Obama urgently calls for more African Americans to vote

President Barack Obama in Morrisville, North Carolina, today. Photo / AP

US President Barack Obama expressed concern in a radio interview broadcast today that too few African-Americans are voting, as he urgently pressed black voters to turn out for Hillary Clinton to protect the policies he has implemented.

"I'm going to be honest with you right now, because we track - we've got early voting, we've got all kinds of metrics to see what's going on. And, right now the Latino vote is up, overall vote is up, but the African-American vote right now is not as solid as it needs to be," Obama said on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, a syndicated programme with many African-American listeners.

Obama framed the election as not only a race between Clinton and Donald Trump, but one in which his record is on the line.

"I need everybody to understand that everything we've done is dependent on being able to pass the baton to somebody who believes in the same things I believe in," said the President.

In an effort to shore up support among black voters, Clinton released a new radio ad entitled "Disrespect" that says Trump "openly mocks the African-American community". The ad will air in Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio and North Carolina, the Clinton campaign said.

With less than a week left until the election, Trump is holding three rallies today in Florida, a state seen as a must-win for him. Clinton, who focused on Florida yesterday, is campaigning in Nevada and Arizona.

The Clinton campaign announced that it is doubling its Arizona advertising investment to US$1 million for the final week of the campaign. A Democratic nominee for president has not won Arizona since Bill Clinton in 1996, but polls show a competitive contest there.

The deadly shootings of two police officers in central Iowa prompted two of Clinton's top surrogates to cancel a campaign event in the region. Bill Clinton and vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine will no longer hold a get out the vote event in Des Moines, Clinton's campaign announced.

The officers were shot in their squad cars in Des Moines and Urbandale. A suspect was taken into custody by the authorities.

Trump's children are fanning out across key battlegrounds to campaign on his behalf. Donald Trump jnr, Ivanka Trump, Tiffany Trump and Eric Trump will cover Colorado, North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

North Carolina early voting trends are strongly consistent with the polls https://t.co/KIIGJ6Wxqf

— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) November 2, 2016

Clinton and her allies yesterday intensified their attacks on Trump's character and temperament, as they sought to shift scrutiny away from news that the FBI had revived an investigation into her email practices at the State Department.

As part of that effort, Clinton made her most direct appeal yet for women to reject Trump's candidacy during a campaign stop in Dade City, Florida, where she recounted a litany of degrading remarks he made about women and referred to allegations of unwanted sexual advances against him.

Calling her Republican rival "someone who wants to bully us," the Democratic presidential nominee was introduced at the rally by Alicia Machado, the former Miss Universe whom Trump berated in the 1990s for gaining weight after she won the title. Machado - whom Trump again attacked after the first presidential debate - grew emotional while speaking about Trump's disparaging remarks and said she fought disorders in the subsequent years

As of today: 29,202,565 votes have been cast.
Nationally, more women have voted early so far than men (55 percent to 44 percent)

— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) November 2, 2016

Later, in Sanford, Florida, Clinton blasted the GOP nominee for failing to pay federal incomes taxes and again said he lacks the temperament to control the nation's nuclear arsenal.

Trump asserted during a rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, that Clinton's election during an FBI inquiry into her State Department emails would provoke an "unprecedented constitutional crisis". Trump said a Clinton presidency would bring Washington to an "unglorious halt" and called the email controversy the "biggest scandal since Watergate".

"She is likely to be under investigation for many years, probably concluding in a very large-scale criminal trial," Trump said.

The crowd at Trump's rally erupted into chants of "Lock her up!" at several points through the speech.

LATEST POLLS

Florida
CNN - Clinton 49, Trump 47
Quinnipiac - Clinton 46, Trump 45
TargetSmart - Clinton 48, Trump 40

North Carolina
Quinnipiac - Clinton 47, Trump 44

Ohio
Quinnipiac - Trump 46, Clinton 41

Pennsylvania
Quinnipiac - Clinton 48, Trump 43
Monmouth - Clinton 48, Trump 44
CNN - Clinton 48, Trump 44
Susquehanna - Clinton 45, Trump 43

Nevada
CNN - Trump 49, Clinton 43

Arizona
CNN - Trump 49, Clinton 44

Michigan
Mitchell - Clinton 50, Trump 43

Virginia
Winthrop - Clinton 44, Trump 39

Wisconsin
Marquette Law School - Clinton 46, Trump 40

Colorado
Emerson - Clinton 44, Trump 41