(AFP) TEXAS: As the vice president and rival Donald Trump courted voters with just 11 days to go in a neck-and-neck election, superstar Beyonce provided the latest shot of stardust to Kamala Harris’s White House campaign on Friday.
Beyonce and her Destiny’s Child co-star Kelly Rowland took the stage to introduce Harris to over 20,000 cheering fans in Houston, a major city in Texas and Beyonce’s hometown.
Beyonce said, “It’s time for America to sing a new song,” urging voters to show up.
The superstar didn’t do any hits, but her presence made Harris’s rally, which was about restrictions on abortion in Republican-led states, even more popular.
Beyonce said that she wasn’t there as a famous person but rather as “a mother who cares deeply about the world… a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies.”
Texas is not one of the few battlegrounds that are expected to determine the outcome of the presidential election, nor is it typically the location where the Democrat and her rival would be campaigning in the final days.
However, in the final days of the campaign, Harris is counting on her star-studded show, which also featured country legend Willie Nelson, who is 91 years old.
Harris stated, “We are eleven days out from an election that will decide the future of America, including the freedom of every woman to make decisions about her own body.”
– Podcast postpones rally – While Harris was in Houston, Trump was in Austin filming a three-hour interview with the most popular podcast in the United States, “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
According to a video of the chat that was released on Friday evening, the friendly discussion veered around a variety of topics, including UFOs and secret files on the assassination of president John F. Kennedy. However, it rarely got into policy details and completely avoided the topic of abortion.
Rogan expressed hope that Harris would also make the trip, but he did not say that he was supporting Trump.
However, the comedian was persuaded by the former president to publicly endorse the billionaire Elon Musk.
“You cannot support Kamala by voting. Kamala. Trump stated, “You are not a Kamala person.”
Due to the taping, Trump’s follow-up rally in Michigan, a battleground state, was delayed for several hours, and many people left before the president arrived.
Earlier on Friday, Trump and Harris clashed over allegations that the former Republican president has been running as a “fascist.”
The two camps exchanged insults over claims by Trump’s longest-serving White House head of staff, reverberated by Harris, that Trump is a “fundamentalist” who can’t be entrusted with power once more.
In a statement announcing that they had been briefed on “ongoing and persistent” threats to Trump, Republican leaders in Congress attacked her for that characterization. They also accused Harris of encouraging “another would-be assassin” after he survived a July attempt on his life.
– “Garbage can”: According to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll of registered voters, half of the country agrees with Harris that Trump is a fascist. Harris responded by holding an impromptu news conference.
Harris stated, “The truth is that some of the people closest to Donald Trump… have been very clear about the danger and the threat that (he) poses to America, and the fact that he is unfit to serve” when he was president.
“The American people have a right to hear that and be aware of it so that they can make a choice,”
For the second time this week, during a speech in Austin, Trump referred to the United States as a “garbage can for the world.” This is the latest in a series of inflammatory remarks regarding immigration.
Polls indicate a dead heat in the race. A poll conducted by Siena College and the New York Times and released on Friday found that Harris and Trump were tied at 48% each.
By avoiding newspapers and major television networks in favor of podcasts and YouTube shows watched by unengaged young voters who could make a difference, both candidates have sought to broaden their support.
Trump wants to win over Rogan’s huge audience. In 2023, The Joe Rogan Experience” was the most-listened-to podcast in the world on Spotify, and it has 17.5 million YouTube subscribers.
Harris is counting on the abortion issue to support her claim that Trump poses a threat to American liberties.
Harris said, describing the agony of several women who were forced to travel out of state for emergency medical care, “Texas, what is happening across this state and our country is a health care crisis, and Donald Trump is the architect of it.”
“Please be aware that no one is protected if Trump implements a nationwide ban on abortion.”
The first presidential election to be held after a ruling by the US Supreme Court in 2022 overturned nationwide abortion protections will be in November.
