Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump both campaigned in battleground states on Monday, with barely two weeks to go before the US elections.

Harris toured a trio of crucial swing states with Liz Cheney, the eldest daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, two of the most prominent Republicans, to publicly endorse her, seeking support from moderate Republican voters.

Trump won Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin in his 2016 election victory against Hillary Clinton, but he lost all three states to Joe Biden in 2020.

If they were to hold them again on November 5, it would all but seal victory for Democratic candidate Harris.

What did Harris and Cheney say?

At one of her three “town hall” events with Cheney, moderated by a conservative radio host, in Malvern, Pennsylvania, Harris returned to her recent line of attack questioning Trump’s mental stability and fitness for office.

“In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man, but the consequences of him being president of the United States are brutally serious,” Harris told the audience.

She also said Trump “has been manipulated and is so clearly capable of being manipulated by favor and flattery, including by dictators and autocrats.”

Harris said that if Trump were to win next month, Ukraine would likely fall to Russia. Foreign policy is an area where Cheney often criticizes Trump.

Cheney, meanwhile, said at the event in Royal Oak, Michigan, that she had spoken to several Republicans about concerns about Trump, who also said in those opinions, “I can’t be public.” But she expressed confidence that “they will do the right thing.”

“And I just want to remind people, if you’re concerned, you can vote your conscience and never have to say a word to anyone again,” Cheney said.

Trump dismisses ‘war hawk’ Cheney and again criticizes hurricane response

Trump downplayed Cheney’s appearances in online comments Monday, calling her a “war hawk.”

He accused Cheney, whose father is best known for his role in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq during the George W. Bush administration, of wanting to go to war with “every Muslim country known to man,” as her father, who he described as “the man who ridiculously pushed Bush to go to war in the Middle East.”

Trump made three stops in North Carolina — usually a fairly safe state for Republicans, but an increasingly competitive state that Barack Obama was able to claim in his 2008 landslide — where the country is still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

He again criticized the federal government’s response to the storms, even after his earlier criticism drew rebukes from North Carolina Republicans such as Chuck Edwards, who shared the stage with Trump when he made the renewed claims on Monday.

Asked whether his criticism was helpful after Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees complained of intimidation by local militias hindering their work, Trump said he believed that “you have to let people know how they’re doing. ”

“If they did a great job, I think we should say that too, because I think they should be rewarded,” he said. “If they do a bad job, shouldn’t we say so?”

‘Central Park Five’ announces defamation lawsuit over comments in Trump debate

Meanwhile, the five black and Hispanic teenagers wrongfully convicted of the 1989 rape and murder of a Central Park jogger at Trump’s New York base said they had sued Trump over comments he made during last month’s presidential debate had done.

The men, commonly known as the “Central Park Five,” spent between five and 13 years in prison before being acquitted in 2002 based on new DNA evidence and the confession of another person.

Trump falsely said during the debate that the men had killed someone and admitted guilt.

The young men confessed early in the investigation. They soon said they had done this under duress and pleaded not guilty at trial, although they were convicted.

A Trump campaign spokesperson dismissed the defamation lawsuit as “just another frivolous election interference lawsuit brought by desperate left-wing activists.”

One of the plaintiff’s attorneys denied a political motivation and said the men were seeking compensation for further damage to their reputations and for Trump’s intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Trump had spoken out about the murder at the time and had placed a full-page newspaper ad calling for the death penalty to be reinstated in New York.

When challenged on the issue in 2019, he refused to apologize or revise comments made about the group prior to their exoneration.

msh/jsi (AFP, AP, Reuters)