WASHINGTON — With 18 days until Election Day, presidential candidates and their surrogates are heading to battleground states that have started early voting and sitting down for interviews with their target audiences.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, will be in two swing states next week with two Democratic celebrities: former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama.
Harris and Barack Obama will travel to Georgia on Thursday, which has already started early voting. She will next campaign in Michigan alongside Michelle Obama as early voting begins on October 26.
Harris’ colleague, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, appeared on Friday on a popular sports podcast hosted by NFL commentator and host Rich Eisen, in which Walz – a former high school football coach – provided analysis of the upcoming Detroit Lions-Minnesota Vikings football game on Sunday.
Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, has his own deputy, tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Musk, Tesla’s CEO and owner of X, formerly Twitter, campaigned on Trump’s behalf, attending rallies and holding a Thursday town hall in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. More town halls with Musk are planned in the coming days.
Musk, who is also an immigrant, complained about immigration at the town hall and said he was “pro-immigrant. I just want to make sure that the people who come here will be an asset to society.”
Elon Musk talks about immigration, voting and free speech in the first of Pennsylvania’s election town halls
Recent campaign documents show he has donated about $75 million to organizations supporting Trump’s re-election.
Al Smith’s Dinner
Late Thursday, Trump attended the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, a lavish event that raises millions for Catholic Charities in New York. The organizers invite the presidential candidates to the common stage before election day for a lithe comedy roast.
Harris did not attend the charity event due to campaigning in the critical battleground state of Wisconsin. but I sent the video. The Trump campaign criticized her for her absence.
“Kamala — who is not funny, despises Catholics, and was too afraid that President Trump would roast her — became the first presidential candidate since 1984 to miss the event,” the campaign said in a statement. National Catholic reporter reports Harris’ campaign says it is committed to working with Catholic voters.
The only presidential candidate to intentionally miss the dinner was Democratic candidate Walter Mondale, and the presidential candidates were not invited 1996 AND 2004. In 1992, the dinner was at the same evening as the presidential debate between Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George H. W. Bush.
Pope Francis criticized both candidates. “Both are anti-life, whether it is the one who throws out migrants or the one who kills children” – Francis he said.
Harris campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a statement that Trump’s dinner performance was “volatile.”
“He stumbled upon hearing his words and started attacking when the crowd refused to laugh with him,” Moussa said. “In rare moments when he went off-script, he uttered long, unintelligible gibberish, reminding Americans how unstable he had become.”
Trump in a cordial environment
Trump largely stuck to conservative media appearances and appeared on podcasts aimed at juvenile men.
He went to A “PBD Podcast” aired Thursday, during which Trump joined host Patrick Bet-David to once again question Harris’ race.
This isn’t the first time Trump has publicly commented on Harris’ race did in Chicago at the National Association of Black Journalists event in July. Harris is black and Indian; her father is Jamaican and her overdue mother was Indian.
“They have a woman who is black, even though you could say she is Indian, but she is black… a lot of people didn’t know that,” Trump said on the podcast.
Trump also withdrew from several interviews with established media outlets such as CBS’s “60 Minutes” and CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Joe Kernen, co-host of “Squawk Box,” said Friday that Trump had canceled a scheduled interview.
CNN offered to host the town hall with both candidates. Trump has not committed, but Harris will attend CNN’s town hall meeting on Wednesday.
Trump opposes lessons on slavery
Trump appeared in “Fox and friends” early Friday, where he called Harris a “Marxist” and dismissed criticism of Harris that he is “unstable.”
“I am the most stable man,” Trump said.
Viewers submitted questions on the show. One of them asked how Trump would handle education policy. Trump has said he will support school choice and get rid of the U.S. Department of Education.
He added that he would withhold federal funding from public schools that teach about slavery in U.S. history.
“If they want to be cute, you don’t send them money,” Trump said, referring to public schools in states like California that are Democratic strongholds.
One of the hosts, Brian Kilmeade, asked Trump how he planned to reach women in the final days of the election, since Harris is doing better in this voting bloc.
Trump said he was “very good with women and I think it’s all bullshit.”
Overall, women registered to vote support Harris by 52% compared to 43% for Trump, according to the Pew Research Center.
“You have one problem, you have the issue of abortion,” Trump said. “Without abortion, women love me. They like me anyway.
Trump has often taken credit for ending Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion, by appointing three conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.
What’s next?
Both campaigns are having a busy weekend.
On Saturday, Harris will travel to Detroit, Michigan for a campaign event and then to Atlanta, Georgia. In the Peach State, she will be joined by R&B singer Usher at a campaign rally where she will focus on the importance of early voting.
On Saturday, Walz will travel to Chicago to attend a campaign reception. Walz will then travel to Omaha, Nebraska, for another campaign reception and will later deliver remarks at the rally.
On Saturday evening, Trump will energize his base at a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He will also host a town hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Sunday evening.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, is traveling to Waukesha, Wisconsin, on Sunday for a campaign event.
