Madison Square Garden versus the White House Ellipse: where Trump and Harris make their last speeches

cnn
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donald trump and Kamala Harris They’ve perfected their closing arguments and now they’re both turning to famous venues to try to help get those messages across. Only 10 days until election day..

The former president will return to his hometown on Sunday for a rally at one of New York City’s most iconic venues, Madison Square Garden. Two days later, the vice president will hold an event at the Ellipse, the park just outside the South Lawn of the White House, where Trump’s fiery speech nearly four years ago launched the attack on the US Capitol.

The two events could offer key moments in a race that is on a knife’s edge, with CNN’s latest national poll showing each candidate with the support of 47% of likely voters.

Both campaigns are urging supporters to cast their ballots early and try to reach shrinking groups of undecided voters, or those who know which candidate they prefer but aren’t sure whether they will vote.

Harris and Trump have made clear the issues that stand out in the final days of the campaign. Harris leans toward her. support for abortion rightsa political winner for Democrats since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. He also contrasts his character with that of Trump, a strategy aimed at reaching independents and moderate Republicans.

“Either you have the option of a Donald Trump, who will sit in the Oval Office preparing revenge, writing his list of enemies,” he told reporters Thursday, “or what I will do, which is respond to people.” , like the people last night, with a list of things to do.”

Trump is criticizing the vice president over border security, using dehumanizing language aimed at undocumented immigrants while focusing on an issue that has been at the center of his political identity during his three presidential campaigns. It’s part of his broader argument that Democrats in four years have undermined the stability and economic successes of his tenure in the Oval Office.

By hosting a rally at Madison Square Garden, Trump is banking on his own showmanship and celebrity, hoping to fill the stadium in the deep blue city and hoping the spectacle hits television and phone screens in the seven disputed states.

“I will rescue every town in America that has been invaded and conquered,” he said Thursday in Las Vegas.

In a preview of the final sprint to Election Day, a senior Harris campaign official said “we expect to see more” of the vice president invoking the former president’s description of political opponents as “enemies within” while also describing the race as a decision between Trump’s “enemies.” list” and your own “to-do list.”

His running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, also used that framework for the first time Thursday while campaigning in North Carolina.

“She has a to-do list. “He has a list of enemies,” Walz said.

Harris Star-studded rally Thursday night in Georgia – his first campaign appearance with former President Barack Obama, and featuring other celebrities – kicked off what the senior campaign official described as the start of the campaign’s closing argument. That argument illustrates what a Harris administration would look like compared to the threat Harris says Trump poses, the official said.

The vice president continued that celebrity-driven push Friday night in Texas, a rare visit to a state that is not a presidential battleground.

Still, Harris deviated from the seven states expected to decide the election (the Great Lakes swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and the Sun Belt battlegrounds of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina ) for two big reasons. First: Beyoncé and Willie Nelson appeared with her.

And second: Texas, the second most populous state in the country, has one of the strictest abortion laws. The procedure is prohibited after six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant, with exceptions only in cases to save the mother’s life.

Harris told the Houston crowd that the Lone Star State was “ground zero in the fight for reproductive freedom.”

Harris’ campaign paired her trip Friday with an ad that highlighted Trump taking credit for his role in ending the constitutional right to abortion.

The contrast between Harris and Trump on abortion rights is something the vice president’s campaign is highlighting as it seeks to capitalize on what polls show could be a historic gender gap.

“Our message right now is to keep our foot on the accelerator in early voting,” the senior campaign official told CNN, adding: “All of these events in the final stretch are about mobilization.”

Harris is expected to continue addressing those issues alongside her most prominent supporters on Saturday, when she campaigns in Michigan with former first lady Michelle Obama.

A key moment for the former president comes Sunday when he returns to New York City – his home for more than seven decades – for his rally at Madison Square Garden.

It’s an iconic place in an iconic city. But New York is also a deep blue state where virtually no Republicans believe Trump can win.

Still, his campaign sees advantages to Sunday’s event. The Madison Square Garden rally will be one of the most covered moments of the race, with media coverage reaching all seven swing states. It will also be combined with a pre-event fundraiser. And it could help the Republican Party in the battle for control of the US House of Representatives, with several seats in the New York area currently held by vulnerable Republicans.

Trump also said Wednesday that he believes he can win in New York, in part because, he claimed, immigrants are “taking over the city.”

“We believe there is a chance to win New York for the first time in, well, a long time, many, many decades. And we think there’s a real possibility with what’s happening, with immigrants taking control of the city, of the entire state, frankly,” he said on Fox News Radio. Ronald Reagan in 1984 was the last Republican presidential candidate to win the Empire State.

Trump’s comments showed that just as Harris is focusing on abortion rights, he is attacking his Democratic rival on border security.

He also visited Austin, Texas, on Friday to highlight an issue that has been a cornerstone of his political campaigns since the day he launched his first run for president in 2015. Trump has promised to expand his hardline immigration policies, including carrying out mass deportations, if he wins another term.

“Kamala is here in Texas to rub shoulders with woke celebrities. Isn’t it exciting? But she will not meet with any of the victims of immigration crimes while she is here,” Trump said in Austin.

While the economy remains voters’ most pressing priority, polls show why Harris and Trump are leaning toward these competing issues for their closing arguments. He latest poll from The New York Times and Siena College shows that the former president still has a lead on who is most trusted to handle immigration (54% to 43%), while Harris leads by double digits when it comes to abortion.

Like Harris, Trump’s campaign is entirely focused on building supporters, particularly those who vote irregularly.

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, on Thursday visited the Oakland County Republican office in Michigan, the party’s base in a sprawling suburban county northwest of Detroit that Harris is expected to win but where Trump could significantly boost his chances statewide by keeping the margins close.

“What we are really focused on is the people who are going to vote for us. “They are angry about the direction of the country, but only if they actually go to the polls,” Vance said. “Every time you cast a vote, what that allows us to do is allocate more resources to accumulate the next vote and the next vote and the next vote.”

And he added: “We buy all the television time that we are going to buy. We buy all the radio time we are going to buy. But the most important thing here is precisely this participation operation.”

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, Kit Maher, Aaron Pellish, Terence Burlij, Kate Sullivan, Kevin Liptak and Samantha Waldenberg contributed to this report.