Donald Trump has argued he will do more to help women from the White House than Democratic rival Hillary Clinton – while taunting his opponent over her husband’s infidelities.
The Republican US presidential nominee told supporters at a rally Saturday in Roanoke, Virginia, that Mrs Clinton has not delivered for women and children.
“My opponent likes to say that for decades she’s been fighting for women, that she’s been fighting for children,” he said.
“Why, then, are 70 million American women and children living in poverty or on the brink of poverty in our country? For years she’s been doing this, and she’s done nothing.”
The appeal came hours after Mr Trump threatened on Twitter to invite a woman who had an affair with Mrs Clinton’s husband, former president Bill Clinton, to sit in the first row at their first debate.
This came after the Clinton campaign had invited Mark Cuban, a fellow billionaire and a rival of Mr Trump, to the event.
The Republican candidate wrote: “If dopey Mark Cuban of failed Benefactor fame wants to sit in the front row, perhaps I will put Gennifer Flowers right alongside of him!”
Trump campaign officials did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday, and it remained unclear whether Ms Flowers would actually attend.
While Mr Trump campaigned in the battleground state of Virginia, Mrs Clinton stayed closer to home in New York while preparing for Monday night’s crucial opening debate.
She was spotted at a Westchester hotel near her home in Chappaqua, but her campaign would not comment on whether she was holding practice sessions at the hotel.
Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump are expected to meet separately with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has sought to project neutrality in this year’s election.
There were perceptions that he had favoured Mitt Romney over Barack Obama in 2012.
Earlier on Saturday, one of Mrs Clinton’s supporters, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, accused Mr Trump and his fellow Republicans of “making hate OK”.
She told Clinton campaign volunteers in Nashua, New Hampshire, that she would never have predicted that a major presidential candidate would base a campaign on scapegoating Mexicans, women and Muslims.
Ms Warren was particularly critical of Texas senator Ted Cruz, who denounced Donald Trump in the primary campaign but announced on Friday that he strongly opposed Mrs Clinton and would vote for his former rival.
“Is that really what your word is worth, Ted Cruz?” she asked.
In Texas, Mr Cruz described his decision to announce that he would vote for Mr Trump as “agonising”, but denied that he had given in to pressure to support his rival for the Republican nomination.
His announcement, from which the word “endorsement” was conspicuously absent, drew criticism because of his long-standing antipathy for the man he had called a “pathological liar”.
Mr Cruz said in Austin, Texas: “Any path we took, if I supported Donald, if I didn’t support Donald, the criticism was going to be there.”
He had refused to endorse Mr Trump at the Republican National Convention and instead urged Republicans to vote according to their conscience.
Mr Trump’s running mate, Indiana governor Mike Pence, assured home-schooling advocates in North Carolina that Mr Trump would be their champion if elected.
Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, Mrs Clinton’s running mate, praised Native American culture and highlighted his efforts to win federal recognition of the state’s tribes while visiting the Chickahominy Tribe Fall Festival near his home in Richmond.
