Megastars, false gun scare as White House race hits final stretch

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton packed their schedules with last-minute campaign events, just days before a United States presidential election that has gripped the world.

Mrs Clinton is banking on star power to lock in her narrow poll lead, hosting back-to-back weekend pop concerts with Beyonce and Katy Perry and booking a date with President Barack Obama.

For his part Mr Trump has embarked on a cross-country odyssey through Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and New Hampshire.

“Hillary Clinton has all of these celebrities and failed politicians out campaigning for her,” a defiant Mr Trump said in North Carolina, one of four battleground states he was visiting on Saturday (US time). “I just have me, but I have my family.”

The latest major survey, the ABC/Washington Post tracker released early on Sunday (Nov 6) gave Mrs Clinton a five percentage point 48-43 lead.

In the latest sign of the mounting tension and ugly mood of the campaign, Mr Trump was briefly hustled off stage in Reno, Nevada, on Saturday (US time) in a false gun scare.

Mr Trump was unruffled and he returned to finish his speech after a few minutes, although his son retweeted a message implying it was an “assassination attempt”. The Secret Service said that agents found no weapon.

Mrs Clinton’s camp mocked the 70-year-old tycoon’s scattershot approach to the electoral map as a sign of panic. But the 69-year-old former secretary of state herself added an extra planned stopover in Michigan, a state that fellow Democrat Obama won easily in 2012.

The final 48-hour programmes released by both campaigns suggest that operatives believe the race is closer than either side admits.

Whether or not he is feeling the pressure as the campaign comes to the end, Mr Trump’s rhetoric remained triumphalist.

“In three days we are going to win the great state of Colorado and we are going to win back the White House,” he promised supporters late Saturday in Denver, Colorado. “You’re going to be so happy. We’re going to start winning again,” he intoned, urging voters to cast their ballots in person to avoid the risk of fraud in postal voting.

He hit his key themes: Promises to tear up free trade agreements, expel undocumented migrants, rebuild an allegedly depleted US military and purge Washington of corruption.

Mrs Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook was scathing, saying that Mr Trump’s packed schedule was a sign of panic that he has failed to break through into Democratic territory. But Mrs Clinton’s late decision to head to Michigan with Mr Obama on Monday and to add a midnight rally in North Carolina as election day begins has raised eyebrows.

The campaigns’ claims and counterclaims resound far beyond the US.

US allies are fearful that a candidate who has threatened to review American treaty alliances is within striking distance of the White House.

Global markets fear an inexperienced demagogue with a protectionist bent could plunge the US or even the world economy back into recession.

As the race comes down to the wire, Mrs Clinton has tried to pierce through the pessimism with an upbeat message, bringing in heavyweight support from Mr Obama and megastars like Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z.

“We are seeing tremendous momentum, large numbers of people turning out, breaking records in a lot of places,” Mrs Clinton declared at rally in Florida, in reference to the early and mail voting permitted in several US states.

“Let’s vote for the future!” she added urging those who had already cast their ballots to help get their friends to the polls.

Polling and anecdotal evidence suggests that Mrs Clinton supporters, in particular previously under-represented Latino voters, have come out strongly in Nevada and Florida.

In Nevada, which has the fastest-growing Latino population in the West, Democrats appeared to have built a fearsome advantage in Las Vegas’s Clark County at the end of early voting Friday, largely because of a surge of votes from Mexican-Americans.

In Florida, at least 200,000 more Hispanics had voted early as of Friday than did during the entire early voting period four years ago, according to an analysis by Mr Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist who helped run Mr Obama’s two campaigns here.

“It’s the demographics that are bailing her out,” Mr Schale said.

But Mr Trump gets big and enthusiastic crowds at his rallies. “And you know what? I don’t need Beyonce and I don’t need Jay-Z,” he boasts. AGENCIES