STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We're in the final days of the presidential election. Both candidates held high-profile events on Sunday, and if you wanted a contrast, you got it. Vice President Harris spoke at a Pennsylvania church and urged supporters to work to the end of an extremely close election. She said the final days are a test.
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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: When I think about the days ahead and the God we serve...
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HARRIS: ...I am confident that His power will work through us, because church, I know we were born for a time such as this.
INSKEEP: As Harris drew on her faith, one of the speakers at former President Donald Trump's rally in Madison Square Garden described her as, quote, "the Antichrist." That was one of many insults and grievances as Trump made his final appeal to the nation in his hometown of New York.
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DONALD TRUMP: I'm thrilled to be back in the city I love. And thousands of proud, hard-working American patriots, you're with me. We're all together. We've always been together.
INSKEEP: We have correspondents with us this morning who are covering both candidates. NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid is one of them. Good morning.
ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: And also NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben. Danielle, good morning to you.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey, Steve.
INSKEEP: And thanks to you both for your long hours and getting up early. Danielle, how did Trump's closing argument develop at this Madison Square Garden rally?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, the big headlines out of this rally already are not only from Trump but from the speakers who preceded him, and there were around four hours of those speakers. And the first guest of the night really set the tone for this rally, for what was just an inflammatory run of really insulting speeches. This was comedian and podcaster Tony Hinchcliffe, and he joked that Puerto Rico is a, quote, "floating island of garbage." And he also said Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, quote, "might be the next OJ Simpson." Now, Kelce is dating Harris supporter Taylor Swift, international pop star. So what we have here seems to be a joke about killing one of the most famous women in the world.
And the rally just went from there. There were insults for Kamala Harris. Tucker Carlson made fun of her being biracial, for example. Later, he also nodded to the racist great replacement theory. Now, as for how all of this fits into Trump's closing argument, he does have these core messages that he often, you know, uses to try to win over undecided voters - for example, talking about inflation and the border. And that would be typical in the last weeks of the campaign, but Trump is not doing that. He's talking about those things but slurs, vitriol, authoritarian statements just keep overshadowing those messages. It just keeps happening.
INSKEEP: How does that contrast with Vice President Harris, Asma?
KHALID: Well, you know, Danielle, you were just mentioning those comments about Puerto Rico. And I should point out that we saw that all making news just as Vice President Harris was visiting a Puerto Rican restaurant in Philadelphia. Puerto Ricans make up a sizable portion of the electorate in the key swing state of Pennsylvania. And the Harris campaign was quick to point out to all of these Puerto Rican celebrities, like Bad Bunny, who are now backing Harris. I will say, broadly, the contrast between Harris and Trump felt particularly stark on Sunday.
You know, the vice president spent the day crisscrossing Philadelphia neighborhoods, doing these intimate campaign stops that were specifically focused on reaching Black and brown voters. So, you know, she visited a barbershop in West Philly. She went to a well-known Black-owned bookstore. And one of her main messages at these various stops was how Donald Trump has spent years, in her view, trying to divide Americans.
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HARRIS: We have the ability to turn the page on that same old, tired playbook, because we are exhausted with it.
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INSKEEP: OK, how does that fit into her closing argument?
KHALID: Well, she is returning to a message that she started this campaign broadly with, and that is abortion. We're seeing a lot of messages around reproductive rights, the Harris campaign saying and articulating what could be at stake under a second Trump term, and at times, laying out in rather graphic detail what state abortion bans have meant for women. But also, I will say, she has been very much zeroing in on Trump as a threat to democracy, trying to make this election a referendum on the former president. And, you know, to that point, tomorrow here in Washington, she'll be delivering a speech from the same area where Trump gave remarks on January 6. It is a deliberate location choice to remind voters how the former president tried to overturn that 2020 election.
I will say, you know, this is a fine line in terms of a closing argument because some progressive voters on the left have wanted to hear more about what Harris is going to do for them, not just all this focus on Trump. Particularly, they want to hear more on the economy. And they are wary of how much Harris has been seen courting Republicans these last few weeks. The Harris campaign says she is also laying out what her presidency would look like compared to, of course, another Trump term.
INSKEEP: Danielle, I want to ask a little more about Trump's closing argument. Of course, he's at Madison Square Garden. I believe at least one of the speakers made, presumably, a joking reference to a famous 1939 rally in Madison Square Garden of Nazis. But Trump chose his hometown. It's also a blue state. It's not a swing state. Why rally there?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, he's going big. First off, last night's rally had pretty much every pro-Trump big name in government and media. And that fits with some other places he's picked in blue states, but seemingly with the intention of going big, right? He had that rally in Coachella. Earlier in the campaign, he rallied people on the beach in New Jersey and in Long Island.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
KURTZLEBEN: And also, of course, this is a homecoming for him. He is from New York. And lately at rallies, he's been saying he's realizing his campaign time is almost over, and he's going to miss it. It's almost like he's saying a prolonged goodbye to his campaigning days and his adoring crowds. Now, as for what he's saying in that message, he is still very much being Trump, which is to say he's backpedaling on nothing. For example, last night he doubled down on recent statements where he called some Democrats, quote, "the enemy from within" and suggested using the military against them. Well, here's what he said last night.
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TRUMP: They're smart, and they're vicious, and we have to defeat them. And when I say the enemy from within, the other side goes crazy, becomes a sound - oh, how can he say? No, they've done very bad things to this country. They are indeed the enemy from within.
INSKEEP: OK, so that's Trump in New York. Thanks very much, Asma Khalid and Danielle Kurtzleben.
KHALID: Good to speak with you.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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