Harris, Trump seek advantage in knife-edge election battle

WASHINGTON: Kamala Harris and rival Donald Trump are campaigning in critical battleground states on Sunday seeking 11th-hour advantages in a deadlocked White House race, as new polling shows the vice president underperforming among some traditional Democratic voter demographics.

Harris was in North Carolina, a state hard-hit by a hurricane two weeks ago that devastated several communities and left more than 235 people dead across the US Southeast, as she seeks to counter Trump´s claims that federal agencies have done little to help storm victims.

Her boss, President Joe Biden, was in Florida assessing the damage from more recent Hurricane Milton which raked across the southern state and highlighting the federal government´s commitment to rescue and recovery efforts.

With just 23 days before the November 5 election, Republican former president Trump and his running mate Senator J.D. Vance continue to thrust the federal disaster response squarely into the presidential race.

Asked on ABC Sunday talk show “This Week” whether Trump has been accurate in describing the federal response as incompetent, Vance said “it´s to suggest that Americans are feeling left behind by their government, which they are.”

Biden took an aerial tour of the devastation in Tampa Bay and nearby St. Petersburg, and received a briefing of storm response efforts.

While he described the impact as “cataclysmic” in some neighborhoods, Biden said Florida was fortunate it was not worse.