MILWAUKEE — A large crowd chanted “Lock him up!” Tuesday as Vice President Kamala Harris leaned into her past as a prosecutor while bashing Donald Trump at her first rally as Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee.
“I was elected attorney general of the state of California and I was a courtroom prosecutor before then. And in those roles I took on perpetrators of all kinds — predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” Harris told roughly 3,000 swing-state spectators.
“So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type,” Harris, 59, added to wild applause in a Wisconsin high school gym.
The vice president paused as chants of “lock him up!” broke out following the crowd-pleasing line — which she had tested out Monday evening in her visit to campaign headquarters following President Biden’s Sunday withdrawal from the race and endorsement of her.
Although the official audio feed from the campaign showed rally-goers also chanted “Kam-a-la” following her anti-Trump barbs, on-the-ground footage showed large parts of the crowd chanted “lock him up” about Trump — with a Post reporter on the ground estimating roughly 1/3 of the room joined in.
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The complementary chants of matching syllables punctuated the otherwise on-message rally as Harris vowed to restore federal abortion rights and to “win” on Nov. 5 despite her last-minute elevation to the top slot.
The Harris campaign said more than 3,000 people attended the indoor rally in Milwaukee — with the hosting school’s gymnasium packed in a reflection of enthusiasm among Democrats, who rarely packed Biden’s events in large numbers.
By comparison, a joint campaign rally featuring both Biden and Harris in Philadelphia on May 29 filled less than half of a school gym.
Wisconsin Democratic chairman Ben Wikler told The Post “I’m so excited and bursting with energy.”
“If you’d asked me six weeks ago what the biggest challenge is in this campaign is that voters… are not tuning in,” he said.
“All of that is now out the window: this is now one of the most fascinating and exciting presidential elections in modern history.”
Harris walked on stage and off to Beyonce’s “Freedom” — her new campaign anthem — in the same city that last week hosted the Republican National Convention.
“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.
“This campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump. This campaign is about who we fight for,” Harris told supporters, vowing to focus on middle-class opportunity if she’s elected America’s first female president.
“We have doors to knock on. We have phone calls to make, we have voters to register, and we have an election to win.”
About 20 protesters rallied outside the venue to denounce the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel.
But no hecklers interrupted Harris — in another distinction from Biden’s campaign events, which frequently featured irate anti-Israel demonstrators shouting the nickname “Genocide Joe.”
The Biden-Harris campaign was trailing Trump in most national and swing-state polls ahead of the ticket switch on Sunday and Harris’ decision on a running mate could boost her fortunes in certain states, according to polling.
Harris event attendee Sandra Smith, 64, a receptionist for a hospice center from West Allis, Wis., told The Post that “I’m fine with it. If Joe trusts her, I trust her” — adding she hopes that Harris picks Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as her running mate.
Leslie Dehn, 61, a retired nonprofit worker, said she came to hear “how she’s going to beat Trump” and said she believes Harris would stand the best chance of doing that by picking Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona or Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania.
“Not gonna lie, I would like her to combat Trump’s accusations toward the Democratic Party,” said Benjamin Hooks, who runs a radio station in Milwaukee, ahead of her remarks.
Although the vice president’s attacks on her Republican opponent were well-received, they could boost his claims of political persecution by the legal system.
The 78-year-old GOP nominee argues that four criminal cases brought against him were done so for political reasons.
Trump was convicted on May 30 in Manhattan on 34 state felony counts for falsifying business records to conceal 2016 hush money payments. The prosecution was brought by District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat.
Trump faces pending federal charges in Washington and state charges in Georgia, also brought by an elected Democrat, for challenging his 2020 loss to Biden. A fourth case for allegedly mishandling classified records was tossed out by a federal judge this month but could be reinstated.