Harris, Trump target swing states after fierce debate

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump headed back Thursday to battleground states set to decide the knife-edge US election, with the Democrat hoping to ride the momentum from her dominant display in their first presidential debate.

The vice president will hold back-to-back rallies in North Carolina while Trump is going to Arizona, two days after Harris forced the Republican former president onto the defensive in their first on-screen clash.

But it remains unclear whether Harris's punchy performance, seen by 67 million viewers across the United States, will move the dial in a race that is still neck-and-neck with less than two months to go.

The Harris campaign said the 59-year-old was entering a "more aggressive" phase of her White House bid and was "seeking to capitalize on her decisive debate victory and build on momentum."

It added that Harris would also engage more with the media -- she has only given one TV interview since President Joe Biden's dramatic decision to drop out of the race in July.

Harris's rallies in Charlotte and Greensboro, North Carolina, on Thursday will "double down on her message that the country should turn the page from Trump," the campaign added.

The ABC News debate in Philadelphia was a welcome boost for Harris as the initial sugar rush of enthusiasm that saw her wipe out Trump's lead in the polls had seemed to be leveling off.

- 'Serious threat' -

Trump is due onstage in Tucson, Arizona, amid media reports of turmoil in his camp over the way Harris succeeded in goading him into angry responses and challenging him on issues like abortion and foreign policy.

The 78-year-old will focus on "our struggling economy and the rising cost of housing," his campaign said -- indicating an attempt to get Trump to stick to mainstream voter concerns, rather than his penchant for wild conspiracy theories and lobbing of insults.

The rivals' choice of swing states for their first post-debate rallies reflects their need to win over key groups of voters.

Harris is aiming to fire up Black and young voters in North Carolina to back her bid to become America's first woman commander in chief, in a state where she has erased a six-point Trump lead over the last month.

Trump is meanwhile targeting Hispanic voters in Arizona -- where Biden won by a tiny margin of around 10,000 votes in the 2020 election -- as he seeks a sensational White House comeback.

The return to the swing states at the heart of the election came a day after a brief truce when Trump and Harris attended Wednesday's anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York.

The fallout from the debate continued on Thursday with Harris winning the endorsement of another Republican -- Alberto Gonzales, who was attorney general under President George W. Bush.

Gonzales wrote in Politico that Trump was "perhaps the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation", citing his encouragement of the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riots amid an unprecedented attempt to contest Biden's election win.

- 'Lipstick on this pig' -

Veteran Republican strategist Karl Rove meanwhile wrote in The Wall Street Journal of Trump's performance in the debate that there was "no putting lipstick on this pig".

"Mr Trump was crushed by a woman he previously dismissed as 'dumb as a rock.' Which raises the question: what does that make him?" he wrote.

The question in coming days is whether Harris will get a bump in the polls in a deeply polarized America.

"Ultimately this debate probably strengthened each candidate with their base voters," said Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University.

"But I give the edge to Harris in taking the opportunity to appeal to independent voters and also showcase Trump's vulnerabilities."

Both candidates will keep bashing the battlegrounds in coming days.

Harris returns to pivotal Pennsylvania on Friday for campaign events in Johnstown and Wilkes-Barre before attending an awards dinner Saturday with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Trump will deliver remarks in Las Vegas on Friday on the cost of living, as he targets Nevada, yet another key swing state.

Harris's running mate Tim Walz will travel to Michigan and Wisconsin from Thursday to Saturday as part of the campaign's New Way Forward swing state tour.

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