Sawt Falasteen - Harris woos on-the-fence Republicans, Trump tours storm damage

With just over two weeks until Election Day, the Democratic vice president and her Republican opponent are on a blitz through the battlegrounds that will decide the outcome in a race that polls say is too close to call.

On Monday, Harris appeared in Pennsylvania alongside Liz Cheney -- a prominent Republican -- who called on undecided voters "to reject the kind of vile vitriol that we've seen from Donald Trump."

Trump toured storm-damaged Asheville and repeated conspiracy theories about the government's disaster response. Later, at a rally in Greenville, he hammered home his campaign message that immigrants were "looting, ransacking, raping and pillaging" the country.

On Monday alone, Harris had events scheduled in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin -- Rust Belt states that were in Trump's column in 2016 but crucial to President Joe Biden's victory four years later.

Cheney and her former vice-president father Dick were once considered fixtures in the Republican firmament but have been ostracized since it was taken over by Trump.

Harris said Trump's dominance in politics since his shock 2016 election had led Americans to "point the finger at one another" and left the country "exhausted."

Cheney, who endorsed Harris last month, echoed that view.

"We're going to reject cruelty," she said. "We have the chance in this race to elect somebody who you know is going to defend the rule of law."

Speaking in Michigan, Harris called for voters to put partisan politics aside when they cast their ballot.

"Regardless of who they voted for in the last election and the party with which they're registered to vote, on some issues we just have to all be Americans," she said.

Both candidates have courted voters from blocs that have historically sided with their rivals, a sign of how close the contest is.

On Monday, Trump appealed to Arab Americans in a social media post, calling Harris a "war hawk" over the White House's handling of Israel's war with Hamas and Hezbollah.

- 'Crippled and destroyed' -

Trump has been criticized for a tumultuous few weeks that have featured rambling monologues and threats about weaponizing the military against Democrats who he calls "the enemy from within."

In Greenville, he painted a picture of a United States that was "crippled and destroyed" by immigration, crime and inflation.

Earlier, in Asheville, the 78-year-old doubled down on conspiracy theories, accusing the administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of redirecting disaster funds to bring in undocumented immigrants and bolster Democratic votes.

Officials in the state were forced to issue hurricane response fact-checks after Trump and his backers pushed what Biden called "an onslaught of lies" about confiscated property, neglected Republican areas and funds diverted to migrants.

Trump notched his narrowest victory in North Carolina when he lost to Biden in 2020.

Both Harris and Trump are fighting to lock down a few thousand wavering voters in key districts as they bid to edge ahead in the race.

- Musk promises $1 million -

Harris's campaign brought in and spent more than $200 million in September -- more than three times as much as Trump, who is out on bail in two criminal cases and awaiting sentencing in a third over allegations of 2020 election-related misconduct.

Despite the vice president's campaign spending, opinion polls suggest the race has been tied since late August.

As the pair make their closing arguments, a new Washington Post-Schar School poll of registered voters in seven battleground states found support even at 47 percent for each candidate. Harris had a one-point lead among likely voters.

Pro-Trump tech mogul Elon Musk has weighed heavily on the election, pouring $75 million into his political committee, turning his social media company X into a bullhorn for the Republican side and stumping for Trump in Pennsylvania.

But the state's Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, suggested authorities could investigate Musk's promise at a weekend rally to award a $1 million prize daily until Election Day to a person who has signed an online petition "supporting the US Constitution."

C.Hamad--SF-PST