Written by Andrea Shalal and Steve Holland
ROYAL OAK, Michigan/SWANNANOA, North Carolina (Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her Republican rival, Donald Trump, presented very different messages on the American campaign trail on Monday as they sought to win over voters who were undecided two weeks ago. Election Day.
Vice President Harris, campaigning with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in three midwestern states, argued that Trump, the former president, was a threat to democracy.
As the election nears, Harris has stepped up his attacks on Trump's fitness for office, often calling him “unstable” or “inflexible” and questioning his attitude.
“In many, many ways, Donald Trump is a man of no concern, but the consequences of being president of the United States are brutally bad,” Harris, 60, said at an event in Malvern, Pennsylvania, one of seven states expected to decide. the winner of the November 5 election.
Trump, 78, has often rejected any notion that he is a threat to democracy, saying Democrats are the real threat because of the criminal investigations he and his allies have faced in their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Trump toured North Carolina on Monday to drum up support in the highly competitive state. At another stop in the typhoon-hit mountains, he urged supporters to go to the polls despite the difficulties they face.
While Harris suggested Trump was unfit for office, the former president questioned Biden's ability to manage.
Trump renewed his criticism of the emergency management agency FEMA and sought to connect with working-class supporters by praising his relentless efforts in office.
“I've done 52 days without a day off, which most of these people would respect,” Trump said in a speech based on debris from the floods that hit the area last month.
As opinion polls show a close race, the two candidates are gaining momentum, their busy campaign schedules stressing the importance of small pockets of voters that can put either candidate on top.
Trump ended his day at an evangelical Christian event in Concord, North Carolina, telling the crowd he likes to think that when he failed to kill him on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, he was saved by “a supernatural hand.”
In his speech, he avoided using some of the off-color expressions he used in recent speeches. He said when he looked back on his life, “I can see now that it was the hand of God that led me to where I am today.”
Evangelical leader Franklin Graham offered a prayer for Trump to be elected.
“Rallies and good poll numbers are not going to win this election,” Graham said. “It will be God.”
'VOTE YOUR KNOWLEDGE'
At an event with Harris in Royal Oak, Michigan, Cheney sought to give Republicans on the fence permission to support a Democrat without worrying about retaliation.
“I certainly have a lot of Republicans who will say to me, 'I can't go public.' They worry about a lot of things including violence, but they will do the right thing,” Cheney said. “And I would remind people, if you're worried, you can vote your conscience and not say anything to anyone.”
Cheney and his father Dick Cheney, who was vice president under President George W. Bush and is still reviled by many Democrats for his defense of the US invasion of Iraq, are staunch conservatives and two prominent Republicans to endorse Harris.
In a post at his Public Truth forum on Monday, Trump called Liz Cheney “dumb as a rock” and a “war hawk.” He accused him of wanting to go to war with “every Muslim country known to mankind” like his father, calling him “the man who sarcastically pushed Bush to go to war in the Middle East.”
Trump's visit to North Carolina on Monday coincided with concerns among his Republican supporters that the damage caused by Helene will affect the number of people who have joined the war in the state's mountainous regions.
“Obviously, we want them to vote but we want them to live and live and be happy and healthy, because this is truly a tragedy,” Trump said at a campaign stop in Swannanoa, population 5,300, after visiting areas devastated by the storm.
He said many Americans feel abandoned by their federal government and renewed unsubstantiated claims that the response from the Biden administration has been slow, allegations the White House dismissed as fake news.
The area most affected by Helene is deeply Republican. Trump won about 62% of the vote in 2020 in the 25 states declared disaster areas after Helene, while Biden won about 51% in the rest of the country, according to a Reuters analysis.
