policy
BROOKFIELD, Wisc. (AP) – Kamala Harris joined Liz Cheney in three battleground states on Monday to make a bipartisan appeal to Republicans who can have concerns about Donald Trump, describing the previous president as a malevolent force emerging from America Politics have to be banned.
In an election expected to be narrowly decided, Democrats try to persuade enough people to cross the aisle to push Harris over the finish line. It's a method that runs counter to long-standing political doctrine that claims candidates must care above all about their ideological base, sometimes on the expense of connecting with swing voters.
But with Trump angering some Republicans by refusing to vote and behaving increasingly erratically on the campaign trail, Harris is betting there may be a path to victory with college-educated suburban voters who’ve already turned to the Democratic Party.
Cheney, a former congresswoman from Wyoming, said Harris will “lead this country with a sincere heart.”
“We may not agree on all issues,” she said on the third event of the day in Brookfield, Wisconsin, near Milwaukee. “But she’s someone you can trust.”
Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, was effectively expelled from the Republican Party for her involvement in a congressional investigation into Trump's involvement within the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. She lost her congressional seat in a primary two years ago.
It's not the one issue on which Cheney has broken along with her party, as she made clear on Monday. Although she considers herself a “pro-lifer,” she said abortion restrictions have gone too far because the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade picked up.
“I was very disturbed, deeply disturbed by what I saw in so many states,” Cheney said.
Taken together, her comments throughout the day amounted to a rare try to rally Republican voters to support Harris, a politician Cheney herself once described as a “radical liberal.”
“This is not a normal election,” said Charles Sykes, a conservative commentator who moderated the event in Wisconsin. “Dogs and cats together, in this strange moment.”
Harris, the Democratic vp, spoke of Trump as a cruel figure who exhausted Americans together with his divisive politics.
“He tends to encourage us Americans to point fingers at each other,” she said. “That is not in our interest. The vast majority of us have so much more in common than divides us.”
At times, Harris and Cheney spoke wistfully of a time when Democrats and Republicans could argue over their differences without the country's constitutional foundation being at stake.
“The strength of our democracy requires a strong two-party system,” Harris said.
With just over two weeks to go before the presidential election, Harris is in search of support from all possible voters. Her campaign concurrently goals to influence those that haven’t yet made up their minds, to mobilize all Democrats who’re fascinated by sitting out the problem, and to pick Republican voters in areas where support for Trump could also be waning.
All three counties Harris and Cheney visited on Monday — Chester County in Pennsylvania, Oakland County in Michigan and Waukesha County in Wisconsin — were won by Nikki Haley, the previous South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who’s running against Trump ran for the Republican nomination.
Just a few votes here and there may lead to an overall victory. In Waukesha County, for instance, Haley won greater than 9,000 primary votes even after she dropped out of the race. Overall, Wisconsin went for President Joe Biden by just 20,000 votes in 2020. In-person early voting within the state begins Tuesday.
Trump attacked Cheney on social media, calling her “stupid as a rock” and accusing her of being a “war hawk.”
Cheney reminded those that “you can vote your conscience and never have to say a word to anyone.”
“On November 5, millions of Republicans will do this,” she predicted through the second event of the day in Royal Oak, Michigan, near Detroit.
Harris pointed to a report in Bob Woodward's latest book that Gen. Mark Milley, the previous chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Trump was “to the core fascist.”
She also said voters should take Trump's rhetoric seriously as a substitute of dismissing it as a “sick sense of humor.”
“Some people think it's funny what he says and it's just silly,” she said. “But understand how serious this is.”
For Harris, whose campaign focused largely on rallies with hundreds of individuals, Monday's more intimate gatherings represented a change. The audience listened intently to her and Cheney, sometimes nodding along or smiling. Tears welled up in some eyes during Harris' story about slightly boy who was afraid of a faculty classroom that had no closet by which to cover from a shooter.
Trump has often tried to portray Harris, a native of deep-blue California, as a radical liberal, but she struck a moderate tone in her appearances with Cheney.
At the primary event of the day in Malvern, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, Harris promised to ask “good ideas from wherever they come” and “cut through red tape.” She also said that there must be “a healthy two-party system” within the country.
“We need to be able to have these good, intense debates about substantive issues,” Harris said.
“Introduce!” Cheney replied.
“Let’s start there!” Harris said because the audience clapped. “Can you believe that’s an applause line?”
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