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Skip to main contentSkip to navigationClose dialogue1/1Next imagePrevious imageToggle captionSkip to navigationPrint subscriptionsNewsletters Sign inUSUS editionUK editionAustralia editionEurope editionInternational editionThe Guardian - Back to homeThe GuardianNewsOpinionSportCultureLifestyleShow moreHide expanded menuNewsView all NewsUS newsUS politicsWorld newsClimate crisisMiddle EastUkraineSoccerBusinessEnvironmentTechScienceNewslettersWellnessOpinionView all OpinionThe Guardian viewColumnistsLettersOpinion videosCartoonsSportView all SportSoccerNFLTennisMLBMLSNBAWNBANHLF1GolfCultureView all CultureFilmBooksMusicArt & designTV & radioStageClassicalGamesLifestyleView all LifestyleWellnessFashionFoodRecipesLove & sexHome & gardenHealth & fitnessFamilyTravelMoneySearch input google-search SearchSupport usPrint subscriptionsNewslettersDownload the appSearch jobsDigital ArchiveGuardian LicensingAbout UsThe Guardian appVideoPodcastsPicturesInside the GuardianGuardian WeeklyCrosswordsWordiplyCorrectionsSearch input google-search SearchSearch jobsDigital ArchiveGuardian LicensingAbout Us Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are neck-and-neck in the waning weeks of the campaign. Composite: Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenKamala Harris and Donald Trump are neck-and-neck in the waning weeks of the campaign. Composite: Getty ImagesUS elections 2024 This article is more than 3 months oldHarris and Trump pushed to extreme plays for support in knife-edge raceThis article is more than 3 months oldCandidates lob increasingly polarised rhetoric in attempts to gain edge in final three weeks of presidential campaignRobert Tait in WashingtonSat 19 Oct 2024 11.14 EDTFirst published on Sat 19 Oct 2024 06.00 EDTShareWith just half a month to go, the US presidential election is deadlocked, as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump jockey for any advantage in ways that illuminate their stark political differences; the Democratic nominee most recently announced a plan to campaign with the Obamas, while the Republican nominee doubles down on threatening his enemies.2024 US presidential polls tracker: Trump v Harris latest national averagesRead moreIn the past week, Trump has gone further than ever in branding his political opponents “the enemy within” and talking about deploying the military against them, while Harris herself entered uncharted territory by finally agreeing to label him “fascist”.The latest polling figures seem to mirror such sharply polarised rhetoric, with the seven crucial swing states almost split down the middle in allegiance.In a particularly graphic example, a Brookings Institution/Public Religion Research Institute survey published on Friday showed more than a third of voters – 34% – agree with one of Trump’s most incendiary contentions: that illegal immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of America, rhetoric that has drawn comparisons with Hitler and fueled warnings of looming fascism.Evidence that such warnings are failing to electorally hurt the Republican nominee is displayed in the Guardian’s most recent 10-day poll tracker. As of 16 October, it showed Harris ahead nationwide by just two points, 48% to 46% – figures unchanged from a week ago and a significantly tighter margin than she enjoyed several weeks ago.The races in the battleground states – Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona – are, if anything, even more cliffhanging, with numbers within error margins in each.The pair are level pegging in Michigan and North Carolina, well within any statistical margins of error. The latter state saw early in-person voting begin at 400 sites on Thursday, as it continues to clear up the devastation left by Hurricane Helene last month, an operation marked by lies and misinformation from Trump and his supporters.Harris has tiny leads in Pennsylvania and Nevada, while Trump is ahead in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina, though the races remain far too close to predict with any certainty.With Harris scrambling for a vital edge, Barack and Michelle Obama announced on Friday that they would campaign alongside her next week. It will be the former first lady’s first appearance since a widely lauded speech at the Democratic national convention in August, when she skewered Trump.If Trump wins the election, US cities are at risk of military takeovers and mass deportationsRead moreThe lack of clarity over the election’s outcome seems all the more remarkable in a race that has had so many seemingly clarifying moments, not least within the past week.One came last Saturday when Trump, in a speech in Coachella, California – a state Harris is certain to carry emphatically – talked darkly about “the enemy within”. a description he applied to the Democratic congressman Adam Schiff. He repeated the riff the following day in a Fox News interview with a friendly host, going on to suggest that the armed forces or national guard should be used against agitators causing “chaos” on election day – while stressing that these would not be on his side.The line seemed to give Harris an opening. Last Monday evening, at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, she took it, labelling Trump “unstable and unhinged” while playing her audience footage of the most extreme rhetoric from the Republican nominee’s public appearances in what was seen as an unusual political innovation.At almost the same moment, in a scene of disconcerting levity, Trump stood onstage swaying along to some of his favourite songs after a town hall event near Philadelphia had been interrupted by two medical emergencies.skip past newsletter promotionSign up to This Week in TrumplandFree newsletterA deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administrationEnter your email address Sign upPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionRather than continue a question-and-answer session, he requested a playlist that included James Brown, Luciano Pavarotti and Guns N’ Roses while importuning the gathering to listen and dance along for the next 40 minutes.Harris’s campaign attempted to highlight the episode as more evidence of Trump’s unfitness for office and supposed declining mental condition.The vice-president went further the following day, agreeing with Charlamagne Tha God in an interview for a Black radio station in Detroit that Trump’s vision amounted to “fascism”.“Yes we can say that,” she said, while still avoiding actually uttering a word that has been applied to Trump by others, including Gen Mark Milley, the former chair of the joint chiefs of staff, who has called him “a fascist to the core”.The gaping chasm between the two candidates was further illustrated in contrasting appearances on two Fox News events on Wednesday.Is Donald Trump a fascist? Read moreTrump went into one, an all-female town hall gathering, with the stated aim of wooing women voters, among whom polls shows he lags far behind Harris. In a comment that again provided fodder for Democrat mockery, he proclaimed himself to be “the father of IVF”, a form of fertility treatment that Senate Republicans voted against earlier this year. CNN later reported that Republican women’s groups had arranged for the audience to be packed with Trump supporters.For her part, Harris engaged in a combative interview with one of Fox’s Bret Baier in what was broadly viewed as a successful exercise in entering hostile terrain by going on a rightwing network that has vocally cheerled for Trump.Yet despite – or perhaps because of – these sharply diverging pictures, surveys show voters remain locked in entrenched positions,with the next couple of weeks likely to feature a desperate trawl on both sides for independent or undecided electors, bolstered by late get-out-the-vote efforts aimed at the less motivated sections of their respective bases.Explore more on these topicsUS elections 2024US politicsDonald TrumpKamala HarrisDemocratsRepublicansShareReuse this contentMost viewedMost viewedNewsOpinionSportCultureLifestyleOriginal reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morningSign up for our emailAbout usHelpComplaints & correctionsSecureDropWork for us Privacy policyCookie policyTerms & conditionsContact usAll topicsAll writersDigital newspaper archiveTax strategyFacebookYouTubeInstagramLinkedInNewslettersAdvertise with usGuardian LabsSearch jobsBack to top© 2025 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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I think Trump has always had the edge and he has made it impossible for almost anything he says to be seen as extreme. Harris is burdened with messaging failures of Biden administration.