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Donald Trump set out his campaign closing message to voters in New York's Madison Square Garden
The former president has distanced himself from a comedian who spoke at the rally and referred to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage"
Kamala Harris's campaign says language used at the rally was "divisive and demeaning"
Elsewhere, Vice-President Kamala Harris campaigned in Pennsylvania, one of the biggest targets for both campaigns
She used a speech to appeal for support from younger voters who are "rightly impatient for change"
The polls: Trump and Harris remain neck-and-neck
Donald Trump is now taking the stage at his rally at the iconic Madison Square Garden.
His speech will cap a star-studded lineup that spoke to the packed crowd.
You can watch his remarks by clicking "watch live" at the top of your screen or clicking here.
Image source, Getty ImagesRep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Florida Republican, is condemning comments we heard earlier from a comedian who spoke at Trump's rally in New York.
On X, she called out comedian Kill Tony, saying she was "disgusted" by his "racist comment," when he called Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage" during a speech at Madison Square Garden.
She says the remark does not "reflect the GOP values" and noted the thousands of Puerto Ricans who served in the military. "Educate yourself," she ended the post by saying.
Just last week, Salazar was at a Latino roundtable hosted by Trump.
Making America a better place to live, bringing back the core values of the nation and uniting the community - find out why these Republicans are supporting Trump in the clip below.
What does MAGA mean to these Republicans?
Phil McCausland
Reporting from Madison Square Garden
Image source, Getty ImagesDonald Trump may not have stars like Oprah, Beyonce or Bruce Springsteen backing him, but in this crowd at Madison Square Garden is excited for the celebrity presence that he has drawn.
The surrogates taking the stage ahead of the former president have their own place in American culture, and their own ability to create the buzz that politicians seek.
People here roared when the announcer introduced political commentator Tucker Carlson, professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, talk show host Phil McGraw and former presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr.
It's clear that Trump has pulled out all the stops for this event at one of New York City’s most celebrated venues.
As Carlson put it before breaking into fits of laughter: “Just another day following Bobby Kennedy Jr at a Trump Rally at Madison Square Garden. Just a normal day.”
Image source, Getty ImagesHarris - pictured in Philadelphia earlier today - released her plans for Puerto Rico at a restaurant in the Pennsylvania city
While campaigning in Philadelphia today, Kamala Harris made a stop at a Puerto Rican restaurant where she released a new policy plan for the US territory.
She told diners at the restaurant that, if elected, she would unveil a "Puerto Rico opportunity economy task force", which would work with the private sector, non-profits and community leaders to foster economic growth.
This will "create thousands of new, good-paying jobs in Puerto Rico, including for our young people", she said.
That policy plan, released via video by the Harris campaign earlier today, has now caught the attention of one of the biggest recording artists in the world: Bad Bunny.
The Puerto Rican artist has shared the video - where Harris accuses Trump of not doing enough for the US territory while he was president - to his more than 45 million Instagram followers.
Janet, 62, is an enthusiastic Trump supporter who tells me how she migrated to New York from Jamaica - and she stresses that she did so legally.
She made a point to emphasise this because immigration is a key issue for her, which is why she’s backed the former president’s political efforts since 2015.
She says she’s so diehard that she believes that the 2020 US election was stolen from Trump - a falsehood shared by the former president and many of his allies.
“It's called the Trump train, and I've been on it as a loyal supporter. They stole the election in 2020 - didn’t derail me. I was still on it, because I know his [Trump’s] strength is his leadership, and he doesn't believe in failing.”
Phil McCausland
Reporting from Madison Square Garden
Image source, Getty ImagesUS comedian Tony Hinchcliffe speaks during a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump
The speakers so far have adopted a range of tones and shared several different ideas and anecdotes. Some, however, have crossed into much darker territory.
Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian who lost his agent in 2021 for making a racial slur, was one of Trump’s invited speakers. He made several offensive jokes that leaned on racist stereotypes about black and Latino voters.
Speakers have called Kamala Harris “the anti-Christ”, described immigrants as “thugs”, and made claims that Democrats are lying about, stealing from and slandering Trump supporters.
The rhetoric describes a deeply troubled nation, one where Americans feel “beaten down”. Trump, they argue, is the one who can save them.
Phil McCausland
Reporting from the Madison Square Garden
Meanwhile, back at Madison Square Garden in New York City, I've just caught up with Sharon and Kelly.
The two tell me they support Donald Trump because they “love America” and worry about issues like immigration, public safety and the economy.
“Under Trump, we could afford everything. Now I feel like everything is out of reach,” Kelly says. "For me, personally, I make more money now, but have less money to spend.”
With that in mind, the pair woke up with a mission this morning: to attend their first Trump rally.
The women met up and got here at 10:00 local time (14:00 GMT) from their homes in New Jersey, but they were certain they would not be able to get in when they caught sight of the crowd.
“We were nervous wrecks about getting in,” Sharon says. “But we were outside, arm-in-arm, with other people - all walks of life - singing and chanting. Trump’s bringing people together in New York City, and where better? It’s the biggest melting pot there is.”
Luckily, a Trump volunteer saw the two friends and offered them an upgrade: a seat right behind the former president.
Image source, ReutersContinuing in her remarks to a Philadelphia crowd, Kamala Harris dedicates a portion of her address to young people and first-time voters.
"Here's the thing I love about you, you are rightly impatient for change," Harris says of Generation Z voters.
She says young people only know an America with active shooter drills, the climate crisis and who are "growing up with fewer rights than your mothers and grandmothers".
"This is not about some debate, this is about your lived experience," Harris says.
Back over in Pennsylvania, Kamala Harris has been making several small stops in Philadelphia to meet with voters in the key swing state.
She's now speaking to a rally-sized crowd in the Democratic stronghold.
"We've got nine days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime," she says. "We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we like hard work."
"Make no mistake we will win," Harris says to thunderous applause.
"We will win because when you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for."
Image source, Getty ImagesEarlier, Vice President Kamala Harris met with youth basketball players in Philadelphia
Over the last few hours, we've been covering the latest events in the lead up to the US election.
If you're in need of a reminder, or you're just tuning in now - here's what's been happening today:
The events are far from slowing down with rallies scheduled this evening for both candidates. As always, stick with us for the latest lines, key moments and further analysis.
Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/ShutterstockOur colleague described a 'sea of red MAGA hats' ahead of Trump's rally this evening
Image source, ReutersTrump and Harris aren't the only ones campaigning in this final stretch before election day
Image source, ReutersOne of Harris's pitstops was at a barbershop in Philadelphia
Image source, ReutersIt wouldn't be a rally without a cowboy hat, as this Trump supporter shows at Madison Square Garden on Sunday
Gary O'Donoghue
Reporting from Madison Square Garden
In the October sunshine, the queue snakes down the street and around the corner as thousands stand in line for one of Donald trump's final rallies before the election.
Despite being one of the most famous arenas in the world (so says the signage all over Madison Square Garden), it's a curious place to be at the beginning of the last full week of campaigning, as New York is a solid blue state in the presidential race and will not be decisive in the race for the White House.
But for Janice Lynch, today's location makes perfect sense.
"You know, this is his hometown. He's born and raised here, and this is the biggest arena in the world, and he wanted to have it here," Lynch says from outside the stadium.
The choice of venue is also not without controversy. As well as playing host to rock concerts and basketball games, The Garden, as New Yorkers call it, was also the scene for an infamous pro-Nazi rally just months before the outbreak of the Second World War.
That has led opponents such as Hillary Clinton to accuse Trump of trying to "re-enact" that moment.
For his part, Trump is going full negative in these final days - focusing hard on his anti-immigrant rhetoric and targeting male voters (especially young ones) in particular where - as we just mentioned - he enjoys an advantage over Harris.
Image source, ReutersVoters, reporters and the candidates alike are being inundated with polling data in the lead up to election day. And that's true again today.
In recent polling data released from the BBC's US partner CBS News, it shows that nationally Harris leads Trump by one percentage point - 50% to 49%.
In the battleground states, the opponents are tied with 50% support each.
But there's a bigger gender gap between the candidates, the CBS News polling data found.
Women support Harris, 55% to Trump's 43%, while men support Trump 54% to Harris's 45%.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe Harris-Walz campaign has released their schedule for the coming days, and it's going to be a busy one across all seven swing states.
Ottilie Mitchell
Reporting from Madison Square Garden
Here inside Madison Square Garden, the crowds are still slowly trickling in.
Pretzels, Pepsis and chants of "USA" suggest a sports game atmosphere, rather than a political campaign event.
Red, white and blue light washes the 19,500 seats, where a brief argument broke out in the first few rows of the stalls.
Trump’s infamously eclectic rally music rings out through the arena: the electric guitar of Led Zepplin followed by country artist Morgan Wallen’s Whisky Glasses and then Walking on Sunshine.
Two separate calls of ‘fake news’ have been made by rally attendees, directed at the press pen.
The presidential and vice-presidential contenders are dispersed in the US today as we head into the final stretch before election day.
In Henderson, Nevada, vice-presidential hopeful Tim Walz has been speaking with supporters, referencing Donald Trump's rally in Madison Square Garden later today.
He seems to be comparing Trump's rally this afternoon to another event years ago at the iconic venue.
"There's a direct parallel to a big rally that happened in the mid-1930s at Madison Square Garden," Walz says. "And don't think that he doesn't know for one second exactly what they're doing there."
He seems to be referring to the German American Bund Rally in February 1939 when Nazi leader Fritz Julius Kuhn spoke to 20,000 people in the arena. The Bund organization, which gathered support in the US for Adolf Hitler’s regime, had organized a "pro-Americanism rally".
Earlier this week, when Kamala Harris compared Trump to a fascist, he posted on X and Truth Social that her comments were a sign that she was losing. He said she was "increasingly raising her rhetoric, going so far as to call me Adolf Hitler, and anything else that comes to her warped mind".
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Trump Thursday in an interview with CNN of "reenacting" the 1939 rally, saying it "took place roughly six and a half months before the Third Reich invaded Poland."
The Trump campaign hit back saying Clinton also has attended events at the venue. "Putting aside her hypocrisy, Hillary’s rhetoric about half of the country is disgusting," said Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.
Rowan Bridge
North America correspondent, Washington DC
There wasn’t much subtlety in the message vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz tried to get out at his campaign stop in Nevada this lunchtime.
On the podium in front of him was a banner reading, ‘FIGHTING FOR REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM’, with the last two words in even bigger script.
Behind him, placards read ‘vote’ and NEVADA VOTES EARLY. (Again in all capitals).
It’s the same theme his running mate hammered home in a CBS interview that aired this morning - what they say would be the negative impact of a vote for Donald Trump on women.
Walz made a name for himself in part for labelling the Republican ticket "weird", but today he was even blunter, accusing Trump of having “descended into madness over the last few weeks”.
The latest national poll shows Kamala Harris with a one percent lead nationally, and tied in key battleground states which will decide the result.
Walz himself acknowledged this is going to be down to the wire.
“This thing's going to be close. It's going to come down to a few votes per precinct in about a handful of states,” he told the crowd in Nevada, one of a handful of states which will decide the result.
They’re clearly hoping a focus on women, where polling suggests Harris has a significant advantage, will help tip it in their favour.
Image source, Getty ImagesOne of the popular Trump surrogates who will be notably absent from tonight's rally at Madison Square Garden is his one-time adviser, Steve Bannon.
Bannon is currently finishing his four-month sentence in jail for contempt of Congress but is scheduled to be released on Tuesday - just one week before election day.
The former Trump adviser has historically been an effective energiser for Trump's base and if he re-joins that effort in the final days of the campaign, he could prove to be helpful in getting his supporters to the ballot box.
Before he was sent to jail, Bannon relayed a consistent message of loyalty to Trump and hostility towards Democratic figures.
"I’m a political prisoner of Nancy Pelosi, I’m a political prisoner of Merrick Garland; I’m a political prisoner of Joe Biden and the corrupt Biden establishment," he said before going to jail.
It would not be surprising if his rhetoric upon being released mirrored those previous messages.
Phil McCausland
Reporting from New York
Image source, EPAI’m in Manhattan at the moment, where enthusiasm for Donald Trump has reached a fever pitch ahead of the former president’s rally at Madison Square Garden.
This arena, near the heart of the city, is a massive venue. It is the home of the New York Knicks NBA basketball team, the New York Rangers hockey team and one of the premier spots to see the world’s biggest acts.
Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, Vampire Weekend, and Sabrina Carpenter have all played the garden in the past month.
But Trump has brought his own Maga celebrities to entertain his audience.
The campaign has said that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson will take the stage this evening.
Trump has also brought former presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy Jr, House Speaker Mike Johnson, former lawyer and mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani and members of his own family - Lara, Eric and Donald Jr - for a Maga night to remember.