By james art What happens in the coming days will be crucial in determining the winner of next week’s election.
On Sunday, Trump held a rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden, where several speakers made racist and crude remarks, including comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of trash.”
Shortly after those remarks, Puerto Rican reggaeton artist Bad Bunny supported Ms. Harris.
Puerto Ricans cannot vote in general elections even though they are US citizens, but they can exert a strong influence over relatives on the mainland.
Ms. Harris said Mr. Trump’s rally in Madison Square helped prove her point about the stakes of the election.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Ms. Harris said Sunday’s event “really underscored the point that I’ve been making throughout this campaign,” which is that Mr. Trump is “fixated on his grievances, on himself, and on the division of our country, and that is in no way something that will strengthen the American family, the American worker.”
Ms. Harris plans to deliver her closing remarks on Tuesday in Washington.
Mr. Trump plans to hold a rally in Atlanta on Monday night, while Ms. Harris will make several campaign stops in Michigan, including a rally with singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers.
US President Joe Biden arrived at a polling place at the Delaware Department of Elections on Monday to vote early for the Nov. 5 election.
He chatted with some people in the long voting line and pushed an older woman in a wheelchair who was ahead of him in line.
American voters are approaching the presidential election with deep anxiety about what could come next, including the potential for political violence, attempts to overturn election results and their broader implications for democracy, according to a survey.
The results of the survey, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, speak to persistent concerns about the fragility of democracy, nearly four years after former President Mr. Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election inspired a crowd of his supporters to storm the US Capitol in a violent attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
About four in 10 registered voters say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about violent attempts to overturn the results after the November election.
A similar share is worried about legal efforts to do so. And about one in three voters said they were “extremely” or “very” concerned about attempts by local or state election officials to stop the finalization of results.
Authorities were investigating Monday after ballot boxes were set on fire early in the morning in Portland, Oregon, and in nearby Vancouver, Washington, where hundreds of ballots were destroyed.
The Portland Police Bureau said officers and firefighters responded to a fire at a ballot box around 3:30 a.m. and found an incendiary device inside. Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott said a fire extinguisher in the box protected nearly all the ballots and only three were damaged.
A few hours later, across the Columbia River in Vancouver, television crews captured footage of smoke pouring from a ballot box at a transit center.
Police said they have identified a “suspicious vehicle” linked to the incendiary devices that started the fires.
Surveillance footage captured a Volvo pulling into a drop box in Portland, Oregon, just before nearby security personnel discovered a fire in the box.