DETROIT: As the US presidential elections close in, Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris took a jibe at Republican candidate Donald Trump, targeting the former president's age and questioning his fitness amid speculations of exhaustion suffered by the billionaire.
"If you are exhausted on the campaign trail, it raises real questions about whether you are fit for the toughest job in the world," said Harris during a day of multiple stops across the swing state of Michigan.
The vice president's remarks come as although Trump, 78, has cancelled interviews with various media outlets including NBC, CNBC and CBS.
The former president has also refused a second debate with Harris, after being soundly bested in the first.
Trump has hardly been idle, pursuing a busy schedule of appearances with new and traditional media, but most have been on outlets where he is rarely challenged.
Trump reacted angrily to Harris's jab, telling reporters that he had cancelled nothing and calling his Democratic opponent a "loser" who "doesn't have the energy of a rabbit."
The ex-president also pushed hard at a town hall in Auburn Hills, a suburb of automaking hub Detroit, on his pledge to impose across-the-board levies on US imports.
"You have a lot of words that are damn nice like love. But I think it´s more beautiful than love. The word tariff," said Trump.
But Harris, speaking in Oakland County, warned voters: "[Donald] Trump is making the same empty promises to the people of Michigan that he did before, hoping you will forget how he let you down the last time."
The vice president has a narrow lead in national polling averages, while numerous October surveys in Michigan show them neck and neck.
The Republican candidate has surprised analysts with a programme that mixes swing state stops with appearances in regions he has no chance of winning, but where he is guaranteed big crowds.
He was in the liberal stronghold of New York for a Catholic charity dinner on Thursday, where he mocked Harris in an occasionally mean-spirited speech that earned gasps for its off-colour remarks and profanity.
But he was back on home turf Friday morning for a soft Fox News interview, before heading to Michigan for counter-programming against Harris.
Both candidates are spending their final campaign days in pivotal battleground states where early voting is already underway.
With less than three weeks to go, Harris has seen encouraging signs in her push for supporters to vote as soon as possible, as a bulwark against the traditional Republican edge among election day voters.
Almost 12 million votes had been cast by Friday evening — around a third of them in the seven swing states expected to decide the election — according to data tracked by the University of Florida Election Lab.
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