Donald Trump and Kamala Harris moved their duel Friday to Michigan, throwing barbs at each other from a distance from one of the most contested states in a breathtaking race for the White House.
“We are going to make Detroit great again,” said the Republican at a meeting in the state’s largest city, at the end of a day where the candidate spoke a lot about the automobile industry that he intends to protect and revive. by imposing taxes on cars built abroad.
“November 5 will be the day of liberation,” the 78-year-old former president also promised in reference to the election date, pledging to launch the largest operation to expel illegal migrants in the country. history of the United States.
He had just before participated in a round table in Auburn Hills, north of Detroit, during which he repeated that customs duties were “the most beautiful word in the dictionary”, even before the word “love”.
Kamala Harris also made several stops in Michigan, stopping notably in the state capital, Lansing. She advocated a strong role for the unions and denounced the “empty promises” of her rival.
The 59-year-old Democrat shed light on the age of her opponent. “If you are exhausted from campaigning, it raises questions about your ability to take on the hardest job in the world,” she slipped.
Donald Trump responded by denying reports that he had canceled interviews. Kamala Harris is a “failure who has less energy than a rabbit,” he snapped.
Barack Obama, for his part, campaigned for Kamala Harris on the other side of the country, in Tucson, in the state of Arizona. “We don’t need to see what an older, more crazy Donald Trump would look like, without safeguards,” said the former Democratic president.
– War in the Middle East –
Michigan is highly contested, with a large number of Arab-Americans residing in this northern state, which borders Canada.
These voters traditionally tend to support the Democratic candidate in the presidential election but are this year very critical of the Biden administration, of which the Democratic candidate is a part, with regard to the war in Gaza and Lebanon.
In Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit, the war in the Middle East is in fact in every conversation.
Marwan Faraj, a 51-year-old American of Lebanese origin, explains to AFP that he has always voted Democratic but that he will turn his back on Kamala Harris who supports “this ethnic cleansing and this genocide since day one, with our tax money.
Biden “ruined everything, and Kamala (Harris) promises to play the same role,” said this American who arrived from southern Lebanon at the age of 16 and who runs a medical center.
“We do not want to vote for Trump, because he looks down on us, nor for the Democrats who respected us and who now give weapons to Israel,” adds Haider Koussan, also of Lebanese origin and co-owner with his brothers. of a small supermarket chain.
If she has not openly broken with the line of Joe Biden, who gave Israel almost unconditional support, Kamala Harris is well aware that this position could cost her votes in an ultra-close election where every ballot, or almost , account.
– 10 million Americans voted –
18 days before the election, the two candidates are neck and neck in each of the most contested states, the famous “swing states”.
And this, despite a series of unprecedented twists and turns in the campaign: the criminal conviction of Donald Trump, two assassination attempts targeting him and the withdrawal of Joe Biden’s candidacy.
More than 10 million Americans have already voted, including more than three million in those states expected to decide the election, according to data compiled by the University of Florida.
Georgia and North Carolina broke records, including in areas recently hit by the devastating Hurricane Helena.
cjc-tib-seb/cha
