Kamala Harris traverses Michigan on Monday while Donald Trump ventures to Georgia, another crucial swing state in one of the tightest US elections in recent memory, following his presiding over a sombre mega-rally aimed at energising his conservative supporters.
With only a week until November 5 Election Day, early voting has already witnessed more than 41 million Americans casting their ballots, including outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden, who will vote in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware on Monday.
The race, which polls indicate is too close to call, is fraught with tensions, fueled by concerns that Trump will once again refuse to accept defeat, as he did in 2020. The Republican persists in claiming he was defrauded, and his rhetoric has become increasingly imbued with violence and threats.
Outrage erupted across the political spectrum when one of the warm-up speakers at Trump's Sunday rally in New York's Madison Square Garden likened majority-Hispanic Puerto Rico to "a floating island of garbage." The Trump campaign went into a rare bit of damage control, saying this "does not reflect the views of President Trump." However, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe was unrepentant, writing on social media that his critics "have no sense of humor" -- a comment reposted by Trump's son and advisor Don Trump Jr.
Harris, 60, called Trump "increasingly unstable and unhinged" in an interview with CBS News and challenged the 78-year-old to take a cognitive test, saying that she would "take the same one." As the clock ticks down, the challenge for Harris and Trump is to both energise their core supporters and persuade the small number of undecided voters who could still sway the outcome, particularly in the seven swing states where polls show them running neck-and-neck.
On Tuesday in Washington, Harris will deliver what her campaign calls a "closing argument," in a nod to her career as a federal prosecutor. The Democrat will speak from the same spot on the Mall near the White House where then-president Trump stoked his supporters on January 6, 2021, to launch a violent assault on Congress in an attempt to stop certification of his reelection loss to Biden.
Trump, the oldest presidential nominee ever and also the first to have been convicted of crimes, used a packed Madison Square Garden for his own closing pitch on Sunday.
The campaign celebrated the event in the legendary arena as a show of force and energy, claiming that tens of thousands of supporters thronged outside in addition to the capacity crowd inside.
Much of the event, likened by Democrats to an infamous 1939 rally of American fascists in the same venue, was not joyous.
Trump lashed out at the "enemy from within," which he described as an "amorphous group" that includes the Democratic Party leadership. His allies unleashed crude, sometimes openly racist rhetoric to mock Harris sexually, make fun of Hispanics' birth control, parody Jews and Palestinians, and poke fun at a Black man by referring to a watermelon -- a deep-rooted racist stereotype in the United States.
The row over the comedian's crude joke came as Puerto Rican superstar rapper Bad Bunny endorsed Harris. Residents in the US territory cannot vote in presidential elections, but those within the United States proper, which includes about 450,000 Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania, can.
Hanging over the entire election is concern that the aftermath will be as chaotic and perilous as in 2020. According to a CNN poll out Monday, only 30 per cent of Americans think Trump would concede defeat, while 73 per cent think Harris would accept a loss.
With only a week until November 5 Election Day, early voting has already witnessed more than 41 million Americans casting their ballots, including outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden, who will vote in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware on Monday.
The race, which polls indicate is too close to call, is fraught with tensions, fueled by concerns that Trump will once again refuse to accept defeat, as he did in 2020. The Republican persists in claiming he was defrauded, and his rhetoric has become increasingly imbued with violence and threats.
Outrage erupted across the political spectrum when one of the warm-up speakers at Trump's Sunday rally in New York's Madison Square Garden likened majority-Hispanic Puerto Rico to "a floating island of garbage." The Trump campaign went into a rare bit of damage control, saying this "does not reflect the views of President Trump." However, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe was unrepentant, writing on social media that his critics "have no sense of humor" -- a comment reposted by Trump's son and advisor Don Trump Jr.
Harris, 60, called Trump "increasingly unstable and unhinged" in an interview with CBS News and challenged the 78-year-old to take a cognitive test, saying that she would "take the same one." As the clock ticks down, the challenge for Harris and Trump is to both energise their core supporters and persuade the small number of undecided voters who could still sway the outcome, particularly in the seven swing states where polls show them running neck-and-neck.
On Tuesday in Washington, Harris will deliver what her campaign calls a "closing argument," in a nod to her career as a federal prosecutor. The Democrat will speak from the same spot on the Mall near the White House where then-president Trump stoked his supporters on January 6, 2021, to launch a violent assault on Congress in an attempt to stop certification of his reelection loss to Biden.
Trump, the oldest presidential nominee ever and also the first to have been convicted of crimes, used a packed Madison Square Garden for his own closing pitch on Sunday.
The campaign celebrated the event in the legendary arena as a show of force and energy, claiming that tens of thousands of supporters thronged outside in addition to the capacity crowd inside.
Much of the event, likened by Democrats to an infamous 1939 rally of American fascists in the same venue, was not joyous.
Trump lashed out at the "enemy from within," which he described as an "amorphous group" that includes the Democratic Party leadership. His allies unleashed crude, sometimes openly racist rhetoric to mock Harris sexually, make fun of Hispanics' birth control, parody Jews and Palestinians, and poke fun at a Black man by referring to a watermelon -- a deep-rooted racist stereotype in the United States.
The row over the comedian's crude joke came as Puerto Rican superstar rapper Bad Bunny endorsed Harris. Residents in the US territory cannot vote in presidential elections, but those within the United States proper, which includes about 450,000 Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania, can.
Hanging over the entire election is concern that the aftermath will be as chaotic and perilous as in 2020. According to a CNN poll out Monday, only 30 per cent of Americans think Trump would concede defeat, while 73 per cent think Harris would accept a loss.
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