Rachel Maddow opened Monday’s episode of her MSNBC show with a look at the differences between the Donald Trump and Kamala Harris campaigns, especially with Harris polling much more strongly than Trump in many critical states.
As part of this, Maddow took a detour into how in recent months, Trump’s public events have been “getting a little bit weird,” using as an example a bizarre rally on Friday in which Trump may have sabotaged one of his most fervent supporters.
To get there, Maddow first noted how narrow this race is, even if Harris is consistently polling slightly ahead of Trump. “When it is this close, little differences between the candidates and their campaigns can make not only for an interesting contrast but can make a big difference,” Maddow said.
As one example, she brought up how Trump keeps trying to find a way out of debating Harris on Sept. 10, and how Harris’ campaign has started trolling him on social media about it. His campaign, Maddow opined, “may try to get all the way to the election without a single debate.”
“Also worth noting that Trump’s campaign events are getting a little bit weird,” Maddow continued.
At this, she brought up the strange rally Trump held Friday in Glendale, Arizona, ostensibly in support of right-wing Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake, one of Trump’s most loyal supporters.
As Maddow noted, photos taken from behind the stage showed that Lake had apparently spoken for longer than her allotted time and was being urged to immediately cease talking in order to let Trump speak.
“As you see there, it says minus 5:35, meaning you are five minutes and 35 seconds over your allotted time. And then it says underneath, ‘please get off the stage.’ But then look almost a minute later, there’s this other shot. Now let’s see 6:23, so she’s now six minutes and 23 seconds over her allotted time. And now the instruction to her says, ‘Please get off stage Trump waiting.’”
Then Maddow noted how this same event, Trump received an endorsement from the Arizona Police Association, whose president was on hand to deliver the endorsement personally.
At what appears to be the midway point — as you can see in this video — the speaker, Justin Harris, still had several pages left to his prepared remarks. Trump wandered out on stage very close to Harris and told him “gotta go.” Harris clearly appears rattled or put-off by this as he awkwardly shuffles papers and doesn’t speak for more than 10 seconds before hastily wrapping up.
“That’s a nice way to receive an endorsement,” Maddow said before getting to the punch line of this whole weird thing.
“And now today, that same police union announced that they’re endorsing the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Arizona, the guy who’s running against Republican Kari Lake,” Maddow said without mentioning that in 2022, this union endorsed Lake.
“I mean, they had already given [Trump] his endorsement, so presumably, that one couldn’t be reeled back in. But, you know, if this was Trump trying to turn on the charm to also get this union’s endorsement for the Republican Senate candidate he was ostensibly there to support, well, we all know how good he is at sharing the glory,” Maddow continued.
“Get off stage Trump waiting.”
Watch the clip below:
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