“These are fellow citizens he’s talking about," Obama said in Philadelphia.
As we head into the final full week of campaigning before Election Day, the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll shows Kamala Harris with a slight 51-47% lead over Donald Trump among likely voters nationally -- but the polls in the battleground states remain essentially deadlocked within the margin of error.
Fallout continues over racist comments made at Trump's big rally on Sunday at Madison Square Garden and Harris is preparing for her "closing argument" Tuesday night on the Ellipse near the Capitol and White House in Washington.
More than 47.5 million Americans have voted early as of just after 9 p.m. ET Monday, according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida.
Of the total number of early votes, 24,243,105 were cast in person and 23,384,971 were returned by mail.
President Joe Biden is at a polling place in New Castle, Delaware, to vote early in the 2024 election.
According to reporters traveling with the president, there was a line of more than 100 people when he arrived. Biden walked toward the back of the line and was seen greeting and speaking with voters.
Harris criticized Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden, saying the former president is "fixated on his grievances, on himself and on dividing our country."
"It is absolutely something that is intended to and is fanning the fuel of trying to divide our country. And as I’ve said many times, I'll say tomorrow night in my speech, there's a big difference between he and I," Harris told reporters as she departed Joint Base Andrews for a day of campaigning in Michigan.
Asked to respond to the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's comments about Puerto Rico at the rally, which the Trump campaign has tried to distance itself from, Harris pointed to her support for Puerto Rico as a senator and her "opportunity economy" proposal.
"I'm very proud to have the support of folks like Bad Bunny and Jennifer Lopez and others who were supporting me before that nonsense last night at Madison Square Garden, and are supporting me because they understand that they want a president of the United States that’s about uplifting the people and not berating, not calling America a garbage can, which is what Donald Trump, those are the words he has used."
Virginia has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift an injunction against enforcement of an executive order that would result in the removal of 1,600 alleged noncitizens from the voter rolls just one week before Election Day.
The lower court said Virginia's action violates the National Voting Rights Act's "quiet period" clause, which bars states from systemically removing voters 90 days before an election.
The state argues that the court violated the "Purcell" principle of interfering with a state electoral process too close to an election.
The injunction will "irreparably injure Virginia’s sovereignty, confuse her voters, overload her election machinery and administrators, and likely lead noncitizens to think they are permitted to vote, a criminal offence that will cancel the franchise of eligible voters," the state writes.
The court has asked for a response from the Justice Department and voter groups by 3 p.m. Tuesday.
-ABC News' Devin Dwyer
Police are investigating arson at a ballot box in Portland, Oregon, where officers responded to reports of a fire overnight.
Security personnel extinguished the ballot box fire, located outside the Multnomah County elections office, and a Portland explosives unit removed the incendiary device from the box.
ABC affiliate KATU reported Monday another ballot box incident in Washington state, where police were responding to smoke coming out of a ballot box in Vancouver. The Clark County auditor told KATU that hundreds of ballots were inside the box at the time.
Read more here.
