Deputy Political Editor Thomas Coughlan interviews Americans on the streets of Philadelphia ahead of next week’s election. Video / NZ Herald
Donald Trump entered the home stretch of America’s presidential race with a meandering, profane speech in which he said women have to be protected “at home in suburbia”.
The former United States President complained today NZT that he was not allowed to call women beautiful, and warned baselessly that a Kamala Harris presidency would mean “every town in America will be turned into a squalid, dangerous refugee camp”.
The Democratic Vice-President spoke today in Atlanta, reprising her closing argument that Trump is not someone “who is thinking about how to make your life better”.
Harris cast a spotlight on the Republican’s threats and inflammatory rhetoric.
She called him a candidate “who is increasingly unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance”, and warned he would walk into the Oval Office “stewing over an enemies list”.
The duelling appearances offered a snapshot of a bruising, personal and highly competitive presidential race nearing the finish line.
As their fight swells to its final crescendo with polls showing a tight contest, both Trump and Harris are set to campaign in the battleground state of North Carolina.
On the last weekend before election day, the candidates are working to energise their supporters and persuade voters who have yet to make a decision to join their causes.
Both candidates have scheduled prime-time rallies in North Carolina – Trump in Greensboro and Harris in Charlotte – which is one of seven battleground states seen as key to victory. The others are Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada.
Their planes were parked near each other on a tarmac in Charlotte.
North Carolina is effectively a must-win for Trump, whose path to the presidency becomes much more complicated if he falls short. For Harris, a win could offset a loss in another key state and open up multiple pathways to victory.
Polls remain close in North Carolina, with a very slight lead for Trump, according to the Washington Post’s polling average.
“We win this state, we’re going to win the whole ballgame,” Trump said.
Trump spoke for about 89 minutes in Gastonia in what his team billed as his “closing message”.
He hit on his top policy issues, immigration and the economy – but he also made many extended detours and aired false or exaggerated claims. He characterised the country as “invaded” by immigrants and made dark, baseless predictions about what a Harris presidency would look like, notably claiming that Americans “won’t own your house anymore”.
Trump discussed his disdain for ABC anchor David Muir (“a real stiff; what a dope”); his grandfather looking for gold in Alaska (“see, we always had a little entrepreneurial spirit, and he spent a lot of time in Alaska doing that”); and the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter (“they say, oh, he brings up these names … well, that’s genius right? Dr Hannibal Lecter, there’s nobody worse than him”).
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Gastonia Municipal Airport in Gastonia, North Carolina. Photo / AFP
He insulted Harris, saying she has “the economic understanding of a child”. He predicted that she won’t be able to “handle” foreign leaders, asserting that she “will get overwhelmed, melt down and millions of people will die, perhaps”.
And he referred to his comments earlier in the week that he would protect women whether they “like it or not”, which had drawn a rebuke from Harris.
“I will protect our women,” Trump said today. “I think the women love me.”
He expressed his disbelief in polling that showed he performed better with men than women.
He went on: “I believe that women have to be protected. Men have to be, children, everybody. But women have to be protected where they’re at home in suburbia.”
Trump spoke about the topic for several minutes, concluding: “There’s some women that are very beautiful in the audience”.
“I would never say that because if I said – like that, that, her, her, her, her, we got a lot of them, her – if I said they were beautiful, that’s the end of my political career. You’re not allowed to say a woman is beautiful.”
The rallies cap a week of intense campaigning on both sides in the hurtle to the finish line. On several topics, the candidates nearly appeared to be talking to each other.
Harris heavily emphasised her pledge to listen to and work with people who disagree with her as she makes decisions.
“Because unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy,” Harris said at an outdoor rally in downtown Atlanta. “He wants to put them in jail. I will give them a seat at the table. That’s what real leaders do. That’s what strong leaders do.”
The Vice-President also sought to contrast what her presidency would look like compared to a second Trump term. “When I am elected, I will walk in on your behalf with my to-do list,” she said to cheers, before listing her agenda for bringing down the cost of living for average Americans.
Trump has threatened to jail people “involved in unscrupulous behaviour” related to voting in this year’s elections and has described his domestic political opposition as “the enemy from within”.
He mocked Harris’ calls for unity, saying: “She talks about unity and then she calls me Hitler”. Harris has not called Trump Hitler, but she has said she agrees with Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, that Trump meets the definition of a fascist.
US Vice-President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris greets supporters as she arrives during a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. Photo / AFP
In the tense lead-up to election day, millions of Americans have already cast ballots through early and mail-in voting, and both campaigns have doubled down on efforts to target certain voting blocs.
The candidates are largely maintaining a focus on the states that could tip the presidency as the historically consequential campaign draws to a close. Harris and Trump converged on Wisconsin on Saturday, holding duelling rallies in Milwaukee.
Trump was headed to Salem, Virginia. It was another unorthodox stop in a less-competitive blue state for Trump, who visited New Mexico on Friday and has also travelled to traditional Democratic states New Jersey, California, and New York.
In New York last weekend, Trump hosted a comedian who called Puerto Rico an “island of garbage”. Trump accused his opponents of having “stained” his Madison Square Garden rally by making “a big deal” out of the comedian’s comment.
Harris has spent the week working to appeal to voters in part by pointing to Trump’s comments, including his suggestion that former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney would change her views on war “when the guns are trained on her face”, and she has pushed to strike a patriotic, unifying note in the campaign’s closing days.
The campaign released a final ad in which Harris argued that Americans “have so much more in common than what separates them”, pledging: “we’re not falling for these folks who are trying to divide us”.
