NEW YORK – Uncertainty reigns as Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump enter the final full week of the 2024 campaign in a closely contested presidential contest. What happens in the coming days will be crucial in deciding the winner.

This is what we’re looking at this week:

Even before the week began, Trump’s election campaign was in danger of being derailed by controversy. A rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden late Sunday that was supposed to serve as a closing message was instead marred by racist insults, including a comedian calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”

And with eight days left until Election Day, history suggests that Trump is virtually guaranteed to say or do something controversial in the final stretch. The only question is whether the breakthrough will succeed.

If there’s one thing we know, it’s that Trump can’t do anything else. In recent days, he has used authoritarian rhetoric to suggest that his Democratic opponents, whom he calls “the enemy within,” are more dangerous to the nation than the threat from Russia and China.

Democrats will scour every Trump interview and public appearance for something similar to exploit. Additionally, there are several ongoing criminal investigations into Trump, who has already been convicted of 34 crimes, that could reveal new information.

Still, Democrats are the first to admit that voters’ opinions of Trump have become so hardened that it would take something truly amazing to change the course of the election.

However, there is a precedent for a stunning success last week. Remember, it was on October 28, 2016, when former FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress indicating that federal investigators had learned of new emails used to investigate the use of a Hillary Clinton’s private email server is relevant.

To say Democrats are so worried about Election Day would be an understatement. But over the weekend there were conscious attempts by Harris’ senior team to exude optimism in an attempt to curb fear.

Harris senior adviser Jen O’Malley Dillon predicted victory on MSNBC on Sunday: “We’re confident we’re going to win this thing,” she said. “We are seeing extraordinary enthusiasm. This will be a close race and our campaign is exactly what we want to achieve.”

Harris will try to further assuage Democrats’ fears on Tuesday when she delivers her “closing argument” at the Ellipse, the same location near the White House where Trump spoke on Jan. 6, 2021, shortly before his supporters stormed the Capitol attacked.

Harris is expected to focus her remarks on the danger Trump poses to US democracy. She has called her Republican rival “a fascist” in recent days. And she’s joined by an unlikely ally: Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly, who also recently called Trump a fascist.

But she is also expected to address broader issues, encouraging voters to look behind them at the White House and imagine who will be sitting at the Resolute Desk at a moment of great consequence. Their goal is to make it clear to undecided voters that the Nov. 5 election is at stake — especially moderate Republicans who may be uncomfortable with Trump’s divisive leadership and extreme rhetoric. And while Harris’ team is betting that there are still a significant number of moderates who can still be persuaded, progressive Democrats worry that she is not focusing enough on economic issues in the final days of the campaign.

We learned that democratic fears can be a fact of life.

Candidates’ changing travel plans will tell us a lot about the battlegrounds that will matter most on Election Day.

Here’s what we know for sure: Harris and Trump are competing aggressively in just seven swing states that will ultimately decide the election. In addition to Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina, these are the three so-called “Blue Wall” states – Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

However, from a political perspective, not all seven are equal.

Harris spent Sunday in Pennsylvania, which may be his biggest gain of the election. Harris is scheduled to travel to Michigan next. And after Tuesday’s closing arguments in Washington, she plans to visit North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on Wednesday alone. On Thursday she travels to Nevada and Arizona.

What do we know about Trump’s schedule? He is tasked with hosting at least one rally every day next week: Monday in Georgia, Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Wednesday in Wisconsin, Thursday in Nevada, Friday again in Wisconsin and Saturday in Virginia.

But as a reminder, these timelines are subject to change depending on the insights of the campaigns on the ground.

Nationwide, more than 41 million votes have already been cast in the election. Democrats generally have an advantage in early voting, but Republicans are, at least so far, participating significantly more than in the past.

The question: Will it last?

Of course, Trump has been encouraging his supporters for years to only vote in person on Election Day. The practice put the Republican Party at a significant disadvantage. In recent months he has largely reversed course as he and his party recognized the obvious advantage of collecting their votes as early as possible.

Because of Republican turnout, early voter turnout last week broke records in swing states like Georgia and North Carolina.

But with Republicans more focused on “election integrity” than traditional voter turnout, it’s unclear whether Republicans’ early voting surge will continue. Democrats hope that won’t be the case.

History may one day decide that the most important thing Trump said in the final days of the 2024 election was what many voters barely notice anymore: his continued warnings that this election was rigged against him.

As Election Day approaches, Trump is increasingly warning his supporters that he will only lose on November 5 if his political opponents cheat. Such statements have no factual basis. There was no evidence of significant voter fraud in the 2020 election, which Trump lost, and there is no evidence that Trump’s opponents can or will rig that election against him.

Still, Trump’s baseless warnings are making an already tense and violent election season even more tense. And there is a real risk that foreign adversaries – particularly Russia, China and Iran – will interfere in the election.

At the same time, the Republican National Committee has invested tens of millions of dollars in an operation to mobilize thousands of poll watchers, poll workers and lawyers to act as “election integrity” watchdogs. Democrats fear the effort could lead to harassment of poll workers and undermine confidence in voting.

Both parties are aggressively preparing for long legal battles, no matter who wins.

US presidential elections are rarely dominated by foreign policy matters, but wars in the Middle East are escalating just as millions of voters prepare to cast their ballots.

It is still unclear how Iran will respond to Israel’s unusually public airstrikes across Iran on Friday, but Israel did not target any oil or nuclear sites, a sign that a much more serious escalation may have been avoided. Another indication that this conflict may not be spiraling out of control was that the Islamic Republic insisted that the attacks had caused only “limited damage” and that news stories from Iranian state media downplayed the attacks.

Whether the region continues to move toward all-out regional war or remains at already devastating and destabilizing levels of violence could also determine the extent to which the Middle East conflict shapes the U.S. election.

The issue has been particularly difficult for Harris to navigate as she simultaneously vows to support Israel and expresses compassion for the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed by Israel’s response to the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. The Democratic vice president continues to face intense pressure from her party’s progressive base, which is highly critical of Israel.