Here are a few things you might have missed this week from Harris and Trump, including an event with Oprah Winfrey, a Teamsters non-endorsement, and comments about Jewish Democratic voters.
With fewer than seven weeks to go until Election Day, it’s crunch time for the candidates.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are filling up their schedules with campaign events hoping to influence any voters they can – especially in battleground states. And with early voting kicking off in three states on Friday, there’s no time to spare.
The latest phase of the presidential race seems to be moving forward at a breakneck pace. Here are a few things you might have missed this week from Harris and Trump:
Harris Teams Up with Oprah, Doesn’t Land Teamsters Endorsement
Harris on Thursday teamed up with Oprah Winfrey for a campaign event titled “Unite for America.” Harris used the event to highlight Trump’s record on the issue of abortion.
She is expected to continue that messaging in a speech Friday focused on reproductive rights in Georgia. Her appearance comes after ProPublica reported this week that the 2022 deaths of two women in the state were tied to its six-week abortion ban.
During the event with Winfrey, Harris spoke about owning a gun.
“If somebody breaks in my house, they’re getting shot,” Harris said. “I probably should not have said that, but my staff will deal with that later.”
Meanwhile, the Teamsters union this week declined to endorse a presidential candidate this election, a departure from the labor organization’s nearly 30-year norm of endorsing Democratic nominees.
The Harris campaign tried to lessen the blow by pointing out that while the national leadership did not endorse her, several joint councils in battleground states of Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin did throw their support behind her.
Trump’s campaign framed the announcement as a victory despite also not landing the endorsement.
Trump Campaigns After His (Second) Apparent Assassination Attempt
The FBI said that Trump was the target of what “appears to be an attempted assassination” on Sunday at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. It came roughly two months after he survived an attack at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump was not harmed on Sunday, according to his campaign. He posted on Truth Social that he was safe and thanked law enforcement. “I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes – It was certainly an interesting day!”
He carried on with his week, giving two speeches to Jewish groups on Thursday. But his comments sparked several headlines.
“If I don’t win this election – and Jewish people would have a lot to do with that, 60% are voting for the enemy – Israel will cease to exist in two years,” Trump said.
He also said that Jewish Democratic voters “should have their head examined.”
Meanwhile, Democrats aim to tie Trump to North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican, who is facing mounting pressure to drop out of the state’s gubernatorial race following a bombshell report from CNN that he years ago referred to himself as a “black NAZI” on a pornography website’s message board. Robinson has denied making the comments.
Trump endorsed Robinson in March, saying he was “better” than Martin Luther King, Jr. The former president won North Carolina in the past two elections, despite the state electing Democrat Roy Cooper to the governor’s office each time. But the new development is raising questions about what could happen in the state come Election Day.
The Democratic National Committee is already running billboards in several spots in North Carolina linking Trump to Robinson. The Trump campaign has not commented on whether Robinson should drop out of the governor’s race.
Additionally, Trump was scheduled for a joint appearance with Polish President Andrzej Duda in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Sunday, but that event has reportedly been canceled. It would have marked a rare appearance of a foreign leader with a U.S. presidential candidate on the campaign trail.
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