At the same time, Donald Trump has increasingly repeated conspiracy theories on the campaign trail, often taking aim at migrants and his political opponents.
While speaking to Latino leaders today in Florida, Trump said: “As President, you have tremendous – it’s called extreme power. You have extreme power.”
“You can, just by the fact, you say, ‘Close the border’ and the border’s closed,” the Republican candidate added.
The Harris campaign has begun to hammer at Trump’s mental and physical fitness to occupy the Oval Office again while trying to woo moderate Republican voters.
One of Trump’s top aides as President, former Marine General John Kelly, confirmed today to The New York Times previous reports that he considered the Republican to be a fascist.
“Certainly the former President is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators – he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
Joe Rogan, host of one of the most-listened-to podcasts in America, said his interview with Trump is due out on Friday.
Non-traditional media, including podcasts, have played a key role in the campaign in targeting specific audiences like young women and black men.
Harris says US ready for woman president
Harris said that America is “absolutely” ready to elect its first woman President but downplayed her historic bid, saying she simply wants to turn the page for a nation “exhausted” by Trump.
With two weeks to election day, Harris and Trump are saturating swing states with rallies and taking to the airwaves and podcasts on the hunt for an advantage in a race that polls suggest is effectively tied.
Speaking on the national NBC network, Harris responded “absolutely” when asked if America was ready to elect its first woman – but also noted her candidacy was about “turning the page”.
“People are exhausted with Donald Trump and his approach, because it’s all about himself,” she said.
Trump, speaking to supporters in North Carolina, pitched a very different message.
“This election is a choice between whether we will have four more years of incompetence, failure and disaster, or whether we’ll begin the four greatest years in the history of our country,” he said to cheers.
He repeatedly called Harris and her running mate Tim Walz “stupid” during the rally.
‘Lock him up’
The race is overshadowed by extraordinary tensions and fears of violence or a refusal by Trump to recognise the results if he loses, as he continues to do over his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.
Harris told NBC that her campaign was “of course” ready for a scenario where Trump prematurely claims victory during a vote-counting process that could take days to complete.
Biden, who has been an infrequent presence in Harris’ campaign, took a shot at Trump by rewording the ex-President’s notorious anti-Hillary Clinton chant of “Lock her up”.
On a visit to New Hampshire, Biden told a small crowd that “we got to lock” Trump up – adding quickly, “politically lock him up”.
With Trump facing multiple pending criminal charges as he competes against Harris to succeed Biden, the White House has been very careful not to weigh in on the Republican’s legal problems.
The Trump campaign responded that Biden and Harris had a “plan all along … to politically persecute their opponent.”
About 18 million Americans have already voted by mail or in person – representing more than 10% of the total in 2020.
Some polls appear to be giving the Republican, who at 78 is the oldest nominee from a major party in US history, a slight edge recently – but all were within the margin of error.
Whatever the result, US voters will make history on November 5: they will either elect the country’s first woman president, or they will put the first convicted felon into the White House.
