DETROIT — Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris warned Tuesday that Republican Donald Trump would try to “institutionalize” harsh policing tactics that disproportionately affect Black men nationwide as she promised to push for legislation to address discriminatory law enforcement practices.
During an hourlong radio town hall moderated by Charlamagne tha God, host of “The Breakfast Club” show, Harris also said she would work to decriminalize marijuana, which accounts for arrests that also disproportionately impact Black men, and she acknowledged that racial disparities and bias exist in everyday life for Black people — in home ownership, health care, economic prosperity and even voting.
Both Harris and Trump are trying to energize key constituencies that allies worry may be slipping away in a razor-tight race with just 21 days left until the election. While Harris was trying to energize Black men, Trump focused on reaching women, particularly as Republicans struggle on abortion messaging following the fall of Roe v. Wade. He taped a Fox News Channel town hall featuring an all-female audience and moderated by host Harris Faulkner.
Harris told Charlamagne that despite the persistence of racial bias, no one has a pass to sit out the election.
“We should never sit back and say, ‘OK, I’m not going to vote because everything hasn’t been solved,’” she said. “This is a margin-of-error race. It’s tight. I’m going to win. I’m going to win, but it’s tight.”
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, was in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, where he unveiled the Democratic ticket’s plan to improve the lives of rural Americans, in yet another sign that both parties are trying to cut into the other’s margin of support with different voting blocs while shoring up traditional areas of strength.
Trump has called for a return to “proven crime fighting methods, including stop and frisk and broken windows policing.” The tactic, deployed by the New York City Police Department, involved stopping, questioning and sometimes frisking people deemed “reasonably suspicious.” It disproportionately affected Black and Hispanic men, and in 2013 the policy was found to have violated the U.S. Constitution.
Harris said part of her challenge is that Trump’s campaign is “trying to scare people away because otherwise they know they have nothing to run on. Ask Donald Trump what is his plan for Black America. Ask him.”
Earlier, Harris also stopped by a Black-owned art gallery, joined by actors Don Cheadle, Delroy Lindo and Detroit native Cornelius Smith Jr., for a conversation with Black men focused on entrepreneurship.
Harris singled out Lindo, who has starred in films and CBS’ “The Good Fight,” saying to the gathered crowd, “Delroy has been supporting me for years and years and years,” and adding that the two were both on the debate team at her alma mater, Howard University.
The Detroit push comes a day after Harris announced a series of new proposals dubbed the “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men.” The ideas are meant to offer Black men more economic advantages, including providing forgivable business loans of up to $20,000 for entrepreneurs and creating more apprenticeships. The plan would also support the study of sickle cell and other diseases more common in Black men.
The focus on Black men sharpened last week when former President Barack Obama campaigned for Harris in Pittsburgh and said he wanted to speak “some truths” to Black male voters, suggesting some ” just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.”
The vice president’s campaign says it doesn’t believe Black men will flip in large numbers to supporting Trump, especially after strongly backing Democrat Joe Biden, with Harris as his running mate, in 2020. They are more concerned about a measurable percentage of Black males opting not to vote at all.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, the first Black senator elected from the state of Georgia, issued a stark warning in Atlanta to other Black men that voting for Trump will be “literally dangerous” for them, as the former president headed there for a rally later in the day.
“He will be dangerous every time you get in the car and you deal with the issue of driving while Black,” Warnock said.
He argued that Democrats’ job is to reach Black men who are deciding whether to vote at all.
“The issue is folks have got to understand that if you do not vote, it’s a vote for Donald Trump,” Warnock said.
Harris’ campaign has also placed special emphasis on other male voters, including creating “ Hombres con Harris,” or “Men with Harris,” a group that is using celebrities and key elected officials to organize events on her behalf meant to appeal to Hispanic men.
As she campaigns in Detroit, Harris faces other potential challenges in Michigan, including Arab activists angered by the Biden administration’s full-throated support for Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza. Dearborn, outside Detroit, is the largest Arab-majority city in the U.S.
Still, the vice president’s campaign expects to see strong support on Election Day from white, college-educated voters in Michigan at rates that might exceed Biden’s in 2020, and she hopes to expand the margin by which Trump lost many of the state’s key suburbs four years ago.
The former president figures to do well with rural voters, but team Harris hopes to at least keep things closer. And while Harris’ support among women is strong, Trump aims to keep her from running up the score.
Trump has seen his support among women, especially in the suburbs of many key swing states, soften since his term in the White House. A September AP-NORC poll found more than half of registered voters who are women have a somewhat or very favorable view of Harris, while only about one-third have a favorable view of Trump.
To reverse the trend, Trump has sought to cast himself as being able to personally shield women from various threats, as when he suggested at a rally in Pennsylvania last month that women in America, “will no longer be abandoned, lonely or scared. You will no longer be in danger.”
“You will be protected, and I will be your protector,” Trump said then. He’s also suggested that, should he win, women will no longer have a reason to think about abortion, after three Supreme Court judges that he appointed helped in 2022 to overturn the landmark ruling.
Harris said Tuesday it was comical that Trump considered himself a president for women, particularly as maternal mortality is rising and roughly 1 in 3 women live in states with increasingly restrictive abortion bans.
“And they want to strut around and say this is in the best interest of women and children? And they have been silent on black maternal mortality?” she asked.
In Chicago, speaking before members of the Economic Club, Trump defended his support for high tariffs as an economic cure-all.
Long reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Jill Colvin in Chicago contributed to this report.
