US campaign continues amid Trump's anti-migrant diatribes

The presidential campaign continues on Friday with trips by Kamala Harris and Donald Trump to key states, while the Republican candidate multiplies his diatribes, partly false, against migrants.

The 78-year-old billionaire's trip to Nevada (west) will in theory be devoted to the economy.

But on Thursday, for a rally in Arizona supposed to be devoted to the same theme, Donald Trump, as usual, swept aside all sorts of subjects, insisting particularly on immigration, a recurring theme of his race for the White House and a top concern for voters according to polls.

In this western state, bordering Mexico, he once again brought up a false and racist claim that Haitian migrants were stealing dogs and cats to eat them in Springfield, a small town in Ohio.

“It was a beautiful community, what happened is horrible,” he told the crowd, also mentioning, without proof, the case of migrants attacking “geese” or “raping young American girls.”

The Republican candidate promises, if elected, to fight against illegal immigration with mass deportations.

A radical right-wing activist recently seen in his campaign entourage, Laura Loomer, for her part violently attacked Kamala Harris, whose mother is Indian, recently writing on X that in case of a Democrat victory, the White House “would smell of curry.”

Kamala Harris will be in the “swing state” on Friday, the pivotal state, perhaps the most crucial in the presidential election on November 5: Pennsylvania, with its 19 electors.

– Conspiracy theory –

The vice-president has so far not responded to these comments from her rival. When Donald Trump brought up the conspiracy theory about pets during their televised debate on Tuesday, she responded by shaking her head vehemently and looking half-amused and half-scandalized.

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

Former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Tucson, Arizona, on September 12, 2024 © AFP – Rebecca NOBLE

This daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, the first female vice president of the United States, has never engaged in attacks targeting her identity since the start of her campaign, conducted in a very methodical manner and with a resolutely centrist positioning.

On Thursday, the 59-year-old Democrat delivered her already well-rehearsed speech in North Carolina, another pivotal state in the historic American South, on the Atlantic coast.

“It's time to turn the page” Trump, she hammered home, promising to defend the middle class and the right to abortion.

Once again, Kamala Harris, who entered the race with a bang after President Joe Biden withdrew less than two months ago, hammered home that the election would be “very close” and that she was “not the favorite.”

The candidate, who by general consensus dominated her opponent during Tuesday's debate, will not be able to count on a new confrontation of this type to give her momentum: Donald Trump in fact opposed another debate on Thursday.

Inflation in the United States © AFP – Samuel BARBOSA

In an America that today seems irremediably divided on the political level, the two candidates are neck and neck in the polls.

As in 2016 and 2020, everything should therefore be decided by a few tens of thousands of votes from undecided voters in six or seven strategic states, regardless of the total number of votes nationwide, since the election is conducted according to the principle of indirect universal suffrage.

All reproduction and representation rights reserved. © (2024) Agence France-Presse