(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris enlisted rock legend Bruce Springsteen and former President Barack Obama to help turn out the vote in swing-state Georgia, a key battleground where voting is already underway.
Her Republican rival Donald Trump, meanwhile, headed out west to another battleground, border-state Arizona, on Thursday where he hammered Harris over one of her biggest political vulnerabilities — the migrant surge that has spurred voter anxieties over immigration. Trump is also slated to attend an event in Las Vegas in battleground Nevada.
The dueling trips to states that are likely to help decide November’s outcome come with less than two weeks until Election Day and with polls showing a razor-tight race between the candidates.
A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult survey released Wednesday found Trump and Harris statistically tied among likely voters in each of the seven swing states. That dynamic has both campaigns racing to mobilize their supporters and chip away at any late undecideds who offer to shift the contest.
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Here’s how the race is shaping up:
Obama Hits Trail
Thursday’s Georgia rally marked the first time Obama and Harris were on the trail together this campaign. Harris has tapped the former president to help shore up her support among Black male voters, a group that is staunchly Democratic but where Trump has made inroads by seizing on concerns about economic mobility.
Obama seemed to acknowledge that some longtime Democratic voters were looking for change.
“I get why people are looking to shake things up,” he said at the rally in Clarkston, Georgia. “What I cannot understand is why anybody thinks that Donald Trump would shake things up in a way that’s good for you.”
Obama has rankled some by suggesting sexist motivations for not backing Harris, who is seeking to become the first woman — and first Black woman — president in US history.
Georgia is a state Trump lost narrowly to Biden in 2020, and where he is facing charges over alleged efforts to overturn the election result in the state, one of many legal challenges that included a felony conviction in New York in a separate case over hush-money payments.
Springsteen and Beyoncé
Harris is turning up the star power in the last two weeks of the election, with Springsteen playing at the Georgia event.
Springsteen accused Trump of “running to be an American tyrant,” saying the Republican nominee did not understand “this country, its history or what it means to be deeply American.”
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, on Thursday is appeared with another music star, singer-songwriter James Taylor, during a stop in Wilmington, North Carolina.
But likely the biggest celebrity appearance of the week is set for Friday, when Harris will head to Houston, the hometown of superstar Beyoncé, for an event focused on abortion rights. The Texas stop is aimed at bolstering the campaign of Democrat Colin Allred who is mounting a longshot bid to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz.
Harris also boasted celebrities from the screen at Thursday’s rally, including director Spike Lee, actor Samuel L. Jackson and filmmaker Tyler Perry.
‘Good Political Advice’
In Georgia, Obama seized on criticism from one of Trump’s former aides — onetime White House chief of staff John Kelly — that the Republican had said he wanted “the kind of generals” Adolf Hitler had and had said the former Nazi leader did some good things.
“In politics, a good rule of thumb is don’t say you want to do anything like Hitler. That’s just good political advice,” Obama said to laughter. “But it is useful because it gives us a window into how Donald Trump thinks.”
Trump and his campaign have denied Kelly’s accusations, which were made public in interviews with the New York Times and the Atlantic.
Harris, who during a CNN town hall on Wednesday, said she agreed with Kelly for saying Trump met the definition of a fascist, highlighted the controversy again in Georgia.
The vice president said “Trump has become more confused, more unstable and more angry,” saying that the stakes were “even higher” in this election. Harris has increasingly attacked the former president’s age and behavior in recent weeks.
Trump faced questions about the alleged remarks during a campaign stop at a Cuban restaurant in Las Vegas.
“No, I never said that,” Trump said. “He made up stories; he’s done it before.”
Trump Threatens Special Counsel
The former president on Thursday sought to energize his base by vowing to fire Special Counsel Jack Smith if he returns to the White House.
Asked by Hugh Hewitt on the conservative radio host’s show if he would first pardon himself or fire Smith, the former president — who is facing multiple criminal cases — called it an “easy” decision.
“I would fire him within two seconds,” Trump said.
Smith is leading two cases against Trump, one in Washington where he is charged with conspiring to obstruct the 2020 presidential election, and one in Florida where he was charged with holding documents containing sensitive national security information after leaving the White House.
Hiring or firing a special counsel would fall to the attorney general. If he is returned to power, though, Trump could nudge an attorney general to remove Smith.
Trump’s classified documents case has been dismissed, but Smith is appealing the decision. The special counsel is also pushing ahead in the election-interference case, where he filed revised charges after a US Supreme Court ruling that presidents enjoy at least some immunity from prosecution for official acts.
West-Coast Blitz
Trump at a rally in Tempe, Arizona, hammered Harris over the migrant crisis, an issue for which he has sought to pin the blame on the vice president — labeling her the “border czar” even though other officials in the administration bore more direct responsibility for the matter.
Trump tested out a new line as he intensified his anti-immigrant rhetoric, falsely claiming that other countries are sending prisoners and criminals to the US.
“We’re like a garbage can for the world. That’s what’s happened,” Trump said.
Trump will also attend an event Thursday in Las Vegas, Nevada, hosted by Turning Point Action, a conservative group founded by activist Charlie Kirk.
Arizona and Nevada also boast the largest Latino populations among the battleground states, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. Latinos are a traditionally crucial Democratic bloc whose support for that party’s ticket this cycle has softened, fueled in part by frustration with Biden’s economic record.
Trump and Republicans have targeted the group this year, highlighted by events such as a roundtable with Latino leaders the former president held earlier this week in South Florida. Trump’s rhetoric on immigration, however, threatens to undercut that outreach with some Hispanic voters.
Trump lost both Arizona and Nevada to President Joe Biden in 2020.
In a worrisome sign for the Harris camp, a USA Today/Suffolk University poll released earlier this month found that while Harris has the edge among likely Hispanic voters in Arizona and Nevada, Trump is leading her among men from that group aged 18-34.
Cross-Party Endorsements
Harris touted a pair of endorsements in brief remarks to reporters on Thursday, saying it validated her efforts in recent days to increase her outreach to moderate Republicans.
Shawn Reilly, the mayor of Waukesha, Wis. — a GOP stronghold in the Milwaukee suburbs — and former US Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, both said they had endorsed Harris.
“This continues to be, I think, evidence of the fact that people who have been leaders in our country, regardless of their political party, understand what’s at stake, and they are weighing in courageously,” Harris said.
--With assistance from Stephanie Lai.
(Updates with Trump remarks on Kelly allegations, starting in 21st paragraph.)
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