Harris and Trump push for every vote with just 14 days to go
Published: 04:10 PM,Oct 22,2024 | EDITED : 08:10 PM,Oct 22,2024
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, in North Carolina. — AFP
WASHINGTON: One of the tightest US election races of modern times enters its final, two-week stretch on October 22, 2024, with Republican Donald Trump making a special pitch to Latino voters as Democratic rival Kamala Harris sits down for a national network interview. Both campaigns are pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into a final push for any wavering, undecided voters who could tilt the balance in their favour, with polls consistently showing their candidates in a dead heat ahead of Election Day. Whatever the outcome, Americans will make history on November 5: they will either elect the first woman president in the world's leading superpower or they will put the first convicted felon into the White House.
Polls appear to be giving Trump, who at 78 is the oldest nominee from a major party in US history, a slight edge recently — but all within the margin of error, making them little comfort for a former president making his third consecutive White House run. Vice-President Harris — who only threw herself into the race in July when President Joe Biden made the stunning decision to drop out and endorse her instead — will give a television interview to NBC on Tuesday. The 60-year-old, who celebrated her birthday over the weekend, will also deploy one of her party's most popular emissaries back into the field: Barack Obama. The former Democratic president will hold a series of rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan, two of the seven most hotly contested swing states in the election which, under the US system of indirect universal suffrage, are likely to decide the outcome.
Trump, whose anti-migrant rhetoric is becoming coarser and more extreme by the day, will take part in a roundtable discussion with Latino voters at one of his Florida properties. The Republican will then fly to North Carolina, another swing state where he also campaigned on Monday, for an event that is supposed to be devoted to the economy. He rarely sticks to the topic at his rallies, however — instead, he has been criticised for a tumultuous few weeks that have featured rambling monologues and threats about weaponising the military against Democrats who he calls 'the enemy from within.' The Harris campaign has begun to hammer at his mental and physical fitness to serve. But a tide of MAGA-capped supporters continue to flock to his rallies, convinced that he is the victim of political persecution, or that Democrats are instigating threats against him. — AFP
Polls appear to be giving Trump, who at 78 is the oldest nominee from a major party in US history, a slight edge recently — but all within the margin of error, making them little comfort for a former president making his third consecutive White House run. Vice-President Harris — who only threw herself into the race in July when President Joe Biden made the stunning decision to drop out and endorse her instead — will give a television interview to NBC on Tuesday. The 60-year-old, who celebrated her birthday over the weekend, will also deploy one of her party's most popular emissaries back into the field: Barack Obama. The former Democratic president will hold a series of rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan, two of the seven most hotly contested swing states in the election which, under the US system of indirect universal suffrage, are likely to decide the outcome.
Trump, whose anti-migrant rhetoric is becoming coarser and more extreme by the day, will take part in a roundtable discussion with Latino voters at one of his Florida properties. The Republican will then fly to North Carolina, another swing state where he also campaigned on Monday, for an event that is supposed to be devoted to the economy. He rarely sticks to the topic at his rallies, however — instead, he has been criticised for a tumultuous few weeks that have featured rambling monologues and threats about weaponising the military against Democrats who he calls 'the enemy from within.' The Harris campaign has begun to hammer at his mental and physical fitness to serve. But a tide of MAGA-capped supporters continue to flock to his rallies, convinced that he is the victim of political persecution, or that Democrats are instigating threats against him. — AFP