Harris slams Trump as ‘unfit’ to serve as President

With less than 10 days to go to end campaigning for the US Presidential Elections, VP Kamala Harris send out a strong message to the voters in Pennsylvania, that hangs in the balance as a battleground state, when she raised the all-familiar democratic refrain that “Trump is unfit” to serve another term as president. Her bossman Prez Joe Biden had been saying this all the time when he ran his campaign that came to an abrupt end.

Trump has promised to crack down on immigration and tackle inflation if re-elected on November 5, while launching personal attacks against his Democratic rival at two campaign events in Georgia.
Recent polls show both presidential candidates locked in a tight battle for a photo finish for the White House. Trump and Harris are set to hold rallies in several other battleground states in the coming days, including Michigan, Nevada and Arizona.

Where are the candidates heading next?
Trump will be holding rallies in Nevada and Arizona – key battleground states –according to his campaign website. Then, the former president will be in Traverse City, Michigan – another swing state – to rally supporters.
For her part, Harris will hold a rally in Atlanta,
Harris spokesman says US voters ‘deserved to hear from both candidates’
In a post on X, Ian Sams has said Trump “refused to debate”. As we reported earlier, the former president declined CNN’s invitation to take part in a second debate against Harris this month.
Trump argued that it was too late to hold another debate – he went head-to-head against Harris in September – because early voting had already begun. Especially on postal ballots that precede actual voting in booths. November 05 this year.
“VP Harris isn’t afraid of voters or real questions. And she used the platform to lay out very clearly what’s at stake in this election,” Sams said.

What did Harris and Trump say?

Here’s a quick look at what happened at their respective campaign events:
Harris has spoken to undecided voters at a CNN town hall in the swing state of Pennsylvania after Trump refused an invitation for a second presidential debate.
The Democratic candidate slammed her opponent as “unfit” for office and said she believes he is a fascist; her comments come after Trump’s former chief of staff said the ex-president had made positive remarks about Hitler.
Trump has denied the allegations as “made up” and launched personal attacks against General John Kelly. At two campaign events in Georgia, Trump has repeated many of his tried-and-true talking points, including pledges to enact an anti-immigration crackdown and impose taxes on imported goods, Al Jazeera reported
Mirroring Harris’s criticism, Trump says Democrat ‘not fit to be president’
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed Harris’s heightened rhetoric reflects that “she is losing and losing badly”. But recent polls show Trump and Harris locked in a race that remains too close to call. Anyone could win this presidential, the closes in American history.

“She is a Threat to Democracy, and not fit to be President of the United States – And her Polling so indicates!” Trump wrote in the post virtually tossing ball back to the democrats who has all along maintained he was unfit to rule and was a threat to greater democracy.

Harris pressed on shifting policy positions

The Democrat has been criticized for changing her stances on key issues over the years, such as fracking.
“On fracking, I’ve been very clear … I am not going to ban fracking. I did not as vice president. In fact, as vice president, I cast the tie-breaking vote that now has opened up more fracking leases,” she said during the town hall. Harris sought to portray shifts in her policy positions as evidence that she is “not afraid of good ideas”.
“I’m never going to shy away from good ideas,” she said, stressing that “compromise” is important but “doesn’t mean compromising your values”.
Recent polls have shown that many Americans say they do not know much about Harris’s positions, which could hurt her in November.

Amid anger over Israel, Harris courts Arab and Muslim voters. Will it work?
Reports from Washington, DC indicate that despite touting her unwavering support for Israel as the country wages war in Gaza and Lebanon, Harris is trying to garner support in Arab and Muslim communities in the US before next month’s election.
In recent weeks, the US vice president and her team have held meetings with Arab and Muslim “community leaders” while receiving endorsements from Muslim individuals and groups aligned with her Democratic Party.
But many advocates argue that as long as Harris maintains her pledge to continue to arm Israel and refuses to distance herself fom Biden’s unconditional support for the US ally, nothing will help her standing with Arab and Muslim voters.
Who are the undecided voters, and will they make a difference?
Harris has been taking questions from undecided voters in Philadelphia tonight. But how many undecided voters are there? And are they likely to influence the election?
The most recent polling data suggests that as many as 5.6 percent of Americans are still undecided, enough to potentially swing the election for either candidate.
But researchers from Tufts University have found that undecided voters are not particularly likely to make it to the polls on election day.
In 2020, just one in four of the thousands of undecided voters ended up casting a ballot, the researchers said.

Harris asked what she’ll do to stop US bombs from killing Palestinians
This is what she replied: “I will say, and I think this is to your point: Far too many innocent Palestinian civilians have been killed – it’s unconscionable.
“We are now at a place where, with [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar’s death, I do believe we have an opportunity to end this war, bring the hostages home, bring relief to the Palestinian people and work toward a two-state solution where Israel and the Palestinians, with equal measure, have security, where the Palestinian people have dignity, self-determination and the safety that they so rightly deserve.”
Critics have slammed Harris for rejecting calls to suspend US weapons transfers to Israel amid the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians since October of last year.

The US provides Israel with $3.8bn in military aid annually, and the Biden administration has authorized an additional $14bn in support since the Gaza war began.
On immigration, Harris promises ‘bipartisan’ approach
The US vice president has faced months of attacks from Republicans on immigration, with Trump and his allies falsely dubbing her the “border Tzar” to blame her for an uptick in arrivals during the first years of Biden’s term as president.
During tonight’s town hall, Harris touted the Biden administration’s crackdown on asylum at the US-Mexico border in recent months, which has caused the number of crossings to plummet.
She also said that, if elected, she plans to work with Republicans to tackle the issue – another example of Harris’s pivot to the centre to try to shore up support among undecided American voters ahead of November 5.
“We have to have a secure border, and we have to have a comprehensive pathway for citizenship, and that includes requiring people – hardworking people – to earn citizenship and do it in a comprehensive, humane and orderly manner,” she said.
She pledged to “work across the aisle to fix this longstanding problem” of immigration, as well as to “secure” the border. “We need a president who is grounded in common sense and practical outcomes,” she added. “Let’s just fix the problem.
Fact checks: Harris said Kelly called Trump ‘fascist to the core’
An October 22 report in The New York Times quoted Trump’s former chief of staff, Kelly, saying those words. “In response to a question about whether he thought Mr Trump was a fascist, Mr Kelly first read aloud a definition of fascism that he had found online,” The Times reported.
“Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy,” he said.
“Kelly said that definition accurately described Mr Trump. ‘So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America,’ Mr Kelly said.”
John Kelly was Trump’s White House chief of staff
Harris attacks Trump on abortion access
The Democratic candidate has noted that Trump previously boasted about filling the US Supreme Court with conservative justices, who, in 2022, overturned Roe v Wade, the legal precedent that had guaranteed abortion access for decades in the US.
The top court’s ruling opened the door for US states to pass abortion restrictions and bans. “This is probably one of the most fundamental freedoms that we as Americans could imagine,” Harris said of reproductive rights, “with freedom to literally make decisions about your own body”.
US abortion debate: Two years since Supreme Court overturned ‘Roe’ law
Trump said he would be a dictator if re-elected – for one day
During her town hall with CNN, Harris recalled Trump statement: “he would be a dictator on day one”. In a December Fox News town hall, moderator Sean Hannity asked Trump whether he would be a dictator or abuse power if re-elected.
Trump said, “No, no, no, other than day one. We are closing the border and we are drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I am not a dictator,

Harris says Trump ‘unfit’ to serve as president
The Democrat has come out swinging at the CNN town hall in Pennsylvania.Harris said Americans should be “concerned about the future of our country with Donald Trump at the lead”.
Asked outright if she believes Trump is a fascist, Harris replied: “Yes, I do.”
As US media reports have been saying Trump’s former chief of staff has warned that the ex-president spoke positively about Hitler. Trump has rejected the allegation. “We must take very seriously those folks who knew him best,” Harris said at the town hall
Trump floats false migration claims, plays anti-immigration video

Trump has again made false claims about immigration in the US, saying the country is being overrun by gangs of migrants.
“The United States is now an occupied country, but on November 5, 2024, we will call that liberation day,” he told the crowd in Georgia. As we’ve been reporting throughout the US election race so far, Trump regularly uses anti-immigrant rhetoric and spreads false claims about migrants to appeal to his Republican base.
The Return: How Trump’s border policies tore a family apart
Trump says he will protect right to live in ‘richest, most powerful nation’
Trump has been speaking about a range of topics in the first hour after taking the stage in Duluth, often coming back to immigration and the economy.
“I will never apologize for defending America. I’m not going to do it,” Trump said. “And I will protect the birthright of our children to live in the richest and most powerful nation on the face of the earth.”
Trump claimed he would revive manufacturing by dropping tariffs and make money by exploiting vast American oil reserves he claimed were bigger than Saudi Arabia’s.
“We’re going to drill, baby drill, and frack, frack, frack,” he said. “We have more liquid gold under our feet than Russia or Saudi Arabia.”
Trump again launches into personal attacks against Harris, Walz
The Republican says Harris “got herself the worst person possible” in her vice-presidential running-mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
“Remember he called JD Vance and I weird?” Trump asked the crowd. “We’re not weird. We’re very solid people. He’s a weird dude, that guy.” Trump also slammed Harris as “really seriously not a smart person”.
Harris has largely refused to comment on Trump’s personal attacks against her, describing the former president as a divisive and destructive presence in US politics.
Both Harris, Trump camps believe Georgia win is within reach
Reporting from outside Trump’s rally in Duluth, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher has noted that both the Harris and Trump camps think they can win Georgia.
The state was “solidly Republican up until four years ago when Joe Biden won in 2020”, Fisher explained. “The latest polls give Donald Trump with a slight lead, so he’ll be happy with the response he’s getting here. But it’s something that will concern Kamala Harris,” he said.
Harris will be in Georgia tomorrow – campaigning alongside former President Barack Obama – “to try and build that support and make sure people get out and vote”, Fisher added.

Trump refers to ‘terrible devastation’ of Helene after again taking aim at FEMA

Trump has spoken about witnessing the “terrible devastation” of Hurricane Helene, which recently carved a path of destruction across several US states.
Alongside neighbouring North Carolina, Georgia was one of two battlegrounds states that was hardest hit by the storm, which killed at least 230 people.
Trump, who doesnt believe that climate change exists much to the chagrin of people in the US, he has pledged to roll back some of Biden’s environmental rules if re-elected. He has focused his attention on blaming the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for Helene’s devastating impacts.
In Zebulon, North Carolina, Trump again repeated debunked claims that FEMA “did not do their job” following Helene, and that the Biden administration had diverted money for FEMA to “illegal immigrants”.
US Congressional Representative Chuck Edwards, a North Carolina Republican, has pushed back against “outrageous rumors” about FEMA, which has also set up a website debunking the claims.
The conspiracy theories have led to real-world consequences, with an armed suspect arrested for making threats amid reports armed militias posed a risk to relief workers.

Trump using economy to hammer Harris, but poll shows he’s lost advantage
While Trump is using his Georgia rally to hammer Harris over the state of the US economy, a recent poll showed Americans are split over which candidate they trust more to handle the issue.
The AP-NORC poll released this week showed 43 percent of registered voters said they trusted Harris to handle jobs and unemployment, compared with 41 percent who trusted Trump.
On the cost of groceries and gas or petrol, the advantage flipped: 42 percent said they trusted the Republican former president, while 40 percent said they trusted Harris.

‘Are you better off now than you were four years ago?’ Trump asks
The former president has said if he is re-elected in November, he will “end inflation”. Recent polls have shown the economy remains the top election issue for Americans ahead of November 5.
“Our country is being destroyed and crippled by Kamala Harris,” Trump said, drawing boos from the crowd.