A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
While Democrats are holding their convention in Chicago, former President Donald Trump is traveling across the country.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, plan to visit swing states every single day this week, hoping to get a message across to voters to choose Trump in November.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is following Trump for some of his stops this week. Danielle, you were at a Trump event outside of Detroit yesterday where he emphasized a crime. What did he have to say, and how does it differ from what Kamala Harris is saying?
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Well, first of all, to hammer home the crime theme, he spoke at a county sheriff's office in the town of Howell, Mich. And this was a small event. This wasn't your typical Trump rally. An officer on hand told me that this was held in a storage building - it was kind of like a machine shed - and it had maybe 100 to 200 people. Now, a lot of those were cops, and Trump pushed a message about supporting and boosting law enforcement.
For example, as opposed to defunding the police, he talked about refunding, as he put it, the police. He talked about immunity from prosecution for cops, and also, separately, he talked a lot about undocumented immigrants. He really especially talked about some crimes committed by immigrants in pretty lurid detail. Now, part of what he's doing with that message is trying to paint America as bad right now and say that he is the one to fix it.
Now, that is a big contrast from Kamala Harris. She talks about crime as a prosecutor, talking about how she has put criminals away, and she has talked about putting away, quote, "predators and fraudsters and cheaters." And then she has linked that to Trump, casting him as a criminal, saying she wants to get tough on him. So broadly speaking, Trump talks about beefing up law enforcement. Also, it is not clear he would have the power to do all that he would want.
Now, Harris talks about it in a more systemic way. Having been in the criminal justice system as a prosecutor and also that she wants to end systemic abuses as she talks about. For example, she co-sponsored the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which aims to protect people from cops in many ways.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, so far at the convention, the Democrats are making the case against Donald Trump, focusing a lot on that so far. How is Trump trying to counter that?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, one thing that's really stood out to me in his last few events is how much he uses the phrase common sense. Here he was yesterday.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DONALD TRUMP: I like to say the Republican Party is now the party of common sense. Conservative, yeah, I guess conservative. It doesn't matter. It's the party of common sense.
KURTZLEBEN: And, like I said, I think he's been saying that quite a bit in the last few weeks. And I think you could see that as a counter to the weird attacks the Democrats are launching at him and Vance, casting Trump and JD Vance as weird. I asked the campaign about this. They said, no, this is a thing he's been saying since 2016. And yeah, it's a common phrase, but given how much he's saying it lately, he's been casting Democrats as too liberal and just trying to take back the mantle of normal.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So where is Donald Trump heading to today?
KURTZLEBEN: Today, he and his running mate, JD Vance, will be in Asheboro, N.C., talking national security. And I think you can really expect them to keep talking about global affairs from an isolationist lens. After all, Trump has criticized NATO. He wants to ratchet back aid to Ukraine. And you can imagine they'll also talk about pushing aid to Israel.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, that's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thank you very much.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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