World News
Kamala Harris turns 60 as age plays a key role in US election
Joe Biden has abandoned campaigning over fears about his ability to hold office, and Kamala Harris has repeatedly taken aim at Donald Trump’s mental fitness.
ATLANTA: Kamala Harris turns 60 on Sunday, entering the final stages of a tough election battle with 78-year-old Donald Trump, now the oldest presidential candidate in US history. President Joe Biden has abandoned campaigning over fears about his ability to hold office, and Harris has repeatedly taken aim at Trump’s mental fitness.
With just two weeks to election day, the Democratic vice president and the Republican billionaire are locked in a tight race, with polls showing the two neck-and-neck.
The two candidates will be in Pennsylvania again on Sunday, one of seven key states seen as must-win that will decide the November 5 election.
Biden handed the reins to Harris after a disastrous debate against Trump that raised concerns in the Democratic Party about her mental acuity.
But Trump’s age is not proving to be a major deterrent for voters, as polls show the two are neck-and-neck.
“Now he’s avoiding debates and canceling interviews because he’s exhausted,” Harris said at a rally in Atlanta on Saturday. She mocked his absurd, off-script speeches.
“They called it knitting. But we here, call it bullshit,” she added.
‘Across the finish line’
Harris had tried to upstage Trump with a report on October 12 that described her “excellent health”, but the former president’s campaign noted that she too is “in perfect and excellent health to be commander-in-chief”.
The Republican running for a second White House term responded to Harris’ accusations with a marathon speech in Pennsylvania on Saturday, a day after he said she “doesn’t have the energy of a rabbit.”
Both candidates are spending their final campaign days in key battleground states, but so are their surrogates.
Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk has personally kicked off his campaign in Pennsylvania, holding a number of events in the state.
Speaking in the southeastern city of Harrisburg, he announced he would begin randomly distributing cash prizes – $1 million each day leading up to the Nov. 5 vote – to any registered voter in the state who signed his organization’s petition.
Harris used surrogates in the form of pop stars Lizzo and Usher to make her case to voters.
Lizzo drew applause at a rally in Detroit by saying the US was ready for its first female president, referencing her own hit song: “It’s a great time!”
Usher, one of the headlining stars in Atlanta, told voters there that “I’m counting on you” to get Harris’s “campaign across the finish line” in Georgia.
