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By Aila Slisco
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Vice President Kamala Harris is using "jiu-jitsu" against former President Donald Trump during the final stretch of her presidential campaign, according to veteran Democratic strategist David Axelrod.
Axelrod, the chief strategist for both of former President Barack Obama's successful presidential campaigns, said during a CNN appearance on Monday night that Harris was capitalizing on Trump doing a "terrible" job of closing out his bid to return to the White House.
"Donald Trump has had a terrible close to this campaign," Axelrod said. "Every single day he seems to take his campaign into straits that they don't want to be in. He's not delivering the message that the campaign is delivering on television in its ads that they think is their most effective message."
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"[Harris has] been very disciplined down the stretch," he continued. "She's delivered a very consistent message. And it's consistent with what she's had on TV... She's basically capitalizing on his negative energy, using jiu-jitsu against him. And I think it's been very effective."
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Axelrod wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on earlier on Monday that his experiences tell him that "when campaigns have momentum on the final weekend, it tends to carry through on Election Day."
While Axelrod did not explicitly say that the momentum was with Harris, favorable polls over the weekend suggested that momentum may be shifting away from the former president and toward the vice president.
When asked about Axelrod's remarks, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Newsweek the following: "Axelrod is correct that President Trump has all the momentum on the final weekend which will carry through on Election Day."
Newsweek reached out for comment to the Harris campaign via email on Monday night.
Trump has been facing backlash during the closing days of his campaign over comedian Tony Hinchcliffe calling Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage" during his Madison Square Garden rally.
The former president has also been criticized for often focusing on personal attacks and grievances against Harris during his final campaign rallies, some of which have been sparsely attended events taking place in critical battleground states.
Former Trump administration official Alyssa Farah Griffin, who has endorsed Harris, argued during a CNN appearance last week that Trump's closing message to voters was "disastrous" and could doom his chances for a second term.
"To the very slim minority of people who are still undecided in this race, to have this closing message at this state is disastrous," she said. "I couldn't have handcrafted, as someone who wants Donald Trump to lose, a worse closing pitch that you could give to undecided voters."
Update 11/4, 9:20 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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