‘Desperate’ three-word message latest sign Kamala is barely holding on

These are desperate times for Kamala Harris – and the cracks are appearing.

As the contest to be US President remains on a knife edge, the Democratic nominee has shelved Michelle Obama’s “when they go low, we go high,” approach for something more like “when the polls go low, we go lower”.

Case in point was a misleading, mischievous and you could argue mean tweet about Donald Trump on Tuesday night.

The Vice President shared a clearly edited video of the Republican nominee at a rally, standing on stage while music played.

“Trump appears lost, confused, and frozen on stage as multiple songs play for 30+ minutes and the crowd pours out of the venue early,” a tweet posted by her campaign stated.

Ms Harris’ smarmy personal response was: “Hope he’s OK”.

Hope he's okay. https://t.co/WGhGteFpjm

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 15, 2024

There were two troubling issues with Ms Harris’ decision to share the content and comment in the way she did.

Firstly, as mentioned, the footage was doctored to try to make Mr Trump look like a bumbling fool.

Ms Harris’s campaign has begun to aggressively challenge Mr Trump on his health and mental stability but this attempt was quickly exposed when the unedited vision was shared.

OHHH, he’s okay! I see what you did here—DESPERATE times call for desperate measures! Why did you manipulate the video and remove @realDonaldTrump’s 80 second response to @KristiNoem, prior to the music playing, completely taking it out of context? Here’s what you cut out—LISTEN! https://t.co/WeolTA1n43 pic.twitter.com/0BK0pI7Jex

— Dan Scavino Jr.🇺🇸🦅 (@DanScavino) October 15, 2024

But even more embarrassingly for Ms Harris is the reason Mr Trump was playing the music in the first place.

Mr Trump’s town hall in Pennsylvania – America’s largest swing state – had to be cut short early after multiple audience members experienced health emergencies.

The much-hyped event went sideways when attendees heard a loud thud — before a middle-aged man was wheeled out on a stretcher with his shirt cut open.

Minutes later, Mr Trump was interrupted while answering a question by more attendees shouting for medics.

The ex-president asked for the facility’s doors to be opened, but said later they could not be left ajar due to security concerns

As overheated attendees in the packed space were taken away, Mr Trump improvised. “Let’s make this a musical fest,” he said — calling on his staff to blast opera icon Luciano Pavarotti’s Ave Maria and other songs before leaving the stage.

You obviously don’t have to scroll far down Mr Trump’s X feed to find examples of him going after Ms Harris in far more aggressive ways than she is doing to him. For instance, when he questioned her racial identity.

But, as Michelle Obama said in 2016, the Democrats aimed to be the party that takes the high road.

And Ms Harris stooping to tactics reminiscent of Mr Trump – trying to point score while real people were suffering – carries a stench of hopelessness less than three weeks out from election day.

As Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt conceded this week: “As summer has turned to fall, any signs of momentum for Kamala Harris have stopped”.

The polls remain incredibly close with Ms Harris eking out a narrow national lead over Mr Trump. She has certainly performed better than Joe Biden against Mr Trump.

But it will likely come down to the swing states like Pennsylvania which could go either way.

Ms Harris has responded to the concerning numbers by beginning to home in on Mr Trump’s health and age.

She turns 60 this Sunday and last weekend released a medical report in which the White House doctor declared her “in excellent health,” with the “physical and mental resiliency” to serve as president.

Mr Trump, 78, is the oldest person ever to be nominated for a presidential bid. He has not released a recent comprehensive report on his state of health, but lashed back at Ms Harris in a string of posts published on his own Truth Social platform just before 1am after the Pennsylvania town hall.

He said he was “far healthier” than the last four US presidents and “far too busy campaigning” to undergo a new health test.

He called Ms Harris “desperate” for saying he should provide reports to the American people and said “she is dying to see my cholesterol (which is 180!)”.

On the same night, Ms Harris was dialling up her rhetoric against a man who just days ago endured what a local sheriff claimed may have been a third assassination attempt when an armed man was arrested outside the former president’s Coachella rally.

“Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged,” the vice president told supporters at an Erie, Pennsylvania rally.

“He is out for unchecked power,” Ms Harris added.

In contrast, Mr Trump appears on cruise control – dancing his way to what he believes to be a November 5 victory.

– with the New York Post, AFP