Kamala Harris accuses Trump of pandering to far-right racists in battleground state

Donald Trump has drawn criticism from the Kamala Harris campaign for hosting a closed-door event on crime and safety in Howell, Michigan, just a month after a white supremacist rally rocked the town.

The private event will be attended by around 200 people but promises to attract a crowd of both detractors and supporters outside the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office.

On July 20, a group of around 12 masked white supremacists marched through the streets of Howell, braying, “We love Hitler! We love Trump!” They also carried “White Lives Matter” signs, according to Reuters.

The Harris campaign has criticized Trump for holding the event in Howell while notably failing to denounce the “blatant display of racism and antisemitism in his name,” Reuters reports.

Democrats are also accusing Trump of stoking racial tensions for political gain. This claim was disputed by a Trump campaign spokesman who said that Trump would be speaking against “hate of any form.”

Referring to the white supremacist rally, Alyssa Bradley, Harris’ Michigan Communications Director, told the Washington Post: “Trump’s actions have encouraged them, and Michiganders can expect more of the same when he comes to town next week.”

She added, “The racists and white supremacists who marched in Trump’s name last month in Howell have all watched him praise Hitler, defend neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, and tell far-right extremists to ‘stand back and stand by.’

The Trump campaign called the accusations “absurd,” writes the Daily Mail, and noted that Howell received a visit from Joe Biden in 2021.

Trump National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the Harris campaign has also set up camp in towns and cities where “racist protests and marches have occurred in the past,” reports the Mail.

Howell has witnessed Ku Klux Klan rallies as recently as 2021, as it is considered the KKK capital of Michigan state, due to the white supremacist resident Robert Miles who promoted the Ku Klux Klan in Livingston County.

Dubbed the Grand Dragon of the Michigan Ku Klux Klan, Miles held meetings on his farm just outside Howell in the 1960s, triggering decades of racial unrest.

Recently, pupils at the local high school once again put the town under an unflattering spotlight when they posted racist messages on social media after their all-White basketball team beat a mixed-race team.

According to CNN, Trump’s controversial event in Howell is part of his counterprogramming against the Democrat Convention in Chicago that kicked off on August 19 and formally nominated Kamala Harris as the Democrat presidential candidate on August 20.

Livingston County voted strongly for Trump in the last election and in 2016, and polls early in the summer gave him a lead on Joe Biden. But Trump’s fortunes have changes in Michigan since Harris entered the race.

A New York Times/Sienna College poll put support for Kamala Harris at 50% compared with Trump at 46% in the swing state.

The Trump camp maintains that they knew nothing about the white supremacist rally last month and chose to visit Howell because of strong support from its sheriff and also because the city is a part of the crucial Detroit media market.

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