 "Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at JS Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, US on November 4, 2024, while Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris at a rally in Wisconsin. Source\" REUTERS | X | @KamalaHarris.")
As the US braces up to elect a new president on November 5, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Monday held rallies across Pennsylvania, making their final pitches in the key swing state.
Harris and Trump rallies in Pennsylvania come amid polls and surveys indicating a neck-to-neck contest between the two presidential candidates.
Reaching out to voters on the eve of the election day, Harris and Trump laid out starkly contrasting visions for the future of America.
Trump’s rallies centered around personal attacks on a number of high-profile Democratic women and trying to show migrants as dangerous criminals. Meanwhile, Harris delivered a more optimistic closing argument, shifting focus away from the threat her rival in the race to White House could pose, and insisted, “we all have so much more in common than what separates us”.
Harris campaign and its surrogates continued to reach out to female voters, while Trump revived familiar insults against notable women, sometimes with violent language.
What Trump said in rallies on election eve?
In North Carolina, Republican nominee Trump attacked former first lady Michelle Obama and said: “She hit me the other day. I was going to say to my people, am I allowed to hit her now? They said, take it easy, sir.”
Not just this, Trump even suggested that the Democratic congresswoman Nancy Pelosi should have been jailed for ripping up a copy of his 2020 State of the Union address: “She’s a bad, sick woman, she’s crazy as a bedbug.”
Impact Shorts
More ShortsTrump, in North Carolina, also threatened the newly elected president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, suggesting he would impose tariffs on all Mexican goods “if they don’t stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs.”
The Republican nominee also repeated his lines that Harris is a “low IQ individual”.
Trump continued with his taunts even when he has been facing scrutiny over his recent comment suggesting that Liz Cheney, the former GOP congresswoman and a Harris supporter, should face rifles “shooting at her”.
In Reading, Pennsylvania, Trump fantasised about wrestlers who could “take the migrants in a fight”. He continued with his racist tropes about immigrants and affirmed his threat of unprecedented mass deportations as he said Tuesday would be “liberation day”.
He also claimed that Democrats support “open borders” so undocumented people can fraudulently vote.
Harris’ final pitch to US voters
Harris, at the same time, was rallying roughly 40 miles away from Trump in Allentown where she critiqued Trumpism, refraining from directly naming her opponent: “America is ready for a new way forward, where we see our fellow American not as an enemy but as a neighbor. We are ready for a president who understands that the true measure of the strength of the leader is not based on who you beat down. It is based on who you lift up.”
Later Harris stopped at a Puerto Rican restaurant with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and directly joined canvassing in a residential area in Reading, telling voters at one home: “I wanted to go door-knocking!”
Biden ‘garbage’ remark pops up
Monday, also witnessed JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, earned loud applause at a rally in Georgia, when he attacked Harris by bringing up President Joe Biden’s recent gaffe, in which he appeared to call Trump supporters “garbage”.
“In two days, we are going to take out the trash in Washington DC, and the trash is named Kamala Harris,” said the Ohio senator, in a remark that was condemned by Democrats and pundits.
On Monday, Trump had four rallies – one in Raleigh, North Carolina, two in Pennsylvania and a late-evening event in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
With his packed schedule, Trump appeared low-energy and hoarse at times. He continued to boast about his crowd sizes, but reports suggested there were empty seats and early departures from audience members during his lengthy, meandering speeches in some of his final events.
Meanwhile, Harris stayed in Pennsylvania, holding several rallies and events in the critical state that could decide the 2024 US Presidential election.
With inputs from agencies.