Harris woos undecided voters as Trump riles critics over Ukraine

US Vice President Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris reacts as supporters cheer as she walks on stage at University Wisconsin-La Crosse during a campaign event in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on October 17, 2024. [AFP]

Kamala Harris rallied supporters in the swing state of Wisconsin on Thursday while Donald Trump stirred controversy with criticism of embattled ally Ukraine, as the rivals vied for the remaining undecided voters in a deadlocked US presidential election.

The candidates are racing toward Election Day on November 5 with the Democratic vice president narrowly leading her Republican rival nationally and in several crucial swing states, although most polls are within the margin of error.

Both are also deploying high-profile surrogates to sew up support in the race's final weeks, including billionaire Elon Musk's series of appearances for Trump in must-win Pennsylvania.

Harris worked a crowd in the manufacturing hub of La Crosse, Wisconsin, saying "We are nearing the home stretch, and this is going to be a tight race until the very end."

"Donald Trump is an unserious man, and the consequences of him ever getting his foot back in the Oval Office are brutally serious," she later said.

Harris, who also rallied voters in Green Bay, one of Wisconsin's largest cities, extended her outreach to the state's young voters and blue-collar workers.

'Fate of America' 

Trump sat for an interview with a supportive podcast, dominated by immigration, the economy and his grievances against the US media -- although he made news by blaming Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky for Russia's invasion of his country.

"Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I've ever seen. Every time he comes in, we give him $100 billion. Who else got that kind of money in history? There's never been (anyone)," Trump told the two-million-subscriber PBD Podcast.

"And that doesn't mean I don't want to help him, because I feel very badly for those people. He should never have let that war start."

The Trump campaign claimed he had been talking about President Joe Biden, but his remarks were widely interpreted as a swipe at Ukraine.

At the same time, Musk's increasingly visible role in Trump's campaign included the billionaire launching five nights of campaign events in Pennsylvania.

"This election, I think, is going to decide the fate of America and, along with the fate of America, the fate of Western civilization," he said at a town hall event in Folsom, on the outskirts of Philadelphia.

Trump wrapped the campaigning day at the Al Smith fundraiser dinner, a traditional stop for presidential candidates to poke fun at their rivals and themselves.

The ex-president mocked Harris during his comments, calling her someone who can "barely put together two coherent sentences" and "seems to have mental faculties of a child."

Harris did not attend, but sent a video that co-starred comedian Molly Shannon, who reprised her Superstar character from US comedy show Saturday Night Live.

- 'Day of love' -

Although Kyiv is a US ally and Moscow is considered a major adversary, Trump humiliated Zelensky during a face-to-face meeting in September as he touted his good relationship with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

The appearance came after Trump faced unusually tough questions during a Univision network town hall on Wednesday from undecided Hispanic voters, a key bloc Trump is desperate to court.

The former president did not mention his plan -- touted at every rally -- to enact the biggest deportations in US history but instead said he wanted to encourage legal immigration.

A California farm laborer asked who would do the work if most of the undocumented workforce was deported, and Trump struggled to answer, instead blasting foreign "terrorists" and "murderers" taking the jobs of Black and Hispanic Americans.

Trump was also quizzed about the insurrection at the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters but denied any responsibility, calling January 6, 2021, "a day of love."

An estimated 36 million Latinos are expected to be eligible to vote, and their support is considered particularly important in the closely watched battlegrounds of Arizona and Nevada.

A Times/Siena College poll of Hispanic voters published Saturday found 56 percent said they would vote for Harris, while 37 percent supported Trump.

Harris's momentum in the polls has plateaued in recent weeks, however, and both candidates have been on a blitz of new and traditional media as they try to win over the small number of undecided voters.