The Washington Examiner‘s Investigation’s Editor, Sarah Bedford, suggested the enthusiasm among Trump supporters could cause some voters to skip voting this year, allowing Vice President Kamala Harris to seize victory.
Bedford’s comments came as former President Donald Trump and his allies conducted a massive rally in New York City‘s Madison Square Garden on Sunday, during which Trump vowed he would bring about a “new golden age” for the nation. In assessing the rally, Bedford noted it was held in a state not considered to be a contender for Trump in the Electoral College, and the large number of rally attendees showed how many people are willing to travel long distances to see him speak.
“The one danger for Donald Trump heading into this final week of the election is that his supporters become complacent,” Bedford said on Fox News’s Fox Report with Jon Scott. “They see and they feel the growing enthusiasm around Trump, and some of them may decide ‘we got this thing in the bag, I don’t need to go stand in line and vote. I don’t need to go to the post office and drop off my ballot.’ That’s the biggest risk for Trump is that there’s overconfidence among his voters.”
Bedford noted that polling data in the final days of the election has gradually shifted in Trump’s favor, which could fuel complacency among his supporters come Election Day. For Harris, this shift in the polling data means she needs to portray herself as the underdog to drive voters to the polls.
Bedford also suggested there could be “second-guessing” among Harris’s campaign based on its decision to have her avoid the press during the start of her presidential campaign, as her favorability among voters has decreased whenever she has sat down to talk with the press. Harris waited more than a month after she launched her presidential campaign to do a sit-down interview with CNN and has since received criticism for interviews she has done this month with CBS’s 60 Minutes and Fox News’s Special Report with Bret Baier.
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Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden was attended by roughly 20,000 people. During the rally, the former president stated Harris had done a “terrible job” as vice president. He added that if he won the election, he would tell Harris, “You’re fired,” referencing his iconic line from the reality television show The Apprentice.
New data from an Emerson College poll, released 10 days before the 2024 presidential election, showed Harris and Trump tied at 49% from recipients, marking the third national poll of the past week to show the two tied. Emerson’s data showed that Trump is leading by three percentage points among independent voters, compared to how President Joe Biden led among independent voters by about ten points in 2020.