Harris repeats debunked claim Trump wants to 'ban' abortion during first campaign rally since Biden quit race
Vice President Harris fired up voters in one major swing state on Tuesday, while also using her first campaign rally since President Biden's exit from the 2024 race to repeat a debunked claim that former President Trump wants to implement a blanket "ban" on abortion.
"We who believe in reproductive freedom will stop Donald Trump's extreme abortion bans because we trust women to make decisions about their own body, and not have their government tell them what to do," Harris told a raucous crowd of supporters gathered at a school auditorium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Harris has made the same claim on other occasions, including in an X post earlier this month. "Donald Trump would ban abortion nationwide," she wrote. "President [Joe Biden] and I will do everything in our power to stop him and restore women's reproductive freedom."
Her claim drew widespread condemnation from users who used Community Notes, the platform’s way for readers to offer context to messages viewed as false or lacking context, to point to reporting from CNN, BBC, The Associated Press and The New York Times that went against her claim.
X CEO Elon Musk, a supporter of Trump, joined in, accusing her of "lying."
"When will politicians, or at least the intern who runs their account, learn that lying on this platform doesn’t work anymore?" he wrote.
Trump has said abortion limits should be left to the states, and posted a video on Truth Social detailing his position earlier this year.
"My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both. And whatever they decide must be the law of the land – in this case, the law of the state," Trump said.
Trump has suggested there should be restrictions on abortion after a certain point during a pregnancy, specifically around 15 weeks.
Harris spoke to the crowd for around 18 minutes, much shorter than Trump's usual hour-long or more speeches, and began by recognizing the importance of Wisconsin as a battleground state.
"The path to the White House goes through Wisconsin. Yes it does. And to win in Wisconsin, we are counting on you right here in Milwaukee," she said.
She went on to praise Biden as an "incredible" president, said it was "one of the greatest honors" to have served as his vice president, and claimed his legacy had "surpassed" that of presidents who served two terms in office.
"It is my great honor to have Joe Biden's endorsement in this race," she added.
The loudest cheers came when Harris said she had reached enough delegate support to secure her party's nomination for president.
"I'm so very honored, and I pledge to you, I will spend the coming weeks continuing to unite our party so we are ready to win in November," she said, acknowledging she has "some work to do" between now and the general election.
She also continued to try and tie Trump to the Heritage Foundation's heavily scrutinized Project 2025, which she called "extreme," and which the former president has disavowed as "ridiculous" and "abysmal."
Harris was briefly interrupted at one point by a protester who began shouting about the plight of the Palestinians amid the war between Israel and Hamas, but the individual was quickly escorted out of the event space.
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.