US Election: Trump’s Hilton high-wire act vies with Harris’s Hollywood stardust

The regular joggers and commuters on Connecticut Avenue, Washington, on Thursday evening couldn’t but have noticed the commotion outside the Hilton hotel: sirens, lights flashing in the early evening dusk, the heavy police scrutiny and choppers overhead.

It meant, of course, that someone of note was in the building: Donald Trump was speaking at a small event to denounce anti-Semitism. The seasons are mingling in Washington just now: the schools are back, the leaves are falling and the Halloween enthusiasts already have the window displays going. But the evenings are still baking warm; it’s that time of year when sheaves and select voting groups are gathered.

In the Hilton, the message that Trump had to deliver to his listeners was not a happy one. He talked them through the triumphs, as he saw it, for Israel during his term in office, before lightly rebuking them for the failure to see all of that good work reflected in the 2020 vote. “With all I have done for Israel, I received only 24 per cent of the Jewish vote,” he said, giving his voice the wounded note he reserves for such occasions and telling his audience that if he didn’t win in November, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with “that loss”.

And he gave his listeners a stark reason to give him their vote this time around, telling them that if they didn’t, “you should have your head examined” because the outcome would be “an unceasing, bloody war to obliterate the Jewish state and drive Jews out of the Holy Land”.

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Kamala Harris, he said, “has done absolutely nothing. She has not lifted a single finger to protect you or to protect your children”.

Harris, at the very same time, was attending a star-spangled event in Michigan. It, too, was a select, private gathering with the presidential nominee and with thousands more tuning in as virtual guests.

Scattered among the virtual attendees was a sprinkling of Hollywood gold dust – Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, Bryan Cranston ... the list went on. The evening was hosted by Oprah Winfrey, who continued her Democratic convention style of breaking into song as she completed her sentences and who once again demonstrated the depth of the ferocious soft power she wields now and again.

The event was a cleverly orchestrated television show and the idea was that Harris and the guests would listen to the life stories of chosen speakers in the audience. These were powerful and harrowing and several people were in tears when Natalie Griffith (15), who survived the recent Apalachee high school shooting in Georgia, spoke of that day while still recovering from her injuries – a bullet wound to her hand left her unable to applaud.

Winfrey acknowledged that Doug Griffith, the girl’s father, was not a Democratic voter as he called for “common sense” in dealing with the appalling frequency of school shootings in the US – there were some 348 recorded incidents in 2023 alone. Doug Griffith said the solution was metal detectors in all schools: create funding if need be, he argued.

“I don’t care. They didn’t have metal detectors at airports at one stage. They didn’t have metal detectors at courthouses. If a child knew that they would get caught the likelihood of them trying ... there may be another target but it wouldn’t be us worried about schools being a target.”

Winfrey looked across to Harris as if to say: you are on your own with this one. Just like Trump in Washington, you could see Harris road-testing her words seconds before she uttered them. “Yeah, um ... I think that Doug has said it so eloquently when he made a statement about common sense,” she said slowly, before finding her message.

“I think for far too long on the issue of gun violence people have been pushing a false choice, which means you are either in favour of the second amendment [on the right to bear arms] or you want to take guns away. I’m in favour of the second amendment. And I am also in favour of assault weapons bans, universal background checks ... and these are just common sense.”

The response gave Winfrey a chance to remind everyone of Harris’s recent statement that she, too, is a gun owner. “I did not know that,” exclaimed Winfrey, as if discovering the vice-president had recently acquired a new puppy.

“If someone breaks into my house, they are gettin’ shot,” said Harris to her, breaking into the famous laugh, before adding: “Probably shouldn’t have said that. My staff will deal with that later.”

It was an awkward moment, given the testimony heard just minutes earlier. But assuring millions of Americans that she is not about to confiscate their guns is one of the many messages that Harris will try to convey over the next seven weeks. Back in Washington, Trump continued to walk his high wire.

It can be a tricky business, getting elected.