The personal jabs flew back and forth as the White House rivals blitzed battleground states 16 days before the election. In Pennsylvania, Trump served fries at a McDonald’s as he sought to cast doubt on Harris’s biographical detail about having worked decades ago at the fast-food chain.
The vice-president was in Georgia, where she tweeted that Trump was “exhausted, unstable, and unfit to be President of the United States”. Polls show the two locked in a razor-tight race across the country, including in the seven battleground states that could swing the election. Speaking in traditionally Republican-leaning Lancaster County on Sunday afternoon, Trump focused heavily on the economy and immigration – issues his campaign believes give him an edge with undecided voters.
“If you look at the polls, the biggest thing is the economy,” he said. “But I think this [the border] is bigger than the economy… that’s the number one thing people want to talk about.” Earlier in the day, Trump had stopped at a McDonald’s in Feasterville-Trevose, a suburb of Philadelphia, where he learned to make fries, dunking the wire basket in sizzling oil, and serving meals at a drive-through window.
The restaurant itself was closed to sit-in diners during Trump’s visit. “I like this job,” said the Republican, who is himself fond of Big Macs and Filet-o-Fish sandwiches. He again accused Harris of “lying” about having once worked at the fast-food chain. “I’ve now worked [at McDonald’s] for 15 minutes more than Kamala,” said Trump.
Harris spokesman Ian Sams told the BBC that Trump’s stunt was a sign of “desperation”. All he knows how to do is lie, he said. He can’t understand what it is to have a summer job because he was handed millions on a silver platter and blew it all.
Campaign leaders added, during his summer off in 1983, the vice-president worked on the cash register, ice cream machine and fry machine at a McDonald’s on Central Avenue in Alameda, California. An ad appeared in the 1983 edition of the local high school’s yearbook, with pictures featuring a couple of students who were working there at the time.
One of the students in the photos has been interviewed by the BBC; he reported that he recalls a lot of people who worked alongside him at the restaurant more than 40 years ago, though not Kamala Harris. On the other hand, The New York Times spoke to a high school friend of Harris, Wanda Kagan, who told them she remembered the vice-president-to-be working at McDonald’s around that time.
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Trump’s Scathing Attack
Sounding off on the Biden administration’s policies, particularly firing more broadsides at Vice President Harris, Donald Trump today hit Biden’s campaign with a barrage of attacks of “failed leadership” on issues like immigration, inflation, and crime as he portrayed the vice president as unfit to assume the presidency.
Speaking to a packed crowd of supporters at a rally in Ohio, Trump insisted that Harris is not equipped to lead on key issues, blasting her on immigration, inflation, and crime.
“She’s been an absolute disaster as Vice President,” Trump said to roaring applause. “We’ve got inflation through the roof, our borders are wide open, and crime is out of control, and she’s done nothing but make things worse.”
He further accused Harris of being oblivious to the needs of the working-class American, claiming she has done more harm than good with her policies to everyday people. “She’s all talk, no action,” he said. “She’s more focused on woke politics than on making America great again.”
Protesters who back President Trump welcomed his attacks, chanting slogans such as “Lock her up!” at the top of their lungs as he spoke. Mr. Trump has framed the 2024 election as an opportunity to “save America” from the policies of the Biden-Harris administration, casting his potential return to the White House as a necessary course correction for the country.
Harris Fires Back
Vice President Kamala Harris, on the other hand, is not pulling her punches on counterattacks. While campaigning in Wisconsin, Harris came out belligerent, attacking Trump for “sowing division” within the country and “undermining democracy”. While speaking to a rally full of supporters at Milwaukee, Harris likened the election to a fight for the soul of the country, saying that Trump played a role in the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
Donald Trump wants to drag this country backward,” Harris told the cheering crowd. “He tried to overthrow our democracy once, and now he’s back, spreading fear and lies. But we’re not going to let him win.”
Harris has sought to emphasize leadership on key issues, such as reproductive rights, climate change, and voting access, all of which are vastly at odds with Trump’s policies. “Donald Trump had his chance, and he failed,” Harris said. “He left us with a broken economy, a pandemic out of control, and a country more divided than ever. We can’t afford to go back.
Harris also attacks the new Trump campaign strategies that are based on personal attacks: “He can throw all the insults he wants, but the American people see through it. They know that he’s the one who’s out of touch with what we need to move forward.”
Battle Blitz
Both Trump and Harris are heavily focusing on swing states like Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia-states that were crucial to the outcome of the 2020 election. Such states-countries, with margins that have been into razor-thin-counts, are on the battlefield once again, and both campaigns are investing in securing victory there.
Trump has been holding rallies almost daily-thereby drawing large crowds-and doubling down on his core message of economic populism, anti-immigration, and law and order. His campaign’s play is relying on reigniting the fervor that catapulted him to the presidency in 2016, much as he did among rural voters and those in the working class.
Harris has been walking through campuses, community centers, and union events, talking about the importance of mobilization by and among young voters, women, and people of color. She hammers home the administration’s actual accomplishments- lowering prescription drug costs, and access to healthcare. She paints a vivid picture about what a Trump second term would look like for civil rights and democracy.
A Testy Exchange on Policy
The battles rap between the two candidates highlight the deep ideological chasm between them. While Trump continues to hammer home such issues as inflation and border security, Harris is focusing her campaign against the dangers of extremism, reproductive freedom, and climate change. Each is playing hard to their base, giving little evidence of common ground on visions for America.
According to polls, the race has remained tight, and most battleground states still exhibit a significant percentage of undecided voters. To Trump supporters, he is the return of strength and prosperity, while Harris’s supporters see her as a defender of progress and equality.
What’s at Stake?
Stakes couldn’t be higher. With the country more divided than ever, both Trump and Harris have staked everything on their capacity to energize their bases while persuading a razor-thin cross-section of undecided voters in critical swing states.
For Trump, this campaign gives him political redemption after the loss in 2020 and an avenue to reclaim the White House. For Harris, it is a chance to prove herself as a leader who can carry on the Biden legacy while steering the nation into the future.
The bitter exchanges between the two candidates are likely to intensify as Election Day draws closer, each viewing the other as an existential threat to the country’s future.
Voters in swing states will play a pivotal role in determining which vision for America will prevail in this fiercely contested election.
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