Candidates race to get final messaging to voters with one week until Election Day

Amna Nawaz:

Welcome to the "News Hour."

Election Day is officially one week away, and both candidates are racing to get their final messaging out to voters.

Geoff Bennett:

Vice President Kamala Harris is delivering a major speech in Washington, D.C., tonight, but we start in Florida, where former President Donald Trump held an event today featuring several guests.

Lisa Desjardins has our report.

(Cheering)

Lisa Desjardins:

At Mar-a-Lago this morning, former President Trump laid out three closing issues by calling up three Americans affected by them.

Woman:

Homeland Security did not do their job.

Lisa Desjardins:

A mother whose daughter was killed by an undocumented immigrant.

Man:

The cost of doing business now is two, three, or four times what it was just a few years ago.

Lisa Desjardins:

A man who said inflation is harming his dry cleaning business.

Woman:

Her story isn't unique to our family.

Lisa Desjardins:

And a woman whose daughter-in-law was killed during the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.

The event was billed as a press conference, but Trump took no questions. Instead, he went on attack, repeatedly flipping some criticisms of him as instead about Kamala Harris.

Donald Trump, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: And she's running on a campaign of demoralization and really a campaign of destruction, but, really, perhaps more than anything else, it's a campaign of hate.

Lisa Desjardins:

Trump's team is still trying to repair political damage from his rally at New York's Madison Square Garden Sunday, where other speakers made headlines for racist and sexist remarks.

Today, Trump called the event a lovefest.

Donald Trump:

I don't think anybody has ever seen anything like what happened the other night at Madison Square Garden. The love, the love, the love in that room, it was breathtaking.

(Cheering)

Lisa Desjardins:

Perhaps the most infamous moment was when comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico:

Tony Hinchcliffe, Comedian:

A floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now.

Lisa Desjardins:

At an afternoon town hall in a Philadelphia suburb, Trump defended his record.

Donald Trump:

I think no president's done more for Puerto Rico than I have.

Lisa Desjardins:

As President Trump ultimately released billions of dollars in aid for Puerto Rico, but only years after it was hit by two hurricanes.

He initially pushed back against the aid and angrily tweeted about the island. The former president will hold a rally tonight in Allentown, Pennsylvania, home to one of the largest Puerto Rican communities in the must-win state. In Saginaw, Michigan, Trump's running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, also defended the rally, saying Democrats who attacked it are attacking the voters who were there.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Vice Presidential Candidate: We have this incredible rally, over 100,000 people at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was an incredible thing.

(Cheering)

Lisa Desjardins:

On the other side of the aisle, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz held a get-out-the-vote-early rally in Savannah, Georgia, this afternoon.

Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), Vice Presidential Candidate: Kamala says it. When we fight…

AUDIENCE:

We win!

Gov. Tim Walz:

Right now, it's, when we vote…

AUDIENCE:

We win!

Gov. Tim Walz:

Let's win this, Georgia. Let's go.

Lisa Desjardins:

Meanwhile, Harris has been driving home a message about the dangers of a second Trump presidency, including in Ann Arbor, Michigan, last night.

Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: So much is on the line in this election, and this is not 2016 or 2020. We can all see that Donald Trump is even more unstable, yes, and more unhinged. And now he wants unchecked power.

And, this time, and, this time, there will be no one there to stop him.

Lisa Desjardins:

Tonight, Harris makes her closing argument speech on the National Mall's Ellipse. It's the same place then-President Trump held his January 6, 2021, Stop the Steal rally.

Donald Trump:

We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.

Lisa Desjardins:

Which sparked the insurrection and violent assaults at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. Harris and Trump are both carefully choosing their messages as the election whittles down to days.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.