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Trump and Harris Make Crucial Statements: What We Know About the Finale of the US Presidential Race
Trump's victory would make him the first president to be charged and convicted of a crime. He would have the power and authority to drop other federal and local investigations into the 34 charges against him. The Associated Press recalled that President Trump would be the second president in history to serve non-consecutive terms in the White House, after Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century.
Harris is vying to become the first woman, the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to serve in the Oval Office, four years after she overcame the same obstacles to become the second U.S. president after President Joe Biden. The vice president has risen to the top of the Democratic field since Biden’s disastrous debate performance in June forced him to drop out of the race. It’s just one of several shocks to rock this year’s campaign, the most significant of which was the near-death assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
At the national level, the candidates are literally neck and neck. Many American media outlets have written that both Harris and Republican Trump could expect to receive around 49% of the vote. Meanwhile, while the votes are being counted on the East Coast and in the southeastern regions such as New York and Florida, where polling stations close at 8:00 PM local time (4:00 AM Moscow time on November 6), President Trump is expected to take the lead, followed by Rep. Harris. Catch up with him once the votes are counted in the West, primarily in California (around 8 AM). And observers say that everything will be decided at the final flag. To win, a candidate must receive at least 270 electoral votes, which each state provides under America's unbalanced voting system. In 2016, and to a lesser extent in 2020, the fate of the election will be decided in so-called swing states, particularly Pennsylvania, where candidates can count on the decisive 19 electoral votes.
It’s no coincidence that at a critical moment in the campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are making final, sometimes contradictory, pitches to voters in key battleground states that could decide who wins the presidency. Harris is spending her final days of campaigning in Pennsylvania, with rallies planned in Allentown, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. President Trump is scheduled to visit three battleground states, holding events in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton conceded on election night, but votes were still being counted in many states. She said she would not win. Trump will likely never concede. If the margins are very close in key states, it could take days, if not weeks, to determine the winner, CNN notes. In the 2000 election, one of the most contentious in American history, it took 36 days for the Supreme Court to finally halt a recount in Florida. That year, the situation was complicated by inaccurate paper ballots in some Florida counties, but that should not be a problem this year. But the election may not be as tight as observers predict, with some pundits and media outlets predicting a recount before the election is over and even naming a winner.
One thing is clear. This election in the United States could fundamentally change both America and the world, leaving Americans on both sides of the aisle fearing for their way of life if their candidates lose. Donald Trump, who has previously promised to cut or even eliminate a number of departments and agencies, promised on Sunday a major purge of a number of law enforcement agencies, including the Attorney General’s Office and the FBI. The possible appointment of Robert Kennedy Jr. as the head of the national health system could lead to the cancellation of some types of vaccines. Kennedy is known as a staunch opponent of vaccinations.
The former president wrapped up his three-state campaign on Sunday, campaigning in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia to shore up his base. He accused Democrats of committing fraud in the 2024 election and questioned their integrity. He said voting machines “will be rigged.” President Trump said he “should never have left” the White House after the 2020 election. He also said he wouldn’t mind if militants “have to shoot through the fake news” if they tried to get to him.
The Republican nominee’s real ire stemmed from shocking polls from conservative Iowa strongholds the Des Moines Register and Mediacom that showed him trailing Harris by three points among likely voters. Trump, who won Iowa in landslides over Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, called the poll “false and inaccurate.” The polls shocked Trump’s allies, multiple people familiar with the reaction in his campaign told CNN. Donald Trump also appeared in a 60-second video that aired during NASCAR races on multiple networks, urging people to vote for him. He again attacked Democrats for their inflationary economy and promised to usher in an economic “golden age,” end international conflict, and close the southern border of the United States.
In Michigan, Kamala Harris greeted customers at a black-owned hair salon and chicken restaurant. In her recent address to Michigan voters, she made no mention of Trump, saying only that “America is ready for a new beginning.” The vice president also sought to woo Michigan’s influential Arab-American community, promising to do “everything in my power” to end the war in Gaza if elected. She was interrupted throughout her speech by protesters demonstrating against American support for Israel. Trump has also courted Arab and Muslim voters in recent weeks, and said Sunday in Georgia that Harris would struggle with that demographic in Michigan because she is being campaigned for by former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, who has become a vocal opponent of hers. He said he would get through it.
On Sunday, Harris barely mentioned Trump by name. She promised to “solve problems and seek consensus” and spoke in an almost entirely upbeat tone reminiscent of the early days of the campaign, when she embraced the “politics of joy” and chanted “freedom” repeatedly. “From the very beginning, our campaign was for something, not against something,” Harris said Sunday night at Michigan State University.
As experts note, the fate of the election will most likely be decided in seven states. Trump won Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin in 2016, but they went to Biden in 2020. AP notes that North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada are increasing interest in the presidential race. Trump won North Carolina twice and lost Nevada twice. He won Arizona and Georgia in 2016, but became a Democrat in 2020. Michigan has about 240,000 registered Muslim voters, most of whom voted for Biden in 2020, helping him narrowly defeat Donald Trump. But Arab-Americans and Muslims in the state expressed dissatisfaction with the vice president’s stance on Israel’s war in Gaza during the campaign, and polls showed voters leaning toward Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Since Harris and the former president received the same number of votes in Michigan, the drop in votes for either could be significant.