The US presidential election is just three weeks away and the campaigns of Kamala and Trump are ramping up, making last-minute appeals to voters.
Here are five take aways from the US election this week
Hurricane Milton becomes the battleground for disinformation
Within three days of forming in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Milton turned into a powerful Category 5 storm.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration dubbed Milton “one of the most intense hurricanes on record in the Atlantic basin”.
The storm was heading for Florida, the southern state in the United States.
As Milton hit Florida, US politics also took a hit from a flood of disinformation.
Trump made a series of false claims. One of these false rumors was that the Democrat-led federal government was “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas”.
On the night Milton hit Florida, President Joe Biden blasted Trump, his erstwhile political rival.
“Over the last few weeks, there’s been reckless and irresponsible and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies about what’s going on,” Biden said, calling the distortions “un-American”.
“Former President Trump has led this onslaught of lies,” he added.
Harris slapped back at Trump in remarks in Las Vegas. “This is not a time for people to play politics,” she said, in reference to the Republican.
Trump and Harris sparring with mainstream media
Once criticized for her lack of presence in national media, Kamala Harris kicked off this week with a flurry of interviews as part of a recent media blitz. This marked a sharp contrast to the beginning of her campaign. After announcing her candidacy on July 21, Harris didn’t appear in any major interviews until late August, and even then, it was a joint interview with her running mate, Tim Walz. Her first solo interview followed on September 13 with a local TV station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
However, in the past week, Harris significantly increased her media appearances. Within just two days, she was featured on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, appeared on "The Howard Stern Show" radio program, and made TV appearances on "The View" and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." Her prerecorded interview with the esteemed TV news program "60 Minutes" also aired on Monday.
That interview was originally intended to include both candidates. However, "60 Minutes" host Scott Pelley revealed that Trump’s team withdrew from the agreed-upon interview, offering “shifting explanations,” including concerns that the Republican might be fact-checked on air.
Tensions between Trump and "60 Minutes" escalated further when a teaser clip of Harris’s interview showed her answering a question differently than in the full version. Trump accused the show of trying to “make her look better” and called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to "TAKE AWAY THE CBS LICENSE." His comments drew criticism from the FCC chair, who warned that such actions would undermine free speech.
Harris playing the health card
Questions of health and competency have loomed large during this election. I
After a poor debate performance in June, 81-year-old Joe Biden was forced to exit the presidential race, amid growing concerns about his age and ability to lead. This marked the culmination of months of speculation and attacks, with Donald Trump repeatedly portraying Biden as a “weak” and “sleepy” old man.
However, at 78 years old, Trump has also faced scrutiny regarding his age and mental sharpness. Those concerns resurfaced this week when The New York Times published an article on Sunday, analyzing Trump's increasingly "rambling" and long-winded speeches, questioning whether his speech patterns might reflect the effects of aging.
And then, on Saturday, the White House released a memo touting his Democratic rival’s health.
Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda
Immigration has been a key issue that has defined Donald Trump's political career, and he has worked hard to show a tough stance on it.
However, critics argue that his rhetoric has become increasingly extreme, echoing the language of white supremacists.
On Monday, during an audio interview with the Hugh Hewitt Show, Trump once again repeated false claims, asserting that murderers were crossing the U.S. border.
“Many of them murdered far more than one person, and they’re now happily living in the United States,” Trump said. “Now a murderer, I believe this: It’s in their genes. And we’ve got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.”
Speaking in Aurora, Colorado, Trump pledged that, if re-elected, he would use his first days in office to “expedite the removal” of “savage gangs” from abroad, as well as invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, for mass deportation.
He also called for the death penalty for migrants who killed US citizens.
Bob Woodward’s book paints an unflattering portrait
Reporter Bob Woodward is a respective figure in the US journalism sphere.
In 1972, he and Carl Bernstein helped reveal President Richard Nixon’s role in the Watergate scandal.
Since then, Woodward has published dozens of books, showing the inner machinations of US politics. His latest book showed an unflattering glimpse of Trump’s alleged relationship with Vladimir Putin, the Russian President.
Entitled War, the book was released on Tuesday.
The book reveals that an unnamed aide claimed Trump called Putin at least seven times after leaving office. It also alleges that during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump sent virus-testing machines, to Putin.
News outlets have struggled to independently verify some of the book’s claims. And Trump’s team refuted them entirely, calling Woodward an “angry, little man”.
“None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a truly demented and deranged man,” said Cheung, Trump’s spokesperson.
However, the book does contain some high-profile named sources.
(Source- Alzajeera)
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