ROCHESTER, Pa. (AP) — Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz gave pep talks to campaign volunteers and a high school football team Sunday, with their bus tour in a corner of Pennsylvania serving as a modest, small-town version of the grand rally she's expected to have at the Democratic nominating convention in Chicago this week. Vice President Harris and Walz, the governor of Minnesota, were joined by their spouses, Doug Emhoff and Gwen Walz, as they toured in a blue bus.
They stopped off to visit volunteers at a campaign office not far from Pittsburgh before continuing on to a firehouse and a high school in another town, along with a pilgrimage to a Sheetz convenience store, part of a storied Pennsylvania chain. Throughout their stops, Harris and her running mate shied away from policy or much politics, instead sticking to broad-strokes messages focused on character, perseverance and the future of the country. Harris, while speaking to a group of supporters and volunteers outside the campaign office in the borough of Rochester, spoke about strength and leadership.
She appeared to make a veiled reference to Donald Trump , the Republican presidential nominee, who is known for his pugilistic style and projection of a strongman image, when she said the “real and true measure of a strength of a leader is based on who you lift up,” rather than who they beat down. “Anybody who is about beating down other people is a coward,” she yelled, dr.