Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump held dueling campaign events in battleground Michigan today, sharpening their attacks with just 18 days left until November 5.
In an afternoon speech in Grand Rapids, Harris criticized Trump’s record for the car industry, warning that he is making “empty promises” to workers in the Wolverine State. She touted the Biden administration’s work to preserve 650 union jobs at the Grand River Assembly plant in Lansing. The administration provided a $500 million grant to convert the plant to produce electric vehicles, money from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that was part of a larger $1.7 billion plan to boost E.V. production at 11 factories. Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, earlier this month called the Lansing grant “table scraps.”
Harris hit back in her speech. “We fought hard for those jobs. We believe you deserve a president who will protect them and not insult them. And make no mistake, Donald Trump is no friend of labor,” she said. “He is no friend of labor. Just look at the record instead of his rhetoric. Look at the record, and let’s not fall for the old okie-doke.”
Two days before her 60th birthday, Harris also raised questions about whether 78-year-old former president is fit for a second term after he pulled out of several planned appearances and a Trump adviser reportedly said that the Republican nominee is “exhausted” — a claim the Trump campaign denies. Trump hasn’t released his medical records despite saying in August that he’d “gladly” do so.
“You know, look, being president of the United States is probably one of the hardest jobs in the world, and so we really do need to ask ourselves if he’s exhausted from being on the campaign trail, is he fit to do the job?” Harris told reporters before taking the stage in Grand Rapids.
Trump did hold a couple of his own events in Michigan, including a return to Detroit, which he recently compared to a “developing nation.” He denied being exhausted. “I’m not even tired. I’m really exhilarated. You know why? We’re killing her in the polls because the American people don’t want her,” Trump told reporters.
He also joined “Fox & Friends” in the morning, following a surly, insult-filled speech at the storied Al Smith dinner in New York on Thursday night. Harris bucked tradition and skipped that dinner, opting to send a prerecorded video and campaign in Wisconsin instead.
