"Nine days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime, and we know this is going to be a tight race until the very end," the vice-president told supporters in Philadelphia last weekend. "And make no mistake: we will win."
Just a day earlier at a rally in State College, Donald Trump declared: "We're going to pull this off. It'll be the greatest victory in the history of our country for all of us - not for me, for all of us."
The contradictory comments reflect a neck-and-neck race in Pennsylvania that is hurtling toward the finish line with no clear frontrunner. The victor of Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes, the most of any battleground state, will probably win the electoral college and determine the trajectory of the country.
Joe Biden won Pennsylvania by just 1.2 points in 2020, four years after Trump carried the state by 0.7 points. According to the Guardian's polling tracker, Harris currently holds a lead of less than 1 point over the former president.
Conversations with voters in Pennsylvania underscore how close the election is, often to the bafflement of both Democrats and Republicans. And the outcome could perhaps shift with an unexpected turn of events, such as Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden in New York last weekend. It was there that a comedian took the stage and insulted Puerto Rico, calling it an "island of garbage".
As pundits were quick to note, Pennsylvania is home to more than 470,000 Puerto Ricans.
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