Vice President Kamala Harris Inspires With “The Baton Is In Our Hands”

When watching Vice President Kamala Harris’s first major speech as the Democratic Presidential front runner at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, one can hear the voices of past Democratic Presidents in the inspiring words she delivered today.

Being the first President born in the twentieth century John F. Kennedy famously proclaimed at his inauguration that “The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.”

Being the first non World War II generation President, Bill Clinton famously said at the end of his inaugural address, “We have heard the trumpets. We have changed the guard and now each in our own way and with God’s help, we must answer the call.”

He also channeled his inner Fleetwood Mac and always asked people to “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.”

Two of Barack Obama’s enduring campaign themes were “Yes We Can” and “This is Our Time.”

Today, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered the first speech in her quest to win the Presidency, telling the audience and those watching on social media that “The baton is in our hands” in the fight to preserve freedom and chart the course to a prosperous future.

After a graceful and moving telephone call from President Biden thanking his former campaign team and congratulating Vice President Harris, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff introduced his wife to the enthusiastic Harris for President team.

In the below remarks, the Vice President clearly demonstrated that she would skillfully prosecute the case against Donald Trump.

“As many of you know – before I was elected as Vice President, before I was elected as United States Senator – I was the elected Attorney General, as I’ve mentioned, of California and before that I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles I took on perpetrators of all kinds: Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type. And in this campaign, I will proudly – I will proudly put my record against his.“

“As a young prosecutor… I specialized in cases involving sexual abuse. Donald Trump was found liable by a jury for committing sexual abuse. As Attorney General of California, I took on one of our country’s largest for-profit colleges and put it out of business. Donald Trump ran a for-profit college, Trump University, that was forced to pay $25 million to the students it scammed.“

“As District Attorney to go after polluters, I created one of the first environmental justice units in our nation. Donald Trump stood in Mar-a-Lago and told Big Oil lobbyists he would do their bidding for a $1 billion campaign contribution. During the foreclosure crisis, I took on the big Wall Street banks and won $20 billion for California families, holding those banks accountable for fraud. Donald Trump was just found guilty of 34 counts of fraud.“

The Vice President also talked about tomorrow. In the below excerpt, she emphasized that while Donald Trump’s campaign is about going back to the pre-1960s past, hers is about steering the American People and the United States into a better future.

“…Donald Trump wants to take our country backward. To a time before many of our fellow Americans had full freedoms and rights. But we believe in a brighter future that makes room for all Americans. We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead. We believe in a future where no child has to grow up in poverty. Where every person can buy a home, start a family and build wealth. And where every person has access to paid family leave and affordable childcare. That’s the future we see. Together we fight to build a nation where every person has affordable health care. Where every worker is paid fairly, and where every senior can retire with dignity.”

The Vice President committed to an economic program that would strengthen and expand the middle class with policies like paid family leave and child care.

She contrasted that economic vision with the one outlined in the MAGA Project 2025 and its emphasis on tax cuts for the rich, taking away health care, cutting Social Security and Medicare, and the further reductions in personal freedom, saying:

“America has tried these (trickle down) economic policies before. They do not lead to prosperity. They lead to inequity and economic injustice. And we are not going back. We are not going back. You’re not taking us back.”

Like Kennedy, Clinton, and Obama before her, she noted that this was:

“Our fight for the future is also a fight for freedom. Generations of Americans before us have led the fight for freedom: from our founders, to our framers. To the abolitionists and the suffragettes. To the Freedom Riders and farmworkers. And now I say, team: the baton is in our hands. We who believe in the sacred freedom to vote. We who are committed to fight to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. We who believe in the freedom to live safe from gun violence and that’s why we will work to pass universal background checks, red flag laws and an assault weapons ban. We who will fight for reproductive freedom, knowing if Trump gets the chance, he will sign a national abortion ban to outlaw abortion in every single state but we are not going to let that happen.”

Yes they can. The torch has been passed to the next generation. Kamala Harris and her campaign have heard the trumpets and are here to serve. This is their time to fight for a better tomorrow.