Two days before election day, President Donald Trump launched a campaign sprint across US battleground states with chilly outdoor rallies in Iowa and Michigan as he seeks to defy the polls and fend off Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
Donald Trump waves to supporters in Washington, Michigan, on 1 November. Photo: AFP
Trump, aiming to avoid becoming the first incumbent president to lose a re-election bid since fellow Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992, has a frenetic schedule for Sunday, with stops also planned in North Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
Biden campaigned in Pennsylvania with a drive-in rally in a parking lot outside a Philadelphia church.
Buffeted by snow flurries in Washington, a town north of Detroit, in his first appearance of the day Trump wore his trademark red cap emblazoned with the words "Make America Great Again" and was bundled up in an overcoat he addressed a boisterous crowd on a cold and blustery morning.
After the crowd loudly chanted, "We love you" Trump responded, "I love you, too. If I didn't, I wouldn't be standing here because it's freezing out here."
"You better get out there and vote," Trump told the crowd.
Trump predicted he would repeat his 2016 victory in Michigan and touted his efforts to create auto jobs, a key issue for the auto manufacturing state.
"We brought back your car industry. Your car industry was finished. You would have had nothing left," Trump said.
Motor vehicle manufacturing employment in Michigan has fallen by about 5000 jobs since Trump took office, and there are about 13,000 fewer jobs making vehicle parts.
Trump then addressed another spirited rally in windy Dubuque, where he made his pitch to Iowa farmers in the important corn-growing state and predicted he would win there as he did four years ago.
Joe Biden campaigning in Iowa on 30 October (file). Photo: AFP / Getty Images
Biden has held on to a steady lead in national opinion polls as a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 230,000 Americans and battered the economy has weighed on Trump's campaign. The former vice president was ahead 51 percent to 43 percent in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, taken Oct. 27-29.
Polls show Trump still close in enough battleground states that could give him the 270 votes needed to win in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the overall victor.
The race remains a toss-up in Florida, North Carolina and Arizona, Reuters/Ipsos polls showed, while Trump trails by 7 percentage points in Pennsylvania and 10 percentage points in Michigan and Wisconsin.
In his 2016 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, the real estate developer and reality TV personality-turned-politician took Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as well as Michigan, states that for decades had gone in the Democratic column.
Polls show a tight race in Iowa.
Anita Dunn, a Biden campaign adviser, said on CNN's "State of the Union" program, "We feel confident about where we are." The Democratic governors of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin all said they were upbeat about Biden's chances in their states. Ohio's Republican governor predicted Trump would win the state by a couple of percentage points.
Biden is scheduled to campaign again on Sunday and Monday in Pennsylvania, the state where he was born, with events in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Biden also added a stop in Ohio on Monday, indicating his campaign views that state as winnable.
Trump is due to stage 10 rallies - five a day - on Sunday and Monday, the campaign's busiest stretch, with Monday appearances planned in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and back in Michigan.
Hitting on familiar themes, Trump portrayed himself as running against "a corrupt politician" and "a dummy and a half" in Biden as well as a "left-wing mob" and Democratic "maniacs." Both men have previously mused about physically striking one another. Trump, 78, brought it up again on Sunday, saying of his 77-year-old rival, "He thinks he's a tough guy. ... You know what, boom ... ding, he's gone."
Trump also again criticized the U.S. Justice Department for not investigating prominent Democratic adversaries.
Texas courts hear Republican voting challenge
The contest has proven unexpectedly close in Texas, typically a reliable Republican state.
In Democratic-leaning Houston, a Republican state legislator and a conservative activist are seeking a court ruling that drive-through voting is illegal and that about 120,000 votes already cast should be thrown out.
The Texas Supreme Court on Sunday declined to hear their claims. A federal judge is due to hold an emergency hearing on their request on Monday.
A record-setting 93 million early votes have cast either in-person or by mail, according to the U.S. Elections Project, a phenomenon expected to boost Biden's chances.
Trump has made unsubstantiated claims that mail-in ballots - a regular feature in U.S. elections - are rife with fraud and has refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power if the results show he has lost. Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller told ABC's "This Week" the president is banking on in-person voting on Tuesday to push the president over the top.
Miller also questioned the integrity of the election, saying, "If you speak with many smart Democrats, they believe President Trump will be ahead on election night, probably getting 280 electoral (votes), somewhere in that range. And then they're going to try to steal it back after the election."
- Reuters