The U.S. is just seven days away from the most consequential election of a lifetime between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The candidates aren’t pulling any punches as polls tighten and over 43.3 million Americans have already cast their ballot in the 2024 election.
And although Trump is holding the momentum over Harris according the polls, it is shaping up to be one of the closest elections in history.
The presidential candidates hit the campaign trail in swing states hard on Monday, with fleeting days between now and November 5 to win over voters on the fence.
Trump ridiculed Kamala Harris for a major campaign slip up and denied being a Nazi during a massive rally in Atlanta, the heart of the battleground state of Georgia.
Meanwhile, Harris had an extremely awkward mid-speech flub during a rally in swing state Michigan.
Former President Donald Trump denied being a Nazi on Monday evening in Atlanta
‘I’m not a Nazi. I’m the opposite of a Nazi,’ Trump told thousands of supporters at Georgia Tech on Monday evening.
‘Now the way they talk is so disgusting and just horrible,’ he went on.
His strong denial comes one day after a controversial Madison Square Garden rally in New York City where pro-Trump speakers used crude and racist language.
Even before the event, critics including Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz, compared it with a 1939 rally by Nazi sympathizers at the same venue.
Harris rallied in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Monday to win over swing state voters
Meanwhile, Harris was in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to make her plea to voters in the midwest swing state joined by music star Maggie Rogers.
The Grammy-nominated artist started her set with the song ‘Love you for a Long Time.’
Rogers said she took a break from her tour to make the appearance because ‘there is nothing more important than this election right now.’
Harris had an odd moment where her rally crowd went awkwardly silent.
After a long ‘Kamala, Kamala, Kamala!’ chant broke out among the rally goers, Harris asked them to chant their own names.
A hush fell over the crowd in a stunningly awkward moment. But Harris laughed it off and moved on.
During the rally, Harris avoided commenting on the latest Trump ‘Nazi’ controversy.
The vice president reiterated her line about Trump becoming more ‘unhinged’ and ‘unstable’ and warned of unchecked power if he is reelected again.
Harris was in Ann Arbor, Michigan , to make her plea to voters in the midwest swing state joined by music star Maggie Rogers
In Atlanta, Trump also poked fun at an embarrassing ‘hot mic’ moment for the vice president from over the weekend
Attorney Alina Habba speaks before Trump in Atlanta
However, she notably did not mention the controversy around his New York City rally on Sunday or the racist and sexist comments made by speakers at it.
But earlier in the day she condemned the ‘racist’ remarks made at his rally at Madison Square Garden.
‘It is absolutely something that is intended to and is fanning the fuel of trying to divide our country,’ Harris said.
‘It is more of the same and maybe more vivid than usual,’ she said.
She accused Trump of trying to get Americans to point fingers at each other full-time and ‘fans the fuel of hate and division.’
Trump clapped back at her during his rally invoking the words of his father.
‘My father — I had a great father, tough guy. He used to always say, never use the word Nazi. Never use that word,’ said Trump.
Trump spent the day campaigning in the critical swing state of Georgia, while his opponent Kamala Harris was in Michigan, talking economics
The candidates aren’t pulling any punches as polls tighten and over 43.3 million Americans have already cast their ballot in the 2024 election
It comes after a string of officials who worked with Trump described him as a ‘fascist’ or said he would govern as a dictator.
And the event was his first rally since Madison Square Garden a day earlier when speakers delivered a string of crude remarks.
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe described Puerto Rico as ‘a floating island of garbage’ triggering condemnation from some Hispanic leaders.
In his speech, Trump attacked Harris for using bad language on a hot mic and also punched back at former first lady Michelle Obama for delivering a blistering attack on his mental abilities and history of sex abuse allegations.
She must have touched a nerve with Trump, 78, who would become the oldest president to be inaugurated if he wins November’s election.
He railed against her on social media during the day, and opened his speech by punching back.
‘You know who’s nasty to me? Michelle Obama,’ said Trump after taking the stage at Georgia Tech.
‘I always tried to be so nice and respectful … She opened up a little bit of something. She was nasty. Shouldn’t be that way. That was a big mistake that she made.’
Obama made her first appearance of the campaign alongside Kamala Harris on Saturday.
In Atlanta, Trump also poked fun at an embarrassing ‘hot mic’ moment for the vice president from over the weekend.
Harris unknowingly was caught on a live camera admitting to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that her campaign is struggling with male voters.
‘She used the F-word. Did you see that? No, it’s terrible,’ he said. ‘If that ever happened to me, it would have been front page headlines.’
Harris was caught out talking to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer about the difficulty her campaign was having reaching young men.
When she realized a camera was running, she said: ‘We just told all the family secrets, s***,’ before letting out a guffaw.
Harris was in Ann Arbor, Michigan , to make her plea to voters in the midwest swing state joined by music star Maggie Rogers
Faith leaders lay hands on former President Donald Trump at the end of a faith leaders summit in Atlanta
The former president took the lead in the Real Clear Politics polling average on Monday for the first time, with a razor-thin 0.1 percent advantage.
Meanwhile, the betting market has Donald Trump dominating in all seven swing states over Harris.
Polymarket says Trump has a 75 percent chance of victory in Arizona, 73 percent in Georgia, 65 percent in Nevada and 61 percent in Pennsylvania.
In Wisconsin, he has a 59 percent chance to Harris’ 41 percent and a 53 percent chance in Michigan to the vice president’s 47 percent.
According to prediction market Polymarket the closest state in the election is likely to be Wisconsin, where they are nearly tied in the polls.
The betting site states that 18 percent of bettors think Wisconsin will end up being the closest state race.
Joint second favorites are Pennsylvania and Nevada with a 14 percent likelihood of being the closest.
Thousands of Trump supporters packed into the McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta, Georgia
Trump railed against Obama, as well as Fox News, on his social media platform
‘I always tried to be so nice and respectful … She opened up a little bit of something. She was nasty. Shouldn’t be that way. That was a big mistake that she made.’
Obama made her first appearance of the campaign alongside Kamala Harris on Saturday.
She pointed to Trump’s history of sexual abuse allegations as well as his former chief of staff John Kelly’s recent assessment that he would govern as a dictator if reelected.
Trump responded with a post on his social media platform.
‘FoxNews spends far too much time promoting the Democrats, their surrogates, and their agenda,’ he said on Truth Social.
‘Today I watched, over and over again, an angry and totally out of control Michelle Obama trying to save the dying Campaign of Comrade Kamala Harris.’
Lawyer Alina Habba was one of the warm-up acts on Monday evening
Much of the rest of the speech was Trump’s standard stump offering: Taking a quick straw poll of who had already voted; asking his audience who was better off now than they were four years ago; and promising to tell Harris, ‘You’re fired.’
‘We’re going to have the biggest victory in the history of our country on November 5,’ he said, referring to it as ‘liberation day.’
