Kamala Harris, in Pennsylvania, October 16, 2024 (AFP / RYAN COLLERD)
Kamala Harris promised Wednesday that her presidency would not be “a continuation” of that of Joe Biden, during a tense interview on Fox News, the favorite channel of American conservatives.
“Like every new leader who takes office, I will bring my experience, my professional experiences and new ideas,” said the Democratic candidate, 20 days before the American presidential election.
The vice-president, who replaced Joe Biden in mid-July in his duel against Donald Trump, faces a delicate balancing act — obliged to put her own mark on the campaign, without denying the mandate of the octogenarian leader.
“I represent a new generation of leaders,” insisted during this interview the candidate who will celebrate her 60th birthday on Sunday.
Questioned by a seasoned Fox News journalist for around thirty minutes, Kamala Harris was jostled at times, particularly on the immigration issue or when she was asked to say whether she had noticed a cognitive decline in Joe Biden.
The vice-president also took the opportunity to accuse Donald Trump of “belittling” Americans.
“The President of the United States should be able to face criticism without threatening to put the perpetrators in prison,” she said.
Just before her first interview on Fox News, Ms. Harris had already addressed Republicans at a rally in Pennsylvania, quoting General Mark Milley, Mr. Trump’s former top military official, who described her as being “fascist through and through.”
“For those watching, if you share this view, whatever party you are in, whatever party you voted for last time, there is a place for you in this campaign,” Kamala Harris said. who once again considered that the former president was “unbalanced”.
– The pace picks up –
Donald Trump on the set of a Univision Spanish-language television show in Miami, Florida, October 16, 2024 (AFP / CHANDAN KHANNA)
As the presidential election approaches, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are venturing out of their comfort zone, seeking to make a breakthrough among electorates that are not very sensitive to their speech.
In front of an audience of women, the former Republican president presented himself as the “father of in vitro fertilization”, affirming that the Republicans had been “more active” than their adversaries in this area. But without developing this idea.
Donald Trump is largely behind Kamala Harris in the polls among the female electorate, who closely watches statements related to this sensitive issue of the right to abortion.
On the one hand, he boasts of having appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States the judges who made it possible to overturn federal protection of the right to abortion in 2022, on the other he is careful not to advocate a ban total abortion, unpopular at the national level.
Calling his opponent’s remarks on in vitro fertilization “utterly bizarre,” Kamala Harris called on him to “take responsibility for the fact that one in three women in America lives in a state where Trump has banned it abortion”.
In the evening, Donald Trump, 78, will answer questions from Latino voters gathered in Miami by Univision, the largest Spanish-speaking television network in the United States.
The two candidates for the White House are more neck and neck than ever, Donald Trump having managed to overcome the very slight lead his rival had in the polls, particularly in the key northern states.
It is also in this region that the vice-president is concentrating her efforts this week: she returned to Pennsylvania on Wednesday, where she was already on Monday, after a detour to Michigan and before heading in the evening to the Wisconsin.
But the result of the presidential election could be decided elsewhere, in another of the seven clearly identified key states.
For example in Georgia, where a judge on Tuesday blocked a measure imposing the manual counting of ballots, while the first day of early voting saw a large turnout.
In this same state, former President Jimmy Carter, who had expressed his wish to live long enough to cast his vote for Kamala Harris, voted by mail on Wednesday according to his foundation, 15 days after celebrating his 100th birthday.
Related News :