(Washington) Donald Trump definitively ruled out on Wednesday facing Kamala Harris during a new debate and redoubled attacks against his Democratic rival during rallies in Pennsylvania one month before the presidential election in the United States.
“There will be no rematch!” », Wrote the Republican billionaire on his network, Truth Social, despite proposals from CNN and Fox News to broadcast a face-to-face between the two candidates.
“Kamala clearly stated yesterday that she would do nothing different from Joe Biden, so there is no room for debate,” he added.
The tribune was destabilized by the vice-president during their only televised duel on September 10, according to most observers. Mme Harris had tickled his ego on many issues – attendance at his rallies, the disaffection of his former political allies, his international reputation – preventing him from developing his vision for the country.
Mr. Trump, however, repeatedly repeats that he won this debate. After multiple retreats, he puts an end to the suspense.
PHOTO RONDA CHURCHILL, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris
On Wednesday, the former president preferred to carry out his attacks against Mme Harris facing crowds won over to her cause in Pennsylvania, a northeastern state which promises to be one of the most contested in the presidential election.
“Absolute horror film”
“She is incompetent, she cannot be trusted and she is totally incapable of being president,” he said at a rally in Scranton, the hometown of his successor in the White House Joe Biden .
On the grounds of the Democratic president, whom he had largely dominated during their debate at the end of June, the Republican described his ex-adversary as a “pathetic” and “sad” man.
“Our country has just endured four years of an absolute horror film, we cannot afford four more years,” he insisted, resuming his dark vision of an America on the brink of the abyss.
In Reading, another Pennsylvania town, the tribune pounded Mme Harris, resuming his violent anti-migrant diatribes.
“Kamala […] has spent the last four years importing criminals, unvetted refugees and terrorists into our country,” he said, once again lying about official statistics. “I will free Pennsylvania and our entire country from this massive invasion. »
Anger linked to the industrial decline of Pennsylvania was one of the keys to Mr. Trump’s victory in 2016. But in 2020, it was Joe Biden who won in this state.
To win back local workers, Kamala Harris is counting on the major infrastructure projects launched by Joe Biden, which create jobs, and the support of unions.
She also changed her position on hydraulic fracturing, a controversial method of extracting shale gas widely used in the state, which she now supports.
A turnaround that Mr. Trump tried to exploit. If his competitor is elected, “there will be no hydraulic fracturing and it will be the end of Pennsylvania,” he said.
Trump at Madison Square Garden
The Democratic candidate will return to Pennsylvania on Monday, where one of the Democratic Party’s best emissaries will also visit on Thursday: former President Barack Obama.
At the end of the week, she must hold campaign meetings in Arizona and Nevada – two other states which will be decisive for the election, organized by indirect universal ballot.
On Wednesday, the vice-president described as “dangerous” and “unacceptable” the unfounded accusations hammered out in recent days by the Republican camp, and Donald Trump in the first place, on the management of hurricanes Helen and Milton by the federal government.
The two candidates remain neck and neck in polls in key states.
And this, despite a series of unprecedented twists and turns in the campaign: the criminal conviction of Donald Trump, two assassination attempts targeting him, and the withdrawal of candidacy of current President Joe Biden.
Beyond the key states, Donald Trump is also seeking to tickle the Democrats in their strongholds: he is organizing a rally in California on Saturday – known to be very progressive – and announced on Wednesday that he was planning an event in the legendary Madison Square Garden venue in New York. York.
According to the US elections project, some 2.5 million voters have already made their choice and slipped a ballot into the ballot box during early voting operations.