LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The presidential campaigns headed west yesterday.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Yeah. Both candidates held rallies in Arizona and Nevada. With just days until Election Day, Vice President Harris and former President Donald Trump are working to motivate voters to get to the ballot box, and they're doing it in very different ways.
FADEL: NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith joins us now from Las Vegas. Hi, Tam.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: So what stands out from Trump's day on the trail?
KEITH: It was the last event of the day, and it was this very long onstage conversation with Tucker Carlson, formerly of Fox News. Carlson asked Trump about Liz Cheney campaigning for Vice President Harris, and Trump said that he'd never gotten along with her because she was a war hawk. And then, he used violent imagery to make his point.
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DONALD TRUMP: Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let's see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face. You know, they're all war hawks when they're sitting in Washington in a nice building, saying, oh, gee, well, let's send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.
KEITH: Harris' campaign immediately highlighted this inflammatory language about one of Trump's many enemies. But Trump's campaign suggests that it shouldn't be a big deal with all the context, some of which the Harris campaign didn't push out.
FADEL: But is it going to be a big deal?
KEITH: Probably. We've seen Harris almost every day this week jump on things that Trump or his allies have said to drive her closing argument that he's just not fit for office.
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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Did everyone hear what he just said yesterday?
KEITH: This was her in Phoenix yesterday. Wednesday night, Trump had said that he would protect women, quote, "whether the women like it or not." And Harris built that into her stump speech right away.
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HARRIS: He simply does not respect the freedom of women or the intelligence of women to know what's in their own best interests and make decisions accordingly. But we trust women. We trust women.
(CHEERING)
FADEL: OK. So Harris has been highlighting Trump's own language and using it against him. Did she bring up last Sunday's Madison Square Garden rally, where speakers used bigoted and racist rhetoric?
KEITH: This campaign has been on the topic of garbage ever since an opening act at Trump's big rally referred to Puerto Rico as a, quote, "floating island of garbage." Trump has distanced himself from that comedian, but last night, this was front and center at Harris' rally in Las Vegas, where she was introduced by Jennifer Lopez, who is Puerto Rican. She said it wasn't just Puerto Ricans who were offended that day. It was every Latino in this country. But, you know, Trump is still working to win Latino voters, too, and his campaign believes that he's made real inroads. Trump is also trying to take back the garbage narrative after earlier this week, President Biden appeared to say Trump supporters are garbage before clarifying that he was talking about the comedian's bad joke.
FADEL: And there's a new twist in this story. Catch us up.
KEITH: Indeed. As soon as Biden made that comment, the White House tried to clean it up. They released a transcript with an apostrophe to show what they say was Biden's real meaning. Now, the Associated Press is reporting that White House staff actually altered that transcript, a document that is normally handled by career stenographers who are not political staffers. NPR has not verified this reporting, but Trump has been talking about Biden's garbage comment nonstop on the trail, and that is all about motivating his base.
FADEL: That's NPR's Tamara Keith in Las Vegas. Thank you, Tam.
KEITH: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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