WASHINGTON.— President Donald Trump reacted late to the COVID-19 pandemic "out of fear," and "still does not have a plan" to stop it, Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris said Thursday , hours before for Trump to formally accept his nomination at the Republican Convention.
Harris's speech was a kind of 'pre-emptive strike' before the president speaks tonight: "Donald Trump froze. He was scared. And he got petty and vindictive ," Harris said in Washington.
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You cannot stop the coronavirus "with a tweet. You cannot create a distraction and hope that it will disappear, because it will not go away," Harris continued, and assured that the Republican Convention, which has been held throughout Throughout this week, it has been designed to "calm your ego and make you feel good."
As a running mate of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and a former California attorney general, Harris is the one who will go on the offensive. That is why he especially attacked Trump's "failed leadership" regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left more than 180,000 dead, and the subsequent economic crisis, which has increased the unemployment rate to 10.2%.
Instead, he said, Biden has a national plan that includes the production of more personal protective equipment, the mandatory use of face masks and more rapid tests for coronavirus.
As a former prosecutor, he talks about police brutality
Harris also touched on another of the crises the country is experiencing: systemic racism, police brutality, and the protests against them. Harris stood in solidarity with the family of Jacob Blake, a black man who was shot seven times in the back last Sunday by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Blake was not armed and is in the hospital in critical condition, most likely paralyzed in the lower body.
A video of the incident has been widely shared and the discontent it has generated has led to protests, first peaceful and others that later turned violent.
[Identity of police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times in Wisconsin revealed]
In the Republican Convention they showed their interpretation of the facts and of what is happening in the country. Multiple speakers endorsed the efforts of the police to contain the riots and protests. Neither has mentioned Blake's individual tragedy.
The response to the pandemic: attack material
Hours before Harris spoke, the White House confirmed that Trump will announce a $ 750 million deal with Abbott Labs to produce at least 150 million rapid tests for the coronavirus.
According to an excerpt from Trump's speech on Thursday night, advanced by the media and news agencies, the president will talk about how he has reversed the supposed “damage” that Biden has caused in his 47 years in politics, and accuses the Democrats to promote the “most extreme proposals ever offered by a presidential candidate”.
That is, moreover, the common thread of the Republican Convention: to paint, without foundation, the binomial Biden-Harris as "radical" and a "socialist threat."
Asked about it, a Harris spokeswoman, who requested anonymity, told Noticias Telemundo that the extract from Trump's speech "does not change at all" the message of the Californian senator.
Faced with criticism for his handling of the pandemic, Trump seeks to regain ground he has lost in opinion polls, where Biden continues to outpace him.
Breaking the rules, Trump will accept the nomination from the South Lawn of the White House and before a live audience, and then conclude the convention with fireworks.
Since the beginning of the week, the White House finalized the security measures, placing more metal fences in the surroundings before the expected protests. It also further restricted journalists from entering the presidential mansion.
Those who seek to spoil the party for Trump
Biden launched a two-minute ad on major television networks in which he describes, step by step, his biography, his history and his plans to lift the country out of the current crises.
The ad, which shows black and white and color images of Biden as a child and early in his political career, fits into a $ 26 million ad campaign that his campaign has invested as a replica of the Republican event.
“Some people are always fast. They run when they should walk. They climb the stairs fast when others go slowly, ”reads part of the ad, which does not mention Trump by name but makes fun of him.
"The United States is a concept, an idea stronger than any army, more powerful than any dictator or tyrant," continues the ad, which mixes images of immigrants and minorities.
Meanwhile, civic groups that have denounced police brutality, including Black Lives Matter, plan to spoil Trump's party on the fourth and final day of the convention.
Two of the groups, Long Live GoGo and ShutDownDC are hosting an outdoor concert near the White House to try to stifle their words.
Their goal is to denounce Trump's "racist and destructive agenda," according to organizers.
Speaking to Noticias Telemundo, Hope Neyer, a ShutDownDC volunteer, said she was confident that her message "will resonate more because it is stronger than Trump's, because we have seen all the horrible things he has done."
"Many African Americans have died at the hands of the police and vigilantes, there are more restrictions on health coverage. Donald Trump did not invent these problems, but he has done nothing to solve them ... we dream of a day when there is clean air, safe water , good jobs and reasonable health coverage, "he explained.
Rejection from his own party
For their part, a growing number of Republicans have come out to support Biden.
These include nearly 300 former advisers to the former presidential campaigns of former President George W. Bush, Utah Senator Mitt Romney, and the late Arizona Senator John McCain.
Although neither Bush nor other major party leaders have spoken at this Republican convention, Trump continues to have strong support from his base, so much so that, according to observers, it may help him win reelection, even when he is not leading in the polls. .