Despite an enormous fundraising advantage, a rigged presidential debate and overwhelmingly positive media coverage, Vice President Kamala Harris is still in a virtual tie with her challenger, former President Donald Trump.

According to the latest Real Clear Politics average of national polls, Harris leads Trump by only 2.2%. At this point in his last two campaigns, Trump was further behind his Democratic opponents. In 2016, he trailed Hillary Clinton by 2.6% and in 2020, Joe Biden led by 6.6%.

Additionally, Harris has the support of a multitude of Hollywood stars, the endorsement of pop superstar Taylor Swift and just received a televised “love fest” from media icon Oprah Winfrey. Of course, the Vice President is avoiding all reporters who will ask tough questions and has not held any news conferences since her coronation as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

Harris hopes to employ her version of the “Biden basement” strategy until Election Day, while the left-wing media refuses to hold her accountable.

In contrast, Trump continues to hold monster rallies, speaking behind bulletproof glass. The assassination attempts have not deterred him from outdoor events or interacting with his enthusiastic supporters.

Donald Trump is truly the “people’s candidate.” While Kamala Harris and Democrats ludicrously claim that Trump only wants to enrich himself and his billionaire friends, his real interest is in helping average Americans.

His ideas such as “no tax on tips,” “no tax on overtime,” and “no tax on Social Security” are designed to help struggling Americans deal with the pain of Biden’s failed economic policies. Despite the recent easing of interest rates and inflation, Americans have endured four years of economic agony. Just to survive, many Americans have been forced to withdraw money from their savings account or increase charges on their credit cards.

Harris hopes the decline in interest rates and inflation will encourage Americans to forget about the misery of the last four years. Yet, this strategy is risky because the last four years have been so economically painful. As a result, Harris is employing her “Trump card,” and will try to scare Americans about her Republican challenger.

Despite the Trump assassination attempts, Harris and Democratic Party leaders continue to engage in dangerous rhetoric and tell voters that he is a “threat to Democracy.”

This week, her hyperbolic message was bolstered by an endorsement from 741 “former high-ranking national security officials.” This includes 15 “four-star generals” and 10 former cabinet secretaries.

These officials include retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Michael Smith, who told The Hill that Harris “has all the leadership qualities needed to be a strong commander in chief. She’s prepared. She’s strategic…. We saw as much during the debate.”

Really, what debate did Admiral Smith watch? Did he see the one that featured Harris continually lying about Trump, spouting meaningless word salads or memorized lines?

Obviously, Smith has a biased view of Donald Trump, declaring that he has “a scary authoritarian streak.” What is ludicrous about his claim is that it is the opposite of what Trump did as President.

Trump did not try to impose unconstitutional COVID vaccine mandates on Americans or ignore Supreme Court rulings about his student loan policies, but Joe Biden did.

As President, Trump delivered peace and prosperity and started to bring home our troops while securing our broken southern border. After receiving no help from Congress or the federal bureaucracy, Trump did act on his own and built 458 miles of border wall. The result was not an infringement on the rights of Americans, but the protection of Americans through augmented border security.

The Deep State, including these “former high-ranking national security officials,” hated Trump’s policies. These individuals are invested in globalism, open borders, ever-growing government control over individuals, limiting constitutional rights and endless wars.

Trump simply wants to “Make America Great Again,” and the Deep State, including powerful actors in our bureaucracy and elitists from both parties, are fundamentally opposed to any policies that will place the interests of the American people first.

In their letter, Admiral Smith and the other Deep State officials made the asinine claim that it was an “endorsement of freedom.” How does the candidate ranked as the most liberal U.S. Senator enhance freedom?

In her career, Harris has expressed support for banning assault weapons, reparations, rights for undocumented immigrants such as taxpayer funded transgender surgeries, banning fracking, abolishing private health insurance, massive tax increases, and radical climate change policies.

Her policies are the antithesis of “freedom,” but the Deep State is driven by their hatred of Donald Trump more than anything. It also explains why more than 100“former GOP national security officials” also endorsed this left-wing Democrat. Furthermore, Harris picked up the support of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY), both Trump haters.

These types of endorsements will continue through Election Day. For example, last week, the National Treasury Employees Union, including Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents, endorsed Harris. In the news release announcing the endorsement, the union praised Harris for delivering “agency budgets that provide federal employees with additional staffing and resources, including significant new investments to rebuild the IRS under the Inflation Reduction Act.”

This expensive legislation did not reduce inflation, but accelerated it, while also adding $80 billion and 87,000 agents to the IRS. It gets even worse, according to Jason Chaffetz, former U.S. Representative (R-UT) and Fox News contributor.

In an online column, he wrote, “the Biden-Harris administration’s 2025 budget proposal calls for an additional $104 billion for the IRS. That’s eight times the annual budget, just two years after Congress appropriated an amount that was seven times the agency’s annual budget. What is going on here?”

It is clear Congressman, the Deep State wants to take more money from Americans to grow their bureaucracy and expand their assault on our freedom. Their candidate, Kamala Harris, fully supports this mission. Americans who oppose this insidious agenda have one choice, vote for Donald Trump.

Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award-winning program, “Ringside Politics,” airs Saturdays from Noon until 1 p.m. CT nationally on Real America’s Voice TV Network & AmericasVoice.News and weekdays from 7-9 a.m. & 6-7 p.m. CT on WGSO 990-AM & Wgso.com. He is a political columnist, the author of America’s Last Chance and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and on Crouere.net. For more information, email him at jcrouere@gmail.com.