Harris in focus as Biden faces pressure to drop out

Vice President Kamala Harris touted the recovery in domestic manufacturing under President Joe Biden on Thursday at a campaign rally in North Carolina, where intense media interest reflected her status as the most likely Democratic presidential nominee should Biden reject his candidacy for re-election.

“The fact is, under Donald Trump, America has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs. And more than 1,000 factories have closed under his watch,” Harris said in Fayetteville. “Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and I have created nearly 800,000 new manufacturing jobs — so many that it has been described as a manufacturing boom.”

The vice president’s remarks come amid intense pressure from top Democrats to drop Biden from the presidential race.

According to media reports, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi Both told Biden that his re-election bid could jeopardize the party’s electoral chances in both houses of Congress.

Two sources familiar with former President Barack Obama’s thinking he told NBC News that while he has “concerns” about Biden’s ability to remain at the top of the Democratic ticket, he also continues to see his primary role as a sounding board and adviser to his two-term vice president.

And while Democratic donors are pushing for Biden to step down, donor events featuring Harris are starting to sell out.

Biden, who is currently in self-isolation in Delaware after testing positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday, has steadfastly rejected calls to leave.

But his campaign began quietly sustainability assessment of a ticket led by Harris, voting for the vice president’s chances in a head-to-head battle against former President Donald Trump, a source told NBC News last week.

A new CBS/YouGov national poll of likely voters shows the Republican presidential nominee with a 5-point lead over Biden, 52% to 47%, while in a hypothetical matchup, Trump leads Harris by 3 points, 51% to 48%. Both results of the poll, which was conducted after Trump’s assassination attempt on Saturday, are within the margin of error.

In her remarks Thursday, which were broadcast live on MSNBC, CNN and Fox News, Harris responded to Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s speech Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention.

“He didn’t talk about Project 2025, the 900-page plan for a second Trump term,” Harris said, referring to the policy plans developed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. “He didn’t talk about it because their plans are extreme and they’re divisive.”

“Over the last few days, they’ve been trying to portray themselves as the party of unity. Here’s the thing: If you’re claiming to stand for unity, you have to do more than just use the word,” Harris said. “You cannot claim to stand for unity if you promote an agenda that deprives entire groups of Americans of basic freedoms, opportunities and dignity.”

Harris, who campaigned in Michigan on Wednesday, also talked about the administration’s accomplishments, including the insulin price cap, expanding the child tax credit and student debt relief.

“It’s clear that if Donald Trump were to win in November, he will continue to sell out working families, continue to attack reproductive freedom and continue to undermine our democracy,” Harris said.

It is the seventh time this year and the second time this month that Harris has visited North Carolina — a battleground state where Democrats are hoping to flip after narrowly losing to Trump in 2020.

Harris spoke at a campaign event in Greensboro on July 11, where she was joined by Gov. Roy Cooper, the Democratic governor who is not running for re-election. Cooper, who was North Carolina’s attorney general during the same time Harris was California’s attorney general, also spoke at Thursday’s rally.