(AFP) – Donald Trump will take to the stage Sunday at a famous New York arena before thousands of supporters in the Democratic stronghold city, seeking a blitz of attention in the final stretch of one of America’s closest ever White House races. Several of the opening speakers at the 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden venue drew cheers from the crowd with attacks on his rival Kamala Harris, Puerto Rico, and Latinos. “There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” said comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who also took aim at birthrates among Latinos. Trump will speak as he and Harris make their closing pitches, with polls suggesting a dead heat in the November 5 vote. His 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.
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 Trump fan Christine Randall, a Manhattan-based life coach, shrugging off the Nazi connection. “End of story, no further discussion,” Randall told AFP.
Harris, 60, charged through 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. “We must not wake up the day after the election and have any regrets,” Harris told a rally in Philadelphia. “Let’s reach out to our family and our friends and our classmates and our neighbors, tell them about the stakes of this election and tell them about their power.” Sunday’s visit was to 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.
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 an 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.
– Ana Fernandez with Michael Mathes in Philadelphia
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