American presidential election: Harris or Trump, America on the eve of a historic choice
These are the last crucial hours of an incredible campaign for the White House: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump face off this Monday in final electoral meetings, on the eve of a vote with critical issues for the United States and the rest of the world.
Published on 04/11/2024 at 7:15 p.m.
This 2024 American presidential election sees two radically opposed personalities, separated by almost two decades.
On one side, the current Democratic vice-president, who in July replaced aging President Joe Biden at short notice. Kamala Harris, 60, can become this Tuesday the first woman to lead the leading economic and military power on the planet.
On the other, former Republican President Donald Trump, 78, author of a spectacular political comeback after leaving the White House in 2021 in a chaotic context, having escaped two impeachment procedures and having been convicted in court.
Peppered with unimaginable twists and turns, first and foremost two assassination attempts on the septuagenarian, this campaign which is ending has also been marked by all the escalations in a fractured country.
7 States, all the way
Each of the two rivals says they are confident in their victory. But, in reality, the competition is so close that only a few tens of thousands of votes could decide the outcome of the election.
The tension is especially fueled by Donald Trump, who has begun to question the integrity of voting operations. Kamala Harris’ campaign team said on Monday that it “fully expects” that the Republican will declare himself the winner prematurely.
Seeing it as a “sign of weakness and fear of losing,” Ian Sams, spokesperson for the Democrat, warned: “It won’t work.”
The most valuable votes are to be won in seven well-identified pivotal states, which the two contenders for the White House have been traveling without stopping for months, spending hundreds of millions of dollars there.
Of these seven states, the one with the most electors is Pennsylvania. The United States, a federal country, has a system of indirect universal suffrage, crowning the candidate who manages to gather a majority of the 538 electors, or at least 270.
It is therefore logically in Pennsylvania that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are throwing their last bit of strength into action on Monday.
The vice-president, former prosecutor and then senator from California, born to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, is traveling in particular to Scranton, the hometown of Joe Biden, then to the two main cities of the state, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
Oprah and Lady Gaga
For this last step, she should receive the support of Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, after having obtained that of a host of other stars like Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Lopez or the basketball superstar LeBron James.
Donald Trump held his first meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina. “Tomorrow, it is hard-working patriots like you who will save our country,” he said.
He then heads to Reading and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday, before finishing his marathon day in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
So many places where the former real estate tycoon will depict a country drifting apart, invaded by millions of criminal illegal immigrants, in economic and moral bankruptcy under the influence of “enemies of interior”.
The Republican has recently toughened his rhetoric, using insulting terms to designate his opponent, who in response portrays him as a “fascist” driven by revenge and his thirst for “limitless power”.
Met by AFP in Grand Rapids, Ethan Wells, a 19-year-old restaurant employee, confides his enthusiasm at the prospect of attending Donald Trump’s last meeting.
“When Trump was president, no one messed with America,” he explains.
Nearly 80 million Americans, including Kamala Harris, have already voted early, out of 244 million voters. His rival is expected to vote for him in person on Tuesday near his residence in Florida.
The election generates as much suspense over its result, possibly expected during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, as over the aftermath of the poll. Donald Trump has never acknowledged his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, after which his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Both camps have already filed dozens of legal actions, while two out of three Americans fear an eruption of violence in the wake of the election.
At least two states, Washington and Nevada, have mobilized National Guard reservists as a preventative measure. In Georgia, election officials are equipped with a panic button device to alert authorities in the event of danger.
Elsewhere in the country, some polling stations have planned drone surveillance or snipers on rooftops. In the federal capital Washington, metal barriers are erected around the White House, the Capitol and other sensitive sites.
