Harris and Trump continue their campaigns, still neck and neck in the polls

Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski/Mandel Ngan Agence France-Presse Former US President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris continue their respective campaigns.

Camille Camdessus – Agence France-Presse and Aurélia End – Agence France-Presse in Washington

Posted at 10:11 AM Updated at 7:11 PM

• United States

Kamala Harris, determined to dramatize the stakes of the election in the final stretch, will be surrounded on Thursday in Georgia by Barack Obama and the singer Bruce Springsteen, for her return to this key state in the south-east of the United States.

Faced with Donald Trump, whom she publicly described as a “fascist” on Wednesday, the Democratic vice-president has decided to bet everything on defending democracy before November 5, at a time when no poll has managed to separate the Democratic candidate and the former Republican president.

His Republican rival is heading to the southwest, to Arizona, another state that will be decisive in this election that is being watched by the entire world.

The Republican, in his own way, also wants to dramatize the stakes of the election, by presenting himself as a bulwark against the supposed decline of the world's leading power.

In an interview on Thursday, he promised that if he won, he would fire “in a matter of seconds” a special prosecutor charged with investigating his role in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The Republican, who has been rude to his allies during his term, also compared the EU to a “mini-China” in terms of trade, due to the lack of opportunities, according to him, for American products on the market European.

“You have a choice between Donald Trump stewing in the Oval Office, plotting revenge, writing a list of his enemies, or what I will do, which is [write] a list of things to do” for the country, his Democratic opponent said in an exchange with the press.

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Both candidates are focusing their efforts on the seven key states, in which neither has managed to widen the gap beyond the margin of error: Georgia and Arizona, therefore, but also Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Kamala Harris has not been able to count on the excitement of her surprise entry into the campaign in July, after the withdrawal of President Joe Biden, and facing a Donald Trump whose base remains unfailingly loyal.

On Thursday, she is banking on a political giant and a music star to regain momentum in a contested state where some 2 million people have already voted early.

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“Absolute power”

The 60-year-old Democratic candidate will be on stage for the first time with former President Barack Obama, who has already worked solo several times for the woman who could become the first black woman president.

On Tuesday in Detroit, he had portrayed Donald Trump as a danger to the very cohesion of the country: “one of the most disturbing things about this election, about Trump's trajectory in politics, is that many of us, including good people, people we know, suddenly seem ready to give up our values.”

On a more festive note, before an election that America and the world are waiting for with bated breath, Bruce Springsteen will sing on Thursday for the Democratic candidate.

According to the American press, on Friday, Beyonce will perform during a campaign rally for Kamala Harris in Texas, a Republican state where the Democratic candidate intends to denounce abortion bans.

Rhythm unbridled

Donald Trump, who will be the oldest president to be sworn in if elected, is also continuing his frantic pace of campaign rallies across the country.

The 78-year-old candidate is expected in Arizona, where he is supposed to talk about the housing crisis, although the Republican has been known to abandon his teleprompter for more impromptu, or even downright rambling, remarks.

He is then due to fly to Las Vegas, where he is scheduled to address an association of ultra-conservative youth in the early evening.

Hordes of supporters in red caps continue to flock to his campaign rallies, firmly convinced that their champion—who was convicted of criminal charges in late May and the target of two assassination attempts—is the victim of a vast conspiracy political persecution.

They come to listen to increasingly aggressive rhetoric, including personal attacks on Kamala Harris and threats against migrants or the “enemy within” — a vague category into which the former president lumps all his political opponents.