Harris must rally votes from ‘black community’, ‘moderate Republican women’, journalist says

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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.

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