Harris talks about economic opportunities for Latino men; Trump insults her

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said Tuesday she would work to bring more funding to community banks to help Latino men get small business loans, while Republican Donald Trump’s economic event aimed at voters Latinos became a litany of insults against his opponent.

Harris said in an interview with Telemundo that “we need to build a strong economy that supports the working class.”

“I know that Hispanic men often have a harder time getting loans from banks because of their ties and the fact that the system is not necessarily designed for them to qualify,” he said in an English interview that was translated into Spanish. “For that reason I am focused on seeing what we can do to bring more capital to the community banks that understand the community better so that we can offer them those types of loans.”

In response to Trump’s claims that she was a socialist, she said: “I’m a capitalist. “I am a pragmatic capitalist.”

Trump, for his part, described Harris as “lazy,” attacked renewable energy and spoke of “extreme” presidential power in remarks he made at his golf club in Doral, a suburb of Miami.

He insisted that President Joe Biden did not need congressional approval to curb illegal immigration. “As president, you have tremendous power, it is called extreme power. “You have extreme power,” he asserted.

Trump also said Harris had a “low IQ” and invoked a racist stereotype, referring to her as “extremely lazy” for not holding a campaign event on Tuesday. Harris was in Washington for meetings and had television interviews scheduled with Telemundo and NBC after more than two straight weeks of campaign activities.

“Who the hell takes a vacation when they have 14 days left?” he asked.

The Trump and Harris campaign teams see a decisive electoral opportunity in Latino men, who could tip the balance in states such as Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada, if the historical tendency to vote for the Democratic party fades. Trump believes he has made progress among Latino men. For its part, Harris’ campaign team is trying to shore up support within the same group two weeks before the elections.

These efforts raise the question of what will carry more weight in terms of mobilizing Latino voters: memories of the Trump presidency or the promise of new policies under Harris.

“We are very confident that these policies resonate because we have seen them resonate in speeches and focus groups,” said Matt Barreto, a pollster for the Harris campaign. “It speaks to Latino men in particular about being successful and achieving the American dream.”

In 2020, the AP VoteCast poll found that 9% of voters nationwide identified as Latino, and 63% of them voted for Biden in the election. In that race, the pandemic, which paralyzed activities in much of the country, had a decisive impact, while this year’s race focuses on issues such as the economy, immigration, abortion rights and democracy.

Harris stated that she would work to double the number of registered internships. He is emphasizing that he would eliminate college degree requirements for certain federal government jobs and encourage private employers to do the same. Harris also wants to provide forgivable loans of up to $20,000 each to one million small businesses.

During his event, Trump sat after his keynote speech as elected officials and business representatives who belong to the Latino community praised the economic policies during his administration, and specifically expressed their gratitude for the tax cuts he implemented in 2017. .

Trump later claimed that he had recently seen a photovoltaic park “that looked like it took up half the desert.”

“It was pure steel, glass and cables. And it looked horrible,” he said. “You see the rabbits get stuck there.” Trump often rails against wind energy, arguing that wind turbines “kill all the birds” and confuse the whales.

At the end of the event, Latino religious leaders prayed for Trump, who bowed his head while some placed their hands on his shoulders. Guillermo Maldonado, pastor of King Jesus International Ministries, said during the prayer that “there is a higher mission that he must complete in this nation.”

During a rally later in North Carolina, Trump, who has been laying the groundwork to challenge the election results if he loses, again commented that Harris did not participate in any public events on Tuesday. “I think she knows some kind of outcome that we don’t know,” he said.

During the closing weeks of the campaign, both teams have struggled to gain an advantage in an increasingly diverse electorate.

Harris’ campaign hopes Latino men will pay more attention to specific aspects of her platform as the election approaches.

Barreto said that based on focus groups, Harris’ campaign team had found that Latino men in particular wanted access to internship programs that could give people without college degrees access to an economically stable career.

The latest figures from the Department of Labor show that there are 641,044 registered internships, a higher number than during the Trump presidency, when internships peaked in 2020, with a total of 569,311. Doubling that figure, as Harris has proposed, would bring the total number of internships to about 1.2 million over four years.

Latino men also expressed their need for access to capital and credit to create businesses. The Treasury Department reported on October 10 that Latino business ownership has increased 40% from pre-pandemic levels, and could continue to increase with better financing options.

Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will participate this week on “El Bueno, La Mala y El Feo,” a Univision radio show, while Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, will be interviewed this week for “El Free-Guey Show,” a Univision afternoon radio show that airs nationally. Emhoff will also be interviewed by Alex “El Genio” Lucas on the Nueva Network Radio station.

Trump hopes to convince Latinos that they can trust a businessman like him, although he has also called for the mass deportation of immigrants who are in the country without authorization.

“Hispanics—they say you can’t generalize it, but I think you can—have a wonderful entrepreneurial spirit and they have… oh, so much energy. Calm down a little, will you? Calm down,” Trump said at a rally on October 12. “They have great ambition, they have great energy, they are very intelligent, and they truly are, like born entrepreneurs.”

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