(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris criticized Donald Trump for sidestepping a question about whether he would back increasing the minimum wage, a day after her Republican opponent held a campaign stop at a McDonald’s Corp. restaurant.
“I absolutely believe we must raise the minimum wage and that hard working Americans, whether they’re working at McDonald’s or anywhere else, should have at least the ability to be able to take care of their family,” Harris said on Monday as she campaigned in swing-state Michigan.
Harris’ comments come a day after Trump held an unusual campaign photo op that saw him visit a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, where he wore an apron and worked the french fry station, handing out food to people. During the event, Trump was asked about raising the minimum wage, and responded: “Well I think this. These people work hard. They’re great.”
Trump’s visit to a McDonald’s was part of an effort to discredit — without evidence — Harris’ claim that she worked at the fast food chain when she was younger.
Harris on Monday told reporters again that she had worked at the restaurant. But she also cast her Republican rival as opposed to raising wages for workers, saying the issue was one of many where “there is a big difference between Donald Trump and me.”
“Everyone knows that the current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, which means that the person who is working a full day and working full weeks will make $15,000 a year, which is essentially poverty wages,” she said.
While the vice president has called for raising the minimum wage — something which would take an act of Congress — she has not made clear what hourly rate she would back if elected. President Joe Biden has urged lawmakers to approve a $15 minimum wage, and Harris has applauded states who raised their minimum to that level.
Earlier: McDonald’s Seeks to Stay Out of Politics Following Trump Visit
Harris is embarking on a blitz Monday of three key election battlegrounds — the Blue Wall states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — alongside former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, a vocal Trump critic, part of an effort to win over disaffected Republican workers whose support could tip the balance in swing states where polls show a deadlocked race just over two weeks before Election Day.
During an earlier stop in Wisconsin, Harris cast herself as a leader who would work across the aisle and with the private sector to grow the US economy.
“As a devout public servant, I also know the limitations of government. I want to work with the private sector,” Harris said in Malvern, Pennsylvania in a discussion with Cheney moderated by Sarah Longwell, who publishes The Bulwark, an anti-Trump website. “Most of my career was not spent in Washington. I say that with pride in that most of my career was spent as a prosecutor making decisions that had a direct impact on people’s lives.”
One of Harris’ biggest challenges is running as an incumbent in an election in which voter frustration with the policies of Democratic President Biden, in particular on the economy, threaten to undercut her campaign. She has sought to counter that by pledging to bring her own approach to government, touting initiatives to address voter anxiety over high prices and job growth and by trying to signal to business leaders that she will bring a more accessible approach.
Trump and Harris are competing for any votes among the few remaining undecideds likely to decide the 2024 election. Harris has embraced Cheney and other Republicans opposed to Trump to appeal to what her campaign sees as a growing cohort of conservative voters who want to prevent Trump’s return to power.
Earlier: Harris, Trump Scrap for Few Undecided Voters as Race Tightens
Cheney, a former lawmaker who hails from a prominent Republican family — her father is former Vice President Dick Cheney — saw her rise in the GOP halted by her opposition to Trump. She was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol.
“Especially here in Pennsylvania, we have the opportunity to tell the whole world who we are, and we have the chance to say, you know, we’re going to reject cruelty. We’re going to reject the kind of vile vitriol that we’ve seen from Donald Trump, we’re going to reject the misogyny that we’ve seen from Donald Trump,” Cheney said.
Harris has expanded her outreach to Republican-leaning voters in recent days, appearing last week with about 100 Republicans who are supporting her candidacy — including former House members and ex-Trump aides — and sitting for an interview with Fox News. She also pledged to include a Republican as a member of her Cabinet.
The RealClearPolitics average of polls shows Trump ahead of Harris by 1.2 percentage points in Michigan, up by one-fifth of a percentage point in Wisconsin, and up eight-tenths of a percentage point in Pennsylvania. Trump carried all three states in 2016 but saw Biden flip them four years later on his way to victory.
--With assistance from Skylar Woodhouse and Hadriana Lowenkron.
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