Harris courts voters in Pennsylvania as Trump continues attacks on Haitian migrants

After facing off this week for the debate, former President Trump and Vice President Harris are now on opposite ends of the country. Harris focused on Pennsylvania voters while Trump spoke to reporters at his golf club in California. Trump continued attacks on legal Haitian immigrants in Ohio, even threatening to deport them. Laura Barrón-López and Lisa Desjardins discuss more with Geoff Bennett.

Read the Full Transcript

Amna Nawaz: Welcome to the “News Hour.”

After facing off earlier this week on a Philadelphia debate stage and standing together in New York for the September 11 anniversary, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are on opposite ends of the country today.

Geoff Bennett: Harris is focusing her energy on speaking to Pennsylvania voters tonight, while Trump spoke to reporters at his golf club on the California coast. There, the former president escalated his attacks on Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.

Laura Barron-Lopez has this report.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Outside of Los Angeles today, former President Trump railed against California Governor Gavin Newsom, claimed President Joe Biden hates Kamala Harris, and attacked ABC for fact-checking him at the debate.

Donald Trump, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: I was right about the crime stats going way up. The fact is, the FBI didn’t report them because the new numbers we just released, and you will see the kind of numbers that we’re talking about, went not only up, but up at record levels like nobody’s seen before.

Laura Barron-Lopez: And Trump continued to target the Haitian immigrant community in Springfield, Ohio.

Donald Trump: In Springfield, Ohio, 20,000 illegal Haitian migrants have descended upon a town of 58,000 people, destroying their way of life.

Laura Barron-Lopez: The Republican nominee for president has repeatedly attacked Haitians this week, lying about them eating pets.

Donald Trump: Recording of 911 calls even show residents are reporting that the migrants are walking off with the town’s geese. They’re taking the geese, you know, where the geese are in the park, in the lake, and even walking off with their pets. My dog’s been taken. My dog’s been stolen.

This can only happen. These people are the worst. This is — I’m telling you.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Yesterday, a bomb threat prompted the Springfield City Hall to evacuate. And, today, two elementary schools and a middle school face the same threats, prompting evacuations and closures.

City officials have consistently denied any credible reports of pets being harmed by immigrants. Most of the Haitian migrants in Springfield are there legally, and many are there under temporary protected status. Still, Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, doubled down Friday, with Vance suggesting that the Haitian immigrants were bringing diseases to Springfield.

On the South Lawn of the White House today, President Biden condemned the attacks on the Haitians in Springfield.

Joe Biden, President of the United States: It’s simply wrong. There’s no place in America. This has to stop!

Laura Barron-Lopez: Though much of Trump’s speech in Tucson, Arizona, last night repeated baseless claims about migrants, he also made a new promise to working-class voters.

Donald Trump: I’m also announcing that as part of our additional tax cuts, we will end all taxes on overtime. You know what that means?

(Cheering)

(Applause)

Donald Trump: Think of that.

Laura Barron-Lopez: At a campaign rally in Michigan on Thursday, Governor Tim Walz dismissed Trump’s baseless claims about the Haitian immigrants.

Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), Vice Presidential Candidate: He said a lot of weird stuff too, so I’m just going to say that.

(Laughter)

Gov. Tim Walz: And that’s — and you tell me you had this on your bingo card, and they’re eating cats, and they’re eating cats.

(Laughter)

Laura Barron-Lopez: And in North Carolina last night, Vice President Harris took aim at Trump’s debate performance, highlighting his promise to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.

Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: And as he said in the debate, he made clear he has no plan to replace it. In fact, you remember? Concepts. You remember? He has — quote — “concepts of a plan.”

Laura Barron-Lopez: Harris left D.C. today for Pennsylvania, making a stop at a small business in Johnstown, before heading to a rally in Wilkes-Barre tonight.

Kamala Harris: We have got to earn every vote, and that means spending time with folks in the communities where they live. And so that’s why I’m here. We’re going to be spending a lot more time in Pennsylvania.

Geoff Bennett: And Laura is here with us in studio alongside Lisa Desjardins.

So, Laura, when the vice president says we have to earn every vote, what does that look like for the Harris campaign in this post-debate phase?

Laura Barron-Lopez: Well, the Harris campaign says that they are in — quote — “more aggressive phase” of the campaign since the debate. They have launched three new ads since the debate, all highlighting exchanges in that debate, including ones on abortion, as well as Harris saying that she wants to represent all Americans.

They’re also doing more targeted interviews, Geoff. They did — they’re — Harris did one today with a local Pennsylvania anchor. She’s going to be joining a livestream next week with Oprah Winfrey that is going to be with a lot of local grassroots groups, including ones that are targeting Black voters, Latino voters, rural voters, voters, you name it, across the board.

And so her campaign is trying to make her available much more in the battleground states. She’s also expected to potentially sit down with the National Association of Black Journalists as early as next week, because, right now, even though she is still trying to reach undecided voters, that small sliver, Geoff, she very much is trying to close that enthusiasm gap that President Biden had with the key elements of her base.

Geoff Bennett: I want to ask you about this far right activist, this woman Laura Loomer, who’s been traveling with Donald Trump. Who is she and why does she have Donald Trump’s ear?

Laura Barron-Lopez: So Laura Loomer is well-known to us at the “News Hour” as well as to politicians and reporters across the board, but she’s not as well-known to most Americans, Geoff.

She is a far right activist who ran unsuccessfully for Congress. She’s an online conspiracy theorist who has described herself as — quote — “a proud Islamophobe” and — quote — “pro-white nationalism.” She recently also spread lies about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Ohio. And she also recently made racist comments about Kamala Harris on social media site X.

She said: “If Kamala Harris wins, the White House will smell like curry and White House speeches will be facilitated with a call center. And the American people will only be able to convey their feedback through a customer satisfaction survey at the end of the call, and nobody will understand.”

That’s received a lot of backlash from Republicans, as well as Democrats. And why does it matter, Geoff? Because she traveled with the president to the debate, as well as on September 11. And she is also a known 9/11 truther, has spread conspiracy theories about 9/11.

Former President Trump was asked about Laura Loomer today, and he did not disavow her, did not condemn her comments specifically when asked about her 9/11 conspiracy theories. He instead said that she is a supporter of his, who is a free spirit and a strong person.

Geoff Bennett: A free spirit?

OK, so, Lisa, how are Republicans responding to all of this?

Lisa Desjardins: Even Trump Republicans, as Laura mentioned, are responding quickly. They think — they see the danger here politically for this association.

And that includes some Trump Republicans who themselves have had extreme speech. Want to look at this posting on social media from Marjorie Taylor Greene. Here’s what she wrote about Laura Loomer: “This does not represent President Trump. This type of behavior should not be tolerated ever.”

But it’s not just that side of the Trump spectrum. Also, Thom Tillis, a somewhat more moderate Trump supporter from North Carolina, wrote: “Laura Loomer is a crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly utters disgusting garbage.”

But the fact remains that Trump has not disassociated himself from him — from her as much as some of his supporters will. And I want to talk about voters who support Trump. We have been to so many Trump events. And while most Trump supporters, I would say, I talk to talk about his characteristics, a significant group at every single rally I attend raised conspiracy theories with me, the woman who thought Joe Biden was dead.

Another woman in New Hampshire who told me she was sure that Mother Teresa was a man, and, by the way, the father of Anthony Fauci. These would be laughable things, except these are very widespread.

I talked to someone who studies conspiracy theory today about when these kinds of things can take hold.

J.P. Prims, University OF Illinois Chicago: Generally speaking, conspiracy theories tend to form — are more likely to form for big, frightening, dangerous events than smaller events. So if there’s a threat that you view as very threatening, say you think that the other political candidate is going to destroy your way of life if they win, you’re more likely to believe conspiracy theories about that.

Lisa Desjardins: And J.P. and I talked about and she raised the fact that Trump has literally said that, if he’s not elected, U.S. democracy itself will end.

And he himself has put conspiracy theories out there, so this does not happen in a vacuum.

Geoff Bennett: We also heard in Laura’s report Donald Trump rail against FBI crime statistics. I know you have been doing some reporting on this. What have you found?

Lisa Desjardins: We’re going to get in this more deeply ahead, but this is a good chance to set the table on this.

Now, Trump is pointing to FBI statistics and saying they’re not the best ones. So let me look at the two different kinds of statistics he’s talking about. First, the FBI uses what’s called uniform crime reports. Those are — that’s data from local law enforcement around the country. That comes from almost 90, 95 percent of crime statistics.

Now, he says people should pay attention to something called the national crime victimization Survey. That is a survey of 170,000 people getting their opinions sometimes reported, sometimes unreported crime. It’s important for trend lines, but when you talk to experts, they say the decrease in crime you see in FBI stats is held up by other data, CDC data, independent data.

And when Trump says that the other survey data shows more crime, he’s not saying that it’s relative to 2020. That same data he’s talking about also shows a decrease in the last year. So there’s more to it than what he says.

Geoff Bennett: More to come, indeed.

Lisa Desjardins, Laura Barron-Lopez, thank you both.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Thank you.