New York: On Sunday, just over a week before Americans vote in an extremely close White House race, Kamala Harris goes neighborhood to neighborhood in Philadelphia while Donald Trump gathers supporters at an iconic arena.
It is anticipated that the coverage of Trump’s event at Madison Square Garden, which has nearly 20,000 seats, will be intense in the Republican’s home city, which is still largely a Democratic stronghold.
In one of the most contentious and suspenseful elections in American history, both candidates are making closing arguments to voters. Prior to the November 5 vote, polls suggest a dead heat.
Harris, 60, has planned a full day of campaigning in the largest city in Pennsylvania, including stops at a Puerto Rican restaurant and a Black church and barbershop.
The vice president will make her 14th trip to Pennsylvania, according to a senior Harris campaign official, since she jumped to the top of the ticket following President Joe Biden’s sudden withdrawal in July.
On Tuesday in Washington, Harris will deliver what her campaign dubbed her “closing argument” in front of her supporters at the park where Trump rallied supporters prior to the riot on January 6.
Backers and surrogates like billionaire Elon Musk, who has personally campaigned for the former president, are expected to attend Trump’s rally on Sunday at the “World’s Most Famous Arena.”
It has played host to the Rolling Stones, Madonna, and U2 as well as numerous Democratic and Republican presidential conventions over the years, making it a storied venue in US sporting and cultural life.
However, the venue’s connection to the far-right, pro-Hitler Bund group, which staged a rally in 1939 complete with salutes, Nazi insignia, and eagles, will result in negative press.
Just a few days prior to Trump’s appearance at Madison Square Garden, one of his most senior former officials, John Kelly, stated that the Republican fits the definition of a fascist, which Harris later stated that she agreed with.
“Genuine fear” of Trump’s victory The most recent high-powered Harris surrogate, former first lady Michelle Obama, expressed her “genuine fear” on Saturday that Trump might win the presidency again.
She predicted that Harris would be an “extraordinary president,” but Obama also expressed a sense of frustration and anxiety that few on the vice president’s team would dare express after the vice president had lost some of her momentum in recent weeks.
