LAST UPDATE | 18 Oct
DONALD TRUMP AND Kamala Harris held competing rallies in the key US state of Michigan on Friday, as the race for the presidency continues. The state, always a key battleground, could prove decisive for either candidate, with its large Arab-American population angered by US support for Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
Harris has found herself on eggshells as she upholds President Joe Biden’s support for key ally Israel, while Muslim and Arab American voters have voiced outrage over the death toll in Gaza.
She has voiced support for the killing of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in Gaza on Wednesday by Israeli troops, saying she was optimistic it would lead to a ceasefire. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the war is not over.
Her opponent, former President Donald Trump, has not commented specifically on Sinwar’s death, but has previously voiced broad support for Israel’s campaign.
Gaza has become a key issue for many Michigan voters. Marwan Faraj, who emigrated to the US from Lebanon, said he supported Biden but won’t cast a ballot for Harris because of her backing for Israel.
“They have been supporting this ethnic cleansing and genocide since day one, with our tax dollars, and that’s wrong,” said Faraj, who emigrated from Lebanon, referring to Biden and Harris.
The rivals are vying for the remaining undecided voters in a number of key-battleground states as Election Day on 5 November quickly approaches.
The Democratic vice president is narrowly leading her Republican rival nationally and in several crucial swing states, although most polls are within the margin of error.
Both are also deploying high-profile surrogates to sew up support in the race’s final weeks, including billionaire Elon Musk’s series of appearances for Trump in must-win Pennsylvania.
Harris worked a crowd in the manufacturing hub of La Crosse, Wisconsin, saying: “We are nearing the home stretch, and this is going to be a tight race until the very end.”
“Donald Trump is an unserious man, and the consequences of him ever getting his foot back in the Oval Office are brutally serious,” she later said.
Harris, who also rallied voters in Green Bay, one of Wisconsin’s largest cities, extended her outreach to the state’s young voters and blue-collar workers.
Meanwhile, Trump sat for an interview with a supportive podcast, dominated by immigration, the economy and his grievances against the US media.
In the course of the interview, he blamed Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky for Russia’s invasion of his country.
“Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen. Every time he comes in, we give him $100 billion. Who else got that kind of money in history? There’s never been (anyone),” Trump told the two-million-subscriber PBD Podcast.
“And that doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him, because I feel very badly for those people. He should never have let that war start.”
The Trump campaign claimed he had been talking about President Joe Biden, but his remarks were widely interpreted as a swipe at Ukraine.
Trump wrapped the campaigning day at the Al Smith fundraiser dinner, a traditional stop for presidential candidates to poke fun at their rivals and themselves.
The ex-president mocked Harris during his comments, calling her someone who can “barely put together two coherent sentences” and “seems to have mental faculties of a child”.
Harris did not attend, but sent a video that co-starred comedian Molly Shannon, who reprised her Superstar character from US comedy show Saturday Night Live.
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