Trump Takes Election Pitch to Storied New York Arena

Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in State College, Pennsylvania, US October 26, 2024. (Reuters)
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in State College, Pennsylvania, US October 26, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

Trump Takes Election Pitch to Storied New York Arena

Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in State College, Pennsylvania, US October 26, 2024. (Reuters)
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in State College, Pennsylvania, US October 26, 2024. (Reuters)

Donald Trump rallies supporters Sunday at an iconic New York arena while Kamala Harris goes neighborhood to neighborhood in Philadelphia just over a week before America votes in an extraordinarily close White House race.

Trump's gathering at the nearly 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden is expected to draw a blitz of coverage in the Republican's home metropolis, which is still very much a Democratic stronghold.

Both candidates are making closing pitches to voters in one of America's most divisive and suspense-filled electoral fights, with polls suggesting a dead heat ahead of the November 5 vote.

Harris, 60, has planned a packed day of campaigning in the biggest city in must-win Pennsylvania, including stops at a Black church and barbershop as well as a Puerto Rican restaurant.

A senior Harris campaign official said Sunday's visit will be the vice president's 14th trip to Pennsylvania since she jumped to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden's shock withdrawal in July.

Harris will go before supporters to make what her campaign called her "closing argument" on Tuesday in Washington at the park where Trump rallied supporters before the January 6 riot.

Trump's rally Sunday at a venue dubbed "The World's Most Famous Arena" is set to include backers and surrogates like billionaire Elon Musk, who has personally hit the campaign trail for the ex-president.

It is a storied arena in US sporting and cultural life that has hosted the Rolling Stones, Madonna and U2 plus several Democratic and Republican presidential conventions over the decades.

However, the venue's association with the far-right, pro-Hitler Bund group that hosted a rally in 1939, complete with eagles, Nazi insignia and salutes, will generate darker headlines.

Trump appears at Madison Square Garden just days after one of his top former officials, John Kelly, said the Republican fits the definition of a fascist -- something Harris later said she agreed with.

- 'Genuine fear' of Trump win -

The latest high wattage surrogate for Harris, former first lady Michelle Obama, aired her "genuine fear" on Saturday that Trump could retake the White House.

She said Harris would be an "extraordinary president," but Obama also spoke of a sense of frustration and anxiety that few on the vice president's team dare express after she lost some momentum in recent weeks.

"My hope about Kamala is also accompanied by some genuine fear," Obama said, ripping into Trump's record and asking, "Why is this race even close?"

With more than 40 million people already casting early ballots, Americans are deciding between electing the country's first-ever woman president or the oldest major candidate ever.

Trump, 78, still refuses to accept his defeat in the vote four years ago and is expected to reject the result if he loses again -- potentially pitching the United States into chaos.

Trump swept Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania -- three usually Democratic states -- in his shock victory in 2016 only to see Biden reclaim them four years later.

He hopes to claw back one or more of the trio, and win the so-called Sun Belt swing states in the country's south to propel him back into power.



US, EU Call for Probe after Reports of Georgia Election Violations

Members of an election commission count ballots at a polling station after the parliamentary election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Kostya Manenkov)
Members of an election commission count ballots at a polling station after the parliamentary election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Kostya Manenkov)
TT

US, EU Call for Probe after Reports of Georgia Election Violations

Members of an election commission count ballots at a polling station after the parliamentary election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Kostya Manenkov)
Members of an election commission count ballots at a polling station after the parliamentary election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Kostya Manenkov)

Georgia's president called for protests on Monday following a disputed parliamentary election, and the United States and the European Union urged a full investigation into reports of violations in the voting.
The results, with almost all precincts counted, were a blow for pro-Western Georgians who had cast Saturday's election as a choice between a ruling party that has deepened ties with Russia and an opposition aiming to fast-track integration with Europe, said Reuters.
Monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said on Sunday they had registered incidents of vote-buying, voter intimidation, and ballot-stuffing that could have affected the outcome, but they stopped short of saying the election was rigged.
President Salome Zourabichvili urged people to take to the streets to protest against the results of the ballot, which the electoral commission said the ruling party had won.
In an address on Sunday, she referred to the result as a "Russian special operation". She did not clarify what she meant by the term.
The ruling Georgian Dream party, of which Zourabichvili is a fierce critic, clinched nearly 54% of the vote, the commission said, as opposition parties contested the outcome and vote monitors reported significant violations.
Georgian media cited Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze as saying on Monday that the opposition was attempting to topple the "constitutional order" and that his government remained committed to European integration.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States joined calls from observers for a full probe.
"Going forward, we encourage Georgia's political leaders to respect the rule of law, repeal legislation that undermines fundamental freedoms, and address deficiencies in the electoral process together," Blinken said in a statement.
Earlier, the European Union urged Georgia to swiftly and transparently investigate the alleged irregularities in the vote.
"The EU recalls that any legislation that undermines the fundamental rights and freedoms of Georgian citizens and runs counter to the values and principles upon which the EU is founded, must be repealed," the European Commission said in a joint statement with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
President Zourabichvili, a former Georgian Dream ally who won the 2018 presidential vote as an independent, urged Georgians to protest in the center of the capital Tbilisi on Monday evening, to show the world "that we do not recognize these elections".
For years, Georgia was one of the most pro-Western countries to emerge from the Soviet Union, with polls showing many Georgians disliking Russia for its support of two breakaway regions of their country.
Russia defeated Georgia in their brief war over the rebel province of South Ossetia in 2008.
The election result poses a challenge to the EU's ambition to expand by bringing in more former Soviet states.
Moldova earlier this month narrowly approved adding a clause to the constitution defining EU accession as a goal. Moldovan officials said Russia meddled in the election, a claim denied by Moscow.