Harris and Trump jostle for position in key states less than a week before D-Day

Kamala Harris is increasing the miles and meetings in the "swing states" on Wednesday , these decisive states for the American presidential election, the day after her giant meeting at Washington having served as "final indictment" against Donald Trump.

The former Republican president is a man “unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed by resentment and in search of limitless power,” accused the vice president and former prosecutor in a very solemn speech given on the esplanade in front of the White House.

In front of an audience of more than 75,000 people according to her campaign team, the Democratic candidate thundered that it was “time to turn the page” on Trump for the United States.

On Wednesday, Kamala Harris will first go to Raleigh, North Carolina, a state that has not voted Democrat since Barack Obama in 2008 but in which the vice president has high hopes.

A sign of the contested nature of this southeastern state, Donald Trump will be there the same day, for a rally a little less than 100 km from his rival.

– On the trail –

Six days before the election, the Democrat and the Republican seem to be following each other in the seven “swing states”: they are also both going to Wisconsin on Wednesday, a state in the Great Lakes region more than 1,200 km from North Carolina.

In which states did the American presidential candidates campaign the most ? © AFP – Corin FAIFE, Sabrina BLANCHARD

For his rally in Green Bay, Donald Trump will be joined on stage by Brett Favre, former star of the local professional American football team.

The former Packers quarterback is not exempt from controversy, having notably been accused of embezzling public funds in his native Mississippi.

Kamala Harris will be in the large university town of Madison, before taking the plane back to Pennsylvania, considered the jackpot of the key states to win.

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Crossing the country, but especially the pivotal states, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are sparing no effort to convince the few voters still undecided for this election, which promises to be one of the closest in American history.

US Vice President Kamala Harris gives a speech outside the White House in Washington, DC, on October 29, 2024 © AFP – Brendan SMIALOWSKI

According to poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight, the two candidates are neck and neck.

More than 50 million people have already voted early or by mail. In 2020, some 160 million Americans in total voted.

– Puerto Rican fallout –

The Republican campaign team is still trying to limit the damage after a rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York during which a comedian called Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory in the Caribbean, a “floating island of garbage.”

A Puerto Rican flag is waved during a rally given by former US President Barack Obama for Kamala Harris in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 28, 2024 © AFP – Matthew Hatcher

The Puerto Rican diaspora is particularly present in the states of New York and Florida, but could be especially important in Pennsylvania, where a Donald Trump rally saw two Puerto Rican speakers speak on stage Tuesday night.

While Donald Trump has distanced himself from Tony Hinchcliffe's comments, saying in an interview with Fox News that the comedian should not have been on stage, the fallout remains unclear.

“I was going to vote Republican and it made me look more closely at Harris' project,” Javier Torres Martinez, a 45-year-old Puerto Rican living near Miami, Florida. “Before I was 100% convinced to vote for Trump and now I am 100% motivated to go vote for Kamala Harris.”

Joe Biden, however, complicated the situation Tuesday night. At issue? A barb launched in response to Tony Hinchcliffe's insult and in which he apparently attacks Donald Trump's supporters.

“The only garbage I see floating around here are his supporters,” declared the Democratic president, drawing criticism from the Republican camp.

Donald Trump's campaign team immediately called on Kamala Harris “to repudiate the outrageous insult” uttered by Joe Biden.

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