US elections: 3 days left – What the polls say, what Harris and Trump plan

On Friday, U.S. presidential candidates campaigned in the key Midwestern swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin in an attempt to lure voters.

During rallies, Vice President Kamala Harris sharply criticized former President Donald Trump for remarks he made earlier this week, suggesting that former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, a vocal Trump critic, should “pull a gun at her.” Trump has previously suggested that Cheney should be court-martialled.

Meanwhile, at his rallies, Trump insisted that the “guns” comment was a valid criticism of Cheney’s hawkish foreign policy stance: If she promoted wars, she should fight them herself.

What is the latest information from surveys?

Nationally, poll tracker FiveThirtyEight shows Harris leading by 1.3 points, as she has been for the past week, and about the same level she and Trump have been at for the past few days – but by a much smaller margin than 2.8 percentage points by which she led. exactly a month ago.

In critical swing states that could determine the outcome of the election, competition is even fiercer.

Key battleground states include Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada.

FiveThirtyEight’s daily polls show Harris’ lead in Michigan by about 1 point. However, she lost her lead in Nevada, where Trump currently leads by 0.4 points.

In Wisconsin, her lead increased to 0.8 points, up from 0.6 on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania decreased from 0.7 points to 0.1 points. His lead in North Carolina continues and is now 1.3 points. Trump is also ahead of Arizona by 2.1 points. and Georgia by 1.5 points. However, all of these gaps are within the polls’ margin of error, so in effect both candidates are deadlocked in different states.

What was Kamala Harris doing on Friday?

Harris spent the day in Wisconsin, attending events in Janesville, Little Chute, Madison and Milwaukee. Her events have featured singers GloRilla, Cardi B and Flo Milli.

She criticized Trump for his verbal attack on Liz Cheney. Trump attacked Cheney, suggesting that the former legislator, who supported Harris in the White House race, should face a gun fight aimed at her because of her political positions.

“She is a radical war hawk,” Trump said Thursday at a campaign event with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Arizona, also calling Cheney a “deranged person” and a “very stupid person.”

Harris described Cheney as a “true patriot” and said Trump’s increasing “violent rhetoric” should disqualify him from serving as president again.

“His list of enemies grew longer. His rhetoric has become more extreme,” Harris told reporters after arriving in Madison, Wisconsin, where she was making one of her campaign stops on Friday. “And it is even less focused than before on the needs, concerns and challenges facing the American people.”

At her rallies, she also promised to build an economy for ordinary people and listen to a wide range of voices, asking supporters to encourage family and friends to vote.

CNN reported that the Harris campaign changed its message about Israel’s war in Gaza, emphasizing different aspects of her position on Israel in separate ads aimed at undecided Jewish and Arab voters.

One Michigan ad, in which Arab voters expressed anger over the Biden-Harris administration’s release of billions of dollars in military support for Israel’s war in Gaza, claims that Harris “will not remain silent” on the suffering of Palestinians.

Harris, however, has refused demands to cut off military aid to Israel, despite the U.S. ally’s litany of violations of international law.

Another ad aimed at potential Jewish voters in Pennsylvania promises that Harris will “defend Israel’s right to self-defense” and “defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists.”

This video ad cuts a portion of her speech in which Harris calls the suffering in Gaza “heartbreaking.”

What was Donald Trump doing on Friday?

At a rally in Milwaukee, about 16 km (10 miles) from Harris’ rally, Trump was joined by Republican politicians and other supporters such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after which he took the stage and delivered a more than hour-long speech.

He promised to “prevent World War III.” He called Harris a “low IQ person” and said he would “end inflation.”

It also fueled fear of illegal immigrants.

“We want people to come to our country, that’s true. But they have to enter legally, through the system. They must love us. They have to love our country,” Trump said.

Before concluding his remarks, he finally mentioned his opponent during the rally: an uncooperative microphone.

“I don’t have to be here. But if I had a choice, I’d rather be here, with a broken shitty microphone, in Wisconsin. I’d rather be in Wisconsin than on some beautiful beach.

The Trump campaign also insisted that the “guns” comment was a valid criticism of Cheney’s hawkish foreign policy stance: if she promoted wars, she should fight them herself.

In Milwaukee, Trump again addressed his false claims of winning the 2020 election — even if the results say otherwise.

“You know, in 2016 I wanted to win Wisconsin so bad. He said it couldn’t be done,” Trump said, pointing to former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson in the crowd.

“You are in a very difficult condition, but I won it. I won, despite your difficulties. I actually won it twice, but those are minor details.

Trump didn’t win Wisconsin twice. In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won over Trump in the state.

Trump also held a brief private meeting with members of the Arab-American community in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn before holding a rally in Warren, Michigan.

What’s next for Harris and Trump’s campaigns?

Harris heads to Charlotte, North Carolina

On Saturday, Harris will travel to the swing state of North Carolina for a rally in Charlotte. Her rally is once again expected to be a star-studded affair with musicians Jon Bon Jovi and Khalid in attendance.

Democrats haven’t won the North Carolina presidential race since 2008, and Harris is eager to turn things around.

At a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday, she insisted that Democrats were “actually fighting for democracy.”

One person could be heard trying to shout over Harris during the rally, but it is unclear what he was saying.

“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t think that people who disagree with me are the enemy,” she said, as crowd chanting drowned out a protester’s voice. “I want to put them in jail, I will give them a seat at the table.

“I pledge to be the president of all Americans and to always put country before party and self,” she added.

Trump will also visit Charlotte, North Carolina

Trump, who was in North Carolina on Wednesday, will also travel to Charlotte on Saturday.

In the 2020 presidential race, Trump won the rarest victory of any of North Carolina’s 50 states. In the upcoming vote on November 5, polls once again show Trump with a slight lead over his Democratic rival.

Paul Shumaker, a Republican operative, offered harsh words to Al Jazeera: the number of registered Republicans began to decline while the number of “unaffiliated” voters gradually increased.

“Now there are no more liberal Republicans, and there are fewer moderate Republicans,” Shumaker said.

Political analyst Chris Cooper told Al Jazeera that North Carolina is “on a razor’s edge between red and blue.”

But it’s the third category – voters who identify as neither red nor blue – that may ultimately decide who wins.