Harris speaks at black church, Trump again embraces violent rhetoric

LITITZ, Pennsylvania/DETROIT, North Carolina - Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris made her closing pitch for the US presidency at a historically black church in the battleground state of Michigan on Nov 3 while her Republican rival Donald Trump embraced violent rhetoric at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Former president Trump made a last pitch for support in Pennsylvania, the largest of the seven states expected to decide this week’s US presidential election, while Vice-President Harris focused her energy on Michigan.

Opinion polls show the pair locked in a tight race, with Ms Harris, 60,

bolstered by strong support among women voters

whileTrump, 78, gains ground with Hispanic voters, particularly men.

Voters overall view both candidates unfavourably, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, but that so far has not dissuaded them from casting ballots.

More than 78 million Americans have already done so ahead of the Nov 5 election day, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab. The figure is approaching half the total 160 million votes cast in 2020, which saw the highest US voter turnout in more than a century.

North Carolina, another swing state, reported setting a record when its early-vote period ended on Nov 2.

Control of the US Congress is also up for grabs on Nov 5, with Republicans favoured to capture a majority in the Senate while Democrats are seen as having an even chance of flipping Republicans’ narrow majority in the House of Representatives.

Presidents whose parties have not controlled both chambers have struggled to pass major new legislation over the past decade.

“In just two days we have the power to decide the fate of our nation for generations to come,” Ms Harris told parishioners at Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ in Detroit. “We must act. It’s not enough to only pray; not enough to just talk.”

Later in a rally in East Lansing, Michigan, she addressed the state’s 200,000 Arab Americans, starting her speech with a nod to civilian victims of Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

“This year has been difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon, it is devastating. And as president, I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza,” Ms Harris said to applause.

Trump visited Dearborn, Michigan, the heart of the Arab American community, on Nov 1 and vowed to end the conflict in the Middle East, without saying how.

Trump, at his first of three rallies on Nov 3, frequently abandoned his teleprompter with off-the-cuff remarks in which he denounced opinion polls showing movement for Ms Harris. He referred to the Democrats as a “demonic party”, ridiculed Democratic President Joe Biden and talked about the high price of apples.

“Here’s all you need to know: Kamala broke it and we’re going to fix it,” said Trump, beginning his rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, an hour late and his voice raspy.

In a speech where he repeatedly criticised the election process, he added: “It’s a damn shame, and I’m the only one who talks about it because everyone is damn afraid to talk about it.”

Trump, who survived an assassination attempt in July when a gunman’s bullet grazed his ear in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Nov 3 also complained to supporters about gaps in the bulletproof glass surrounding him as he spoke and mused that an assassin would have to shoot through the news media to get him.

“To get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news, and I don’t mind that so much,” said Trump, who has long criticised the media and sought to rile public sentiment against it.

Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung issued a statement saying Trump was looking out for the media’s safety.

“The president’s statement about protective glass placement has nothing to do with the media being harmed, or anything else. It was about threats against him that were spurred on by dangerous rhetoric from Democrats

Last week, Trump suggested prominent Republican and vocal Trump critic Liz Cheney should face gunfire in combat over her hawkish foreign policy, leading an Arizona prosecutor to open an investigation.

He later spoke in Kinston, North Carolina, and was due to end his day with an evening rally in Macon, Georgia.

Those two states are the second-biggest prizes up for grabs on Nov 5, with each holding 16 of the 270 votes a candidate needs to win in the state-by-state Electoral College to secure the presidency. Pennsylvania offers 19 electors.

Non-partisan US election analysts reckon Ms Harris would need to win about 45 electoral votes in the seven swing states to win the White House, while Trump would need about 51, when accounting for the states they are forecast to win easily.

‘I shouldn’t have left’

Near the end of his Pennsylvania speech, Trump – whose false claims that his 2020 loss was the result of fraud inspired his

supporters’ Jan 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol

– mused that he would have preferred not to have handed over power.

“We had the safest border in the history of our country the day that I left. I shouldn’t have left. I mean, honestly, because we did so, we did so well,” he said.

Trump said during his remarks that election results should be announced on election night, despite warnings by officials in multiple states that it could take days to ascertain the final outcome.

Democrats say they have plans in place should Trump try to prematurely claim victory this time.

Ms Harris told reporters on Nov 3 that she trusts the US election system.

“We have, and support, free and fair elections in our country. We did in 2020 – he lost,” she said. “And the systems that are in place for this election in 2024 have integrity.”

Harris in Michigan push

After her Detroit appearance – the largest majority-black US city, Ms Harris was headed to East Lansing, Michigan, a college town in an industrial state that is viewed as a must-win for the Democrats.

She faces scepticism from some of the state’s 200,000 Arab Americans who are frustrated that Ms Harris has not done more to help end the war in Gaza and scale back aid to Israel.

Ms Samah Noureddine, 44, a Lebanese American from Grosse Ile, a town near Detroit, said she voted for Mr Biden in 2020 but was casting a ballot for Ms Jill Stein of the Green Party this year.

“I’m upset because Harris is funding the genocide, and if we get Trump, we’re going to suffer too,” she said. “I’m sick of both of them.”

Cost of living

In the campaign’s final days, Ms Harris has sought to convince voters that she will bring down the cost of living, a top concern after several years of high inflation. She has also portrayed Trump as dangerous and erratic and urged Americans to move on from his divisive approach to politics.

“We have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other. We’re done with that,” she said in Charlotte on Nov 2.

Trump has argued that Ms Harris should be held responsible for rising prices and the high levels of immigration of the past several years, which he has portrayed as an existential threat to the country.

The stakes are high, with Ms Harris and Trump having starkly different views of the economy, the role of government in American life and the role of the US in the world.

One illustration of that came from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a Trump supporter and opponent of military aid to Ukraine as it fights off a Russian invasion. Mr Orban said Europe will need to rethink its support of Ukraine if Trump wins.

Trump’s public comments have suggested that he could seek to wind down US aid for Ukraine if he wins on Nov 5. REUTERS