(NewsNation) — Vice President Kamala Harris spoke on the campaign trail Thursday, calling former President Donald Trump’s promise to protect women “whether (they) like it or not” revealing and offensive.
Trump made the comment Wednesday during a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
“They said, ‘Sir, I just think it’s inappropriate for you to say.’ I pay these guys a lot of money. Can you believe it?” Trump continued. “I said, ‘Well, I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I’m going to protect them. I’m going to protect them from migrants coming in. I’m going to protect them from foreign countries that want to hit us with missiles and lots of other things.’”
In her response Thursday, Harris said Trump doesn’t understand women’s agency and authority.
“This is just the latest of a series of reveals by the former president of how he thinks about women,” Harris said.
The vice president is campaigning in Arizona and Nevada, continuing her series of star-studded rallies and concerts with less than one week until Election Day.
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Harris and Walz attended a rally featuring musical guest Los Tigres del Norte at 10 a.m. MT in Phoenix, Arizona.
In the afternoon, the vice president will host a rally at 4:30 p.m. PT in Reno, Nevada, and close her day with a 9 p.m. PT rally and concert in Las Vegas. The event will feature a performance by the band Maná and remarks by Jennifer Lopez.
The packed schedule reflects Harris’ efforts to reach voters in key battleground areas. Arizona and Nevada are among the six “toss-up” states that could make or break Harris’ presidential bid in a race that could be won in the margins.
Why Arizona matters
Republicans have carried Arizona in 16 out of 17 presidential elections, but the state has slowly shifted toward the center.
Arizona was called for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Decided by 10,000 votes, it was the slimmest margin in the country.
About 60% of the state’s population lives in Maricopa County, which generally decides the outcome in Arizona. Biden’s margin in Maricopa during the 2020 election was 50.3% to 48.1%, according to DDHQ data. A raw vote lead of 45,000 was enough for Biden to overcome the Republican lead in the rest of the state and win 49.4% to 49.1%.
As for early voter turnout, election officials say Republicans have an advantage of more than 89,000 ballots. Those numbers, however, only confirm which party voters are registered with — not how they voted.
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More than 1.6 million voters — about 28% of the electorate — have cast their ballots in Phoenix, Arizona.
Trump has a 60% chance of winning the state, NewsNation’s partner Decision Desk HQ forecasts suggested Thursday morning.
Supporters on both sides say they’re optimistic as current polling points to a close race.
Election officials warn it could take them as many as two weeks to tabulate ballots as they adhere to new voting laws passed after the contested 2020 election.
More than 130,000 volunteers have signed up to help with canvassing across the state, according to the Harris campaign.
Why Nevada matters
No Republican presidential candidate has won Nevada since George W. Bush’s narrow 2004 victory.
Historically, in every election that flipped the White House, the winning candidate also flipped at least one state. That’s most likely to be Nevada in this election, DDHQ anticipates.
Harris had a clear lead over Trump earlier this month, but a neck-and-neck race developed as the weeks went by.
Both candidates had a 50% chance of winning Nevada as of Saturday. Trump now holds a slight lead at 51%, according to DDHQ.
About 187,000 voters had cast early ballots in Nevada as of Wednesday, according to state election data. Republicans submitted most of those ballots, with a 43% early voter-turnout rate, compared to Democrats’ 28%.