LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Former President Donald Trump is campaigning in Arizona.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
He illustrated one of his signature campaign promises yesterday, standing next to a section of wall along the U.S. Southern border in Cochise County. The appearance highlights an issue where Democrats are seen as vulnerable, although Vice President Harris asserted last night that she could secure the border.
FADEL: NPR's Ben Giles followed Trump to the border yesterday and joins us now. Good morning, Ben.
BEN GILES, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: OK, so we've seen Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. Was his latest speech any different from the rest?
GILES: So this was just the latest stop on the Trump-Vance counterprogramming tour, but it did provide Trump a prime opportunity to trot out one of his favorite lines of attack against Harris - what he describes as a wide-open Southern border under her watch as vice president.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
DONALD TRUMP: I call her comrade because she is a radical-left Marxist. She wants open borders. She wants our country - I don't understand why anybody would want it, but she wants our country to be open to the world's criminals so they can come in and rape and pillage and do whatever they have to do.
GILES: Trump was joined at the border by the usual cast of officials from the Border Patrol union and the Cochise County Sheriff's Office. But also, there were the mothers of children who were killed by suspects who were in the country illegally. Those parents each said they believed Trump and Trump alone could secure the border and prevent immigrants from crossing illegally and committing similar crimes.
FADEL: It's interesting 'cause Kamala Harris yesterday really presented herself as a middle-of-the-road Democrat - promised to secure the border. I mean, how have Democrats in Arizona and nationally been countering this message?
GILES: Well, in addition to that message from Harris in Chicago, Democrats have been relying on Republicans to deliver blistering criticisms of Trump. Last night, for example, a former representative, Adam Kinzinger, was given a prime-time slot where he described Trump as a weak man pretending to be strong on issues of policy and leadership. In Arizona on a Zoom call Wednesday afternoon, Senator Mark Kelly touted the actions taken by the Biden-Harris administration that Democrats credit with a sharp decrease in border crossings.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MARK KELLY: Obviously, there's more work to be done. But Kamala Harris is clearly the person for this job. And, I mean, I know this - and I imagine many of you know this - that Donald Trump is not the person to solve this problem.
GILES: Kelly criticized Trump for torpedoing GOP support in Congress for a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year. Harris has promised to sign that bill if elected in November. Trump, meanwhile, was dismissive yesterday when asked about the decline in border crossings and called the border security bill a bad deal.
FADEL: Now, Trump isn't done with Arizona just yet. He'll hold a rally in the Phoenix suburbs at the same arena the Harris campaign rallied a week ago. And we hear there's word of a special guest who'll be in attendance.
GILES: Yeah, Trump wouldn't comment on who that might be at the border yesterday. But media reports suggest Robert F. Kennedy, who's been running a long-shot presidential campaign as an independent, is going to drop out of the race and endorse Trump. NPR has confirmed Kennedy filed paperwork necessary to withdraw his name from Arizona's presidential ballot. If Kennedy does bow out, it's not a given that his supporters will back Trump. But according to an NPR analysis of swing-state polls, Trump stands to gain an average of about one point in each of those states.
FADEL: That's NPR's Ben Giles. Thanks, Ben.
GILES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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