GOP presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival and Vice President Kamala Harris accused each other of deepening the discord of a deeply divided nation as the presidential campaign entered its final week.
The Republican former president embraced the allegation, donning an orange reflective safety vest and climbing into a garbage truck in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to draw attention to a comment Tuesday by Democrat lame-duck President Joe Biden that he said revealed the contempt Dem leaders feel toward supporters of Trump.
Fielding questions as he sat in the truck, Trump said Biden “should be ashamed of himself” and that the vice president was guilty by association. The former president said his supporters “are not garbage.”
However, Trump distanced himself from the comedian at his Madison Square Garden rally Sunday, Tony Hinchcliffe, who set off this week’s political firestorm by stating Puerto Rico is “a floating island of garbage.”
“I don’t know who he is…I know nothing about him,” said Trump, and added, “I love Puerto Rico, and Puerto Rico loves me.”
In response to Hinchcliffe’s remark and set on blasting Trump’s rally as an affair filled with hate, Biden issued a statement saying the only garbage he could see were Trump supporters.
Later, the president tried to walk back the comment and said he meant Trump supporters’ rhetoric was garbage. However, the damage was done, as the GOP jumped on the comment to claim Democrats, not Trump voters, were working at sowing division before the election.
In the meantime, Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris urged voters in North Carolina to “turn the page” on Donald Trump, whom she said was focused on his grievances instead of the needs of Americans.
“If he is elected, on Day One, Donald Trump will walk into that office with an enemies list. When I am elected, I will walk in with a to-do list,” said Harris.
The race has narrowed in its final weeks, with a Tuesday Reuters/Ipsos poll showing Harris leading Trump by only 44% to 43% among voters registered nationwide, well within the poll’s margin of error. Other opinion polls indicate tight margins in the seven battleground states determining the November 5 election.
Tensions continue to run high. Election workers in battleground states are bracing for potential violence, and Florida authorities arrested a man for menacing voters with a machete.
Polarization in the U.S. has fostered distrust. According to a March Reuters/Ipsos poll, 38% of Republicans said they saw the Democratic Party as an “imminent threat” to America, while 41% of Democrats said the same of the GOP.
Former President Trump continues to claim his 2020 loss to Biden resulted from wide-reaching fraud and has sent signals that he will challenge a 2024 defeat if he feels it is unfair, having filed along with supporters in several lawsuits this year objecting to numerous election rules around the country.
Much of the legal efforts have focused on the risk of noncitizen voting, though state and private reviews have shown the illegal practice has been relatively rare. The campaign focusing on the issue won a significant victory Wednesday when the United States Supreme Court reinstated the Virginia decision to purge 1,600 voters from its voter rolls who state officials concluded might not be citizens, a claim disputed by the Biden administration.
Biden’s gaffe about ‘garbage’
Joe Biden’s comment Tuesday, in which he described Trump supporters as “garbage,” undermined Harris’ pitch to work with those who disagree with her and move past bitter divisions defining American politics.
Biden, the 81-year-old lame-duck incumbent who halted his reelection bid in July after a devastating debate performance against Trump, has a lengthy history of misspeaking. The president said he was referring to racist comments made by one speaker at Trump’s rally Sunday, while Trump accused Joe Biden of referring to his supporters.
“We’re ‘garbage.’ And I call you the heart and soul of America,” said Trump.
Since his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump has gained broad appeal with working-class white Americans, while Democrats have consolidated their support among college-educated, more affluent voters. Control of Congress and the White House has flipped back and forth in recent elections, allowing neither party to claim control over both branches of the government for a lengthy amount of time.
Southern battleground
The dueling North Carolina rallies highlighted the critical role the southern state could play in the election. It was the only battleground state that backed Trump in 2020. It voted last for a Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, although it has had Roy Cooper as its Democratic governor since 2017.
According to a FiveThirtyEight polling average, Trump leads VP Harris by only one percentage point in the state.
The hurricane damage last month has made the results in North Carolina particularly difficult to predict.
The western region, which was hard-hit, leaned Republican and accounted for around 9% of the vote in 2020, according to an analysis by Patrick Ruffini, a GOP pollster.
Although some state officials — including some in the GOP — have praised federal cleanup efforts. The former president has emphasized that disaster aid meant for the state was diverted to help illegal immigrants. The administration has denied any misuse or misallocation of disaster funds.
Forty-three percent of North Carolina’s registered voters have already cast their ballots. According to Michael Blitzer, Catawba College political science professor, They are more likely to be suburban, white, and female than the overall electorate.
The outcome might not be known for quite a while, as absentee ballots can be counted up to 10 days after the election.
