ERIC WESTERVELT, HOST:
Election Day is just over two weeks away. Polls in many states are open, and the candidates are making their final pitches. Early voting started yesterday in Detroit, and Vice President Kamala Harris was there to urge her supporters not to wait.
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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: And what I think we all know is on Election Day, we don't want to have any regrets about what we could have done these next 17 days. And on November 5 and at the end of that day, we're going to look at each other, and we're going to say, yes, the power was with the people, and we made a difference. And that's the beauty of who we are as a nation. We know we can make a difference 'cause the power is with the people.
WESTERVELT: Former President Donald Trump is also racing to the finish line. And so let's turn to NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson for a look at the campaign's final days. Mara, good morning.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Good morning.
WESTERVELT: So I want to talk about closing arguments with this campaign wrapping up and people already voting - on the Republican side, Donald Trump and some pretty clear and authoritarian sounding promises, including talk of using the military on the, quote, "enemy within."
LIASSON: That's right. Trump's authoritarian rhetoric isn't new. For years, he's praised authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban. He's called for the Constitution to be terminated. But his authoritarian rhetoric in these closing days of the campaign has gotten much darker, more violent. Recently, as you said, he said he would use the military to go after his political opponents. He said one rough, tough day of policing would solve the crime problem. He said that Jews would be to blame if he loses. And of course, his repeated refusals to say he'd accept the results of an election that he loses or commit to a peaceful transfer of power, that's kind of the essence of authoritarianism.
WESTERVELT: Sure.
LIASSON: Rules don't apply to him. Heads, I win; tails, you cheated. But, you know, there are two theories about this. One is that he's just letting his id flag fly and - or being undisciplined, as some Republicans believe. But other Republicans tell me they think there is a strategy behind this extreme rhetoric, that the more he can scare, anger, motivate the low propensity voters who favor him but are much less likely to turn out, the better it is for him.
WESTERVELT: Interesting. But I want to bring up something else about Trump as the campaign starts to wrap up, and last night in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, was one of many examples. That's Arnold Palmer's hometown. Here's a bit of what Trump had to say.
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DONALD TRUMP: Arnold Palmer was all man. And I say that in all due respect to women, and I love women. But this guy - this is a guy that was all man. This man was strong and tough. And I refuse to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there - they said, oh, my God, that's unbelievable (laughter). I had to say it.
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WESTERVELT: I mean, Mara, that was just part of a 12-minute ramble on this dead golfer. What do you make of Trump's increasingly erratic behavior and talk?
LIASSON: Well, I don't know what I make of it, but there sure is a lot of it. In addition to the fire hose of lies, he has been erratic. He goes off script for large chunks of his speeches. He mispronounces names. He seems to lose his train of thought - lots of profanity. And, of course, you just heard him referring to Arnold Palmer's male anatomy. The other day, he spent 39 minutes at a rally just playing music. He didn't talk at all. He just kind of bopped along on stage. And Politico reported that he - his campaign had told people he was exhausted, which now his campaign and he both deny. But he is 78 years old, and he hasn't ever released his medical records.
WESTERVELT: Well, let's turn to Kamala Harris. She's got Barack Obama out campaigning for her, popular with Democrats. He's also, you know, making arguments to Black men in particular to vote for her. She's also got Lynne Cheney out there trying to woo Republicans. On Tuesday, there's a online book event with authors, including Joyce Carol Oates. I guess that's for the Barnes & Noble suburban crowd. I mean, does she have a closing argument, Mara, to speak of, or is it more a strategy of kind of flooding the zone?
LIASSON: Well, I think it's both. She's looking for voters - votes wherever she can, including the suburban woman book club vote, maybe. But her closing argument has put Donald Trump much more in the foreground than she has in the past. She says he's dangerous, unstable, lost, confused. You know, back in 2016, the Clinton campaign used to beg the media to stop covering Trump wall to wall. Stop covering his speeches live, they would say, in his press conferences. Now the Harris campaign wants more coverage of Trump. Now that the TV networks are no longer carrying his rallies live, the Harris campaign wants to draw attention to Trump's extreme rhetoric and erratic behavior. They want to remind voters what they used to not like about Trump. And so Harris has actually begun playing clips of Trump at her own rallies.
WESTERVELT: Interesting. And, of course, Mara, this comes down to a handful of key swing states. Are you seeing any moves by the campaigns that tell you which ones are really up for grabs?
LIASSON: No, they're all up for grabs. Neither of these candidates have given up or taken for granted any of the seven battleground states, and this is a race that is really close, and we are a deeply divided, evenly divided country, and that makes our politics very unstable.
WESTERVELT: NPR's Mara Liasson, thank you.
LIASSON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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