Trump increases violent rhetoric; Harris vows Gaza peace in final hours

LITITZ, Pa/DETROIT/WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris courted voters angered by the Gaza war while Donald Trump doubled down on violent rhetoric with a comment about journalists being shot as the tense U.S. election campaign headed into its final hours.

The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president frantically blitzed several swing states as they tried to win over the last holdouts with less than 36 hours left until polls open on Election Day.

Trump predicted a "landslide," while Harris told a raucous rally at Michigan State University that "we have momentum -- it's on our side."

The 2024 race is going down to the wire, with more key states effectively tied at this point than in any comparable election. Over 77.6 million people have cast early votes, around half of the total ballots cast in 2020.

With the clock ticking, Harris, 60, spent the day in must-win Michigan where she risks losing the support of a 200,000-strong Arab-American community that has denounced U.S. handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

"As president, I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza," Harris said at the start of her speech, noting that there were leaders of the community at her rally. "I want to say this year has been difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza, given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon. It is devastating."

But the rest of the speech was upbeat, with the U.S. vice president spending more time on urging people to get out and vote than on attacks on her rival Trump.

"We got two days to get this done," she said. "Let's spend the next two days so that we have no regrets."

Trump's Sunday timetable centered on Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia -- the three biggest swing-state prizes in the Electoral College system that awards US states influence according to their population.

The 78-year-old Trump again indicated he may not accept a defeat and he added to his increasingly dark rhetoric by musing to supporters that he wouldn't mind if journalists were shot.

Democrats are "demonic," the oldest major party candidate in U.S. history told a crowd in Lititz, Pennsylvania, also telling his own supporters they would be "stupid" if they don't vote.

Despite no evidence of any meaningful election cheating so far, he claimed that Democrats in Pennsylvania "are fighting so hard to steal this damn thing."

And during his often unfocused 90-minute address, he recalled the near-miss assassination attempt against him in July, adding that for him to be shot again the bullet would have to pass through the crowd of media.

"To get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news -- and I don't mind that so much," he said to laughter.

Trump also said he "shouldn't have left" the White House after he lost his 2020 reelection effort to Joe Biden and then tried to overturn the results.

Trump has previously hinted that he would again refuse to accept defeat this time around.

Later in another rambling speech in Kinston, North Carolina Trump said "we're going to have on Tuesday a landslide that's too big to rig."

The polls however show that the result is likely to be historically tight.

A final New York Times/Siena poll Sunday flagged incremental changes in swing states, but the results from all seven remained within the margin of error.

Trump made a rare admission to ABC News earlier Sunday that "I guess you could lose, can lose. I mean, that happens, right?"

In the last hours, both candidates are desperately trying to shore up their bases, and win over any undecided voters.

Pollsters have noted an erosion in Black support for Harris.

Earlier, Harris quoted scripture in a majority-Black church in Detroit, Michigan and urging Americans to look beyond Trump. "Let us turn the page and write the next chapter of our history," she said.

But with abortion rights a top voter concern, her campaign has hailed the large proportion of women turning out among early voters.

Harris got a boost Saturday as the final Des Moines Register poll for Iowa -- seen as a highly credible test of wider public sentiment -- showed a stunning turnaround, with Harris ahead in a state won easily by Trump in 2016 and 2020.

Trump dismissed the findings as a "fake poll."

© 2024 AFP