Donald Trump supporters lined up for his rally Sunday at a famous New York arena while Kamala Harris went neighborhood to neighborhood 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 drew a blitz of coverage in the Republican’s home city — a Democratic stronghold — with a snaking queue to get into the venue.
Both candidates are making closing pitches in one of America’s most divisive and suspense-filled electoral fights, with polls suggesting a dead heat in the November 5 vote.
Trump’s New York rally at “The World’s Most Famous Arena” is set to include backers like billionaire Elon Musk, who has personally hit the campaign trail for the ex-president.
The Madison Square Garden is a storied arena in US sporting and cultural life that has hosted the Rolling Stones, Madonna and U2, as well as Democratic and Republican presidential conventions.
However, the venue also hosted a far-right, pro-Hitler rally in 1939, complete with eagles, Nazi insignia and salutes — an association that has generated darker headlines.
“This is an iconic place for an iconic man, period,” said Christine Randall, a Manhattan-based life coach, referring to Trump and shrugging off the Nazi connection.
“End of story, no further discussion,” Randall told AFP.
– Swing state –
Harris, 60, had 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.
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.
“This is the closest and the best opportunity we have to have a female in office who happens to be a Black female,” Myrda Scott, from Philadelphia, told AFP at one of Harris’s rallies in the city.
Scott, a Black woman herself, added: “We’re all rallying around to make that happen.”
On Tuesday, Harris will hold a major rally in Washington near the White House in the park where Trump fired up his supporters before they stormed the US Capitol to try to overturn the 2020 election result.
Harris told CBS on Sunday that “it is very important for the American people to see and think about who will be occupying” the president’s house next year.
“It’s either going to be Donald Trump or it’s going to be me sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office,” she said.
– Millions have voted –
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 says she agreed with.
At another high wattage Harris ally, former first lady Michelle Obama, aired her “genuine fear” on Saturday that Trump could soon be back in power.
She said Harris would make 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.
“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?”
Harris got some upbeat news Sunday with ABC News/Ipsos poll suggesting she had regained a slight lead among likely voters nationally.
Trump got his own boost when some Arab and Muslim community leaders joined the former president on stage Saturday at a rally in Michigan — where the Muslim vote could be key to who wins the critical swing state.
With more than 40 million people already casting early ballots, Americans are deciding between electing the country’s first woman president or a convicted felon who is 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.
He swept Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in his shock victory in 2016 only to see Biden reclaim them four years later.
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