“Insane” is how some observers are describing Vice President Harris’s light campaign schedule — as her events are starting late in the day and as President Trump is making significantly more public appearances —  with mere days left until the election.

Ms. Harris has participated in only 61 events since September 1 compared to Trump’s 76 events, a New York Times tracker indicates, as Trump outpaces her in campaign events, press appearances, rallies, and fundraisers. Trump has had 66 press appearances compared to Ms. Harris’s 38 appearances.  

As Ms. Harris prepares for an event in Texas tonight focusing on abortion, a top issue for Democrats, the late start time — and lack of other public appearances on Friday — caught the attention of veteran political journalist, Mark Halperin, on his “The Morning Meeting” program, which broadcasts on YouTube and X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

“Her event with Beyonce and Willie Nelson and talking about abortion rights starts tonight at 9:30 eastern time, on a Friday night, up against the World Series,” Mr. Halperin said on Friday’s episode. “Damn, I have not seen anybody else comment on this, I think it’s insane. 9:30 on Friday night is when you do a document dump that you don’t want anybody to see.” 

A co-host of the show and Democratic political strategist, Dan Turrentine, suggested that the timing could be a way for the Harris campaign to appeal to a key Democratic demographic — young women without children — who would likely be awake and engaging on social media at that time. 

Still, it doesn’t explain why her official schedule doesn’t include more public events earlier in the day, such as meeting with young women, visiting a local college, or throwing roundtables, another co-host and former Trump White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, noted on the episode. It could lead Ms. Harris’s supporters to wonder “If the top of the ticket isn’t out there doing stuff why should I?” he said. Friday isn’t the first time this week that Ms. Harris’s public events for the day got off to a late start. 

“This is not the only day this week where she has started not just at 1:00 or 2:00, but 4:00, 6:00,” Mr. Turrentine said. Ms. Harris’s only other event on Friday is taping an interview with the Texas-based self-help guru Brené Brown, who has a large following of white women.

Trump, meanwhile, is spending Friday with an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan — who has an ethnically diverse male audience — a border security event in Texas, and an evening rally in the battleground state of Michigan. 

“President Trump has been running laps around Kamala Harris on the campaign trail and has sat down for nearly three times as many interviews as she has because her word salad non-answers are falling flat with voters across the country,” the Trump campaign’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, tells the Sun of the candidates’ campaign schedules. 

“By Election Day, President Trump will have gone 70+ days in a row with multiple campaign events from coast to coast — and between now and November 5, he will visit every battleground state at least once and is even expanding the traditional map,” a Trump campaign senior advisor, Brian Hughes, tells the Sun.

Trump put his opponent’s campaign schedule in the spotlight in recent days by calling Ms. Harris “lazy as hell” for taking time off on the campaign trail. 

Last week,  Ms. Harris mocked Trump for being “exhausted” and having to cancel appearances. Asked about her comments on an airport tarmac, Trump fired back that “she’s a loser”.

The Harris campaign did not respond to a request from the Sun for comment.
Meanwhile, new New York Times/Siena College polling shows that Ms. Harris and Trump are deadlocked, 48 percent to 48 percent, with the national popular vote. The poll shows a clear movement towards Trump since the last NYT poll, which had Ms. Harris ahead. Trump is currently slightly leading in all seven battleground states, RealClear’s polling averages indicate, although the candidates are within a 2.2 percentage point range of each other.