Can Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump? | Start Here

let's talk about kamla Harris and whether she can beat Donald Trump Bring It On she's the former Attorney General of California a former US senator the current vice president and the last minute pick to be the Democratic party's presidential candidate after Joe Biden dropped out the old era is over and the new era is here it is go time if she wins Kam would become the first woman the first black woman and the first South Asian-American to hold the top job you are witnessing the birth of a cultural phenomenon and you need a cultural phenomenon to stop a cultural phenomenon Donald Trump is a cultural phenomenon Cala you're fired get out of here you're fired I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week so how has kamla Harris shaken up the race what are the big issues playing out in her campaign and what are her chances of winning the election on November 5th it's been a crazy election cycle already we've had one candidate convicted of a felony a disastrous presidential debate an assassination attempt and an incumbent president pulling out of the race come Harris replacing Joe Biden is the latest twist and it's injected new momentum into the Democratic party's campaign a clear sign of that was all the donations that poured in in the first 36 hours after Biden endorsed Harris 1.1 million people uniquely donated to the campaign in that time frame 62% of those 1.1 million donors it's the first time they gave this election cycle to the presidential campaign people feel a sense of excitement that just wasn't there when Biden was on the top of the ticket running against Trump and you can see a lot of that excitement online you think you just fell out of a coconut tree project coconut Baby [Music] [Applause] Woo hey kamla what are we going to say to Donald Trump in November bye bye bye so there is this big buzz around Harris but all the polls so far suggest it's going to be a super tight race the question for the Democrats as whether they can turn that enthusiasm into enough votes in the right places because let's remind ourselves what it actually takes to win a presidential election in the US it doesn't necessarily come down to getting the most votes overall it's all about what's called The Electoral College every state has an assigned number of electoral College votes and the results in each state determine how many of those votes go to each candidate 270 is the majority so that's the number the candidates are are chasing to win now some states pretty much always go to the Republicans so-called red States and others reliably go to the Democrats the blue States then there are the states that tend to swing between the two parties and they're the key to getting to 270 in this election there are seven main ones which both campaigns will focus on in our system really campaigns are math right so it is getting to that Electoral College vote and these Battleground states are the path they're they're the math to get there they are won by very thin marges tens of thousands of votes in some of these places we've got some work to do but we're not afraid of hard work we like hard work don't we and we will win this election so how could she do it well here are five factors that are playing into her campaign let's start with the age Factor the issue that 81-year-old Biden just couldn't shake off KLA Harris is 59 so one of the biggest vulnerabilities for the Democrats has now become a strength Donald Trump who's 78 is now the old guy in this contest and one of the Republicans main lines of attack just isn't relevant anymore I think they're definitely on the back foot all of their messaging was on Joe Biden on Joe Biden's age on his um cognitive abilities or lack thereof they're going to have to Pivot it also seems that KL Harris has captured the imagination of a lot of young people a really important voting block she was labeled brat by the pop star Charlie XCX FYI brat is the name of her latest album and it's becoming a trending meme about being a little chaotic and just being yourself and j z has run with [Music] it coconut coconut coconut coconut Princess Street o o hey is somebody had to look up Brett today I I'm I'm understanding you know how important this is but listen putting that label on her you know it means authenticity it means energy and there are signs that that energy is translating into something tangible right after Harris entered the race there was a spike in voter registrations more than 80% were between 18 and 34 young people who felt kind of disengaged from the process we're suddenly thinking you know what I I feel like voting again that said theum campaign is also trying to reach young voters and Trump's pick for vice president is actually younger than Harris Donald Trump also named his running mate at the RNC convention that energized a number of younger Republicans out there too next up is what we're calling the woman factor and there are a few things to untangle here first is to remember that Women Voters are another important demographic for any candidate especially in those swing States we've always known that uh women are likely to Suburban women are likely to decide this election young women are going to decide this election and um white women college educated women could decide this election this is another advantage in a strength that she's playing to having said that Donald Trump has already beat a woman to the White House Hillary Clinton back in 2016 and plenty of women do support Trump but a few things have changed since he ran against Clinton including the fact that he's been found liable for sexual abuse in a Civil Trial Trump weaponized gender gender Norms against Hillary Clinton I don't think he's going to be able to do that that successfully this term primarily because he's been convicted of sexual assault you know Trump's Behavior towards women is not an unknown and it's rather misogynistic it's patriarchical and how Donald Trump treats kamla Harris will have implications for how this key demographic of Swing voters will vote in November and then there's the issue of Reproductive Rights polls show that access to abortion is a big concern for a lot of Voters particularly women and KLA Harris has been a leading voice on that issue for the Democrats the right of every woman in every state in this country to make decisions about her own body is on the line and I've said it before and I will say it again how dare they in 2022 the Supreme Court overturned a landmark case Ro v Wade which had protected abortion as a constitutional right it was something many republican politicians have been pushing for for years and it was the judges appointed by Trump while he was president that swung the decision leading to abortion bans in many republican Le States we've seen in polling we've seen this in referendums in in red states that Americans are really unhappy with the extreme bans on abortion and so Republicans don't really want to touch this they know that it's a losing issue for them reproductive freedoms could decide this election the fact that a woman now is the top of the ticket and this is one of her key issues is going to attract women whether they are Republican or Democrat next up how race might play into this election KLA Harris has mixed Heritage her parents were both immigrants her mother came from India and her father's Jamaican it's hard to judge how her background might affect the vote some Republicans have drawn attention to it by referring to her as the deip piic which stands for diversity equity and inclusion so it's this idea that the the Democrats are playing identity politics that there's this calculation that kamla Harris should be president because of her identity without giving any Credence to her qualifications and Trump himself actually questioned Harris's racial identity at a conference of black journalists she was always of Indian Heritage and she was only promoting Indian Heritage I didn't know she was was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black and now she wants to be known as black so I don't know is she Indian or is she black it was the same old show the divisiveness and the disrespect the American people deserve better and there are signs that Harris is already galvanizing huge support among black voters and other minority groups there was one video call led by black women in support of Harris where 990,000 people tried to join in and it raised $1.5 million in just 3 hours another call led by black men raised more than 1.3 million there was a real concern that there were a number of particularly black men who might be moving to vote for the Republican ticket this election cycle so this is a huge signal that having Kamala on the top of the ballot has mobilized uh black voters which is a key demographic group for Democrats Democrats will not win an election with just black people but they will lose an election if they are not black people supporters so Kamala has already proven that she can re-energize a base that the Democrats so desperately need and if they want to win in November another area where Harris seems to be stronger than Biden is her ability to go on the attack against Trump and the Optics around her being a former prosecutor running against a convicted felon I took on perpetrators of all kinds Predators who Abused women frauders who ripped off consumers cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain so hear me when I say I know Donald Trump's type she can prosecute the case the political case and the economic case against Donald Trump so it changes the dynamic there last on our list is Harris's policy record now she's been in high-profile positions for a pretty long time so there's lots of stuff that people can refer to like her time as San Francisco's district attorney and California's attorney general she's had mixed reviews including accusations from some people that she was too harsh on issues like drug convictions and criminalizing the parents of kids who skip school it's not as if she's this complete unknown but there also gives Republicans a lot of chance to really try to delve into her record in California and paint her as this California liberal who will always cow toow to the left and that doesn't tend to play well obviously with these F uh folks who are in these seven swingy states I call them then there's Harris's record on the other big issues featuring in this election there's abortion which as we mentioned her campaign will push as one of her strengths there's also the economy where as vice president Harris is basic basically tied to Biden's record Trump's arguing that the economy is in really bad shape and a lot of people are struggling because of inflation but Harris will try to emphasize things like high levels of employment providing debt relief for students and the fact that inflation has started to slow down a trickier self for Harris is her record on illegal immigration which Trump and the Republicans are going big on record numbers of migrants have crossed illegally into the US from Mexico during Biden's presidency and he specifically tasked Harris to work with governments in Central America to address the root causes to bring the numbers down do not come do not come Kamala had one job one job and that was to fix the border now imagine her in charge of the entire country she launched a colossal illegal alien invasion of a country she V she said come on in remember where she's lost there's no question has been on immigration there's no question that she said do not come and millions of people came anyways and they came in record numbers by the hundreds of thousands and that has been a problem for the Biden Administration now those domestic issues will probably weigh most heavily on voters minds but kamla Harris will also be tested on foreign policy things like the US's relationship with China support for Ukraine and where she stands on Israel and the war in Gaza which is a particularly polarizing issue now some people frame Harris's position on Gaza as slightly different to Biden they say she's done more to highlight the humanitarian catastrophe we cannot look away in the face of these tragedies we cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent that might help her pick up V voters who've been alienated by Biden's approach or potentially lead to her losing some pro-israel voters Gaza which has been a drain on the president not only in terms of Arab voters in Michigan but also in terms of black Latino Asian young people where you were seeing 15 20% attrition and people saying that it was Gaza that was causing them to drop off now the vice president has been far more empathetic on Palestinian issues she was the first person to really come out and Fork the Biden Administration to call a spade a spade to say these videos are horrific the way that Palestinians are being treated is horrific the problem is that could come back and hurt her uh with a lot of the Jewish Democratic voters and there are enormous number of them that may actually go to Donald Trump because of those policies among Pro Palestinians many don't differentiate between her position and Biden's and see her as just as much a part of the pro-israel establishment stop the genocide 15,000 children de because of you stop the Gen M if you just scratch a little bit at the surface of kamla Harris's record um even prior to becoming vice president you see someone who was vociferously um pro-israel really so those are some of the main themes being talked about in the runup to November but there's one other key question that KLA Harris will have to contend with and that's whether the US is ready for a woman president it's a question with no easy answers people asked it when Hillary Clinton lost to Trump but that was 8 years ago since then some things have changed there's been the me too movement for a start then again millions of American women have also lost the right to an abortion so it kind of depends who you ask because it's easy to pick and choose examples of how things have progressed or regressed for women but the way people respond to KLA Harris's campaign for president might give us some more clues even after all the advances after so many women being elected to office there are challenges sometimes for women running the response to this question is indicative of the times right and if we if she wasn't running against in Donald Trump I probably would have a different answer I I definitely think that racism and sexism are a major part that she'll have to face and continues to face but is America ready I think America is more ready for someone who's pledged themselves to the democratic ideals than to president Donald Trump if you want to know more about all the legal cases Trump is facing check out our recent episode there's also this explainer on the US Israel relationship and why it's always been so close [Music]