Donald Trump in North Carolina, Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania: six weeks before the American presidential election, the candidates continue on Wednesday to focus their campaign efforts in the key states that will be decisive for their victory.
• Also read: Trump says Iran should be threatened with ‘destroying’ if it targets US election candidate
• Also read: Harris to give first solo interview since running
At a rally in the town of Mint Hill, the Republican said Iran should be threatened with “destroying” it if it attacked a candidate in the American election.
He was referring to his own case, after having announced the day before that his life was directly threatened by Iran, in a context of redoubled hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, a Lebanese Islamist movement allied with Tehran.
The Democratic candidate is due to deliver a speech focusing on her economic programme in Pittsburgh, the second largest city in Pennsylvania and a former steel-producing stronghold.
AFP
She will also give her first solo television interview since taking over the White House race from Joe Biden. The interview will air at 7pm local time (11pm GMT) on MSNBC.
The vice president, long under pressure to grant a formal interview, participated in a televised interview on CNN at the end of August alongside her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
In this extremely tight race, voters say they have more confidence in Donald Trump on the issue of the economy. But the gap with Kamala Harris has narrowed considerably on the issue in recent weeks, polls confirm.
In her speech in Pittsburgh, the 59-year-old vice president will reiterate that she comes from the middle class and she will highlight working people.
“For Donald Trump, the economy must serve the owners of the big skyscrapers. Not those who build them, nor those who wash the floors,” the Democrat plans to say, according to her campaign team.
Among the seven famous swing states — Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania — this last one is the big prize, because it will offer 19 electors to whoever wins it on November 5. The first to reach 270 electors will win the presidential election, which is an indirect election.
Photo Matt Rourke / POOL / AFP
Unique debate
Pennsylvania is therefore literally crisscrossed by the candidates and it is logically in this state, precisely in Philadelphia, that they faced each other during a debate on September 10 which should be the only one between the vice-president and the Republican billionaire. The latter in fact refused his rival’s offer to debate again.
In North Carolina, another highly contested area, Donald Trump could be in difficulty because of his open support for Mark Robinson, who aims to become the first black governor of this southeastern state.
The man has been in the hot seat since CNN last week attributed to him shocking messages about Nazism and slavery, published on a pornographic site in the 2010s.
“I am a ‘black Nazi’,” Mr Robinson reportedly wrote, denying that he made any such comments.
Still, such controversy is a godsend for Democrats, who announced Wednesday that they were launching a poster campaign across North Carolina, emphasizing the links between Mr. Trump and Mr. Robinson.
One poster quotes the former president as saying, “Let’s love Mark,” then, “He’s a remarkable person,” and then, “An extraordinary gentleman.”
Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, is scheduled to attend a fundraiser in Florida on Wednesday and then a campaign rally in Traverse City, Michigan, that evening.
