HARRIS IS RIGHT
2024-10-14 14:06:25 UTC
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PermalinkKamala Harris asked why Donald J. Trump had not released his medical
records, appeared on 60 Minutes or agreed to a second debate.
Kamala Harris on a podium giving a speech. Audience is full. Blue signs
read, Freedom for North Carolina and North Carolina Votes Early.
By Nicholas Nehamas and Maya King
Nicholas Nehamas reported from Greenville, N.C., and Maya King from
Atlanta.
Oct. 13, 2024, 7:59 p.m. ET
Vice President Kamala Harris challenged former President Donald J. Trump on
Sunday for refusing to do what she has done in recent days: release a
report on his health, sit for a 60 Minutes interview and commit to
another presidential debate.
It makes you wonder: Why does his staff want him to hide away? Ms. Harris
asked the crowd at a rally in a packed college basketball arena in
Greensville, N.C. One must question: Are they afraid that people will see
that he is too weak and unstable to lead America?
Her line of attack marked an attempt to turn the tables on Mr. Trump, who
for months had suggested that President Biden was too old to be president
and accused him of hiding from the American people. And it underscored her
efforts to present herself as the candidate of change and Mr. Trump as a
relic of the past, as she forms a closing message in the final weeks of her
campaign.
From him, we are just hearing from that same, old tired playbook, she
said. He has no plan for how he would address the needs of the American
people. He is only focused on himself.
Image
Women at a Harris rally, looking happy and excited and holding sings that
read, Carolina for Kamala and Students for Harris Walz.
Vice President Kamala Harris supporters at todays rally in Greenville,
N.C.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
Ms. Harriss rally, which attracted about 7,000 people, was aimed
especially at urging supporters in a presidential battleground state to
cast their ballots before Election Day. Early voting begins on Thursday in
North Carolina. The election is here, she said.
It was also meant to mobilize Black voters, a critical Democratic
constituency whose support for Ms. Harris is drifting compared to 2020,
polls have found. A survey of Black likely voters from The New York
Times/Siena College found that roughly eight in 10 Black voters plan to
vote for Ms. Harris an overwhelming majority, but more than 10 points
short of the support Mr. Biden had four years ago. The softening of support
was especially pronounced among Black men 70 percent of whom said they
planned to support her.
Roughly four in 10 residents of Greenville are Black, and the city is
surrounded by rural communities with significant Black populations that
often say they are ignored by national campaigns. A Democratic presidential
candidate has not won North Carolina since Barack Obama in 2008. A Times
polling average shows Ms. Harris within one point of Mr. Trump in the
state, which he almost certainly must win to reclaim the White House.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond on Sunday to a request for
comment about Ms. Harriss remarks. Mr. Trump, speaking at a rally in
Prescott Valley, Ariz., on Sunday, cast himself as an indefatigable
campaigner, who can give multiple long speeches each day and keep up with
the rigors of political travel.
Who the hell can do this two, three times a day? Mr. Trump said. So I
speak for hours, mostly without a Teleprompter. And he mocked reporters
for seizing on any mispronunciation of a word to claim hes cognitively
impaired or hes getting old.
After avoiding the media during the initial rollout of her truncated
campaign, the vice president has embarked on a blitz of interviews
recently, both with mainstream journalists and on nontraditional settings
like podcasts. She appeared on a 60 Minutes special last Monday; CBS said
that Mr. Trump had agreed to be interviewed on the program as well, but
then backed out.
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Ms. Harris also released a letter from her doctor on Saturday declaring
that she was in excellent health and possessed the physical and mental
resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.
Ms. Harriss allies say the final three weeks of the campaign will focus on
engaging the Black voters who have not yet committed to casting their
ballots for her. Through town hall-style events, get-out-the-vote efforts
geared toward Black men and the use of campaign surrogates, Democrats hope
to consolidate their base of Black voters around the party once more.
They also plan to ramp up efforts to counter what they see as
misinformation about Ms. Harriss record on criminal justice, and they are
holding events at historically Black colleges and universities to engage
Black voters during their season of homecoming celebrations.
On Tuesday, Ms. Harris will sit for an interview in Detroit with
Charlamagne Tha God, one of the nations most popular Black radio hosts, on
his nationally syndicated show.
The job of any great candidate in their campaign is to, number one,
listen, and I think the Harris campaign has been listening and is
addressing that concern pretty aggressively, said Quentin James, the co-
founder and CEO of the Collective PAC, an organization that supports Black
political candidates.
Last week, the Harris campaign unleashed one of its biggest weapons: Mr.
Obama, the nations first Black president. At a campaign event in
Pittsburgh, Mr. Obama suggested that, although some voters cite the economy
or immigration for their skepticism of Ms. Harris, he suspected another
factor was playing a role.
Oct. 2, 2024
Part of it makes me think that, well, you just arent feeling the idea of
having a woman as president, and youre coming up with other alternatives
and other reasons for that, Mr. Obama said, in blunt comments that
represented a remarkable, if calculated, risk to win support with the
election close at hand.
Jeffrey McIlwain, 59, who attended the Greenville rally on Sunday, said he
had come to a similar conclusion after talking with some of his male
friends and family.
I think they have a problem with a woman in the White House, said Mr.
McIlwain, a retired bonds trader and banker who lives in Durham.
But polls also suggest a broader anxiety among some Black voters that
Democrats have not made life measurably better for them, even though they
back the party in overwhelming numbers. Forty percent of African American
voters under 30 said the Republican Party was more likely to follow through
on its campaign commitments than Democrats were.
Ms. Harriss weekend visit to North Carolina also included local outreach
efforts as the state recovers from the devastation of Hurricane Helene last
month. On Saturday, she helped put together care packages at a barbecue
restaurant and met with local Black elected officials and faith leaders.
Then, before her rally on Sunday, Ms. Harris attended a service at a
predominantly Black church in Greenville as part of her campaigns wider
initiative to engage Black faith voters, which will include a Souls to the
Polls initiative centered around churchgoers.
At the church, the vice president condemned efforts to spread
misinformation about post-storm relief efforts. Mr. Trump and Republicans
have amplified many false claims, although Ms. Harris did not name the
former president in her remarks.
Instead of offering hope, there are those who ar
e channeling peoples tragedies and sorrows into grievances and hatred,
she said, arguing that their goal was to play politics for other peoples
heartbreak.