Just two days to the November 5 United States (US) presidential election, former President Donald Trump of the Republican Party and his rival in the Democratic Party Vice President Kamala Harris are in the final laps of their campaigns.
On Friday both candidates were at the key swing state of Wisconsin, where they hit each other with harsh words as both candidates focused on the economy.
Harris pledged to bring down the cost of living, while Trump said the latest job figures were “bad news” for Harris.
Trump held his Wisconsin rally in Fiserv Forum in the city of Milwaukee on Friday- the same venue where he earned the Republican Party nomination over the summer.
He began by asking voters “are you better off now than you were four years ago?”, pledging to end inflation and “bring back the American dream” even as he threw harsh words at his Democratic rival –Vice President Kamala Harris.
At one point, he encountered issues with his microphone. “This mic stinks” he said, when people shouted they couldn’t hear him.
He repeated his plan to impose tariffs, saying it’s “the most beautiful word in the whole dictionary”
The former US president said “we’re suffering from climate change!” and promised to end the Green New Deal – even though it is a set of non-binding proposals aimed at tackling climate change.
He claimed Kamala Harris’s “inflation nightmare” had cost the American family thousands of dollars warning that a Kamala Harris win would drag the US down to a 1929-style depression.
Harris was also in a suburb of Wisconsin – a key battleground state where she held a rally on Friday.
Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a point – or fewer than 23,000 votes.
Appearing alongside union workers, Harris accused Donald Trump of being a “threat” to the labour movement”, saying his track record was a “disaster for working people”.
She pledged to invest in manufacturing communities and upgrade existing factories. Harris was also joined by rapper Cardi B who criticised Trump’s policies on abortion rights, saying “I’m not taking any chances with my future.”
On the economy, Harris said “bringing down the cost of living” was a key priority. She reminded people of her experience as a prosecutor and former attorney general of California, saying she would fight predators, criminals and drug traffickers.
Addressing Gen Z voters, she said young people were “determined to live free from gun violence” and “take on the climate crisis”.
Trump was expected to hold campaign events in North Carolina and Virginia on Saturday, while Harris will hold a rally in Georgia, before heading to North Carolina for a concert and a campaign rally.
Republicans see North Carolina as a must-win and are pushing back against heightened efforts by Democrats to pull off the upset. Only one Democratic presidential candidate has won North Carolina in the last 50 years.
The latest polls suggest the race is extremely close, with either candidate winning by a single percentage point, which effectively amounts to a tie.
Experts are watching two things on election night: the turnout in the mostly-Republican western part of the state, destroyed by Hurricane Helene; and how many black voters, particularly those in the eastern rural part of state, vote for Harris.
So far more than 70 million people across the country have already cast their vote ahead of November 5 election day, either in person or by mail.
