ANALYSIS — Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris described each other as a threat to voters’ wallets and constitutional rights during their first campaign stops since Labor Day.
Trump, the Republican nominee, opted for the bigger splash, taping a town hall in swing-state Pennsylvania that aired in prime time on Fox News. (Though billed as a town hall, only the host asked questions, not voters seated in the New Holland Arena, which was lined with sections of empty seats.)
Harris made a campaign stop in New Hampshire, a state the Democratic nominee has won every cycle since 2004.
The nominees were back on the campaign trail as new polling further solidified both camps’ assessments that the race likely will be extremely close in November.
CNN-SSRS polling released Wednesday morning showed that neither Trump nor Harris has a clear path to the White House, with both candidates running close in the battleground states that likely will decide the election.
Harris led in both Georgia and Nevada by a single point, 48 percent to 47 percent. They were tied in Pennsylvania. Harris had larger leads in Wisconsin (6 percentage points) and Michigan (5 points). Trump led 49 percent to 44 percent in Arizona, according to the polling, which had a 4.9 percent margin of error.
Here are four takeaways from their campaign stops, with 60 days to go until Election Day.
‘We have a little lead’
Despite the CNN polling released earlier Wednesday, Trump continued to dismiss polls that suggest the race has swung since President Joe Biden ended his bid for another term.
“I hear the polls are close, and we have a little lead. I just find it hard to believe. First of all, they’ve been so bad,” Trump told Fox commentator and host Sean Hannity.
“They’ve done such a bad job. But that’s why the enthusiasm is so bad,” Trump said, falsely suggesting that there has been no surge in excitement among Democratic voters since Harris ascended to the top of the ticket.
But when Republican-leaning polling firms like Rasmussen release surveys putting him comfortably ahead nationally, Trump pushes them hard on social media. What’s more, the former president appeared to miss an opportunity to appeal directly to grieving voters in what Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales calls a toss-up state after a 14-year-old student killed four people Wednesday at a high school in Georgia.
“We had this shooting today in Georgia,” Hannity noted at the start of the program. Trump replied, “Right.” And when Hannity said Americans were sending prayers to the families and victims, Trump said nothing. Georgia is among the key swing states that analysts expect will decide the election.
‘How nice our criminals are’
Amid calls from some Republican lawmakers for Trump to stick to several policy issues — chiefly illegal immigration and the Biden economic record — the former president got one of his biggest applause lines on the former.
“We have to do the largest deportation in … history,” Trump told Hannity, with the Fox commentator calling those who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally “unvetted Harris-Biden illegal immigrants.” The crowd in Harrisburg, Pa., roared.
Trump continued to call Harris “the border czar, whether you like it or not” — a title White House officials have said Biden never gave his No. 2; they contend he put her in charge of diplomatic efforts to address the root causes of illegal border crossings.
“Even if you don’t want to use that term, she was in charge of the border. It’s the worst border in the history of the world,” Trump said, ignoring federal law enforcement agencies’ data that White House and Harris campaign officials have pointed to for weeks showing that border crossings have been declining. In fact, in late June, administration officials said illegal crossings were down 40 percent since Biden took office in January 2021.
Hannity did not ask Trump about Harris’ sharp criticism of the effort he spearheaded that led to Republican senators tanking an immigration and border package that one of the most conservative Republicans, Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, had negotiated with Democrats and the White House.
Trump’s actions to sink that deal have become Harris’ go-to retort when Trump and other Republicans slam her with the “border czar” line.
Trump, who is a convicted felon awaiting sentencing in a New York business fraud case, falsely described the United States as being overrun by illegal migrants who were murderers, drug dealers and “woman traffickers” back home. Then came one of the night’s oddest lines, especially from Trump, who has said negative things about those convicted of violent crimes in major cities with Democratic local and state officials.
“Our criminals are nice people by comparison,” he said to cheers. “We’re showing how nice our criminals are.”
‘Opportunity economy’
Harris used her campaign event in North Hampton, N.H., to announce her latest economic proposal amid Republican criticism — including from Trump — that she had both been complicit in what they call poorly crafted policy under Biden and her lack of a plan of her own.
The Democratic nominee laid out a proposal to expand the small-business tax deduction from $5,000 to $50,000, part of what she described as “building an opportunity economy.”
“I believe America’s small businesses are an essential foundation to our entire economy. Think about it … small businesses in our country employ half of all private-sector employees,” she said. “They generate revenue that helps pave our roads and pay our teachers.”
In a clip-and-save moment, she also set a goal of 25 million small-business applications during her four-year term, if elected in November. Harris described her plan as “essentially a tax cut for starting a small business.”
The vice president’s campaign touted analyses from financial firm Goldman Sachs that estimated, should Democrats sweep both chambers of Congress and the White House, job growth would be 10,000 better per month than if Trump won with a divided Congress — and 30,000 higher per month under a GOP sweep.
But the Trump campaign described her announcement as a “sham small business ‘plan.’” In a statement, his campaign contended that “Kamala’s $20 billion plan is just another cog in the wheel of her multi-trillion-dollar tax-and-spending scheme that would add trillions to the debt and drive costs up even higher.”
Harris is attempting to pivot to the middle, while Trump’s campaign wants to paint her as a progressive pretending to be a populist.
‘They don’t trust women’
Harris’ stop in the Granite State was not all about her small-business proposals — she also again went right after Trump.
A rally-goer appeared to yell out, “Lock him up,” referring to the once-convicted and twice-impeached Trump’s legal cases. Harris did not venture into the legal realm, however.
“The courts are going to handle that, and we will handle November,” she fired back, to loud applause. “How about that?” Later, she accused Trump of aiming to “terminate the Constitution.”
She accused the former president of “gaslighting” voters on the end of federal abortion rights, noting that he had appointed three of the Supreme Court’s six right-leaning justices who voted to do so.
She alleged that Trump would, if elected, create a “national anti-abortion coordinator, which would force states … to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions,” she said, adding of Republicans: “They don’t trust women.”
“Ours is a fight for the future,” she said. “And it is a fight for freedom.”
Trump often refers to “radical” and “extreme” Democrats. Harris wants to flip that charge on him.
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