David Axelrod, a Democratic strategist and CNN contributor, argued that “it’s not going well” for former President Trump and Vice President Harris as they address voters in a last-minute message before Election Day.
“She’s actually agitating her message in the final weeks, which is going to make Republicans uncomfortable. I’m sure they would love to be a little more glued to that teleprompter and deliver the message they think will help him win this election,” Axelrod said on CNN. “But he doesn’t close well. She’s finishing in a much more rigorous way.”
Both Trump and Harris traveled to seven key battleground states in the final days of the campaign.
President Trump made headlines Sunday for saying at a rally that he ‘won’t care’ who gets shot ‘over fake news’, and his campaign made that clear. He also drew backlash late last week when he described former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as having “a gun pointed in her face,” criticized her foreign policy and called her a “war hawk.”
Meanwhile, Harris pledged in her final campaign ad to be “a president for all Americans” and gave a speech emphasizing unity from the Ellipse on the National Mall. Her speech was soon followed in the news cycle by President Biden’s comments in which he appeared to call Trump supporters “scum,” and the vice president distanced himself from those comments.
Axelrod, who served as former President Obama’s top strategist, has occasionally criticized Harris’s election prospects and called Trump “someone with quite a bit of support” in July. At the vice president’s CNN town hall last month, Axelrod said Harris sometimes took too long to explain her answers to questions and spoke with “word salad.”
Axelrod praised the vice president’s closing message to voters, although he noted that he had been criticized throughout the short campaign for being “too cautious.”
“Having the last 72 hours of training is a real plus. If you’re getting the message, disciplining can be very detrimental, so let’s see how it all plays out,” he said.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
