Trump struggles to keep media spotlight in battle with Harris

Las Vegas (Reuters): Donald Trump, touting plans on taxes and health, tried on Friday to turn the page on a week in which he was overshadowed by Kamala Harris and struggled to focus on policy issues instead of personal attacks on his opponent in the U.S. presidential race.

From a lectern at a Mexican restaurant in Las Vegas, the Republican candidate spoke about his plan to eliminate taxes on tips to waiters and other service employees. He discussed his campaign's efforts to court Hispanic voters in Nevada, a battleground state that could help determine the Nov. 5 election, and nationwide.

The tax proposal, a pillar of Trump's economic agenda, is the kind of issue his advisers have been pressing him to focus on, rather than his frequent personal attacks against Vice President Harris' looks, Black and Indian heritage and intelligence, warning they could turn off the moderate voters he needs to win.

At an event in Arizona later, the former president repeated his tax pledge, while promising to set up a commission to investigate presidential assassination attempts. He also said he would install a panel to investigate "an increase in chronic health problems and childhood diseases."

Both proposals are apparent concessions to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who endorsed Trump at the event after dropping out of the race.

Trump's comments come one day after Harris accepted the Democratic Party's presidential nomination with a muscular speech that laid down broad foreign policy principles and sharp contrasts with Trump with 11 weeks left until Election Day.