Stabroek News

Trump, Obama tout clashing visions of U.S. as elections near

-

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Barack Obama made dueling election appearance­s yesterday, offering sharply different views on the country’s problems but agreeing on the high stakes for voters in the final 48 hours of a tight campaign.

With opinion polls showing dozens of tight U.S. congressio­nal and gubernator­ial races in Tuesday’s election, the current and former presidents said the results would determine what kind of country Americans live in for the next two years.

“This election will decide whether we build on this extraordin­ary prosperity we have created,” Trump told a cheering crowd in Macon, Georgia, warning that Democrats would “take a giant wrecking ball to our economy.”

Trump campaigned with Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is in a tight race with Democrat Stacey Abrams for the governor’s office.

Obama condemned Trump, without addressing him by name, and Republican­s for what he described as their divisive policies and repeated lies. He hammered Trump and Republican­s for repeatedly trying to repeal his signature healthcare law while at the same time claiming to support the law’s protection­s for those with preexistin­g conditions.

“The only check right now on the behavior of these Republican­s is you and your vote,” Obama told supporters in Gary, Indiana, during a rally for endangered Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly.

“The character of our country is on the ballot,” he said.

Trump and Obama are the most popular figures in their parties, and their appearance­s on the campaign trail are designed to stoke enthusiasm among core supporters in the late stages of a midterm congressio­nal election widely seen as a referendum on Trump’s first two years in the White House.

Opinion polls and election forecaster­s have made Democrats favorites on Tuesday to pick up the 23 seats they need to capture a majority in the U.S. House of Representa­tives, which would enable them to stymie Trump’s legislativ­e agenda and investigat­e his administra­tion.

Republican­s are favored to retain their slight majority in the U.S. Senate, currently at two seats, which would let them retain the power to approve U.S. Supreme Court and other judicial nomination­s on straight party-line votes.

In the midst of a six-day national blitz of rallies ahead of Tuesday’s election, Trump will also appear later on Sunday in Tennessee, which hosts a vital U.S. Senate race.

HARD-LINE RHETORIC In the final stages of the campaign, Trump has ramped up his hard-line rhetoric on immigratio­n and cultural issues including warnings about a caravan of migrants headed to the border with Mexico and of liberal “mobs.”

He repeated those themes in Georgia, urging voters to “look at what is marching up - that’s an invasion.” He said Democrats encouraged chaos at the borders because it was good politics.

 ??  ?? Barack Obama Donald Trump
Barack Obama Donald Trump

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Guyana