Kamala Harris accuses Trump of catering to fringe hate group amid plans to visit to bucolic Michigan town
Donald Trump has a planned will gather in a quiet Michigan town next week to discuss crime during the Democratic National Convention. But the Kamala Harris campaign is accusing the former president of serving a fringe hate group.
Trump will deliver a speech on “crime and safety” to about 10,000 people on Tuesday in the town of Howell, where a small white supremacist rally took place last month.
Harris’ campaign called it inappropriate after a group of about a dozen masked white supremacists gathered on July 20 and chanted, “We love Hitler. We love Trump.”
“Trump’s actions have emboldened them, and Michigan residents can expect more of the same when he comes to town next week,” Alyssa Bradley, Harris’ Michigan Communications Director, told the Washington Post.
A Trump spokesman called the accusation “absurd.”
Kamala Harris’ team is being criticized for hypocrisy after attacking Donald Trump’s campaign for announcing a rally in a Michigan city where a white supremacist march took place last month
Trump will deliver a speech on “crime and safety” on Tuesday in Howell, a town of about 10,000 people
“President Trump will travel to Howell to deliver a strong message about law and order and to make it clear that crime, violence and hatred in any form have no place in our country when he returns to the White House,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary, said in a statement.
However, Harris’ campaign believes Trump’s visit is intended to encourage the pro-Hitler crowd who held “White Lives Matter” signs last month.
“The racists and white supremacists who marched in Trump’s name in Howell last month all saw him praise Hitler, defend neo-Nazis in Charlottesville and tell far-right extremists to ‘stand back and stand by,’” said Bradley, the Harris spokesman.
Leavitt adamantly denied the ties. The campaign wanted access to Detroit’s key media market, as Howell is about 55 miles west of the Motor City.
Harris’ campaign called it inappropriate after a July 20 march by about a dozen masked white supremacists, with reports of chants such as: “We love Hitler. We love Trump”
Trump’s campaign also notes that the city, which has seen demonstrations by the Ku Klux Klan and other groups in 2021, was visited by Joe Biden in 2021.
She added that the Biden/Harris campaign has also given speeches in cities where “there have been racist protests and marches in the past.”
The city is located between Detroit and the college town of Lansing and was once home to Michigan Grand Dragon Robert Miles, where meetings were held and crosses were burned until his death in 1992.
According to The Guardian newspaper, hate incidents occurred three years ago, when pro-KKK graffiti was plastered on someone’s garage door, just two months before Biden’s visit. Livingston Daily.
Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary, said in a statement: “President Trump will travel to Howell to deliver a strong message of law and order, making it clear that crime, violence and hatred in any form will have no place in our country when he returns to the White House.”
Howell resident Kasey Helton posted on social media that Trump would not be welcome, posting a photo of the city’s Republican Mayor Bob Ellis behind a sign that read “Destroy Fascism.”
“Decades of work by good people trying to heal our community’s ugly past and reputation has been undone in one afternoon thanks to Donald Trump,” she wrote.
Michigan is seen as one of seven key swing states that Trump must hold or turn red again to defeat Harris.
Trump shocked the world by winning Michigan and destroying the so-called “blue wall” of the Midwest on his way to defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016.
However, Joe Biden turned the state blue again, by just 155,000 votes and two percentage points.
Joe Biden delivers a speech in Michigan in 2021.
Just last week, the Times published a poll showing how Harris had a four-point lead over Trump in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Of likely voters in each state, 50 percent said they were likely to vote for Harris, and 46 percent said they were likely to vote for Trump.
Based on the new numbers, Harris has erased the lead Trump built up in the states before President Biden withdrew from the race.
The first presidential debate between the two will take place on September 10 in Philadelphia and will be moderated by ABC News.
The first vice presidential debate between Democratic Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota and Republican Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio will take place on October 1 in New York City and will be hosted by CBS.