NEW YORK, Oct 27, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Donald Trump rallies supporters Sunday at
an iconic New York arena while Kamala Harris goes neighborhood to
neighborhood in Philadelphia just over a week before America votes in an
extraordinarily close White House race.

Trump's gathering at the nearly 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden is expected
to draw a blitz of coverage in the Republican's home metropolis, which is
still very much a Democratic stronghold.

Both candidates are making closing pitches to voters in one of America's most
divisive and suspense-filled electoral fights, with polls suggesting a dead
heat ahead of the November 5 vote.

Harris, 60, has planned a packed day of campaigning in the biggest city in
must-win Pennsylvania, including stops at a Black church and barbershop as
well as a Puerto Rican restaurant.

A senior Harris campaign official said Sunday's visit will be the vice
president's 14th trip to Pennsylvania since she jumped to the top of the
ticket after President Joe Biden's shock withdrawal in July.

Harris will go before supporters to make what her campaign called her
"closing argument" on Tuesday in Washington at the park where Trump rallied
supporters before the January 6 riot.

Trump's rally Sunday at a venue dubbed "The World's Most Famous Arena" is set
to include backers and surrogates like billionaire Elon Musk, who has
personally hit the campaign trail for the ex-president.

It is a storied arena in US sporting and cultural life that has hosted the
Rolling Stones, Madonna and U2 plus several Democratic and Republican
presidential conventions over the decades.

However, the venue's association with the far-right, pro-Hitler Bund group
that hosted a rally in 1939, complete with eagles, Nazi insignia and salutes,
will generate darker headlines.

Trump appears at Madison Square Garden just days after one of his top former
officials, John Kelly, said the Republican fits the definition of a fascist -
- something Harris later said she agreed with.

- 'Genuine fear' of Trump win -

The latest high wattage surrogate for Harris, former first lady Michelle
Obama, aired her "genuine fear" on Saturday that Trump could retake the White
House.

She said Harris would be an "extraordinary president," but Obama also spoke
of a sense of frustration and anxiety that few on the vice president's team
dare express after she lost some momentum in recent weeks.

"My hope about Kamala is also accompanied by some genuine fear," Obama said,
ripping into Trump's record and asking, "Why is this race even close?"

With more than 40 million people already casting early ballots, Americans are
deciding between electing the country's first-ever woman president or the
oldest major candidate ever.

Trump, 78, still refuses to accept his defeat in the vote four years ago and
is expected to reject the result if he loses again -- potentially pitching
the United States into chaos.

Trump swept Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania -- three usually Democratic
states -- in his shock victory in 2016 only to see Biden reclaim them four
years later.

He hopes to claw back one or more of the trio, and win the so-called Sun Belt
swing states in the country's south to propel him back into power.