Harris tries to rally moderate Republicans, Trump persists in lying about 2020 election

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris appeared Thursday with Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, who called on Americans to choose the side of “truth” over Donald Trump, who continues to push the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

In the key state of Wisconsin (northeast), the daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney played the role of luxury spokesperson for Kamala Harris in Ripon, where the Republican Party was founded in 1854.

“I ask you to stand in the truth, to reject the depraved cruelty of Donald Trump. And I ask you instead to help us elect Kamala Harris to the presidency,” declared Mrs. Cheney, to cheers.

Mrs. Harris, who is leading a centrist campaign aimed at moderates, took the opportunity to salute this figure of the American right as a “true patriot.”

She also praised the “conviction to tell the truth” of this Republican, a key figure in the commission investigating the invasion of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 by supporters of Mr. Trump.

With 33 days to go before the November election, the vice president and Democratic candidate hopes that this kind of support taken from the conservative camp can influence the few remaining undecided voters.

Donald Trump “irresponsibly tramples on our democratic values,” she attacked, highlighting the risks of his possible return to power. “He refused to accept the will of the people and the results of an election that was free and fair.”

– Violent rhetoric –

This duel between the two women came the day after the courts published new evidence against the former president.

“With accomplices acting in their private capacities, (Donald Trump) launched a series of increasingly desperate attempts to overturn the outcome of the election,” the special counsel investigating the federal case said Wednesday.

At a rally Thursday in Michigan, another key manufacturing state in the “Rust Belt,” Mr. Trump continued to cling to the lies he has been feeding for four years.

Donald Trump in Saginaw, Michigan, on October 3, 2024 © AFP – Jim WATSON

“We won in 2020. The election was rigged,” he assured, against all evidence.

The billionaire once again publicly insulted Ms. Harris, a Democrat, calling her “crazy” and using the pronoun “he” several times to refer to her.

The tribune knows that the election will probably be decided by a few tens of thousands of votes, those of voters still undecided in the famous “swing states.” But he is betting that it is not a moderate speech, but his ever more violent rhetoric that will seduce them.

“If you want your country to descend into hell (…) vote for Kamala,” the 78-year-old candidate declared, promising to be the “champion” of the workers.

– Melania detonates –

The Republican boasted about his plans for heavy import taxes, supposed to protect American industries, and continued his violent attacks on immigration.

Without proof, he accused President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris of squandering funds intended for victims of natural disasters, while Hurricane Helene has just ravaged regions of the south-east of the United States, for the benefit of illegal immigrants who would receive “vouchers” and would be housed “in luxury hotels”.

During his rally, however, he did not mention the forthcoming memoirs of his wife Melania Trump, in which she firmly supports the right to abortion.

Former First Lady of the United States Melania Trump in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 18, 2024 © AFP – Patrick T. Fallon

“Why would anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her body?”, wonders the former First Lady, according to the extracts revealed by the Guardian.

The book is a hit and has already delighted Kamala Harris' campaign team, which has made the issue of reproductive rights a central theme. The Democrat accuses Mr. Trump of being the architect of the decline in abortion rights in the United States.

The Republican candidate has often congratulated himself on having appointed three conservative judges to the Supreme Court, which ended the constitutional guarantee of abortion after his term.

On Fox News, he quickly dismissed his apparent disagreement with his wife. “We talked about it and I told him: 'You have to write what you believe in, I'm not going to tell you what to do',” Mr. Trump said on the conservative channel.

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