US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Photo: DUSTIN FRANZ / AFP
By Saul Loeb with Frankie Taggart, AFP
Kamala Harris questioned Donald Trump's fitness for office Friday as the oldest major-party White House candidate in history faced speculation that he is "exhausted" after backing out of a spate of interviews.
While he has been appearing on friendly TV networks, the 78-year-old Republican has cancelled sitdowns with media outlets including NBC, CNBC and CBS. He has also refused a second debate with Harris, after being soundly bested in the first.
Politico reported that a Trump aide had told producers at a website negotiating an interview that the ex-president was "exhausted" and refusing some appearances - a claim described by his campaign as "detached from reality."
But Harris, who turns 60 this weekend, hammered Trump over his health and resilience.
"If you are exhausted on the campaign trail, it raises real questions about whether you are fit for the toughest job in the world," Harris told supporters during a day of multiple stops across the swing state of Michigan.
The former president has hardly been idle, pursuing a busy schedule of appearances with new and traditional media, but most have been on outlets where he is rarely challenged.
Trump reacted angrily to Harris's jab, telling reporters that he had cancelled nothing and calling his Democratic opponent a "loser" who "doesn't have the energy of a rabbit".
Dueling rallies
He also claimed to be "killing" her in the polls and that she did not pass the bar exam.
Harris - a former California attorney general who passed the bar exam in 1990 - has a narrow lead in national polling averages, while numerous October surveys in Michigan show them neck and neck.
Kamala Harris. Photo: JIM WATSON / AFP
Trump has surprised analysts with a programme that mixes swing state stops with appearances in regions he has no chance of winning, but where he is guaranteed big crowds.
He was in the liberal stronghold of New York for a Catholic charity dinner on Thursday, where he mocked Harris in an occasionally mean-spirited speech that earned gasps for its off-colour remarks and profanity.
But he was back on home turf Friday morning for a soft Fox News interview, before heading to Michigan for counterprogramming against Harris.
Both candidates are spending their final campaign days in pivotal battleground states where early voting is already underway.
With less than three weeks to go, Harris has seen encouraging signs in her push for supporters to vote as soon as possible, as a bulwark against the traditional Republican edge among Election Day voters.
Almost 12 million votes had been cast by Friday evening - around a third of them in the seven swing states expected to decide the election - according to data tracked by the University of Florida Election Lab.
Early voting surge
Georgia has been smashing records, while North Carolina reported a first day of voting Thursday that beat 2020, when there was a pandemic-linked surge of early ballots.
Where party breakdowns were available, registered Democrats accounted for roughly half of the total, while Republicans - who have spent much of the Trump era casting aspersions over drop boxes and mailed ballots - were responsible for around a third.
After her event in Grand Rapids, Harris targeted blue-collar voters with remarks at a union hall in Lansing, giving a more manufacturing-focused speech in which she argued that the future of the labour movement was "on the line" in November's election.
She was set to hold an evening rally in Oakland County before returning to Detroit on Saturday.
The Democrat has found herself on eggshells as she upholds President Joe Biden's support for key ally Israel, while Muslim and Arab American voters - particularly in Michigan - have voiced outrage over the death toll in Gaza.
The killing of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar drew optimism from Harris for a Gaza ceasefire, but Israel quickly said his death is not the end of the campaign launched in response to the militant group's 7 October, 2023 attack.
Speaking to journalists ahead of a speech in Detroit, Trump said Sinwar's death had increased the likelihood of a peaceful solution to the war in Gaza - while warning Biden not to try to restrain Israel.
- AFP