Harris, Trump accuse each other of fomenting division

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris accused each other of deepening the discord of a deeply polarised nation as the US presidential campaign entered its final week on Wednesday.

The Republican former president donned an orange reflective safety vest and climbed into the passenger seat of a garbage truck in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to call attention to a Tuesday comment by Democratic President Joe Biden that he said revealed the disdain Democratic leaders feel towards Trump's supporters.

Taking questions as he sat in the truck on Wednesday, Trump said Biden "should be ashamed of himself" and that Harris was guilty by association. Trump supporters "are not garbage," the former president said.

Trump, however, distanced himself from the comedian at his Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday, Tony Hinchcliffe, who triggered this week's political firestorm by saying Puerto Rico is "a floating island of garbage."

"I don't know who he is...I know nothing about him," said Trump, adding, "I love Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico loves me."

Vice President Harris, meanwhile, urged voters in North Carolina to "turn the page" on Trump, who she said was focused on his own grievances, rather than Americans' needs.

"If he is elected, on Day One Donald Trump will walk into that office with an enemies list. When I am elected, I will walk in with a to-do list," she said.

Tensions are running high. Election workers in competitive states are bracing for violence, and authorities in Florida arrested a man for menacing voters with a machete.

Polarisation in America has fostered distrust. According to a March Reuters/Ipsos poll, some 38 percent of Republicans said they viewed the Democratic Party as an "imminent threat" to the US, while 41 percent of Democrats said that of Republicans.

Trump continues to falsely claim that his 2020 loss to Biden was the result of widespread fraud and has signaled that he will challenge a 2024 defeat if he deems it unfair, having filed along with supporters a wave of lawsuits this year objecting to various election rules around the country.

Much of the legal effort has focused on the risk of voting by noncitizens, though private and state reviews have repeatedly shown that the illegal practice is very rare. The campaign to focus on the issue won a victory on Wednesday when the US Supreme Court reinstated Virginia's decision to purge from its voter rolls 1,600 people who state officials concluded may not be citizens, a claim that Biden's administration disputed.