Chethana Janith, Jadetimes Staff
C. Janith is a Jadetimes news reporter covering science and geopolitics.
Vice President Kamala Harris leaned on star power this Saturday as she campaigned alongside musicians Lizzo and Usher in Michigan and Georgia, while former President Donald Trump energized supporters at a rally in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state.
Speaking at an event in Atlanta, Harris criticized Trump, calling him "cruel" for his comments regarding the grieving family of a Georgia woman who died after waiting hours for treatment due to complications from an abortion pill. Harris highlighted the importance of reproductive rights in her message to voters.
She attributed Amber Thurman's death to Georgia's strict abortion laws, which came into effect after the Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a ruling supported by three Trump-appointed justices. Harris is focusing on this issue to boost Democratic support, as the party aims to restore national abortion rights if they win control of the White House and Congress.
"Donald Trump continues to avoid responsibility for the pain and suffering his policies have inflicted," Harris stated.
Thurman's story features at the center of one of Harris' closing campaign ads, and her family attended her Atlanta rally, with her mother holding a photo of her daughter from the audience. Harris showed a clip of Trump saying during a recent Fox News Channel town hall, when he was asked about the Thurman family joining a separate media call, "We'll get better ratings, I promise."
Early voting is also underway in Georgia. More than 1.2 million ballots have been cast, either in person or by mail. Democrats hope an expansive organizing effort will boost Harris against Trump in the campaign's final weeks. Harris referenced that former President Jimmy Carter recently voted by mail days after his 100th birthday.
"If Jimmy Carter can vote early, you can too," Harris said.
Harris was joined at the rally by hometown music icon Usher, drawing again on star power as she looks to excite voters to the polls. Earlier Saturday she appeared with Lizzo in the singer's hometown of Detroit, marking the beginning of in-person voting and lavishing the city with praise after Trump recently disparaged it.
"All the best things were made in Detroit. Coney Dogs, Faygo and Lizzo," the singer joked to a rally crowd, pointing to herself after listing off the hot dogs and soda that the city is famous for.
Heaps of praise for the Motor City came after Trump insulted it during a recent campaign stop. And Harris continued the theme, saying of her campaign, "Like the people of Detroit, we have grit, we have excellence, we have history."
More than 1 million Michigan residents have already voted by mail in the Nov. 5 election, and Harris predicted that Detroit turnout for early voting would be strong.
She slammed Trump as unstable: "Somebody just needs to watch his rallies, if you're not really sure how to vote."
"We're not going to get these 17 days back. On Election Day, we don't want to have any regrets," the vice president said.
Lizzo also told the crowd, "Mrs. commander-in-chief has a nice ring to it."
"This is the swing state of all swing states, so every last vote here counts," the singer said. Then, referencing her song of the same title, Lizzo added, "If you ask me if America is ready for its first woman president, I only have one thing to say: "It's about damn time!"
Meanwhile, Trump's campaign had suggested he would begin previewing his closing argument Saturday night with Election Day barely two weeks away. But the former president kicked off his rally with a detailed story about Arnold Palmer, at one point even praising the late, legendary golfer's genitalia.
Trump was campaigning in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where Palmer was born in 1929 and learned to golf from his father, who suffered from polio and was head pro and greenskeeper at the local country club.
Politicians saluting Palmer in his hometown is nothing new. But Trump spent 12 full minutes doing so at the top of his speech and even suggested how much more fun the night would be if Palmer, who died in 2016, could join him on stage.
"Arnold Palmer was all man, and I say that in all due respect to women," Trump said. "This is a guy that was all man."
Then he went even further.
"When he took the showers with other pros, they came out of there. They said, 'Oh my God. That's unbelievable,'" Trump said with a laugh. "I had to say. We have women that are highly sophisticated here, but they used to look at Arnold as a man."
Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters before the speech that Trump planned to preview his closing argument against Harris and "start to get into that framing."
Trump eventually hit many of his favorite campaign themes but didn't offer much in the way of new framing of the race or why he should win it. He instead boasted of creating strong tax policies and a strong military during his first term in office.
He slammed Harris as "crazy" and added a profanity.
"You have to tell Kamala Harris that you've had enough, that you just can't take it anymore, we can't stand you anymore, you're a s— vice president," Trump said to roars of the crowd. "The worst. You're the worst vice president. Kamala, you're fired. Get the hell out of here."
He also criticized Harris for suggesting during her unsuccessful run for president in 2020 that she'd support a ban on hydraulic fracking, which is important to Pennsylvania's economy and a position Harris' campaign says she no longer supports.
Trump invited on stage members of a local steelworkers union that endorsed him. He donned a construction hat with his name on it.
He also said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called him amid Israeli's ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.
"He said, 'It's incredible what's happened,'" Trump said of the Netanyahu call before moving to a criticism of President Joe Biden, saying that the Israeli prime minister "wouldn't listen to Biden."
A spokesman for Netanyahu said in a statement to CBS News that the Israeli prime minister reiterated to Trump during the call what he's said publicly, that "Israel takes into account the issues the U.S. administration raises, but in the end, will make its decisions based on its national interests."
Meanwhile, Harris sharpened her attacks against Trump in recent days, saying the former president is "becoming increasingly unstable and unhinged." Surrogates campaigning for Harris, like former President Barack Obama, echoed the message.
"You would be worried if your grandpa was acting like this," Obama said at a campaign event in Arizona.
