By Logan Church, 1News US Correspondent and is republished with permission
- Happy Saturday everyone — and an even happier Saturday if you’re Kamala Harris, whose ‘honeymoon’ period doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon.
But do not count out Donald Trump – this will be a close race either way, and a new CNN poll found that it’s a toss-up in several key battleground states.
So, get your popcorn ready… here we go.
Putin praises Kamala
While Harris has been racking up the political endorsements here in the United States, this week she got the thumbs-up from the man she absolutely would not want a nod from – Russia’s President Vladmir Putin.
“Our ‘favourite,’ if you can call it that, was the current president, Mr. Biden. But he was removed from the race, and he recommended all his supporters to support Ms. Harris. Well, we will do so – we will support her,” Putin said to a crowd, who responded with laughter.
“She laughs so expressively and infectiously that it means that she is doing well,” he said.
On top of this, he also criticised former president Trump for “placing restrictions and sanctions against Russia like no other president has ever introduced before him”.
Biden slams Russia
On the topic of Russia, US authorities have this week come out publicly to accuse Russia of trying to interfere in this year’s election.
And the US State, Justice and Treasury departments say they are fighting back.
Much of the allegations appear to be levelled against RT, the Russia state-owned TV network.
The Biden administration has charged two Moscow-based RT managers for crimes relating to paying US-based content creators to “pump pro-Russia propaganda and disinformation”, restricted visas for employees of Kremlin-backed media outlets, seized domain names, introduced sanctions, and offered a multi-million dollar reward for information about a Russian hacking group.
That would strike the White House off Putin’s Christmas card list.
The guy who predicts every US election makes his prediction
There’s a guy in the United States, historian Allan Lichtman, who picks the winning candidate every election cycle – months ahead of the election date.
In a story for the New York Times, Lichtman, known as the US “Nostradamus” said “Kamala Harris will be the next President of the United States”.
He accurately predicted Trump’s win in 2016 and Biden’s victory in 2020. In fact, he has picked nine out of the last 10 election winners correctly.
However, all I’ll say about these people is that they will always be right…until they end up very wrong.
Debate rules
One thing we’ve learnt this election is just how significant the televised presidential debates can be – it would be fair to argue that Biden’s demise as the Democratic presidential candidate started with his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump on CNN.
The first debate between Harris and Trump is scheduled for next Wednesday NZT – you can watch it on TVNZ+ – but ahead of it, the ABC (the US TV network hosting the debate has released a long list of rules ahead of it. I’ll leave it to you to make up your mind about what you think of them.
The debate will be 90 minutes with two commercial breaks.
- The two seated moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, will be the only people asking questions.
- A coin flip was held virtually on Tuesday, September 3 (EST), to determine podium placement and order of closing statements; former President Donald Trump won the coin toss and chose to select the order of statements. The former president will offer the last closing statement, and Vice President Harris selected the right podium position on screen (stage left).
- Candidates will be introduced by the moderators.
- The candidates enter upon introduction from opposite sides of the stage; the incumbent party will be introduced first.
- No opening statements; closing statements will be two minutes per candidate.
- Candidates will stand behind podiums for the duration of the debate.
- Props or prewritten notes are not allowed onstage.
- No topics or questions will be shared in advance with campaigns or candidates.
- Candidates will be given a pen, a pad of paper and a bottle of water.
- Candidates will have two-minute answers to questions, two-minute rebuttals, and one extra minute for follow-ups, clarifications, or responses.
- Candidates’ microphones will be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak and muted when the time belongs to another candidate.
- Candidates will not be permitted to ask questions of each other.
- Campaign staff may not interact with candidates during commercial breaks.
- Moderators will seek to enforce timing agreements and ensure a civilised discussion.
- There will be no audience in the room.
New TVNZ+ Documentary on Kamala Harris
Because this is my US Election diary, I will shamelessly plug my new documentary on TVNZ+ The Rise of Kamala Harris. It gives you a pretty good insight into how Harris has gone from California prosecutor to potential president.
Also, while you’re there check out my piece Inside Maga, which is a deep dive into Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.
I’m always keen for your feedback too – flick me an email on Logan.Church@tvnz.co.nz.
