about sexism harming her candidacy, saying she's focused on speaking to all voters.
"I will never assume that anyone in our country should elect a leader based on their gender or their race, instead that that leader needs to earn the vote based on substance and what they will do to address challenges and to inspire people," she said.
The vice president also defended Biden, whose disastrous debate against Trump forced him to abandon his reelection campaign and cleared the way for her to become the Democratic nominee for president.
Harris said she still believes Biden is "capable in every way" to be president, saying "you'd have to ask him if that's the only reason why" he dropped out of the race, but she has "no reluctance" in saying he's up for the job.