Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Well, for more, we can speak to journalist Richard Verly.
00:03He works for the Swiss daily Blick.
00:04He joins us from West Palm Beach, Florida.
00:07Hello to you, Richard.
00:09Before we begin, you're a French journalist.
00:12You're in a swing state.
00:13You've been visiting swing states.
00:16How do you think the rest of the world is looking
00:19at this US election?
00:20What are the stakes?
00:22Well, the stakes are very important.
00:25When you listen, especially to Donald Trump,
00:27he's saying and repeating that the moment he will be elected
00:31because he doesn't have any doubt of the fact
00:33he's going to be elected, he will immediately
00:36go to Vladimir Putin.
00:37He will certainly reassert his total support
00:40for Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel.
00:42So the stakes are very high.
00:44And I would say they are probably higher
00:46in the case of an election of Donald Trump
00:48rather than Kamala Harris.
00:50Because Kamala Harris, one way or another,
00:52will have to follow what Joe Biden did.
00:54Her administration, though she says it will be different,
00:57it cannot be that different than Donald Trump.
01:01He clearly wants to do something else.
01:02So the rest of the world, especially his European allies,
01:05they have to watch and be careful.
01:07And in these final days, we're getting
01:09an idea of what each candidate thinks
01:12as the most necessary swing states to campaign in.
01:15Donald Trump focusing resources in North Carolina.
01:19Kamala Harris in Michigan.
01:22What does each candidate have to do
01:24to try to change something more in their favor?
01:28Well, I would say you've got two ways
01:30of seeing the swing state.
01:31The global way, all the seven states,
01:34and the specific way for each state.
01:36If you take the global way, Donald Trump,
01:39he has already rallied his old supporters.
01:42All the Trumpists of this country, the United States,
01:45will go to vote or have already voted.
01:48It's a bit different from Kamala Harris.
01:50She needs to rally more votes,
01:52especially in the black community
01:54and among moderate Republican women.
01:56So she still have a finish line
01:59why all polls to believe that for Trump,
02:01it is done in terms of rallying the vote.
02:04Now, if you look at the specific state,
02:06the battle is in Pennsylvania.
02:09Clearly, whoever wins Pennsylvania
02:11will have a clear lead in the election.
02:14It's 19 votes at the Electoral College.
02:17It's the big population.
02:18It's a big city, Philadelphia.
02:20So the battle, I would say, first battle in Pennsylvania,
02:24second battle probably in Michigan and Georgia.
02:28So those are the three states we have to watch.
02:30The four others, it can vary,
02:33but they don't have that importance,
02:35electoral importance of Pennsylvania,
02:37Michigan, and Georgia.
02:39One of the common Republican criticisms
02:41of the Democratic Party
02:43is that it's now a party of elites.
02:45In recent campaign events,
02:46we've seen Kamala Harris being endorsed
02:48by a number of celebrities.
02:50Does that play over with a common man or woman
02:53that cast the ballots?
02:55It does play a role,
02:56and that is what Trump is saying.
02:58Behind me, I have the American television
03:01with this channel,
03:02which is a very Trumpist channel,
03:04and they keep showing all these moderators
03:09or so-called journalists saying
03:11that Kamala is associated with the elite.
03:13She is associated with Hollywood.
03:15She comes from California.
03:17In short, she is not American.
03:19That is the message
03:21that the Trump campaign is spreading.
03:23Kamala Harris is not a candidate to defend America,
03:26and it's working among that electorate.
03:29Now you have to realize
03:30that Kamala Harris has also a huge crowd of voters,
03:34people who refuse Trump,
03:36and the big question mark is the woman.
03:38Are they going to vote for Kamala Harris
03:40because they are afraid of their rights?
03:42They want to defend their rights,
03:44and I am told by a political science professor in Michigan
03:48that there might be a hidden vote of American women
03:51who refuse to say publicly that they will vote for Harris,
03:54though they will do it on the 5th of November.
03:57And these swing states are so crucial
04:00because of America's electoral college system,
04:03something that's very difficult
04:05for people who are not American to understand,
04:08but essentially, the idea is
04:09that candidates will have to campaign.
04:12In certain states,
04:12it might not have the biggest population,
04:14but they have a disproportionately high number
04:17of electoral votes.
04:19From your perspective as a European,
04:21covering this election,
04:22is that an outmoded system,
04:24or is it something that is vital to U.S. democracy?
04:29It is an outmoded system,
04:30but it is a system that people don't want to change.
04:33I mean, even in the Kamala Harris electorate,
04:36and I met many Harris fans.
04:38I went to a meeting of Tim Walz,
04:40the running mate for Kamala Harris.
04:42They don't want to change the system,
04:44and they know it won't be possible.
04:46This country is completely fractured.
04:48It is divided into two.
04:50So you clearly cannot change a system
04:52like the electoral college.
04:54Now, what is interesting is what Trump is saying.
04:56He wants to win the popular vote as well
04:59because he knows that if he wins
05:01only by a small margin at the electoral college,
05:04while Kamala Harris would win the popular vote
05:07like Hillary Clinton did with 3 million votes,
05:10it will be very difficult for him to pretend
05:13he represent America.
05:14So there is clearly a challenge
05:17by winning the popular vote and the electoral college.
05:21Two things on that as well, though.
05:23One, we might not have the results
05:24for several days after the election,
05:26and two, many people are preparing
05:28for a number of legal challenges, aren't they?
05:31Especially in the Trump camp.
05:33I mean, look at what Donald Trump is saying.
05:35He's been saying for weeks.
05:36He thinks that there is cheating going on.
05:39He thinks that the result will not be correct.
05:41And he thinks he can only win.
05:44Now, if you look at what's going on,
05:45I was in Georgia, in Savannah,
05:47and people told me and showed me
05:50that the American electoral system
05:51has way improved since 2020.
05:55So in all those states,
05:56American electorate officials are working very hard
05:59to make the system absolutely efficient and credible.
06:03Each voter receives a barcode
06:05so you can track your vote until the end.
06:08So it will be more difficult for Trump,
06:10if he is defeated, to contest those results.
06:13Keep in mind also that he is not in power.
06:15He was in power in 2020 when he contested the vote.
06:19Now it's Joe Biden in the White House.
06:21Now, plus we have this record number
06:23of Mellon ballots this year.
06:25It remains to be seen if that still leans heavily
06:27towards Democrats or if the Republicans
06:29have participated more than they did back in 2020.
06:33Richard, I don't want to put you in the hot seat,
06:35but I will, not your own political leanings,
06:38but what do you think,
06:40how do you think this election is going to go?
06:42Is it going to be Trump or Harris that comes out on top?
06:46Well, based on my trip, you know,
06:48I traveled from Chicago in the north,
06:51in the Midwest to Mar-a-Lago,
06:54all together 4,000 kilometers with an RV, a motorhome.
06:58So I could meet, I would say, real American
07:01in the campground, in the small cities and so on.
07:04I would say the dynamic of the campaign,
07:07of the last days of the campaign is more for Trump.
07:10He has dominated those last days of the campaign
07:13with his huge rally and he has made the buzz.
07:16But Kamala Harris has a very efficient campaign
07:19on the ground, that's what I am told and what I have seen.
07:22Now, the situation, he's got all his voters
07:26to move and to vote for him.
07:28She has some reserve.
07:29She can get more voters than him,
07:32but they have to go vote
07:33or they have already voted maybe
07:35because around 60 million Americans have already voted.
07:38So that is the question.
07:39Can Kamala Harris dig into the reserve
07:42of vote she has or not?
07:44And especially turning again to those two targets,
07:47black American men who are quite reluctant
07:50to vote for her former prosecutor,
07:53who was very harsh on American black male community
07:56and the moderate woman Republican
07:59who may not say who they are going to vote for,
08:02but may be afraid of their rights
08:03and especially regarding abortion.
08:05So I would say Kamala Harris stands still a chance,
08:08but she's got a more difficult job
08:10in the coming hours than Donald Trump.
08:13Yeah, coming hours, about just under 48 hours left
08:15before that election gets underway.
08:17Richard, thank you.
08:17It was a pleasure.
08:18Richard Verley joining us from West Palm Beach.