Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump stormed through the battleground state of Michigan on Friday, where polls show the US presidential candidates are virtually tied just 18 days before the November 5 election.
Former President Trump visited a campaign office in Hamtramck, where he heard praise from the Detroit suburb’s first Muslim mayor, Amer Ghalib. Trump sought support from Arab Americans in Michigan who were disenchanted with Democrats, Vice President Harris and President Joe Biden over US support for Israel in the Gaza conflict.
“At the end of the day, we all want one thing. We want peace in the Middle East. We will have peace in the Middle East. It will happen very soon. It can happen with the right leadership in Washington,” Trump said, without elaborating.
Later, Trump was scheduled to speak in Auburn Hills, a city in Oakland County north of Detroit that Biden won by a comfortable margin in 2020. Trump will also return to Detroit – Michigan’s largest city – for a rally around 7pm (11pm GMT). , after saying on October 10 that the rest of the US would become Detroit if Harris won.
Harris will speak in Grand Rapids, the heart of more conservative western Michigan, before heading east to Lansing and then to Oakland County on Friday evening.
The Midwestern state has about 8.4 million voters and would give the winner 15 Electoral College votes out of the 270 needed to win, which would be a decisive number under several scenarios. Harris and Trump are competing fiercely for the state’s Arab-American, senior, union and blue-collar voters.
Both have tightened their attacks in recent days.
On Friday, Trump falsely told the Fox & Friends program that Harris is Marxist and renewed his attacks on her intelligence.
‘I don’t think she knows where she is. She has a low IQ. She is not smart,” he said. Harris said Friday that Trump skipped interviews and that another presidential debate because he was exhausted raised questions about his fitness for office.
“It should be a concern. If he can’t handle the rigors of the campaign trail, is he qualified to do the job?’ she told reporters before a rally in Grand Rapids. “That’s a legitimate question.”
‘I’m not even tired’
Trump, speaking to reporters when he arrived in Detroit, rejected such talk.
“I’ve now gone 48 days without rest,” Trump said.
‘I’m not even tired. I’m really excited. Do you know why? We’re killing her at the polls because the American people don’t want her.”
On Thursday, Harris said Trump “gaslighted” the American public over his loyalists’ deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump recently called the attack a “day of love.”
In Michigan and other crucial battleground states, either Harris or Trump has a razor-thin margin over the other, according to public and internal campaign polls. That worries Democrats.
Trump won Michigan in 2016 by 11,000 votes. In 2020, Biden defeated Trump by 155,000 votes.
Harris is changing the strategy of her whirlwind campaign to win over more Republicans and men of all races. She also brings in popular former first lady Michelle Obama, who will campaign for vice president in Michigan on October 26.
Nationally, Harris’ lead has narrowed from a 7 percentage point lead over Trump at the end of September to just 3 points, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. High food and rent prices continue to worry Americans, and Trump is increasing fears over migrants crossing the US-Mexico. border with increasingly extreme rhetoric.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)