US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton addresses supporters at the Grand Valley State University Fieldhouse in Allendale, Michigan November 7, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] |
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.,/RALEIGH, N.C. - The US presidential campaigns neared their end on Monday in the same angry tone they began, with Republican Donald Trump calling Hillary Clinton a "phony" and the Democrat accusing him of splitting the country.
Clinton and Trump raced through several battleground states in a last-ditch attempt to encourage their respective supporters to show up at polling places on Tuesday.
Clinton sought to capture more support from Latinos, African-Americans and young people, while Trump was looking to rev up disaffected middle class he said has been sidelined by the political establishment.
A Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation poll gave Clinton a 90 percent chance of defeating Trump and said she was on track to win 303 Electoral College votes out of 270 needed, to Trump's 235.
With surveys indicating a tight race in Michigan, which Democrats had long counted on winning, both candidates made campaign appearances there. Pennsylvania, another vote-rich state, was also seen as fertile ground in the closing hours of the two campaigns.
Clinton was bolstered on the campaign trail by President Barack Obama, who spoke at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, urging young people who supported him in 2008 and 2012 to do the same for Clinton.
Obama, ending his second term in office with strong approval ratings, reiterated his charge that Trump is "temperamentally unfit to be commander in chief," and cast the wealthy New York real estate developer as out of touch with most Americans.
"In his 70 years on Earth, the Donald has never shown any regard for working folks. I don't think he knows working people, except for the folks who clean up in his hotels and the folks who mow the fairway on his golf course," Obama said.