Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are turning their attention to the key "blue wall" states, and are likely to remain there in the final days of the election, says RNZ's Corin Dann.
Dann has been providing updates for RNZ's listeners and visitors to rnz.co.nz and spoke from Philadelphia International Airport shortly after landing at 6pm, local time (11am NZT).
The candidates had finished their swing through the "sun belt" states of Nevada and Arizona and headed back to the blue wall states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania -the latter being "really critical" in this election for its 19 votes in the US Electoral College, he said.
RNZ presenter Corrin Dann at the US-Mexico border near Nogales, Arizona for his coverage of the US presidential election. Photo: Nick Monro
Dann was among the media at the "fireside chat" campaign rally between Donald Trump and former Fox News television host Tucker Carlson in Arizona, where Trump suggested Liz Cheney face a firing squad for her foreign policy.
The event was a "unique experience", Dann said, who noted Trump's "free-flowing, rambling diatribe" was "pretty much what people have come to expect from him".
"He doesn't operate like a normal politician… he doesn't filter, it just comes out."
The comments about Cheney were in the context of Trump talking across a range of topics, "riffing off things, criticising opponents, and throwing insults", Dann said. "They're the ones that have blown up."
"The Republicans argue he was just trying to make the point she was a war hawk… Trump doesn't want go into war," but his language had come across as "highly controversial", Dann said, with many Democrats seeing the comments as offensive and inflammatory.
His core supporters, however, just saw the comments as a rhetorical device.
"What it highlights at the moment is that anything that is slightly controversial will be super magnified.
"It does hurt Donald Trump in a sense, reminding people of what language he uses."
Donald Trump greets an employee during a visit to The Great Commoner cafe in Dearborn, Michigan on 1 November. Photo: CHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
Democrats would be looking to "run pretty hard" on Trump's attacks on fellow Republicans, and his promises to go after "the enemy from within", Dann said.
Tomorrow morning (7.30am NZT), Dann and RNZ visual journalist Nick Monro will attend a Democratic rally in Pennsylvania targeting the local Puerto Rican community.
In such a tight race in this swing state, the Democrats will be wanting to drive out the Latino vote - especially in light of a "joke" by a comedian at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally that Puerto Rico was a "floating island of garbage".
Turnout could be a crucial factor in whoever won the election - with some commentators saying it could be lower than 70 percent across the US.
Donald Trump was doing better with men, and was targeting Gen Z voters - but whether they turned up to the polls was another matter, Dann said.
"There's been a lot of talk that women are going to save the Democrats, they're going to come out in numbers for Harris."
Kamala Harris speaks at an electrical workers' union office during a campaign stop in Janesville, Wisconsin, on 1 November. Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP
The polls had often been inaccurate in recent years, and anyone observing from outside the US should not underestimate the support for Trump, he said.
"There's always been a bias against Trump in polls, with people reluctant to say they'll vote for him.
"From what he saw at the rally in Arizona, they didn't feel like a narrow MAGA crowd - it felt broader than that... it is a broader alliance of people than in 2016.
"Pennsylvania is going to be a massive focus on election eve for Kamala Harris, and I would not be surprised if they are both here for the final days."
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