Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Donald Trump traveled to Pennsylvania on Saturday November 5 to try to tip this key state where it could be decided who, Democrats or Republicans, will win the midterm elections on Tuesday.
Barack Obama opened the ball by joining Senate candidate John Fetterman in the morning for a meeting in Pittsburgh in front of some 7,500 supporters. The former president, “dressed in a blue button-up shirt, spoke after Fetterman, who had taken the stage in his black hoodie“, recount Politico. “You have a choice between politicians who will say anything and do anything to get power, and people who see you, care about you and share your values”said the always popular Obama, who touched on many subjects, such as abortion or firearms.
John Fetterman, who once enjoyed a significant lead in the polls, is now neck and neck with Mehmet Oz, says Dr Oz, a former TV celebrity dubbed by Donald Trump. The advantage of the Democrat is “shrunk in the wake of a barrage of Republican attacks on the crime issue and a failed debate,” because of a stroke suffered in the spring from which he is struggling to recover, recalls the political information site.
“Democracy on the ballot”
An incident, which did not fail to raise Fox Newsenamelled the speech of the candidate in the sweatshirt: “while Fetterman […] expressed his pride in rallying to a 100% non-seditious president […], a strong gust of wind blew and knocked down a whole row of American flags.” Quite a symbol for the conservative channel which repeats over and over again that the Democrats are not patriotic enough.
In the afternoon, Obama and Fetterman then joined Joe Biden and Josh Shapiro, the Democratic candidate for governor, in Philadelphia. By opening the meeting, the current occupant of the White House “warned of rising political violence and Republican denial over the 2020 election results”, relate le Philadelphia Inquirer. “Democracy is literally on the ballot, and this is a defining moment for the nation”he declared in front of a packed crowd.
He then detailed the results of his first two years in power, before promising to legislate on firearms and on abortion, which seems “still a long way off, because the Democrats should (for it) keep their majority in the House and increase that in the Senate to eliminate the filibuster there”, recalls the local daily. However, the polls indicate the opposite.
“Saving the American Dream”
Donald Trump, for his part, gathered his followers (around 8,000) on an airfield, as he often does, this time in Latrobe near Pittsburgh. “The crowd eagerly scanned the approaching planes in search of Trump’s, when the former president made a spectacular entrance on the catwalk, stepping onto the stage wearing a MAGA cap”, relate le Washington Post. The former president asked his fans for a “giant wave” republican for “stop the destruction of the country and save the American dream” – and why not serve as a launch pad for 2024.
Pennsylvania has indeed been essential to Trump in the past two presidential campaigns and it would be so again in 2024. He couldn’t resist throwing a dart at Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the dubbing “Ron DeSanctimonious”, “in what appears to be a sign of growing tension between the two potential presidential candidates“, according Fox News.
“I promise you that in a very, very, very short time, you are going to be very happy”Trump told the crowd. “I don’t want to do it now (advertise sa candidature)…I would love to do it, but I want the focus tonight to be on Dr. Oz and Doug Mastriano”the two Republican candidates, respectively for the posts of senator and governor, whom he had come to support this evening.
“The place that defines the soul of the nation”
Le “Keystone State” (“ keystone state” in English) bears its name well: it is indeed “crucial” for the two parties who stick to it in a pocket handkerchief, insists the New York Times. More “$115 million in political advertising was spent there.”, in the last month alone. And the “proxy battle being played out there could define both parties far beyond this election”, prophesies the New York daily, adding that “the moment represents both a clash of the past and a struggle for the future”.
Because behind the problems of 2022 (crime, inflation and the dismantling of the federal abortion law), voters are again “asked to choose between the establishment politics of President Biden and former President Barack Obama (on the one hand)and the chaotic and disruptive force of former President Donald J. Trump (the other).”
While the American Constitution was written in Philadelphia in 1787, Pennsylvania remains in 2022 at the heart of the struggle for power in the United States. To conclude his speech,as he often does“, remember The Philadelphia InquirerJoe Biden thus called Philadelphia a “place that defines the soul of the nation” and implored the crowd to vote, saying that “the power of America is in your hands”.