Harris and Trump make closing pitches with two days to election
3 November 2024, 23:28
The two US presidential election candidates took starkly different tones on the final Sunday of the campaign.
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Kamala Harris told a Detroit church on Sunday that God offers America a "divine plan strong enough to heal division", while Donald Trump gave a series of dark speeches in which he mused about reporters being shot and labelled Democrats as "demonic".
Less than 48 hours before election day, Harris argued that voters have a chance to reject "chaos, fear and hate" with Tuesday's election.
Trump largely stuck to familiar talking points, repeating lies about voter fraud to try to cast doubt on the integrity of the vote and said that he "shouldn't have left" the White House after losing the 2020 election.
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The two candidates are still campaigning as we have entered the final two days of the run-up to the election.
Kamala Harris is holding several rallies in Michigan today, while Trump is bouncing between Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia - all crucial battleground states that could decide the election.
The Democratic Vice President spoke to a few hundred parishioners at Detroit's Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ, a church with a predominantly Black congregation.
It marked the fourth consecutive Sunday that Harris, who is a Baptist, has spoken to a black congregation in an attempt to secure the critical votes of black communities across multiple battleground states.
"I see faith in action in remarkable ways," she said in remarks that quoted the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah.
"I see a nation determined to turn the page on hate and division and chart a new way forward. As I travel, I see Americans from so-called red states and so-called blue states who are ready to bend the arc of history toward justice."
She never mentioned her rival candidate, the former President Trump, but said that "there are those who seek to deepen division, sow hate, spread fear and cause chaos".
The election and "this moment in our nation," she continued, "has to be about so much more than partisan politics. It must be about the good work we can do together."
Harris' speech lasted about 11 minutes - starting and ending during Mr Trump's roughly 90-minute speech at an outdoor rally at an airport in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile Trump went on long tangents in his rallies, suggesting the country was 'falling apart' in his absence as President.
The Republican candidate relaunched criticisms of voting procedures across the nation and resurrected grievances about being prosecuted after trying to overturn his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden.
He also intensified his attacks of a "grossly incompetent" national leadership and attacked the US media, making ambiguous remarks about the press being shot.
Referring to the ballistic glass placed in front of him at rallies following two assassination attempts this year, Trump said: "I have this piece of glass here, but all we have really over here is the fake news.
And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don't mind that so much."
A spokesman for his campaign later attempted to clarify what was meant by the comments.
"President Trump was brilliantly talking about the two assassination attempts on his own life, including one that came within a quarter of an inch from killing him, something that the media constantly talks and jokes about," campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
"The president's statement about protective glass placement has nothing to do with the media being harmed, or anything else."
He then repeated familiar and debunked theories about voter fraud, alleging that Democrats could win only by cheating. Public polls predict that this election might be one of the closest in US history.
"It's a crooked country," Trump said. "And we're going to make it straight. We're going to make it straight."
The two candidates have one more rally scheduled today - Harris will be holding a rally in East Lansing, Michigan while Trump will be in Macon, Georgia for his third rally of the day.
