MILWAUKEE: US Vice President Kamala Harris and election rival Donald Trump traded barbs across battleground states Friday before converging on Wisconsin’s biggest city for competing rallies, a dramatic split-screen image in the final days of a volatile presidential race.
With political heat reaching a boil ahead of Election Day November 5, Trump faced criticism for violent rhetoric targeting a high-profile Republican supporter of Harris, who lambasted him for the provocative attack.
More than 70 million Americans have already cast their ballots—45 percent of the 2020 total—ahead of Election Day on Tuesday. Opinion polls show Trump and Harris running dead even, with victory depending on who prevails across the seven swing states.
Both held a full day of campaign events, with Harris attending rallies and visiting a union hall in Wisconsin while Trump stumped for votes in neighbouring battleground Michigan.
“Everything we have been fighting for these past four years comes down to the next four days,” Trump told supporters in Warren, Michigan.
Later Friday, the rivals rallied just miles apart in Milwaukee, where Trump boomed, “I don’t want your money; I want your damn vote!”
The former president was addressing the same venue where he earned the Republican Party nomination over the summer and gave a triumphant acceptance speech just days after surviving an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.
Harris, who only entered the race in July after President Joe Biden dropped out amid fears over his declining mental acuity, was joined onstage by star rapper Cardi B in the latest of a series of high-energy events.
Cardi B, speaking of America’s potential first woman president, asked the crowd, “Are we ready to make history?”
Earlier, Harris reprimanded Trump for using “violent rhetoric” when discussing one of his chief Republican critics.
Trump has “suggested rifles should be trained on former representative Liz Cheney,” Harris told reporters in Madison, Wisconsin.
“This must be disqualifying. Anyone… who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president.”
