Kamala Harris campaign to focus on 'economy, immigration and border issues'

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00:00with me on set is our international affairs commentator, Doug Herbert. Good to see you,

00:04Doug. How are you, Jenny? There's 87 days to go until election day, a lot can happen before then.

00:11But for the moment, Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz really seem to be packing arenas on

00:16their campaign trail. What are your takeaways? In terms of democratic presidential politics?

00:20This is a different planet we've been living on, not just since Joe Biden withdrew from the race

00:24on July 21st about three weeks ago, but especially in this one week, this first week of barnstorm

00:31campaigning against these five battleground states, both Kamala Harris and her newly minted

00:36running mate Tim Walz together. I mean, it's been a spectacular in terms of an extravaganza,

00:41almost like a show, right? You have had packed rallies, you've had stars turning out,

00:46you've had hipster folk bands, you know, at these rallies, you've had cheering packed crowds,

00:51you had a record crowd at one of those rallies in Detroit, Michigan. She's literally swept across

00:56the three so-called blue wall states, those are the northern battleground states of Michigan and

01:01Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, but also going down to what's called the Sunbelt states,

01:05two of the three of them, notably Arizona and Nevada, also packing arenas there. What we

01:11really can note is this surge of energy and enthusiasm and some people have likened it

01:16once again to the energy of the days of Barack Obama's first presidential campaign in 2008,

01:22not a second one, which was more of a sort of slow going campaign and sort of expected he was

01:26going to win, but that first one, that energy, that excitement, especially for a younger generation,

01:30which really is too young, the Gen Z, so to speak, doesn't remember that. This is really

01:36the first time they are having this high octane, highly energized, very dynamic campaign and

01:42they're seeing it and living it with their own eyes. And it's a sharp contrast for now,

01:46and I'm underlining the words for now, with the Trump campaign, which whatever their spokespeople

01:51are saying, however they may be spinning it, have clearly been on the defensive, at least in the

01:55past week, in the face of this momentum, this unexpected and yes, it was unexpected reversal

02:01of fortune. First, Joe Biden dropping out, Kamala Harris quickly rising to the top of that ticket

02:07with the endorsement of Joe Biden, then being endorsed by her party and then choosing Tim

02:11Walsh, who has so far really seemed to rally the party, this unity and the Trump campaign has

02:16really been caught on the back foot. Privately, Trump has been almost enraged. He's been said to

02:22call Kamala Harris a bitch, something that his campaign spokespeople staunchly deny, say he does

02:28not use that language with respect to the vice president, but you could clearly see frustration

02:35there. They don't quite know what to do and as if to sort of pile on the bad news for the Trump

02:39campaign, you've had in the past couple of days, those new polls showing that among likely

02:44registered voters in the Times-Siena, highly respected poll, that Kamala Harris and Tim Walsh

02:49ticket have pulled ahead by around four points in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, once again,

02:54key northern battleground states that are pivotal to winning the White House. Bad news for Trump

02:59and this morning we get news that Trump campaign saying was hacked by some foreign hacker,

03:04believed to be Iran. Details still coming out about that.

03:08So the first week was full of energy and momentum, as you say, but many expect the

03:12road ahead to get tougher. Yeah, you said at the top, right, 87 days till election day. And,

03:17you know, for a lot of perhaps our European or other people in the world watching this, viewers,

03:21I think 87 days, most European elections haven't even begun yet when there's 87 days to go.

03:26In an American election, 87 days is literally an eternity. A lot can happen.

03:31The big issue here is right now. Yes, it's the honeymoon phase, a proverbial honeymoon.

03:35They have their momentum. They have that energy. They have the from the slow Biden phase to now

03:40this new dynamic that everyone is embracing in the Democratic Party. But it's the independent

03:45in the swing voters. We can't talk about them enough in American presidential politics because

03:50there's an electoral college because it comes down to those battlegrounds. What really matters

03:54is a handful, tens of thousands, maybe one hundred thousand votes in the entire country of almost

03:59330, 340 million. That's what it comes down to. These voters are going to vote mostly on economic

04:04cost of living issues, the price of petrol, the price of housing, the price of groceries.

04:10In the Sunbelt, she desperately needs the Latino block of voters. Biden was part of his coalition

04:15in 2020. She needs to get them. She doesn't really have a lot of their support yet. She

04:20needs to bring them over and convince working class, especially Latino voters in the Sunbelt.

04:25Why should you vote for me? Economy, immigration,

04:28border issues, very big. Watch that space in the weeks ahead.

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