Trump fights back after Harris questions whether he is 'exhausted'

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Trump fights back after Harris questions whether he is 'exhausted'

2024-10-19 05:06 Last Updated At：05:21

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Donald Trump's energy level emerged as a flashpoint on Friday as the Republican nominee and Democrat Kamala Harris scrambled across battleground Michigan with Election Day looming.

Harris told reporters that Trump was “unfit," “unstable” and “a danger to our democracy” ahead of an afternoon rally. But she appeared to touch a nerve with her Republican rival when she mentioned a report that Trump was “exhausted."

“Being president of the United States is probably one of the hardest jobs in the world and we really do need to ask, if he’s exhausted on the campaign trail, is he fit to do the job?” jabbed Harris, who has been on the road campaigning since Monday and won’t return to Washington until sometime next week.

Harris' attack comes as she seeks to raise doubts about Trump's health over the final days of the campaign. Trump, at 78, would be the oldest person in U.S. to become the president if he wins. But he's refused to release his medical records or other health details, breaking decades of tradition in presidential politics.

Trump, who has been campaigning at a breakneck pace as well, fired back later in the day when asked by reporters about Harris' comment.

“She’s a loser. She doesn’t go to any events,” Trump charged hours before a rally in Detroit as he ticked down his to-do list for the day. He said he was on “Fox & Friends” at 7 a.m., had two other appearances and then made “about 15 phone calls.”

“I’ve gone 48 days now without a rest. And I’ve got that loser, who doesn’t have the energy of a rabbit,” Trump said. “Tell me when you’ve seen me take even a little bit of a rest. Not only am I not — I’m not even tired. I’m really exhilarated.”

Questions about Trump's energy level come as he has backed out of some interviews with mainstream media outlets, including “60 Minutes” and CNBC.

Still, he appears regularly on friendly cable shows and conservative podcasts -- often sitting for hours of interviews each day.

On Friday, he spent 40 minutes on set with the hosts of “Fox & Friends” before he joined “The Dan Bongino Show,” a video podcast, and taped an interview with Mark Calaway, the wrestler famously known as “The Undertaker,” for his “Six Feet Under” podcast. He also attended an editorial meeting with Fox News and the New York Post before he departed for a multi-stop trip to Michigan.

Still, leading Democrats, including top Harris campaign adviser David Plouffe, continue to raise questions about Trump's energy levels.

“This is important,” Plouffe said on CNN. “I’ve worked in the White House. It’s the hardest job in the world, and I think it raises real questions. If somebody can’t handle the campaign trail because they’re so exhausted, whether they’re fit to be president. … You just have to watch him every day."

Peoples reported from New York. AP writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed.

Harris and Trump seek Arab American votes in Michigan in effort to shore up battleground states

2024-10-19 05:18 Last Updated At：05:20

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Kamala Harris and Donald Trump both sought support from Arab American voters Friday as they campaigned in Michigan, trying to lock down support in a battleground state that could decide the presidential race next month.

The Republican nominee visited a new campaign office in Hamtramck, one of the nation’s only Muslim-majority cities, and was joined there by Mayor Amer Ghalib, a Democrat who has endorsed Trump. Meanwhile, three city council members in the same town have endorsed Harris.

“His visit today is to show respect and appreciation to our community," said Ghalib, who presented Trump with a framed certificate of appreciation.

Michigan is one of three “blue wall” states that, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, will help decide the election, and the diverse voting blocs are key to winning the state. Both Trump and Harris, his Democratic rival, made a push for union workers and Black voters as they worked every angle for support.

“It's an election for president. It’s not supposed to be a cake walk for anyone. There are very important issues at play," Harris said.

David Plouffe, a top campaign adviser for Harris, said Friday on CNN that he believed all of the swing states were still in play, but the key was zeroing in on voting blocs.

“We’re going to treat every cohort like they’re a swing voter,” he said. “We’re going to fight for every vote.”

Trump has been trying to capitalize on frustration with Harris over the U.S. backing of Israel’s offensive in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon, following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel.

His allies have held meetings for months with community leaders in Michigan, which has a sizable population of Arab Americans, particularly in and around Detroit. Asked about the Hamtramck mayor’s endorsement, Trump said: "I mean, frankly, it’s an honor. I’ve got a lot of endorsements, Arab Americans, from a lot of people.”

Trump said he didn’t think the Arab American community would vote for Harris “because she doesn’t know what she’s doing.”

At the campaign office, Trump said he was also getting support from unions and that the head of the United Auto Workers — who has endorsed Harris — doesn’t have a clue.

“I’ve saved Michigan,” he said, telling the crowds he would bring back more manufacturing. “We’ll end up having those plants built over here instead of in other countries.”

Trump also said that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the architects of the Oct. 7 attack, who was killed by Israelis, “was not a good person.”

"That’s my reaction. That’s sometimes what happens,” he said at the airport in Detroit.

Trump also said he would be speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said President Joe Biden "is trying to hold him back ... he probably should be doing the opposite, actually,” he said.

Both Biden and Harris have said Sinwar’s death is an opportunity to stop the violence. “My message remains, first of all, we have got to end this war," Harris said.

On Friday, 52 Lebanese Americans endorsed Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, saying in a letter that they “know that the voice of our community will be heard” under their leadership.

The letter reiterates calls for a cease-fire, and it cites a recent decision by the Department of Homeland Security to extend temporary legal status to Lebanese citizens in the U.S. Such status is made available to people from certain countries marred by war, turmoil or natural disasters.

But Harris has also faced demonstrators protesting U.S. support of Israel in the conflict. During a closed-door meeting Thursday with students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she was confronted by one, based on a video posted by a pro-Palestinian student group on social media.

According to the video, as Harris was telling students she was invested in them, a protester interrupted her saying, “And in genocide, right? Billions of dollars in genocide?”

The demonstrator was eventually escorted out by university police, as he continued recording.

At Harris' first event of the day, scores of supporters gathered in Riverside Park in Grand Rapids, on a carpet of fallen orange leaves under cloudless skies. The county leaned Republican for many years, and was won by Trump by 3% in 2016. But Biden won the county in 2020, and it has increasingly voted Democratic recently.

A phalanx of Democratic governors — Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Wes Moore of Maryland, Tony Evers of Wisconsin, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Kathy Hochul of New York — took the stage before Harris.

Whitmer tore into Trump, calling him “a petty man who tells dangerous lies, and he’s always looking for someone else to blame.”

Harris stepped out to huge cheers as she ran through the differences between herself and Trump, cautioning that electing him would be dangerous for the nation, and slamming him as anti-union.

“The election is here. The election is here right now," she said as she urged everyone to vote. “Your vote is your voice. Your voice is your power in a democracy.”

Harris travels next to Lansing, where she will speak at a United Auto Workers union hall and promote the White House's record of supporting domestic car manufacturing. Her final event of the day is a rally in Oakland County, northwest of Detroit.

Trump has his own event in Oakland County on Friday afternoon before holding a rally in Detroit in the evening.

His Detroit event will be his first there since insulting the city last week. While warning what will happen if Harris is elected, he said that “our whole country will end up being like Detroit." The city spent years hemorrhaging residents and businesses, plunging into deep financial problems, before rebounding in recent years.

Price reported from Detroit, and Cappelletti reported from Lansing, Michigan. Associated Press writers Isabella Volmert in Grand Rapids, Colleen Long in Washington and Scott Bauer in Milwaukee contributed to this report.