Harris Says Trump’s Profanity, Vulgar Remarks Will Repel Voters
(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris predicted former President Donald Trump’s lack of decorum would be a disqualifier with voters as the candidates are locked in an exceedingly tight race with 16 days to go.
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“He’s not earned the right. And that’s why he’s gonna lose,” Harris said Sunday in an interview with the Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC.
US presidents “walk into rooms around the world with the earned and self-appointed authority to talk about democracy and the rule of law” and need to practice decorum as well as rules and norms, she said.
Harris was asked by Sharpton about “street talk” comments Trump made Saturday in a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, in which he called Harris a “s— vice president.”
Trump started that rally with a 12-minute winding tale of the late golfer Arnold Palmer, who was from the town, that included references to Palmer’s genitalia.
“Arnold Palmer was all man, and I say that in all due respect to women and I love women,” the former president said. “This man was strong and tough and I refuse to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros they came out of there, they said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable.’”
House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed Trump’s remarks as “some fun language” that shouldn’t distract voters from his policy positions.
“So he has fun at the rallies,” the Louisiana Republican lawmaker said on CNN’s State of the Union. “He says things that are off the cuff.”
Earlier Sunday, Harris focused remarks to a church congregation in the Atlanta area on rejecting candidates who spread hate and divisiveness, as she seeks to mobilize Black voters in the final stretch before the Nov. 5 election.
“What we do see are some people trying to deepen division upon us, spread hate, sow fear, and cause chaos,” Harris told the predominantly Black congregation Sunday at New Birth Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, without directly naming Trump.
This election “must be about so much more than personalities. It must be about looking inward,” she said.
The Democratic presidential nominee’s prospects in the state hinge partly on her ability to turn out Georgia’s sizable Black electorate, which accounts for a third of eligible voters in the state, according to a Pew Research Center analysis — one of the highest shares in the country.
Trump has ramped up his outreach to Black voters this cycle, seeking to peel away support from a key Democratic bloc in the hopes of tipping the balance in swing states such as Georgia.
Democrats have expressed alarm that Harris, who is seeking to be the first Black woman US president, is underperforming with Black men.
“There is a natural skepticism that I think a lot of Black voters have, and not necessarily about the vice president and not about the Democratic Party. It’s about the pace of progress in America,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore said on Fox News Sunday.
Moore cited Harris’ rollout of policy positions around wages and wealth last week — targeting a Black male audience — as important for making her case with the cohort.
Governors of three so-called Blue Wall states seen as key to a Democratic victory — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — said on ABC’s This Week that get-out-the-vote efforts will be key in the final stretch.
“I agree it’s going to be close, but you cannot roll up your sleeves if you’re wringing your hands,” Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said, adding that “we’re not going to make any assumptions” about who will win.
And former President Barack Obama, who will join Harris this week to campaign in Georgia, recognized voter angst in Las Vegas remarks Saturday, in a bid to appeal to voters in another key battleground state.
“I get why people are looking to shake things up,” he said. “What I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that is good for you, because there’s absolutely no evidence that this man thinks about anybody but himself.”
Harris downplayed the concern around reaching Black male voters in the MSNBC interview Sunday, repeating that she “must earn the vote of everyone, regardless of their race or gender.”
“Why would Black men be any different from any other demographic of voter?” she asked.
--With assistance from Tony Czuczka and Alicia Diaz.
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