Harris and Trump offer worlds-apart contrasts on top issues in presidential race

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00:00Well, let's get some perspective and analysis now on the elections with Reid Brody who joins me now

00:06on set. He's a prosecutor and former assistant attorney for the state of New York. Thank you

00:11so much for joining us on the program. It's a pleasure to have you with us. Let me begin by

00:15asking first your thoughts on the closing arguments of the two candidates.

00:19Look, I think this is really going down to the wire, obviously. I think it's going to really

00:25depend right now on turnout. You know, Americans don't vote as much as other people. And there are

00:35right now, everything is about getting out the people who might vote for you. And what's called

00:43the ground game. I mean, there are people now, I will be next week in Pennsylvania,

00:48knocking on doors. There are people all over, in swing states in particular,

00:55who are going talking to their neighbors. And particularly, I would say on the Democratic side,

01:00since Kamala Harris became the candidate. But on both sides, this is an election that,

01:07you know, is going to determine American democracy. A lot of people believe that Donald

01:16Trump would be a danger to American democracy. And this is an election that people are getting

01:22out to vote for. Now, it's shaping up to be an extremely tight race, as you mentioned,

01:28you know, the polls are too close to call at this stage. And we're seeing that the race will most

01:32likely, you know, be a showdown of around eight swing states that will determine the next US

01:40president. Are these eight states the usual suspects? And what's the picture looking like

01:45overall at the moment? Well, I think one has to understand what the electoral college system

01:50does to American democracy. I mean, everybody knows that it's American presidents are not

01:57elected by universal popular vote as in most countries, but by an electoral college,

02:02and that it comes down to these swing states. But what are the implications of that? And why is that

02:08like that to begin with? This was a compromise. This was something that was imposed by smaller

02:16states by slaveholding states. The electoral college is a heritage of a pastime in America,

02:25and it gives rural conservative areas a disproportionate say. And therefore, it tends

02:35to favor conservatives and Republicans. Remember, the Democrats have won seven of the last eight

02:44popular votes, but have lost the presidency twice in that time, when Trump won and once when Bush

02:52won. And so these states are states that are find themselves in the middle are almost

03:02arithmetically and because they combine Trump voters or Democrats and Republicans. And that

03:11shifts over time. It shifts over time because people in America move over time more than in

03:17most other countries. And it shifts because the demographics shift, particularly the growing

03:24Hispanic population. And so we see states that were red become blue. Also, if I can continue,

03:33traditionally democratic strongholds, like the industry, one of in some of the swing states,

03:41like the industrial north, have were devastated by free trade deals that were began with Bill

03:51Clinton's signing of the free trade pact with Mexico. Hundreds of thousands of millions of jobs

03:58were lost. And the industrial center of America was hollowed out. And many of those workers who

04:05form who lived in places like Pennsylvania, like Michigan, in those swing states,

04:11formerly who had high paying union jobs, were left bereft and feel resentful of democratic elites.

04:20And so there you see a swing to the right to the red side.

04:25Now, let's talk about the candidates, because Kamala Harris has been struggling with minority

04:30votes, especially black and Hispanic voters have traditionally and historically leaned

04:35towards the democratic camp. Is she succeeding in shoring up the votes from the electorate?

04:41We'll see. Obviously, you know, that's that's this is a weakness for her. I think, you know,

04:53we've seen traditional people, traditional Republican vote, Democratic votes turn Republican.

05:03Republican. I think the question is, for many people is democracy issues versus,

05:14you know, economic issues. And many Americans, including blacks, including Hispanics,

05:24feel that their lives are not as good. Talking to people, you see a feeling that they have been

05:33abandoned by elites, that things are not good. They look at around the world. And this is

05:38something, unfortunately, that's in many ways manufactured, manufacturing of fear of crime,

05:45the manufacturing of hate, the manufacturing of, you know, Trump talking about the enemy within.

05:53I mean, when you watch TV, when you watch Fox News, when you watch what people are seeing,

06:02when you watch the ads, if you live in a swing state right now, all you see are ads for candidates

06:08and all of the ads on the Republican side are ads about fear and migrants and trans people.

06:17And this creates a very powerful feeling of unease and of fear.

06:25And lastly, and briefly, if you will, as we're running out of time, unfortunately,

06:29speaking of Trump, how has he managed to close the gap? Because, you know,

06:33he had momentum after that assassination attempt in July, and he lost it, you know,

06:37when Kamala Harris replaced Biden as a Democratic candidate. So how has he managed to close the gap

06:42so fast? I think a lot of people feel that

06:47things were better before. I mean, when Kamala replaced Biden, there was this,

06:52oof, it was just like, wow. And there was this enthusiasm and energy that went into her campaign.

07:00And I think, you know, Trump has been able to stop that. And I think people are disappointed

07:10a bit by Kamala Harris's failure to say what she believes in, to talk to working people,

07:16to talk, I mean, to talk to Arabs and Muslims, to change her positions on Gaza, things like that,

07:25that have demobilized a lot of people.

07:27All right, Reid Brody, thank you so much for sharing your views with us here on France24.

07:31You're quite welcome.

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