D-9 before the big day of the American presidential election. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are throwing their last energies into these last days of the campaign, each multiplying grandiose events and shocking declarations.
Donald Trump will try to fill the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York this Sunday, while his indictment against Kamala Harris – a “drug addict”, an “idiot” who should “pass a cognitive test”, or even a “vice-president shit” – always turns out to be more violent. For her part, the Democratic candidate did not hesitate to describe her rival as “fascist” this week, while filling her rallies with stars this week, from Bruce Springsteen to Beyoncé via Eminem. Enough to swing the election to one camp or the other? A question to which the polls, as tight as ever, are so far incapable of answering.
Accusation of the week: Harris calls Trump a ‘fascist’
“Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?” When a CNN journalist asked Kamala Harris this question on Thursday, October 24, the Democratic candidate did not hesitate for long. “Yes, I think so,” she then replied.
She is not the first to have used this term against the ex-president. It even comes from Donald Trump’s former chief of staff from 2017 to 2019, John Kelly, who said that the Republican candidate had the profile of a “fascist who could govern like a dictator if he were elected “. Furthermore, assuring that he would have… praised Hitler in private during his first term – remarks denied by Donald Trump’s current spokesperson. But if Kamala Harris seems to be playing her best, these very strong words could well come back to her face.
The commitment of the week: the Obama couple throws themselves headlong into the battle
We could almost wonder who the candidate of the Democratic camp really is. This Thursday, it was first of all Barack Obama who once again appeared at a meeting alongside Kamala Harris in Georgia, particularly with the aim of mobilizing an African-American electorate with a very uncertain vote.
And this Saturday, it was Michelle Obama who was in a meeting with the Democratic candidate, for her second major appearance of the campaign after her very notable appearance at the Democratic convention last August. The former American first lady, still one of the most popular personalities across the Atlantic, assured that Kamala Harris would be an “extraordinary president”, notably getting involved in a feminist register. “We must raise our voices to make the men we love understand what is at stake. Our lives are worth more than their anger and disappointment, and we are not just baby-making machines,” he said. she launched.
Image of the week: Donald Trump in the fryer at McDonald’s
It’s a staging that the United States loves. Donald Trump in a McDonald’s, in the state of Pennsylvania, who puts on the apron, drains and salts the fries, puts them in bags, and comes to distribute them to customers in their cars – obviously selected for the occasion by the Republican camp.
A well-executed communications operation, which directly targeted Kamala Harris. The Democratic candidate has in fact several times highlighted her summer job in the American fast food restaurant to demonstrate her proximity to the American middle class. “I have now worked 15 minutes longer than Kamala, she has never worked here,” declared Donald Trump as soon as he arrived in the restaurant.
If the McDonald’s group sent an internal press release affirming that the company’s headquarters was not aware of this communication operation and recalling that it did not support either of the two candidates, it is difficult to imagine them being so unhappy to have been space of a few days at the center of attention.
Apologies of the week: Joe Biden at the bedside of the Native American population
“A sin that stains our soul.” American President Joe Biden presented this Friday a historic apology to Native American peoples, “one of the darkest chapters in the history of our country”, evoking in particular the children torn from their families for more than a century by the state to place them in boarding schools where they were mistreated with the aim of forced assimilation.
If these excuses are not necessarily insincere, it is also difficult not to see them through the prism of the upcoming presidential election. Arizona, one of the key states in this election and which Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020, should still be decided by a handful of votes. However, it is also the state with the highest proportion of Native Americans in the country, and for which these declarations could be important on November 5.
The bromance of the week: between Viktor Orban and Donald Trump, the love is amazing
A country 10 times smaller in area, 34 times less populated, and with a GDP more than 200 times lower. And yet, Viktor Orban’s Hungary turns out to be a real model for the America dreamed of by Donald Trump. The Republican candidate is never stingy with compliments to the Hungarian Prime Minister, whom he received on multiple occasions at the White House when he was president, but also at his residence at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. The two men have continued to grow closer against a backdrop of hostility to migrants, exaltation of traditional values, hatred towards progressives and the fight against “wokism”. Since 2020, their networks have actively cooperated and fed each other’s illiberal ideology.
The fake news of the week: already the return of accusations of electoral fraud
It didn’t take more to fuel all the fantasies. In Whitfield County, a voter using a touch-screen voting machine mistakenly selected the name of a candidate she did not want to elect. If the incident was avoided – the voter was able to instantly correct her error and vote for the right candidate – the affair took on enormous proportions on social networks. With the first accusations of massive electoral fraud on the part of Trumpist activists, which are already obviously reminiscent of the 2020 campaign.
Generally speaking, this American campaign is still marked by a new preponderance of fake news and false information. With a lot of fake news also coming straight… from Russia, which does not hesitate to use artificial intelligence to multiply its online strike force.
Video of the week: the risk of a new assault on the Capitol?
It was four years ago. In 2020, Donald Trump refused to recognize the results of the presidential election, “rigged” according to him, and called on his supporters to protest against the counting of the electoral college on January 6, 2021 in Congress. The result is still remembered: thousands of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
On November 5, the United States will know the name of its new president: Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. But the latter has not forgotten the episode of 2020 and still leaves doubt about his intention to recognize or not the legitimacy of the election. Enough to fear the worst scenario.