(Bloomberg) -- US presidential candidates are deploying unusual tactics as they try to scrounge up any undecided voters two weeks before an election that polls forecast as a razor-tight race.
On Tuesday, Republican nominee Donald Trump is campaigning in Florida and North Carolina, while Democratic Democrat Kamala Harris is taping interviews in Washington, DC. President Joe Biden is also hitting the trail to target one of his and Harris’ biggest political vulnerabilities — high prices hammering households.
Joe Rogan Interview
On Friday, Trump is expected to record an interview with comedian Joe Rogan on his popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, according to two people familiar with the plans who requested anonymity to discuss them. Rogan is widely considered the most popular podcaster in the world. His show maintains 17.5 million subscribers on YouTube and 15.7 million on Spotify.
The decision highlights how Trump’s campaign has sought to court younger men, a key part of Rogan’s audience. Harris has also reportedly been in talks to sit with the podcast star.
On Tuesday, the vice president is taping interviews with MSNBC and Telemundo, part of a media blitz aimed at breaking the deadlock with Trump.
Recent weeks have seen Harris appear on the hit podcast Call Her Daddy as well as interviews with shock jock Howard Stern and appearances on ABC’s The View and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
Trump Courts Latinos
At a roundtable with Latino leaders intended to focus on the economy, Trump laced his remarks with personal attacks on Harris, assailing her over the administration’s handling of the border crisis.
The former president, at the event in Doral, Florida, repeated unsubstantiated claims that the administration’s migrant policies had lost track of 325,000 children, who he claimed included “child slaves, sex slaves” and those “missing or dead.”
Latino voters have become a key target for both campaigns as Trump makes inroads into what has been a strongly Democratic bloc amid broad anxiety over the economy. His stance on immigration, though, threatens to undercut that outreach, as Trump vows to implement mass deportations and finish building a border wall.
Trump, in his remarks, also peppered Harris with a slew of insults, hitting his rival as “slow,” “low-IQ,” “lazy as hell,” and “stupid” — and as a “radical Leftist” whose policies are out of step.
The event ended with attendees huddling around Trump in prayer.
The ‘Boss’ Factor
Harris’ campaign is also ramping up its efforts to turn out voters — and enlisting some of the music world’s biggest names to do so.
Iconic rock star Bruce Springsteen, who endorsed Harris this month, will headline get-out-the-vote events in each of the seven battleground states in the final stretch, a senior campaign official said, requesting anonymity to discuss events not yet public. The campaign anticipates high-profile concerts in each of the seven major battleground states.
The series will start with a Thursday event in Atlanta featuring Harris and former President Barack Obama and a Philadelphia appearance with Obama again next week.
Musk’s Backing
Also in the spotlight in the final two-week stretch is the role of Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, who is deploying his wealth and influence to return Trump to power.
Musk’s super political action committee, America PAC, is running a sweepstakes to award a daily prize of $1 million to a registered voter in a swing state.
Trump’s campaign in a fundraising pitch on Monday also said that Musk would “match all donations” in response to that solicitation with a contribution to the Trump 47 Committee, Inc., until he hits his personal legal campaign donation limit.
Offering to match donations is a gimmick often used by both parties to entice small-dollar donors to open their wallets, usually with no explanation of the source of the matching funds. The Trump campaign won’t have to report to the Federal Election Commission if Musk actually matched any donations until after Election Day.
Harris’ team countered with a fundraising appeal of their own, arguing that Trump and his “billionaire allies — like Elon Musk” are investing millions to attack the vice president and take the country back to a time of “fewer rights and freedoms.”
Harris Eyes Texas
While the candidates have generally focused on the swing states, Harris is set to head to deep-red Texas on Friday to spotlight the issue of reproductive rights, which Democrats see as an electoral winner.
She’ll appear with Representative Colin Allred, who is running to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz, a race that tightened this summer and with Democrats fighting to retain Senate control. Harris will also join podcaster Brene Brown for an interview - with Rogan’s studio in Austin a short flight away, if a booking comes together.
Harris invited women to share stories of how they were impacted by state restrictions to abortion implemented after the Supreme Court struck down federal protections for the procedure, according to a senior campaign official who shared details about her schedule on condition of anonymity.
Abortion has put Trump on the defensive as Harris labels the wave of state restrictions as “Trump abortion bans,” in an effort to win votes from suburban women and independents.
Harris and Allred face a tough path: No Democrat has won statewide office in Texas in 30 years and the party’s last nominee to carry it was Jimmy Carter.
But they aren’t alone in quixotic travel during the campaign’s final weeks. Trump is returning to his hometown of New York City on Sunday for a rally at Madison Square Garden.
Kennedy Event Scrapped
Trump had been scheduled to take part in a virtual town hall Tuesday afternoon with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard — two former Democrats seeking to help him broaden his electoral appeal. But the event, which was to center around public health concerns and technology, was canceled.
Trump has touted the support of Kennedy and Gabbard to sway the dwindling ranks of undecided voters and the planned town hall is one of a number of unorthodox campaign events this cycle aimed at reaching voters who might not normally tune into politics.
The Republican nominee has suggested Kennedy would have a prominent role in a future administration, a move that would elevate a vaccine skeptic with iconoclastic views on public health.
The cancellation comes as Trump has bristled at Harris’ criticism of his campaign schedule. Harris, 60, has questioned if the Republican, 78, has the fitness to serve.
Biden Touts Drug Savings
Biden is also going on the trail — but not to a swing state — and will focus on just one issue: curbing high costs. The president is heading to Concord, New Hampshire, where he will deliver remarks touting his efforts to lower the price of prescription drugs.
Biden is expected to be joined there by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and will share data on savings from measures in his Inflation Reduction Act.
The president has regularly touted efforts to reduce drug costs, highlighting it as part of a broader push to help US households address the high prices that threaten to undercut Harris’ campaign.
--With assistance from Ashley Carman and Bill Allison.
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