Prior to President Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race in July, his campaign made Trump’s conduct and the alleged “threat to democracy” he posed as their main argument, but that strategy was paused after the attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Democrats and Republicans had called for the political temperature to be cooled, with Biden, then still the presumptive Democratic nominee, leading the charge.

“I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics and to remember, while we may disagree, we are not enemies. We’re neighbors. We’re friends, coworkers, citizens. And, most importantly, we are fellow Americans. And we must stand together,” Biden said during a speech to the country on July 14. “Yesterday’s shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are, how we go forward from here.”

Democrats had ramped up their criticism of Trump as Biden began to crater in the polls following a disastrous debate performance in June. Biden has said that he told donors that Trump should be put in the “bullseye,” and the left-wing the New Republic blended a picture of Trump as Adolf Hitler on its cover days before the assassination attempt. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), a Trump ally, and some other Republicans blamed the attempt on Trump’s life on the fiery rhetoric spurred on by Democrats.

Democrats largely lowered the rhetorical temperature away from making the “threat to democracy” argument about Trump, with Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign touting a message of “we are not going back” and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), labeling Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), as “weird.”

But in the closing weeks of the election, the comparisons to Hitler and “threat to democracy” attacks on Trump have been front and center within the Harris campaign.

A report from the Atlantic claimed that Trump had said he wanted generals like Hitler had, claims which have been flatly denied by the Trump campaign. Harris seized on the report, calling an impromptu press conference from the vice president’s residence on Wednesday to denounce the alleged remarks.

“In just the past week, Donald Trump has repeatedly called his fellow Americans the enemy from within and even said that he would use the United States military to go after American citizens,” Harris said. “Let’s be clear about who he considers to be the enemy from within — anyone who refuses to bend a knee or dares to criticize him would qualify.”

During a CNN town hall on Wednesday, Harris said she believes that Trump is a “fascist.” She is reportedly set to make her closing pitch to voters with a speech on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., which will include mentions of Trump’s alleged “threat to democracy.”

Trump has called the shift in tone from Harris’s campaign as being indicative of Harris believing she is losing to him, even throwing the “threat to democracy” claim back at her.

“Comrade Kamala Harris sees that she is losing, and losing badly, especially after stealing the Race from Crooked Joe Biden, so now she is increasingly raising her rhetoric, going so far as to call me Adolf Hitler, and anything else that comes to her warped mind. She is a Threat to Democracy, and not fit to be President of the United States — And her Polling so indicates!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Polling has indicated that the race is a toss-up, but in the RealClearPolitics polling average, Trump has a narrow lead in each of the key battleground states and is closing the gap on the national polling average.

Other Trump allies, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have warned that the Harris campaign’s shift in messaging could cause trouble.

“This is the kind of inflammatory poison that divides our nation and inspires assassins,” Kennedy said in a post on X in response to Harris’s impromptu press conference.

While the Harris campaign has leaned into its pitch targeting Trump, former President Barack Obama, a crucial campaign surrogate for Harris, questioned at a rally why politics has become “so bitter.”

“I don’t understand how we got so toxic and just so divided and so bitter,” Obama said earlier this week.