Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a visit to the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office in Howell, Michigan. | Photo credit: Reuters
Former President Donald Trump pledged to “make America safe again” as he campaigned in Michigan on Tuesday, while Democrats gathered in Chicago to nominate Kamala Harris denounced him as a career criminal.
As part of a battleground campaign designed to counter the Democratic National Convention, Trump, standing with sheriff’s deputies in the town of Howell, painted Harris, the former district attorney of San Francisco and California’s attorney general, as the “ringleader” of a “Marxist assault on law enforcement” across the country.
“Kamala Harris will bring crime, chaos, destruction and death,” Trump said, in one of many generalizations about America under Harris’ leadership. “You will see levels of crime like you’ve never seen before. … I will provide law, order, safety and peace.” Trump has sought in recent weeks to tamp down the enthusiasm Harris has attracted since President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed her. That has included both wild predictions about what Harris’ election would mean for the country and efforts by Trump’s advisers to stage events where he can try to draw specific policy contrasts. On Tuesday in Michigan, the theme was crime and public safety.
“Our policemen and women protect law-abiding citizens every day,” Trump said. “When we go back to the White House, you’re going to see support like you haven’t seen in the last four years.” In excerpts released ahead of his speech, Trump’s campaign also said he would seek the death penalty for child rapists and child traffickers; he did not mention this during his speech.
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The event was the latest to focus on a specific issue. But on these occasions, Trump has spent a lot of time personally attacking Harris and taking aim at Biden, and the same was true after his appearance at the Democratic convention on Monday.
“I was amazed last night at how he tried to pretend everything was great,” Trump said, referring to topics like inflation and the U.S.-Mexico border that Democrats have ignored. “We have a stupid president,” he said of Biden.
Trump presented a bleak picture of life in America and the dangers of a Harris becoming president, though he offered little detail and more exaggeration.
“It’s just crazy,” Trump said. “You can’t cross the street to get a loaf of bread. You get shot, you get robbed, you get raped, you get whatever comes your way. And you’ve seen it, and I’ve seen it, and it’s time for a change.” Trump making such claims while surrounded by supportive law enforcement officials was a stark contrast to the Democrats’ convention. Speaker after speaker in Chicago Monday night found ways to remind Americans that Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a felony, has been found civilly liable for sexual assault, and still faces multiple impeachments, including his effort to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden.
Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett slammed Trump on Monday night, saying he’s “a career criminal with 34 felony convictions, two impeachments, and a porn star,” referring to payments he made to an adult film actress during his sentencing for business fraud in New York.
As the crowd booed, Crockett praised Harris, saying she is a former prosecutor who “has a resume” while Trump “has a criminal record.” The jeering reached a crescendo when Hillary Clinton, whom Trump defeated in 2016, stepped back from the podium and smiled as delegates chanted: “Lock her up! Lock her up!” — a reversal from chants by Trump supporters about Clinton eight years ago, even though the former secretary of state has never been charged with a crime.