US Presidential Election: Harris and Trump make final pitches to voters in swing states

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are making their way across several swing states as they make their final pitches to voters ahead of the US Presidential Election next week.

Speaking in Raleigh, North Carolina, Harris said ‘it’s time for a new generation of leadership’ - an attempt to position herself as a fresh face against the former Republican President.

Trump is 78 years old and this is his third run for the presidency.

“We know we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump who has been trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other,” Harris added. “We know that is who he is, but North Carolina that is not who we are.”

Harris also lamented that a third of women live in a state with “a Trump abortion ban, including North Carolina and every state in the South except for Virginia.”

Trump was central in remaking the Supreme Court, nominating three conservative justices who were key to overturning Roe v. Wade and federal abortion protections in 2022.

Since that decision, abortion has invigorated the Democratic base and threatened Republicans. Trump has since said he wouldn’t sign a federal abortion ban.

She then made her way to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where she stressed the importance of early voting, urging her supporters to not only cast their own ballot, but to encourage family and friends to do the same.

“Pennsylvania, if you still have a ballot you can take it to a ballot drop box or an election office in your county by 8 pm on Election Day,” she said. “Let’s spread the word.”

“I’m visiting this afternoon because we need your vote, Pennsylvania, we need your vote. Because we have just six days left in one of the most consequential elections in our lifetime,” Harris added.

Pennsylvania is a key state to both Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Polls show a tight race in the commonwealth and both campaigns have spent considerable time in Pennsylvania in the final weeks of the campaign.

A Pennsylvania judge has also sided with Donald Trump's campaign and agreed to extend an in-person voting option in a suburban Philadelphia county where long lines on the final day led to complaints voters were being disenfranchised by an unprepared election office.

Judge Jeffrey Trauger said in a one-page order that Bucks County voters who want to apply for an early mail ballot now have until Friday. The narrowly divided county, which is led by Democrats, is often seen as a political bellwether.

The Trump campaign's lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday morning, comes amid a flurry of litigation and complaints over voting in a battleground state that is expected to play a central role in helping select the next president in 2024's election.

The lawsuit sought a one-day extension, through Wednesday at 5pm, for Bucks County voters to apply in person for a mail-in ballot. The judge's order permits applications through the close of business on Friday.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has also been campaigning in North Carolina, where he seized on the controversial comments made by President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

“Joe Biden finally said what he really thinks of our supporters. He called them ‘garbage.’ And they mean it. Even though, without question, my supporters are far higher-quality than crooked Joe’s,” Trump told his audience.

Biden and the White House rushed to explain that the president was talking about the rhetoric on stage, not Trump’s supporters themselves.

Trump went on to suggest that the administration was mistreating Americans by returning to his familiar theme of immigrants who have entered the country illegally.

“We know what they believe,” he said. “Because look at how they’ve treated you. They’ve treated you like garbage.”

Both presidential nominees are also set to hold rallies in Wisconsin, where polls show the two candidates remain neck and neck.