Donald Trump He has planned a rally in a quiet Michigan town next week to discuss crime during the Democratic National Convention, but Kamala Harris’ campaign has accused the former president of pandering to a fringe hate group.
Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech on “crime and security” to about 10,000 people on Tuesday in the town of Howell, where a small white supremacist gathering took place last month.
Harris’ campaign called it inappropriate after a group of about a dozen masked white supremacists gathered on July 20 and chanted, “We love Hitler. We love Trump.”
“Trump’s actions have encouraged them, and Michiganders can expect more of the same when he comes to town next week,” said Alyssa Bradley, Harris’ communications director in Michigan. Washington Post.
A Trump spokesman called the accusation “absurd.”
Kamala Harris’ team is under fire for hypocrisy after attacking Donald Trump’s campaign for announcing a rally in a Michigan city that hosted a white supremacist march last month.
Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech on “crime and security” in Howell, a town of about 10,000 people, on Tuesday.
“President Trump will travel to Howell to deliver a strong message about law and order, making clear that crime, violence and hatred of any form will have no place in our country when he returns to the White House,” Trump’s national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Harris’ campaign, however, believes Trump’s visit is aimed at encouraging those who supported Hitler and held up signs reading “White Lives Matter” last month.
“Racists and white supremacists who marched on Trump’s behalf last month in Howell have watched him praise Hitler, defend neo-Nazis in Charlottesville and tell far-right extremists to ‘stand back and stand by,'” said Bradley, Harris’ spokesman.
Leavitt strongly denied the ties, as the campaign wanted access to Detroit’s key media market, as Howell is about 55 miles west of the Motor City.
Harris’ campaign called it inappropriate after a July 20 march that included a dozen masked white supremacists, with reports of chants that read: “We love Hitler. We love Trump.”
The Trump campaign also points out that the city, which has a long history of rallies by the Ku Klux Klan and other groups as recently as 2021, was visited by Joe Biden in 2021.
He added that the Biden/Harris campaign has also given speeches in cities where “racist protests and marches have occurred in the past.”
The city is between Detroit and the college town of Lansing and was once home to Michigan Grand Dragon Robert Miles, who witnessed demonstrations and cross burnings until he died in 1992.
The hate incidents arose just three years ago, when pro-KKK graffiti was posted on someone’s garage door just two months before Biden’s visit, according to the Livingston Diary.
Trump’s national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in a statement: “President Trump will travel to Howell to deliver a strong message about law and order, making clear that crime, violence and hatred in any form will have no place in our country when he returns to the White House.”
Howell resident Kasey Helton posted on social media that Trump would not be welcome and added a photo of the town’s Republican mayor, Bob Ellis, behind a sign that reads “Smash Fascism.”
“Decades of work by good people trying to heal the horrible past and reputation of our community have been erased in a single afternoon thanks to Donald Trump,” he wrote.
Michigan is considered one of seven key states that Trump must hold or flip red to defeat Harris.
Trump stunned the world by winning Michigan and destroying the so-called “blue wall” in the Midwest en route to victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
However, Joe Biden managed to turn the state Democratic again by just 155,000 votes and two percentage points.
Joe Biden giving a speech in Michigan in 2021.
Last week, the Times published a survey showing how Harris had led Trump by four points in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Among likely voters in each state, 50 percent said they would likely vote for Harris, while 46 percent said they would vote for Trump.
According to the new figures, Harris has erased the lead Trump was building in states before President Biden dropped out of the race.
The first presidential debate between the two will be held in Philadelphia on September 10 and will be moderated by ABC News.
The first vice presidential debate between Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio will take place Oct. 1 in New York City and will be broadcast on CBS.