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Trump takes election pitch to storied New York arena

Donald Trump rallies supporters Sunday at an iconic New York arena while Kamala Harris goes neighbourhood to neighbourhood in Philadelphia just over a week before America votes in an extraordinarily close White House race.

Trump’s gathering at the nearly 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden is expected to draw a blitz of coverage in the Republican’s home metropolis, which is still very much a Democratic stronghold.

Both candidates are making closing pitches to voters in one of America’s most divisive and suspense-filled electoral fights, with polls suggesting a dead heat ahead of the November 5 vote.

Harris, 60, has planned a packed day of campaigning in the biggest city in must-win Pennsylvania, including stops at a Black church and barbershop, as well as a Puerto Rican restaurant.

A senior Harris campaign official said Sunday’s visit will be the vice president’s 14th trip to Pennsylvania since she jumped to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden’s shock withdrawal in July.

Harris will go before supporters to make what her campaign called her “closing argument” on Tuesday in Washington at the park where Trump rallied supporters before the January 6 riot.

Trump’s rally Sunday at a venue dubbed “The World’s Most Famous Arena” is set to include backers and surrogates like billionaire Elon Musk, who has personally hit the campaign trail for the ex-president.

It is a storied arena in US sporting and cultural life that has hosted the Rolling Stones, Madonna and U2, plus several Democratic and Republican presidential conventions over the decades.

However, the venue’s association with the far-right, pro-Hitler Bund group that hosted a rally in 1939, complete with eagles, Nazi insignia and salutes, will generate darker headlines.

Trump appears at Madison Square Garden just days after one of his top former officials, John Kelly, said the Republican fits the definition of a fascist — something Harris later said she agreed with.

‘Genuine fear’ of Trump win

The latest high-wattage surrogate for Harris, former first lady Michelle Obama, aired her “genuine fear” on Saturday that Trump could retake the White House.

She said Harris would be an “extraordinary president”, but Obama also spoke of a sense of frustration and anxiety that few on the vice president’s team dare express after she lost some momentum in recent weeks.

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and former US First Lady Michelle Obama campaign together at the Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo on October 26. — AFP
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and former US First Lady Michelle Obama campaign together at the Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo on October 26. — AFP

“My hope about Kamala is also accompanied by some genuine fear,” Obama said, ripping into Trump’s record and asking, “Why is this race even close?”

With more than 40 million people already casting early ballots, Americans are deciding between electing the country’s first-ever woman president or the oldest major candidate ever.

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 pitching the United States into chaos.

Trump swept Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — three usually Democratic states — in his shock victory in 2016 only to see Biden reclaim them four years later.

He hopes to claw back one or more of the trio and win the so-called Sun Belt swing states in the country’s south to propel him back into power.



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