Vice President Kamala Harris faces the latest high-profile moment in her condensed candidacy as she heads Wednesday to the biggest battleground prize on the 2024 map – Pennsylvania – to field questions from one of the most coveted groups in the election – undecided and persuadable voters.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump is set to return to the trail with a pair of events in Georgia – a faith town hall in Zebulon and a rally in Duluth hosted by Turning Point Action – as he seeks to flip the state and its 16 electoral votes back to his column in November.
In the closing days of the campaign the vice president has sharpened her attacks against the GOP nominee by questioning his fitness for office, while also warning about the serious policy consequences of a second Trump term, with an emphasis on the issue of reproductive rights.
For Harris, Wednesday marks her 95th day as a presidential candidate – a reminder of the reduced timeline she has had to introduce herself to voters. Her aim Wednesday will be to continue working to give voters a better understanding of who she is personally and where she stands politically, while at the same time reminding movable voters about the reasons they remain resistant to the former president.
Sounding the alarm: The vice president is not alone in sounding the alarm about the potential danger of a second Trump presidency. Some of the loudest warnings are coming from those who worked in his administration, including John Kelly, who served as Trump’s White House chief of staff and Secretary of Homeland Security.
While Kelly had previously voiced concern about the former president, the decision to weigh in so forcefully in the final weeks of the election represented a stunning development. In an interview with the New York Times, Kelly said Trump “certainly falls into the general definition of fascist.”
The retired Marine general also recounted to The Atlantic an exchange where Kelly says Trump told him he wished US military personnel gave him the same deference that Adolf Hitler’s generals showed the Nazi dictator during World War II. A Trump campaign adviser denied Kelly’s claim, calling it “absolutely false.”
The Harris campaign quickly seized on the comments, with vice presidential nominee Tim Walz telling a crowd at a rally in Wisconsin that the episode proves Trump “is descending into madness.”
Focus on rhetoric: But it’s not just Trump’s reported comments from years ago that are drawing scrutiny in the final days of the election as the former president increasingly leans on inflammatory claims in media appearances and campaign events.
During an event Tuesday in Florida aimed at appealing to Latino voters, Trump attacked his Democratic rival with a racist trope, calling the vice president “lazy as hell” as he criticized her for not holding any public campaign events. Harris participated in a pair of television interviews Tuesday, a day after holding separate campaign events in each of the Blue Wall states.
The former president also told those gathered at his Doral golf resort that presidents “have extreme power” to be able to address immigration.
