Trump sharpens anti-migrant attacks as both candidates visit key states

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, California

Donald Trump doubled down Friday on his anti-migrant attacks despite facing criticism for amplifying a conspiracy theory targeting Haitian immigrants, as he and election rival Kamala Harris took their presidential campaigns to swing states on opposite sides of the United States.

Trump, 78, promised "large deportations" from the Ohio town at the center of the racially charged row, as the Republican former president prepared to head to a rally in the western battleground of Nevada.

Democratic Vice President Harris, 59, meanwhile hit the stump in Pennsylvania — arguably the most crucial of the half dozen states that are set to decide a desperately close election on Nov. 5.

Coming off a strong performance in Tuesday's televised debate against Trump, Harris gave her first solo sit-down interview since her nomination to an ABC television affiliate in Philadelphia, the state's largest city.

"I offer a new generation of leadership," Harris said in the interview, as she spelled out her policies on tax cuts and credits for new parents, homeowners and businesses.

Harris also appealed to moderate American voters, telling them she herself is a gun-owner who wants to preserve the right to bear arms while maintaining common-sense gun safety laws.

Later at a raucous rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, she again pushed her economic plans and bashed Trump on his debate performance.

 'Large deportations' 

Polls show a near dead heat with only seven weeks until election day, in an incredibly dramatic campaign that has seen Harris suddenly replace the aging Joe Biden and Trump survive an assassination attempt.

Stung by widespread agreement that Harris won Tuesday's debate, Trump is stepping up the harsh anti-immigration rhetoric that appeals to his right-wing base.

A day after telling a rally that "young American girls (are) being raped and sodomized and murdered by savage criminal aliens," the billionaire on Friday returned his attention to the small Ohio town of Springfield.

Springfield has gained international attention following a viral conspiracy theory — quickly debunked by local authorities but pushed by Trump during the debate — that Haitian immigrants had stolen and eaten residents' cats and dogs.

Amid growing tensions in Springfield, where some 20,000 Haitians have settled in recent years, authorities evacuated schools for a second day over unspecified threats.

Trump claimed Friday that immigrants in Springfield were "destroying their way of life," and pledged to do "large deportations."

"We're going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country," Trump said from his golf club near Los Angeles.

Biden called Friday for Trump to stop inflaming tensions, saying "there's no place in America for this."

Trump's campaign said his rally in Nevada later was due to focus on voters' economic worries, including inflation — although many of his recent rallies have turned into grievance-filled diatribes.

  'Lesser of two evils' 

There was also mounting controversy over the presence of far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer in Trump's entourage.

She traveled with him to the debate Tuesday and also accompanied him to Ground Zero on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks — despite having claimed that the deadliest terrorist attack in US history was an "inside job."

"I don't control Laura, Laura says what she wants," Trump told reporters in Los Angeles, claiming he had never heard she had spread 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Loomer has drawn fire from even hard-right Republicans over her comment that Harris, whose mother was Indian, would make the White House "smell like curry."

Harris's team meanwhile is keen to build on campaign momentum, announcing she will participate in a live-stream rally event with television icon Oprah Winfrey on Sept. 19.

One key issue where Harris landed punches during the debate was abortion, with November being the first presidential election since the US Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to the procedure.

Pope Francis weighed into the issue on Friday — equating Harris's support of abortion to Trump's "sin" of turning away migrants.

"One has to choose the lesser of two evils," Francis told reporters.