Bruce Springsteen appeared in support of Kamala Harris´ quest for the presidency in Philadelphia on Monday, saying that he feels Donald Trump ‘is running to be a tyrant’ in his campaign for a second term in the White House, Daily Mail reports.
According to the report by Daily Mail, the Long Branch, New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen said in his appearance at Temple University’s Liacouras Center that Harris ‘running to be the 47th president of the United States’ and that ‘Donald Trump is running to be a tyrant.’
The presence of the 75-year-old singer, Bruce Springsteen whose career spans five decades highlights how Harris is leaning on some of the most noteworthy names in the party to help her deliver her closing message and lambast her opponent.
The Born in the U.S.A. singer and Barack Obama previously lent their star power to the Harris campaign last Thursday in Georgia, as the vice president implored Georgia voters to consider the ‘brutally serious’ consequences if Trump emerges victorious.
Harris asked voters to imagine who’ll be sitting in the Oval Office just three months from now and think about the new president’s priorities.
‘It´s either Donald Trump in there stewing over his enemies list, or me working for you, checking off my to-do list,’ she said. ‘You have the power to make that decision.’
On Thursday, Bruce Springsteen played The Promised Land, a ballad off his 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town, and told the Georgia audience he was backing Harris because he wants ‘a president who reveres the Constitution.’
‘There is only one candidate in this election who holds those principles dear, Kamala Harris – she´s running to be the 47th president of the United States, Springsteen added before playing Land of Hope and Dreams and Dancing in the Dark.
The Trump campaign called Harris’ use of Barack Obama and the Born to Run artist ‘a desperate, last-ditch effort to salvage her spiraling campaign.’
‘Relying on celebrities is nothing new for the party of Hollywood elites – and as voters realize the depths of Kamala´s incompetence and radicalism, she needs an added draw,’ the campaign said in a statement.
Harris is not the only member of the Democratic campaign to lean on star power in the final days. Gov. Tim Walz, her running mate, had events in North Carolina on Thursday alongside singer-songwriter James Taylor.
Democrats are known for leaning on high-profile surrogates in the final days of presidential races.
Springsteen has long been a supporter of Democratic presidential campaigns. The artist backed Obama in 2008 and 2012, even endorsing the would-be president in the contentious 2008 Democratic primary.
He backed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, performing at a Philadelphia rally on the eve of Election Day, and endorsed Biden in 2020.
The Glory Days artist endorsed Harris earlier this month, calling Trump the ‘most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.’
Beyoncé, too, backed Clinton in 2016, performing at an event in Cleveland alongside husband and rapper Jay Z just days before Election Day that year. And Taylor has become a staple at Democratic events and fundraisers.
But Clinton´s loss to Trump in 2016, despite the considerable star power behind her, serves as a warning for Democrats that energy provided by big-name artists like Springsteen and Beyoncé is often not enough to win an election.
Springsteen earlier this month released a clip supporting Harris on
Instagram.
‘Perhaps not since the Civil War has this great country felt as politically, spiritually and emotionally divided as it does at this moment – it doesn’t have to be this way,’ Springsteen said. ‘The common values, the shared stories that make us a great and united nation are waiting to be rediscovered and retold once again.
‘Now that will take time, hard, intelligence, faith and women and men with the national good guiding their hearts.’
In the clip, Springsteen said Trump has displayed ‘disdain for the sanctity of our Constitution, the sanctity of democracy, the sanctity of the rule of law and the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power’ actions that ‘should disqualify him from the office of president ever again.’
Trump ‘doesn’t understand the meaning of this country, its history of what it means to be deeply American,’ Springsteen said.
Fans appeared mixed in their opinions of the musical mainstay as he got involved in the election.
‘Love me some Bruce Springsteen!’ one said, while another said they would ‘be happy if Bruce Springsteen faded into irrelevancy forever.’