Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump used particularly harsh words to describe his Democratic rival Kamala Harris as “mentally impaired”. “Joe Biden was mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way,” Trump said on Saturday (local time) to supporters in the small town of Prairie du Chien in the state of Wisconsin. “She was born like this. And if you think about it, only a mentally impaired person could have allowed this to happen to our country,” he said, referring to the issue of migration, which was particularly controversial during the election campaign.
Small US towns like Prairie du Chien are “afraid of migrants,” Trump said during his campaign appearance. These would “rape, pillage, steal, pillage and kill the people of the United States of America.” Referring to irregular immigrants as “animals,” Trump said they were taking jobs away from minorities and union workers. He further said, “They will come into your kitchen and cut your throat.”
With his racist accusations, which were unsupported by any facts, Trump was apparently reacting to a visit by Harris the day before to the border with Mexico, about which he seemed visibly upset. During the visit to the state of Arizona, Harris demonstrated determination in implementing stricter immigration law. The United States has “an obligation to set rules at our border and enforce them,” she said on Friday in the city of Douglas. She takes this responsibility “very seriously.”
From the Republican perspective, immigration policy is a weak point in Harris’ record as US President Joe Biden’s deputy. A majority of Americans say they trust Trump more than they trust her on one of the issues most important to voters. Harris’ visit to the US border with Mexico was therefore also an opportunity to score points on this important campaign issue.
Trump now complained in Wisconsin that the conservative broadcaster Fox News had also reported on Harris’ appearance. “They shouldn’t be allowed to report on this,” Trump said. The right-wing populist attacked the vice president herself as a “liar.”
Harris, meanwhile, spent Saturday at a fundraiser in San Francisco, California. There she said Trump was using “the same lame strategy we’ve been hearing about for years.” “This election is about two very different visions for our country, and we’re seeing that contrast on the campaign trail,” she said.
Even though Harris has put her Republican rival on the defensive during the campaign, polls continue to point to an extremely close race in the November 5 presidential election. In the end, the results from a handful of states, the so-called swing states, are likely to decide the winner of this year’s election. Along with Pennsylvania and Michigan, the swing state Wisconsin is one of a group of seven US states where the race is particularly close.
