Uncertainty reigns coming into the ultimate full week of the 2024 marketing campaign with Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump locked in a fiercely aggressive presidential contest. What occurs within the coming days will likely be pivotal in deciding the winner.
Here is what we’re watching this week:
Can Trump keep on message (comparatively talking)?
Even earlier than the week started, Trump’s marketing campaign risked being knocked off beam by controversy. A rally at New York Metropolis’s Madison Sq. Backyard late Sunday that was meant to function a closing message was as a substitute overshadowed by racist insults, together with a comic who known as Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
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And with eight days to go till Election Day, historical past suggests Trump is just about assured to say or do one thing else controversial within the remaining stretch. The one query is whether or not it can break by.
If there’s one factor we all know, it’s that Trump can’t assist himself. He’s been utilizing authoritarian-style rhetoric in current days to recommend that his Democratic opponents, whom he calls “ the enemy within,” are extra harmful to the nation than the menace posed by Russia and China.
Democrats will likely be combing by each Trump interview and public look for one thing just like exploit. There are additionally a number of ongoing prison investigations into Trump, who has already been convicted of 34 felony fees, that might reveal new data.
But Democrats are the primary to confess that voter opinions of Trump is so hardened that it might take one thing actually beautiful to alter the course of the election.
There’s precedent for a final-week stunner, nonetheless. Bear in mind, it was Oct. 28, 2016, when former FBI Director James Comey despatched a letter to Congress indicating that federal investigators realized of latest emails pertinent to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal e mail server.
Will Harris’ closing message harness Democrats’ anxiousness?
It might be an understatement to explain Democrats as anxious as Election Day looms. However there was a deliberate effort by Harris’ senior group over the weekend to mission optimism to assist mood the worry.
Harris senior adviser Jen O’Malley Dillon predicted victory on MSNBC on Sunday: “We are confident we’re going to win this thing,” she mentioned. “We’re seeing extraordinary enthusiasm. This is going to be a close race, and our campaign is exactly where we want to be.”
Harris will attempt to alleviate Democratic anxiousness additional on Tuesday when she delivers her “closing argument” on the Ellipse, the identical spot close to the White Home the place Trump spoke on Jan. 6, 2021, shortly earlier than his supporters attacked the Capitol.
Harris is predicted to focus her remarks on the hazard Trump poses to U.S. democracy. She has known as her Republican rival “a fascist” in current days. And she or he’s been joined by an unlikely ally, Trump’s former chief of workers John Kelly, who has additionally described Trump as a fascist just lately.
However she’s anticipated to hit broader themes as properly, encouraging voters to look behind her on the White Home and picture who will likely be sitting on the Resolute Desk at a second of nice consequence. She’s aiming to drive residence the stakes of the Nov. 5 election for undecided voters—particularly average Republicans who could also be uncomfortable with Trump’s divisive management and excessive rhetoric. And whereas Harris’ group is betting that there’s a vital variety of moderates who can nonetheless be persuaded, progressive Democrats are nervous she’s not targeted sufficient on financial points within the marketing campaign’s closing days.
RELATED STORY: No noise, simply coverage: The place the candidates stand on the economic system
Democratic anxiousness, now we have realized, could also be a truth of life.
The place will they go?
The candidates’ evolving journey schedules will inform us a lot in regards to the battlegrounds that may matter most on Election Day.
Right here’s what we all know for positive: Harris and Trump are aggressively competing in simply seven swing states that may in the end determine the election. They’re the three so-called “Blue Wall” states—Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—along with Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina.
For a political perspective, nonetheless, not each one of many seven is created equal.
Harris spent Sunday in Pennsylvania, which would be the election’s greatest prize. Harris is subsequent scheduled to go to Michigan. And after Tuesday’s closing argument in Washington, she plans to go to North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on Wednesday alone. She heads to Nevada and Arizona on Thursday.
What will we find out about Trump’s schedule? He’s booked to host a minimum of one rally every single day subsequent week: Monday in Georgia, Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Wednesday in Wisconsin, Thursday in Nevada, Friday in Wisconsin once more, and Saturday in Virginia.
However as a reminder, these schedules are more likely to change based mostly on the campaigns’ intelligence on the bottom.
Will the early voting surge proceed?
Greater than 41 million votes have already been forged within the election nationwide. Democrats usually have a bonus in early voting, however to this point, a minimum of, Republicans are collaborating at a a lot greater price than they’ve prior to now.
The query: Will it final?
Trump, in fact, has for years inspired his supporters to forged solely in-person ballots on Election Day. The observe put the GOP at a big drawback. He largely reversed course in current months as he and his celebration acknowledged the plain advantage of with the ability to financial institution their votes as early as potential.
Due to the Republican participation, the early turnout was breaking data final week in swing states resembling Georgia and North Carolina.
However with the GOP extra targeted on “election integrity” fairly than a standard get-out-the-vote operation, it’s unclear whether or not the uptick in Republican early voting will proceed. Democrats hope it gained’t.
How laborious will Trump work to undermine election outcomes?
Historical past might someday determine that essentially the most vital factor Trump mentioned within the closing days of the 2024 election is the factor that many citizens barely discover anymore: his persistent warnings that this election is rigged in opposition to him.
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Certainly, as Election Day approaches, Trump is more and more warning his supporters that he’ll lose on Nov. 5 provided that his political opponents cheat. Such statements haven’t any foundation the truth is. There was no proof of serious voter fraud within the 2020 election, which Trump misplaced, and there’s no proof that Trump’s adversaries can or will rig this election in opposition to him both.
Nonetheless, Trump’s unfounded warnings make an already tense and violent election season much more fraught. And there are actual threats that overseas adversaries—particularly Russia, China and Iran—will meddle within the election.
On the similar time, the Republican Nationwide Committee has invested tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} into an operation to mobilize 1000’s of polling place displays, ballot employees and attorneys to function “election integrity” watchdogs. Democrats are nervous that the hassle may result in harassment of election employees and undermine belief within the vote.
RELATED STORY: Trump teases ‘secret’ election plan as majority thinks he gained’t concede
Each events are aggressively making ready for lengthy authorized battles irrespective of who wins.
Supporters of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump maintain up flags throughout a Trump rally in Northbrook, Unwell., Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024.
