(Aurora) Donald Trump further demonized migrants on Friday, promising that his possible return to the White House would sign the “liberation” of an “occupied America”, in total contrast to his rival Kamala Harris and her seduction operation among centrist voters.
“Today, America is known throughout the world as occupied America. We are occupied by a criminal force,” the Republican billionaire told an enthusiastic crowd in Colorado.
November 5, the date of the presidential election, “will be the day of the liberation of America,” he added, to cheers.
The 78-year-old tribune had chosen his setting for a speech almost entirely focused on immigration, intended to hammer home his promise of “mass deportations”: Aurora, a small town in the American West that he has falsely portrayed for weeks as a city where illegal migrants allegedly “took power”.
Kamala Harris is a “criminal”, who “imported an army of illegal aliens, gang members and criminal migrants from third world dungeons”, he lambasted. “Here we have the most striking example. »
Aurora hit the headlines this summer because of a video broadcast on loop by the Trumpist sphere, where we see armed Latin Americans breaking into apartments.
It has since been presented by Mr. Trump and his allies as a “war zone”. To the great despair of the city’s mayor, Mike Coffman, himself a Republican.
The local elected official recalled on multiple occasions that a handful of incidents had been blown out of proportion. Just this week, he said that “concerns about Venezuelan gang activity have been greatly exaggerated” and that “Aurora is a very safe city.”
But that doesn’t stop Donald Trump from claiming that mass arrivals at the border under the Biden-Harris administration have caused a wave of crime in the United States — something no official statistics show.
“Enemy from within”
Mr. Trump on Friday raised the threat of an “enemy within”. In September, he echoed lies that Haitian migrants were eating dogs and cats in Ohio.
Rallying in Nevada on Friday evening, a state where casinos closed during the pandemic, he sprinkled his message with economic arguments, recalling his plan to exempt tips from taxes.
But he made no secret of his strategy.
Political strategists “say the most important thing is the economy and inflation, and the second important thing is the border and immigration. I think it’s perhaps the opposite,” he said.
Conversely, Kamala Harris is betting on the fact that the election will be won by switching certain moderates to her side.
At a rally in Arizona, the vice-president continued her offensive against Republicans who are reluctant to support the former president.
She promised to appoint a minister from their party in the event of victory, and to create a joint council at the White House, with Democrats and Republicans, on which to rely.
“I like good ideas wherever they come from!” » she said.
Mme Harris remains neck and neck in the polls with her rival, particularly in the seven key states that will swing the election.
To better plow these key states, but also to mobilize the male electorate, with whom Donald Trump is more popular, the vice-president is using heavyweights from her party.
Barack Obama will soon go to Arizona and Nevada. Thursday in Pennsylvania, the Democratic icon reprimanded his black “brothers” tempted by Donald Trump, who confuse machismo with force and “do not like the idea of having a woman in the presidency”.
Harris increases the number of interviews
Another former Democratic president, Bill Clinton, will campaign in Georgia for vice president.
Mme Harris, who has so far targeted the middle classes in her campaign, has increased her interviews in recent days. Friday, she also appeared on the front page of the magazine Voguefashion institution.
The vice-president is scheduled to travel to North Carolina this weekend and then to Pennsylvania on Monday.
Donald Trump will be in Arizona on Sunday, another key state.
Beyond the pivotal states, the ex-president also wants to appear on Democratic soil, for the sake of honor.
He will be seen on Saturday in California at Coachella, a town known for its music festival, before a campaign rally at the end of October in New York’s most emblematic venue, Madison Square Garden.