Photo: Jacquelyn Martin Associated Press Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Tuesday. Harris and her campaign are seeking to challenge the Republican Party’s defense of a central value in its rhetoric: freedom.
Aurélia End – Agence France-Presse in Chicago
Published at 1:33 p.m.
- United States
Savor the party's newfound “hope,” remember that in this crazy campaign against Donald Trump, nothing is won: Kamala Harris will solemnly accept the Democratic nomination on Thursday in Chicago.
The 59-year-old vice president, after electrifying her camp, wants to address all of America, according to a member of her campaign team, who requested anonymity.
“There is no second chance to make a good first impression,” notes political scientist Larry Sabato. “Voters have seen Kamala's style. Now they need Kamala's program.” »
His speech will come at the end of a euphoric, even frankly overexcited, convention, which attracted millions of television viewers every evening when the famous speakers took to the stage.
“When Kamala comes on stage, the room will go wild,” imagines Amanda Taylor, a delegate from Missouri we met Wednesday night. “I'm ready!”
Kamala Harris will use this audience to introduce herself to a country that doesn't necessarily know her very well, after nearly four years in the thankless position of vice president.
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Middle class
The Democrat, born to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, will talk about her middle-class childhood and her commitments as a former California prosecutor, according to the source already cited.
She will oppose her Republican rival, who says he alone is capable of stopping the country's “decline”, with a resolutely optimistic vision of the American destiny, according to her campaign team.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000The site FiveThirtyEight, which aggregates opinion polls, gave Kamala Harris about a three-point lead over Donald Trump on Wednesday in the intentions of voting at the national level.
This gap is in no way a guarantee of victory, 74 days before an election which will be played out, as in 2016 and 2020, in a handful of key states.
So much can happen between now and then: in four mind-boggling weeks, America has seen its current president, Joe Biden, abandon his candidacy, and its former president Donald Trump fall victim to an assassination attempt.
“Close election”
What will the impact be if, for example, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. throws in the towel and supports the 78-year-old billionaire?? According to American media, he is preparing for it.
“No matter how much incredible energy we have managed to generate in recent weeks, this will be a close election in a deeply divided country,” former President Barack Obama warned on Tuesday.
Among many Democratic delegates, the momentum is sweeping away uncertainties. “I have no doubt, none, that she's going to win,” Edwina Martin, 60, who came from New York, told AFP.
“Freedom”
In this battle, Kamala Harris and her campaign intend to challenge the Republican Party's defense of a central value of its rhetoric, freedom — in English, “Freedom” — like the title of the Beyoncé song that has become the vice president's campaign anthem.
“When Republicans talk about freedom, they're talking about the freedom for the government to invade your doctor's office, the freedom for corporations to pollute your air and your water,” attacked her running mate, Tim Wall.
“But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we talk about the freedom to have a better life” and “the freedom for your children to go to school without fear of being shot in the hallway,” the Minnesota governor said as he accepted the Democratic nomination.
Responding to this speech, Donald Trump called Tim Walz “incapable” Thursday morning on Fox News, repeating that his rival is a “crazy leftist” who wants to tip America into “communism.”
The 78-year-old billionaire once again attacked the Democrat on immigration, a subject at the heart of his campaign and which he is to address Thursday during a trip to Arizona, a state bordering Mexico.
The White House also denounced on Thursday the remarks of Donald Trump, who overnight designated Josh Shapiro as the “Jewish governor” of Pennsylvania. “It is anti-Semitic, dangerous and hurtful to attack a compatriot by pointing out, in a pejorative manner, his Jewish faith,” Herbie Ziskend, a spokesman for the Biden-Harris administration, told the press, believing that the Republican was reducing the Democratic governor to his Jewishness by accusing him of doing nothing for Israel.