Trump and Harris' closing message to Republicans are as different as they come
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With just over two weeks to go until voting closes on Election Day, Vice President Harris and former President Donald Trump spent Monday campaigning in swing states focused on a voting bloc key to victory: Republicans.
In North Carolina, Trump touted early voting numbers while touring storm damage near Asheville, railed against Harris while promoting hardline immigration policies at a rally in Greenville and courted evangelical voters at a faith-focused event just outside of Charlotte.
"As I look back at my life's journey and events, I now recognize that it's been the hand of God leading me to where I am today," Trump said at an event with faith leaders in Concord. "And my faith took on new meaning on July 13th in Butler, Pennsylvania, where I was knocked to the ground essentially by what seemed like a supernatural hand. And I would like to think that God saved me for a purpose, and that's to make our country greater."
Meanwhile, Harris held several moderated town hall-style discussions with former GOP congresswoman Liz Cheney in the suburbs of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where the vice president framed the election as a choice on the future of democracy where the stakes rise above partisan labels.
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"I have said before and it must be repeated each time: There are moments in the history of our country which challenge us, each of us, to really decide," Harris said in Malvern, Pa. "Do we stand for those things that we talk about, including in particular country over party?"
Throughout the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump has made little effort to moderate his message beyond his base within the Republican Party, and has instead sought to grow that base by turning out lower propensity voters receptive to his message and disillusioned by the current Democratic administration.
The coalition that powered President Biden's narrow 2020 victory included a sizable number of anti-Trump conservatives and right-leaning independents who backed his campaign but otherwise support Republicans. After taking over as the Democratic nominee this summer, Harris has ramped up efforts to campaign across the aisle and expand the party's tent to defeat Trump.
As polls continue to show a likely close race in the seven swing states that will decide the election, Monday's events reiterate how important getting every constituency to show up and vote is to both campaigns.
Trump continues to be Trump
North Carolina is the only one of the seven swing states that Trump won in 2020, and is a key part of his path to victory in 2024.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which ripped across the South in late September, Trump has used the storm as a frequent opportunity to bash Harris, President Biden and the federal government's response — and to tie everything back to his immigration views.
Speaking to reporters in a hard-hit area of Swannanoa, Trump repeated false claims about the Federal Emergency Management Agency's funding.
"They spent a lot of money on bringing illegal migrants, people that came into our country illegally, and taking them in," Trump said. "And all of the money they've spent — numbers that nobody can even believe. So they don't have any money for the people that live here."
Trump also declined to denounce threats of violence against FEMA and other federal employees after a North Carolina man was arrested for threats earlier this month.
"Does that mean that if they're doing a poor job, we're supposed to not say it?" Trump asked.
He also drastically exaggerated the number of pre-screened supporters that he served at a Pennsylvania McDonald's on Sunday and praised early voting numbers from the Tarheel State.
At his Greenville rally, Trump reiterated his calls for mass deportations, closing the U.S.-Mexico border and attacked Harris as being the enabler of what he calls an "invasion" of America.
"So you're either stupid, you hate our country, or they're trying to get them to vote right?," he said about Harris' immigration policies. "And it's probably the third. She's turning beautiful small towns into [a] third world dumping ground."
There’s no evidence to support claims about non-citizens voting illegally, and Trump himself acknowledged that he had not yet seen any evidence to suggest the election would not be fair. “Unfortunately, I know the other side, and they are not good. But I have not seen that," Trump said.
His suggestion that the final vote could be tainted fits with another part of Trump's closing message not grounded in reality: that the only way he loses is if there’s cheating.
At the faith event, Trump largely stuck to his usual campaign stump speech, vowing to "keep men out of women's sports" but also promising "we will proudly say Merry Christmas again," while baselessly accusing Harris, who is Baptist, of having anti-Christian bias.
Trump has another rally scheduled in Greensboro, North Carolina, Tuesday. He will also participate in a roundtable with Latino leaders in Florida.
Harris, Cheney and abortion rights
Harris' campaign pitch to Republicans exists on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from Trump's, both ideologically and rhetorically.
She spent Monday traveling the "Blue Wall" states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with Cheney bringing a message to suburban voters that support for Harris is not incompatible with conservatism, even for those who oppose abortion.
"I think there are many of us around the country who have been pro-life, but who have watched what's going on in our states since the Dobbs decision and have watched state legislatures put in place laws that are resulting in women not getting the care they need," Cheney said in Pennsylvania, referring to the Supreme Court decision striking down the constitutional right to an abortion. "So I think this is not an issue that we're seeing break down across party lines."
The bulk of Harris' GOP outreach has been less about adopting more conservative stances of her own on policy issues, but more providing a permission structure for those who identify as Republican — but not as a Trump Republican — to feel like they can support her campaign against the former president.
"In this moment, there are millions of good and honorable people who Donald Trump has just fundamentally betrayed," Cheney said in Waukesha, Wisc. "The decision to give somebody the power of the presidency means that you're handing someone the most awesome and significant power of any office anywhere in the world, and you have to choose people who have character, choose people of good faith."
Harris is scheduled to sit for interviews on Tuesday with NBC and Telemundo. Later this week, she is also slated to campaign with former President Barack Obama in Georgia, and participate in a town hall with CNN.
Copyright 2024, NPR
