Democrats unite around Kamala Harris at Democratic National Convention

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00:00We can now bring in Todd Belt, professor and director of political management at George

00:05Washington University. Thank you very much for speaking to us here on France 24. Now,

00:09this was a bittersweet moment for Joe Biden, wasn't it? Because on one hand,

00:13his administration had many successes, but he himself was an ineffective messenger,

00:19and his age got the better of him. Well, thanks for having me on again. It's great to be with you.

00:24You're absolutely right. Joe Biden was a very successful president. By most measures,

00:28he passed four landmark bills when he was president. Well, he still is president. And

00:36two of them were highly bipartisan. I don't think he gets enough recognition for that.

00:41But, you know, his age really caught up with him. You see him going back and forth. The

00:46State of the Union address, he was very strong and on message. But the debate, he really faltered.

00:51Last night, he was better, but there were a couple of slip ups. And you could tell the age was still

00:57sort of getting to him, even though he did perform pretty well. It was really time for

01:02that handoff of the baton. As he said, he saw himself as a bridge to the future. But I don't

01:07think he would have run again if Trump were not running. I think he thinks Trump is a mortal

01:12threat. I think all of the Democrats made that clear last night. And that's going to be the

01:16message going forward, as well as trying to get people to know and understand who Kamala Harris

01:22is and what she stands for. Let's talk about Kamala Harris for a second, because before Biden

01:26dropped out of the race, pundits on U.S. television channels said putting Kamala Harris

01:31on the ticket would be a grave mistake. I know she hasn't given many interviews or any interviews

01:37since she took on that mantle, but her positioning herself as a prosecutor taking on the felon seems

01:44to have resonated. It really has. I think a lot of this so far, at least the honeymoon period

01:50that we're having with the voters, particularly young voters and voters of color, that's where

01:55we've seen the biggest shift and that's where Biden was losing the most, are really excited

02:01about her. I don't know that it's necessarily the prosecutor thing, but they're certainly leaning

02:05into that because there are two major weaknesses that Kamala Harris has, and that is immigration

02:11and crime. They can sort of thwart that by talking about the fact that she was a prosecutor and play

02:17that up. And they're putting together a bunch of messages on immigration. That's the other real

02:23weak Achilles heel that she has that they're going to try to get out in front of and message on.

02:29What about Donald Trump? Because when it was him against Joe Biden, you know, this election was his

02:34to lose. But things have changed over the past month. Besides him trying to mispronounce Kamala

02:40Harris's name, questioning her identity, it seems like he's faltering. Absolutely. This has really

02:48put Donald Trump back on his heels. He's in a place where he never expected to be coming out

02:52of the Republican convention. They had all the signs made, they had all the ads made, and it was

02:57just time to unroll it and cruise to victory. But now Donald Trump, like I said, he doesn't know

03:02exactly how to combat Harris and Waltz, and he's trying to find a way and nothing's really working

03:10so far. It probably didn't help him that after he picked J.D. Vance, he sent Vance around to the

03:15swing states and stayed in Mar-a-Lago. He probably should have been out there and trying to get some

03:20of that shine, the media glare back on him. He's trying to do it now with the counter-programming,

03:25but that's a hard thing to do with all the media in Chicago. Exactly. And we also have, you know,

03:31the Democrats who have abortion as their rallying cry, essentially, in this election. And then you

03:38have J.D. Vance, his vice presidential pick, who's going after a single woman who don't have children.

03:45It seems like they're not trying to get women on board, just alienating them further.

03:50It really seems that way. I mean, some of the things that J.D. Vance has said about women

03:55have really come back to haunt him. And it's just, you know, Donald Trump took credit for

04:01the abortion overturning of Roe v. Wade with the three justices he appointed. Now he wants to have

04:07it both ways. He wants to say, leave it up to the states. But we're seeing the states move in ways

04:12that are not very popular, including even moving into in vitro fertilization. And both Trump and

04:19Vance are having a really difficult time messaging on this. But Trump's never really been one to try

04:24to expand his coalition too much. He just, Trump is Trump and he will continue doing what he does.

04:30I don't think that's going to work very well with him this time. I know we just only had one day of

04:34the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, but it seems that the Democrats are positioning

04:38this election as one of hope, looking to the future to what America can be the best of America.

04:46And it seems that Donald Trump is, it's versus hope and a very dark reality. Is that a fair

04:52assessment? I think that's a real fair assessment. I think you can also throw the Biden campaign in

04:56there because when it was Biden and Trump, they were just attacking one another and how bad

05:01everything was under each other's administration. Now you have someone who's trying to disentangle

05:06herself from the Biden administration, but taking the good and leaving the bad, that's

05:11Kamala Harris, of course. And they're trying to turn the page. They're trying to give people

05:16something to vote for and not just against. After all, elections are about the future

05:21and you can't beat something with nothing. Exactly. And she has the age clearly on her side.

05:26And she's the younger candidate in this race. Todd Belft, we're going to have to leave it there.

05:30Thank you very much for joining us on the program today. Thank you. Great to be with you.

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