Trump campaigns in key state, Harris prepares for debate

Photo: Scott Olson Getty Images via Agence France-Presse Supporters begin arriving for a campaign event with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Mosinee, Wisconsin, a swing state where Democrats are slightly ahead according to polls.

Alex Wroblewski – Agence France-Presse

Published at 17:17

• United States

Campaigning Saturday in the contested state of Wisconsin, Donald Trump renewed his virulent attacks on his presidential rival Kamala Harris, three days before their big televised duel for which the Democratic candidate is preparing in Pennsylvania, another key state.

In front of a crowd of supporters gathered in Mosinee, a small town in the heart of this northern state, the former President of the United States delivered, as usual, a dark, sometimes apocalyptic speech on an America ruled by a left-wing dictatorship in his eyes, without dwelling on his own program.

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Without supporting his assertions, he notably accused “the Harris-Biden regime” of having “imported murderers, child predators and serial rapists from all over the world, while instrumentalizing the judicial authority to lock up its political opponents here.”

With a red “Make America Great Again” cap on his head, the former president (2017-2021), 78, also attacked Kamala Harris on the economy, particularly on inflation during the Biden mandate. A subject that remains crucial for voters and slightly favors the Republican according to the polls.

Donald Trump, who presents himself as the champion of Americans who have been downgraded and abandoned by the political class, won the state of Wisconsin in 2016, but Joe Biden narrowly beat him there in 2020.

“They are ruining your lives,” he attacked, also predicting, in terms of foreign policy, that “Israel will no longer exist” if Kamala Harris is elected, while the Jewish state has remained a staunch supporter of the United States during Joe Biden's term.

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“Exhausted”

For her part, the Vice President of the United States sought to deliver a message of unity in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after receiving notable support from former Vice President (2001-2009) of George W. Bush, Republican Dick Cheney, who sees in Donald Trump “the greatest threat” to democracy in all of American history.

“People are tired of division and attempts to divide Americans […] It is time to turn the page on division. “It's time to unite our country,” she said while visiting a spice shop in the historic capital of American steel.

The Vice President of the United States, whose entry into the campaign has given new vigor to the Democrats, is preparing for her big televised duel against Donald Trump on Tuesday evening from this key state of Pennsylvania, one of the most important for obtaining the majority of the electoral college and being elected to the White House.

Hit for decades by deindustrialization, the state was won by a hair's breadth by the Republican in 2016, then by Joe Biden with a tiny margin in 2020.

Neck and neck in the polls with less than two months to go until Election Day, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will face off on ABC, a highly anticipated moment after Joe Biden's disastrous performance on June 27, which led him to throw in the towel and hand over the reins to his vice president.

“I'm ready,” she simply assured on Saturday.

Police union

Donald Trump has returned to the campaign trail the day after a major legal victory, the postponement until November 26, after the November 5 vote, of his sentencing in the case of hidden payments to a porn star during the presidential campaign of 2016.

The trial, which had largely disrupted the Republican billionaire's campaign in the spring, ended in late May with a unanimous guilty verdict from the twelve jurors in New York, making Donald Trump the first former president of the United States to be convicted by the criminal justice system.

But the decision handed down on Friday by the trial judge, Juan Merchan, means that American voters will not know, when they cast their ballots, what sentence their hypothetical future president will receive.

Donald Trump also received the support on Friday of a powerful police union, which he took advantage of to redouble his attacks on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the themes of security and immigration.

Kamala Harris is campaigning on her record and experience as the former attorney general of the State of California, against the whom Democrats call “repeat criminals.”

The debate is seen as an opportunity for Kamala Harris to gain an advantage over Donald Trump in front of tens of millions of American viewers, but the Democratic candidate is also expected to deliver concrete measures, while she has been criticized for the lack of detail in her proposals.