RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Kamala Harris On Wednesday, he called on Americans to “stop pointing fingers at each other” as he sought to challenge past comments he’s made about President Joe Biden. Supporters of Donald Trump and “trash”.

“We know we have an opportunity in this election to turn a new page in a decade-long history of Donald Trump trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other,” the Democratic nominee said of his Republican opponent.

Harris made her presentation in Raleigh, North Carolina, at the first of three rallies she plans to attend on Wednesday. It also heads to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Madison, Wisconsin, as part of the battleground states in the final week before Election Day.

He emphasized unity and common ground, His closing remarks in Washington on TuesdayHe laid out what his team called the “closing argument” of his campaign.

“I’m not trying to score political points,” the vice president said. “I’m trying to make progress.”

Liz Kazal, 35, said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the election as she waited for Harris to take the stage. She tried to volunteer for the campaign every week, including making phone calls, knocking on doors with her young daughter and raising money for Harris’ candidacy.

“You hope for the best and plan for the worst,” Kazal said.

Harris’ introduction at the rally by a former Republican voter who previously supported Trump is another example of her campaign’s effort to accommodate disaffected conservatives uneasy about re-electing the former president.

It was such a message Biden threatened to undermine On Tuesday — at the same time Harris was speaking near the White House — when she attended a campaign call organized by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino.

Biden used the opportunity to criticize Trump’s recent Madison Square Garden rally; One comedian described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

“The only garbage I see floating out there are his supporters. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and un-American,” Biden said. “This is completely contrary to everything we do.”

Biden and the White House rushed to clarify that the president, not Trump’s supporters, was referring to the rhetoric on stage. He did not answer questions about his comments during a meeting with the Cypriot president in the Oval Office on Wednesday, but press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden “does not view Trump supporters or anyone who supports Trump as trash.”

Harris told reporters before boarding Air Force Two to fly to Raleigh that she disagreed with “any criticism based on who people voted for.”

“I will represent all Americans, including those who did not vote for me,” he said.

His remarks were an attempt to blunt controversy over Biden’s comments and put some distance between himself and the president. he struggled with in the past.

Republicans seized on Biden’s comments, claiming they were an echo of when Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee in 2016, said half of Trump supporters belonged to a “basket of deplorables.”

“We know what they believe. Because look how they treated you,” Trump said at his rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. “They treated you like garbage. “The truth is, they treated our entire country like garbage.”

He also used his pseudonym as the president, saying “without a doubt, my supporters are much better quality than Crooked Joe’s.”

In attacking Biden and, by extension, Harris, Republicans have ignored Trump’s own history of derogatory and demonizing rhetoric, such as calling the United States a “dustbin for the world” or describing political opponents as the “enemy within.” Trump also described Harris as a “stupid person” and “very lazy” and questioned whether she used drugs.

Trump also rejected requests to apologize for the comment about Puerto Rico made at his rally, acknowledging that “someone said some bad things” but adding that he “can’t imagine it being a big deal.”

Political attack lines have a history of occasionally boomeranging back against the people who use them. For example, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, who is now Trump’s running mate, once described Democrats We owe it to “a group of childless cat ladies who were unhappy with their own lives and the choices they made.”

Vance’s 3-year-old comments resurfaced when he became the vice presidential candidate, energizing Harris supporters who repurposed the hashtag as a point of pride on shirts and bumper stickers; just as Trump supporters once gleefully branded themselves “deplorables.”

On Wednesday morning, Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, downplayed Biden’s comments in television interviews.

“Let’s be very clear, the vice president and I have made it clear that we want everyone to be a part of this,” he told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric needs to end.” ___ Megerian reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, Adriana Gomez Licon in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Tom Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

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