Donald Trump in North Carolina, Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania: Six weeks before the US presidential election, the candidates continued on Wednesday to focus their campaign efforts on the key states that will be decisive for victory. At a rally in the town of Mint Hill, the Republican called for threats to “destroy” Iran if the country attacked a candidate in the US 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 military and political movement allied with Tehran.
Economic program clarified
The Democratic candidate is scheduled to deliver a speech focusing on her economic agenda in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s second-largest city and a former steelmaking stronghold. She will also give her first solo television interview since taking over the White House race from Joe Biden. The interview will air on MSNBC at 7 p.m. local time (11 p.m. GMT).
Tight competition
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, CNN 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 workers. “For Donald Trump, our economy works best if it works for those who own the big skyscrapers — not those who actually build them, not those who wire them, not those who mop 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 considered the jackpot, because it will offer 19 electors to the one who wins it on November 5. The first to reach 270 electors will win the presidential election, which is an indirect election.
“I am a black Nazi”
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.
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”, for example, Mark Robinson allegedly wrote, although he has denied having made such comments.
A victory offered?
Still, such controversy is a godsend for Democrats, who announced Wednesday that they are launching a billboard campaign across North Carolina, emphasizing the ties between Donald Trump and Mark Robinson. One of the posters quotes the former president declaring “Let’s love Mark,” then “He’s a remarkable person” and “an extraordinary gentleman.”
Trump said in his rally about Mark Robinson, “He is Mark Luther King on steroids”, “Mark Luther King times 2”, and “he is a fighter.”
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, later that evening.
