PALM BEACH (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump defended on Tuesday (Oct 29) his widely criticized New York rally that featured vulgar and racist remarks by allies, calling the event "an absolute lovefest".
He accused Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival in the Nov 5 US election, of waging a "campaign of hate" against him to compensate for what he called her horrible record as vice president under President Joe Biden.
Trump, 78, spoke to supporters at his Florida estate as Harris, 60, prepared for a high-profile Washington rally on Tuesday evening at the site where Trump addressed supporters on in 2021 before they attacked the Capitol to try to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.
Trump did not comment on the vulgar and racist rhetoric used by speakers at his Sunday rally, where a comedian called Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage" and disparaged Black Americans, Jewish people, Palestinians and Latinos.
Though his campaign has said the comments about Puerto Rico did not reflect the former president's views, Trump called the event a lovefest.
"And it was my honour to be involved," he said.
Trump said Harris would be too dangerous to serve as president, pointing to foreign wars and high levels of immigration during her tenure as vice president.
He said she had waged a campaign of destruction. "But really, more than anything else, it's a campaign of hate," he said.
The Harris rally was expected to draw tens of thousands of people to the Ellipse, a park in front of the White House where Trump urged supporters on Jan 6, 2021, to march on the US Capitol where lawmakers were certifying his 2020 defeat.
Four people died in the ensuing riot, and one police officer who defended the Capitol died the following day. Trump has said that if reelected, he would pardon the more than 1,500 participants who have been charged with crimes.
Both candidates are seeking to cement voters' opinions in the final days of a historically close election.
Trump aims to capitalise on voters' unhappiness with rising prices and immigration, while Harris has emphasized abortion rights and has described Trump as an aspiring dictator who would undermine US democracy.
HARRIS TO URGE VOTERS TO 'TURN THE PAGE'
At her rally, Harris will call on Americans to “turn the page” on Trump while stressing her plans to lower costs and make the economy work for middle-class Americans, campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon told reporters.
Harris' lead over Trump has dwindled in the final weeks of the campaign.
She now leads 44 per cent to 43 per cent among registered voters, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday. Harris has led Trump in every Reuters/Ipsos poll since she entered the race in July, but her advantage has steadily shrunk since late September.
The candidates are neck and neck in the seven battleground states that will decide the election.
More than 50 million Americans have already voted, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab.
At his Florida event at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, which started more than an hour late, Trump called former first lady Michelle Obama "nasty" and repeated an unfounded conspiracy theory that disaster aid for storm-hit North Carolinians had been diverted to help immigrants.
He blamed Harris for wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip that occurred while she was vice president.
"No person has caused as much destruction and death at home and abroad," he said.
He falsely claimed that Democrats had staged a coup when they pressured Biden, 81, to drop his reelection bid this summer due to concerns that he was too old to take on Trump. "You can call it a coup, you can call it whatever. But they stole it," he told supporters.
Biden had been trailing Trump in polls after a poor debate performance between the two candidates. The race tightened when Harris emerged as the Democratic candidate.
Trump was due later in the day to visit a heavily Hispanic city in Pennsylvania, two days after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's comments about Puerto Rico drew outrage at the New York rally.
Trump told an ABC reporter on Tuesday that he did not know the comedian and had not heard any of his comments, which were denounced by Republican and Democratic leaders alike.