AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Both presidential campaigns are in the Midwest today, as they make last-ditch efforts to court the undecided voters who could lift them into the White House. Former President Trump was in Dearborn, Michigan, a predominantly Arab American city near Detroit. Vice President Harris was in Wisconsin, one of the blue wall states that she needs to win. With just days to go before voting ends, Trump and Harris are tied in both these states, as well as five others that will decide the election. Joining us now to discuss all of this is NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Hey, Mara.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: All right, let's start with Trump. Why do you think he chose to be in Dearborn today?
LIASSON: Dearborn is - has a lot of Arab American communities. You know, he got the mayor of nearby Hamtramck Michigan, the first Arab American and Muslim mayor of the city, to endorse him. And the Arab American community in Michigan has, in large part, turned against the Biden administration because of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. Gaza is a giant wedge issue for Republicans to use against Democrats because it splits the Democratic coalition in Michigan.
And Donald Trump went to Dearborn today to see if he could widen that gap some more, get more Arab American voters away from Harris. They used to be pretty reliable Democratic voters, but he's telling them, and he told them today, that despite the fact that he's been basically joined at the hip with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu throughout his first term, his message to them today was, there's going to be peace in the Middle East if I'm elected.
CHANG: Well, this, of course, follows a week of controversy on the trail, right? Like, Democrats pounced on Trump's remarks about Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, pointing to the violent imagery that Trump invoked while calling Cheney a war hawk. Cheney, of course, has endorsed Harris. Here's what Trump said.
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DONALD TRUMP: She's a radical war hawk. 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.
CHANG: What do you make of all this, Mara?
LIASSON: Well, let's first say how Liz Cheney responded. After all, she's the one who had - Trump described what sounded a lot like a firing squad. He - she said on X, quote, "this is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant."
But this is just the latest in a very long line of violent rhetoric from Trump. He said that there should be military tribunals for Obama and Hillary Clinton. He said the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, should be tried for treason. He also said Liz Cheney should be tried for treason. He's talked about using the military against the enemy within, who he's identified as Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi and others. He's even talked about putting Mark Zuckerberg in prison for life.
So this is Donald Trump's modus operandi. But in the closing days, it does seem to have intensified and become an integral part of his closing argument. Harris addressed this when she was in Wisconsin today. Let's take a listen to what she said.
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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: His rhetoric has grown more extreme, and he is even less focused than before on the needs and the concerns and the challenges facing the American people.
LIASSON: So that's her closing argument - he's unhinged. He only cares about his grievances, not your problems.
CHANG: Well, what do you think? Like, was this some kind of strategy, or is this Trump just speaking off the cuff?
LIASSON: Well, there are two theories on this. There are some Republicans who think he's just being undisciplined. He shouldn't be doing this. Nikki Haley, the other day, criticized the Madison Square Garden Trump rally for being overly masculine, saying it turns off suburban women.
But other Republicans say, if you want to get those low propensity voters, white noncollege men off the sidelines, you're going to have to make them pretty angry or pretty scared. Extreme rhetoric can do that, get them off the sidelines. But the problem with that theory, of course, is that other voters hear that rhetoric too, not just his base. And Donald Trump has always motivated people to vote for him and people to vote against him.
CHANG: OK. Well, the Democrats had their own controversy - right? - like, President Biden's use of the word garbage and how the White House reportedly modify the transcript of his remarks. All of that prompted a backlash as well. How is that affecting the Harris campaign?
LIASSON: Well, it certainly was a distraction from what they wanted people to pay attention to - was that comedian at the Madison Square Garden rally saying that Puerto Rico was a pile of garbage. I think the Biden controversy took some attention away from that, but the Harris campaign does believe that the comments of that comedian has hurt him in the Hispanic community, that there's a big backlash. Harris is going to Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Monday, which is a majority-Latino community, and I am sure she will be talking about this.
CHANG: That is NPR's Mara Liasson. Thank you so much, Mara.
LIASSON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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