Former President Donald Trump and his Republican running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, rallied at Georgia State University in Atlanta on Saturday. It’s the same venue where Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, spoke earlier this week.
The back-to-back campaign rallies offered a dramatic contrast as the rival campaigns scrap over one of the nation’s most competitive battlegrounds.
Here are the AJC’s live updates:
7:38 p.m.: Trump has left the stage.
7:19 p.m.: Trump praises election board members, bashes Kemp and Raffensperger
Former President Donald Trump praised three members of the Georgia State Election Board who have pressed for tougher rules ahead of the November election - even as he continued to make false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Election board members Rick Jeffares, Janelle King and Janice Johnston have pressed a series of rules they say are designed to increase transparency. Critics fear they are attempting to pave the way for Republicans to reject the results of a Democratic victory in the presidential election.
“Those three people are incredible,” Trump said.
The three Republican-appointed board members drew criticism and a lawsuit when they met recently to approve two election rules despite concerns from the Attorney General’s Office that the meeting would violate the state Open Meetings Act. The board later agreed to revisit the rules at another meeting.
Trump also took another shot at Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“They don’t want the election to be honest,” he said. “In my opinion, thy want us to lose.”
Trump has made false allegations about voting fraud in Georgia for years, and Saturday was no different.
“I won this state twice, in my opinion,” he told the crowd.
State and federal investigators have examined numerous allegations of voting fraud following the 2020 election and found no evidence to support them. Among other things, they have debunked claims that that tens of thousands of dead people voted, reports of counterfeit ballots, allegations of illegal ballot harvesting and tales of election-night ballot-stuffing.
- David Wickert
7 p.m.: Trump blames Harris for Laken Riley’s death
Former President Donald Trump blamed Vice President Kamala Harris in raw, scathing terms for the brutal killing of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student bludgeoned to death on the campus of the University of Georgia.
”Kamala Harris should not be asking for your vote,” Trump told thousands of supporters during a rally at Georgia State University’s arena in downtown Atlanta. “She should be begging Laken Riley’s family for forgiveness.”
He added that Riley’s “blood is on Kamala Harris’ hands” and that she might as well have been “standing there, watching herself” the brutal slaying.
Riley’s body was discovered Feb. 22 in a wooded area near UGA’s intramural fields. The man charged in her killing, 26-year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra, is a Venezuela national who was arrested in 2022 after unlawfully entering the United States, federal immigration officials said. He has pleaded not guilty.
Trump and other Republicans have long tried to tap into the fury of his party’s conservative base over immigration policies to blame Democrats for her death.
And Trump’s campaign launched an ad blitz in Georgia and other battleground states this week blasting Harris over immigration. At her Atlanta rally this week, she vowed to revive a bipartisan border security deal that Trump helped scuttle.
-Greg Bluestein
6:51 p.m.: Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger responded to Trump’s online attacks Saturday.
6:47 p.m.: Trump mentioned Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose name drew loud “boos” at Saturday’s rally. Willis charged Trump and 18 others last year for their roles in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Trump sought to tie Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to Willis.
“You know, Fani Willis is a good friend of your governor,” Trump said. “I’m not a fan of your governor.”
Later, he portrayed Atlanta as a crime-ridden hell.
“Atlanta is like a killing field, and your governor ought to get off his ass and do something about it,” Trump said.
In January, the Atlanta Police Department said the number of homicides in Atlanta dropped to 135 in 2023, down from 171 the previous year. Other violent crimes, including rape and aggravated assault, were also down last year, with the number of rape cases being cut in half.
Through July 20, the last update for crime data on the department’s website, 69 homicides had been investigated, up one from the same date in 2023.
- David Wickert
6:35 p.m.: Trump confronted Democratic messaging positioning him as a threat to democracy, saying, “I think I got shot because of that.” The crowd roared as he countered, “I’m going to save democracy.”
6:24 p.m.: “For all of you non-believers, that one was from God,” Donald Trump says, speaking about his assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.
6:15 p.m.: Donald Trump said he’d like to “congratulate Vladimir Putin for making yet another great deal.” This week, President Joe Biden secured prisoners held in Russia in a swap, and Trump has railed against the hostage deal.
6:09 p.m.: Trump: ‘I don’t need celebrities’
Trump drew a contrast between his rally and a Kamala Harris rally earlier this week that featured various celebrities.
“I don’t need entertainers,” Trump said. “I filled the stadium because I’m making America great again.”
Following criticism that he frequently mispronounced opponent Kamala Harris name, Trump quipped, “There are many different ways of saying it, she only likes three.”
Trump also criticizes the Georgia State University administration saying “we could have fit more people in.”
“If they’re going to stand in the way of admitting people into our rally, just imagine what they’re going to do on election day.”
- Michele Baruchman and Merrill Hart
6:05 p.m.: Former President Donald Trump just walked on stage.
5:47 p.m.: Trump is meeting with Black business owners ahead of his Atlanta rally.
5:16 p.m.: Protesters gather outside Trump rally
More than a dozen protesters are lined up across the street from the convention center, and organizers say they have been protesting Trump and Vance’s visit since 3 pm. They plan to continue protesting until the end of Trump’s speech.
Nate Knauf is an organizer with the Atlanta Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. He said they want to make it clear that Trump and Vance are not welcome in Atlanta.
“We’re here protesting Trump and Vance because we think that fascists have no place in the city of Atlanta,” he said. “The Trump Vance platform it’s a racist, a sexist, anti-gay, anti-immigrant agenda which is focused on dividing working people to fight amongst each other. The real fight is between the working class and the one percent.”
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
The group has been chanting “no justice, no peace, US out of the Middle East” and other slogans. They want to see a ceasefire in Palestine and more protection of queer rights and immigrant rights.
Trump supporters have countered the protests chants with “USA! USA!” and have began standing in front of the protesters. Over a dozen police officers arrived to monitor the protest.
- Phoebe Quinton
5:02 p.m.: Vance draws on ‘hillbilly’ childhood
Vance drew upon his childhood in Ohio, the subject of his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” to claim that the American dream is dying under the Biden and Harris administration. He promised to rebuild American industry and fight for those struggling in the country. ”It’s the little guy who hurts the most when Kamala Harris fails,” Vance said.
“I know what it’s like to watch families fall apart under financial stress,” Vance said. “But I also know that our national motto is ‘In God we trust,’ and God tells us not to despair, but to hope. This state of Georgia is going to have a great restoration.”
- Merrill Hart
4:55 p.m.: Trump bashes three Georgia Republicans
Ahead of his rally, Donald Trump took to his social media platform to attack a trio of Georgia Republicans he blamed for his 2020 election defeat: Gov. Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan.
Trump praised the Georgia GOP for seeking to exile Duncan, whom he labeled as a “total lightweight.” He renewed attacks against Kemp, saying Georgia’s crime rate is “terrible” on his watch. And he framed Raffensperger as a traitor to the party.
”We have to purge the Party of people that go against our Candidates, and make it harder for a popular Republican President to beat the Radical Left Lunatics,” he wrote on his social media platform.
- Greg Bluestein
4:51 p.m.: Vance portrays Harris as a Washington elite
Vance positioned Harris as a Washington elite, condemning her role in the Inflation Reduction Act and increased gas prices under the Biden administration.
”It’s not the price we pay for democracy, it’s the price we pay for her failed leadership,” Vance said.
Pushing back against recent Democratic language calling MAGA “weird,” Vance accused Harris of being “weird” by putting on what he saw as a fake southern accent during her Atlanta rally.
Vance also pushed back against Democrats claiming that Trump supporters are disloyal to America.
”Loyalty is protecting Laken Riley, not allowing an illegal immigrant to take her life,” Vance said.
- Merrill Hart
4:46 p.m.: Vance: ‘America is never going to elect a San Francisco liberal’
JD Vance, Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee, took the stage at the rally in Atlanta Saturday and immediately suggested Kamala Harris was not fairly positioned for the top of the Democratic ticket.
”She has not received a single vote for president,” he said.
Harris was so unpopular, he said, that she didn’t even rank in the top three candidates for president during the Democratic primary in 2020.
”America is never going to elect a San Francisco liberal who is so far outside the mainstream,” he said.
- Michelle Baruchman
4:23 p.m.: Lt. Gov. Jones tweaks his predecessor: ‘You can’t fix stupid’
There’s no love lost between Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and his predecessor, Geoff Duncan.
For starters, Jones is an avowed Donald Trump supporter and Duncan is one of the few prominent Republicans to back Vice President Kamala Harris. On Friday, the Georgia GOP took steps to exile Duncan from the party.
Jones, however, didn’t want it to stop there. He opened his speech at Saturday’s rally with a jab at Duncan.
“I don’t want anyone to confuse me with the past lieutenant governor who was here supporting Kamala Harris …” Jones said. “Someone asked me what I thought about that, and I said, ‘Sometimes you just can’t fix stupid.’”.
-Greg Bluestein
4:16 p.m.: Greene: Road to White House goes through Georgia
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene seems to agree with Democrats on one point: “The road to the White House goes directly through the state of Georgia.”
But that was as far as the shared beliefs went.
“Our election, Georgia, was stolen from us,” she told a crowd of Trump supporters Saturday to thunderous applause.
Greene said seniors have challenges paying rent and buying medication while “young people may never be able to afford a new home or the American dream.”
Though parties can make their own nominating rules, Greene questioned the fairness of putting Harris at the top of the ticket. “Not a single democratic voter has voted for this to happen,” she said.
- Michelle Baruchman
4 p.m.: A group of Trump supporters marched along the outside of the convention center, chanting “USA.”
3:58 p.m.: Collins calls Harris ‘the Stacey Abrams of California’
If there’s a name that’s sure to rile up a GOP audience in Georgia, it’s not President Joe Biden or even Vice President Kamala Harris. It’s Stacey Abrams, the former state legislator who twice lost to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, R-Jackson, leaned into that on Saturday as he revved up the crowd of thousands of Donald Trump supporters. It was probably his loudest applause line.
”Kamala Harris is like the Stacey Abrams of California … Georgia didn’t want Stacey and we don’t want Kamala,” he said.
- Greg Bluestein
3:54 p.m.: Brian Jack: ‘Donald Trump took a bullet for us’
Congressional candidate Brian Jack painted a portrait of Donald Trump as an empathetic, caring person who has gone out of his way to help vulnerable people, including in Georgia.
Jack said Trump heard about a family in Burke County who was at risk of having their home foreclosed upon.
“I’ve never met you. I’m moved by your story. I wanna help,” Jack said the former president told them.
Jack also said Trump extended a lengthy “thank you” to the emergency workers who responded to the Interstate 85 bridge collapse, saying “let’s get those heroes to the White House.”
”That is the President Trump I know and that is the man we must re-elect,” he said. ”Donald Trump took a bullet for us. The least we can do is get out and vote for him.”
- Michelle Baruchman
3:46 p.m.: Perdue rallies Trump supporters
Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue continued to tiptoe back onto the political scene, taking centerstage at Donald Trump’s rally for a brief pep talk to the crowd.
”I’m here to tell you if we don’t do our job,” said Perdue. “President Trump isn’t going to be reelected.”
The Republican has appeared at a trio of Trump events this year, some of his only political appearances since his back-to-back defeats for U.S. Senate and governor. While he’s unlikely to run for public office, allies say he could be in line for a federal appointment if Trump wins.
- Greg Bluestein
3:30 p.m.: MAGA pols turn out for Trump
The MAGA Georgia glitterati was out in full force on Saturday when former President Donald Trump holds his first joint rally in Atlanta with his newly christened running mate U.S. Sen. JD Vance.
Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance. U.S. Reps. Mike Collins and Marjorie Taylor Greene fanned out through the crowd. Former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins drew cheers wherever he went.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was front-and-center along with a few other Republicans who won Trump’s endorsement in 2022. So was Democrat-turned-Republican Vernon Jones, who lost a U.S. House race despite earning Trump’s blessing.
Just as notable will be those who didn’t attend: A trio of Republican incumbents Trump tried to oust two years ago after blaming Gov. Brian Kemp and his allies for his election defeat.
Attorney General Chris Carr and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger sent word through aides they won’t be attending; Carr cited a family obligation. Likewise, a Kemp aide also said he wouldn’t join the rally at Georgia State University’s convocation center.
The fourth member of the GOP quartet who thwarted Trump-backed challengers in the 2022 primary is Insurance Commissioner John King, who had skipped previous rallies. Interestingly, he sat near the front of the stage on Saturday.
- Greg Bluestein
3:20: Carter wants to help defeat Trump
Former Democratic President Jimmy Carter has more on his mind than his 100th birthday on Oct. 1. He wants to help defeat Republican Donald Trump.
“I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” Carter told his son Chip this week, according to his grandson Jason Carter.
You can read more here.
- Greg Bluestein
3:15 p.m.: Georgia ag commissioner addresses immigration at Trump rally
Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper addressed the growing crowd at Saturday’s Trump rally in Atlanta.
Harper said that, under Donald Trump, “we won’t have illegals crossing the border.”
He also emphasized Trump’s support for men and women who serve in the U.S. military and led the crowd in the pledge of allegiance to “honor the flag.”
”It’s time to put the train on the right tracks,” he said.
- Michelle Baruchman
3 p.m.: Marjorie Taylor Greene cheered at Trump rally
Donald Trump is the star of Saturday’s rally. But in Georgia, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene might be a close second.
The Rome Republican was cheered everywhere she went inside Georgia State University’s convocation center, including as she stepped onto the risers for a series of media interviews.
The MAGA loyalist is one of Trump’s most ardent allies and squashed a Democratic challenger two years ago who raised more than $16 million. She told the AJC she wants Trump to appoint her to lead the Department of Homeland Security if she wins.
2:40 p.m.: Trump not backing away from questioning Harris’ racial identity
You could almost hear the groans from senior Georgia Republicans after former President Donald Trump used a forum with Black journalists this week to question Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity. If the backdrop of his Atlanta rally is any indication, Trump isn’t backing off his remarks wrongly saying that Harris, the first vice president of Black and South Asian descent, “became” Black for political reasons.
Flat screen TVs around Georgia State University’s convocation center featured a 2016 Business Insider headline that read: “California’s Kamala Harris becomes first Indian-American US senator.”
Harris, who has always highlighted her shared heritage, described the former president’s comments as “the same old show, the divisiveness and the disrespect.”
”Let me just say,” she said, “the American people deserve better.”
- Greg Bluestein
2:32 p.m.: Trump supporters travel from across the region
Trump supporters from across the region traveled to Atlanta to see the former president.
When asked why he attended the rally, 65-year-old John Wilkins of Stockbridge gave a straight-forward answer.
“I love Trump, and I love what he stands for,” Wilkins said. “And I hate everything that the Democrats do.”
Wilkins listed the border, the economy and abortion as top policy priorities.
Credit: Merrill Hart
Credit: Merrill Hart
Ervin Boger, 69, had his son, a Georgia State student, drop him off before the doors opened at 1 p.m. He waited in line behind hundreds of other Trump supporters two blocks away from the entrance of the convocation center.
“And then to find that the line is so long, I said Wow I should’ve gotten here earlier!” he said. “Everyone’s just so happy and comfortable and waiting their turn. It’s just a very happy, safe atmosphere. Very supportive.”
Mac and Wendy Mullins (53 and 50 years old) drove an hour from Alpharetta to see Trump. They think he will absolutely win Georgia.
“As long as there’s no funny business it should be alright,” said Mac.
“It’s just going to be a matter of whether the machines have been corrected,” Wendy added.
They said taxes and economic freedom are one of their top concerns.
Logan Lott, 23, of Conyers, said he wants Trump to reestablish the economy the country had under the Trump administration and make elections fair again.
“My biggest issue this election is just keeping elections fair and making sure every single vote is counted,” Lott said.
- Merrill Hart, Phoebe Quinton and Caleb Groves
2:18 p.m.: Harris’ campaign gets a pep talk Saturday
While Republican Donald Trump rallied in Atlanta, Democrat Kamala Harris’ campaign got a pep talk.
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat from Texas, told a group of volunteers at a Harris for Georgia campaign office Saturday that Trump’s political agenda amounts to “the old Jim Crow playbook.”
”They are trying to take us back to everything that we did not have back in the day,” she said.
Crockett said the stakes of the election are not just who is elected to the presidency, but who the president has the power to appoint to the Supreme Court.
”They don’t want us to get ahead. And I when I say us, it’s not just Black people. It’s anybody who is not old, white and already rich,” she said.
Crockett referenced the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis and his work on voting rights. And she also emphasized the importance of the southern swing state.
”Our collective freedoms are running right through Georgia,” she said.
- Michelle Baruchman
2:05 p.m.: Trump supporters consider Kamala Harris’s rise
Trump supporters had varied opinions about how Kamala Harris’ emergence as the Democratic nominee would affect the presidential race.
John Cherry, 75, from Buckhead, said that he is worried about the momentum Harris has received in the first couple of weeks of her campaign. But he thinks that it will not last.
“The Democrat party is all fired up and excited,” Cherry said. “Two weeks ago Kamala was the worst vice president ever, now they all love her. Best ever.”
Wearing a shirt emblazoned with former president Donald Trump raising his fist after last month’s failed assassination attempt, 43-year-old Andrea McLean said she doubts Harris as a new opponent will affect the election’s outcome.
“I think there’ll be a honeymoon period,” McLean said. “But I think all in all, people will see her for what she is — if we can keep the internet from erasing all the history and things she’s done.”
- Phoebe Quinton and Merrill Hart
Credit: Phoebe Quinton
Credit: Phoebe Quinton
1:40 p.m.: Thousands of supporters line up to see Trump in Atlanta
Thousands of Trump supporters waited to get into his rally at Georgia State University Saturday.
Columbus resident Matthew Tayler, 33, drove into Atlanta at 6 a.m. to see former president Donald Trump at his first Georgia rally since the Republican National Convention. He said Trump’s messaging will “absolutely” change in the wake of the new Democratic opponent, citing Kamala Harris’ unique path to nomination.
“I don’t think they went about democracy the right way,” Taylor said. “They stole it from the sitting president, the incumbent.”
Credit: Seeger Gray / AJC
Credit: Seeger Gray / AJC
Bill Henderson, 51, was among a group of Trump supporters standing under the Atlanta Olympic Cauldron Tower. Henderson, in supply chain management, drove down from Athens to spend the night. “I just came down to see the crowd and people watch,” he said. Henderson said when Trump was in office, “We didn’t have the cost of living increases we have now.” The Georgian said he isn’t worried about the Democrats winning this November. “Kamala appeals to the younger people that don’t really do research,” Henderson said.
- Merrill Hart and Caleb Groves
12:30 p.m.: Democrats train volunteers
As Trump supporters lined up for his rally in downtown Atlanta, the Kamala Harris’ campaign was wrapping up training for volunteers who will canvas throughout metro Atlanta.
- Michelle Baruchman
12:08 p.m.: Trump, Vance Atlanta rally follows Harris’ visit earlier this week
Former President Donald Trump will hold his first rally in Georgia with his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, at the same venue where Vice President Kamala Harris headlined a raucous event earlier this week.
The back-to-back campaign stops at Georgia State University’s convocation center offer a dramatic contrast as the rival campaigns scrap over one of the nation’s most competitive battlegrounds.
Trump’s rally is set to begin at 3 p.m. Vance is scheduled to speak at 4 p.m. followed by Trump an hour later. While most of Trump’s top Georgia allies are expected to attend, just as notable are the high-profile GOP figures who are skipping the event.
Harris drew roughly 10,000 supporters to the downtown Atlanta center on Tuesday, the biggest Democratic crowd of this year’s campaign. Trump’s allies expect a similar audience to pack the venue on Saturday.
The rally caps a momentous week as Trump sought to blunt Harris’ momentum by questioning her racial identity at a conference of Black journalists in Chicago.
Harris, meanwhile, won enough delegates during online voting to secure the Democratic nomination, making her the first Black woman and first person of South Asian heritage to become a major party’s nominee.
And she’s expected to announce her running mate by Tuesday, when she and her pick headline a rally in Philadelphia and then kick off a swing through battleground states that includes a Friday stop in Savannah.
- Greg Bluestein
