With a week to go until the US presidential election, the fight continues to heat up, with Kamala Harris facing mass protests in Washington and Joe Biden calling supporters of Republican candidate Trump “garbage.”
Harris faces Gaza protest during Ellipse speech
US Vice President and Democrat Kamala Harris, who is campaigning in Washington, faced protests from hundreds of people expressing disapproval of her administration’s policy on the Gaza Strip.
With the November 5 presidential election just a week away, Harris held a rally on the Capital Ellipse – the same place where former President Donald Trump addressed his supporters before attacking the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Her speech drew tens of thousands of people, underscoring the high stakes of the final stretch of the campaign.
As she addressed the crowd, making her campaign’s closing argument, about 300 demonstrators began chanting slogans criticising the Biden-Harris administration’s Gaza policy, drawing attention to civilian casualties.
Demonstrators held signs calling for an arms embargo on Israel and chanted:
“Kamala, what do you say? We won’t vote for you on election day. How many kids did you kill today?”
Protesters maintained their presence throughout Harris’ speech and then marched with banners down a nearby street leading to the White House.
Trump attempts to recover Latino support with Pennsylvania rally
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has made a call for Latino support in Allentown, Pennsylvania, shortly after his controversial rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
The event took place Tuesday night as Trump continues to grapple with the fallout from the New York rally, where the comedian compared Puerto Rico to a “floating island of garbage.”
On stage in Allentown, however, Trump seemed to brush off the controversy. He said to cheers:
“I’m so proud that we’re getting support from Latinos like never before. We’re setting every record. Hispanics, Latinos — nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do.”
As if to prove his point, the Republican leader surrounded himself on stage with members of the Latino community.
Mayoral candidate Tim Ramos, Cuban American Senator Marco Rubio and Zoraida Buxó, a shadow senator from Puerto Rico, all spoke at the Allentown event on his behalf. It was a show of defiance for Trump, who has been plagued by scandals in the past, causing some critics to call him the “Teflon Don”.
But the rally in Allentown was also a risky gambit because it put him at the centre of a community that would have felt the sting of the remarks at Madison Square Garden acutely.
Lehigh County, home to Allentown, has the largest Hispanic community in Pennsylvania, which is a crucial voting place. According to the 2020 Census, Lehigh County has 96,981 Hispanics out of 374,557 residents. That represents more than a quarter of the population.
Crucial battleground
Pennsylvania is the fifth most populous state in the US, and as such, it could bring a significant number of electoral college votes to whichever candidate wins the state.
Trump is therefore campaigning hard in Pennsylvania, hoping to win 19 electoral college votes. But he and his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, are virtually tied in that state. A poll conducted by CBS News and YouGov over the past week showed both candidates with 49 per cent support.
Nearly 9 percent of the state’s population identifies as Latino. In his speech, Trump sought to adapt his vision of the US economic downturn under Harris to a Latino audience. Trump told his supporters:
“I will deliver the best future for Puerto Ricans and Hispanic Americans. Kamala will deliver you poverty and crime.”
Still, the shadow of the rally at Madison Square Garden loomed over the course of events in Allentown.
The rally was widely condemned as racist, and it led the Trump campaign, if not Trump himself, to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico an island of “garbage.” One of the speakers at Tuesday’s rally in Allentown, Senator Rubio, was rumoured to be a candidate for Trump’s running mate.
A day earlier, he defended Trump on social media, writing, “Puerto Rico is not trash, it is home to American citizens who have contributed so much to our country.” He also added:
“I understand why some people were offended by a comedians jokes last night. But those weren’t Trump’s words. They were jokes by an insult comic who offends virtually everyone, all the time.”
White House seeks to play clean up after Biden calls Trump supporters “garbage”
The White House sought to play down President Joe Biden’s comments after he unleashed a firestorm by calling Trump supporters “garbage.”
During Vice President Kamla Harris’ virtual conversation with Voto Latino, Biden characterised former President Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden, which hit the headlines after offended comedian Tony Hinchiff made jokes about different ethnic groups and in one joke called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage”. He said:
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. Trump’s demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable, and it is un-American.”
His remarks were quickly compared to Hillary Clinton calling half of Trump’s supporters a “basket of deplorables” in 2016, which many believe undermined her campaign.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates told Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich that President Biden “called the hate speech at the Madison Square Garden rally “garbage”. He said:
“The president was referencing a joke by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe in which he likened Puerto Rico to an island of floating ‘garbage’ in the middle of the ocean.”
The White House previously told NBC News that the president was referring to Hinchcliffe. Biden later sought to clarify his comments, saying he was condemning Hinchcliffe’s remarks, not Trump supporters. Biden wrote on X:
“Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporters at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage—which is the only word I can think of to describe it. His demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”
Trump campaign national spokeswoman Carolyn Leavitt said in a statement that Biden and Harris “despise the tens of millions” who support the Republican nominee.
