With the Nov. 5 election fast approaching, Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump are setting their sites on the key battleground state of Michigan on Friday.
The vice president is scheduled to begin her day in Grand Rapids before holding events in Lansing and Oakland County, northwest of Detroit.
The former president has his own event in Oakland County in the afternoon before an evening rally in Detroit.
Trump laced into Harris and other Democrats in a pointed and at times bitter speech as he headlined the annual Al Smith charity dinner Thursday in New York. Harris appeared virtually for the event.
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Here’s the latest:
Grammy Award winning singer Marc Anthony in a new TV ad for Harris is lambasting Trump for blocking disaster relief for Puerto Rico after a 2017 hurricane devastated the U.S. territory.
The ad released Friday and aimed at Latino voters includes footage of the ravaged island following Hurricane Maria and Trump tossing rolls of paper towels into a crowd during a visit to an island church following a hurricane, behavior from the then-president that was derided by some as disrespectful.
“Even though some have forgotten, I remember what it was like when Trump was president,” said Anthony, who is of Puerto Rican descent. “I remember what he did and he said about Puerto Rico, our people.”
Trump publicly feuded with the mayor of San Juan over her criticism of his administration’s response to the storm that killed 3,000 and withheld billions in congressionally approved aid to Puerto Rico. He eventually relented and announced less than 50 days before his losing 2020 reelection bid that he was releasing $13 billion in aid. At the time, he declared himself the “best thing that ever happened to Puerto Rico.”
The Harris campaign said that the ad will air on the popular Spanish-language Telemundo and WAPA America TV, during this Sunday’s coverage of the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards and in Pennsylvania on Telemundo and Univision.
Latino voters have historically favored Democrats, but Republicans have made inroads with the group in recent years.
Residents of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of more than 3 million people, cannot vote in the general election. But there are more people of Puerto Rican descent on the mainland than on the island, and they could play a key role in the Nov. 5 vote.
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