In competing bids for support among Latin Americans, US presidential nominee Kamala Harris says she would help Latino men secure small business loans, while rival Donald Trump's roundtable aimed at Latino voters devolved into a tirade of insults against his opponent.
Harris said in an interview with Telemundo that “we need to construct a strong economy that supports the working class.”
“I know that Hispanic men often have more difficulty securing loans from banks because of their connections and the fact that things aren’t necessarily set up so that they will qualify," she said in an interview in English that was translated into Spanish. "For that reason, I’m focused on seeing what we can do to bring more capital to community banks that better understand the community so we can give them that kind of loans.”
In response to Trump's claims that she was a socialist, she said: “I'm a capitalist. I'm a pragmatic capitalist.”
Trump, meanwhile, described Harris as “lazy", railed against green energy and talked about “extreme" presidential power during remarks at his golf club in Doral, a Miami suburb.
Insisting President Joe Biden did not need congressional approval to curb illegal immigration, he said: “As president, you have tremendous — it’s called extreme power. You have extreme power."
Trump also continued to hammer Harris as “low IQ” and invoked a racist trope, calling her “lazy as hell” for not holding any public events on Tuesday.
Latino men could swing the outcome in states such as Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada if their traditional support for Democrats erodes. Trump believes he’s made inroads in that group while Harris’ team is seeking to shore up support with the election just two weeks away.
In 2020, AP VoteCast found that 9 per cent of voters nationwide identified as Latino, and 63 per cent of them backed Biden in the election. That race was defined broadly by the pandemic that shut down much of the country, whereas this year’s race has issues such as the economy, immigration, abortion rights and democracy at the forefront.
Harris said she would work to double the number of registered apprenticeships. She says she would remove college degree requirements for certain federal government jobs and encourage private employers to do likewise. Harris also wants to provide forgivable loans worth up to $20,000 each to 1 million small businesses.
During Trump's event, Latino officials and business leaders praised the economy during his administration, thanking him specifically for tax cuts he signed in 2017.
At the close of the event, Latino faith leaders prayed over Trump, his head bowed as some placed their hands on his shoulders.
In a close race, the Harris campaign is betting that Latino men are getting more attuned to policy specifics as the election draws closer.
"We are very confident that these policies resonate because we’ve seen them resonate in speeches and focus groups,” said Matt Barreto, a Harris campaign pollster. “It speaks to Latino men in particular about being successful and achieving the American dream.”
Trump hopes to convince Latinos they can trust a fellow businessman such as himself, even as he's also called for the mass deportation of immigrants in the country illegally.
“Hispanic people — they say you can’t generalise, but I think you can — they have wonderful entrepreneurship and they have — oh, do you have such energy. Just ease up a little bit, OK? Ease up,” Trump said at an October 12 event. “You have great ambition, you have great energy, very smart, and you really do like natural entrepreneurs.”
As the presidential campaign enters its final weeks, both sides are calling on star power to influence voters.
Rock legend Bruce Springsteen will hold a concert and rally with former President Barack Obama in Atlanta and Philadelphia as part of a series of get-out-and-vote events for Kamala Harris’ campaign in battleground states.
Meanwhile Trump will be interviewed by podcaster Joe Rogan who has 14.5 million listeners, mostly young men.
