Michelle Obama expressed her “real fear” on Saturday that Donald Trump could retake the White House as the popular former first lady made an emotional appeal to voters in a very close US election.
Trump and Kamala Harris both sought holdout votes in Michigan ahead of the November 5 election, with Harris focusing on abortion rights and Trump returning to his anti-immigrant campaign theme.
Obama said Harris, the Democratic nominee, would be an “extraordinary President of the United States” if elected in just 10 days.
But, with polls predicting an extremely hot summer, she also spoke to the sense of frustration and concern that few on Harris’s team dared to express after losing some momentum in recent weeks.
“My hope about Kamala is mixed with some real fear,” Obama said, breaking Trump’s record by asking, “Why is this race so close?”
“I’m a little angry that we are indifferent to his erratic behavior, his obvious mental decline, his history as a convicted felon, a known slum lord, a predator who was found liable to sexual abuse.”
Obama, appearing with Harris, emphasized the vice president’s message that abortion rights — and women’s health care overall — are at stake on the ballot.
“Please don’t entrust our fate to people like Trump,” Obama said. He said he could effectively ban abortion nationwide.
Trump on attack
At his rally, Trump made bitter personal attacks on Harris and accused her of pursuing an “open borders” migration policy.
“He’s a dope,” he said. “This person can’t be president.”
“She will destroy our country. Everyone knows it. No one respects her. The United States is now an occupied country. Kamala broke it, we’ll fix it.”
With more than 38 million people already voting early, Americans are deciding whether to elect the country’s first female president or its oldest commander in chief.
Trump, 78, still refuses to accept his defeat in the vote four years ago and is expected to reject the result if he loses again – potentially plunging the United States into chaos.
Trump won three Blue Wall states – Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – in his shock victory in 2016, but Joe Biden regained them four years later.
He hopes to capture one or more of the trio, and bring them back to power by winning the so-called Sun Belt swing states.
After his Michigan event, Trump headed straight to Pennsylvania for another rally on Saturday evening.
right to abortion
Harris highlighted abortion rights – a weak point for Republicans – by visiting a local doctor’s office and meeting with physicians, staff and medical students.
“We are seeing a health care crisis in America because of Trump and what he did to the Supreme Court,” he told reporters, referring to judges picked by Trump.
The final weekend before voting began Friday evening when Harris appeared with superstar Beyoncé and Trump gave a three-hour interview to Joe Rogan, America’s most popular podcaster.
On Sunday, Harris, 60, will campaign in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the largest city in one of the biggest swing states that will determine the election winner.
She would travel throughout the city, particularly in historically black and Latino districts, trying to persuade undecided residents to cast their vote.
Trump will rally his supporters on Sunday evening at Madison Square Garden, the famous arena in the center of heavily Democratic New York.
The adventurous billionaire and one-time reality television star appears eager to stage a grand spectacle, and demonstrate that he can fill a field in the liberal stronghold.
But critics, including Trump’s 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton, have noted that Madison Square Garden was also the scene of a pro-Nazi rally held by a group supporting Adolf Hitler in 1939.
Part of Harris’s election strategy is to alienate moderate Republicans from Trump, who often disparages some Americans as the “enemy.”
Harris told her supporters that as a prosecutor she fought “all types of criminals – predators, fraudsters and repeat offenders. I fought them and I won.
“In 10 days, it’s Donald Trump’s turn.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
