USA Harris on the final spurt of the election campaign on "Saturday Night Live"
In the final spurt of the US election campaign, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is looking for a big audience - with a mini-appearance on the ratings-boosting comedy show "Saturday Night Live". The 60-year-old proved that she can certainly laugh at herself, but did not hold back on mocking her rival Donald Trump.
03.11.2024, 06:21
SDA
Harris was virtually a mirror image of actress Maya Rudolph, who repeatedly slips into the role of the Democrat on the show. "Am I really laughing like that?" Harris asked in the sketch, which lasted around a minute and a half. The two then took aim at typical election campaign phrases and shouted "Believe in the promise of America" at the same time.
Trump also had to put up with mockery: "You can do something your opponent can't: You can open doors," Harris said to her reflection. She was obviously referring to a scene from Trump's election campaign: the 78-year-old had appeared in a garbage truck in reference to a controversial statement by President Joe Biden - and had reached past the door handle several times when getting into the cab.
Election campaign in the "swing states"
Previously, both candidates had appeared in the contested swing state of North Carolina - within a few hours of each other, less than a hundred kilometers apart. It is a battle for what could be a decisive few tens of thousands of votes. Harris and Trump are courting exactly the same voters in the final days before the election date on Tuesday (November 5).
Harris clearly attacked Trump in her speech: He was "increasingly unstable", obsessed with revenge and bent on unchecked power. Trump called Harris a "low IQ individual".
North Carolina on the US East Coast is one of the hard-fought "swing states": in the 2020 election, Trump won by a hair's breadth of just over one percentage point ahead of future President Joe Biden. This year, polls in the state predict a very close race, with a wafer-thin lead for Trump.
New poll sees Harris ahead in conservative Iowa
Overall, Trump and Harris are close together according to the surveys. The outcome of the election in the so-called swing states is considered to be decisive, which is why the election campaign has been concentrated there in recent days.
However, a new poll caused a stir at the weekend: Harris is ahead of Trump in the conservative state of Iowa. In the survey conducted by the regional newspaper "Des Moines Register" in collaboration with Mediacom Iowa Poll and the polling institute Selzer & Company, 47 percent of likely voters surveyed said they would vote for Harris - 44 percent would give their vote to Trump. Harris' lead is within the margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.
Iowa is actually considered a Republican-voting state. While one should generally not attach too much importance to individual polls in the USA, they can certainly reflect a trend. The website FiveThirtyEight, which analyzes numerous polls, continues to see Trump well ahead of Harris. Another poll, also published at the weekend, puts Trump ten percentage points ahead of his rival in Iowa.
Trump suspects electoral fraud
In a speech in the state of Virginia, Trump denied US Vice President Harris the ability to be president. "She will be totally overwhelmed, collapse, and millions of people will die," he predicted in the event of a Democratic victory. There are people who thrive under pressure - and those who then fall into depression.
Shortly before the election, Trump is once again fuelling expectations among his supporters that the only way to deprive him of victory is by cheating. "Let them cheat, because that's what they do," Trump said of the Democrats. He said he was confident of winning not only the majority of electoral votes, but also the majority of votes overall.
After the 2020 election, Trump had claimed that his victory had been taken away from him by large-scale electoral fraud by the Democrats. However, dozens of lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign team failed in court. There was never any evidence of irregularities that would have changed the outcome of the vote. Trump continues to claim this. His remarks also led to his supporters storming the Capitol in Washington, the seat of the US Congress, at the beginning of 2021.
Trump praises his "beautiful white skin"
Trump also specifically tried to woo women as voters. He had been advised to stop calling women "beautiful", said the 78-year-old. "That's why I'm not going to tell you how beautiful you are."
The Republican candidate also spoke again of his "beautiful white skin". "I wouldn't have to be with you tonight," he said. "I could be on a beach, my beautiful white skin would be beautifully tanned."
Harris wants to vote by mail
Harris emphasized that she wants to lower taxes for the middle class and ban corporate price gouging. She would ensure an affordable healthcare system. When she was interrupted by loud shouts about the Gaza war, Harris emphasized: "This is what democracy looks like." She said she wanted to fight for people's right to speak their minds. "But right now I'm speaking," she shouted to the demonstrators.
The 60-year-old is planning to vote by mail herself. This is at least the plan of the US Vice President, the US broadcaster CNN quoted a spokesperson from Harris' campaign team as saying. She wants to be a role model for other voters and show them that there are various ways to vote. It remained unclear whether Harris had already submitted her ballot.
Her husband Doug Emhoff posted on X that he had already cast his vote by letter. Unsurprisingly, he voted for his wife. "I voted for Kamala Harris for President of the United States. I will never forget this moment," he wrote.
CNN: Around 70 million votes already cast
The US broadcaster CNN reported, citing its own surveys in cooperation with institutes, that around 70 million votes had been cast so far. This figure corresponds to just under 45 percent of the approximately 158 million votes cast in the 2020 presidential election.
