NORTH CAROLINA — Campaigning in western North Carolina Wednesday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris attacked President Donald Trump on health care and his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Harris spoke in Asheville at noon Wednesday and again later in the day in Charlotte. As Harris took the stage at her second public stop of the day Wednesday evening, Trump began his own speech not far down the road in Gastonia.  

With less than two weeks until Election Day, the campaigns are making a major push in North Carolina, widely seen as a possible swing state that could put either candidate over the top to win the election.

“The outcome of this race in very many ways could be decided by you, North Carolina,” Harris said, speaking from a sunny parking lot at the University of North Carolina Asheville.

“We love our country, imperfect though it may be,” she said, according to pool reports. “It has taken a little bit of a beating because of you know who. But what we know is our democracy and the strength of it will always be a function of our preparedness and willingness to fight for it.”

Harris attacked Trump for his record on the coronavirus and the recent revelations that he downplayed the seriousness of the virus at the start of the pandemic.

“Can you imagine what the families of Asheville, what the families of North Carolina could have done with that information?” she asked. They could have stocked up on toilet paper or worked to shore up their savings account, Harris said.

“He didn’t tell us. He sat on that information. They covered it up. And instead, the president of the United States, the commander in chief, whose first responsibility should be to keep the American people safe, sat on this information,” she said.

The pandemic has sickened millions and killed more than 220,000 in the United States.

“In the midst of a public health pandemic, Donald Trump and Bill Barr are in the United State Supreme Court trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act that President Obama and Vice President Biden made happen,” Harris said.

“If they are successful, it is estimated that at least 23 million Americans will lose their coverage,” she said.

“He’s got this weird obsession with trying to get rid of whatever President Obama and Vice President Biden created,” Harris said.