`Don breathing down Clinton's neck'

WASHINGTON: While most of the US campaign battles were taking place in the cybersphere, polls showed the ground game was shifting towards Donald

Trump

following the Hillary Clinton flub over pneumonia, her absence from the campaign trail giving the Republican candidate a three-day run of coverage and the momentum.

A

NYTCBS

poll had Clinton just two points ahead (a virtual tie given the margin of error), and a Los Angeles Times survey put Trump six points ahead. Real Clear Politics' poll of polls showed Clinton between one and two points ahead, the narrowest lead she has held in the race in recent weeks. Polls also showed that Trump was pulling ahead in battleground states such as Florida and Ohio, and beating back the Clinton challenge in states such as Georgia and Arizona that are considered Republican strongholds.

The Trump surge came despite his ceaseless contretemps on the campaign trail. He was snubbed by a black church pastor during an appearance in a church in Flint, Michigan, where he meandered into a political attack on Clinton after promising to highlight the town's misery with contaminated water that has made national headlines.

“Mr Trump, I invited you here to thank us for what we've done for Flint, not to give a political speech,“ the female pastor politely told Trump after walking up to the lectern to interrupt his speech. “Oh, oh, OK, OK, OK. That's good,“ Trump replied. “Then I'm going to go back onto Flint, OK.“

Trump later suggested on a

Fox TV

interview that it was a set-up aimed at snubbing him and maintained the audience wanted to hear his speech. But videos of the incident and eyewitness account by reporters showed that he was heckled by the mostly-black audience.

Trump has been trying to overcome his lack of support among blacks (only around 1% support, according to some polls) who don't believe the

New York

billionaire really cares of for them.