Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris (centre) walks with members of the US Armed Forces and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper (left) after being briefed on Hurricane Helene recovery operations at the the Charlotte Air National Guard Base on October 5, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina. — AFP
With just one month left in a deadlocked US presidential election, Donald Trump headed to the battleground state of Wisconsin on Sunday, as rival Kamala Harris kicked off a week-long media interview blitz.
Polls have the Republican and Democrat candidates neck and neck, fuelling a high-cost, high-intensity scramble for each and every wavering voter in the seven key states that are likely to decide the outcome on November 5.
Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020 and this will be his fourth visit in eight days. Harris was there earlier this week, holding a rally in Ripon, birthplace of the Republican Party, where she appealed to moderate and disgruntled conservatives.
Trump’s visit comes on the back of a theatrical campaign return on Saturday to the same venue in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he narrowly avoided a would-be assassin’s bullet back in July.
The former president campaign’s team had hoped to recapture the momentum he enjoyed at that time — riding high in the polls before President Joe Biden upended the race by withdrawing and being replaced by Harris.
In a long, often rambling speech delivered from behind bulletproof glass, Trump suggested his political opponents may have been behind the failed assassination bid.
“Those who want to stop us … have slandered me, impeached me, indicted me, tried to throw me off the ballot, and who knows, maybe even tried to kill me,” he told tens of thousands of supporters who had gathered for the event.
The gunman, who was shot dead, was a registered Republican and investigators have found no motive — and no political link — to his attempt on the former president’s life.
Trump also repeated false allegations that the Biden-Harris administration had redirected relief funds for areas devastated by Hurricane Helene and spent it on migrant programmes.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who was the main guest at Saturday’s Butler rally, has promoted the accusations — again without any evidence — to his 200 million followers on his X platform.
Harris had spent Saturday in North Carolina, meeting relief workers and residents in one of the areas most impacted by Helene, which cut a destructive swathe across half a dozen states and left more than 220 people dead.
In her bid to reach key voters, the vice-president is taking to the airwaves in the coming week with a host of television, radio and podcast appearances.
Harris has faced some criticism for avoiding one-on-one interviews with national media since she took over as the Democratic nominee.
Her first slot will be on Sunday on the hugely popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast where she is expected to focus on the issue of reproductive rights, which Democrats view as a major vote winner among undecided voters — especially women.
Later in the week, she will also be a guest on ABC’s The View, as well as The Howard Stern Show and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert — all of which are seen as generally sympathetic to the Harris campaign.
And former president Barack Obama will add his star power by stumping for Harris in key swing states from Thursday.
The 63-year-old remains an influential voice among Democrats, and he and former first lady Michelle Obama delivered rapturously received speeches backing Harris at the party’s national convention in August.
Obama will campaign in battlegrounds right up until election day, Harris’s campaign said.