Kamala Harris vows US not going back to ‘chaos’ of Trump years in rally speech

Kamala Harris vowed on Tuesday that Americans were "not going back" to the "chaos" of the Donald Trump years, as she made her campaign trail debut in battleground Wisconsin with just over 100 days left before the election.

In an fiery speech a day after securing enough Democratic delegates to win the party's nomination, the vice-president sought to frame the contest against Trump as a choice between starkly different visions for the country, casting his as regressive and backward-looking and hers as optimistic and forward-looking. "Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law or a country of chaos, fear and hate?" she asked, drawing roaring applause and chants of "Kamala" - reflecting an enthusiasm that has eluded Democrats in recent months.

As Harris arrived in Milwaukee, the two most powerful Democrats in Congress, the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, threw their support behind Harris during a joint press conference in Washington DC.

"Democrats are moving forward stronger and more united than ever before," Schumer told reporters on Tuesday, adding that he had seen a "surge of enthusiasm from every corner of our party" since Joe Biden's decision to withdraw from the presidential race and endorse his vice-president.

In short order, Harris consolidated support among the party, ending weeks of internal drama following Biden's calamitous debate performance last month that exacerbated voters' concerns about the 81-year-old president's fitness to serve another four years - and a discussion over who could replace him if he bowed out.

Fears of a messy contest for the nomination never materialized, as members of Congress, party activists, labor leaders and would-be rivals lined up behind Harris. The campaign - which she inherited from Biden - was renamed, and has raised an astonishing $100m in 36 hours.

At the rally on Tuesday, Harris drew a sharp contrast between herself, a history-making prosecutor, and Trump, the first president ever to be convicted of a felony.