Kamala Harris and Donald Trump brought star power to the campaign trail on Saturday as they took shots at each other’s stamina and urged early voting in battleground states crucial to the ever-tightening US presidential race.
At rallies in Detroit and Atlanta, Harris introduced pop stars Lizzo and Usher, respectively, to warm up her crowds, while portraying her rival Trump as exhausted and unhinged.
The Republican, running for a second term in the White House, countered those accusations with a marathon speech in Pennsylvania, while billionaire Elon Musk campaigned for him elsewhere in the state.
Both candidates are fighting on all fronts to secure voter support in a race that polls suggest is effectively tied, with fewer than three weeks to Election Day.
Harris told voters in Detroit that her opponent’s platform was “self-consuming,” while reiterating promises to invest in the working and middle classes.
“We stand for the idea that the true measure of a leader’s strength is not based on who you beat down, but on who you lift up,” Harris said.
Later in Atlanta, Harris, who turns 60 on Sunday, accused the 78-year-old Trump of “ducking debates and cancelling interviews due to exhaustion.”
“When he does answer a question or speak at a rally—have you noticed he tends to go off script, ramble, and for the life of him, cannot finish a thought?” she said.
“He’s called it ‘the weave.’ But here, we’ll call it nonsense.”
‘Grandpa’
Trump began his more than 90-minute rally with a lengthy monologue about the late golfer Arnold Palmer, after whom the regional airport in Latrobe, where the Republican appeared, is named.
He even went so far as to praise Palmer’s genitalia.
“When he took showers with other pros, they came out of there saying, ‘Oh my God, that’s unbelievable,’” Trump said with a laugh. “I had to say it.”
He then launched into his familiar, meandering speech, which included attacks on migrants, personal insults directed at Harris, and repeated false claims about the 2020 election.
However, his rally was a show of endurance, which also included numerous guests and screenings of his campaign ads.
Shortly after recalling his own expensive education at the private Ivy
League University of Pennsylvania, Trump sought to appeal to working-class voters by bringing a parade of steelworkers in hard hats on stage.
He also highlighted the importance of Pennsylvania’s electoral college votes in the overall election: “If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole damn thing.”
At a rally in Las Vegas, former US President Barack Obama took aim at Trump, comparing him to a grandfather whose bizarre behaviour would spark concern after rambling speeches and odd dance moves.
“So you would be worried if your grandpa started acting like this, wouldn’t you? You’d call up your brother… like, have you seen grandpa lately? What are we going to do?”
“But this is coming from someone who wants unchecked power, wants the most powerful office on Earth, with the nuclear codes and all that,” Obama added.
Earlier in the day, pop star Lizzo noted, “Whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, or neither, you deserve a president who listens when you speak.”
“You deserve a president who respects when you protest. You deserve a president who understands that their job is to be a public servant,” she said, emphasising that Harris represents just that.
‘About Damn Time’
Lizzo—dressed in a suffragette-white pantsuit as she addressed the crowd in Motor City—drew cheers when she urged the audience that America was ready for its first woman president, referencing her hit song:
“It’s about damn time!”
One of Atlanta’s major stars, Usher, told voters there, “I’m counting on you” to get Harris’s “campaign across the finish line” in Georgia.
Both candidates are spending their final campaign days in pivotal battleground states where early voting is already underway.
Musk, who endorsed Trump in July, is one of the Biden administration’s fiercest critics and has emerged as a prominent voice in US politics since taking over Twitter, now known as X.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has taken an increasingly visible role in Trump’s campaign and has donated almost $75 million to his political organisation, America PAC.
Speaking in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he announced he would start randomly distributing cash awards—$1 million each day until the 5th of November—to a registered voter in the state who signs his organisation’s petition.
AFP