新湖畔网 （随信APP) | 哈里斯和川普在争夺关键州，试图打破僵局

US Vice President Kamala Harris starts a tour of several key battleground states, including Michigan and Pennsylvania, in the final stretch of the election - Copyright AFP Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo

Jim Watson, with Michael Mathes in Washington

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are competing for undecided votes during the second to last weekend of campaigning in swing states across the US. Michelle Obama joins the Democrat on stage before the Republican nominee holds a surprising rally in New York City.

With only 10 days remaining in a highly contested presidential race, the rivals come together on Saturday in Michigan, one of the three fiercely disputed “Blue Wall” states, with Wisconsin and the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania, which Democrats consider essential for a path to victory on November 5.

Polls indicate a close race in the final days, as more than 35 million people across the country have already voted early. Americans are now faced with the decision of electing the country's first female president or its oldest leader.

Part of Harris's strategy is to attract moderate Republicans away from a divisive Trump, who continues to criticize certain Americans as the “enemy.”

On Friday, he stated that if he wins the presidency, individuals involved in election fraud “will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, including long prison sentences.”

For Republican A.D. Jefferson, a 62-year-old laborer at Harris's rally in Houston, the chaos surrounding Trump is too much.

“I believe she is less controversial,” he told AFP. “I am a Republican, but I think Trump is just too chaotic for me.”

Following an energetic rally in Texas with pop icon Beyonce to highlight Republican abortion restrictions, Harris travels to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she will appeal to voters with more star power, including former first lady Michelle Obama.

Her husband, Barack Obama, joined Harris on Thursday for a rally in Georgia.

On Sunday, Harris, 60, will rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the largest city in the largest swing state that is likely to determine the election outcome under the US electoral system.

Trump, who won the three Blue Wall states in a surprising victory in 2016 but saw Joe Biden regain them for Democrats four years later, plans to win back one or more of these states and secure victory in other Sun Belt swing states to return to the White House.

With only a few thousand votes potentially making the difference in the closest swing states, Trump hosts rallies on Saturday in Michigan and Pennsylvania, where a strong ground campaign and relentless campaigning in battlegrounds could be decisive.

This is followed by the release of a three-hour interview with Trump on the Joe Rogan Experience, America's most popular podcast, late Friday.

He aims to attract Rogan's large, predominantly male audience, as he seeks viral moments that resonate with his everyman appeal.

– ‘Like the 1930s’ –

On Sunday night, Trump will hold a campaign event at Madison Square Garden, the iconic arena in heavily Democratic New York.

Analysts question why Trump is campaigning in his home state of New York when there is almost no chance of winning it. The billionaire and former reality TV star may be looking to create a spectacle and prove that he can fill an arena in a Democratic stronghold.

However, critics, including Trump's 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton, have pointed out that Madison Square Garden was also the site of a pro-Nazi rally organized by a group supportive of Adolf Hitler in 1939.

“She said it’s just like the 1930s,” Trump remarked at a rally in Michigan on Friday, referring to Clinton's comments on CNN the previous day. “No it’s not, no. This is called ‘Make America Great Again.'”

The weekend campaigning follows a heated dispute over claims that the former Republican president is seeking to become an authoritarian leader, following allegations from Trump's longest-serving White House chief of staff, supported by Harris, that Trump is a “fascist” who should not be trusted with power again.