US election: Donald Trump makes 11th hour comeback in polls narrowing Joe Biden’s lead in battleground states

Donald Trump is making an 11th hour comeback in the polls narrowing Joe Biden’s lead in the battleground states on election eve.

Donald Trump arrives for rally at Dubuque airport in Iowa on Monday. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump is making an eleventh hour comeback in the polls against Joe Biden, narrowing Mr Biden’s lead in the battleground states to be within strike distance on election eve.

The president’s blitz of back-to-back rallies around the country in the final days is paying off as he reduces Mr Biden’s lead in battleground states to an average of just 2.7 points, his best result since the end of August.

But the former Vice President still holds the advantage as both candidates make their final pitch to voters with Mr Biden holding a shrinking but still solid lead of 6.5 per cent nationally.

Mr Trump told supporters at Fayetteville, North Carolina that the polls were fake and that he would end up winning again like in 2016.

“We are going to win, we are looking tremendous in Florida, we are really looking good all over, there are the real polls not these Fox polls,’’ Mr Trump said.

He said “hidden voters’’ would emerge in massive numbers on Election Day to vote him back into office.

“We are going to win the whole thing and we will send a signal like you’ve never seen before,’’ he said.

Joe Biden at Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Picture: AFP

It came as the president is criss-crossing the country, holding five rallies in four states on a final push to mount a come-from-behind victory against his 77-year-old challenger.

Mr Trump is campaigning in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

In Pennsylvania he held a rally in Scranton, where Mr Biden was born, as he targets working and middle class white voters who abandoned Democrats for Mr Trump four years ago.

Mr Biden is spending his final day of the campaign in Philadelphia and Ohio, ending it in Pittsburgh in an event featuring music legend Lady Gaga.

Pennsylvania, with its 20 electoral college votes, has become the prime focus of the candidates, with both seeing the Keystone State, which voted narrowly for Mr Trump in 2016, as their best path to the presidency. Mr Biden leads in Pennsylvania by 4.2 points, similar to the lead in that state held by Hillary Clinton on the eve of the 2016 election.

Mr Trump is using his final rallies to argue that a Biden administration would threaten American jobs, values and freedoms.

Mr Biden is using his final events to argue that Mr Trump has mishandled the coronavirus pandemic, the economy and has divided the nation with divisive rhetoric.

Mr Trump said in Fayetteville that if Mr Biden won “the radical left will gain power, they will collapse our economy and send our nation into depression. Biden will send your jobs overseas, destroy your suburbs (and) indoctrinate your children with anti-American lies’’.

The president described Mr Biden as “a corrupt politician’’ whose family had become rich through dodgy foreign business deals.

“We catch them stealing millions of dollars and they (the media) refuse to write a story.’’

In an opinion piece for Fox News, Mr Biden focussed his attack on the pandemic and the economy.

“Across our nation today, there are nearly 230,000 empty chairs at dining room tables, where just weeks or months ago loved ones sat and talked and laughed. There are 30 million Americans feeling the sting of a lost job or lost wages — 10 million who’ve had the peace of mind of health coverage taken away,’’ he wrote.

“He (Trump) lost sight of working people. Now, not only has he given up on fighting this virus, he’s actively fighting to strip protections away from 130 million Americans with preexisting conditions. He handed out a $1.5 trillion tax giveaway, largely to big corporations and billionaires – but thinks $15 an hour is too much for essential workers.’’

In battleground states Mr Biden leads Mr Trump in Florida and Arizona by 1 point, Georgia by 0.4 points, Michigan by 5.1 points, Wisconsin by 6.6 points. Mr Trump has edged ahead in North Carolina by 0.6 points, Iowa by 1.4 points and Ohio by 1.2 points.

A record 93 million votes have already been cast by mail or in-person around two-thirds of the total vote in 2016.

Mr Trump has warned that he is ready to mount legal challenges to the election result if he suspects fraud.

There are growing fears of civil unrest on election night and in the days that follow, especially if the result is contested. Downtown businesses in many US cities have boarded up their front windows, while the national guard has been placed on stand-by across the country, ready to step in and quell any street violence.

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia