Donald Trump came under fire for violent rhetoric against a prominent Kamala Harris supporter Friday as the candidates hold dueling rallies in battleground Wisconsin four days before the climax of the most volatile US presidential campaign in modern history.
More than 68 million Americans have already cast early ballots ahead of Election Day on Tuesday. Opinion polls show Trump and Harris running dead even, with victory depending on who prevails across the seven swing states, including Wisconsin.
Both were campaigning in the state’s largest city Milwaukee.
Trump was holding a rally in the same venue where he celebrated the Republican Party nomination over the summer and delivered a triumphant acceptance speech just days after the 78-year-old had narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.
Harris — who only entered the race in July after President Joe Biden dropped out amid fears over his declining mental acuity — was to be joined by star rapper Cardi B in the latest of a series of high-energy rallies.
But before the big campaign events, Harris lambasted Trump for using “violent rhetoric” when discussing one of his chief critics in the Republican Party.
Trump has “suggested rifles should be trained on former representative Liz Cheney,” Harris told reporters in Madison, Wisconsin.
“This must be disqualifying. Anyone who wants to be president of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president.”
– Guns ‘trained on her face’ –
As the contest draws to a close, Trump has upped his provocative rhetoric in a bid to fire up a base he needs to turn out in massive numbers.
Wisconsin is part of the Democrats’ “blue wall” across the Midwest, but the region could go either way — and with it the presidency.
The other path to victory could run through southern and western “Sun Belt” swing states, where Trump and Harris both campaigned Thursday.
At an Arizona event Thursday with rightwing influencer Tucker Carlson, Trump called Harris, 60, a “sleaze bag” and Biden a “stupid bastard.”
He also claimed, without evidence, that polls are already being rigged in the biggest swing state Pennsylvania — reinforcing expectations that, as in 2020, he will refuse to accept the results if he is defeated.
But it was his comments about Cheney, once a senior Republican leader who has become a supporter of Harris, that stirred most controversy.
Citing her hawkish foreign policy views, Trump conjured the image of Cheney — daughter of former Republican vice president Dick Cheney — being shot.
“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face,” Trump said.
Cheney responded, saying, “This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death.”
Harris rushed to her defense, and warned that Trump is “someone who considers his political opponents the enemy, is permanently out for revenge and is increasingly unstable and unhinged.”
Adding to tensions, social media is awash with disinformation that authorities say has been stirred by Russian operatives and amplified by US right-wing influencers — including Trump ally Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of the X platform.
Much of Musk’s effort has involved pushing lies about non-citizen immigrants voting.
Trump notably made a stop Friday in Dearborn, Michigan, the country’s largest Arab-American city, where outrage over Israel’s war in Gaza has alienated many Muslims from the Democratic Party — something Trump is hoping to exploit.
After meeting supporters at an upscale halal restaurant, Trump confirmed to reporters that vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr would play a “big role” in health care if Trump were elected.
– Jobs surprise –
Harris is running on warnings about an authoritarian Trump takeover, promising to help the middle class, and pushing back against Republican abortion curbs.
Trump has focused his campaign on stirring fears about immigrant violence and pessimism over the economy.
Economists say the US economy is actually in robust shape, shrugging off the last Covid pandemic cobwebs, with low unemployment and strong growth.
The Wall Street Journal, a major daily closely read by many conservatives, offered a very positive assessment Thursday, saying “the next president inherits a remarkable economy.”
Figures released Friday though showed much lower job growth in October, denting Democratic messaging. Economists said the job slowdown was a blip, caused by knock-on effects from hurricanes and a strike at Boeing.