Sawt Falasteen - Harris, Trump descend on Michigan amid blockbuster early voting

With less than three weeks to go, the Democratic vice president 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.

As of early Friday, 10.1 million votes had been cast -- more than three million of them in the swing states expected to decide the election -- according to nationwide state-reported data tracked by the University of Florida Election Lab.

Georgia has been smashing records, while North Carolina is on track to match the pandemic-linked early voting surge of 2020, despite being hit hard by a hurricane.

In the states that break the figures down by party affiliation, Democrats accounted for about half of the total while Republicans -- who have spent much of the Trump era casting aspersions over mail-in ballots -- were responsible for less than a third.

Having ceded the early-voting battlefield in 2016 and 2020, Trump has dialed back his criticisms this time around and he too has been encouraging people to use the voting method they find most convenient.

"Early mail-in voting in your state is now underway, and early in-person is underway. But I'll tell you what, I'm hearing very good things," Trump said in Georgia's capital Atlanta on Tuesday, having already encouraged Arizonans to go out and vote.

- 'Developing nation' -

More than 800,000 people have voted in Michigan, where the largest city Detroit will host a Trump rally, a week after he disparaged the city by likening it to a "developing nation."

Harris was due to spend the entire day in Michigan, campaigning in Grand Rapids, speaking at a union hall in Lansing and holding a 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 October 7, 2023 attack.

Trump, who has yet to react to Sinwar's death, has surprised analysts with a schedule that mixes swing state stops with appearances in staunchly Democratic corners he has no chance of winning.

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-color remarks and profanity.

- Trump 'exhausted' -

Trump, 78, was back in friendly territory for a Fox News interview Friday, where he complained about some of the jokes written for him for the dinner.

He also confirmed he planned to work at a McDonald's over the weekend in a bid to highlight his baseless claims that Harris has been "lying" about having worked in one of the fast food giant's California restaurants.

While he has been appearing regularly on Fox News, Trump has canceled a series of interviews with neutral media outlets, including NBC, CNBC and CBS.

Politico reported Friday that a Trump aide told producers at a website negotiating an interview that Trump was "exhausted" and refusing some appearances -- a claim described by his campaign as "detached from reality."

While it is true that Trump has been pursuing a reasonably heavy schedule of interviews, most have been with friendly outlets.

He told a supportive podcast on Thursday that he had been "hoodwinked" into doing one of his few adversarial recent interviews, with Bloomberg News.

Harris, who turns 60 at the weekend, is due to hit early voting sites in Georgia and Michigan next week with Barack and Michelle Obama, her first appearance of this campaign with the Democratic star couple.

A.Suleiman--SF-PST