Remarks by Vice President Harris Before Air Force Two Departure | Las Vegas, NV

Harry Reid International Airport
Las Vegas, Nevada

3:35 P.M. PDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hi.  I wanted to just say it’s been great to be back in Las Vegas.  I’ve been here so many times over the years, and this has been a good trip.  I had some good time to meet with the Culinary Union members, who, of course, are part of the backbone of this great city. 

And I guess, by contrast, my opponent, Donald Trump, yet again, has trashed another great American city when he was in Detroit, which is just a further piece of evidence on a very long list of why he is unfit to be president of the United States.

And with that, I’m happy to take any questions you all have.

     Q    Madam Vice President —

     Q    Madam Vice President, you talked a lot about it being a starker contrast in this election, yet it’s still pretty close, and you talked to a number of undecided voters.  What is your message to them?  Are you surprised that there are so many who still say they’re undecided?  And what would you want them to know about what you believe is that stark contrast?

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  It’s an election for president of the United States, and I intend to earn every vote.  And that’s why I’m here in Nevada, why I’m on my way to Arizona, why I’m traveling the country: to talk with folks, to listen with them, just as I’ve been doing during this visit here to Las Vegas.

And there are a lot of issues that people deserve to hear about, including, for example, my plan on what we’re going to do to build an opportunity economy in a way that will bring down prices but also invest in our small businesses, invest in our entrepreneurs, and invest in American industries.

So, this is a campaign, and it is only right that we earn the vote in order to win what is one of the most important, if not the most important, office in our land.

     Q    And when you say “stark contrast” what do you believe is (inaudible) —

     Q    Madam Vice President, on that contrast, new reporting came out suggests that Donald Trump, as a private citizen, made multiple phone calls to Vladimir Putin.  Were you aware of those calls?  And what’s your response to that reporting?

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  I’ve heard that reporting.  And let me tell you, that, on top of the further reporting, which is that, during the height of the pandemic, Donald Trump, as president of the United States, secretly sent COVID test kits to Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, an adversary, at a time when here in this town and across our country people were dying by the hundreds.  People were scrambling trying to find COVID tests, and the president of the United States secretly sent a bunch for the personal use of the president of Russia. 

We have so many examples of the fact that Donald Trump does not understand the importance of being president of the United States and commander in chief, whether it be what he does full time in demeaning members of our military, calling them “suckers” and “losers;” referring to a great American hero from the state I’m about to visit, who was a prisoner of war, as somehow undeserving of his admiration because he said he got caught.  We have examples of Donald Trump just constantly admiring dictators and autocrats, saying he wants to be a dictator on day one.

Let me tell you something: That’s a sign of the weakness of character that you would seek favor and flattery from dictators and put their needs over the needs of the American people.  And what more clear, most recent example can we have of that than giving COVID tests to the president of Russia when the people of America were dying every day and in need of those tests.

     Q    Madam Vice President, any comment on the air strikes in Lebanon?  Nearly two dozen people have been killed.  There was also some firing on U.N. peacekeepers there.  Any comment? 

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  I’ll say that — what I’ve been saying about this: We have got to reach a ceasefire both as it relates to what’s happening in Lebanon and, of course, Gaza.  We are working around the clock in that regard.

But we need these wars to end, and we’ve got to definitely de-escalate what is happening in the region, and we’re working on it. 

     (Cross-talk.)

     Q    Madam Vice President, I have a question.  As a Latina, I want to know, what do you have to tell Latinos like me who hear Donald Trump saying that that our genes are bad and that we are bad for the country?  I would like to know what you — what you have to say to those Latinos —

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.

     Q    — who are undecided and want to know what you think about that rhetoric about us.

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  I think that, to your point, Donald Trump has shown himself to be someone who thrives on trying to divide us as a nation and — and demean people, call people names.  And that’s not the sign of the character in someone that we want as president of the United States. 

He — we — we have so much more in common than what separates us as Americans.  And it is, I think, in the best interest of everyone to have a leader who measures their strength not based on who they beat down but on who they lift up, and that’s the kind of president I intend to be.

     Thank you all.

                               END                 3:40 P.M. PDT