ST. LOUIS, Missouri — During her address to the DNC Women's Caucus in downtown St. Louis on Friday afternoon, Vice President Kamala Harris brushed off political pundits and poll numbers that show the president's support sliding and predicted a Democratic re-election victory in 2024.
"We're going to win," Harris told the crowd in the Marriott hotel's Majestic Ballroom. "All these pundits will talk about polling, polling, polling. Okay, fine. Let's talk about that. What we did on the climate crisis? I think 80% popularity. Capping the cost of insulin at $35 a month? Everyone loves that."
Her speech suggested Democrats are banking on voters to reward them for capping the cost of insulin for seniors, forgiving some student loan debt, and using federal incentives to spark a wave of new electric vehicle and clean energy jobs in the manufacturing sector.
"We got a lot of good material," she said. "We just need to let everyone know who brought it to them."
Harris rattled off a long list of Democratic agenda items before pivoting to hammering her GOP rivals. She seemed to relish in the dysfunction among House Republicans who deposed their speaker last week.
"Let's talk about competency," she said. "I think we should just every week do a split screen on this point."
Harris also drew sharp contrasts between the two parties, casting the GOP as chaotic and cruel and she slammed red-state Republicans, like those here in Missouri, for banning abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest.
"Since the Dobbs decision came down, every day in our country people are silently suffering," she said. "So on this point about 'no exception,' this means the policy proposal is essentially that after someone has survived a crime of violence to their body, a violation to their body, that they cannot have the authority to make a decision about what happens to their body next. That is immoral. It's wrong."
Missouri Democrats in the crowd were hoping to ride the tailwinds of the vice president's visit -- and her messaging on abortion -- to win statewide races.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was also spotted at the DNC meetings earlier in the day.
The party delegates are scheduled to gather at the Democratic National Convention next summer in Chicago to officially nominate their candidate. Party leaders at the DNC Fall Meetings all expressed confidence that despite his slumping poll numbers and concerns over his age, President Biden would be the nominee.