US ‘Absolutely’ ready for first female president: Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris said Tuesday that America is “absolutely” ready to elect its first female president, but downplayed her historic bid, saying she just wants to turn the page for a nation “exhausted” by Donald Trump.

Two weeks before Election Day, Harris and Trump are saturating the states with rallies and taking over the airwaves and podcasts in search of an edge in a race that polls say is virtually tied.

Speaking on NBC’s national network, Harris said “absolutely” when asked if America was ready to elect its first woman — but also noted that her candidacy was “turning the page.”

“People are exhausted by Donald Trump and his approach because it’s all about himself,” she said.

Trump, speaking to supporters in North Carolina, delivered a very different message.

“This election is a choice between whether we have four more years of incompetence, failure and disaster, or whether we begin the four greatest years in the history of our country,” he said to cheers.

He repeatedly called Harris and her teammate Tim Waltz stupid during the rally.

“lock it up”

The race has been clouded by extreme tension and fears of violence or Trump refusing to concede the results if he loses, as he continues to do in his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.

Harris told NBC that her campaign is “certainly” prepared for a scenario in which Trump prematurely claims victory during the vote-counting process, which could take days to complete.

Biden, who has been a rare presence on the Harris campaign, took a swipe at Trump on Tuesday by paraphrasing the former president’s infamous “lock her up” chant against Hillary Clinton.

On a visit to New Hampshire, Biden told a small crowd that “we need to lock up” Trump — quickly adding “politically to lock him up.”

With Trump facing multiple pending criminal charges as he competes against Harris to succeed Biden, the White House has been very careful not to interfere in the Republican’s legal troubles.

The Trump campaign responded that Biden and Harris had “a plan all along … to go after their political opponent.”

About 18 million Americans have already voted by mail or in person — more than 10 percent of the 2020 total.

Some polls appear to give the Republican, who at 78 is the oldest major-party candidate in U.S. history, with a slight edge recently — but that’s all within the margin of error.

Whatever the outcome, American voters will make history on November 5: They will either elect the country’s first female president or put the first convicted felon in the White House.

Early voters

Harris, 60, also included two of her party’s most popular campaign emissaries: Barack and Michelle Obama.

The former president, speaking at a rally in Madison on Tuesday, rolled back the years with fiery attacks on Trump.

“Don’t boo, vote!” he implored the crowd after his taunts.

Later in the day, rapper Eminem upped the star factor when he introduced Obama at a major Harris campaign event in Detroit, drawing a rapped response from the former president.

“I don’t usually get nervous, but I was kind of following Eminem,” Obama said before beginning to recite the lyrics to the rapper’s hit “Lose Yourself.”

At the same time, Trump has increasingly repeated conspiracy theories during his campaign, often targeting migrants and his political opponents.

Speaking to Latin American leaders on Tuesday in Florida, he said: “As president, you have enormous — it’s called extraordinary power. You have extraordinary power.”

“You can just say ‘Close the border’ and the border is closed,” he added.

Harris’ campaign began bashing his mental and physical fitness to occupy the Oval Office as he tried to woo moderate Republican voters.

One of Trump’s top aides as president, former Marine General John Kelly, confirmed to The New York Times on Tuesday previous reports that he considered the Republican a fascist.

“Certainly the former president is in the far right zone, he is certainly authoritarian, he admires people who are dictators – he said that. So he certainly falls under the general definition of a fascist, for sure.”

Joe Rogan, host of one of America’s most-listened-to podcasts, said his interview with Trump should air on Friday.

Non-traditional media, including podcasts, played a key role in the campaign to target specific audiences such as young women and black men.

(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published by a syndicated channel.)