Vice President Kamala Harris has campaigned heavily on charting a new path forward and turning the page on the rhetoric used by her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, that she claims is being used to divide the country and have Americans pointing fingers at each other.
"Rhetoric and an approach to leadership that suggests that the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down instead of what we all know the strength of leadership is based on who you lift up," Harris said Wednesday night in an often-combative interview with Fox News anchor Brett Baier.
But during that interview, her first with an opposition news network, the Democrat presidential nominee used the type of rhetoric for which she has criticized Trump, calling the former president "unfit," "unstable," and "dangerous."
Baier asked if that is the case, why is he leading her in so many swing states and according to polls has received support of almost half of the country? Are Americans misguided, stupid?
"Oh, God, I would never say that about the American people," Harris said. "And, in fact, when you listen to Donald Trump, if you watch any of his rallies, he is the one who tends to demean and belittle and diminish the American people. He is the one who talks about an enemy within — an enemy within, talking about the American people, suggesting he would turn the American military on the American people."
Harris was referring to a statement Trump has made recently, warning about "the enemy from within" that she is using in a new campaign ad. In that ad, Trump is shown during an Oct. 12 rally in Coachella, California, saying, "The worst people are the enemies from within." Another soundbite from an Oct. 6 rally in Juneau, Wisconsin, has him saying, "The enemy from within are more dangerous than Russia." And yet a third clip taken from a Fox News interview on Oct. 13 has Trump saying, "We have some very bad people that should be very easily handled by the military."
But what Trump actually said is quite different than the ad's soundbites. In the Coachella rally, he was talking about Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is running for at U.S. Senate seat in California. "The worst people are the enemies from within, the sleazebags like the guy that you're going to elect to the Senate, Shifty Adam Schiff. He's a sleazebag."
In the Wisconsin rally, Trump said, "the enemy from within, the crazy lunatics that we have, the fascists, the Marxists, the communists, the people that we have that are actually running the country, not her [Harris], she's not running it and Biden is not running it, either. You all know that. Those people are more dangerous, the enemy from within, than Russia and China."
And in the Fox News interview, Trump was actually asked whether he expected any chaos on Election Day after Biden said he's concerned Election Day will not be peaceful. Trump was asked if he was concerned about outside agitators such as Chinese nationals, people on the terrorist watchlist, and murderers and rapists who have entered the country illegally causing chaos.
"The bigger problem is the enemy from within," he said. "Not even people that have come in destroying our country — by the way totally destroying our country, the towns, the villages are being inundated. But I don't think they're the problem on Election Day. The bigger problem are the people from within.
"We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics, and it should be very easily handled, if necessary, by the National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military because they can't let that happen."