ERIE, Pa. - Vice President Kamala Harris portrayed Donald Trump as dangerous and “unhinged” at a rally Monday night, arguing that the Supreme Court’s decision granting presidents broad immunity for their official acts has significantly raised the stakes for a second Trump presidency.
Trying out a new tactic here in Western Pennsylvania, Harris ordered her aides to roll the tape on giant jumbotron screens inside the Erie rally hall to show clips of Trump making inflammatory statements and threats at his rallies and in a recent interview. Watching the former president speak, many in the crowd booed, and some shouted, “He’s a criminal!” Harris argued that Americans should be alarmed that Trump has threatened to jail his opponents and that he has described some fellow Americans as “the enemy from within.”
When the crowd chanted “Lock him up!” Harris pumped her hands toward the floor to hush those jeers. “The courts will handle that,” she said. “Let’s handle November, shall we? We’ll handle November.”
Her speech marked one side of a day of dueling campaign events in Pennsylvania, a state both parties regard as a crucial battleground and potential tipping-point contest with just over three weeks of campaigning left. Trump was on the other side of the state holding a town hall where he went after Harris and delivered meandering remarks on a range of topics. The event was interrupted twice when members of the crowd appeared to need medical attention, and it ended with Trump standing onstage swaying to music for some 39 minutes.
Here in Erie, one of the clips Harris showed was from a recent Fox News interview in which Trump referred to fellow Americans as “the enemy from within” and said the country has some “very bad people,” “some sick people” and “radical left lunatics.”
“It should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen,” Trump said in the Fox interview.
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“He considers anyone who doesn’t support him or who will not bend to his will the enemy, an enemy of our country. It’s a serious issue,” Harris said Monday night. “He is saying that he would use the military to go after them. … We know who he would target because he has attacked them before: journalists whose stories he doesn’t like; election officials who refuse to cheat by filling extra votes and finding extra votes for him; judges who insist on following the law instead of bending to his will.”
Harris said those assertions were “among the reasons I believe so strongly that a second Trump term would be a huge risk for America - and dangerous.”
“Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged. And he is out for unchecked power. That’s what he’s looking for,” Harris said.
Earlier in the day, the Harris campaign also sought to draw attention to a September social media post in which Trump said he intended to jail anyone involved “in unscrupulous behavior” related to the 2024 election. The post continued his long practice of threatening election officials and trumpeting unsubstantiated claims of fraud.
As Harris tried out those new lines in her speech, the campaign also released a new ad - “Enemy Within” - showing menacing footage of Trump yelling and making threats. The ad features two former Trump national security advisers who say Americans must consider the consequences of a second Trump presidency where his power is unchecked and he has no guardrails.
The Harris campaign is attempting to give the public a more unfettered view of Trump in these final weeks, in part because advisers say they believe many Americans are not familiar with the controversial statements he is making at his rallies.
In a new interview with New York magazine, Harris adviser David Plouffe - a former strategist for Barack Obama - argued that many Americans are not seeing the unfiltered Trump who appears at his rallies. Plouffe argued that Trump is “not a great asset at the close of the campaign, because he’s unhinged, he’s increasingly unstable, he’s giving Soviet-style multi-hour speeches that make little sense.”
Democrats have spent nearly $50 million on television ads in Pennsylvania, while Republicans have spent nearly $52 million, according to the firm AdImpact, the most for either party in the seven battleground states. The Washington Post’s polling average has Harris leading in Pennsylvania by two points.
Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 but lost to Joe Biden in 2020. Before the rally in Erie, Harris met with Black male voters at a Black-owned business in the city and touted what she has framed as her “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men.”
During her visit to LegendErie Records and Coffee House, Harris spoke with Black men from the Erie area. The reporters who accompanied her were escorted out of the venue before the private conversation began.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) moderated Trump’s town hall in Oaks, a suburb of Philadelphia. She criticized Harris at the outset and introduced attendees who asked Trump friendly questions that enabled him to lob attacks at Harris over immigration and national security, among other issues.
The event took a bizarre turn when two attendees appeared to faint. Trump and Noem initially paused their remarks.
After the second incident, Trump jokingly asked the crowd if “anybody else would like to faint.” Then he tried a different approach.
“Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music. Let’s make it into a music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?” he said. The event ended with Trump standing onstage swaying to music for an extended period.
Throughout his remarks, Trump focused heavily on border security, as he has at other recent stops, and reprised language decrying a migrant “invasion.”
“It is an invasion like we’ve never seen before,” Trump said.
Trump has faced criticism from immigrant rights advocates for using dehumanizing language to describe undocumented immigrants, but many supporters have cheered his comments, and polls show voters trust Republicans over Democrats on immigration matters.
Trump offered meandering answers when asked about how he would address affordable housing and help small businesses.
He also appeared to mix up the day of the election, telling attendees to “vote on January 5th” or before.
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LeVine reported from Oaks, Pa.