Fresh from her triumphant inauguration in Chicago, Kamala Harris is entering a new phase of her campaign, ten weeks before a presidential election that still promises to be very close, and while her rival Donald Trump is, like her, scouring the strategic states.
The Democratic vice president, who is running against the former Republican president, made a bus trip to Georgia on Wednesday, one of seven ” swing states ” where the November 5 vote promises to be particularly contested.
Accompanied by her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, she stopped at a high school, where she attended a band rehearsal, and then at a restaurant.
Kamala Harris believes she has a chance of keeping Georgia, a state that has voted for the Republican presidential candidate since 1996, but which President Joe Biden won narrowly in 2020.
It is also in this southern state that the 59-year-old Democrat will give her first interview as a candidate on Thursday, on CNN, in the company of her running mate.
Interview then debate
A close adviser to her Republican opponent, Jason Miller, criticized Kamala Harris for using Tim Walz as a “human shield” in an interview with Newsmax, a favorite of the radical right.
The interview with journalist Dana Bash will air at 9 p.m., CNN said.
The vice president, who has bitter memories of a failed interview at the start of her term on the subject of immigration, was facing increasing pressure to answer questions from a major American media outlet.
Since her spectacular entry into the campaign, following Joe Biden’s stunning withdrawal on July 21, she has limited herself to very brief exchanges with journalists or meetings with influencers.
The CNN interview is to be followed on September 10 by the next highlight of this extraordinary campaign: the highly anticipated debate with Donald Trump on ABC.
The former Republican president assured on Tuesday that an “agreement” had been reached on the technical arrangements for the debate, two days after threatening not to participate, something that the Harris camp has not confirmed.
“Swing states”
Kamala Harris has gained some momentum in the polls and is fresh off a triumphant Democratic nomination convention in Chicago.
But the race remains extremely tight, especially in the famous ” swing states ” on which both candidates are now focusing their efforts.
Donald Trump, who was in Michigan on Monday, will return there on Thursday before going to Wisconsin. He will then head to Pennsylvania on Friday.
Her rival has a very similar schedule, since she will be in turn in Michigan and Pennsylvania on Monday, September 2, Labor Day.
The 78-year-old Republican can count on a very stable base, and even more fervent since he was the victim of an assassination attempt on July 13.
The numerous legal proceedings weighing on him do not change anything, and even further mobilize “Trumpists” convinced that their candidate is the victim, as he repeated again on Tuesday, of a “witch hunt.”
Polls
The site FiveThirtyEight, which aggregates several polls, credits the vice president with a lead of around three points over her Republican rival.
This does not guarantee that he will win a majority of the votes of the electors.
The Republican billionaire has multiplied his attacks on the personality of his rival, whom he describes as “not very intelligent”, and on her record.
“Five weeks ago still […] “She was considered a terrible vice president,” Donald Trump said during an interview broadcast Tuesday with Dr Phil, former American television star.
Kamala Harris’ campaign team, for its part, released a video attacking “Project 2025,” a very conservative government program developed by people close to Donald Trump.
The former president wants to have “total control” of the country, warns the narrator of the capsule in a serious voice.