Harris and Trump's Final Push Brings Them to Same Patch of Pennsylvania

Associated Press
November 5, 2024 | 11:18 am
SHARE
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, from right, visits Old San Juan Cafe restaurant with restaurant owner Diana de La Rosa and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during a campaign stop in Reading, Pennsylvania, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, from right, visits Old San Juan Cafe restaurant with restaurant owner Diana de La Rosa and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during a campaign stop in Reading, Pennsylvania, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Allentown, Pennsylvania. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump made their final pitches to voters Monday in the same parts of Pennsylvania at roughly the same time, focusing on the state that could make or break their chances during the last full day of the presidential campaign.

In Pittsburgh, Trump delivered what his campaign aides described as his closing argument after his previous attempt -- a mass rally at Madison Square Garden in New York -- was derailed by crude and racist jokes. He has also veered off message with falsehoods about voter fraud and invocations of violence.

“Over the past four years, Americans have suffered one catastrophic failure, betrayal and humiliation after another,” said the Republican nominee, sounding raspy yet energetic after speaking for hours each day.

“We do not have to settle for weakness, incompetence, decline and decay,” he went on. “With your vote tomorrow, we can fix every single problem our country faces and lead America, and indeed the whole world, to new heights of glory.”

Advertisement

The crowd exploded in cheers when the Republican nominee said the country should tell Harris, “You’re fired,” his catchphrase from “The Apprentice,” the reality television show that made him a nationally recognized star.

Harris and Trump's Final Push Brings Them to Same Patch of Pennsylvania
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally at PPG Paints Arena, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump started Monday in North Carolina and he's scheduled to hold his last rally of the election in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he concluded his 2016 and 2020 campaigns.

Harris, the Democratic nominee, is spending all of Monday in Pennsylvania, and she was en route to Pittsburgh while Trump was speaking there. She's holding her final rally in Philadelphia later in the evening.

“This is it,” Harris said in Pittsburgh in front of the Carrie Furnaces, a historic steel facility that nodded to the city's industrial legacy. “Tomorrow is Election Day and the momentum is on our side.”

“We must finish strong,” she added. “Make no mistake, we will win.”

With 19 Electoral College votes, the state is the biggest prize of any battleground. A Trump victory there would puncture the Democrats' “blue wall” and make it harder for Harris to win the necessary 270 votes.

“If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole ball of wax,” Trump said during an event in Reading, in the state's southeast corner.

Both candidates visited the area, which is home to thousands of Latinos, including a sizable Puerto Rican population. Harris and her allies have repeatedly hit Trump for a comedian's dig at Puerto Rico during the former president's marquee Madison Square Garden event. The comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

“It was absurd,” said German Vega, a Dominican American who lives in Reading and became a US citizen in 2015. “It bothered so many people -- even many Republicans. It wasn’t right, and I feel that Trump should have apologized to Latinos.”

But Emilio Feliciano, 43, waited outside Reading’s Santander Arena for a chance to take a photo of Trump’s motorcade. He dismissed the comments about Puerto Rico despite his family being Puerto Rican, saying he cares about the economy and that’s why he will vote for Trump.

“Is the border going to be safe? Are you going to keep crime down? That’s what I care about,” he said.

Harris told the crowd, “I stand here proud of my long-standing commitment to Puerto Rico and her people."

“And I will be a president for all Americans," she said, adding that “momentum is on our side. Can you feel it?”

Trump, meanwhile, stuck to talking about his proposed crackdown on immigration. He called to the stage Patty Morin, the mother of 37-year-old Rachel Morin, who was found dead a day after she went missing during a trip to go hiking. Officials say the suspect in her death, Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, entered the US illegally after allegedly killing a woman in his home country of El Salvador.

About 77 million Americans have voted early. A victory by either side would be unprecedented.

Trump winning would make him the first incoming president to have been indicted and convicted of a felony, after his hush-money trial in New York. He will gain the power to end other federal investigations pending against him. Trump would also become only the second president in history to win nonconsecutive White House terms, after Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century.

Harris is vying to become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to reach the Oval Office -- four years after she broke the same barriers in national office by becoming President Joe Biden’s second in command.

Heading into Monday, Harris has mostly stopped mentioning Trump by name, calling him instead “the other guy.” She is promising to solve problems and seek consensus.

Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said on a call with reporters that not saying Trump’s name was deliberate because voters “want to see in their leader an optimistic, hopeful, patriotic vision for the future.”

Harris also offered some insights into her personal formation as a politician that she doesn't often divulge. In Scranton, she talked about once being a longshot while running for San Francisco district attorney in 2002 and how she “used to campaign with my ironing board.”

“I’d walk to the front of the grocery store, outside, and I would stand up my ironing board because, you see, an ironing board makes a really great standing desk,” the vice president said, recalling how she would tape her posters to the outside of the board, fill the top with flyers and “require people to talk to me as they walked in and out.”

In Allentown, Harris rallied with rapper Fat Joe. She then made her own visit to Reading after Trump's rally had concluded, visiting Old San Juan Cafe, a Puerto Rican restaurant, with Ocasio-Cortez. Both Fat Joe, whose real name is Joseph Cartagena, and Ocasio-Cortez are of Puerto Rican heritage.

Supporters chanted “Sí se puede” and “Kamala” as the vice president’s motorcade pulled up. Once inside, Harris chatted with some diners, even mixing in “Gracias” and a few Spanish words. The vice president later ordered cassava, yellow rice and pork, saying, “I'm very hungry" as she noted that she's been too busy campaigning to find time for many meals.

Harris did some of her own canvassing afterward, stopping at two homes in Reading while flanked by campaign volunteers.

“It’s the day before the election and I just wanted to come by and say I hope to earn your vote," she said at one house.

The woman replied, “You already got my vote" and said her husband would be casting his ballot the next day.

Standing in line for Harris’ Allentown rally, 54-year-old Ron Kessler, an Air Force veteran and Republican-turned-Democrat, said he planned to vote for just the second time in his life. Kessler said that, for a long time, he didn’t vote, thinking the country “would vote for the correct candidate.”

But “now that I’m older and much more wiser, I believe it’s important, it’s my civic duty. And it’s important that I vote for myself and I vote for the democracy and the country.”

Tags: Keywords:
SHARE

Related Articles


Business 20 hours ago

Trump Says Tariffs on Chinese Goods Will Total 55%

The US will provide China “what was agreed to,” including allowing Chinese students to attend American colleges and universities.
News Jun 11, 2025 | 1:37 pm

Downtown LA Locked Down as Trump’s Crackdown Sparks Days of Chaos

LA police enforce curfew, arrest protesters amid growing unrest over Trump’s immigration crackdown. National Guard stands by in downtown.
News Jun 10, 2025 | 12:21 pm

Trump Authorizes Additional 2,000 National Guard Members to Los Angeles

The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor's permission was in 1965 under the order of President Lyndon B. Johnson
News Jun 9, 2025 | 7:46 pm

LA Erupts in Chaos as Trump Deploys National Guard

Clashes erupt in LA as Trump sends National Guard without governor’s approval, sparking protests, arrests, and fiery street battles downtown
Tech Jun 7, 2025 | 2:11 pm

Musk-Trump Feud Turned X into a Reality Show

Trump vs. Musk feud sends X into chaos, memes flying, and traffic soaring. Could the drama be Musk’s biggest growth hack yet?
News Jun 7, 2025 | 12:40 am

Elon Musk Pulls Back on Threat to Withdraw Dragon Spacecraft

It was unclear how serious Musk's threat was, but several hours later -- in a reply to another X user -- he said he wouldn't do it.
Opinion May 29, 2025 | 12:42 pm

The Best Deal with Trump is No Deal

Trump’s portrayal of China, Japan, S. Korea, India, and ASEAN as job thieves is misleading and distorts economic reality.
Business May 23, 2025 | 2:03 pm

'Investment, Not Tariffs,' Says Ishiba after Telephone Talks with Trump 

Ishiba said he reminded Trump that Japan's position was for the US administration to scrap all recent tariffs on imports from Japan.
News May 22, 2025 | 2:43 am

US Defense Department Accepts Boeing 747 from Qatar for Trump's Use

Critics have said Trump's acceptance of an aircraft is a violation of the Constitution’s prohibition on foreign gifts.
News May 15, 2025 | 1:41 am

Trump Handshake Caps Syrian Leader’s Journey from Anti-US Insurgent to Nascent Mideast Partner

As the leader of a US-designated terror group fighting in Syria's civil war, Ahmad al-Sharaa had a $10 million bounty on his head.

The Latest


News 39 minutes ago

Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner with More Than 240 Aboard Crashes After Takeoff 

Air India flight 171 crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar five minutes after taking off at 1:38 p.m. local time.
Business 52 minutes ago

Sri Mulyani: Government Can Only Fund 40% of $625B Infrastructure Needs

“This gap will require private sector participation, strong partnerships, and innovative financing strategies,” she said.
Business 2 hours ago

Achmad Ardianto Appointed as New President Director of Antam

Achmad brings with him an extensive background in state-owned enterprises and human capital leadership.
News 2 hours ago

Prabowo to Fly to Singapore for Leaders’ Retreat with Wong Next Week

Investments are set to become a major talking point when Prabowo meets Singapore's Lawrence Wong on Monday.
News 3 hours ago

KPK Links Rp 1.2 Trillion Papua Graft to Private Jet, Airline Boss Fails to Show Up

KPK links Rp 1.2t Papua graft to private jet purchase, but RDG Airlines boss Gibbrael Isaak skips summons. Agency urges him to cooperate.
COPYRIGHT © 2025 JAKARTA GLOBE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED