Harris says US ready for woman president

WASHINGTON, United States — Kamala Harris said Tuesday that America is "absolutely" ready to elect its first woman president but downplayed her historic bid, saying she simply wants to turn the page for a nation "exhausted" by Donald Trump.

With two weeks to Election Day, Harris and Trump are saturating swing states with rallies and taking to the airwaves and podcasts on the hunt for an advantage in a race that polls suggest is effectively tied.

Speaking on the national NBC network, Harris responded "absolutely" when asked if America was ready to elect its first woman -- but also noted her candidacy was about "turning the page."

"People are exhausted with Donald Trump and his approach, because it's all about himself," she said.

Trump, speaking to supporters in North Carolina, pitched a very different message.

"This election is a choice between whether we will have four more years of incompetence, failure and disaster, or whether we'll begin the four greatest years in the history of our country," he said to cheers.

He repeatedly called Harris and her running mate Tim Walz stupid during the rally.

The race is overshadowed by extraordinary tensions and fears of violence or a refusal by Trump to recognize the results if he loses, as he continues to do over his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.

Harris told NBC that her campaign was "of course" ready for a scenario where Trump prematurely claims victory during a vote-counting process that could take days to complete.

Biden, who has been an infrequent presence in Harris's campaign, took a shot at Trump Tuesday by re-wording the ex-president's notorious anti-Hillary Clinton chant of "Lock her up".

On a visit to New Hampshire, Biden told a small crowd that "we got to lock" Trump up –- adding quickly, "politically lock him up."

With Trump facing multiple pending criminal charges as he competes against Harris to succeed Biden, the White House has been very careful not to weigh in on the Republican's legal problems.

The Trump campaign responded that Biden and Harris had a "plan all along... to politically persecute their opponent."

About 18 million Americans have already voted by mail or in person -- representing more than 10 percent