GREEN BAY, Wis. — On Wednesday in Green Bay, former President Donald Trump donned an orange vest and climbed into a garbage truck to highlight a gaffe by President Joe Biden the day before.

Nearly 160 miles away in Madison, Vice President Kamala Harris stepped onto the stage before thousands of screaming students and vowed to chart a new path forward.

The split-screen took place six days before the election in this key swing state, as both campaigns sprinted across battlegrounds to rally their voters in what is expected to be a race won on the margins.

Both parties say it couldn’t be closer here — the state where Biden won by just over 20,600 votes in 2020. Wisconsin is among a handful of states that will almost certainly decide the election — a key part of the “blue wall” crucial to Harris’ path to the White House. Trump is trying to repeat 2016, when he denied Democrat Hillary Clinton a win by capturing each of the blue wall states, including Wisconsin.

Both Harris and Trump will return here Friday and hold dueling rallies in Milwaukee, the state’s largest city.

While Harris’ team specifically targeted young voters at the University of Wisconsin on Wednesday, Trump’s campaign had a trash-themed day.

It decided to capitalize on a comment Biden made on Tuesday that appeared to call Trump supporters “trash.” Amid immediate backlash, both Biden and the White House sought to clarify his comments, saying they were specifically referring to the “hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico” used by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe this weekend during a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The White House also released a transcript that attempts to show what Biden meant to say, adding an apostrophe to “supporters”: “The only trash I see floating out there is that of his supporter – his – his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it is unreasonable. American.”

However, the political damage had already been done.

Trump didn’t just focus on Biden’s comments at a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday afternoon; he was also in a garbage truck at the Green Bay airport when he arrived for a meeting later that evening.

“Joe Biden should be ashamed of himself if he knows what he’s even doing,” Trump said from the garbage truck.

The message also became a major theme at the Green Bay rally, where Trump took the stage wearing a fluorescent vest, similar to the kind a garbage truck driver wears. Several speakers also raised the issue, including legendary former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre.

“I can assure you that we are not all trash,” said Favre, who is under investigation in his home state of Mississippi over allegations of welfare fraud. “How dare you say that.”

In his remarks, Trump also emphasized his desire to close the southern border, at times playing news clips about undocumented immigrants committing crimes while in the U.S. illegally. He praised Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who has become one of his biggest financial supporters, and said he would protect women whether they want protection from him or not.

“I want to protect the women of our country. … I’m president, I want to protect the women of our country,” Trump said. “I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not.”

Harris’ camp was focused on pushing voters to the polls on Wednesday. A stream of speakers — from Gov. Tony Evers to Sen. Tammy Baldwin to singer Gracie Abrams — urged the arena to head to the polls.

Abrams was among the musical acts, with Mumford & Sons closing, that captivated a rapturous crowd of more than 13,000 before Harris arrived, according to the campaign.

With a banner in the background reading “Badgers for Harris-Walz,” Harris cast Trump as obsessed with grudges and seeking unchecked power. She took a moment to address the students in the arena.

“I see the promise of America and all the young leaders voting for the first time. And I love your generation. I just love you guys,” she said, smiling. “You now know fewer rights than your mothers and grandmothers who stood up for freedom, and what I know about you is that these issues are not theoretical. This isn’t political for you. This is your lived experience, and I see you, and I see your power. I see your strength and I am so proud of you.”

A roaring crowd waved red and white signs that read “Vote,” and in one section of the crowd, a group of people displayed a banner that read “Freedom,” a theme Harris adopted from the start in her campaign. There were also two brief interruptions by demonstrators seeking an end to the war between Israel and Gaza.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., attended the meeting after hitting the road with Baldwin. Schiff said in a brief interview with NBC News that Harris made clear the road ahead in her speech on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday evening. He sidestepped a question about Biden’s comments on Tuesday and Trump’s garbage truck joke, saying he wasn’t focused on the issue.

Marquette University Law School polling released Wednesday showed Harris leading Trump 50% to 49%, well within the poll’s margin of error. That’s a tick lower for Harris, who stood at 52% in the same survey in September, compared to Trump’s 48%.

“It’s so close that even the smallest change in the last six days could tilt the race, whether we’re talking about the seven swing states, most of which are on a razor’s edge, or whether we’re talking about Wisconsin have,” said Charles. Franklin, the poll’s director. “This is a race that could really go either way, and we shouldn’t be particularly surprised.”

Trump’s dress-up game marked the second time in recent weeks that he has hosted an event in front of the cameras, after wearing a McDonald’s uniform and serving supporters at the drive-thru.

Whether these actions will resonate remains to be seen.

But for Harris’ supporters, Trump’s outrage over Biden’s comments rang hollow.

Linda Gator, who lives in the Sheboygan area, scoffed when asked.

“Give me a break,” she said. “You have a man who spews hate all the time, and Biden makes a mistake, and we all know the man has a stuttering problem. We all know we make mistakes sometimes, but once he makes a mistake, honestly, does it get blown up by your colleagues?”

Cyrus Obut, a father of three who attended the rally with two of his daughters, said he believed Trump would not gain traction with his trash talk. He pointed to the event at Madison Square Garden and said the comments were “racist” and full of “bigotry.”

“At least for Biden, he apologized, he said he made a mistake. But then again, right? No, said Obut.

Matt Dixon reported from Green Bay and Natasha Korecki and Shaquille Brewster from Madison.