Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump arrived on Friday in the battleground state of Michigan, where opinion polls show the US presidential candidates are essentially tied just 18 days before the November 5 election.
Former President Trump visited a campaign office in Hamtramck, where he heard praise from Amer Ghalib, the Detroit suburb’s first Muslim mayor. Trump was seeking support from Arab Americans in Michigan, frustrated with Vice President Harris and President Joe Biden, a Democrat, over U.S. support for Israel in the Gaza conflict.
Trump said, “Ultimately we all want one thing. We want peace in the Middle East. We’re going to get peace in the Middle East. It’s going to happen very fast. It can happen with the right leadership in Washington ” Detailed
Trump was later scheduled to speak in Auburn Hills, a city in Oakland County north of Detroit that Biden won by a comfortable margin in 2020. Trump will also return to Detroit – Michigan’s largest city – for a rally around 7 pm (2300 GMT). , after saying on October 10 that the rest of America would turn to Detroit if Harris won.
Harris will speak Friday night in Grand Rapids, the center of more conservative western Michigan, before heading east to Lansing and then Oakland County.
The Midwestern state has about 8.4 million voters and the winner will get 15 Electoral College votes out of the 270 needed to win, which would be a decisive number in many scenarios. Harris and Trump are battling fiercely for the state’s Arab American, senior, union and working-class voters.
Both have intensified their attacks in recent times.
On Friday, Trump falsely stated on the “Fox & Friends” program that Harris is a Marxist and repeated his attacks on her intelligence.
He said, “I don’t think she knows where she is. She’s a person with low IQ. She’s not smart.” Harris said Friday that reports that Trump was skipping interviews and another presidential debate because he was tired were raising questions about his fitness for office.
“This should be a matter of concern. If he can’t handle the rigors of the campaign, is he fit to do the job?” he told reporters before a rally in Grand Rapids. “It’s a legitimate question.”
‘I’m not even tired’
Upon reaching Detroit, Trump rejected such talk while talking to reporters.
“I’ve gone 48 days without resting,” Trump said.
“I’m not even tired. I’m really excited. You know why? We’re killing him at the polls because the American people don’t want him.”
On Thursday, Harris said Trump was “gaslighting” the American public about the deadly attack on the US Capitol by his loyalists on January 6, 2021. Trump recently called the attack a “day of love.”
In Michigan and other key battleground states, either Harris or Trump have little margin over the other, according to public and internal campaign surveys. This is a matter of concern for the Democrats.
In 2016, Trump won Michigan by 11,000 votes. In 2020, Biden defeated Trump by 155,000 votes.
Harris is shifting her whirlwind campaign strategy to win over more Republicans and men of all races. She’s also joining popular former first lady Michelle Obama, who will campaign for vice president in Michigan on Oct. 26.
Nationally, Harris’ lead over Trump has shrunk to just 3 points from a 7 percentage point lead in late September, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows, with high food and rent prices still worrying Americans. And Trump has increased fears related to migrants crossing the US-Mexico border. The extent of increasingly extreme rhetoric.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)