Last Update:02 November 2024 20:41 IST

Harris and Trump enter the final weekend of the most tense US presidential campaign in modern times with volatile state rallies that will test their endurance

The Democratic presidential candidate is Vice President Kamala Harris and the Republican presidential candidate is former President Donald Trump. (AP photo)

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump enter the final weekend of the most tense US presidential campaign in modern times with volatile state rallies that will test their endurance and ability to persuade the nation’s last undecided voters.

Harris, who is bidding to become the nation’s first female president, will use rallies in Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan to convey the message to the public that Trump is a threat to US democracy.

Trump, who sought a sensational return to the White House after defeat in 2020 and then became the first presidential candidate to be convicted of crimes, is promising a radical right-wing transformation in government and aggressive trade wars to support his “America first” policy.

In an interview with Fox News on Saturday morning, Trump took a harsh look at the state of the economy under the Biden-Harris administration, calling the disappointing jobs numbers released Friday “a gift to me.”

The candidates’ frenzied schedules will continue through Monday, culminating in late-night rallies in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for Trump and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for Harris.

Election day is Tuesday, but Americans have been voting early for weeks and more than 72 million ballots have already been cast; That includes a record four million in Georgia, where Democrats are pulling out all the stops to keep the state in their column.

Opinion polls continue to show a tied race, particularly in the seven battleground states that will determine the outcome in the U.S. Electoral College system; The Republican businessman and his 60-year-old Democratic rival are fighting an uphill battle to wrest even a shred of support. each other’s camps.

Harris, now President Joe Biden’s vice president, is doing this by appealing to centrist voters and pushing her base to the polls in an effort to get a solid ground game and get out the vote.

Thousands of women were expected to demonstrate in cities across the country on Saturday in support of Harris and abortion rights under the theme “We Won’t Go Back.”

But as Trump tries to appeal to female voters across parties using issues such as abortion and healthcare, he lashed out at a Democratic TV ad that showed the wives of his supporters secretly voting for Harris.

“Can you imagine a wife not telling her husband who she voted for?” she told Fox News on Saturday morning. he asked.

Harris, who previously slammed Trump for saying he would protect women “whether they like it or not”, encouraged voters to “finally turn the page” on the former president.

“He’s increasingly unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and the man has unchecked power,” Little Chute told supporters in Wisconsin on Friday.

‘The excitement of my life’

Trump, meanwhile, has doubled down on his already extreme rhetoric in hopes of reaching a mass audience by mobilizing his loyal base.

“Kamala’s last message to America is that she hates you,” Trump said Friday night in Warren, Michigan, calling the economy under Biden and Harris a disaster, even though experts say the overall economy is strong.

He also warned that a “1929-style economic depression” would occur if Harris was elected. Speaking on Fox Saturday, Trump called the weak employment data released Friday the “worst jobs numbers yet,” but analysts said those figures were a temporary blip.

Citing his hawkish views on foreign policy, Trump had previously created the image of former Republican representative Liz Cheney, who turned Harris supporter, being shot.

“He is a radical war hawk. Let’s put him in there with a nine-barreled rifle, okay? “Let’s see how he feels about it when the guns are pointed in his face,” Trump said.

Meanwhile, Harris, the nation’s first Black and first Asian-American vice president, sought to leverage the power of stars such as Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen in the final days of the campaign.

Pop icon Jennifer Lopez of Puerto Rican heritage joined Harris onstage Thursday amid a firestorm triggered by Trump’s rally warm-up speaker calling the U.S. territory a “floating island of garbage.”

With the election just days away and Trump refusing to say whether he would accept the results if he loses, businesses in the capital Washington began shuttering storefronts and city officials warned of a “fluid, unpredictable security environment” in the days after the election. Polls are closing.

Trump is already accused of fraud and fraud in swing states like Pennsylvania, setting the stage for greater unrest after violence broke out at the U.S. Capitol following the 2020 election.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)

Location :

Washington DC, United States (USA)