By Andrea Shalal and Steve Holland
GRAND RAPIDS/HAMTRAMCK, Michigan (Reuters) – Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump advanced on Friday in the battleground state of Michigan, where opinion polls show the U.S. presidential candidates are essentially tied just 18 days behind. of the November 5 elections.
Former President Trump visited a campaign office in Hamtramck, where he heard praise from the Detroit suburb’s first Muslim mayor, Amer Ghalib. Trump was seeking support from Arab Americans in Michigan disenchanted with Democrats, Vice President Harris and President Joe Biden over U.S. support for Israel in the Gaza conflict.
“Ultimately, we all want one thing. We want peace in the Middle East. We are going to achieve peace in the Middle East. It’s going to happen very quickly. It can happen with the right leadership in Washington,” Trump said, without elaborating.
Later, Trump will speak in Auburn Hills, a city in Oakland County north of Detroit, which Biden won by a comfortable margin in 2020. Trump will also return to Detroit, Michigan’s largest city, for a rally around the 7:00 p.m. (23:00 GMT). , after saying on October 10 that the rest of the United States would become Detroit if Harris won.
Harris will speak in Grand Rapids, the heart of more conservative West Michigan, before heading east to Lansing and then Oakland County on Friday night.
The Midwestern state has about 8.4 million voters and would give the winner 15 Electoral College votes of the 270 needed to win, which in several scenarios would be a decisive number. Harris and Trump are fighting fiercely for the state’s Arab American, elderly, union and working-class voters.
Both have intensified their attacks in recent days.
On Friday, Trump falsely said on “Fox & Friends” that Harris is a Marxist and renewed his attacks on her intelligence.
“I don’t think she knows where she is. She’s a low-IQ person. She’s not smart,” he said. Harris said Friday that reports that Trump was skipping interviews and another presidential debate because he was exhausted raised questions about his fitness for office.
“It should be a concern. If you can’t withstand the rigors of the election campaign, are you qualified to do the job?” he told reporters before a rally in Grand Rapids. “That’s a legitimate question.”
‘I’M NOT EVEN TIRED’
Trump, speaking to reporters when he arrived in Detroit, rejected such comments.
“I’ve gone 48 days without rest,” Trump said.
“I’m not even tired. I’m really elated. You know why? We’re killing her in the polls because the American people don’t want her.”
On Thursday, Harris said Trump was “heating up” the American public over his loyalists’ deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump recently called the assault a “day of love.”
In Michigan and other crucial battleground states, either Harris or Trump has a razor-thin margin over the other, according to public and internal campaign polls. That worries Democrats.
Trump won Michigan by 11,000 votes in 2016. In 2020, Biden beat Trump by 155,000 votes.
Harris is changing the strategy of her breakneck campaign to win over more Republicans and men of all races. He is also recruiting popular former first lady Michelle Obama, who will campaign for vice president in Michigan on October 26.
Nationally, Harris’ lead has narrowed from a late September lead of 7 percentage points over Trump to just 3 points, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows, as high food and rent prices remain concerns to Americans and Trump amplifies fears related to immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border. border with increasingly extreme rhetoric.