Trump vows to visit town at heart of migrant row

NEW YORK

Donald Trump railed against illegal immigrants on Sept. 18 and pledged to visit an Ohio town simmering with racial tensions fueled by his campaign's conspiracy theories, as Kamala Harris courted minority voters and relished a poll bump in key swing states.

The Republican ex-president, whose hardline anti-immigrant rhetoric has become a centerpiece of his election campaign, told a boisterous rally on New York's Long Island that he would visit Springfield "in the next two weeks."

Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance have repeatedly falsely claimed that immigrants from Haiti were eating residents' pets in the Ohio town, where schools and government buildings have faced bomb threats after their comments.

In fierce remarks on Sept. 18, Trump described illegal immigrants as "animals" and gang members who were destroying Americans' way of life.

"We're going to take those violent people and we're going to ship them back to their country, and if they come back in, they're going to pay a hell of a price," he warned.

With the candidates effectively tied in the polls less than seven weeks before Election Day, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its key lending rate by half a percentage point, the first reduction since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The move, which sharply lowers borrowing costs for Americans, was well-received by Vice President Harris, who has looked to highlight her and President Joe Biden's economic record in her race against Trump.

But in a potential setback for the Harris camp ahead of the Nov. 5 election, the influential Teamsters union announced it would not endorse a presidential candidate in 2024.

The group had endorsed Democrats in every presidential election since 2000.