 "US Vice President Kamala Harris and Former US President Donald Trump. Reuters")
As the race to the White House intensifies, new polls suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris is up four points against former president Donald Trump in three battleground states. The figures can be seen as concerning for the Republicans since there are just three months left until the 2024 US Presidential elections.
The survey published by The New York Times/Siena College on Saturday morning found that Harris has taken the lead over Trump in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, garnering 50 per cent support to Trump’s 46 per cent in the hypothetical matchup.
Harris’ numbers mark a significant improvement when compared to President Biden’s performance in the same swing state. In the NYT/Siena polls conducted earlier this year, Biden garnered 45 per cent support to Trump’s 48 per cent in Pennsylvania. Polls from April and early May, however, showed the president leading his GOP rival in Michigan (47 per cent to 46 per cent) but trailing Trump in Wisconsin (46 per cent to 47 per cent).
Harris garnered a large number of support from the Democratic electorate when she started her presidential campaign after Biden announced that he was dropping out of the presidential race.
Trump launches fresh attacks
The NYT/Siena polls were conducted between Aug. 5-8 with 619 registered voters in Michigan and 661 in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the survey in Pennsylvania was conducted between Aug. 6-9 with 693 registered voters.
As several polls tilted in favour of Harris, Trump continued with his bizarre attacks against Harris. During his so-called “general news conference” at Mar-a-Lago, Trump told his supporters that “nobody really knows” his opponent’s last name.“Kamala Harris. You know it’s interesting nobody really knows her last name,” he exclaimed.
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More Shorts“If you ask people, do you know what her last name is, nobody has any idea what it is Harris. It’s like Harris," he continued mispronouncing her name repeatedly.
Meanwhile, during his rally in Bozeman, Montana, Trump seemed remorseful about US President Joe Biden’s exit. “We’re going to get Joe Biden out of the White House. What’s he doing there now?… You know he wanted to debate. If we didn’t have a debate, he’d still be there. Can you imagine? Why the hell did I debate him?” he exclaimed.
“How did he do? Do you think he’s happy? I don’t think so. He’s not too happy. You know, they took it away from him, they really did. The guy had 14 million votes. She had none, but I’d rather run against her. I think she’s easier to beat I really do,” the former president furthered.
Trump and Biden held what was initially decided to be the first of three debates between the two rivals in Atlanta. In the light of Biden’s bad performance on debate night, the Democrats asked him to step out of the race. The POTUS succumbed to the pressure and announced that he wouldn’t be running for re-election on July 21. He went on to endorse his VP Harris, who eventually became the face of Democrats this election.