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With the illuminated columns of the White House standing out against the night behind her, like a metaphor for the bright future she claims to embody, Kamala Harris promised Tuesday to write a “new chapter,” while delivering a harsh indictment of Donald Trump.
A week before what may be the most indecisive and tense election in U.S. history, the Democratic vice president painted the former Republican president in the darkest light, as a man “unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed by resentment and in search of limitless power.”
Everything in this highly anticipated speech was about contrast.
The place, already: tens of thousands of people — 75,000 according to his campaign team — gathered in Washington, where the Republican candidate had harangued his supporters on January 6, 2021, before they stormed the Capitol to try to prevent the certification of the election won by Joe Biden.
Photo: Jose Luis Magana Associated Press More than 75,000 people gathered in Washington to listen to Kamala Harris' speech.
The rhetoric, then: Kamala Harris tried to paint an optimistic and peaceful vision for the world's leading power, “big enough to hold all our dreams, strong enough to resist fractures and divisions, fearless enough to imagine a future full of promise.”
When Donald Trump projects a dark vision of a country in decline, according to him overrun by migrants, the vice president declared: “Let's fight for this great country, and in seven days, we have the power. Each of you has the power to turn the page and write the next chapter of the most extraordinary story ever told. »
This electoral campaign, full of unprecedented twists and turns, is taking place in an atmosphere of extreme tension and a dull fear of violence, while Donald Trump has been the target of two assassination attempts.
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For the vice president's supporters, this Washington meeting is “a way to purge what happened on January 6” 2021, confides Mitzi Maxwell, 69, who came from Florida with her mother in search of “love, passion and enthusiasm.” »
She has already voted, like more than 50 million Americans who submitted their ballots by mail or by voting early, without waiting for November 5.
In 2020, some 160 million people in total voted.
The vice president, who arrived late in the race after Joe Biden withdrew in the summer, is counting on this solemn address to relaunch herself, she whom Americans do not yet know very well, and whom many associate with the unpopular current president.
Kamala Harris assured that in the event of victory, she would pursue a “different” policy, focusing on the “cost of living,” with assistance with housing and access to health, in particular.
She also promised to restore federal protection of the right to abortion, which was gutted in 2022 by the Supreme Court, which became very conservative after Donald Trump appointed judges.
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Equal Game
The two candidates, who are complete opposites, are on a par in the polls, particularly in the seven decisive states that the 60-year-old Democratic candidate and her rival are tirelessly crisscrossing.
It was in one of these that the former president also went on Tuesday: Pennsylvania. At 78, Donald Trump is running for the White House for the third time.
The city is home to a large Puerto Rican community, many of whom have expressed outrage since a comedian compared Puerto Rico to a “floating island of garbage” this weekend at a Trump rally in New York.
Her rival is counting on the outcry over Puerto Rico to pick up a few precious votes in an indirect election that could be decided by a hair in one of the key states: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.
President Joe Biden responded to the controversy Tuesday, saying the “only trash” he saw “floating around” were Donald Trump “supporters,” drawing the ire of Republicans. The Democrat later assured X that he was actually talking about the comedian’s “rhetoric,” and said of the former president: “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable.” »
In Pennsylvania, the Republican candidate resumed his violent criticism of immigration on Tuesday, repeating that the United States had become a “garbage dump” because of an influx of migrants.
Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson Associated Press Donald Trump during a roundtable in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, on October 29, 2024
And he said: “Nobody can want that. How do you win an election with that? ? You can only win by cheating, with this situation.” Further fueling fears of a repeat of the chaos of four years ago.