Harris centers her closing argument on Trump by arguing he's dangerous
With just days until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris is leaning into a closing argument centered on attacking former President Donald Trump as a danger, an approach campaign officials believe will help her both win over remaining undecided voters and motivate her base, according to four Harris aides familiar with the strategy.
WASHINGTON — With just days until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris is leaning into a closing argument centered on attacking former President Donald Trump as a danger, an approach campaign officials believe will help her both win over remaining undecided voters and motivate her base, according to four Harris aides familiar with the strategy.
The approach won’t be one-note, her advisers said, but will also seek to highlight her vision and explain what she would do in office.
The plan to hammer Trump more harshly and aggressively in the final days has already begun to play out. On Wednesday, Harris said she believed Trump was a “fascist” during a town hall. She appeared in a series of moderated discussions with Liz Cheney, the former Republican congresswoman who served on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack and has been a vocal critic of Trump. And on Thursday, Harris delivered an unscheduled speech focused on former Trump chief of staff John Kelly confirming Trump praised Adolf Hitler’s generals.
Harris’ campaign also announced she will give a speech Tuesday on the Ellipse park outside the White House — the site where Trump spoke shortly before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that critics and prosecutors have pointed to as the catalyst for the attack.
“This campaign is looking at what their targets are and what their data is saying, and they are making what appears to be wise decisions,” said Cornell Belcher, a veteran Democratic pollster who worked on both of Obama’s successful presidential campaigns. “This is a conventional political strategy that goes back a long, long time, that says you have to continue to prosecute the case and fire the incumbent. And, in this case, they are operating like Trump is the incumbent because he is the one who has been elected president.”
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