Donald Trump has been speaking in Pennsylvania today, while Kamala Harris is heading to Michigan. Meanwhile, a weekend poll from Iowa suggests Harris has leapfrogged Donald Trump.
Sunday 3 November 2024 20:20, UK
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By Yousra Elbagir, news correspondent, in Dearborn, Michigan
The onslaught of red and blue campaign signs virtually disappears as we drive into Dearborn, Michigan.
The city is only 15 minutes from Detroit – where Vice President Kamala Harris gave one of her final campaign speeches in a historic Black church – but noticeably absent from her list of stops in the swing state.
The Arab-majority city has been at the heart of disillusionment with this election and home to protests over the Biden/Harris administration support for Israel’s war in Gaza and Lebanon.
The city’s mayor, a registered democrat, has refused to endorse Kamala Harris in the days before the final votes are cast.
“We are at a point where we are just done. We are done being sheep for the Democratic Party,” says Noor Abrahams, a Palestinian-American dentist and mother of two girls.
“They have us wrapped around their finger. They think they can come every single time and promise us things.”
She’s wearing a jumper that says ‘Gaza – the soul of my soul’ and speaks to me by a flower truck with a Lebanese flag on the front.
She says she will be voting for Jill Stein, the Green Party’s Presidential candidate who has staunchly condemned US arms sales to Israel.
In the final weeks of her campaign, Ms Harris has chosen to send surrogates like Bill Clinton to address Arab-American and Muslim voters.
It didn’t go down well.
“You heard Bill Clinton’s statements the other day that we are making the Israelis kill our people – how disgusting of a statement is that,” says Fadi, a 44-year-old Palestinian-American.
“It’s the deep state. Regardless of how you look at it – Democrat or Republican – they all have the same rhetoric.”
Kamala Harris stopped by a chicken and waffles restaurant during her campaigning in Michigan today.
During her visit to Kuzzo’s, the vice president greeted and spoke with customers, took selfies and picked up lunch.
She is spending the day in the critical battleground state, where polls suggest she is neck and neck with Donald Trump.
Earlier, she appeared at a church service (see 18.45 post) to speak, while she is slated to attend a rally in East Lancing later.
By Jess Sharp, live news reporter in Lititz, Pennsylvania
Donald Trump has been speaking for nearly an hour, and after attacking “low IQ” Kamala Harris, making claims of election fraud, and hitting out at the media, he’s encouraged people to vote.
“If you don’t vote, you’re stupid,” he says.
Some members of the audience are yawning, sitting on the floor or leaving as he rambles through various topics.
“We have the greatest rallies in history,” the former president says.
Kamala Harris has revealed she has cast her vote in the election.
The Democratic presidential nominee confirmed the news at a huddle with reporters in Detroit, where she has been campaigning today.
“I have, I actually just filled out my mail-in ballot,” she said. “So I have voted.”
Ms Harris then released a video on social media holding up her mail-in ballot and encouraging others to do the same.
“Yes this race is going to be tight, but we are going to win,” she says.
No announcement on Prop 36
Ms Harris denied revealing how she voted on a ballot measure in California that has become controversial.
Proposition 36 would toughen penalties on some non-violent crimes, reversing a proposition passed a decade ago that was meant to reform the justice system and help reduce mass incarceration.
“I am not going to talk about the vote on that,” she said when asked how she voted.
“Because, honestly, it’s the Sunday before the election, and I don’t intend to create an endorsement one way or another around it.”
Donald Trump’s campaign team has clarified comments the former president made about the safety of the media at his rallies earlier today.
Mr Trump was speaking at a rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, about his safety measures following the two assassination attempts against him.
“I have this glass here,” he said. “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 subsequent statement from Mr Trump’s campaign said he was looking out for the media’s welfare as opposed to inciting violence against them.
“President Trump was brilliantly talking about the two assassination attempts on his own life,” said Mr Trump’s campaign communications director Steven Cheung.
He said the former president’s statement about protective glass placement “has nothing to do with the media being harmed”.
“[He] was stating that the media was in danger, in that they were protecting him and, therefore, were in great danger themselves, and should have had a glass protective shield, also.”
“He was actually looking out for their welfare, far more than his own,” the statement added.
Kamala Harris has been speaking in Detroit today at the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ.
It’s one of several stops the vice president is due to make today across the state of Michigan.
“God has a plan for us,” she told churchgoers. “But we must act on the plans he has in store for us.
“It’s not enough to only pray, not enough to just talk, we must act on the plans he has in store for us.
“And we must make them real through our works, in our daily choices, in service to our communities and yes, in our democracy.”
Members of the congregation nodded and shouted their approval during her speech.
“In just two days we have the power to decide the fate of our nation, for generations to come,” she added.
A handful of states will play a crucial role in determining the outcome of the 2024 US election.
These battlegrounds are known as swing states, which is any state that could reasonably be won by either the Democratic or Republican presidential candidate.
Experts believe that seven of these – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – are the states that hold the keys to the White House.
Sky News has correspondents across some key battleground states. Scroll down to read their thoughts as the US heads to the polls.
Dearborn, Michigan – Yousra Elbagir
The Great Lakes state has picked the winning presidential candidate in the last two elections, but despite backing Joe Biden in 2020, recent developments in the Middle East have seen the Democrats lose support there.
That’s because Michigan has the largest proportion of Arab-Americans in the US – a demographic unhappy with American support for Israel in that country’s war in Gaza.
“You can really feel the disengagement here. It’s very intentional,” says Yousra.
“Everywhere we’ve been in Michigan, we’ve seen signs for either Harris or Trump, but here there’s just a sense that people aren’t engaged, that they don’t feel represented.
“We have spoken to Arab-Americans at a Trump rally who feel like supporting Trump is their best way, their best path to see peace in the Middle East.
“But we’ve also spoken to advocacy specialists who said that the Arab-Muslim communities they’ve spoken to feel very much like they can’t vote for either candidate.”
“This is definitely the blind spot in the Harris-Waltz campaign,” adds Yousa. “And whether or not they can win over the masses of Arabs and Muslims here in Michigan could help her in the future.”
Atlanta, Georgia – Cordelia Lynch
Joe Biden was able to turn the previously ruby red state of Georgia blue back in 2020, in part thanks to the suburban vote.
The population explosion in the state has brought a more diverse electorate, and those are the voters Kamala Harris will be desperate to hang on to.
“It’s all about playing for the margins, really,” says Cordelia. “It’s an incredibly tight race in this state of Georgia. I spent a lot of time on the road here and the female vote, I think, will be absolutely critical.
“We’ve seen with Kamala Harris that abortion is top of the policy agenda and her campaigning message as well.
“The calculation, the hope, the aspiration here for the Democrats is that we’ll see this really large turnout amongst women, amongst young women.
“She also needs not just African American voters who historically support the Democrats in this state, but also white working class female voters, not something the Democrats performed well with in 2016 or 2020. So that is the challenge.”
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Dominic Waghorn
Considered by some to be the biggest prize on the battleground map, Pennsylvania has been visited by both Mr Trump and Ms Harris incessantly in recent months.
The state has 19 Electoral College votes – more than from any other swing state.
“Unless there’s a big upset, if you win Pennsylvania, you win the White House,” explains Dominic.
“And it is very, very close. It’s 48-48 in the latest polls because Donald Trump has completely erased Kamala Harris’s narrow lead that she had for most of this election.
“If you look at a map of Pennsylvania, it’s a sea of red with pockets of blue. The Democrats are dominant around Philadelphia, a couple of pockets in the middle of the state and then here on their own, out on a limb in Pittsburgh.
“And this has been a Democrat stronghold for decades. It’s been a working class, blue collar stronghold for them in the industrial heartland in Pennsylvania (…) but the Trump campaign sees opportunities here, and they have been making inroads into that Democrat stronghold.”
Phoenix, Arizona – Shingi Mararike
Every swing state has its own contours and characteristics, and one of Arizona’s is that it is the only battleground state that shares a border with Mexico.
As a result, immigration is a live issue in the Copper State, where around one in four voters are Latin American.
“It’s a nuanced set of circumstances because some people here are second generation Mexicans,” says Shingi.
“They were born here. Therefore, they have citizenship. So they’ve taken on more right wing positions on immigration, understanding the more bombastic rhetoric that Donald Trump has mentioned, talking about bringing in the National Guard and putting people in camps.
“They say that they want to see the border regulated better, and they say that the Democratic Party have failed them. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have failed them in that sense.”
Kinston, North Carolina – James Matthews
Analysts think North Carolina will be one of the tightest races on Tuesday, which might be why Donald Trump has had four engagements in the state this weekend.
“This is a state that they would have counted on just a few weeks ago,” says James.
“But in this Republican campaign, which is driven in terms of logistics and location by the data, they have brought him back here, clearly in an effort to shore up the vote.
“In the words of one Trump adviser, ‘if there’s one state that could bite us, it’s North Carolina’.
“They are nervous about it. And for Donald Trump to lose North Carolina, that would significantly narrow his pathway to victory.”
I’m at Kinston Jet Center in North Carolina, where Trump Force One is due to arrive and Donald Trump will conduct a rally, as he barnstorms the state before election day.
He won this battleground in 2016 and 2020 and his repeated trips reflect a Republican concern that might change.
To lose North Carolina would significantly narrow his path towards any victory. A crowd of several hundred has filed into the arena, airside, and it’s clear they are committed and unconcerned by criticism of their presidential choice.
In his Pennsylvania rally before getting here, Mr Trump has been raising the spectre of cheating in the election.
People I spoke to in the queue told me they agreed with him on that. I asked them about the language he had used about women, talk of protecting women and opposition claims that it devalued the right of women to make their own choices. The notion was rebutted by supporters lining up here.
“I don’t really agree with that,” Julian Bachman told me.
“I think he looks up to women. He surrounds himself with very powerful women. I think that’s just rumours and media that try to portray a type of narrative.
“He wants to protect women, he cares about women, he loves women. He doesn’t badmouth women or look down on them in anyway.”
There is a deep faith in Donald Trump amongst a locked-in support attending his late campaign events. His difficulty, of course, are the voters beyond, the undecided looking for an incentive to vote one way or the other.
Mr Trump’s language and sentiment speaks to his core base. What it says to others is the question.
With just two days until election day, join our US correspondents on the road.
Mark Stone and James Matthews discuss how the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, could influence the result. Stone attends one of Elon Musk’s million-dollar-a-day giveaways which have become embroiled in a court case.
They’re also joined by former US correspondent Cordelia Lynch in Georgia, to ask whether this has become a gender election – with Kamala Harris leading significantly among female voters and Donald Trump holding the same advantage among male voters.
Plus, Martha Kelner reports from Washington DC’s women’s march, where the gender divide seems more prominent than ever.
Kamala Harris has often said democracy will be in danger if Donald Trump is elected as president for a second time.
The Republican candidate has also been accused by his own former chief of staff, John Kelly, of fitting “the general definition of a fascist” who would rule as a dictator if elected again.
Daniele Albertazzi, a politics professor at the University of Surrey and a radical right expert, says there are some clear warning signs with Mr Trump that he is, as others suggest, a threat to US democracy.
“The threat is in my view fairly obvious,” he tells Sky News. “From the way he speaks about opponents, issuing threats against them, to the way he talks about minorities.
“And the way he obviously refused to accept the results of the election that he lost.
“It seems to me that the elements are all there and very obvious and very apparent for those who want to see them to treat Donald Trump as a clear danger for the functioning of a liberal democracy.”
Mr Albertazzi adds Mr Trump lacks some other key similarities seen in other instances of historical fascism, such as an expansionist foreign policy or the aggressive pursuit of social renewal at home.
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