Donald Trump, during the debate with Kamala Harris, claimed that Haitians eat the pets of local residents.
Rancho Palos Verdes, United States:
US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris took their campaigns back to battleground states on Friday as a racial dispute over Haitian migrants escalated and the Republican leader promised “massive deportations.”
Trump, 78, was scheduled to hold a rally later Friday in Nevada, where his campaign says he will focus on voters' economic concerns, including inflation.
Harris, coming off a strong performance in Tuesday's televised debate against Trump, was headed to Pennsylvania, arguably the most crucial of the swing states that decide the winner in close presidential elections.
Opinion polls show a technical tie just seven weeks before election day.
Stung by widespread agreement, even among some prominent Republicans, that Democrat Harris won Tuesday's debate, Trump is doubling down on his tough rhetoric on illegal immigration, the central issue of his campaign.
Speaking from his luxury golf resort near Los Angeles, Trump accused “communist” Harris of “allowing illegal immigrants to stampede across our border.”
And he focused on the small town of Springfield, Ohio, saying Haitian immigrants there are “destroying their way of life.”
“We're going to have massive deportations from Springfield, Ohio,” he said. “We're going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country.”
Springfield is at the center of a growing conspiracy theory spread by Republicans and the Trump campaign that claims Haitians are eating local residents' pets.
On Friday, Springfield authorities evacuated schools for a second day amid unspecified threats linked to the escalating tensions.
Trump magnified the false story about the pets in extended remarks Thursday where he claimed the park's geese were also being killed by Haitians, and told a rally that “young American girls were being raped, sodomized and murdered by savage foreign criminals.”
President Joe Biden, who dropped his own re-election campaign to support Harris, weighed in Friday to say Trump “has to stop” inflaming tensions and that “there is no place in America for this.”
– Far-right environment –
There was also growing controversy over the presence of far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer in Trump's entourage.
She traveled with him to Tuesday's debate and also accompanied him to Ground Zero on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, despite his claim that the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history was an “inside job.”
“I don't control Laura, Laura says what she wants,” Trump told reporters in Los Angeles.
“Laura has been a big supporter of mine,” he said, adding that he had never heard of her spreading conspiracy theories about 9/11.
Loomer has been criticized even by far-right Republicans for her comment that Harris, whose mother was Indian, would make the White House “smell like curry.”
As Election Day on Nov. 5 rapidly approaches, Trump has been forced to pivot his campaign to fight Harris, rather than Biden, who at 81 was seen by his own Democratic Party as a candidate with little chance of winning.
Trump's troubles have been increasingly visible, including his televised comments on the golf course on Friday.
He spoke defensively about polls that he said showed him with a big lead, and insisted once again that he had dominated Harris in the debate. He has also rejected her challenge to hold another debate.
On Thursday, Trump was in the swing state of Arizona, while Harris held two rallies in North Carolina, also a battleground state.
– 'Turn the page' –
Harris, 59, has largely avoided directly responding to Trump’s personal attacks, choosing instead to cast herself as a leader of a new generation that will end the constant drama and division that characterized Trump’s presidency and post-presidential career.
When Trump mentioned the false story about pets being eaten by immigrants during the debate, she responded by shaking her head in disbelief.
On Thursday, Harris told attendees at a rally in North Carolina: “It's time to turn the page.”
Despite raising huge amounts of donations and being tied with Trump in the polls, Harris insisted again Thursday that she still has a lot of work to do.
“We know that ours will be a very close race until the end. We are the underdogs. Let's be clear about that,” he said.
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