Harris attacks 'biggest loser' Trump on tariff plans, manufacturing

US Vice-President Kamala Harris blasted Donald Trump as the "biggest loser" on the economy and a friend of billionaires, as the election rivals laid out competing plans on the top issue for many US voters.

- 

In a speech on the economy and then again in her first major solo interview on Sept 25, the Democrat warned that Trump's plans to bring back huge tariffs on foreign imports would hurt middle-class Americans in their wallets.

Trump, for his part, doubled down on his protectionist vision but spent as much time on threatening to blow Iran to "smithereens" after US intelligence warned of threats from Tehran against the Republican's life.

Ms Harris and the former president are neck and neck in the polls and are both reaching out to undecided voters on key issues like the economy, with less than six weeks until election day.

Ms Harris vowed to "chart a new way forward" in a speech in Pittsburgh, an industrial city in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, with her rhetoric focusing on lowering prices for Americans.

"For Donald Trump, our economy works best if it works for those who own the big skyscrapers. Not those who actually build them. Not those who wire them. Not those who mop the floors," she said.