NORTH CAROLINA, United States (AFP) — Kamala Harris was forced on Wednesday to distance herself from comments by President Joe Biden that appeared to call Donald Trump supporters “trash” as the US election entered its final phase. last week.

Harris traveled to North Carolina, then Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, again focusing on three of the seven battleground states that could determine who wins the closest election in modern U.S. history.

Trump was also in North Carolina on Wednesday – in the town of Rocky Mount, about an hour’s drive from Harris’ rally in Raleigh – then traveled to Wisconsin to appear alongside US sports star Brett Favre.

More than 57 million people have already voted in advance or by mail, or more than 35% of the total votes cast in the 2020 elections.

Trump is expected to reject the election result if he loses, and the Republican is already relying on isolated irregularities noted by election officials to amplify his claims of widespread “cheating.”

On Wednesday, Harris had hoped to take joy in a speech attended by tens of thousands of people outside the White House, in which the Democrat warned that her rival was unstable and craved unbridled power.

Instead, she fended off questions about Biden’s apparent gaffe when the president reacted to a warm-up speaker at a Trump rally who called the island of Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage » in an inappropriate joke that risked alienating him. Latino voters.

“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden said, before the White House sought to clarify that he was referring to Trump’s rhetoric, not his supporters.

“Let me be clear, I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on the choice they vote for,” said Harris, Biden’s vice president.

At his Rocky Mount rally, Trump said Biden had “finally said what he and Kamala really think about our supporters.”

“My response to Joe and Kamala is very simple: You can’t lead America if you don’t love Americans,” he said, adding that Harris and Biden were “thugs.”

In North Carolina, Harris hammered home her campaign’s message of “turning the page” on former President Trump, leading the crowd in chants of “we’re not going back!”

“This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed by grievances and seeking unchecked power,” Harris said, echoing her speech outside the White House the night before.

There, Harris spoke at the same location where Trump whipped up a mob that then attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a violent attempt to keep him in power even though he lost the 2020 election. against Biden.

But the vice-president also gave an optimistic vision of the future of the United States, with the White House lit up behind her.

Harris lobbied for votes from undecided moderates, and in Raleigh she pitted her leadership against that of Trump, who repeatedly called his political opponents the “enemy within.”

“I don’t believe that those who disagree with me are enemies,” she said. “He wants to put them in jail, I’m going to give them a seat at the table.”

At her campaign event in Pennsylvania, Harris was interrupted by a protester, with the crowd quickly shouting them down.

“Everyone has the right to be heard, but right now I’m the one speaking,” Harris said.

Trump used social media on Wednesday to repeat his claims of election fraud, appearing to set the stage for a repeat around the unfounded claim that his 2020 loss to Biden was rigged.

He denounced what he called “cheating” at “large-scale levels never seen before” in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.

At his North Carolina rally, Trump again questioned the fairness of voting machines and called for a return to paper ballots.

He also called Harris “naive,” “corrupt,” “grossly incompetent” and a “failure.”

On Wednesday, his campaign made a new appeal for campaign donations, referencing Biden’s comments.

But one person who won’t vote for Trump on Nov. 5 will be actor and former Republican California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who supported Harris.

“Rejecting the results of an election is as un-American as it gets,” he said of Trump.

Inflation and the economy have been key issues in this election, and new data released Wednesday showed solid economic growth despite a slight slowdown.