Harris, Trump hit campaign trail as debate looms

Portsmouth, United States – AFP

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump returned to the US campaign trail Wednesday, with new polls showing the White House race remains on a knife-edge less than a week before their crucial first debate.

Harris, who has revived Democratic hopes with just 61 days until the November 5 vote, unveiled proposed tax breaks for small businesses as she fleshed out her economic policy.

In a rare break with Biden, she proposed a 28 percent tax rate on capital gains, lower than the 39.6 percent planned by the president, in her latest attempt to appeal to centrist voters.

“We know when the government encourages investment, it leads to broad-based economic growth, and it creates jobs, which makes our economy stronger,” Harris said.

Team Trump meanwhile blasted the plans, saying in a statement that Harris’s various proposals would lead to tax hikes “on almost 26 million small businesspeople in America.”

“She’s had her honeymoon period. People are learning who she is,” Trump told a local New Hampshire radio station Wednesday. “We can’t go another four years with a dumb president.”

– Tight race –

Harris, 59, has upended the race since Biden dramatically quit as the Democratic candidate after the 81-year-old’s disastrous performance in a debate against Trump exacerbated fears about his age and mental acuity.

America’s first female, Black and South Asian vice president has swiftly erased Trump’s poll lead and forced the ex-president and convicted felon to rethink his campaign.

Despite his unprecedented attempt to overturn the 2020 election — culminating in a mob of supporters storming the US Capitol — 78-year-old Trump retains passionate support on the right.

He faces a new challenge with Harris. A CNN poll released Wednesday showed the race remains nail-bitingly close in six key battleground states.

Harris holds the edge against Trump over likely voters in the “Rust Belt” states of Wisconsin and Michigan, by 50 percent to 44 percent, and 48 percent to 43 percent, respectively.

Trump meanwhile has the edge in Arizona by 49 percent to 44 percent.

But the race is essentially tied in three other states — most critically in Pennsylvania, the biggest swing state prize in terms of votes in the US electoral college system.

Biden won all six states when he defeated Trump in 2020.

The findings come a day after a USA Today/Suffolk University poll found Harris leading Trump 48 percent to 43 percent — with double-digit gains with crucial groups including Hispanic and Black voters and younger people.

Harris got a boost of sorts Wednesday from Republican quarters when former congresswoman Liz Cheney, an arch conservative and never-Trumper, endorsed the Democrat for president.

“Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump but I will be voting for Kamala Harris,” Cheney told a gathering at Duke University, in videos posted to social media.