Trump, Harris trade barbs in US election media blitz

NEW YORK: Donald Trump and Kamala Harris exchanged barbs over the airwaves Tuesday as they reached out to the few remaining undecided voters in the final stretch of an election seen as one of the closest in modern US history.

Harris has maintained a lead of two-to-three points in national polling since mid-August, despite presidential and vice presidential debates, encouraging jobs data, an interest rate cut, escalating international crises and a devastating hurricane.

"I literally lose sleep — and have been — over what is at stake in this election," the Democratic vice president, 59, told radio icon Howard Stern in a 70-minute live interview.

A poll from Siena College and The New York Times out Tuesday highlighted the deadlock, finding Harris ahead of her Republican rival by 49% to 46% — although it had the pair in a dead heat in September.

Poll-watchers expect the stalemate to break only in the last couple of weeks before election day on November 5, as the small fraction of wavering Americans who will decide the election break one way or the other.

In the seven battleground states seen as likely to determine the election, the race is even tighter.

The new poll gave Trump the edge on who is the stronger leader but, crucially, revealed that registered voters see Harris as the change candidate.

'Loser'

Harris — who has spent much of the campaign under pressure to sit down for more interviews — is spending the week targeting women, Latinos and young voters through traditional media and via appearances on influential podcasts and YouTube shows.

"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," a staple of the evening comedy talk show circuit, was set to air a pre-recorded interview late Tuesday with Harris — and in excerpts shared ahead of the broadcast she called Trump a "loser."

Trump "openly admires dictators and authoritarians," she said during a weighty section of what was, at times, a light-hearted conversation in which both host and interviewee sipped beer.

"He has said he wants to be a dictator on day one if he were elected again as president. He gets played by these guys. He admires so-called strongmen and he gets played because they flatter him or offer him favor," she said.

Earlier, on popular ABC television show "The View," she talked about campaigning recently with Republican former congresswoman Liz Cheney.

There are more than 200 former officials from past Republican presidents George W Bush and George HW Bush, as well as officials tied to Republican heavyweights John McCain and Mitt Romney, who have endorsed her, Harris said.

"We really are building a coalition around some very fundamental issues, including that we love our country and that we have to put country before party," she said.

'Don't tax the rich'

Trump meanwhile maintained his aggressive posture, attacking Harris as a "very low intelligence person" on conservative influencer Ben Shapiro's podcast.

The 78-year-old Republican claimed she had been "missing in action" over the federal response to Hurricane Helene — even though Harris visited the disaster zone last week.

Trump, who was on a blitz of several media organisations, then criticised Harris in an interview on right-wing network Newsmax over her plans to pay for her agenda, telling viewers: "You don't tax the rich... the rich pay most of the tax in the country."

And, in a more personal moment, he told Los Angeles radio station KFI AM 640 he sees campaign interviews as therapeutic.

"You know what this is for me? Therapy, okay? I'm speaking to a smart man. This is like, some people go to a psychiatrist. I don't have time so this is, like, my therapy," he told host John Kobylt.

Both candidates were due to appear on the influential CBS show "60 Minutes" this week and while Harris fulfilled her commitment, Trump backed out, offering shifting explanations for his about-face.

He was mocked by Democrats and responded with a campaign statement demanding the transcript of the Harris interview be released, claiming that it had been "deceptively edited."