WASHINGTON (AP) — A trio of new lawsuits — a devastating hurricane, a spreading conflict in the Middle East and a dock workers’ strike threatening the U.S. economy — are looming in the final weeks of the presidential campaign and could help change the public mood. as voters decide between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.
How events unfold – and how the candidates respond – could be decisive as they seek votes in battleground states.
The incumbent President, Joe Biden, is still the steward of the American economy and foreign policy at this tumultuous moment and may bear ultimate responsibility for its outcome. But the way Harris and Trump approach the three disparate issues could have a major impact on how Americans perceive their two choices in November.
“Unfortunately, events like this are going to happen, and this is where you see a president’s leadership emerge,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday. “I think this should send a message to Americans: it matters. It matters who is behind the Resolute Desk.”
Harris, with Biden’s help, is trying to demonstrate steady calm as a wave of difficult issues arise all at once.
She and Biden on Tuesday alternated between leading the recovery and rescue work from Hurricane Helene and huddled with aides in the White House Situation Room to watch as the US helped Israel defend against a massive attack from Iran if retaliation for the assassination of Tehran-backed leaders of Lebanese Hezbollah.
All the while, they kept in close touch with economic advisers as longshoremen took to the picket line Tuesday, a strike that stretched from ports in Maine to Texas and that threatens to choke supply chains and cause shortages and higher prices if it lasts more than a year to last. few weeks.
Trump, for his part, lashed out at Harris as if over her head, claiming that this kind of crushing of issues would never have happened under his watch.
“We’ve talked about World War III, and I don’t want to make any predictions,” Trump said at a campaign event in Wisconsin. “The whole world is laughing at us. That is why Israel was attacked only recently. Because they no longer respect our country.”
Yet voters largely cast aside Trump four years ago because of the way they viewed his handling of the swirling economic, social and public health challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden, in remarks to reporters before meeting with aides Tuesday to discuss the ongoing hurricane response, appeared to acknowledge growing frustration with the federal response to the massive storm.
“I have been in regular contact with the governors and other leaders in the affected areas, and we must jump-start this recovery process,” Biden said. On Wednesday, he will travel to the Carolinas to take a closer look at the hurricane’s devastation. He is also expected to visit hurricane-hit areas in Georgia and Florida later this week. “People are terrified. People wonder if they are going to make it.”
Harris, meanwhile, heads to Georgia and North Carolina in the coming days to do the same.
Tuesday’s vice presidential debate offered an example of how the two campaigns responded to new developments to amplify their own messages and sharpen their attacks on their rivals. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz pledged “steady leadership” under Harris, while Ohio Senator JD Vance pledged to return to “peace through strength” if Trump returns to the White House.
Biden has stayed off the campaign trail since announcing in July that he would end his reelection effort amid declining public approval ratings.
His conspicuous absence underscores that Democrats see him as a liability rather than an asset in advocating for Harris, said Christopher Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion in Pennsylvania.
But how well Biden handles the three latest emergencies could have a major impact on how undecided voters perceive Harris in these final days.
“President Biden cannot kick Kamala Harris to the curb,” Borick said. “But in a campaign where you’re turning every stone in a few states to get that undecided voter, the way he manages these crises in the coming weeks could have an impact.”
The Harris campaign understands the risks it faces when multiple crises unfold simultaneously, especially given their varied and unpredictable nature. A prolonged strike, a failed disaster response or a further expansion of the conflict in the Middle East could cast doubt on Biden’s leadership, and by extension that of his second-in-command.
At the same time, Harris campaign officials believe this perilous moment offers an opportunity to show voters the stakes of who has the job and the seriousness with which they approach it, according to campaign officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal think to discuss. .
The former president, in a speech in Waunakee, Wisconsin, and in social media posts Tuesday, offered a mix of prayer and concern for those affected by Helene, railing against Harris over the longshoremen’s strike, and an aside about the casting from Stanley Kubrick’s film. “Full metal jacket.”
“The situation should never have gotten to this point and if I had been president, it would not have happened,” Trump said in a statement about the strike.
Harris aides made a point of having the vice president make brief comments about the Iranian attack Tuesday in between tapings of interviews for her campaign, aiming to portray her as ready to take command.
Late-term tumult is a regular feature of American presidential politics, sometimes in the form of scandals and sometimes with an incumbent president hoping to demonstrate that he or his preferred successor would be a steadfast leader in uncertain times.
George W. Bush pushed a rescue package through Congress to stabilize a teetering financial system by creating the Troubled Asset Relief Program amid fears that the economy was on the brink of collapse. Broader economic conditions did not help Republican John McCain in the race he lost to Barack Obama.
Jimmy Carter’s 1980 re-election campaign was crippled by the Iran hostage crisis. Fifty-two hostages were released on January 20, 1981, shortly after his successor, Ronald Reagan, was inaugurated.
Lyndon Johnson announced a halt to bombing in North Vietnam days before the 1968 election, a step he hoped would move the conflict toward a peace settlement. But the South Vietnamese indicated that they did not want to negotiate and Johnson’s vice president, Hubert Humphrey, narrowly lost to Republican Richard Nixon.
“Efforts by established parties to help themselves or their party’s nominee with ‘October surprises’ go back a long way,” said Edward Frantz, a historian at the University of Indianapolis. “In this current climate, I’m not sure how many voters can be persuaded by a candidate who is so late in the game and trying to demonstrate competence.”
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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. AP writer Josh Book contributed to this report.
