Harris is urging voters not to be fooled by Trump’s claims

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, ISABELLA VOLMERT and BILL BARROW, Associated Press

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Two days after Election Day, Kamala Harris stormed through four stops through battleground Michigan on Sunday without uttering Donald Trump’s name as he urged voters not to be fooled by the Republican candidate’s contempt for the electoral system that he has false claims rigged against him.

The vice president said she is confident in the upcoming vote count and urged voters, “particularly people who have not yet voted, not to fall for this tactic, which I think includes suggesting to people that if they vote, their vote doesn’t matter.”

At a rally at Michigan State University, Harris got a stirring response when she asked who had already voted and then gave students another job — to encourage their friends to cast their ballots in a state that allows voter registration on Election Day.

And instead of her usual statements about Trump as unstable, unhinged and bent on unchecked power, Harris sought to contrast her optimistic tone with the darker message of the Republican opponent she left unnamed.

It was all in service of trying to boost her standing in one of the Democratic “blue wall” states in the Midwest seen as her smoothest potential path to an Electoral College majority.

“We have the opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division,” she said in an indirect reference to Trump. “We’re done with that. We’re exhausted from that. America is ready for a new start, ready for a new way forward, where we see our fellow countrymen not as enemies, but as neighbors.”

Harris also avoided direct mention of Trump during her 11-minute morning address at the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ. But her comments nevertheless marked a clear contrast to the Republican candidate.

“There are people who want to deepen division, sow hatred, spread fear and cause chaos,” she said. Speaking at the same time Trump was in Pennsylvania, she declared the US a “failed nation” and said he “should not have left” the White House after the 2020 election, which he denies he lost to Democrat Joe Biden .

While Trump called Harris’ party “demonic,” Harris quoted the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah and told her friendly audience that she believed she was prepared to “chart a new path forward.”

Addressing what was largely a student audience in East Lansing, Harris vowed to work toward consensus.

“I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy,” she said. “I actually give them a seat at the table because that’s what strong leaders do.”

That was enough for Alexis Plonka, a junior from Michigan State who will vote in her first presidential election. Plonka, who said she has family members who support Trump, applauded the vice president for not referring directly to the former president.

“I think one of the things that often turns people away from Trump is the fact that he is so against people who disagree with him and he is unwilling to work with them,” she said.

The approach reflects the wide net Harris has cast since taking the mantle of the Democratic Party in July after 81-year-old President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid. By portraying Trump as erratic and unfit for office, she has attracted supporters ranging from progressive champion Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York to Republican former Rep. Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Still, Harris wants to capitalize on key Democratic constituencies — including young voters like those she addressed at Michigan State — in part by highlighting her support for abortion rights and Trump’s role in ending women’s right to end a pregnancy. One of the loudest cheers she received in East Lansing on Sunday night came when she declared that the government should not tell women what to do with their bodies.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday afternoon, Harris pushed back on Trump’s characterization of the US election, accusing the former president increased again while campaigning in Pennsylvania. Harris said his latest comments were “intended to distract from the fact that we have and support free and fair elections in our country.” Those “good systems” were in place in 2020, Harris said, and “he lost.”

Harris used her latest swing in Michigan to recognize progressives and members of the state’s sizable population of Arab Americans who are angry with the Biden administration for continuing the U.S. alliance with Israel as the Netanyahu administration continues its war against Hamas continues in Gaza.

“I have said very clearly that the death rate among innocent Palestinians is unconscionable,” Harris told reporters.