Latest / The Front / Can Donald Trump win from here?
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
- 0:08Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, October twenty nine. Unions are using Labour's same Job,
- 0:16Speaker 1: same Pay laws to try to secure one hundred and
- 0:19Speaker 1: twenty eight million dollars in wage rises for labor higher
- 0:23Speaker 1: mind workers. It's a big test of the Albanese government's
- 0:27Speaker 1: signature reform. An investigation has begun into unproven allegations of
- 0:36Speaker 1: bullying and censorship at the top of the New South
- 0:39Speaker 1: Wales Prosecution Office following a public interest disclosure. Those exclusives
- 0:45Speaker 1: alive now at the Australian dot Com dot a U.
- 0:52Speaker 1: With just over a week to go until Americans cast
- 0:54Speaker 1: their votes for President, the Senate and the House of
- 0:57Speaker 1: Representatives on November five, Trump is closing in on Kamala
- 1:02Speaker 1: Harris's lead. Today we join our correspondent on the ground
- 1:06Speaker 1: at Trump's New York rally and ask can Trump really win?
- 1:11Speaker 2: From here?
- 1:16Speaker 1: Before we start, there are some rude and crude jokes
- 1:20Speaker 1: in this episode.
- 1:23Speaker 3: What a.
- 1:31Speaker 2: Donald Trump Rally opens with a song, Oh God, bless America.
- 1:41Speaker 1: And a prayer we thank you for blessing us all
- 1:44Speaker 1: to live in the United States of America. We thank
- 1:47Speaker 1: you for our founding fathers, who, by your guidance long
- 1:50Speaker 1: before the man himself takes the stage.
- 1:54Speaker 4: And I'd like to begin by asking a very simple question.
- 1:59Speaker 4: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
- 2:08Speaker 4: I will end inflation, I will stop the invasion of
- 2:13Speaker 4: criminals coming into our country, and I will bring back
- 2:18Speaker 4: the American dream. We need the American dream.
- 2:21Speaker 1: This is Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, the most
- 2:24Speaker 1: famous arena in the world.
- 2:27Speaker 4: Richer, safer, and nine days from now. It's hard working
- 2:31Speaker 4: patriots like you who are going to save our country.
- 2:37Speaker 4: Thank you.
- 2:39Speaker 1: Adam Crichton is the Australian's US correspondent and he's fresh
- 2:42Speaker 1: from the Trump rally at Madison Square Garden. Adam, what
- 2:45Speaker 1: is it that makes Donald Trump such a magnetic, unmissible
- 2:50Speaker 1: presence on stage?
- 2:52Speaker 3: Yeah, look, it's a very good question actually, because he
- 2:54Speaker 3: speaks for so long at these these events. I mean
- 2:58Speaker 3: tonight he spoke for over sixty minutes, and of course,
- 3:00Speaker 3: as someone who follows him, I've heard it all one
- 3:02Speaker 3: hundred times before. Although the stadium was packed in the
- 3:06Speaker 3: Madison Square Garden was that capacity twenty thousand people, which
- 3:09Speaker 3: is quite big. And people were leaving actually, like at
- 3:13Speaker 3: the start of his speech, which I thought was interesting
- 3:14Speaker 3: because I was talking to people on the way out
- 3:16Speaker 3: and they had buses and trains to cash. Because many
- 3:18Speaker 3: people had come from far, they were not locals. I
- 3:21Speaker 3: mean I spoke to one woman who'd flown all the
- 3:22Speaker 3: way from California just to go, and she'd camped out
- 3:25Speaker 3: the night before to get a good spot in the line.
- 3:28Speaker 5: But that's not an unusual story.
- 3:30Speaker 3: Actually, I don't know how to explain it, because he's
- 3:32Speaker 3: not classically a good speaker. He obviously has a very
- 3:36Speaker 3: distinctive style, but I think it really just goes to
- 3:39Speaker 3: the anger that so many Americans feel, and he channels
- 3:43Speaker 3: their rage and they support him.
- 3:46Speaker 5: The striking thing to me about today was just how
- 3:48Speaker 5: long it was.
- 3:49Speaker 3: I mean I got there at ten am to line up,
- 3:52Speaker 3: and there were already three or four thousand people in
- 3:55Speaker 3: the queue, and we didn't get into one, so I
- 3:58Speaker 3: was literally standing up for three.
- 4:00Speaker 5: Which was not particularly pleasant, I say. And then we go.
- 4:04Speaker 3: In and then we go into another hurting pen, and
- 4:05Speaker 3: then you get searched, obviously for guns and things, which
- 4:08Speaker 3: makes sense. And then it started at two thirty and
- 4:11Speaker 3: it went till about eight thirty, so it was like
- 4:13Speaker 3: six hours of speakers.
- 4:16Speaker 5: There's so much political rage in America.
- 4:18Speaker 3: There's anger about inflation, there's fury about the southern border.
- 4:21Speaker 3: And Trump is the politician that you support if you're.
- 4:24Speaker 5: Angry about those things. And you know, I don't think
- 4:26Speaker 5: it really matters how he speaks.
- 4:28Speaker 3: I don't think it matters about his affairs, about his
- 4:30Speaker 3: legal cases. Clearly it doesn't because he's now currently the
- 4:34Speaker 3: favorite to win.
- 4:36Speaker 1: That vision of people leaving, that's something that Kamala Harris
- 4:40Speaker 1: go toed him with during the presidential debate quite successfully.
- 4:43Speaker 1: It seemed to me that when she raised that that
- 4:46Speaker 1: knocked Trump off his axis a little bit, and he
- 4:48Speaker 1: became very defensive and kind of lost his thread. So
- 4:52Speaker 1: what you're saying is it's true people are walking out,
- 4:55Speaker 1: but maybe not because they're bored.
- 4:56Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 4:57Speaker 5: Look, I don't want to exaggerate the extent, but certainly
- 4:59Speaker 5: there were.
- 4:59Speaker 3: I was say, hundreds of people leaving kind of after
- 5:02Speaker 3: he started, and he was meant to speak at five,
- 5:04Speaker 3: and he started at seven forty, which is really late.
- 5:07Speaker 5: Really late. I mean that's two and a half hours late.
- 5:10Speaker 3: I imagine the average income in that stadium was lower than
- 5:13Speaker 3: the average income in New York because everyone I spoke
- 5:15Speaker 3: to was from a different state, mainly from New Jersey
- 5:18Speaker 3: the ones I spoke to, so they traveled a good
- 5:21Speaker 3: hour at least to get there, and they probably had
- 5:23Speaker 3: trains to get.
- 5:25Speaker 2: The first act was a comedian called Tony Hinchcliff.
- 5:29Speaker 6: Where are my proud Latinos at tonight?
- 5:33Speaker 2: What was the reaction of the crowd to those kind
- 5:35Speaker 2: of jokes?
- 5:35Speaker 5: I don't even want to say it. Almost Yes, it
- 5:38Speaker 5: was quite crude.
- 5:38Speaker 6: It's wild, and these are Latinos. They love making babies too.
- 5:42Speaker 6: Just know that they do.
- 5:44Speaker 4: They do.
- 5:45Speaker 6: There's no pulling out, they don't do that. They come inside,
- 5:51Speaker 6: just like they did to our country.
- 5:54Speaker 5: Wins actually.
- 5:57Speaker 6: Republicans of the Party with a good sense of humor.
- 6:00Speaker 3: It was pretty distasteful, and of course Democrats seized on
- 6:03Speaker 3: that straight away.
- 6:04Speaker 5: And the Puerto Rican joke was somewhat strange.
- 6:08Speaker 6: There's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle
- 6:12Speaker 6: of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it's called
- 6:15Speaker 6: Puerto Rico.
- 6:17Speaker 3: And you know, maybe this is because I'm not part
- 6:19Speaker 3: of us cultural long enough, but you know, I don't
- 6:21Speaker 3: know what it is about Puerto Rico, but this guy
- 6:23Speaker 3: described it as a heap of trash.
- 6:26Speaker 5: I don't know why you.
- 6:27Speaker 3: Do that, because it's part of the US and there's
- 6:30Speaker 3: lots of Puerto Ricans in the US, and I don't
- 6:32Speaker 3: it was just somewhat gratuitous and unnecessary to make that joke.
- 6:34Speaker 3: But anyway, he did, and I saw numerous high profile
- 6:37Speaker 3: Democrats on social media saying, if the Dems don't do
- 6:40Speaker 3: a campaign ad on that joke, they're crazy.
- 6:42Speaker 5: I think the.
- 6:43Speaker 3: Republican strategist would have been pretty annoyed about that joke. So,
- 6:47Speaker 3: you know, for Trump, it was really an fu to
- 6:49Speaker 3: the establishment in New York.
- 6:50Speaker 5: And this, of course is the city that he grew
- 6:52Speaker 5: up in. He knows it very well.
- 6:53Speaker 3: And it's politically unusual to do a campaign rally in
- 6:56Speaker 3: a solid blue state so close to voting day, but
- 6:59Speaker 3: that's what Trump did.
- 7:00Speaker 5: And I have no doubt.
- 7:01Speaker 3: It was his decision because all the political people would
- 7:04Speaker 3: have been saying, why don't you go, and you know,
- 7:06Speaker 3: do this in a swing state. His media savvy is extraordinary,
- 7:10Speaker 3: and he knows that the fact he did it in
- 7:13Speaker 3: New York will be a major media story, and from
- 7:15Speaker 3: what I've been seeing in the last few hours, the
- 7:17Speaker 3: whole thing has completely dominated the newest media cycle, the
- 7:20Speaker 3: whole thing, but it's got far more attention than any
- 7:23Speaker 3: Harris rally has got in recent days. You know, despite
- 7:29Speaker 3: the fact she's had all these huge stars.
- 7:36Speaker 4: I'm Bruce Springsteen, and I am here today to support
- 7:39Speaker 4: Marla Harris and Tim Watz for President and Vice President
- 7:43Speaker 4: of the United States.
- 7:47Speaker 1: Speaking of Harris's rallies, I've been interested to see in
- 7:50Speaker 1: recent days that the caliber of stars who she's had
- 7:53Speaker 1: on stage with her, Bruce Springsteen the other day, Beyonce
- 7:57Speaker 1: more recently.
- 8:00Speaker 7: Let's do this, Ladies and gentlemen, please give a big,
- 8:04Speaker 7: loud Texas welcome to the next president of the United States.
- 8:14Speaker 1: It does make me wonder whether this is going to
- 8:17Speaker 1: help Kamala Harris or if it's going to make her
- 8:19Speaker 1: look more kind of elite and out of touch all
- 8:22Speaker 1: the things that Donald Trump would criticize about her. What's
- 8:25Speaker 1: your sense of that, Adam, Having lived in the States
- 8:28Speaker 1: now for a few years, do Americans love Beyonce so
- 8:32Speaker 1: much that they will change their vote potentially depending on
- 8:35Speaker 1: who Beyonce endorses.
- 8:36Speaker 5: No, look my view is that these don't help Haris.
- 8:39Speaker 3: There was a lot of anxiety amongst Republicans with a
- 8:41Speaker 3: Taylor Swift announcement when she endorsed Harris very publicly on Instagram,
- 8:45Speaker 3: but she got no bounce from that. These people are
- 8:48Speaker 3: very rich, like they are extraordinarily rich. I mean, I
- 8:51Speaker 3: think Swift and Beyonce are both big inet so the
- 8:54Speaker 3: ordinary American earning sixty thousand dollars a year or if that,
- 8:58Speaker 3: I think that they kind of resent those of endorsements.
- 9:00Speaker 5: That's my sense, and in fact there is also an
- 9:03Speaker 5: academic literature that says they don't help either.
- 9:05Speaker 3: The momentum now nine days out, it is definitely with Trump.
- 9:08Speaker 3: But if you look at all sources, whether it's polls
- 9:11Speaker 3: or betting markets or even the interesting one is the
- 9:14Speaker 3: share price of Trump's crappy immediate company, which has no revenue,
- 9:19Speaker 3: but in the past month it's tripled.
- 9:21Speaker 5: In price.
- 9:25Speaker 2: Coming up? So can we believe the polls? And is
- 9:29Speaker 2: Trump going to win?
- 9:48Speaker 8: As the end of the election cycle gets closer, the
- 9:50Speaker 8: focus of voters and campaigns shifts to the polls.
- 9:56Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I've given up taking
- 9:59Speaker 1: American political polls.
- 10:01Speaker 2: Seriously.
- 10:02Speaker 1: They were wrong in twenty sixteen when Trump first blindsided
- 10:05Speaker 1: the political establishment to win. They were wrong again in
- 10:09Speaker 1: twenty twenty when nobody thought Joe Biden could dispatch him.
- 10:14Speaker 8: Multiple polling averages show a tightening of the race through
- 10:17Speaker 8: three weeks of October.
- 10:19Speaker 2: Real clear this campaign.
- 10:20Speaker 1: Kamala Harris had an early lead, but over the weekend
- 10:24Speaker 1: some polling indicated that lead was coming back to even
- 10:29Speaker 1: Nate Silver is an analyst you're shot to fame for
- 10:32Speaker 1: accurately predicting virtually every state's vote in the two thousand
- 10:36Speaker 1: and eight election that brought Barack Obama to power. He's
- 10:40Speaker 1: been right on numerous other occasions too. In twenty sixteen,
- 10:45Speaker 1: just like every other statistician, he didn't think Trump would win,
- 10:49Speaker 1: but he gave Trump a better chance than almost anyone else.
- 10:53Speaker 1: So I guess you could say he was less wrong
- 10:56Speaker 1: than the others. Be is she back then as now?
- 10:59Speaker 1: Is that you can only deal with what voters are
- 11:01Speaker 1: telling polsters, and in this case, Harris is trying to
- 11:05Speaker 1: win over women, including Republican women who've never voted for
- 11:09Speaker 1: a Democrat, and the Republicans are hoping men will come
- 11:13Speaker 1: out of the woodwork to vote for Trump. Those things
- 11:17Speaker 1: are hard to predict because the decisions people might make
- 11:21Speaker 1: on the drive to the voting booth, or they might
- 11:23Speaker 1: decide to switch at the last minute or not vote
- 11:27Speaker 1: at all. Early on Tuesday morning, Silver had Harris at
- 11:31Speaker 1: forty eight point six percent, just in front of Trump
- 11:34Speaker 1: at forty seven point four percent. That's a nearly two
- 11:37Speaker 1: percentage point improvement for the Republicans in the past month.
- 11:42Speaker 1: I leaned on Adam taking advantage of the fact he
- 11:45Speaker 1: was exhausted after his big day at the rally to
- 11:47Speaker 1: make a prediction for us.
- 11:50Speaker 3: You know, at this stage, I'd have to say Trump
- 11:52Speaker 3: is going to win. But what I struggle with is
- 11:55Speaker 3: just that if he wins, it's the most incredible political comeback.
- 11:58Speaker 5: In world history.
- 11:59Speaker 3: I would say, I don't think that's an exaggeration, and
- 12:02Speaker 3: I can't imagine it almost because he's just got so
- 12:05Speaker 3: much baggage. He's so hatent by a large minority of
- 12:08Speaker 3: the American population, and it is unfathomable. I mean, you
- 12:12Speaker 3: think back two years ago when he launched his campaign.
- 12:14Speaker 3: Everyone derided him, including that as it has been as
- 12:17Speaker 3: a problem as someone the Republicans need to get rid
- 12:20Speaker 3: of and he's proved everyone wrong. There's something about him.
- 12:23Speaker 3: He has the X factor. So if you're forcing me
- 12:26Speaker 3: to prepict I would say.
- 12:27Speaker 5: Trump will win.
- 12:28Speaker 3: But there's still nine days to go and it could
- 12:33Speaker 3: get very rough and aggressive the next few days.
- 12:36Speaker 5: Who knows what's going to come out of the news.
- 12:45Speaker 1: Adam Crichton is The Australian's US correspondent and he's on
- 12:48Speaker 1: the ground with Cameron Stewart and Joe Kelly. A subscription
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