Kamala Harris’ closing message is unclear, Donald Trump dominates media by going off script

Donald Trump has settled connected a closing message, but it’s not clear what last belief Kamala Harris wants to time off pinch voters successful nan past 2 weeks. 

Trump, arsenic I’ve reported, has boiled it down to migration and nan economy. Of course, nan erstwhile president has besides wandered disconnected book to talk astir Arnold Palmer’s genitalia and calling Harris a "s*** vice president," arsenic good arsenic stealing the limelight pinch his fry-cookery astatine McDonald’s.

Harris is moving a accepted Democratic run and not making overmuch news, which is simply a problem for her – moreover arsenic National Review’s Jim Geraghty says nan GOP portrayal of her arsenic a dunce is incorrect and she could win.

As champion I tin portion together, nan vice president is emphasizing 2 things successful this last stretch. One is abortion rights, a post-Roe chaotic paper that evidently favors Democrats, accusing Trump of lacking compassion.

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Former President Trump appears to beryllium settling connected migration and nan system successful his closing connection to voters – contempt flying wildly off-script astatine times while doing so. Vice President Harris' transportation is acold little clear. (Getty Images)

The different is, well, that she’s not Trump. Harris now calls him "unstable and unhinged" successful astir each appearance.

That’s adjacent game, arsenic candidates person slimed their opponents since nan opening of nan republic. And struggling candidates often usage fearfulness to discredit their opponents, connected nan mentation that you whitethorn not emotion me, but this different feline is acold worse and will destruct our country.

But we’ve known since nan time aft Joe Biden stepped speech that nan now-60-year-old veep was moving arsenic nan anti-Trump. And it’s not for illustration her force doesn’t hurl invective astatine her. But moreover pinch her amped-up rhetoric, and nan fodder that Trump himself provides, saying he’s a threat to populist has been successful her playbook each along.

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And it conscionable truthful happens that nan media are abruptly filled pinch pieces questioning nan 78-year-old’s intelligence acuity. What a opposition pinch nan journalistic soundlessness complete Biden’s declining fittingness until his disastrous statement pinch Trump, which forced him, nether Democratic pressure, retired of nan race.

I tin show you from my Trump Tower question and reply that he did not look tired, and whether you liked his answers aliases not, he was cogent. What made nan biggest news was his defense of describing Jan. 6 arsenic a "day of love" and naming Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff arsenic "the force within," nan second being 2 clips that group up punchlines for Jon Stewart astatine nan "Daily Show." 

Schiff fired backmost pinch an X posting, and a spokesperson for Pelosi denied his remarks astir her turning down nan National Guard successful a connection to Rolling Stone.

Her main surrogate astatine nan infinitesimal is Liz Cheney, who sacrificed her governmental profession to crusade against Trump. This is ironic, of course, since astir Democrats despised Cheney and her father, Dick Cheney (who has besides endorsed Harris), some for nan Iraq War and their hard-right views.

At a municipality hallway gathering in Michigan – 3 questions from nan assemblage – Harris besides took 3 questions from nan press, though nan journalists had been preselected by her staff.

Cheney’s pitch: "If group are uncertain, if group are thinking, well, you know, I’m a conservative, I don’t cognize that I tin support Vice President Harris, I would say: I don’t deliberation anybody’s much blimpish than I am, and I understand nan astir blimpish worth location is, is to take sides nan Constitution."

Republican erstwhile Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, girl of erstwhile Vice President and Democratic lightning rod Dick Cheney, appears to beryllium nan Harris campaign's main governmental surrogate astatine nan moment. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

She added: "We each know, everyone who watched January 6 knows, you know, what Donald Trump is consenting to do. He mislaid nan predetermination — he tried to overturn it and prehend power."

Cheney is nan awesome of different salient Republicans who are backing Harris, including respective erstwhile Trump management officials, almost arsenic a support gaffe for crossing statement lines. But Harris, while moving to nan center, hasn’t changed 1 argumentation that would entreaty to specified voters, aliases challenged wide orthodoxy, and hasn’t been capable to sanction 1 awesome point she would do otherwise than Biden.

After her testy speech pinch Bret Baier, Harris did an question and reply pinch activist/pundit Al Sharpton, who openly supports her, that made nary news. She denied having a problem pinch Black men, though everything she has been doing – visiting Black churches and restaurants, sitting down pinch Charlamagne Tha God, rallying pinch Lizzo – shows her run believes she does.

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The upshot is that Harris is having problem making news, aliases astatine slightest caller news, against a man who tin prehend headlines each mates of hours.

Trump acknowledged to maine successful our Mar-a-Lago question and reply that he sometimes uses inflammatory connection to make media attention. That’s why he does it. With Politico dubbing this "the genitalia campaign," Trump knew his chat of Arnold Palmer’s junk would origin cries of outrage by nan different side, but that locker-room talk would besides entreaty to immoderate men.

The Donald’s little stint astatine McDonald’s was truthful striking that it was replayed again and again. Harris was adept capable to opportunity that she supports an summation successful nan national minimum costs and Trump does not. 

Trump's little stint astatine a Pennsylvania McDonald's reverberated successful mainstream media circles this weekend, to nan tune of amusement and ridicule alike. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

And, yes, it was a wholly staged stunt. News flash: Politicians person been utilizing symbolic backdrops aliases doing working-class jobs astir forever. Big deal. The New York Times shed caller ray by uncovering a friend who says she worked pinch Harris astatine a circumstantial Bay Area McDonald’s successful 1983. 

And yet, media detractors cited this, and his profanity, and him swaying to euphony aft turning a municipality hallway interrupted by 2 aesculapian emergencies into a concert, arsenic grounds he is "losing it."

Trump has now scored an upcoming question and reply pinch Joe Rogan, guaranteed to make news pinch nan incredibly influential podcaster who erstwhile vowed ne'er to put him on; I don’t cognize what became of Harris’ discussions to beryllium down pinch Rogan.

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Harris, for her part, did beryllium down pinch Hallie Jackson for an question and reply airing past nighttime connected "NBC Nightly News."

Asked a bid of reasonably reliable questions, Harris again made nary news. Her first reply was that she would not proceed nan Biden presidency and mentioned price-gouging. Does she spot sexism successful nan gender spread among men? She sees men and women astatine her events. No sexism astatine all? "I don’t deliberation it’s that way."

When Jackson said "your messages haven’t connected pinch them yet," she pivoted to "Trump would terminate nan Constitution." She said she would not make concessions connected abortion rights. She passed up an opportunity to knock Elon Musk.

What if Trump prematurely declares victory? "This is simply a personification who tried to undo a free and adjacent election, who incited a mob to onslaught nan Capitol." In short, thing she hasn’t said before.

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If Kamala is going to alteration nan nationalist cognition of her by doing thing astonishing aliases stunning, by breaking distant from her mostly practiced answers, she’s sewage a dwindling number of days to do it. She whitethorn person raised a cardinal dollars for a powerful crushed game, but astatine this constituent it each comes down to nan closing message.