This is how Donald Trump and Kamala Harris describe each other

The tone of the 2024 presidential campaign is in the spotlight after Republican candidate Donald Trump became the target of what the FBI called another apparent assassination attempt.

He and his running mate, JD Vance, have criticized their Democratic opponents for using inflammatory language. The Republican candidates and their supporters have also been criticized by Democrats for their rhetoric.

The mutual accusations have led to increased scrutiny of the language and insults used against the other side in both election campaigns.

Each of them has an active and aggressive presence on social media, reaching millions of Americans and often portraying their opponents in derogatory terms. Trump uses his Truth Social account to launch—or encourage—some of the most vitriolic attacks on Democrats.

Ultimately, though, candidates are primarily responsible for their own words. Here are nine quotes from interviews, speeches and campaign rallies this year that illustrate how both sides' political messages have—and haven't—changed over time.

In his first campaign speech in March, Trump addressed a crowd in Georgia for nearly two hours, delivering the kind of intense personal attacks that have been a staple of his speeches since he first ran for president in 2016.

In an apocalyptic speech full of personal insults against President Joe Biden, including making fun of his stutter, he said the influx of migrants across the southern border would lead to the looting of American cities and the mistreatment of their people.

Biden began his presidency with a promise of national unity, while trying not to focus on or even talk about “the former president,” as he called him.

But as it became increasingly clear that Trump would be the Republican nominee in 2024 – with a very real chance of retaking the White House – the president changed his rhetorical tone, delivering a series of speeches warning of an existential threat to the nation if Trump returned to power.

After his disastrous debate performance three months ago – and as he struggled to save his campaign – Biden told donors in a private phone call that it was “time to target Trump.”

A few days later, after Donald Trump was shot at a campaign rally, the president called his choice of words “a mistake” but rejected Republican accusations that he had incited violence.

A day after Trump narrowly escaped serious injury in an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, he told the Washington Examiner that he planned to strike a different tone in his speech at the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin later this week.

With him far ahead of Biden in the polls, the former president's path to the White House seemed clear. But a speech at the convention that began with a remembrance of the assassination attempt and some calls for unity quickly devolved into a more typical and light-hearted Trump speech, addressing perceived grievances.

The dynamics of the 2024 presidential campaign changed again shortly after the Republican convention, when Biden gave up his re-election bid and Vice President Kamala Harris stepped in, promising a different, “happy” message. Her first campaign speech as a candidate was not without attacks on the former president, but the dire warnings about a democracy at risk were absent.

Trump's new tone continued a full six days after his convention speech, when he attacked Harris at a rally in North Carolina, calling her “a radical left-wing madwoman who will destroy our country” and a “danger to democracy.” He accused Democrats of using the justice system as a weapon against him and said any criminal charges would be a badge of honor.

As the presidential campaign gathered momentum, the Democrats' attacks intensified. In her own nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Harris mentioned Trump 17 times, criticizing his behavior during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, his policies on abortion and tax cuts, his foreign policy positions, and his criminal record. She urged America to remember the “chaos and calamity” of the Trump years.

At their first and probably only debate in Philadelphia, Harris and Trump traded jabs and barbs. As he often does, Trump tried to turn the “threat to democracy” used by Biden against him into an attack on Harris. He called her a “radical left-liberal” and Marxist who was destroying America. He said she would be remembered as “the worst vice president in the history of our country.”

Harris spent much of the debate provoking Trump into angry, off-topic answers, mocking the size of crowds at his rallies, quoting his Republican critics and mocking the size of his inheritance.

Then, when Trump was angry, she said the American people don't want to point fingers anymore. That kind of strategy suits an electorate that, while expecting its candidates to stay on top, responds most strongly to negative messages.

A second apparent assassination attempt – this time on his Florida golf course – did not prompt Trump to return to his message of unity. While polls show the presidential election to be virtually neck and neck in just over six weeks, Trump has instead chosen to attack his Democratic opponents for what he sees as dangerous rhetoric – while attacking them with similar language.