| AP United News |
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, who are confirmed to face off again in the November U.S. election, clashed in Georgia, one of the handful of states that will decide who wins the presidency.
According to foreign media on the 9th (local time), President Biden and former President Trump held their first campaign face-off in Georgia, a competitive state. The two former and current presidents are gearing up for the Georgia primary on the 12th.
Georgia, a southern U.S. state, holds significance as a battleground state in this election. President Biden secured a victory by a slim margin of 0.23% in the 2020 presidential election. President Biden and former President Trump launched fierce attacks, citing each other’s weaknesses in “democracy” and “immigration policy” to rally their supporters.
| AFP United News |
President Biden warned at a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, that democracy would be endangered if former President Trump returned to power. He criticized Trump for inviting Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister whom many regard as a dictator, to his home in Florida the day before, saying, “He is flattering dictators and authoritarian leaders worldwide,” and added, “I genuinely believe him when he says he wants to become a dictator.”
President Biden, who has been struggling since last October due to a decline in support from people of color, progressives, and young people, also gave a speech targeting these groups. He criticized former President Trump’s anti-immigrant policy, saying, “He calls them pests and says they are poisoning the blood of our country.” He also promised that “it will not happen while I’m watching” in response to former President Trump and Republican hardliners’ attempts to enforce a nationwide abortion ban.
At the same time, former President Trump campaigned in Rome, Georgia, a Republican stronghold, and the district of Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of his supporters. Former President Trump heavily criticized President Biden’s border policy, citing the case of Laken Riley, a female college student who was killed by an illegal immigrant from Mexico. He directly attacked Biden, saying, “Biden is the most incompetent president, the most corrupt president, the worst president we’ve ever had.” Riley’s parents were also in attendance at Trump’s rally.
Former President Trump also questioned whether “our country is going crazy,” referring to the fact that President Biden regretted calling an immigrant charged with Riley’s murder an “illegal immigrant” in an interview with MSNBC that day.
Georgia, once a Republican stronghold, was also a place where former President Trump lost to President Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Former President Trump ordered the Secretary of State of Georgia, who oversees the electoral process, to find a way to overturn the election results. Subsequently, he faced legal proceedings on charges of election interference in August last year.
Since last October, President Biden’s approval ratings, which had been falling behind former President Trump, have been showing signs of rebounding this month. According to The Hill, a U.S. political specialist media outlet, on November 9th (local time), President Biden narrowly beat former President Trump by 51% to 49% in a two-way match-up support survey conducted by Emerson College from the 5th to the 6th, which is also referred to as Super Tuesday. This is the first support survey conducted after Super Tuesday when major regional elections were held. Experts noted that the proportion of floating voters decreased from 11.2% to 10%, and 62.7% of floating voters stated they “intend to vote for President Biden.”
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