ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
While Democrats are feeling energized by their convention here in Chicago, former President Donald Trump and his campaign are trying to disrupt their rhythm. It hasn't been easy for the GOP ticket to attract attention as a list of singers, artists and political celebrities have lined up to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez has this story on Trump's challenges of ending what Republicans see as Harris' extended honeymoon.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Former President Donald Trump and JD Vance have been crisscrossing battleground states and workshopping attack lines in hopes of breaking through to general-election voters. In Pennsylvania, Trump called Harris an economy-wrecker.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DONALD TRUMP: And now she wants to be promoted to the job-killer in chief. But much more than job-killer - everything else is going to go bad.
ORDOÑEZ: In Wisconsin, Vance chided Harris for not holding a press conference.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JD VANCE: Now, Kamala Harris is going around, asking people to be their president of the United States, but she won't answer a single tough question. And she won't interact with the American people unless there's a teleprompter standing between them and her.
ORDOÑEZ: In Michigan, Trump went after her laugh and painted her as a radical, citing her father, who was a left-leaning economist.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TRUMP: Her father is, as you know, a Marxist professor, and he obviously did a good job. But this is where she's coming from.
ORDOÑEZ: But Trump's speeches have received little attention compared to the coverage in Chicago, where Democratic Party royalty and supporters have taken the stage, like Michelle Obama. And here's Oprah Winfrey.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
OPRAH WINFREY: And let us choose optimism over cynicism.
(CHEERING)
WINFREY: And let us choose inclusion over retribution. Let us choose commonsense over nonsense.
(CHEERING)
ORDOÑEZ: Yet Republicans say that was never the point to compete. Jon McHenry, a Republican pollster with North Star Opinion Research, says Trump was never going to blunt the attention in Chicago when so many cameras and microphones are pointed at the Democratic National Convention.
JON MCHENRY: You're just trying to keep your supporters engaged. You don't need big crowds. You're just sort of giving a little bit of red meat to your supporters, reminding them that you're still in this thing, and you'll really be back next week.
ORDOÑEZ: The Harris campaign is having quite a run, enjoying record-level fundraising, improving polls and extraordinary grassroots enthusiasm. That enthusiasm is evident at the convention center. But Trump surrogates who have been speaking here in Chicago day after day, like Congressman Byron Donalds, say they're not going to cede the city to Democrats.
BYRON DONALDS: Oh, you don't want to just give them all the ground. That's no fun. You know, we got to - you know, you got to come in and make your case. Like me, I have no problem going into a dark territory to make my case.
ORDOÑEZ: Former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, joined the CEO of MyPillow, Mike Lindell, on his online show, which is being broadcast from the Trump Hotel in downtown Chicago. Lindell even shaved off his mustache and went in disguise to the convention. And he was not the only one to go.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PARKER SHORT: Hey, you're an antipatriotic, anticonstitutional person crashing our party.
CHARLIE KIRK: So let me ask you one question. I got one question.
SHORT: You tried to stop our democracy.
ORDOÑEZ: That's Parker Short, president of the Young Democrats of Georgia, confronting a Trump ally, Charlie Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA, about Trump's false claims of voter fraud in Georgia. Kirk posted a video of their exchange on X.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SHORT: Trump called the Secretary of State of Georgia and told him to find them some votes.
KIRK: What is a woman?
SHORT: Oh, my God. That is so [expletive] weird, y'all. Maybe you should meet one.
ORDOÑEZ: While these viral moments appear to be geared toward the Republican base, they're also motivating the Democratic base who, here in Chicago, are already very motivated.
Franco Ordoñez, NPR News, Chicago. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
