On Friday, US presidential candidates campaigned in the key Midwestern swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin in an attempt to lure voters.

At rallies, Vice President Kamala Harris blasted former President Donald Trump for his comments earlier this week suggesting that former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, a staunch critic of Trump, should have “guns pointed at her.” Trump has previously suggested that Cheney should face military tribunals.

Meanwhile, Trump insisted at his rallies that the “guns” comment was a legitimate criticism of Cheney’s aggressive foreign policy: If she promoted wars, she should fight in them herself.

What are the latest updates from the polls?

Nationally, FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracker shows Harris leading by 1.3 points, as she has over the past week, and about where she and Trump have been in recent days — but by a much smaller margin than the 2. She was ahead by 8 percentage points. exactly a month ago.

In critical swing states, which could determine the election outcome, competition is even fiercer.

Major battleground states include Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada.

FiveThirtyEight’s daily poll tracker shows Harris’ lead in Michigan at about 1 point. However, she has lost her lead in Nevada, where Trump now has a 0.4 point lead.

In Wisconsin, her lead has increased to 0.8 points, up from 0.6 on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania has shrunk from 0.7 points to 0.1 points. His lead in North Carolina remains and is now 1.3 points. Trump is also ahead by 2.1 points in Arizona, and 1.5 points in Georgia. However, all of these gaps are within the margin of error for polls — so essentially the two candidates are in a dead heat across the swing states.

What was Kamala Harris doing on Friday?

Harris spent her day in Wisconsin with events in Janesville, Little Chute, Madison and Milwaukee. Her events featured singers GloRilla, Cardi B and Flo Milli.

She blasted Trump for his verbal attack on Liz Cheney. Trump had attacked Cheney, suggesting that the former lawmaker, who has backed Harris in the race for the White House, should face guns pointed at her over her policy position.

“She is a radical war hawk,” Trump said Thursday at a campaign event with ex-Fox News television host Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Arizona, also calling Cheney “a crazy person” and “a very stupid individual.”

Harris described Cheney as “a true patriot” and said Trump’s increasing “violent rhetoric” should disqualify him from running for president again.

‘His enemies list has grown longer. His rhetoric has become more extreme,” Harris told reporters after arriving in Madison, Wisconsin, one of her campaign stops on Friday. “And he is even less focused than before on the needs, concerns and challenges facing the American people.”

During her rallies, she also pledged to build an economy for ordinary people and listen to a wide range of voices, asking supporters to encourage family and friends to vote.

CNN has reported that the Harris campaign has changed its message on Israel’s war in Gaza, emphasizing different aspects of its position on Israel in separate ads aimed at undecided Jewish and Arab voters.

An ad in Michigan, where Arab voters have expressed anger over the billions of dollars the Biden-Harris administration has provided in military aid for Israel’s war in Gaza, says Harris “will not remain silent” about the suffering of Palestinians.

However, Harris has rejected demands to halt military aid to Israel, despite a litany of violations of international law by the US ally.

Another ad aimed at potential Jewish voters in Pennsylvania promises that Harris will “stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself” and “defend our armed forces and our interests against Iran and Iranian-backed terrorists.”

That video ad removes a portion of her speech in which Harris calls the suffering in Gaza “heartbreaking.”

What was Donald Trump up to on Friday?

At his rally in Milwaukee, about 10 miles from Harris’ rally, Trump was joined by Republican politicians and other supporters such as Robert F Kennedy Jr. before taking the stage for a speech that lasted more than an hour.

He promised to “prevent World War III.” He called Harris a “person with a low IQ” and said he would “end inflation.”

He also increased fears about undocumented immigrants.

“We want people to come to our country, we want that too. But they have to come in legally, through a system. They must love us. They have to love our country,” Trump said.

And before concluding his remarks, he made one final reference to his opponent at the rally: an uncooperative microphone.

‘I don’t need to be here. But if I had a choice, I’d rather be here with a broken microphone in Wisconsin. I’d rather be in Wisconsin than on a beautiful beach.”

Trump’s campaign also emphasized that the “guns” comment was a legitimate criticism of Cheney’s aggressive foreign policy: If she promoted wars, she should fight in them herself.

In Milwaukee, Trump also walked back his false claims that he won the 2020 election — even though the results show otherwise.

“You know, in 2016 I wanted to win Wisconsin so bad. He said it’s not feasible,” Trump said as he gestured to former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson in the crowd.

“You are a very difficult state, but I won it. I won it, despite your difficulty. I actually won it twice, but these are small details.”

Trump didn’t win Wisconsin twice. In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden secured a victory over Trump in the state.

Trump also held a brief private meeting with members of the Arab-American community in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn before holding a rally in Warren, Michigan.

What’s next for the Harris and Trump campaigns?

Harris heads to Charlotte, North Carolina

On Saturday, Harris goes to the swing state of North Carolina for a rally in Charlotte. Her rally is once again expected to be a star-studded event, with performances from musicians Jon Bon Jovi and Khalid.

Democrats haven’t won a presidential race in North Carolina since 2008, and Harris is eager to turn the page.

At a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina on Wednesday, she emphasized that Democrats are “really fighting for democracy.”

During the meeting, one person could be heard trying to yell about Harris, but it is unclear what he said.

“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy,” she said as the crowd’s chants drowned out the protester’s voice. “He wants to put them in jail, I’ll give them a seat at the table.

“I pledge to be a president for all Americans and always put country before party and self,” she added.

Trump also to visit Charlotte, North Carolina

Trump, who was in North Carolina on Wednesday, will also go to Charlotte on Saturday.

In the 2020 presidential race, Trump achieved his smallest victory of all fifty states in North Carolina. In the upcoming elections on November 5, polls show that Trump once again has a small lead over his Democratic rival.

Paul Shumaker, a Republican operative, put it to Al Jazeera in stark terms: Republican registration began to decline, while the number of “unaffiliated” voters gradually rose.

“Now there are no more liberal Republicans, and less moderate Republicans,” Shumaker said.

Political scientist Chris Cooper told Al Jazeera that North Carolina is “right at the intersection of red and blue.”

But it’s a third category — voters who don’t identify as red or blue — that could ultimately decide who wins.