Trump campaign doubles down in final hours of election dash

(GRAND RAPIDS, MI) — Former President Donald Trump and his vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance, spent the closing hours of the 2024 campaign reviving rhetoric criticized by opponents as divisive.

Trump’s closing rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, saw the former president deliver meandering attacks on political opponents, baselessly claim that electronic voting machines are not secure and suggest it would be the fault of his supporters if he lost Tuesday’s vote.

Trump took aim at President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during his address, suggesting the former “was stuck in a basement” during the campaign and mouthing an expletive when referring to the latter.

While Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz stuck to their message of American unity, Trump said he was “running against an evil Democrat system” populated by what he called “evil people.”

Vance, meanwhile, described Democratic leaders as “trash” in returning to Biden’s recent remarks in which he appeared to call Trump supporters “garbage.”

Biden’s comments were in response to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s controversial joke about Puerto Rico at last month’s Madison Square Garden rally. Biden later said he was referring specifically to Hinchcliffe, not Trump supporters generally.

“To the Pennsylvanians who are struggling, no matter what Kamala Harris and Joe Biden and Tim Walz say, you are not garbage for being worried about not being able to afford your groceries,” Vance told rally goers at an event in Newtown, Pennsylvania.

“You are not garbage for thinking that Kamala Harris ought to do a better job,” he continued. “You are not racist for thinking that America deserves to have a secure southern border.”

“So, to Kamala Harris, you shouldn’t be calling your citizens garbage,” Vance continued. “You shouldn’t be criticizing people for daring to criticize you for doing a bad job.”

“And our message to the leadership, to the elites of the Democratic Party is no, the people of Pennsylvania are not garbage for struggling under your leadership,” Vance said. “But tomorrow, the people of Pennsylvania are going to take out the trash in Washington, D.C., and we’re going to do it together.”

Trump also recommitted to working with former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who he described as “a credible guy” that will be “very much involved” in his administration if he wins.

“He’s got a tremendous view on health and pesticides and all this stuff,” Trump said at a rally in Pittsburgh. “And we’re not really a healthy country,” he added.

Kennedy would be allowed “to pretty much do what he wants,” Trump said.

Kennedy’s activism against vaccines, immunization and other public health measures like water fluoridation has raised concerns among medical experts and been broadly criticized by Democrats. So, too, has his opposition to abortion, an issue on which his policy shifted during his presidential tilt.

“Bobby, you got to do one thing,” Trump said Monday. “Do whatever you want. You just go ahead, work on that pesticides. Work on making women’s health. He’s so into women’s health … he’s really unbelievable. It’s such a passion.”

ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Kelsey Walsh, Soo Rin Kim and Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.

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