Reuters

Trump’s insults of Harris in debate carry big risks – for both candidates

Published

8 months ago

September 10, 2024

[1/2]Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a fireside chat during the Moms for Liberty National “Joyful Warriors” Summit, in Washington, U.S., August 30, 2024. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Summary

Trump risks alienating key voter groups with his insults, experts say
Harris must balance responding to attacks and defining herself to voters

Sept 10 (Reuters) – In the 2016 presidential debates, Republican candidate Donald Trump loomed over Democratic contender Hillary Clinton, called her a “nasty woman” and said she didn’t have the “look” or “stamina” to serve as commander-in-chief.

Tuesday’s nationally televised debate, the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, could be a critical juncture in a race that is essentially tied eight weeks before the Nov. 5 election.

Trump has already leveled a series of racist and sexist attacks against Harris. The former president has falsely claimed Harris, who is Black and South Asian, only recently “became a Black person.” He reposted a vulgar online message suggesting she used sex to advance her career. He fired off insults that play into tropes about women and Black people, calling her “weak,” “dumb as a rock” and “lazy.”
Deploying those attacks in front of tens of millions of viewers – and Harris’ response – would carry risks for both candidates, according to interviews with eight pollsters, debate and political experts, and Black activists. More than 51 million TV viewers tuned in to watch the debate between Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden in June.

Trump’s insults might alienate key voter groups, including women, Black voters and moderates, according to John Geer, a professor at Vanderbilt University and an expert on presidential politics. “They’re just going to get turned off by that kind of rhetoric,” he said.

But Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist, said the persistent tightness of the race showed that Trump’s attacks had not cost him support.

Harris, who would be the first woman, Black woman and South Asian American to serve as president, faces a complicated political calculus on Tuesday.

If she brushes off Trump’s attacks on the debate stage, as she has done on the campaign trail, she could be seen as unwilling to stand up for herself. If she engages with Trump’s rhetoric, she could be dragged into the mudslinging he thrives on and expose herself to accusations, fair or not, that she is exploiting her race and gender.

Too forceful a reaction also risks playing into the stereotype of an angry Black woman, said Kelly Dittmar, the director of research for Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics.

“If Kamala calls it out, will she be accused of playing the race card, the gender card?” Dittmar said.

‘I’M SPEAKING’

Harris has the additional challenge of fielding Trump’s attacks while also defining herself for voters who are still getting to know her after her surprise entry into the race seven weeks ago.

In a national poll released on Sunday by The New York Times and Siena College, 28% of likely voters said they needed more information about Harris, while opinions on Trump were largely set.

Harris will try to avoid getting pulled into personal exchanges while aiming to draw Trump into the sort of offensive comments likely to go viral, campaign sources said.

Harris, a former prosecutor, may be able to send a more subtle signal about Trump’s attacks without explicitly calling them out as racist or sexist. She managed that in her 2020 vice presidential debate against Mike Pence, when she responded to his interruptions by saying, “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking,” a moment that went viral.

“That was an effective way to acknowledge the gendered style of how men speak over women,” Dittmar said.

In a radio interview that aired on Monday, Harris said she was prepared for Trump’s tactics.

“[Trump] plays from this really old and tired playbook,” she told the “The Rickey Smiley Morning Show.” “There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go.”

In a call with reporters on Monday, former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who has been advising Trump ahead of the debate, said the former president would focus on Harris’ record and speak to her the same way he did Biden.

“President Trump respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way than he would speak to a man,” Gabbard said.

Trump has previously dismissed calls from advisers and fellow Republicans to moderate his tone and stick to the issues, telling reporters, “I have to do it my way.”

PERSONAL ATTACKS

But the former president has labored to find an effective attack line against Harris, who unlike Clinton is not saddled with decades of political baggage, and who has unleashed a wave of energy among Democrats since she took over Biden’s flailing reelection campaign.

The Democratic research firm Blueprint polled various negative messages against Harris in late July and found that personal attacks based on her race, gender or family were “incredibly unproductive” across all voter groups, including independents, according to Evan Roth Smith, the firm’s pollster.

Criticisms that focus on immigration and economic policies or portray Harris as a California liberal tested better, Smith said.

The firm also examined possible rebuttals to attacks focused on Harris’ race and gender. Responding by calling Trump racist was far less effective than labeling the insults a distraction from Trump’s “extreme” agenda.

Some Trump attacks – such as questioning Harris’ Blackness – are so transparently false that Harris doesn’t need to respond directly, said Andra Gillespie, a professor at Emory University who researches African American politics.

“It was so unbelievably outrageous that everybody was like, ‘That’s ridiculous,’” she said. “She didn’t have to say anything.”

But Aaron Kall, a debate expert at the University of Michigan, said Trump should not be underestimated. Trump has proven to be a skilled debater, Kall said, dispatching more experienced opponents with sharp retorts and unpredictable segues and using his background as a reality television star to command the camera.

“He may be the best counter-punching debater of all time,” Kall said. “He gets people off their talking points. He has relatable language and talks like undecided voters. He’s got a pretty good pulse on what voters are concerned about.”

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Reporting by Joseph Ax Additional reporting by Nandita Bose, Helen Coster, Steve Holland and Gram Slattery Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Suzanne Goldenberg

Reuters

Podcaster Joe Rogan endorses Donald Trump for president

Published

6 months ago

November 5, 2024

electionlive_gcw35j

By Kanishka Singh

November 5, 20249:16 AM GMT+6Updated 4 hours ago

Item 1 of 2 Oct 20, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Joe Rogan talks to fans in the paddock at the Formula 1 Pirelli United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Mandatory Credit: Aaron E. Martinez-Imagn Images/File Photo

[1/2]Oct 20, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Joe Rogan talks to fans in the paddock at the Formula 1 Pirelli United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Mandatory Credit: Aaron E. Martinez-Imagn Images/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Popular podcaster Joe Rogan, who recently interviewed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for nearly three hours, said on Monday he has endorsed the former president in the race to the White House.

Trump faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 U.S. election in what polls show to be a tight race. Harris has got multiple celebrity endorsements.

“For the record, yes, that’s an endorsement of Trump,” Rogan said on X while posting a clip of his interview with billionaire Elon Musk, who has also endorsed Trump. Rogan said in his post that Musk made the “most compelling case for Trump.”

Trump’s recent interview with Rogan lasted about 3 hours and was released on YouTube and Spotify in late October. The two discussed a range of topics and the interview got over 45 million views on YouTube.

The former president criticized Rogan in August on Truth Social, his social media platform, after the podcaster praised then-independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. Kennedy has since pulled out of the race and endorsed Trump. Trump later called Rogan a “good guy.”

Trump and Harris have courted voters with appearances on podcasts, in addition to more traditional rallies and media interviews.

Spotify (SPOT.N), opens new tab said in March “The Joe Rogan Experience” had 14.5 million followers, almost triple the platform’s second most popular program. Rogan also has more than 19 million followers on Instagram and 18 million followers on YouTube.

A poll by YouGov last year found that 81% of his listeners are male and 56% are under 35 years old, a demographic that tends to support Trump over Harris.

Harris’ team had been in touch with Rogan’s program about a possible appearance but her campaign said in late October she will not appear on his podcast.

Rogan joins a list of celebrities like Musk and wrestler Hulk Hogan to have endorsed Trump.

Harris has a much bigger list of celebrity endorsements – ranging from basketball superstar Lebron James and actress Meryl Streep to comedian Chris Rock and former talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Superstar singers Beyonce and Taylor Swift have also endorsed her.

Get weekly news and analysis on the U.S. elections and how it matters to the world with the newsletter On the Campaign Trail. Sign up here.

Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Raju Gopalakrishnan

Reuters

Musk and X are epicenter of US election misinformation, experts say

Published

6 months ago

November 5, 2024

electionlive_gcw35j

By Kanishka Singh and Sheila Dang

November 5, 20249:52 AM GMT+6Updated 4 hours ago

Rally for Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump, in New York

WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) – False or misleading claims by billionaire Elon Musk about the U.S. election have amassed 2 billion views on social media platform X this year, according to a report, opens new tab by non-profit group Center for Countering Digital Hate.

The platform is also playing a central role in enabling the spread of false information about the critical battleground states that will likely determine the outcome of the presidential race, election and misinformation experts said on Monday.

A spokesperson for X said the company’s Community Notes feature, which lets users add additional context to posts, is more effective at helping people identify misleading content than traditional warning flags on posts.

Since taking over the company formerly known as Twitter, Musk has curtailed content moderation and laid off thousands of employees. He has thrown his support behind former President Donald Trump, who is locked in an exceptionally close race against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

Musk’s massive reach with nearly 203 million followers helps enable “network effects” in which content on X can jump to other social media and messaging platforms such as Reddit and Telegram, said Kathleen Carley, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and expert on disinformation. “X is a conduit from one platform to another,” she said.

At least 87 of Musk’s posts this year have promoted claims about the U.S. election that fact-checkers have rated as false or misleading, amassing 2 billion views, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s report.

In Pennsylvania, one of the seven key swing states, some X users have seized on instances of local election administrators flagging incomplete voter registration forms that would not be processed, falsely casting the events as examples of election interference, said Philip Hensley-Robin, Pennsylvania executive director at Common Cause, during a press briefing on Monday.

Common Cause is a nonpartisan organization that promotes accountable government and voting rights.

Some X accounts implied “that there was voter fraud, when in fact, we know very clearly that election officials and election administrators in all of our counties were following the rules and … therefore only eligible voters are voting,” Hensley-Robin said.

Cyabra, a firm that uses AI to detect online disinformation, said on Monday that an X account with 117,000 followers played a key role in helping spread a fake video purporting to show Pennsylvania mail-in ballots for Trump being destroyed.

X’s spokesperson said the platform took action against many accounts that shared the video.

Get weekly news and analysis on the U.S. elections and how it matters to the world with the newsletter On the Campaign Trail. Sign up here.

Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Sheila Dang in Austin; Additional reporting by Stephanie Burnett; Editing by Lincoln Feast

Georgia

Georgia top court won’t extend ballot deadline in win for Trump

Published

6 months ago

November 5, 2024

electionlive_gcw35j

By Reuters

November 5, 20244:36 AM GMT+6Updated 9 hours ago

Georgians turned out a day after the battleground state opened early voting

A person picks up a sticker while voters head to a polling station as Georgians turned out a day after the battleground state opened early voting, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., October 16, 2024. REUTERS/Megan Varner/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) – The top court in the battleground state of Georgia ruled on Monday that Cobb County cannot extend the deadline for counting about 3,000 absentee ballots that were sent out shortly before Election Day, handing a victory to the Republican National Committee and presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Siding with the RNC, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned a judge’s ruling extending the deadline until Friday in Cobb County, located in suburban Atlanta. The court decided that only absentee ballots that arrive by 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday (0000 GMT Wednesday) can be counted.

Civil rights groups had sued last week seeking to extend the deadline, arguing that the county violated state law by failing to promptly send out about 3,000 absentee ballots. County officials said they were overwhelmed by a surge in requests.

The Republican National Committee had argued that extending the deadline would violate state law.

“Election Day is Election Day – not the week after,” RNC Chair Michael Whatley wrote in a post on social media.

Cobb County is a large and racially diverse area in Atlanta’s northern suburbs. The county voted for Democrat Joe Biden over Trump by 14 percentage points in the 2020 election. Biden defeated Trump in Georgia in 2020.

A spokesperson for Cobb County did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The state high court ordered that ballots received after Election Day be separated from other ballots and set aside. Voters who did not receive an absentee ballot or did not have enough time to mail it can vote in person on Tuesday.

Georgia is one of seven closely contested states expected to decide the outcome of the race between Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

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Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone and Will Dunham