On Friday, US presidential candidates campaigned in the key Midwestern swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin to attract voters.

At rallies, Vice President Kamala Harris criticized former President Donald Trump for his comments earlier this week in which he suggested that former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, a staunch Trump critic, “should have guns pointed at her.” Trump had previously suggested that Cheney should face military tribunals.

Meanwhile, Trump insisted at his rallies that the “gun” comment was a valid criticism of Cheney’s hawkish foreign policy stance: If she promoted wars, she should have to fight in them.

What are the latest updates from the surveys?

Nationally, FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracker shows Harris ahead by 1.3 points, the same as last week, and about the same level she and Trump have been at in recent days – but by a much smaller margin ahead of the 2.8 percentage points it had exactly a month ago.

In critical swing states that could decide the outcome of the election, the competition is even tougher.

Key battleground states include Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada.

FiveThirtyEight’s daily poll tracker shows Harris’ lead in Michigan is about 1 point. However, she has lost her lead in Nevada, where Trump now leads by 0.4 points.

In Wisconsin, their lead has increased to 0.8 points from 0.6 on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania has shrunk from 0.7 points to 0.1 points. His lead in North Carolina remains and is now 1.3 points. Trump is also ahead in Arizona by 2.1 points and in Georgia by 1.5 points. However, all of these gaps are within the polls’ margin of error – so the two candidates are effectively in a dead heat in the swing states.

What was Kamala Harris up to on Friday?

Harris spent her day in Wisconsin with events in Janesville, Little Chute, Madison and Milwaukee. Singers GloRilla, Cardi B and Flo Milli performed at their events.

She criticized Trump for his verbal attack on Liz Cheney. Trump had attacked Cheney and suggested that the former lawmaker, who supported Harris in the race for the White House, should have guns pointed at her because of her political stances.

“She’s a radical war hawk,” Trump said Thursday at a campaign rally with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Arizona, also calling Cheney “a deranged person” and “a very stupid person.”

Harris described Cheney as “a true patriot” and said Trump’s increasing “violent rhetoric” should disqualify him from becoming president again.

“His list of enemies has grown longer. His rhetoric has become more extreme,” Harris told reporters after arriving in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday, one of her campaign stops. “And he is even less focused than before on the needs, concerns and challenges facing the American people.”

At her rallies, she also pledged to build an economy for ordinary people and listen to a wide range of voices, asking her supporters to encourage family and friends to vote.

CNN has reported that the Harris campaign has changed its message on Israel’s war in Gaza, highlighting different aspects of its position on Israel in separate ads aimed at undecided Jewish and Arab voters.

An ad in Michigan, where Arab voters have expressed anger over the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment of billions of dollars in military support to Israel’s war in Gaza, said Harris “doesn’t care” about the suffering of Palestinians be silent”.

Harris, however, rejected calls to end military aid to Israel despite the US ally’s string of violations of international law.

Another ad aimed at potential Jewish voters in Pennsylvania promises that Harris will “stand up for Israel’s right to self-defense” and “defend our armed forces and our interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists.”

This video ad cuts out a section of her speech in which Harris describes the suffering in Gaza as “heartbreaking.”

What was Donald Trump up to on Friday?

At his rally in Milwaukee, about 16 km (10 miles) from Harris’ rally, Trump was joined by Republican politicians and other supporters such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before taking the stage and giving a speech that was more than one lasted an hour.

He promised to “prevent World War III.” He called Harris a “low IQ person” and said he would “end inflation.”

He also stoked fears of illegal immigrants.

“We want people to come to our country, that’s what we do. But they must enter legally and through a system. You must love us. “You have to love our country,” Trump said.

And before he concluded his remarks, he made one final reference to his opponent during the rally: an uncooperative microphone.

“I don’t have to be here. But if I had the choice, I’d rather be here in Wisconsin with a broken fucking microphone. I’d rather be in Wisconsin than on a nice beach.”

Trump’s campaign also insisted that the “gun” comment was a valid criticism of Cheney’s hawkish foreign policy stance: If she promoted wars, she should have to fight in them.

In Milwaukee, Trump also repeated his false claims that he won the 2020 election — even though the results say otherwise.

“You know, in 2016 I really wanted to win Wisconsin. He said it couldn’t be done,” Trump said, pointing to former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who was sitting in the crowd.

“They are a very difficult state, but I won it. I won it despite your difficulties. I actually won it twice, but those are small things.”

Trump didn’t win Wisconsin twice. In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won a victory over Trump in the state.

Trump also held a brief private meeting with members of the Arab American community in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn before holding a rally in Warren, Michigan.

What’s next for the Harris and Trump campaigns?

Harris travels to Charlotte, North Carolina

On Saturday, Harris will travel to the swing state of North Carolina for a rally in Charlotte. Their rally is expected to be another star-studded event, with musicians Jon Bon Jovi and Khalid performing.

Democrats haven’t won a presidential race in North Carolina since 2008, and Harris is eager to turn the tide.

At a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday, she emphasized that Democrats are “actually fighting for a democracy.”

During the rally, one person could be heard trying to yell at Harris, but it is unclear what he said.

“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy,” she said, as the crowd’s chants drowned out the protester’s voice. “He wants to put them in prison, I’ll give them a seat at the table.

“I vow to be a president for all Americans and to always put country above party and myself,” she added.

Trump also visits Charlotte, North Carolina

Trump, who was in North Carolina on Wednesday, will also travel to Charlotte on Saturday.

In the 2020 presidential election campaign, Trump won his narrowest victory of all 50 states in North Carolina. With the upcoming vote on November 5th, polls again show Trump with a tiny lead over his Democratic rival.

Paul Shumaker, a Republican activist, laid it out for Al Jazeera in stark terms: Republican registration began to decline, while the number of “independent” voters gradually increased.

“Now there are no liberal Republicans and there are fewer moderate Republicans,” Shumaker said.

Political scientist Chris Cooper told Al Jazeera that North Carolina is “right on the knife edge between red and blue.”

But it’s a third category — voters who identify as neither red nor blue — that may ultimately determine who wins.