Two days before the election, Harris and Trump still neck and neck

No poll manages to decide between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump: two days before the election, never has the outcome of a presidential duel in the United States been so unpredictable, between two candidates who are completely opposed.

The Democratic vice-president and the former Republican president continued on Sunday to travel through the key states which will decide whether America will open the doors of the White House to a woman for the first time or, on the contrary, send the billionaire back there. .

Donald Trump has promised a “tidal wave” of votes in his favor. Kamala Harris, on a campaign platform at the University of Michigan, assured: “The momentum is on our side.”

In this state, where she risks losing the support of the population of Arab origin, which represents some 200,000 people, due to Washington’s support for Israel, the Democrat promised to “do everything to stop the war in Gaza “. “I want to say that this year is difficult, given the scale of the deaths and destruction in Gaza, given the civilian and displaced victims in Lebanon. It’s upsetting,” added the candidate.

The Republican, for his part, continued in the verbal escalation. Referring to the armored glass now installed around him, after being the victim of two assassination attempts, he said that to reach it “you would have to shoot through” journalists, adding: “That doesn’t bother me.”

“I should not have left” the White House, said the 78-year-old Republican candidate, who never admitted his defeat in 2020 and whose supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 to try to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. As Kamala Harris, who announced on Sunday, more than 78 million Americans have already voted, early or by mail.

On Tuesday, when the polling stations in the world’s leading power close, a period of feverish waiting will begin. No one knows whether it will take hours or days for the American media, whose prerogative it is traditionally, to attribute victory to one or the other.

The former Republican president has already laid the foundations for a challenge in the event of defeat. “They are trying hard to steal” the election, he said, wearing his traditional red cap, during a rally on Sunday, questioning the reliability of the vote count. “The systems in place for this election in 2024 are reliable,” replied Kamala Harris.

The latest New York Times/Siena poll, focused on the seven crucial states, shows differences too small to allow any conclusions. The Democratic candidate is campaigning in the center and counting on the defense of the right to abortion to mobilize women en masse.

Donald Trump, far from targeting moderate voters, is deploying ever more violent rhetoric. Before his remarks about “shooting through” the press, he had already sparked heated controversy by suggesting placing one of his sworn enemies, former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, in front of guns pointed at She.

His comments on Sunday “had nothing to do with harming the media”, and Donald Trump was on the contrary worried about the “danger” run by journalists who “should also have protective glazing”, said assured one of its spokespersons.

As D-Day approaches, the two rivals, who spend hundreds of millions of dollars each, are crisscrossing the country and also trying to saturate the media space. The voting system in the United States, a federal country, is complex. The presidency is awarded by indirect universal suffrage: Americans vote for a college of 538 electors, distributed among the 50 states, without the total votes at national level being decisive.

A large majority of these states are already considered for either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. This is why the candidates’ efforts and the suspense are focused on the seven “swing states”.