Kamala Harris is responding to Democratic panic about her White House prospects by turning up the heat on Donald Trump.
The vice president warned Monday that the ex-president was “unstable,” “unhinged” and out for “unchecked power” as she sent a jolt of urgency though her campaign with 21 days to go.
“Watch his rallies. Listen to his words. He tells us who he is, and he tells us what he would do if he is elected president,” Harris told a large crowd in Pennsylvania after a weekend when Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric reached chilling new levels and hinted at the extreme nature of his potential second term.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, meanwhile, went even further, suggesting the ex-president’s musings about using the military against domestic foes he branded “the enemy from within” could even amount to treason.
Harris and her team also aggressively questioned Trump’s mental fitness and his capacity to serve another term, turning the tables on the Republican nominee who for months leveled similar charges at President Joe Biden.
In another effort by Harris to ease concerns about her apparently stalled momentum, she announced a major new initiative to court Black male voters amid anxiety that Trump is making inroads into a critical Democratic support base or that they simply won’t turn out.
And in a new ad campaign in swing state Arizona, Harris made fresh attempts to win over Republicans alienated by the ex-president’s behavior but who have yet to make what is for many a wrenching decision to cross party lines. To that end, Harris also announced that she’d sit down for her first formal interview with Fox News, dropping her earlier reticence over unscripted events to create a contrast with Trump.