Amid Democratic anxiety over the closeness of the presidential race and loss of support among key voting blocs, Vice President Kamala Harris is increasingly aggressively portraying former President Trump as unprepared and unhinged.
Harris noted that Trump refuses to debate her again, has not revealed his medical history as she has, and walked out of an interview with “60 Minutes.”
“And you have to ask yourself, 'Why does your staff do that?' And it may be because they think he's just unprepared, unfit and unstable, and he shouldn't have that level of transparency for the American people,” Harris said Monday on the online show “Roland Martin Unfiltered.”
Harris planned to focus further on the risk posed by a Trump re-election at a rally Tuesday in Pennsylvania and in a new ad that features former Trump national security aides warning of the danger created if Trump wins the election in November, according to A senior Harris campaign official granted anonymity to discuss the vice president's planned messages.
After weeks of momentum after Harris became the Democratic nominee, polls show the race has stalled, both nationally and in key states that will determine which party wins the White House. Both candidates are focused on Pennsylvania, the battleground state with the most electoral votes where Harris is ahead by less than a percentage point, according to the poll aggregator. fivethirtyeight.
Harris has tried to shake up the race with a media blitz in recent days, appearing on traditional shows and non-traditional forums aimed at various groups of voters. His campaign announced Monday that he would sit down with Fox News for an interview on Wednesday, the first time he has appeared on the cable channel.
Trump's campaign, which said Harris' actions reeked of desperation, faced criticism for remarks the former president made about using the military to deal with “the enemy from within.”
On Sunday, he made a campaign stop in Arizona and appeared on Fox News' “Sunday Morning Futures” with host Maria Bartiromo.
“The enemy within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and all of these countries,” Trump said on the show, specifically naming Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) as an example. Trump has held a grudge against Schiff since the congressman led an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“We have very bad people. “We have some sick, crazy radical leftists,” Trump said. “And it should be very easy to handle, if necessary, the National Guard or, if it is really necessary, the army. Because they can't let that happen.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris' running mate, seized on the comments while speaking to Wisconsin college students on Monday.
“Donald Trump, over the weekend, was talking about using the American military against people who disagree with him,” Walz said. “This is not something mythical that exists. He called it the enemy within, and for Donald Trump, anyone who disagrees with him is the enemy.”
Walz said such statements demonstrate what is at stake in the election.
“I tell you that because we have to beat him up and put this guy behind us,” he said.
Harris and Trump scheduled campaign events Monday in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
With polls showing that Trump had had some success in courting black male voters, the vice president planned to visit a local black-owned small business to chat with black men before rallying his supporters in Erie.
Previously, he unveiled an “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men” that includes providing fully forgivable loans to entrepreneurs; create education, training and mentoring programs aimed at increasing job opportunities, such as teaching for Black men, and create a health equity initiative to focus on sickle cell anemia, diabetes and other conditions that disproportionately affect Black men.
The Trump campaign said Harris' efforts show her campaign is in danger.
“Kamala Harris is in deep despair as she spends the final days of the campaign trying to stop the bleeding among voting blocs most traditionally aligned with Democrats,” the campaign said in a statement. “Nowhere is this more evident than in his outreach to African Americans, voters who Democrats have taken advantage of for generations.”
Trump also asked that Harris pass a cognitive test, two days after she released a medical report and an accompanying letter from her doctor, describing her in “excellent health.” Although it has not released a full medical report, the Trump campaign has issued several medical letters describing the former president in “excellent health.” Over the weekend, an open letter signed by more than 230 medical professionals was released calling on Trump to release his full medical history.
Trump was planning to hold a town hall in Oaks, a suburb of Philadelphia, just over a week after visiting Butler, Pennsylvania, where he was holding a rally in July when an assassination attempt shot the president and severed his ear. Trump also visited Scranton and Reading last week.
Trump's visit comes after a weekend stop in the California desert for a rally outside Coachella. Speaking before thousands of people under a scorching sun, Trump criticized California for its high cost of living, homelessness and other problems. He also repeatedly linked the state's liberal policies to Harris.
A man was arrested outside the rally Saturday for weapons possession, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said his deputies “probably stopped another assassination attempt.” But Vem Miller, 49, told the Times he brought two guns for protection.
Attendees waited for hours during the heat of the day to enter the Calhoun Ranch polo field, just outside the city of Coachella. Many had arrived by bus from various parking lots in the area. After the demonstration, hundreds of people were stranded for hours waiting for buses to take them back to their cars.
