A Vivid
Trump-Harris Contrast in the Campaign’s Grueling Final Days
As Kamala
Harris visited a church in Detroit on the last Sunday of the campaign, Donald
J. Trump told supporters that he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after
the 2020 election.
Adam
Nagourney Katie Glueck Michael Gold
By Adam
NagourneyKatie Glueck and Michael Gold
Adam
Nagourney reported from New York, Katie Glueck from East Lansing, Mich., and
Michael Gold from Lititz, Pa., and Kinston, N.C.
Nov. 3, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/03/us/politics/harris-trump-campaign.html
It was the
final Sunday of the campaign for president, and Vice President Kamala Harris
and Donald J. Trump were continuing to race across battleground states in their
search for support. But in message and demeanor, Ms. Harris, the Democrat, and
Mr. Trump, the Republican, could not have been more different.
Ms. Harris
began her day at a Black church in Detroit where she told congregants that the
nation was “ready to bend the arc of history toward justice,” invoking the
words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mr. Trump began his at an outdoor
rally at an airport in Pennsylvania where, his shoulders slumped and his voice
subdued, he threw out his prepared remarks to tell supporters that he
“shouldn’t have left” the White House after his loss to President Biden in
2020.
The dueling
scenes offered a contrast that captured just how differently these two
candidates were using the final days of a campaign that a last round of polls
suggested remained as tight as it was when their contest began in August.
Mr. Trump
went to Lititz, Pa., where, after announcing he was discarding his prepared
speech so the “truth” could come out, he proceeded to deliver dark, rambling
and at times angry remarks in which he attacked polls, assailed Democrats as
“demonic,” and suggested he would not mind if reporters were shot.
“To get to
me, somebody would have to shoot through fake news, and I don’t mind that much,
’cause, I don’t mind. I don’t mind,” he said as he called attention to the
bulletproof glass barriers that have surrounded him at outdoor rallies since he
was shot in July in an assassination attempt in Butler, Pa. (His spokesman,
Steven Cheung, later claimed the comments had “nothing to do with the media
being harmed” but rather “actually looking out for their welfare.”)
Mr. Trump
argued that the country had declined since his presidency, pointing to the
economy and immigration, and said he should not have left the White House in
2020 — when he fought to upend the election results after he was defeated.
“We had the
safest border in the history of our country the day that I left,” he said. “I
shouldn’t have left, I mean, honestly,” Mr. Trump continued. He added, “We did
so well, we had such a great—” and then cut himself off.
The setting
for Ms. Harris was the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ,
in Detroit, as she took a more conventional campaign route on the last Sunday
of the race, invoking notes of optimism and unity. “It’s so good to worship
with you today,” she said after being introduced to a swell of cheers as “the
next president of the United States.”
“In these
next two days, we will be tested,” said Ms. Harris, who had flown in to Detroit
after a surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live” in New York. “These days
will demand everything we’ve got,” she said. “But when I think about the days
ahead and the God we serve, we were born for such a time as this.”
Ms. Harris
hailed “Americans from so-called red states to so-called blue states who are
ready to bend the arc of history toward justice.” And she urged people to “turn
the page and write the next chapter of our history.”
Polls have
suggested that Mr. Trump has been pulling some support from Black voters who
traditionally have voted for the Democrats. A New York Times/Siena College poll
released on Sunday showed Ms. Harris in a tight race with Mr. Trump in
Michigan, an important battleground state.
In these
final days and hours, both candidates have been racing through rallies and
impromptu appearances in the battleground states. Mr. Trump appeared
particularly tired on Sunday morning; his voice was hoarse and his pace was
slow as he delivered remarks marked by grievances and the occasional vulgarity.
Mr. Trump
was relatively subdued at his second stop of the day, in Kinston, N.C.,
sticking more closely to the script of his prepared remarks, with occasional
diversions, though coughing at times. At one point, he called out to
Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate candidate from the stage, then corrected
himself, realizing he was elsewhere. At his third rally, in Macon, Ga., he used
harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric and made somewhat milder claims about election
integrity.
Even as his
campaign professed confidence of his victory on Tuesday, Mr. Trump used his
rally in Pennsylvania, to complain about polls — in particular one in The Des
Moines Register showing him behind in Iowa, a state he was widely expected to
win. His campaign was quick to dispute its accuracy.
And Mr.
Trump, continuing what has been a dominant theme of his appearances these past
few weeks, devoted his most expansive comments to his unsupported claims of
voter fraud in the final stretch of the election, raising questions about the
integrity of a result that has yet to be determined. In so doing, he reinforced
Democratic fears that he and his supporters are trying to sow doubts about the
election now so he can dispute the outcome — as he did in 2020 — should he
lose.
Ms. Harris
was markedly more upbeat at a rally Sunday evening in East Lansing, Mich.
“Michigan, two days to go!” she told the crowd. This, she said, is “one of the
most consequential elections of our lifetime, and we have momentum. It is on
our side.”
She opened
her remarks in East Lansing, in a state with a significant population of Arab
Americans, by acknowledging the devastation of the Gaza war. That is an issue
that hits home for the many Arab American and Muslim voters who live in
Michigan, many of whom are angry about the Biden administration’s support for
Israel.
“This year
has been difficult given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and given
the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon,” she said, adding that “as
president, I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza.”
As she often
does, she reiterated her view that the war must end with the return of those
taken hostage from Israel during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, and in a way
that Israelis and Palestinians are secure.
On Sunday
Ms. Harris’s campaign has also released its final major ad, a two-minute spot
running during N.F.L. games, including the rivalry matchup between the Green
Bay Packers and Detroit Lions, two swing-state teams.
On this
final weekend, some of her most prominent candidate surrogates went on the road
as well — notably Barack Obama, the former president. Mr. Obama, speaking in
Milwaukee, appealed to voters on the fence, particularly Black and Latino
voters, arguing they would be worse off should Mr. Trump win.
“If you’re
Black or Latino and you feel like too often your community is overlooked by
politicians except around election time, I get how you feel,” Mr. Obama said.
“But why would you think that the answer is to vote for someone who has a long
history of demeaning and disregarding your communities.”
Mr. Trump
and Ms. Harris are now preparing for the final day of the campaign. And they
will, of course, both be in Pennsylvania, the place that both campaigns have
always viewed as the make-or-break state of 2024.
Nicholas
Nehamas contributed reporting from Washington and Reid J. Epstein from
Milwaukee.
Adam
Nagourney is a national political reporter for The Times, covering the 2024
campaign. More about Adam Nagourney
Katie Glueck
covers American politics with a focus on the Democratic Party. More about Katie
Glueck
Michael Gold
is a political correspondent for The Times covering the campaigns of Donald J.
Trump and other candidates in the 2024 presidential elections. More about
Michael Gold
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