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LiveUS Election: Harris and Trump heading into the final stretch of campaigning
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris continue to campaign on a pivotal weekend in the final days of voting as ‘astonishing support’ for Trump may tip the balance. Follow for updates.
Donald Trump is rallying supporters at an iconic New York arena while Kamala Harris goes neighbourhood to neighbourhood in Philadelphia just over a week before America votes in an extraordinarily close White House race.
Trump’s gathering at the nearly 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden is expected to draw a blitz of coverage in the Republican’s home metropolis, which is still very much a Democratic stronghold.
Both candidates are making closing pitches to voters in one of America’s most divisive and suspense-filled electoral fights, with polls suggesting a dead heat ahead of the November 5 vote.
Harris, 60, has planned a packed day of campaigning in the biggest city in must-win Pennsylvania, including stops at a Black church and barbershop as well as a Puerto Rican restaurant.
A senior Harris campaign official said Sunday’s visit will be the vice president’s 14th trip to Pennsylvania since she jumped to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden’s shock withdrawal in July.
Harris will go before supporters to make what her campaign called her “closing argument” on Tuesday in Washington at the park where Trump rallied supporters before the January 6 riot.
Trump’s rally Sunday at a venue dubbed “The World’s Most Famous Arena” is set to include backers and surrogates like billionaire Elon Musk, who has personally hit the campaign trail for the ex-president.
It is a storeyed arena in US sporting and cultural life that has hosted the Rolling Stones, Madonna and U2 plus several Democratic and Republican presidential conventions over the decades.
Trump appears at Madison Square Garden just days after one of his top former officials, John Kelly, said the Republican fits the definition of a fascist - something Harris later said she agreed with.
It comes as Kamala Harris is being held to “a higher standard” than Donald Trump, Michelle Obama said in her first appearance on the campaign trail as she unleashed on the Republican while warning the race was “too close for our liking”.
The Vice President and the former president descended on Michigan for the first day of early voting in the critical battleground state, with Mr Trump doubling down on his criticisms of Detroit while he campaigned in the city’s suburbs.
The night before, he was almost three hours late to a rally in the state, having spent three hours speaking to America’s biggest podcaster Joe Rogan.
During the interview, he maintained he won the 2020 election that he lost to Joe Biden, attacked his opponents as “the enemy within” and said they were a “bigger problem” than North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, and boasted that Google chief Sundar Pichai called him to say his campaign stunt at McDonald’s was “one of the biggest things we’ve ever had”.
Former president Barack Obama’s wife – one of the most popular Democratic surrogates – said voters were expecting “nothing at all” from Mr Trump while holding Ms Harris to “a higher standard”.
“I hope that you will forgive me if I’m a little angry that we are indifferent to his erratic behaviour, his obvious mental decline, his history as a convicted felon, a known slumlord, a predator found liable for sexual abuse,” Mrs Obama said.
“All of this, while we pick apart Kamala’s answers from interviews that he doesn’t even have the courage to do.”
“If we want to help this country finally turn the page on the politics of hatred and division, we can’t just sit around and complain. We’ve got to do something.”
The Vice President similarly acknowledged the race – which the polls show is locked in a statistical tie – was close but declared: “We are going to win.”
In Detroit’s suburbs, Mr Trump said the city “makes us a developing nation”.
“We’re going to make Detroit great again, finally, after 45 years,” the former president said.
“It needs help … How the hell can you be positive?”
He also criticised Ms Harris’s rally the night before in Texas, saying that “the place went crazy” because pop icon Beyoncé spoke but did not sing,
“They thought she was going to perform. I would have no interest in that,” Mr Trump said.
“They have to use people to get people to come.”
On Sunday (local time), Mr Trump was due to hold a blockbuster rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, while Ms Harris travelled to Philadelphia.
She had also been in talks to appear on Mr Rogan’s podcast – which is wildly popular with young male voters who will play a decisive role in next week’s election – but did not lock it in.
Mr Trump said in his interview: “Could you imagine Kamala doing this show? I hope she does because it would be a mess. She’d be laying on the floor comatose.”
Mr Biden also made a rare appearance on the campaign trail on Saturday (local time), telling Democratic supporters in Pennsylvania that his predecessor was “a loser”.
“He’s a loser as a candidate, and more importantly, in my view, I’m just gonna say straight up: He’s a loser as a man,” the President said.
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Originally published as US Election: Harris and Trump heading into the final stretch of campaigning
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