Berliner Abendpost - Harris blitzes battlegrounds as Trump schedule raises eyebrows

NYSE - LSE

CMSC	0.29%	22.085	$
BTI	-0.03%	60.02	$
NGG	0.33%	82.59	$
BCE	0.28%	21.38	$
CMSD	0.31%	22.38	$
GSK	0.59%	52.78	$
RIO	1.16%	90.54	$
RBGPF	0.52%	67.35	$
RYCEF	1.95%	19.46	$
AZN	-4.01%	171.61	$
BCC	5.02%	76.06	$
BP	1.66%	39.2	$
VOD	11.14%	14.72	$
JRI	-0.15%	13.01	$
RELX	1.14%	32.44	$

Harris blitzes battlegrounds as Trump schedule raises eyebrows

POLITICS 09.08.2024

Harris blitzes battlegrounds as Trump schedule raises eyebrows / Photo: Nick Oxford, Brendan SMIALOWSKI - AFP/File

Donald Trump was to campaign Friday in a safe Republican state as Kamala Harris barnstorms the battlegrounds likely to decide November's election, carried by surge in momentum that has left her opponent scrambling.

Text size:

With election day just three months away, Trump's light schedule -- a rally every four or five days -- has been contrasted with the hectic program of an opponent almost 20 years his junior, and his with own vigorous campaigning in 2016.

The 78-year-old tycoon has held just five rallies since the Republican National Convention concluded in mid-July -- one fewer than Harris is staging this week alone -- and has no events at all announced yet for next week.

Eight years ago, Trump was staging multiple events a day by August, but the oldest major party presidential nominee in US history is venturing out of Florida for the first time this week for a rally in Montana, a state he should win easily.

The ex-president -- who survived an assassination attempt at a rally last month -- bristled at questions over his schedule in a hastily-convened press conference at his home in south Florida Thursday.

He said he had been absent from battleground states because he was "leading by a lot and because I'm letting their convention go through," a reference to the Democratic National Convention, which doesn't end until August 22.

- 'Low energy' -

The Harris campaign called the ex-president "low energy" --- a favorite Trump insult -- while his former communications chief Alyssa Farah Griffin bemoaned Republicans not picking a "younger, more vibrant candidate."

Trump appeared on track to win back the White House before Joe Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, but Harris has made big gains since replacing the president at the top of the ticket and naming running mate Tim Walz.

Her rise appears to have wrongfooted Trump, who dismissed her surging polling numbers as he held court in front of journalists at his Mar-a-Lago estate for a free-wheeling hour-plus news conference.

He complained about coverage of Harris's large crowds and assailed her for avoiding holding her own media availability.

And in a bizarre moment that made headlines, he related an anecdote about a helicopter near-miss that never happened, in which he appeared to confuse former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown with former California governor Jerry Brown.

He pitched three September debates -- mixing up the dates of the showdowns he was proposing -- and attacked Harris as unintelligent and incompetent.

Former prosecutor Harris -- praised for her forensic questioning as a senator and for her performance in the vice-presidential debate in 2020 -- immediately confirmed one of the dates, an ABC face-off on September 10.

- 'Unify and organize' -

Meanwhile Harris continues her tour of the swing states alongside Walz, with a stop in the racially diverse Southwestern battlegrounds of Arizona on Friday and Nevada on Saturday.

Formerly worried White House aides have begun to rekindle their enthusiasm over the possibility of victory in the two states, which were shifted this week from "lean Republican" to "toss up" by election forecaster Cook Political Report.

The first large survey of Latino voters with Harris as the presumptive nominee -- commissioned by voter engagement group Somos PAC -- showed Harris leading Trump by 18 points in the battleground states.

"The stakes of this election require Latinos to unify and organize together like our lives depend on it," Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said, welcoming Harris's endorsement by the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Policy has taken a backseat in an election overwhelmed in recent weeks by Biden's disastrous debate performance, the assassination bid on Trump and Harris surge.

But Harris and Biden will discuss tackling inflation -- a top concern for voters and a winning issue for Trump -- in Maryland next week at their first joint campaign trip since the president's withdrawal.

P.T.Bartels--BlnAP

Featured

Ukraine's Zelensky orders government reshuffle, new PM

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a major reshuffle of the government on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and the heads of some law enforcement agencies.

Iran, US trade more strikes as fighting escalates

Iran said Sunday it was closing the Strait of Hormuz and launched missiles and drones at Gulf neighbours after the US carried out a new round of strikes as their conflict escalated.

Noosha Aubel and Potsdam: The trust placed in her has been squandered

Noosha Aubel: a €33.4 million budget deficit in the state capital Potsdam, around €500,000 spent on external consultancy, revised austerity plans at the expense of children – and a shameful case involving a severely disabled toddler as part of a nursery scandal: Noosha Aubel inherited some of these crises, but the leadership deficit is now entirely her own. A 72.9 per cent share of the vote is not a mark of leadership; it is merely a vote of confidence. Noosha Aubel (50) received an exceptionally high level of this confidence in October 2025 – and has squandered it in a surprisingly short space of time. The hope for a fresh start has given way to bitter disillusionment, which is by no means limited to political opponents. After just 100 days, observers were already finding no clear direction whatsoever; in June 2026, media circles openly reported on unsettled supporters, unilateral actions and a lack of majorities. The yardstick is simple: is Potsdam functioning better? Are the finances in order, decisions properly prepared and the most vulnerable protected? So far, the answer is: no. Potsdam wanted a fresh start. It got a mayor who all too often confuses management jargon with leadership and is unable to get a grip on problems in the state capital. Added to this is a shameful scandal involving a toddler with multiple severe disabilities, for whom Aubel is personally responsible, and which raises questions about morality and decency. It is particularly shameful that media enquiries are not being answered by the head of the press office at Potsdam Town Hall, Jan Brunzlow – even though Noosha Aubel has demonstrably been contacted personally. Instead of answering the questions posed in a transparent and comprehensible manner, Brunzlow, according to the available documents, is pushing for a ‘personal conversation’, thereby apparently attempting to shift the communication into a non-public, informal setting. Should this course of action indeed contravene the applicable obligations to provide information under press law, a fundamental question arises: Is Noosha Aubel fit to hold the office of Lord Mayor of the state capital, Potsdam?

US-Iran strikes: latest developments

Iran announced it was again closing the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and hit Gulf neighbours in retaliation for US strikes, further undermining efforts to salvage Middle East peace efforts.