In Michigan, Harris hits back against Trump over his electric car attack lines

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Vice President Harris speaks during a rally on Oct. 4 in Flint, Mich. / Getty Images

FLINT, Mich. – Vice President Harris pushed back against a barrage of attacks from her Republican opponent falsely alleging that she intends to ban gas-powered cars.

“Let us be clear, contrary to what my opponent is suggesting, I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive,” Harris said at a rally on Friday, countering that former President Donald Trump would hurt the auto industry and the union workers that power it in this critical swing state.

Trump and Republicans have long railed against policies and incentives for electric vehicles championed by President Biden, measures Biden has said would help curb climate-changing carbon emissions boosting advanced manufacturing jobs. Biden has had a goal that half of all new cars by 2030 be electric.

Harris has backed Biden's measures. In 2019, when she was in the Democratic primary race, she called for all new passenger vehicles sold to be zero-emission by 2035. Her campaign has not revived that proposal.

When Biden was still running for a second term, Trump also falsely said Biden would ban gas-powered cars. He carried over that attack line when Harris became the nominee.

Lately, Trump's campaign has spent more than $1 million airing a television ad in Michigan that tells autoworkers that “Kamala Harris wants to end all gas-powered cars” and that “massive layoffs already started.”

Harris – who was preceded on stage at the rally by the president of the United Auto Workers, a union that has endorsed her – said six auto plants closed when Trump was in office and accused him of making “empty promises” about supporting the sector.

“We will not be gaslighted,” she said.

“We will ensure that the next generation of breakthroughs, from advanced batteries to electric vehicles are not only invented, but built right here in America by American union workers,” Harris said.

She pointed to a Detroit News report that Trump’s running mate JD Vance was noncommittal about a grant to a GM plant in Lansing, Michigan. The Biden administration gave the company $500 million to convert the plant to make electric vehicles. “He might let the Grand River assembly plant in Lansing close down,” she said.