Biden, Obama and Trump | Shock of presidents in Pennsylvania three days before the election

(Philadelphia) With three days of “decisive” elections in the United States, President Joe Biden and his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama urged on Saturday to “vote” to protect “democracy”, their opponent Donald Trump wanting a “giant wave Republican to “save the American dream”.

During a marathon day of competing rallies in Pennsylvania, a crucial state for the November 8 midterm legislative elections, the 46^e (Biden) and 44^e (Obama) White House tenants clashed remotely with the 45^e (Trump), before a ballot that will lay the foundations for the 2024 presidential election.

“Democracy is literally on the ballot. This is a decisive moment for the nation and we must all speak with one voice, ”said Joe Biden, under a blue and red light, a huge American flag and the ovations of a hall in Philadelphia, the cradle of the American Constitution at the end of the XVIII^e century.

All the spotlight is on Pennsylvania, a former steel-making bastion, where Republican multi-millionaire surgeon Mehmet Oz, a Donald Trump-esque TV star, faces off against bald colossus and former small-town Democratic mayor John Fetterman for the most contested seat in the Senate.

Because of this position of senator undoubtedly depends the balance of the powers of the upper house of Congress, with immense power.

Tuesday, November 8, the Americans are also called upon to renew the entire House of Representatives. Governors and local elected officials, who decide their state’s policies for abortion or the environment, are also at stake.

Mr. Obama, who is full of nostalgia, was first in Pittsburgh, an industrial city in Pennsylvania, where he asked “Cousin Pookie” and “Uncle Joe”, the affectionate nicknames of demobilized voters, buried in their couch, to get up and “go vote!” Tuesday for Democrats.

Obama, “I love you! »

” I love you ! “, then launched someone in the crowd.

“I love you too, but you have to vote! “Replied the politician with obvious oratorical talents and charisma.

He acknowledged that “the whole country has gone through difficult times in recent years”, especially with a “historic pandemic”.

But the father of health insurance “Obamacare” attacked Republicans, who want to “dismember Social Security, Medicare and give the rich and big business more tax cuts”.

Alongside his former Vice President Biden in Philadelphia, Barack Obama also asked, hoarsely, to protect “democracy on the ballot (because) the stakes are high”.

“It is very important that the Democrats stay” in power, added Jennifer Hahn, a 57-year-old psychologist who lined up for hundreds of meters under a magnificent autumn sun for the rally of Biden, Obama and Fetterman.

For this Democrat, “climate change, gun violence and infringement of individual rights” are the most crucial issues of the ballot.

Jacqueline Smythe, 30, also fears a backlash on abortion after the Supreme Court blasted this federal right last June. She finds that the Republican Party resembles a “dictatorship”.

“Giant Wave”

In the evening, still in Pennsylvania, in the town of Latrobe, the hero of the Republicans, ex-President Trump (2017-2021), red cap “Make America Great again” pushed down on his head and hiding his gaze, very long called for a “giant wave” of his party to “end the destruction of the country and save the American dream”.

After a fierce campaign centered on inflation, the Republicans are showing their confidence in their chances of depriving the Democratic President of his majorities on November 8th.

If their predictions are confirmed, the 76-year-old businessman seems determined to take advantage of it to formalize his candidacy for the presidency of 2024 as soon as possible.

With an air of revenge on his defeat of 2020.

“We have to get our country back,” said a supporter at the Latrobe rally, Shawn Ecker Grey, 44, while Leslie Boswell said “love (r) Trump because he supports everything that (she) believes

Joe Biden has so far said he wants to run again, but the prospect does not appeal to all Democrats because of his age – soon to be 80 – and his unpopularity.

The Democratic leader is trying to convince Americans that this election is “a choice”: on the future of abortion or same-sex marriage – all subjects on which he has promised to legislate if he obtains solid majorities in Congress.

But it is the rise in prices – 8.2% inflation on average over one year – which remains by far the main concern of Americans, and Joe Biden’s efforts to pose as “president of the middle class” are struggling. to bear fruit.