Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton blitzed five battleground states between them on Friday, with four days remaining until American voters will choose their next president.
Clinton began the day with a rally in Pennsylvania, a state where she holds a consistent lead over Trump, while the Republican nominee made a last-minute push in New Hampshire. Trump has surged in recent days in the Granite State, where he scored his first victory of the Republican primary contest earlier this year.
Clinton’s long-held lead in New Hampshire has collapsed in recent days. She was shown trailing Trump or tied with him in four new public polls taken in the wake of the letter from the FBI director, James Comey, informing Congress that it was possible new emails had been discovered related to the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server.
The news has helped ensure that a number of Republicans and libertarians previously skeptical about Trump have now rallied around the nominee. Former New Hampshire governor John Sununu predicted before Trump appeared there on Friday that the margin for the winning candidate could come down to 5,000 votes.
Clinton’s campaign announced that she would hold a rally in Manchester on Sunday, in a sign of the state’s renewed competitiveness in the final stretch. Barack Obama will campaign in the state on Clinton’s behalf the day before the election.
Although New Hampshire only provides four electoral votes, a win there would greatly aid Trump as he navigates a narrow path to victory.
Trump needs to win Ohio, Florida and North Carolina to keep close to Clinton in the electoral college. Then, he either needs to win Pennsylvania or a political grab bag that includes New Hampshire, as well as Nevada and the one electoral vote of Maine’s second congressional district.
Trump faced another bad news cycle on Friday, however, after two close aides of Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, a vocal Trump surrogate, were convicted in the so-called Bridgegate trial over the closure of several access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in 2013 for political reasons. Christie is leading Trump’s transition team and is scheduled to campaign for the Republican nominee on Saturday.
Clinton embarked on a packed itinerary on Friday, with plans to hit three key states in one day. The Democratic nominee held a rally in Pittsburgh, where thousands formed a line that snaked around the stadium of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the city’s football team.
She was introduced there by Mark Cuban, the influential businessman and investor who hails from Pittsburgh and has been a prominent backer of Clinton’s. Cuban has repeatedly taunted Trump while stumping for Clinton, and continued to take shots at the Republican nominee in his remarks on Friday.
“You cannot be president of the United States if you don’t know when to shut up,” Cuban said.
He then led a call and response with the crowd, posing questions of Trump that ranged from his trustworthiness to his wealth.
“Do you think he cares more about you or his bank account?” Cuban said.
“Bank account!” they shouted back.
Upon taking the stage to a raucous crowd, Clinton sought to contrast her economic agenda with that of Trump. Casting him as someone who neither possessed the leadership to steer the economy nor empathy for the working class, Clinton highlighted Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns as revealing of his character.
“Honestly, I don’t know how he lives with himself,” she said. “Doesn’t he see the millions of women and families struggling?”
She also struck familiar themes about her opponent stiffing his own workers while touting her plans to introduce 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, enact equal pay for women, raise the minimum wage and expand access to affordable childcare.
Clinton’s closing argument was not simply policy-driven, however, leaning heavily on Trump’s volatile persona and what that would mean for the country under his stewardship.
“Think about what it would mean to entrust the nuclear codes to someone with a very thin skin, who lashes out at anyone who challenges him,” Clinton said, prompting audience members to break into shouts of “No!”
“Imagine how easily it could be that Donald Trump would feel insulted and start a real war, not just a Twitter war, at 3 o’clock in the morning.”
From Pittsburgh, she was scheduled to move on to Detroit and Cleveland, the latter of which was billed as a get out the vote concert with rapper Jay Z. Aides aboard Clinton’s press plane played down rumors that Beyoncé would join her husband at the event, saying only there would be special guests.
Clinton was accompanied on Friday by a heavier staff presence, with at least eight top aides spotted boarding her plane. Before takeoff from her home of Westchester, New York, where Clinton typically stays overnight, she chatted toward the front of the plane with digital director Teddy Goff and policy director Maya Harris. Speechwriter Dan Schwerin was also on hand, as were campaign chairman John Podesta and Capricia Marshall, who served as the chief of protocol when Clinton led the state department.
Clinton’s campaign underscored the importance of early voting returns in a conference call with reporters on Friday afternoon.
They pointed in particular to turnout among Latino voters in the must-win state of Florida, stating it had risen 120% from 2012. Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, also noted a 90% increase in Asian American voters overall. Turnout among minorities disproportionately benefits Democrats, as such demographics have increasingly been marginalized by Republicans in recent election cycles.
In Pittsburgh, Clinton said the country was “on track right now to have the biggest turnout in American history”.
But she urged her supporters not to take anything for granted.
For those who knew someone considering voting for Trump, she warned, “Please stage an intervention.”
After his stop in New Hampshire, Trump was due to hit Wilmington, Ohio, and Hershey, Pennsylvania, later on Friday.
On Saturday both candidates will head south to Florida – the ultimate swing state that Trump at least must win if he wants the keys to the White House. Trump will hit North Carolina and Nevada, too, while Clinton will head back to Philadelphia for another star-studded concert – this time with Katy Perry in Philadelphia.
