HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are taking their fight for Pennsylvania to opposite ends of the state on Monday, with Harris speaking in the northwest corner of Erie and Trump in the southeastern suburbs of Philadelphia.
Democrat Harris and Republican Trump have made regular appearances in the country’s biggest battleground state – it will be Harris’ 10th visit to Pennsylvania this campaign season, and just last week Trump made stops in both Scranton and Reading.
According to a senior Harris campaign official, at an evening campaign event, Harris planned to bring up Trump’s comments from the weekend in which he suggested using the U.S. military to fight “the enemy from within.”
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the remarks ahead of a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, said Harris would drive home the idea that Trump views Americans who disagree with him as enemies.
She will argue that the comments in a Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures” interview are the latest example of the former president’s threatening rhetoric designed to worry Americans about what a possible second Trump term might look like.
As Trump responded to a question about whether “outside agitators” could potentially disrupt Election Day, he turned to an enemy closer to him.
“I think the bigger problem is the enemy within,” Trump said. He added: “We have some very bad people. We have some infirmed people, radical left-wing crazy people. And I think they’re the large ones – and the National Guard, if necessary, the military should be able to handle it quite easily, or if it’s really necessary, the military, because they can’t let that happen.”
Pennsylvania’s energy industry and natural gas fracking are also likely to be issues as candidates compete to capture the share of voters in the state who have not yet made up their minds. Postal voting is in full swing in the state, where around 7 million people are expected to cast their votes in the presidential election.
On his way to the presidency in 2016, Trump beat Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania by more than 40,000 votes, but four years ago Scranton native Joe Biden beat Trump in the state by about 80,000 votes.
Harris will hold a rally in Erie, a Democratic-majority city of about 94,000 residents that borders suburbs and rural areas with significant Republican populations. Erie County is often cited as one of the state’s most reliable flagship regions, where the electorate has a decidedly moderate voting record. Trump visited Erie on September 29th.
Harris, 59, will also criticize Trump in his rally speech for releasing restricted information about his health over the years, the campaign manager said.
The White House released a letter from Harris’ doctor on Saturday that summarized her medical history and said the vice president is in “excellent health” and “possesses physical and mental resilience.”
If the 78-year-old Trump is elected next month, he would be the oldest president in US history until his term ends in 2029.
Harris also plans to speak about early voting during her rally. And she will stop by a Black-owned compact business in Erie before the rally to promote her proposals to give Black men more economic opportunities and other chances to thrive as Democrats try to strengthen the voting bloc.
Trump plans a town hall at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center and Fairgrounds in suburban Oaks on Monday, hoping to boost turnout among his supporters.
Tom Bonanno, who stood in line and said he lives in the area, said he believes enthusiasm for Trump is higher this year than in the former president’s two previous campaigns.
“I feel a change because the economy is affecting everyone,” Bonanno said. “It’s not just going to continue, you feel joy or happiness or whatever they’re pushing forward. “It’s about the economy again.”
Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes, the most of any swing state, have attracted by far the most attention compared to the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns. Including Monday’s scheduled events, they will have made 46 stops in the state, according to the Associated Press’ tracking of the campaigns’ public events.
Michigan, with 33 visits, and Wisconsin, with 29, are the second most visited states, showing that both campaigns are focused on winning states that were part of the Democrats’ so-called “blue wall” until Trump emerged as the Republican standard-bearer.
Democrats have won three straight gubernatorial elections and both current U.S. senators are Democrats, but the state Legislature is sharply divided.
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Associated Press video journalist Tassanee Vejpongsa in Oaks, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.
