It's not a matter of taking sides, I just want people to stop dying, Donald Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania, the largest swing state in the US. Kamala Harris also met with voters in Pennsylvania. She said Trump was “increasingly unbalanced and unstable” and “wanted to send the military against his opponents.”
Former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attended a meeting with his constituents on Monday in Oaks, a suburb of Philadelphia. He answered questions from his supporters mainly about the economy and immigration. He also commented on the war in Ukraine.
– I got along very well with Putin. I understand what's going on. Ukraine was the apple of his eye. He was talking about her, but I told him: you won't come in. And he didn't go in. It's just because of Biden. He looked at this guy and couldn't even believe it,” Trump said.
He later recalled that during one of the interviews, a CNN journalist asked him whose side of the war he was on. – It's not a matter of sides. I want people to stop dying. That's all. I want them to stop dying, he said.
Trump's rally at the Oaks – which took place in a small warehouse without air conditioning – was interrupted twice because participants fainted. After his second supporter was escorted out of the building, the former president ordered the song “Ave Maria” to be sung, then decided there would be no more questions and participants would listen to music instead.
The crowd remained in the building for another hour while songs were played from loudspeakers, including: Luciano Pavarotti, James Brown, Guns'n'Roses.
Monday's rally was Trump's second campaign event with logistical problems. After a weekend performance near Coachella, thousands of voters were stranded in the California desert and were bussed to the venue but not returned to the parking lot where they left their cars.
Harris: Trump is increasingly unbalanced and unstable
In Pennsylvania, Trump's rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, held her rally in Erie. In her speech, the Democratic candidate focused on her family support program, abortion rights and the threat she believes Trump poses to American democracy.
Harris also presented excerpts from Trump's remarks about “domestic enemies,” including his recent suggestion that if there were riots due to “domestic enemies” on Election Day, the military should intervene.
– You heard his words. He talks about the enemy within, (…) he says that he considers anyone who does not support him or does not want to submit to his will as an enemy of our country. He says he will use the army to take care of them, Harris said.
We know who he would target because he has attacked them before: journalists whose articles he doesn't like, election officials who refuse to cheat and find extra votes for him, judges who insist on following the law rather than bending to his will. This is one of the reasons why I believe so strongly that a second Trump term would be a huge risk and danger for America, she added.
Harris also assessed that Trump is “increasingly unbalanced and unstable” and will strive for unlimited power. Earlier, commenting on Trump's same words, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz called the former president “fascist to the core.” The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, described his former superior in the same way, quoted in a new book by journalist Bob Woodward.
Pennsylvania, with 19 votes in the Electoral College, is the largest of the “swing” states in the current election and is considered by most experts as a state where the outcome may be decided.
Even though the election is three weeks away, in most of the state's counties, voters can already cast ballots by mail or by handing ballots in person at local clerk's offices. The latest available data shows that over 400,000 people have already cast their votes. people (a total of 2.6 million voted this way in 2020, i.e. 37% of all voters), the vast majority of whom (69%) are voters registered as democrats. In 2020, the percentage of Democrats voting by mail was 64.8%.
US elections – what are they about?
US presidential elections are indirect, not direct. Americans decide on the election of the president by entrusting their votes to the electors. During the Electoral College, they determine who will sit in the White House. There are 538 electors in the Electoral College, elected from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. To win the election, you need to win the support of 270 of them.
The final result of the presidential election may be decided by votes in the so-called swing states, i.e. swinging states in which sometimes the Republican candidate wins the election, and sometimes the Democratic candidate. Hence, Trump and Harris put so much emphasis on campaigns in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin, which are considered swing states. The first of these states is particularly important here, as it has as many as 19 electoral votes.
The US elections will take place on November 5.
Main photo source: EPA/SHAWN THEW