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Clinton, Trump Make Final Case To Voters 1 Day Before Election

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DONALD TRUMP: We are going to win the great state of North Carolina.

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HILLARY CLINTON: Hello, Pittsburgh.

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TRUMP: Florida's my second home, a state I love so much.

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CLINTON: It is great to be back in Western Michigan. Thank you.

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TRUMP: Thank you, Pennsylvania. Thank you.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan - Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton hit up as many battleground states as they could on this last day before the election. Trump's itinerary includes five different swing states today, and Clinton has four events capped off with a midnight rally in North Carolina.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Now we're going to check in with our reporters following the two campaigns. Let's start with NPR's Sarah McCammon, who is traveling with Trump. His campaign touched down in Raleigh, N.C., this afternoon. Hey, Sarah.

SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: Hello there.

SHAPIRO: So what's the feeling today around Donald Trump and his supporters?

MCCAMMON: Well, you know, his rallies tend to be very loud and high-energy events. But today it does feel like the volume is turned up even a bit more. It's been really clear today and for the last couple of days that this is almost over.

Trump is sounding a bit more reflective at times, trying to stay on message and insisting that he can win. He's calling on his supporters, though, to help him get there. Here he is in Sarasota, Fla., where he started the day.

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TRUMP: This is it. This is it. Good luck. Get out there. I did my thing. I mean, I worked.

MCCAMMON: And the crowd went wild when he said that. He has been working hard, keeping a busier schedule than usual with five events a day in states like Florida that are really crucial. He's also been talking about the significance of his unusual and unexpected campaign and really driving home the urgency of getting out to vote.

SHAPIRO: And what does his travel map look like in these final 24 hours beyond North Carolina where you are as we speak?

MCCAMMON: So he's in a lot of states you would expect, like North Carolina - a toss-up - Florida and New Hampshire as well - also Pennsylvania, where polls show Clinton with a slight lead. But Trump has always argued that he can win there with his appeal to communities that feel damaged by U.S. trade policy.

Trump will be ending tonight in Michigan with a big late-night rally. That's another state where he's making that trade argument. It looks like it's quite a reach, but it could be a necessary reach for him to win tomorrow.

SHAPIRO: And what is his closing message to voters?

MCCAMMON: Donald Trump has been reiterating and amplifying, really, some of the defining themes of his campaign. He's been especially stressing this idea we hear a lot of a rigged system, telling his supporters that this is their last chance to defy the system that he sees as rigged. He's accusing the media and political elites, as he puts it, of bleeding the country dry.

And he says this is the chance to change that. He says there won't be another chance like this and that by voting for him, his supporters can send a message to the establishment that they're demanding change. I should also mention that after heralding the news last month that the FBI was examining newly discovered emails possibly in connection with the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private server, Trump is back to criticizing the agency.

He is claiming without evidence that the system is protecting Clinton. So Trump's message to his supporters about this is that they can bring Clinton to justice by voting for him tomorrow.

SHAPIRO: NPR's Sarah McCammon joining us from the road with the Trump campaign. Thanks, Sarah.

MCCAMMON: Thank you.

CORNISH: NPR's Tamara Keith is traveling with the Clinton campaign, which has made its way to Philadelphia. Tamara's on the line now. Can you hear me?

TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Yes, I can. Can you hear me?

CORNISH: Yes, I can. I know Hillary Clinton has a pretty big rally planned there. What's the scene?

KEITH: Well, this is pretty remarkable. We're in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. And I'm standing up on a riser that gives you a view of the crowd. And I have not seen a crowd this big - well, this entire campaign, certainly. This is an incredibly huge crowd of people. The campaign says that already there are about 40,000 people here. Some of them haven't made it through the security lines yet.

But, I mean, I just see faces as far as I can see. Of course, this is Hillary Clinton but also Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, President Obama, Mrs. Obama, Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen. And it is the eve of what potentially could be a history making election.

CORNISH: We heard about Donald Trump's closing message and about him sounding somewhat reflective earlier. What has Hillary Clinton had to say in these final hours?

KEITH: Hillary Clinton seems to be campaigning more joyfully than I've seen in a long time. You know, this campaign has been a long, hard slog for her. But today she's really been having fun, stopping for extra selfies, stopping to shake hands. And her message is that she wants to bring America together.

Her message is, in some ways, looking beyond this election saying that there are people who feel like they've been left behind. Here's a little clip.

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CLINTON: For people in our country who feel like they've been knocked down and nobody cares, nobody's paying attention, here's what I want you to know. If you give me the honor of being your president, I'm going to do everything I can to get this country and everybody in it back up on our feet moving forward together.

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CORNISH: Now, Tamara, this is the campaign's second stop in Pennsylvania today. I know Hillary Clinton was also in Michigan earlier. Can you talk about the thinking behind those stops?

KEITH: Yeah, well, those two states are states that don't really have early voting. The campaign has put a lot of emphasis on getting people to the polls early. Those states, Election Day is game day. And so the idea is to generate as much excitement as possible right before people get out to vote. Tonight in North Carolina, she's having a rally at midnight.

Lady Gaga will be there along with Bon Jovi. And that's a state where they really hope to win but where they haven't met all the metrics they were hoping to. And so they're really just trying to generate that little bit of extra excitement that could get people out to the polls and excited about voting for her.

CORNISH: That's NPR's Tamara Keith traveling with the Clinton campaign. Tamara, thank you.

KEITH: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Tamara Keith has been a White House correspondent for NPR since 2014 and co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast, the top political news podcast in America. Keith has chronicled the Trump administration from day one, putting this unorthodox presidency in context for NPR listeners, from early morning tweets to executive orders and investigations. She covered the final two years of the Obama presidency, and during the 2016 presidential campaign she was assigned to cover Hillary Clinton. In 2018, Keith was elected to serve on the board of the White House Correspondents' Association.
Sarah McCammon
Sarah McCammon is a National Correspondent covering the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast for NPR. Her work focuses on political, social and cultural divides in America, including abortion and reproductive rights, and the intersections of politics and religion. She's also a frequent guest host for NPR news magazines, podcasts and special coverage.
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