Politics

Here’s What Trump Supporters Had To Say At First Rally Since Biden Quit

Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Holds A Campaign Rally In Charlotte, North Carolina

(Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Julianna Frieman Contributor
Font Size:

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Trump supporters gathered in North Carolina’s largest city before daybreak Wednesday to watch the 2024 Republican presidential nominee speak at his first campaign rally since President Joe Biden ditched his re-election bid.

Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nomination late Sunday after announcing his withdrawal on social media. Top Democrats who pressured Biden to bow out, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, have since endorsed Harris.

Six hours before Trump delivered his remarks, supporters waiting patiently outside the venue weighed in on the Democrats’ candidate swap. Michael Duever, 61, insisted that he does not fear Harris’ sudden presidential bid, confidently declaring that the vice president is “going to be defeated.”

“She doesn’t know how to talk. She doesn’t know how to communicate. What is she doing?” Duever told the Daily Caller. “She only had one job, which was to close the border, and she failed because it was an inside job. They like to keep the border open.”

On stage inside the Bojangles Coliseum, Trump slammed Harris as an “ultra-liberal politician” who is “trying to get rid of her record.”

Biden assigned Harris the responsibility of dealing with Mexico and Central American countries in March 2021. Since then, Harris visited the southern border once in El Paso, Texas to tour a Border Patrol facility in June 2021.

“What they’ve done to our country is unthinkable,” Trump told his audience Wednesday evening. “As border czar, Kamala threw open our borders and allowed 20 million illegal aliens to stampede into our country from around the world.”

Miriam Mitten, a 71-year-old retired “full-time” grandmother with 12 grandchildren, told the Caller that Harris’ biggest weakness is “her viewpoint.”

“I do not think her policies are for this country, for the strength of our country,” Mitten said. “I do not agree with her values. I do not agree with her policies on foreign trade or the border or many other issues.”

Sanjay Upemaka, a 34-year-old wearing a “Hindus for Trump” shirt, told the Caller that he “feels good” Biden dropped out of the race because the president is “too old and in his last stages of life.” Upemaka said the state of the nation, particularly the economy, is “no different than any third-world country.”

“They’re going to keep Biden in because he’s almost like a puppet,” Upemaka said of Biden serving the remainder of his term in office.

Upemaka brought up Harris’ “failed” record as San Francisco district attorney, a role the vice president served between 2004 and 2010 — until she was elevated to California’s attorney general in 2010, and later was elected as her state’s senator in 2017. That evening, Trump bashed Harris’ record in the liberal state, warning the vice president would wreak havoc on the nation. (RELATED: ‘Got To Take The Keys’: Media Reactions To Biden Stepping Down Include Shock, Tears)

“Just like she destroyed San Francisco, she will destroy our entire country,” Trump said.

Trump also mentioned how the crowd at his Butler, Pennsylvania, rally did not lose control when he was shot July 13. Renee White told the Caller she was behind Trump when he was grazed in the right ear by a bullet, calling what she witnessed “very surreal” and an “out-of-body experience.”

“I was watching the Jumbotron to the right. Heard the first shot and kind of followed it back towards Trump, that sound of it, anyways. And then the next two shots came, and I watched President Trump grab his ear. I watched him go down to the ground. I watched the Secret Service pile on top of him. And I see the guys up there with the rifles, sharpshooters, and the camouflage, and the black. And they were walking around the stage. And that’s when it started to be, like, more real,” White said

“I heard them calling back their coordinates, back-and-forth – Secret Service talk – and then I heard, ‘shooter down, shooter down,’ So, as soon as I heard that – a couple seconds later, it seemed like forever – then President Trump got up off of the ground,” White continued. “He got up off of the ground, and then raised his fist up. I heard him say, ‘My shoe, my shoe,’ and look down at his feet, and I saw his shoe was off. And then, I watched them take him off the stage. They went came back got his shoe. But he did the ‘Fight! Fight!’ and I stood up right behind him and I did the same thing. It was like, ‘Okay, it’s on. He’s okay, that’s cool.’”

White said she “can’t even believe” Biden has been “serving our country this long, stating that the president should have withdrawn from the 2024 election “months ago.” When White was asked what she thought of Harris’ candidacy, one nearby man interjected passionately.

“Terrible! She’s terrible,” the man said of Harris. “She’s just as bad as Biden if not worse, honestly.”

White recalled that Harris “couldn’t even get 1%” of the vote during the 2020 Democratic primary election, stating that no vice presidential pick could bolster her White House bid.

“It doesn’t matter. She could pick Mickey Mouse for her VP — it wouldn’t work,” White told the Caller.

Other speakers at Wednesday’s rally included National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd, North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Whatley and legendary NASCAR driver Richard Childress. The National Association of Police Organizations also endorsed the former president’s second term during the rally.

Less than 15 minutes after Trump walked off stage, Biden delivered his first Oval Office address since announcing his withdrawal through a letter posted on Twitter. The GOP nominee was later pictured watching Biden’s remarks with a bemused expression on a large television inside Trump Force One.