US President Barack Obama pressed Democrats black and white to vote in droves for Hillary Clinton, warning Donald Trump was a threat to hard-earned civil rights, the country and the world.
"The fate of the Republic rests on your shoulders. The fate of the world is teetering and you, North Carolina, are going to have to make sure that we push it in the right direction," he told voters in Chapel Hill.
"I am not on the ballot, but I tell you what. Fairness is on the ballot. Decency is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot. Progress is on the ballot. Our democracy is on the ballot."
The choice is pretty clear - Obama tells voters in North Carolina. Read more: https://t.co/mIyN2RoRlI pic.twitter.com/2cMGQvOrxJ
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 3, 2016
Earlier, Mr Obama defended the Democratic presidential candidate and criticised the FBI announcement of new emails linked to her private server, saying there was no room for innuendo in the investigative process.
In his first comment since the FBI reported a new cache of emails possibly related to Mrs Clinton, Mr Obama said in a radio interview he did not want to meddle in the process.
But his displeasure at how it unfolded was clear.
"I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations we don't operate on innuendo and we don't operate on incomplete information and we don't operate on leaks. We operate based on concrete decisions that are made," he told Now This News in the interview, which was taped yesterday and aired today.
The FBI said on Friday it had found new emails that might pertain to Mrs Clinton's use of a private server for government business while she was Obama's first secretary of state from 2009-13.
It comes as Mrs Clinton and Republican Donald Trump pushed their closing arguments ahead of the US presidential election on 8 November.
Speaking in Miami, Florida, today Mr Trump slammed Mrs Clinton calling her "unstable".
He spoke about what he called “the spread of political agendas into the Justice Department” saying “there's never been a thing like this that has happened in our country's history-is one of the saddest things that has happened to our country. But with your vote, you can beat the system, the rigged system”.
“The FBI reopening the investigation. They're reopening the investigation into crooked Hillary Clinton. Crooked Hillary. She is crooked.
“She is a crooked one. There's no question. Crooked Hillary Clinton. You know that term has really stuck.
"Everyone is calling her that. Has anyone seen crooked Hillary Clinton today? That's going to be a great term for a president right?"
"If Hilary Clinton were to be elected, it would create an unprecedented and protracted constitutional crisis”, he said.
"She's got bad judgement. Personally, I think she's a very unstable person, if you really want to know the truth".
Clinton takes aim at Trump supporters after being heckled
Meanwhile during a campaign rally held yesterday by Hillary Clinton in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the Democratic presidential nominee went on the attack after someone audience was heard heckling her.
"Bill Clinton is a rapist", someone yelled out as Clinton supporters at the rally shouted back.
"I am sick and tired of the negative, dark, divisive, dangerous vision and the anger of people who support Donald Trump. It is time for us to say no we are not going backwards we are going forward into a brighter future," Mrs Clinton said.
It is unclear if she was responding directly to the person in the audience but her response appeared to be off script and drew cheers and applause from her supporters at the rally.
While most national polls still favour Mrs Clinton to win, she has lost the comfortable lead she held late last month and investors are starting to factor in the possibility that the New York businessman might pull off a victory next week.
Financial markets rattled by opinion polls
Financial markets were rattled by opinion polls showing a tightening White House race.
World stocks, the dollar and oil fell today, while safe-haven assets such as gold and the Swiss franc rose as investors showed nerves over the tightening race.
Investor anxiety has deepened in recent sessions over a possible Trump victory given uncertainty about his stance on issues including foreign policy, trade relations and immigrants.
Mrs Clinton is viewed by markets as a candidate of the status quo.
Mr Trump, who has never previously run for elected office, has run an unorthodox campaign, with policy proposals including reviewing trade pacts such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and building a wall along the border with Mexico.
Currency traders have sold the dollar this week in part because they suspect Mr Trump would prefer a weaker dollar given his protectionist stance on international trade, and in part because the uncertainty surrounding a Trump win might lead to a more dovish stance from the Fed in the months ahead.
A Reuters equity market poll last month showed a majority of forecasters predicted that US stocks would perform better under a Clinton presidency than a Trump administration.
US stocks were also lower this afternoon after the Federal Reserve, in its last policy decision before the election, kept interest rates unchanged but signalled it could hike in December.
Mrs Clinton's narrowing lead over Mr Trump since early last week could include negative fallout from the re-emergence of the controversy over her use of a private email server, instead of a government one, when she was US secretary of state.
Clinton leads Trump by 6 points, same as before FBI announcement
Mrs Clinton led Mr Trump by 6 percentage points among likely voters, according to a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll released today, the same advantage the Democratic presidential nominee held before the FBI announcement that reignited the controversy about her email practices.
The opinion poll was conducted almost entirely after FBI Director James Comey notified Congress last Friday his agency would examine newly discovered emails that might pertain to Mrs Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
Mr Comey said he did not know whether the emails were significant and released no information other than that they existed.
His announcement drew outrage from Democrats who voiced concern it would unfairly influence voters so close to next week's election.
Mr Trump and other Republicans seized on the news to revive questions about Mrs Clinton's credibility.
Among 1,772 people who have either voted already or were identified as likely voters in the election, 45% said they supported Mrs Clinton, while 39% said they backed Mr Trump.
On Thursday, the day before Mr Comey's announcement, Mrs Clinton led Trump by 43% to 37%.
In a four-way poll that included alternative partycandidates, Clinton led Trump by 8 percentage points among likely voters. Forty-five per cent supported Mrs Clinton, while 37% backed Mr Trump. Five per cent supported Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and 2% backed Jill Stein of the Green Party.
Other national polls have shown Clinton's lead shrinking over the past week.
An average of polls compiled by the RealClearPolitics website showed Mrs Clinton just 1.7% ahead of Trump nationally today, with 47% support to his 45.3%.
Mrs Clinton's position is stronger than national polls imply given that the race is decided by the Electoral College system of tallying wins from the states.
Some 270 electoral votes are needed to win and Democrats have a built-in advantage, with large states such as California and New York traditionally voting Democratic.
Mrs Clinton looked likely to win at least 226 electoral votes, leaving her needing 44 votes to pick up from the 132 votes at stake in "toss-up" states such as Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Iowa, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada, according to estimates by RealClearPolitics.
Mr Trump, on the other hand, has a steeper path to climb, looking likely to win 180 electoral votes and so needing 90 of the 132 votes from the current battleground states, the website showed.
Both candidates are focusing their final campaign efforts on those crucial states.
Focus on battlegrounds
Mrs Clinton has been spending a lot of time in Florida, which yields a rich haul of 29 electoral votes.
In a tight race there, the RealClearPolitics average of polls from Florida put Mr Trump one point ahead of Mrs Clinton.
"No state is more important, and it's close," a Clinton aide told reporters yesterday. "It's a state that Trump has to win ... we don't believe he has any path without Florida."
Mrs Clinton's campaign says it has always expected a close race, and for polls to tighten further in its final days, independent of the announcement last Friday of a renewed FBI review of emails that might pertain to her use of a private email server.
Today and tomorrow, Mrs Clinton was set to campaign in Nevada, a swing state, and Arizona, a traditional Republican stronghold that the campaign believes Mrs Clinton can win this year.
Mr Trump, holding events in Florida today, told a rally in Miami he was winning in opinion polls in the state but urged the crowd to act as though he was behind.
"Don't believe it, don't believe it get out there and vote. Pretend we're slightly behind," Mr Trump said.
Mr Trump hit many of the same themes he has hammered all week, saying Mrs Clinton is dishonest and would be swamped by investigations if she won the White House.
His closing argument includes promises to roll back regulation, beef up immigration rules and root out wrongdoing in Washington by cracking down on lobbying.
Yesterday, he used the first day of the annual sign-up period for coverage under the Affordable Care Act to criticise President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, vowing that if elected he would ask politicians to start working on a plan to replace it even before the 20 January inauguration.
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