Harris, Trump went into overdrive in the final weekend of the campaign

Seventy-five million people have already voted early as the hours tick down toward the culmination of Election Day on Tuesday.

The country – and the world – could then wait nervously to know whether Harris will become the first female US president or whether Trump will stage a spectacular return to power after his unprecedented and sometimes violent campaign to overturn his 2020 re-election loss. Joe Biden.

The rivals literally crossed paths on Saturday, when Harris’ official vice presidential Air Force Two and Trump’s personal plane shared 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 key to victory in an otherwise evenly matched national contest. Trump added a stop in Virginia.

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

Most polls show Trump, 78, and Harris, 60, within the margin of error of each other in swing states.

There was a surprising boost for Harris, however, when one of the country’s most respected pollsters released a new poll in the Des Moines Register showing the Democrat leading Trump by three points in Iowa — a state he won both in his period easily won 2016 presidential campaign and again in his narrow defeat in 2020.

Reflecting Harris’ drive to hit every possible target before Tuesday, her plane made an unexpected detour to New York for an appearance on the legendary television comedy show Saturday Night Live.

– Women and dark rhetoric –

For Harris, a key electorate is made up of women voters angry about the ruling by judges appointed to the Supreme Court by then-President Trump to overturn Roe v Wade, ending a decades-long constitutional right to abortion.

“Donald Trump is not done yet. He will ban abortion nationwide,” Harris said in Atlanta, Georgia.

She depicted Trump as “increasingly unstable, obsessed with revenge” and “hungry for unchecked power.”

“We have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump’s full-time commitment to keeping us divided and afraid of each other,” she said.

Trump, stoking his right-wing base, continued to issue increasingly dark rhetoric.

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

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

He called his opponent “low IQ” and “stupid” and 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 delved into far-right rhetoric, promising to “keep American for American citizens.”

“We will now have American people in our communities,” he said.

Trump has worked hard to appeal to men by appearing on podcasts with martial artists, spending time in barbershops and meeting with crypto entrepreneurs. As Harris continues to gain support from women, some are predicting a dramatic gender gap in results.

Thousands demonstrated in downtown Washington on Saturday for a Women’s March.

– Election conspiracy theory –

Trump refuses to say whether he would accept a loss, raising fears of unrest.

Businesses in the US capital have begun boarding up storefronts as city authorities warn of a “fluid, unpredictable security environment.”

Trump is already accusing fraud and deception in swing states like Pennsylvania, just as he did in 2020 ahead of his unprecedented attempt to overturn the election, culminating in followers’ attack on the U.S. Capitol.

On Saturday he claimed he could win in Virginia despite no polls indicating this, and said even heavily Democratic California would vote for him “if we had a fair election.”

The candidates’ hectic schedules continue into Monday, culminating in late-night rallies — in Grand Rapids, Michigan for Trump and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for Harris.

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