Harris and Trump trade barbs at swing state rallies as Election Day looms

Charlotte, North Carolina - Kamala Harris and Donald Trump dueled across swing states Saturday on the final weekend of the election, with the vice president urging voters to "turn the page" on her rival's scorched-earth brand of politics.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump held rallies in North Carolina and other swing states Saturday, with Election Day nearing.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump held rallies in North Carolina and other swing states Saturday, with Election Day nearing.  © Collage: REUTERS

As the hours tick down to the Election Day climax Tuesday, 75 million people have already cast early ballots.

Harris and Trump literally crossed paths Saturday, with Harris's official vice presidential Air Force Two and Trump's personal jet sharing the airport tarmac in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Both held rallies in North Carolina, while Harris also spoke to supporters in Georgia, another of the seven swing states seen as the keys to victory in an otherwise dead-even nationwide contest. Trump added in a stop in Virginia.

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The rounds of high-stakes speeches before thousands of people at each stop continue Sunday when Harris holds multiple events in the swing state of Michigan and Trump rallies with supporters in Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Most polls show the candidates within the margin of error from each other across the swing states.

However, there was a surprise boost for Harris when one of the most respected pollsters in the country dropped a new survey in the Des Moines Register that shows her three points ahead of Trump in Iowa – a state he won easily both in his victorious 2016 presidential campaign and again in his narrow 2020 defeat.

Trump doubles down on insults

Trump repeatedly insulted Harris at a rally in Salem, Virginia, where he also doubled-down on xenophobic rhetoric.
Trump repeatedly insulted Harris at a rally in Salem, Virginia, where he also doubled-down on xenophobic rhetoric.  © REUTERS

For the Democrat, a key electorate is women voters angered over the ruling by justices appointed by then-president Trump to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending a decades-long constitutional right to abortion. Thousands demonstrated Saturday in central Washington for a Women's March, highlighting the importance of the issue in this election.

"Donald Trump's not done. He will ban abortion nationwide," Harris said in Atlanta, Georgia.

She painted Trump as "increasingly unstable, obsessed with revenge" and "out for unchecked power."

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"We have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who spends full-time trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other," she said.

Trump, stirring up his right-wing base, continued to deliver increasingly dark rhetoric.

In Salem, Virginia, he began his speech by saying, "I've come today with a message of hope for all."

But he was soon back to conjuring the apocalyptic vision he'd laid out hours earlier in North Carolina.

Calling his opponent "low IQ" and "stupid," he said Harris would usher in an economic "depression," asking the crowd: "Do you want to lose your job and maybe your house and pension?"

In later remarks, he dipped into bigoted and far-right rhetoric with a promise to "keep American for American citizens."

Cover photo: Collage: REUTERS

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