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RIPON, Wis. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris rallied with Republican Liz Cheney in the birthplace of the modern Republican Party on Thursday as the pair delivered a double-barreled denunciation of GOP nominee Donald Trump as a dire threat to democracy.
With some people hoisting signs “Country over Party,” Harris told the crowd that “people of every party must stand together” to reject Trump, citing his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election and his failure to quell the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.
It was an improbable moment — a Democratic nominee giving a nod to a rival party member and to the origins of the opposing party in the closing weeks of a presidential campaign — and it demonstrated how much Harris is attempting to win over moderate and crossover Republican voters.
Harris said of Trump, “He refused to accept the will of the people and to accept the results of an election that was free and fair."
“The president of the United States must not look at our country through the narrow lens of ideology or party partisanship or self-interest," she added. "Our nation is not some spoil to be won. The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised.”
Cheney is one of Trump's most ardent antagonists. She is the daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and was the top GOP lawmaker on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, earning Trump’s disdain and effectively exiling herself from her own party.
“Violence does not and must never determine who rules us. Voters do," Cheney told the crowd as she recounted Trump refusing to act as he watched the violent attack on television. Someone in the crowd yelled “coward!” Others booed.
Adding to the surreal nature of the event, the crowd cheered references to Dick Cheney and to another Republican former vice president: Mike Pence, who refused to bow to pressure from Trump and attempt to stop the certification in Congress of Biden's 2020 victory.
“He praised the rioters. He did not condemn them. That’s who Donald Trump is,” Liz Cheney said, while urging the crowd to "meet this moment. I ask you to stand in truth. To reject the depraved cruelty of Donald Trump.”
In an interview Thursday night with Fox News Channel, Trump said of Harris and Cheney: “I think they hurt each other. I think they’re so bad, both of them.”
Cheney lost her Wyoming seat to a Trump-endorsed candidate two years ago and endorsed Harris, the Democratic nominee, last month. The two women appeared together in Ripon, home to a white schoolhouse where a series of meetings held in 1854 to oppose slavery’s expansion led to the start of the Republican Party.
“I know that she loves our country, and I know she will be a president for all Americans,” Cheney said of Harris. Noting that she herself remains conservative, Cheney said she was “honored to join her in this urgent cause.”
Harris is on a two-day Wisconsin and Michigan swing, while Trump was in Michigan on Thursday as both candidates grapple for wins in the “blue wall” battleground states, which also include Pennsylvania.
While Cheney and Harris spoke, the former president took his social media site to say Democrats and prosecutors have lied about the "huge crowd of Patriots gathered in Washington, D.C. on January 6th.”
That was a far cry from President Joe Biden's reaction. Arriving back at the White House after touring damage from Hurricane Helene in Georgia and Florida, Biden said of Cheney: “She made one of the most consequential speeches I’ve ever heard. She has character.”
“I know her dad,” Biden added. “We argue like hell, but I always admired his courage and honesty. What she did not took only political courage, but physical courage.”
Harris’ visit to Wisconsin came a day after a federal judge unsealed a 165-page court filing outlining prosecutors’ case against Trump for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and obstruction.
Trump didn't mention the document filed by special counsel Jack Smith or Cheney's appearance with Harris during an 82-minute speech at a rally in Saginaw County, Michigan. In 2020, Biden won the bellwether county by a slim 303 votes, contributing to his victory in the state.
As Trump spoke, his campaign announced he'll appear in Georgia on Friday with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. The two men have made peace after Trump in August unleashed a blistering attack on Kemp, whom he has faulted for not giving in to his efforts to overturn his loss in 2020.
During the 2020 campaign, Cheney criticized Harris as “a radical liberal" who “wants to recreate America in the image of what’s happening on the streets of Portland & Seattle,” a reference to unrest that took place in those cities after the murder of George Floyd.
But Jan. 6 was a turning point for Liz Cheney and her family. Both Cheneys are backing Harris, part of a cadre of current and former Republican officials who have broken with the vast majority of their party, which remains in Trump’s corner. Harris wants to portray her candidacy as a patriotic choice for independent and conservative voters who were disturbed by Trump’s unwillingness to cede power. Trump continues to deny his defeat with false claims of voter fraud.
Harris on Thursday also was endorsed by Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a young White House aide during Trump's presidency and described during a hearing of Cheney's Jan. 6 congressional committee how she grew disgusted by Trump’s refusal to stop the rioters that day. Harris' campaign also began airing ads targeting Republicans, independents and former Trump voters in battleground states.
Cheney’s presence prompted some dissonance for Harris supporters in the Ripon audience, especially those who remember her father’s role as a Republican headliner.
Victor Romero, 46, said it was “a little weird” to be at an event with her.
“I still don’t like Liz Cheney’s politics," he said. "But I’m glad that she understands the Republican Party that currently exists is just for Trump.”
Younger voters, though, reported knowing Cheney primarily for standing up to Trump.
“She stuck to her morals," said Kynaeda Gray, 22.
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Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Saginaw, Michigan, Will Weissert in Washington and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.