--- title: Harris Says She Knows 'Trump's Type' in Campaign Kick-Off Speech description: In a rousing speech, Kamala Harris touted her experience prosecuting predators and cheaters. "I know Donald Trump’s type." canonical: https://time.com/7001650/kamala-harris-speech-trump/ author: Brian Bennett article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-07-23T00:00:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:46.637Z article:section: Politics og:title: Harris Digs at Trump in 1st Speech of New Campaign og:description: In a rousing speech, Kamala Harris touted her experience prosecuting predators and cheaters. "I know Donald Trump’s type." og:url: https://time.com/7001650/kamala-harris-speech-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70c35245655235c4/698a590c096a9436b86b0bf8/GettyImages-2162453138.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-VOTE-HARRIS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Harris Digs at Trump in 1st Speech of New Campaign twitter:description: In a rousing speech, Kamala Harris touted her experience prosecuting predators and cheaters. "I know Donald Trump’s type." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70c35245655235c4/698a590c096a9436b86b0bf8/GettyImages-2162453138.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'I Know Donald Trump's Type': Harris Launches New Attack as She Takes Over Campaign > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=79a64445-0bb0-4a19-b58b-1141b25308e6&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Biden Calls Into Campaign Headquarters After Ending Bid, Vows the 'Mission is Not Over' [Watch (HLS stream): Biden Calls Into Campaign Headquarters After Ending Bid, Vows the 'Mission is Not Over'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/JhIgEHfO.m3u8) (4:10)  _Published 2024-07-23. A day after he announced he would drop out of the 2024 presidential race, President Joe Biden called into the campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, that used to be his to urge staffers to "embrace" his vice president, Kamala Harris._  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is a former senior White House correspondent at TIME. Jul 23, 2024 12:00 AM UTC  Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff address staff at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Del., on July 22, 2024. Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff address staff at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Del., on July 22, 2024. Erin Schaff—Pool/AFP via Getty Images  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is a former senior White House correspondent at TIME. Jul 23, 2024 12:00 AM UTC Just over 24 hours after President Biden dropped his flagging bid for a second term, his vice president strode into what was now her campaign headquarters to wild applause and hoots of excitement. Campaign staff had already replaced many of the “Biden-Harris” signs plastered on the walls with new ones that read “Kamala” and “Harris for President.” As she approached the microphones to make her first campaign speech in her new role, her staff began chanting, “Ka-ma-la! Ka-ma-la!” It was Kamala Harris’ debut as the presumed head of her party’s ticket. But she wasn’t delivering the speech alone. Biden, still recovering from COVID-19, had been patched in on the phone from his beach house in Rehoboth, Del., to thank the campaign staff and praise his chosen successor. “I knew you weren’t going anywhere Joe,” Harris enthused. “I’m watching you kid, I love you,” Biden said. The moment functioned like something of a bridge from a campaign that had just ended to one that was just getting started. In less than a day, a rush of rapid-fire endorsements and a fundraising windfall seemed to silence any serious challenge to Harris taking over Biden’s mantle. Her campaign, which began calling itself “Team Harris,” says it brought in $81 million in fundraising over those first 24 hours, and signed up 28,000 new campaign volunteers. By Monday afternoon, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an influential figure among Democrats who had notably not joined in the wave of endorsements on Sunday, broke her silence and said she had “full confidence” Harris would lead Democrats “to victory in November.” Across much of the party’s leadership, it was a signal that a nomination fight had become increasingly unlikely. Before her nomination is official, Harris will have to work to ensure she has the votes of 1,976 convention delegates. “It is my intention to go out and earn this nomination, and to win,” Harris told her campaign staff. She previewed the twin engines of her message: Prosecuting the case against Donald Trump and painting for voters a vision for the country that expands rights and access to prosperity beyond the wealthy. She said in her long career as a prosecutor, she’s taken on perpetrators of all kinds: "Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain," she said. "So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type." Harris reviewed at length how her prosecutorial record lined up with Trump’s history of legal troubles. She said she’d prosecuted sexual assaults, and noted “Donald Trump was found liable by jury for committing sexual abuse.” She said she’d won cases against for-profit colleges and Trump’s own Trump University was forced to pay a multi-million dollar settlement. She said she’d won judgments against big banks for fraud in the wake of the foreclosure crisis, and a New York jury convicted Trump of fraud. “This campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump,” she said, and someone in the room shouted, “Preach!” Harris then transitioned to the thrust of her policy argument. “Donald Trump wants to take our country backward to a time before many of our fellow Americans had full freedoms and rights,” she said. “We believe in a brighter future that makes room for all Americans,” she said. A Harris administration, she said, would be designed to usher in “a future where no child has to grow up in poverty,” where more people can buy a home and build wealth, and where there is expanded access to family leave and affordable child care. She said she would fight to build a country where “the government should not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” vowing to sign a bill to protect access to abortion if voters elect enough Democrats to control the House and Senate. She presented the election as a choice between two visions for the country: “A country of freedom, compassion, and rule of law, or a country of chaos, fear and hate.” The speech was the capstone of a whirlwind two days for Harris, who began work on her campaign launch midday Sunday, moments after Biden called her and told her he was dropping out of the race and endorsing her. It was the weekend and she was at home in the Vice President’s house on Observatory Hill in Washington, D.C., so she didn’t bother changing out of her Howard University hoodie and sneakers as she pulled the levers of political power she would need to take command of the Democratic Party. Over the next 10 hours, she spoke with over 100 Democratic power players, governors, union leaders, lawmakers, and organizers, according to a person familiar with her day. The flurry of calls started to pay off almost immediately, as several of her would-be rivals for the top job came out and endorsed her, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Governors Roy Cooper of North Carolina and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois. At campaign headquarters Monday, Harris announced that she had asked Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon to continue as head of the Harris campaign. In the coming weeks, Harris faces a formidable to-do list. She has to wrangle Biden’s sprawling campaign apparatus under her control. She has to lock down the support of delegates before the party’s convention starts on August 19\. She has to pick a running mate. And she needs to win over an influential contingent of the Democratic Party who remain convinced she lacks the political acumen to defeat Trump. Already, some of those doubters were impressed by what they’ve seen so far. ## Transcript And now, I'd like to introduce a man who we all admire and respect because he has done and continues to do so much for our country. Mr. President, thank you for calling in today over to you. Julie, if I didn't have COVID, I'd be sitting there with you. Stand there with you. I'm so proud of what you've all done. I keep me out of people's hair for the next three or four days, but I'm going to be on the road I'm not going anywhere. I know yesterday's news is surprising, and it's hard for you to hear, but it was the right thing to do. I know it's hard because you've poured your heart and soul into me. Help us win this thing. Help me get this nomination, help me win the nomination, and then go on to win win the presidency. But, you know, you're an amazing team, but we've got a great I think we made the right decision. I know how hard you've worked, how many sacrifices you've made. And so many of you, so many of you uprooted your lives for me and the kind of commitments you people make for anything these days, but you made it. And I've been honored and humbled. I mean this is from the bottom of my heart. My word is of Biden for all you've done for me and my family. And we built the best campaign in organization in history. I've been doing this. I always kid and say, I know I'm only 40, but I've been around a long time. I don't know of a better campaign organization, grassroots campaign. You know, we have over 230 offices opened. We have over 2000 paid staff, and we have literally several thousand volunteers on a regular basis, thousands of them. They've been relentless and tireless and reaching out and contacting voters. The leadership of this campaign has been amazing. Gentle Mally Dillon, Julie Quin, Michael Tyler, Bob Flaherty, Rufus on raising money and so many more. You've built this team, you've brought them together, brought us together, you've inspired them, and you've done what leaders do. Now now we got, you know, the name has changed at the top of the ticket, but the mission hasn't changed at all. And by the way, I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to be out there in the campaign with her with Comal. I'm going to be working like Hell, both as a sitting president, getting legislation passed, as well as in campaigning. You know, what we still need to save this democracy. And Trump is still a danger to the community. It's a danger to the nation. And just ask my foreign policy colleagues, my counterparts, and other people around the world and a home. Look. So I'm hoping you'll give every bit of your heart and soul that you gave to me to Comal. And I want you to know. I won't be on the ticket, but I'm still going to be fully fully engaged. I've got six months left in my presncy. I'm determined to get much done as I possibly can, both foreign policy and domestic policy. Keep lowering costs for families. Continue to speak out on guns and childcare, elder care, prescription drugs, and climate. Climate still is the existential threat that we face, and we don't win this thing, it's all in jeopardy. And we got to keep working for an end to the war in Gaza. I'll be working very closely with the Israelis and with the Palestinians to try to work out how we can get the Gaza war to end in the Middle East peace and get all those hostages home. I think we're on the verge of being able to do that. We've got to keep our alliances together. It's critically important. It took a while for me to build these alliances. Most of these my colleagues have acknowledged that, but it's critically critically important for our safety and security. And I know I'll be doing whatever Comma wants me or needs me to do in addition. So let me be real clear. We're still fighting in this fight together. I'm not going anywhere, and I want you to know you've always had my back, and I promise you, I will always have your back, and I'm anxious for you all to hear from Coma. So thank you, thank you. Thank you, Julie, you're the best. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7001650/kamala-harris-speech-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7001650/kamala-harris-speech-trump/"},"headline":"'I Know Donald Trump's Type': Harris Launches New Attack as She Takes Over Campaign","datePublished":"2024-07-23T00:00:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:46.637Z","description":"\"I know Donald Trump’s type.“","url":"https://time.com/7001650/kamala-harris-speech-trump/","keywords":["Kamala Harris"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70c35245655235c4/698a590c096a9436b86b0bf8/GettyImages-2162453138.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Bennett","jobTitle":"Bennett is a former senior White House correspondent at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70c35245655235c4/698a590c096a9436b86b0bf8/GettyImages-2162453138.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-VOTE-HARRIS","caption":"US-POLITICS-VOTE-HARRIS","creditText":"Erin Schaff—Pool/AFP via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/kamala-harris/","name":"Kamala Harris"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7001650/kamala-harris-speech-trump/","name":"'I Know Donald Trump's Type': Harris Launches New Attack as She Takes Over Campaign"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Biden Calls Into Campaign Headquarters After Ending Bid, Vows the 'Mission is Not Over'","description":"A day after he announced he would drop out of the 2024 presidential race, President Joe Biden called into the campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, that used to be his to urge staffers to \"embrace\" his vice president, Kamala Harris.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/JhIgEHfO/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-07-23T01:19:38.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/JhIgEHfO.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/7001650/kamala-harris-speech-trump/","duration":"PT4M10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/7001650/kamala-harris-speech-trump/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```