This is part of a series, This American carnageby Charlie Lewis, who reports from the United States on the 2024 American presidential election.

“I can’t hear you!” the DJ tells the first arrivals nestled at the barriers during one of Kamala Harris’ last campaign stops, in Pittsburgh, before election day in Washington. He hits the kill switch for the chorus of “(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life” to get people singing along, then cuts to “Brick House.” The crowd applauds and sings. “Yes sir!” » replies the DJ.

Harris is expected to appear here any time within four hours, and wild rumors persist about a potential appearance from Taylor Swift (even if she has to attend a football match…).

There are two giant Stars and Stripes and a row of food trucks gleaming in the late afternoon sun, all against the backdrop of Carrie’s Blast Furnaces (only two remain from Peak the late 1800s when the bank along the Monongahela River was lined). with them), burnt black, pipe wrapping around the conical peak perched on a dilapidated building more than a hundred years old. It’s Burton-era Batman, a steampunk dream, and today it’s an odd fit for the joyful vibe of the “music festival for all ages” as attendees and media personnel begin to gather around the stage.

“You know we’re in the middle of the story, right?” shouts the DJ. “We are going to change the whole world tomorrow, with a single act.”

Harris is joined in Pittsburgh by Republican Donald Trump, who will address his audience at a confrontational (in every sense of the word) event across town at the PGP Paints Arena. Crikey had requested credentials for both campaigns: Harris’ team ultimately granted it, but Trump’s people – despite the fact they would need the number of people – refused us a door place. (We are in good companywith journalists from The Washington Post, Axios and Vanity Fair having also been postponed).

Considering Trump rhetoric on hostile media issuesI was both amused and terrified at the idea of ​​an activist Googling an Australian media outlet called Crikey and “Donald Trump” and find, say, Bernard Keane’s assessment of the events of January 6.

This Harris campaign event was originally planned for Point State Park, before a late change moved it here. In the closed media scrum, I ask a local reporter if this was due to possible clashes between supporters. “Maybe it’s that, maybe it’s the traffic? But also, Mount Washington is right there, there are buildings all around,” he says before miming something on the radio. “I think if I’m a Secret Service guy, I look at that setup and say, ‘No fucking way.’

“I know!” a premises AFP » intervenes the journalist. “When I heard where it was, I thought, ‘They’ve never seen Jack Reacher?‘”

A resident had told me the day before that during the first days of hunting season—an event so big that when it happens they give the kids two days off—Pittsburgh has the most heavily armed population in the world.

I ask him when the hunting season starts.

“Oh, like…now?”

Stay tuned for updates to this story, as Lewis writes from the rally as it unfolds and as Trump and Harris make their pitches in Pittsburgh.