JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The 2024 presidential election is almost over, and the candidates are making the most of the remaining hours. Former President Donald Trump is bouncing between the battleground states of Michigan, North Carolina and, of course, Pennsylvania.
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DONALD TRUMP: But we have to turn out and vote tomorrow. We're going to vote, vote, vote.
SUMMERS: Vice President Kamala Harris is spending the whole of her day in must-win Pennsylvania, stumping in Pittsburgh, Allentown and Scranton.
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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Let's get out the vote. Let's get out the vote. Let's get out the vote.
SUMMERS: Harris' day ends with a concert in the state's biggest city, Philadelphia, of course. NPR's White House correspondents Tamara Keith and Franco Ordoñez have been covering all of it. And for the next few minutes, they're here with us to look back. Hi to both of you.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Hello.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Hi, Juana.
SUMMERS: Franco, I want to start with you. There have been just a whole lot of ups and downs in this campaign. But if you remember, there was a point in this race where former President Trump - he looked almost unbeatable.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, for sure. And I'd say that moment was following the debate with President Biden and going into the Republican National Convention. I mean, it's really hard to imagine a debate going worse for Biden. It led to the end of his campaign.
And then there was the assassination attempt that happened in Pennsylvania. It was a scary moment. But Trump got up. He lifted his fist. He yelled, fight, fight, fight. And that became the iconic moment and the rallying cry for the rest of his campaign. I mean, he went into that convention - the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee - with just unbelievable momentum.
SUMMERS: That's right. And then President Biden made the decision to drop out of the race. Tam, over to you - how did that change the momentum for Democrats?
KEITH: It was a tectonic shift. Harris quickly locked down the nomination. And then early on in her candidacy, I remember being on Air Force Two when she landed at the Detroit Airport for a rally. And looking out the window, it was clear that this was going to be huge. As we waited for Harris to exit the plane, her staff were on the tarmac, dancing - like, literally dancing...
SUMMERS: OK (laughter).
KEITH: ...As a DJ entertained this crowd of 15,000 people. You know, this was a pure joy moment for her campaign and her supporters and a huge sigh of relief and just outright euphoria for Democrats, who had been facing such grim prospects. You know, this rally and others like it in the earliest days of Harris' candidacy had such a high level of enthusiasm. It was, like, something Democrats hadn't seen since Obama.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. If I can just jump in, I'll say that that same time period was also Trump's toughest period. I mean, really, for five or six weeks, the Trump campaign really struggled. I mean, he was just caught flat-footed and unable to counter. It was just a massive shift in the race. And Tam and I've been talking about how Trump was really stuck on focusing on Biden.
SUMMERS: Yeah.
ORDOÑEZ: It kind of robbed him of, you know, the easy walk to the presidency that he thought he was going to have. I mean, he kept talking about a coup. And that kind of hurt him because he was unable to or at least very slow to adapt to his new opponent.
SUMMERS: OK. So that was Trump's biggest challenge. Tam, what would you say the toughest moment was for Vice President Harris?
KEITH: For Harris, it was, like, the joy phase turned into the grind phase in October. She hit a skid when she went on "The View" for what should have been an easy interview, and she didn't have an answer to the question of what she would do differently from President Biden. She still doesn't have a great answer to that. And it has become a regular feature of campaign ads from Trump and his allies.
SUMMERS: Vice President Harris has spent most of this campaign talking about herself as the underdog, describing herself as such. What is she saying on that now?
KEITH: Well, the underdog phrasing is gone. It dropped out of her speech a few days ago. Then over the weekend, her campaign announced it was ending on a positive note. And she stopped directly referring to Trump in her remarks. I don't know if this is real confidence or projecting confidence, but she is saying she will win.
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HARRIS: And we have the momentum because our campaign is tapping into the ambitions, the aspirations and the dreams of the American people.
SUMMERS: Franco, tell us - what has the mood been like within the Trump campaign in these closing days of the race?
ORDOÑEZ: Well, I mean, I'll say the Trump campaign is also projecting a lot of confidence. I mean, they point me to polls that show him doing better than he did in 2016 and 2020 at this point. I mean, Trump was behind in those races this time. I mean, but the candidate, former President Donald Trump - it is a different story. I mean, he's really unleashing some of his darkest rhetoric of the campaign. I mean, he really just keeps going off script and just unloading on all these grievances.
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TRUMP: To get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news.
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TRUMP: And I don't mind that so much.
ORDOÑEZ: I mean, having heard Trump for most of the last decade, we know how he lashes out, and he does that often when he feels vulnerable.
SUMMERS: The three of us have covered a lot of campaigns between us, many of those together. Tam, I want to start with you. With all of the campaigns you've covered over the years, what's going to stick with you from this one?
KEITH: Yeah. On Friday, I was in the pool, traveling with Vice President Harris in Wisconsin. And that night she had a huge rally in Milwaukee. But what sticks out to me is the rally earlier in the day in Little Chute, population 12,000. This was a county that Trump won by 10 points four years ago. And on the drive in, there was this large crowd of Trump supporters waving flags and banners.
But then as we got closer, there was this big line of Harris voters who couldn't get into the rally because the school gymnasium was already overfilled. That enthusiasm was very real. The Harris campaign has talked a lot about working to lose by less in red and purple counties, and that's what this was all about. We won't know until the results come in whether that moment speaks to a larger trend or not.
SUMMERS: Franco, what about you? What will you remember most?
ORDOÑEZ: I mean, I'd say win or lose, I think it's just a shocking political comeback that Trump's made after stoking the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the multiple indictments, all the scandals and then to be today knocking on the door to be the first convicted felon to win the White House.
SUMMERS: NPR's Franco Ordoñez and Tamara Keith. Thanks to both of you.
KEITH: You're welcome.
ORDOÑEZ: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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