哈里斯在费城开启全国关键摇摆州巡回演讲，万斯紧随其后

On Tuesday, August 6, both the Trump and Harris campaigns rallied for support in Philadelphia, the biggest city of the state that may decide the White House’s occupant for the next 4 years.

On Tuesday, August 6, 2024, Temple University’s Liacouras Center was packed to above capacity, with more than 12,000 in attendance to hear Kamala Harris and her newly announced running mate, Tim Walz, speak together for the first time, alongside Pennsylvania Democrats such as Governor Josh Shapiro, Senators John Fetterman and Bob Casey Jr., and Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker. 

The animated rally embodied the Democratic Party’s newfound spark since Kamala Harris’s replacement of Joe Biden as the party’s nominee, with the crowd’s cheers so loud that our reporter’s ears were still ringing for hours after the event.

In his first public appearance as the Democratic nominee for Vice President, Walz introduced himself to Philadelphia and the national audience – he cited his background as a schoolteacher, football coach who led his high school to their first state championship, GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) club sponsor during a time when being LGBTQ+ was still a taboo, and veteran, who was encouraged by his students to run for public office. 

Walz highlighted his humble upbringing – “I lived in Butte, a small town of 400, where community was a way of life. Growing up, I spent the summers working on the family farm. My mom and dad taught us: show generosity towards your neighbors and work for a common good.” 

He attacked his adversary, Vance, who has attempted to portray a similar blue-collar image of himself, sarcastically saying that “like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, JD studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a best-seller trashing that community. Come on! That’s not what Middle America is about!”

The Minnesota governor attacked Donald Trump’s criminal record and the frequent Republican argument that their policies reduce crime, claiming that “make no mistake, violent crime was up under Donald Trump. And that's not even counting the crimes he committed!"

Walz maintained that despite the Republican Party’s priorities of individual freedoms, the Democratic Party was now the party of freedom, telling the crowd that “in Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make, even if we wouldn’t make the same choice for ourselves. There’s a golden rule: Mind your own damn business.”

Walz’s speech was full of plain-spoken, witty one-liners bound to make headliners and social media virality such as these, showing part of the reason for why he was chosen as Harris’s running mate – he is able to attack Republicans in a memorable and clearly understable way, such as with the “weird” meme that has since dominated election talk, especially online.

Harris and Walz also introduced the themes of the new campaign, as opposed to what the Biden/Harris campaign was conveying – less about avoiding Trump, more about hope and fighting for a better future, with a repeated chant among the crowd being “we’re not going back!”

Meanwhile, in South Philadelphia, around a dozen people, including our reporter, were barred from entering by the Secret Service, despite the rally drawing only 200 people – 15% of its full capacity. We were not able to receive media credentials, with the Trump PA Communications Director questioning us if we have connections to any foreign government. 

We sent a statement declaring that across 17 years of operation, New Mainstream Media has not established any connections with and does not receive any support from any foreign governments, institutions, or interests, and that New Mainstream Media is entirely funded by advertising and occasionally American journalism grants. Still, we did not receive a response.

One Trump supporter outside of the venue blamed a larger conspiracy for why the rest of the attendees could not get in – “This is the America that we’re living in now. We don’t have any freedom anymore. We’re locked out. I don’t think it’s the Secret Service, I think that it’s something bigger.”

A left-wing “instigator”, as some of the Trump supporters called them, said that it was plainly because it is a small “one-story building” and that he had never heard of before, despite having lived in South Philadelphia. Other Trump followers outside of the venue also argued that it was plainly an unorganized event or that they thought the venue might be full.

The scene on the street outside of the arena was chaotic, with “instigators” holding signs and yelling things like “couch humpers for Trump” at supporters, with the Trump followers yelling back with their own insults. On what the purpose of such a demonstration is, an “instigator” proclaimed that “we chase fascists out of this city”, mentioning that it had worked with previous Trump rallies and the Patriot Front, a White Supremacist hate group.

Inside the venue, Vance and others invited on stage repeated Republican arguments that the Biden/Harris administration has caused a crisis at the southern border and a worsened opioid crisis as a result, has allowed increased crime rates in cities like Philadelphia, and has worsened the economy and standard of living.

Harris’s rally kicked off a nationwide tour of seven key battleground states – Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada. Trump running mate J.D. Vance is set to follow Kamala Harris with events of his own on a three-day tour of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina, all in the same cities as Harris’s events, hoping to kill the Democrat’s momentum.

At least in Philadelphia, it doesn’t appear to have worked, especially when contrasted with Harris’s event, which attracted more than 60 times the amount of people as the Vance rally. If Vance wants to slow down the Kamala tour, he will need to put up a better fight than he did in Philadelphia.