Sept. 8 (UPI) — Presidential hopefuls Kamala Harris and Donald Trump took a break from the campaign trail Sunday, and remain deep in preparations for Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia, the first time the two will face off onstage.
Polls show a tightening race with no clear leader and the debate could be critical in turning the contest.
Trump held a rally in Wisconsin on Saturday where he lambasted Harris and her vice presidential running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and mentioned Tuesday’s scheduled debate, while harkening back to his debate with President Joe Biden in which the president stumbled badly.
Trump said during the Wisconsin appearance that the country is run by “stupid people” and that we “found that out at the debate with Joe (Biden).”
“We’re going to find it out again on Tuesday night. Is anybody going to be watching?” Trump asked the crowd. The former president predicted that pundits would say he lost the debate, even “if I destroy her.”
Harris continued her senate preparations while in Pittsburgh while Walz delivered the keynote address at a Human Rights Campaign dinner Saturday night where he took issue with the GOP’s stance on gun control and LGBTQ+ issues.
Harris is scheduled to be in North Carolina on Thursday and Pennsylvania on Friday.
Trump’s campaign website shows no events scheduled. His running mate, Ohio Sen J.D. Vance, plans to be at a fundraiser in Los Angeles on Sunday after speaking at campaign rallies in the Phoenix area last week.
Hawkish former Vice President Dick Cheney has taken the unusual step of endorsing Harris, calling Trump a “historic threat to our republic,” Cheney is also the father of former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., whom Trump shunned when she would not support him. Liz Cheney said she will vote and Harris and campaign against Trump in key states.
Former President George W. Bush won’t endorse a candidate in the election because “President Bush retired from presidential politics years ago,” his office said Saturday.
Former GOP candidate Nikki Haley, who has endorsed Trump, said Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation she hasn’t been asked to campaign for Trump and isn’t advising him or his campaign, but she remains “on standby.”
