Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and running mate Sen. JD Vance have opted for intimate events in battleground states this week as they try to counterprogram the Democratic National Convention — with a much bleaker message.
Trump has traded arena-sized audiences for two smaller crowds, while Vance delivered remarks Monday while standing in front of cardboard boxes in Philadelphia. The GOP duo had been slated to focus on the economy and energy on Monday then crime and safety on Tuesday before drifting off script. The intention is to focus on national defense on Wednesday and immigration on Thursday.
“We’re really focused on talking about issues that voters care about, which is something Kamala Harris and her campaign is not interested in,” a senior Trump campaign official said. “We have a very aggressive schedule. … We believe we have the winning message. We believe the Democrats have the losing message.”
At a police facility in Howell, Mich., on Tuesday, Trump said Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, was “so far left, it’s hard to imagine” and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, was even more “far left.” Trump was there, flanked by uniformed local law enforcement officers, to speak about fighting crime — but he was taking personal jabs at Harris and Walz after about five minutes. He derided “fake polls” and contended that suburban women, despite what some recent surveys have showed, “like me a lot” because “they want to be safe.”
“Crime in America, usually that’s done locally. I’m going to give the local folks a lot of help,” Trump said, temporarily getting back on topic as he described Chicago, site of the Democratic National Convention, as a “war zone” that’s “like Afghanistan.”
But he soon veered off-topic again, slamming the Biden administration for the deadly and chaotic U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan and inflation while also accusing Democrats of “lying” throughout the first night of their national convention. And, for a second consecutive day, he spoke in a rather flat, soft tone that seemed misaligned with many of the dire things he was saying about the country, including: “You can’t walk across the street to get a loaf of bread without getting shot.”
His Michigan stop came after a noticeably monotone Trump on Monday in York, Pa., said, “Kamala puts America last. I put America first.” He ticked off a list of economic actions he took as president, but he often embellished his record as he vowed to create an economy, if elected again, that would be “even better, bigger, stronger and smarter.”
“When Biden and Harris came in, they destroyed it,” he said Monday about the economy. “It was a shame, and it was blown up and destroyed. … A lot of jobs were lost.” He ignored data showing the average monthly unemployment rate under Biden has been 4.1 percent, compared with 5 percent during Trump’s term, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
‘Where have you been?’
Neither GOP standard-bearer this week has been able to resist poking at Harris and Walz on a range of matters not directly related to their own daily themes.
Vance, a retired Marine, deviated from the campaign’s intended Monday topic to pan Walz, a retired National Guard member, for a decade-old remark about having carried a weapon into combat even though he never served in combat.
“Everything that comes out of his mouth about his military service is 25 percent a lie,” Vance said. “It occurred to me that the closest Tim Walz has ever come to combat is when he let rioters burn Minneapolis to the ground [in 2020].” On Tuesday, speaking while flanked by law enforcement officers in Kenosha, Wis., Vance contended it was Trump, as president, who acted to stop the violence — not Walz.
Trump spent part of the first two days of his counterprogramming making more false claims, engaging in name-calling and describing America as a bleak and corrupt country.
“We have to make America great again. … Our country is really in big trouble. We’re a nation in decline. We’re going down the drain,” he said. “They get rich in Washington, some of these politicians. What they’re doing to our country is disgraceful.”
Vance panned Harris’ vow to reduce housing and grocery costs as president, questioning why she hadn’t done so as vice president.
“Well, Kamala Harris, where have you been? Because you’ve been vice president for about 1,300 days — day one was about three-and-a-half years ago,” Vance said. “You should have been doing your job then and not promising to do it now.”
About Walz, Vance also said he’s preparing for their Oct. 1 debate by practicing with “a friend … who embellishes and lies a lot.”
Heather Hendershot, a Northwestern University professor, predicted in a phone interview that Harris would put forth a positive, forward-looking message during her nomination acceptance speech, scheduled for Thursday night.
“That will be a sharp contrast to Republicans. They’re basically saying that every time you leave your house you might be murdered and the entire nation is crumbling,” she said. “Democrats will say that they feel very positive and joyful about the future and want to make it better.”
Trump and his running mate spent Monday in perhaps the most important battleground state, Pennsylvania.
Polls released in recent days by Quinnipiac University and The New York Times have Harris leading there by 3 and 4 percentage points, respectively. Many political strategists have said Harris likely could not secure the 270 Electoral College votes needed to become president without taking Pennsylvania. Vance on Tuesday headed to Wisconsin, where RealClear’s average has Harris up by 1 point; Trump went to Michigan, where the organization’s average has her up by 2 points.
‘Crack dealers’
Trump surrogates in Chicago criticized Democrats for lacking a message or vision.
“Reimagining means nothing. You might as well pull out some construction paper and draw a picture of what you think you might want to do, but that’s not a plan for success,” Florida GOP Rep. Byron Donalds said Tuesday of Harris’ calls for law enforcement changes. “She has praised the ‘defund the police’ movement. She praised it.”
About the party’s Monday evening floor program, Donalds said, “All I heard was Donald J. Trump and joy. That’s all I got. That’s not a vision, and those aren’t plans for the American people.”
Brian Hughes, a Trump campaign senior adviser, on Tuesday contended that “if you watch the first day, they are focused on Trump rather than inflation, the border, or public safety.” Hughes contended there were 147 references to Trump on Monday night but far fewer mentions of those hot-button issues, adding, “We’re here to remind folks what Donald Trump is running for.”
Hours later in Howell, Trump labeled Harris a “Marxist” and attacked her father as a “Marxist professor,” adding of her time as a California prosecutor then state attorney general: “She fought like hell to have crack dealers not deported.”
But Democrats haven’t been running away from Harris’ record.
“We made the largest investment, Kamala and I, in public safety, ever. Now, the murder rate is falling faster than any time in history,” President Joe Biden said at the convention on Monday. “Violent crime has dropped to the lowest level [in] more than 50 years. And crime will keep coming down when we put a prosecutor in the Oval Office instead of a convicted felon.”
Aidan Quiqley contributed to this report.
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