Republican Donald Trump led a headline-grabbing New York rally on Sunday with relentless attacks on Kamala Harris, but Democrats tried to capitalize on the insults they received from the inaugural speeches of some of his allies.
Trump took to the stage at the iconic 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden arena to deliver the closing message in the extremely tight race for the White House, which will reach its peak on Nov. 5.
“You have destroyed our country. We will not take it anymore, Kamala,” the 78-year-old told supporters wearing a trademark red “Make America Great Again” hat.
Several speakers at the rally in the Democratic stronghold city emboldened Harris with their own statements against Puerto Rico and Latinos.
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe took aim at the birthrate among Latinos and called the Caribbean US territory of Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage”.
‘Not a punchline’
Harris, 60, braved the attacks as she competes with the former president to win over Puerto Rican communities in the tight battleground states that decide the election.
“Puerto Ricans deserve a president who sees and invests in (their) strengths,” Harris said in a clip published on social media along with Hinchcliffe’s comments.
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat, said the state is home to nearly half a million Puerto Ricans and about three-quarters are able to vote.
Ricky Martin, a Puerto Rican superstar with 18.6 million followers on Instagram, immediately shared a video of Harris’ appeal to Puerto Rican voters, along with a clip of Hinchcliffe’s comments.
“This is what they think of us,” Martin wrote in Spanish. “Vote for @KamalaHarris.”
Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny also showed support for the vice president by sharing a video of herself to her 45.6 million followers on Instagram.
Trump’s rally at “the World’s Most Famous Arena” was surprisingly attended by supporters such as his wife Melania and billionaire Elon Musk, who personally campaigned for the former president.
However, the venue also hosted a far-right, pro-Hitler rally in 1939 with eagles, Nazi insignia and salutes – an association that has generated intense headlines.
Professional wrestling legend Hulk Hogan, who also spoke at the Republican convention in July, rejected criticisms of the rally: “I don’t see any Nazis here.”
Harris ‘boots on the ground’
Other speeches also drew concern and criticism, including from Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s most far-right advisers.
“America is for Americans and Americans only,” he shouted into the microphone after promising a crackdown on cartels and “criminal immigrants.”
While former Fox News host Tucker Carlson poked fun at Harris’ background, calling her “a Samoan Malaysian low-IQ former California prosecutor”.
Meanwhile, Harris completed a busy day of campaigning in the must-win Pennsylvania’s largest city, which included stops at a Black church, a barber shop and a Puerto Rican restaurant.
With barely a week left, she is leaving no stone unturned in Philadelphia, where she must increase her vote tally to clinch victory in the battleground state.
“We should not wake up the day after the election and have any regrets,” he said at a rally in Philadelphia.
Sunday’s visit was the vice president’s 14th visit to Pennsylvania since she rose to the top of the ticket following President Joe Biden’s surprise return in July.
“This is the closest and best chance we’ve had to putting a woman in office who is a black woman,” Myrda Scott of Philadelphia told AFP at a Harris rally in the city.
Before moving on to the African-American-themed Hakim’s bookstore and gift shop, Harris drove up to the Philly Cuts barbershop in a largely black neighborhood of West Philadelphia to meet residents.
“He’s on the ground,” Myrda Scott, a 43-year-old African-American woman who runs a financial firm, told AFP as she waited for Harris at a youth basketball rec center rally.
On Tuesday, Harris will hold a large rally in the park near the White House in Washington where Trump rallied his supporters before storming the US Capitol to try to overturn the 2020 election results.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
