Chuck Todd: How Harris and Trump are making their closing arguments
Given the tumultuous nature of the Trump era in general and the twists and turns that of the 2024 campaign specifically, it’s hard to believe we are most likely at the end game of this historic election cycle and (knock on wood) it’s ending more normally than any campaign featuring Donald Trump has ended so far.
Given the tumultuous nature of the Trump era in general and the twists and turns that of the 2024 campaign specifically, it’s hard to believe we are most likely at the end game of this historic election cycle and (knock on wood) it’s ending more normally than any campaign featuring Donald Trump has ended so far.
I accept that the phrase “so far” is doing a lot of work in the above paragraph — and to be clear, I'm talking about campaign-shaking events, not Trump's penchant for crude or uncomfortable remarks. Clearly, something unforeseen can still happen, but I’m not sure we'll have any new event that would dramatically affect either candidate’s vote share in this late stage of the race. But if you aren’t prepared for the unexpected in politics anymore, then you haven’t been paying attention!
But what has been different — so far! — about this campaign in these last few weeks is how semi-, sorta, kinda conventionally both campaigns are behaving.
For one thing, the campaigns appear to agree on who the final persuadable voter is: a Republican or Republican-leaning independent who doesn’t like Trump personally but is skeptical of Vice President Kamala Harris’ perceived liberal politics.
Both campaigns are messaging to this voter, with Trump going hard negative on Harris’ politics, hoping to convince these voters that she’s really a San Francisco liberal hiding in moderate clothing. Meanwhile, Harris is going hard negative at Trump on character and democracy, hoping to convince these voters that he’s out for himself at their potential expense, that he’s mentally off and that his inability to control his own id is a potential threat to the country.
Rating: 5