The optics and strategy of the Harris-Trump debate | The Listening Post

we are now well into election season in America and the presidential debates keep shape-shifting the story debate number two what got said and what did not how online influencers in the US have been influenced by money coming out of Moscow plus Cobalt the Democratic Republic of Congo and the price that miners are paying to make our mobile phones and laptops American voters have already had two presidential debates to take in ahead of November's election the first back in June was a GameChanger knocking Joe Biden off the Democratic ticket the second held this past week may prove to be kamla Harris provides the Democrats with a fresh face to put up against Donald Trump and the skills she acquired as a prosecutor served her well in this debate in making the case that Trump is unfit to lead Harris is still carrying the political baggage of the Biden Administration on issues such as the economy immigration and Biden's refusal to stop Israel on its genocidal mission in Gaza that may be why Harris has steered clear of journalists refusing for the most part to do interviews with mainstream news outlets according to the polls her strategy prioritizing social media style and Vibes over over substance seems to be working and the fact that Donald Trump is 78 years old and is now up against a much younger candidate does not help his cause a US presidential debate tends to be about more than just a war of words the Optics matter too the nonverbal forms of communication everything from the handshake at the outset to the look one candidate gives the other can send a message Pack-a-Punch she walked over to Trump and sort of got in his space really asserted her dominance early on and that was a really important move of even before the debate had begun so any woman in professional life especially in male dominated Fields like politics um knows the importance of keeping composed even as you're hearing things that are odd or maybe even offensive and one of the things that I think the split screen was able to do was to show how it's looking really opposed um she was looking right at Trump and she wasn't going to let up and I think part of the strategy wasn't really about him at all it was about I can hold the stage I can be presidential I can be commanderin-chief we know that a tactic of the the Harris campaign is to really try and get under the former president's skin and I think she conveyed that really effectively just pely with her face without uh disobeying any of the rules agreed by the moderators and the candidates in advance another tactic of the Harris campaign is to give the mainstream media the cold shoulders keeping interviews with Legacy news outlets to an absolute minimum since being handed the torch by Joe Biden Harris has done one interview with CNN Madam vice president governor Wells thank you so much for sitting down with me and bringing the her team prefers to sacrifice the sound bites such interviews produce that play well with older audiences for memes on social media aimed at younger voters focusing on content that's light on policy but big on Vibes and which the campaign can control like this ad featuring former members of Team Trump who have defected take it from the people who knew him best Donald Trump is a danger to our troops and our democracy for kamla Harris avoiding the likes of Fox News is a no-brainer and KLA Harris is running a very different campaign she's intentionally laying low but her campaign cannot even see an upside to sitting down with the New York Times or calling in to MSNBC when you sit down with a reporter you know that that reporter is going to challenge you if you say something that's false or if you say something that's absurd when you're putting your own messaging out you don't have that challenge and that then feeds into uh this sort of siloing of the two sides in our politics and so we've got a challenge in America rooted in the weaken of a lot of our traditional media outlets and the failure of New Media to fill the void the end result is is not good for our politics candidates should sit down for interviews if Harris has concerns about meeting with the US uh political press I think she's giving them a little too much credit The Establishment media here is uh reliably mey mouthed and hasn't been pushing uh either candidate on the key domestic and certainly geopolitical issues uh that really affect this country and its role in the world today that said uh would be president uh shying away from uh press scrutiny doesn't look good this is a deliberate media strategy that those types of media aren't that important in this modern media environment if the momentum's with her why not keep writing that momentum and we've really seen the Harris campaign lean into social media lean into to memes into a lot of alternative media rather than with the major networks based on the decision that those aren't that important for voters the test will obviously be in November that is the strategy that is behind this decision vient the two ABC moderators did not question Harris on her refusal to do more interviews far more glaring though was the cursory treatment given to Israel's war on Palestine the crimes against humanity taking place in Gaza and the West Bank that hundreds of thousands of American students have protested over the debate lasted 90 minutes only 4 minutes was devoted to the war When Donald Trump did his thing ranting about Kamala Harris hating Israel and Arab populations the ABC moderator sought clarification about the Israel part oh that's absolutely not true I have my entire career and life supported Israel in the Israel BBC spent more than twice as much time 9 minutes running commercials pedling its new programming schedule to Americans than it did examining a genocide being inflicted on Palestinians that the Biden Administration is arming and backing does the mainstream media anywhere get more corporate than that the exchange on Gaza was the low point of the debate it was disappointing in every sense it was as if the moderators felt they had to ask a question about Gaza or at least about Israel Palestine but they didn't really want to spend a lot of time on it they basically set the candidates up to give uh the answers that they usually give a repetition of talking points in a sense they were making sure that no one would criticize them for not bringing up Gaza but they really didn't bring up Gaza in a way where you had a serious thoughtful conversation there was no one on that stage be it Trump Harris or the moderators who showed any interest in uh holding Israel accountable for the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza Trump of course rapidly islamophobic um pro-israel proit ethnostate regime status um and more interested in flattening Gaza and probably turning it into some Dubai style playground well Harris's gestures towards Palestinian dignity were empty and thus no better had the moderators pushed either candidate on the issue uh would it have made any difference to uh the pal Ians being slaughtered in Gaza and now the West Bank no because both candidates are fully signed up to supporting Israel's genocide the morning after the debate with pollsters and pundits agreeing that Harris had won the night Donald Trump was predictably aggrieved he said ABC's moderators were biased that they proved it by fact checking him far more often than his opponent and that the network should have its license to broadcast Rec Ed the former president's reaction was not just familiar it could have been scripted by the writers of a new feature film about Trump set for release in the US next month The Apprentice tells the story of a young Trump and the notoriously Cutthroat lawyer who mentored him Roy KH in it KH schools Trump on the ways of the New York business World rules that Trump seems to be following to this day in the world of politics the first rule is the simplest attack attack attack she goes down as the worst vice president in the history of our country rule two admit nothing deny everything I don't know anything about it I don't want to know anything about it rule three no matter what happens you claimed Victory and never admit defeat uh this was my best debate I thought it was very good another thing that will have not sat well with Donald Trump on the morning after ABC's moderators we're getting better reviews than he was I think the moderators did what was necessary and what's been missing in the presidential debates thus far so for example Donald Trump spouted a kind of wild conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants in Springfield they're eating the dogs the people that came in they're eating the cats they're eating they're eating the pets of the people that live there and this there's no evidence of this claim it's a far-right concussion and one of the moderators David Mur stepped in there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed injured or abused by individuals within the Immigrant Community this kind of intervention is important when we're thinking about things that have no factual basis whatsoever and have real implications for the safety of people the moderators ensured there was a baseline of Truth and fact in this debate there were some things Harris said as well so both of these candidates you know they're politicians they're competing and they're saying things that that may be over the top but proportionally the number of lies and the number of uh just completely absurd statements from Donald Trump just dwarfed uh the number that came from comell Harris and so I think that the moderators when they challenged Donald Trump on on things he had said I think that was was appropriate to my mind they should have done a lot more the value of most political debates is that they take candidates away from their standard campaign stops where they have the stage to themselves to one they have to share allowing voters to compare this one was different the comparison Americans were making this week consciously or subconsciously was of these two images the choice they were offered in the first debate versus the one they have now and on that the Optics it's was no contest from the very [Music] start staying with the US for now Washington says it is conducting a coordinated effort against foreign influence in this election minak shiavi has been following this story there has been all kinds of activity in DC over Russian disinformation operations tied not just to the presidential elections but Congressional elections too three government departments combined to bust two programs one called doppelganger and the other involving online influencers doppelganger quote disseminates disinformation through a network of cloned websites fake articles and social media manipulation the pro Russian narratives on those sites included negative depictions of Ukraine and posts about contentious social issues in the United States the other scheme involves some high-profile right-wing influencers names like Dave Rubin Benny Johnson and Tim P who have followers in the Millions Washington accuses two us-based employees of Russian State media Outlet RT of funneling $10 million to a US social media company called tenet which paid those influencers for their videos Ukraine is the enemy of this country Ukraine is our enemy being funded by the Democrats there's a Twist in the story The influencers involved say that they were among the victims since they weren't informed of the original source of the money they also said they had full editorial control of all their content in Moscow Washington's anti- disinformation drive has caused Amusement RT's deputy editor-in chief wrote there are three certainties in life death taxes and RT's interference in the American elections there are flaws in this US Government campaign because it only goes so far 3 months ago Israel was revealed to have organized and paid foreign influence campaign that used fake profiles on X Facebook and Instagram to post pro-israel comment comments Israel pumped $2 million into that the outcry there wasn't one thanks Mina Cobalt is one of the most in demand minerals in the world today it is used in the batteries of our smartphones laptops and electric cars most of the global supply of cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo either through big industrial mines or an unregulated sector known as artisanal mines however covering Cobalt EXT action in the DRC is notoriously difficult which makes it hard to know what kind of conditions the miners are working under from The Limited coverage that is produced we hear stories of child labor hazardous minds and exploitation terms like blood Cobalt get bandied around along with comparisons to the Congo's violent Colonial past all of which is contested by The Mining and big tech companies that profit from Cobalt they maintain that their supply chains are ethical in the first of a two-part report the listening posts Nick mad went to the DRC to try to get access to the minds to see for himself what the story [Music] is who wields the truth the marketing teams at Tech and EV companies wield the truth or is it the congle people because they're telling completely opposite Stories the people on the ground in the Congo are telling a story of pillage suffering Penny wages and death to feed Cobalt up the chain the companies at the top of the chain are talking about human rights Zero Tolerance policies on child labor sustainable mining practices please look the other way and upgrade your phone this year so we have to all think who do we want to believe once again the resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo the DRC are at the center of global demand first the world came for its rubber then it's gold copper and now Cobalt the mineral used in the batteries that power our modern-day rechargeable Lifestyles the extraction of cobalt is a difficult story to tell and The Limited coverage that does come out paints a grim picture of exploitation and environmental damage in the Eastern region there is a conflict that has been ongoing since 1996 an estimated 6 million people have been killed more than 7 million displaced the fighting is taking place far away from the Cobalt mines but it complicates everything to show you how tightly controlled the Cobalt story is and why we start in the drc's largest city it's basing heavily policed and sometimes volatile it's the perpetually chaotic capital kinasa journalists are accustomed to going through certain Hoops to gain access legal access to a story but in the DRC getting close to the mining story is especially arduous it's taken us two months and thousands of dollars to get my Visa and press accreditation and to give you an idea of the bureaucracy we had to navigate look at all the stamps from the various government bodies that we collected along the way and despite all of this we don't have permission to go to the south of the country where the are that's still a work in progress coverage of cobalt mining in particular is a sensitive issue for a variety of reasons um obviously mining in the DRC represents a large share of domestic revenue and of the congales economy they are a fringe of pretty influential congales politicians and Military Elites who have personal stakes in the industry I also think that the nature of Mining and how mining concessions are structured makes it difficult to access and to report after getting the last approval that we needed from kinasa we flew to lubumbashi the second largest city in the DRC and the gateway to the Cobalt mines the sector is divided in two regulated industrial mines operated by big mining companies they use heavy machinery and produce 80% of the drc's Cobalt the remaining 20% comes from unregulated artial mines that are dug manually which make them much more dangerous luomashi is also where most of the congales journalists who Cav the mining sector are based like Frank fber the editor of mining news magazine what has been your experience covering the sector as someone that focuses on the mining industry have there been any challenges or or dangers that you face while trying to do your job are there any dangers when you go to the mining site don't expect to be greeted with cheers the miners are worry they want to know who does what and why so if you're not well supervised or people aren't prepared for your presence there may be frustration that leads to poor choices and dangerous situations there is some hesitation um about confining or sharing lived experiences with Outsiders in part because of thatat press the portrayal of Human Rights abuses has an impact on the local economy on foreign investment which in turn has impact on people's livelihoods I would do uh interviews under the cover of Darkness uh we'd arrange a safe place with trusted guides transport villagers Before Dawn to that site then I would do interviews keep them there for the day and then return them after Sunset now mind you most people don't want to talk because there's enormous Peril associated with revealing the truth from Lum Bashi we catch a bus West to what's known as the Cobalt capital of the world Kazi around 70% of the global supply of cobalt comes from this small patch of the DRC as we get closer the Hallmarks of extraction start to present themselves the road is well traveled but it's also treacherous when we reach Ki we find a town on the edge of an industrial mine where we will have to wait for our final approval to go to the mines candy aim went to kesi in 2022 to document the impact that industrial mining was having on the surrounding communities we spoke to over 130 people met with company officials um what we found is that the communities that really live on or around mineral rich land are really not the beneficiaries of that activity worse many of them have to live their homes and their Farmland forcibly without minimum you know safeguards one of the cases we looked into the community explained to us that in 2016 their informal sentiment was completely erased from the map with the participation of the congales military that destroyed their informal sediments and we were able to corroborate that information through the review of satellite imagery the largest Cobalt mining concession in in the Southeastern Congo is the size of London so you have to imagine a London siiz concession multiplied several times over that's been ripped apart and all the people who used to live in that concession displaced pushed to the fringes of existence now there's no way for them to survive except to scr back into that territory where they used to live and try to fill a sack of cobalt for the day these groups of people would move into the artial mining sector and it's known to be a family [Music] affair typically the men do the digging the woman wash the Cobalt and the children have been known to work as well but many have to go with their parents to the mines because even though they can be deadly for poverty-stricken families that's the only option yeah there are plenty of dangers in artisanal mining the material is radioactive and very often the miners work without protective clothing or equipment no gloves no masks no glasses they expose themselves to harm because raw Cobalt is toxic it leads to disease and birth defects a family unit will work 12 hours in hazardous toxic conditions to fill up one or two sacks which they will sell to the industrial mining company for the equivalent of a dollar or two of income a day and if they suffer a shattered leg a broken neck or God forbid they are buried alive in a tunnel collapse they'll just bring in the next family and that's how this fever this Scramble for Cobalt is being met you have to get your heads around this artisanal workers are not state employees they're part of cooperatives we realized that at one point the corporative managers did not have protective equipment for workers we realized that they weren't trained in the correct digging and operating procedures we are talking about landslides happening when things are poorly done but many of the mining companies don't cooperate with journalists because when we cover this sector there are hard questions that need to be answered in part two of this report we finally managed to get inside a Cobalt mine we analyzed some of the news cover that has been produced about these issues over the years to try and assess whether or not it gives an accurate portrayal of what is happening and we look at Cobalt Supply chains which big tech companies claim are ethical but a growing number of journalists researchers and activists say otherwise and finally this past week in isra military plane flew over a refugee camp in Gaza an area that Israel had designated a safe Zone and Dropped a 2,000lb Bomb on it Rescuers and eyewitnesses in almasi described a hellish scene a crater 9 M deep people buried in the sand killed as they slept entire families erased after 11 months of broadcasting their horror stories Palestinians are right to wonder if the world has grown desensitized to their Mass killing the huge gap between the reality of trying to survive a genocide and the the way their story gets reported the excuses made the euphemisms used when a word like genocide will do we cannot stop talking about it and Reporting on it because there is just no normalizing this we'll see you next time here at the listening post