Trump intensifies focus on Harris in final weeks of campaign

Trump has long sowed doubt about Biden’s fitness for the job, but is especially eager to shift attention after contracting the novel coronavirus and confronting his own health scare.At his first campaign rally since being hospitalized for the virus, Trump told a Florida crowd on Monday that Biden has “a lot of bad days coming.”Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally, is pushing the president to make Harris a campaign centerpiece.“If voters understand the totality of her radicalism, they would conclude that she would be a very high-risk person to put in the White House,” Gingrich said.He went on to call Biden “docile” and Harris “aggressive.”The sexism and racism associated with such language, including Trump’s reference to Harris as a “monster,” are aimed at Trump’s most loyal supporters.“It is really an effort to say to their base, ‘Look, we don’t want a Black woman to be president,’” said Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Just 1% of Trump’s supporters said the same about the president, though the survey was taken before Trump contracted the coronavirus.Harris and Vice President Mike Pence deflected in last week’s debate when asked if they had conversations with Biden and Trump, respectively, about procedures in the event of presidential disability.Harris did not address the question directly or speak to Biden’s health at all, instead pivoting to their shared values and her own political background, an implicit nod to her fitness for the top job if need be.“I serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee, where I’ve been in regular receipt of classified information about threats to our nation and hot spots around the world.