THE WASHINGTON POST: Kamala Harris, entering final stretch, stresses unity and paints Donald Trump as divider

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - On a day when Donald Trump’s campaign tried to distance itself from racist insults about Latinos at his recent rally in New York City, Vice President Kamala Harris sought to drive home “the two extremely different visions” of America she said the two presidential candidates represent.

Harris made the remarks in this college town that is home to the University of Michigan and forms a Democratic stronghold in this battleground state coveted by both campaigns for the White House. The vice president said that while she believes Trump is an unserious man, the election of a person with autocratic aspirations would have dire consequences.

“We are all here because we are fighting for a democracy and for the right of people to be heard and seen,” Harris said. “We are not about the ‘enemy within.’ We are all in this together, and that is what we are fighting for.” In recent weeks, Trump has taken to referring to Democrats allied against him as the “enemy from within,” suggesting they are more of a threat to the nation than North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

The joint appearance by Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, maybe Harris’s last visit to Michigan before the Nov. 5 election, and she coupled the dire warnings about the dangers posed by Trump with the aspirations of the coalition she hopes to build. Harris also highlighted one of her campaign’s primary messages - that Trump’s election would mean further sweeping restrictions on the right to an abortion.

“He insists that everyone wanted Roe v Wade to be overturned,” she said at the rally in Ann Arbor. “Everyone wanted this? Some women are only being treated when they are in sepsis. They didn’t want this.”

Harris spent the day in Michigan, touring a semiconductor manufacturing facility in Saginaw, and then speaking with workers at a union training facility in Macomb.

Throughout the day, the vice president sought to mobilize her base and compete for the shrinking sliver of undecided voters by drawing a contrast with her opponent. In Macomb, she said Trump is more worried about his “billionaire buddies” than about the working people she met on Monday. Trump, she said, is focused on his “enemies list” while she has a “to-do list” of things to accomplish for the American people.

Before the rally, she also leaned into her plans for Puerto Rico, blasting remarks made at a Trump campaign event at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday night that described the U.S. territory as “an island of garbage.”

Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, of the “Kill Tony” podcast, was one of several warm-up speakers who lobbed sexist and racist insults during that rally, which was meant to highlight Trump’s broad support. Instead, the remarks sparked outrage among Latino voters in a tight race a week before the election. Several prominent Puerto Rican figures expressed their support for Harris, or their disdain for Trump, in the wake of the remarks.

The episode left Trump’s campaign trying to minimize the blowback and Harris’s team angling to solidify support from a key group at a time when Democrats have been concerned that they may be losing the loyalty of some voters of colour.

“I’m very proud to have the support of folks like Bad Bunny and Jennifer Lopez and others, who were supporting me before that nonsense last night at Madison Square Garden and are supporting me because they understand that they want a president of the United States who is about uplifting the people and not berating, not calling America a ‘garbage can,’” Harris said before boarding Air Force Two for the flight to Michigan.

Bad Bunny is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer and producer. Lopez is a singer and actress whose parents were born in Puerto Rico.

Harris has contrasted the Madison Square Garden remarks with her plans for Puerto Rico, which were released on Sunday, just before Trump’s rally.

If elected, Harris has vowed to form a task force focused on the specific needs of the U.S. territory, including upgrading and repairing its electrical grid, which is routinely battered by Atlantic storms. Harris’s camp also tried to use the moment to stress that she is focused on the needs of voters of color, at a time when her surrogates are working to cement the support of key blocs.

On Saturday in Kalamazoo, Michigan, former first lady Michelle Obama implored voters - particularly men - to vote for Harris to protect abortion access in this country.

“I’m asking y’all from the core of my being to take our lives seriously,” Obama said. “Please do not put our lives in the hands of politicians, mostly men, who have no clue of what we’re going through … A vote for him is a vote against us, against our health, against our worth.”

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