The last ten weeks have been tumultuous for the American people, starting with the first presidential debate between Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden on June 27. The outcome was so one-sided that Democrats immediately pressured Biden to withdraw from the race.
On July 13, there was an assassination attempt against President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The lax security by the Secret Service led to investigations and a shakeup in leadership at the troubled agency.
Immediately thereafter, the Republicans gathered for their convention. Trump selected U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his running mate and the ticket was officially nominated.
Several days later, Biden withdrew from the 2024 nomination race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor. At that point, she was crowned and coasted to the nomination with no competition. A few weeks later, Harris picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a progressive Democrat, as her running mate. Subsequently, Democrats gathered for their convention and officially nominated the ticket of Harris and Walz.
Starting on Labor Day, the unofficial kickoff of American presidential campaigns, the country prepares for the homestretch of the most consequential election in our history.
Despite facing unrelenting media bias, President Trump is well positioned to win the election and return to the White House.
At this date in the election, Trump is doing better compared to his previous campaigns. In 2016, he trailed Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton by 4.9% and in 2020, he trailed his Democrat opponent, Joe Biden, by 6.0%.
According to the latest Real Clear Politics poll average, Harris leads Trump by 1.8%. Of course, this lead, if maintained through the election, does not mean Harris will win. The presidency is determined by electoral votes and not popular votes. In 2016, Trump won the presidential election, while losing the popular vote to Clinton.
In this year’s race, due to huge Democratic Party majorities in “blue” states such as New York and California, Harris will probably win the popular vote. In fact, since 1992, the only Republican Party presidential candidate to win the popular vote was George W. Bush in the 2004 election.
Once again, it is almost guaranteed which candidate will win forty-three states, the vast majority of which are either solidly Republican or Democrat. The winner of the 2024 election will be determined by who wins the seven “purple” battleground states.
In 2020, President Trump only won one battleground state, North Carolina. The other six battleground states were won by Biden by remarkably close margins.
Of course, the validity of the 2020 election results will be debated forever. President Trump and 69% of Republicans believe the results were not legitimate. In this election, the goal for the Trump campaign will be to make the turnout “too big to rig.”
There is also no doubt that in 2016 and 2020 pollsters miscalculated the level of support for President Trump. In 2020, pollsters overestimated support for Biden by 3.9%, the largest margin in 40 years.
Thus, whatever polls show in 2024, the level of support for President Trump is undoubtedly undervalued. Currently, the Real Clear Politics average of polls show Trump barely leads Harris in four of the seven battleground states and is closely behind in the other three.
It is an amazing accomplishment for Trump to be in this position after the selection of Harris as the Democratic Party nominee. Not only was she spared facing opponents in competitive primaries, but she also has received nothing but praise from a compliant media.
Instead of criticizing Harris for avoiding interviews, the media have been shamelessly cheerleading for her. Since Biden’s withdrawal, Harris has only submitted to one media interview, a farce conducted by CNN, a left-wing network. In the so-called interview, Harris was joined by Walz and was given exceptionally soft treatment by CNN anchor Dana Bash.
Including footage, the interview lasted only 27 minutes and did not feature the type of hard-hitting questions Republicans must always face from the left-wing media.
It is not known when Harris will agree to a solo interview or news conference. In contrast, President Trump has conducted several lengthy news conferences in recent weeks and has been doing numerous interviews on news programs and podcasts.
The next big event in the election is scheduled for September 10, the only scheduled debate between Harris and Trump. As usual, the debate will be held on a liberal network, ABC, and will be conducted by liberal moderators, Linsey Davis, and David Muir.
Trump has complained on social media that ABC is “by far the nastiest and most unfair newscaster in the business.” He is involved in an ongoing defamation lawsuit against ABC because their anchor, George Stephanopoulos, a former operative for Democrat President Bill Clinton, asserted that Trump had “raped” a writer who sued him for sexual abuse.
Trump faced similar bias when debating Biden on CNN and was victorious. So, he is surely confident he can prevail against a candidate known for her “word salads,” who is not confident enough to face the media unaccompanied.
While the debate is scheduled, the rules are still in question. Harris wants the microphones to be unmuted. On X, she taunted her opponent by posting, “Donald Trump is surrendering to his advisors who won't allow him to debate with a live microphone. If his own team doesn't have confidence in him, the American people…can’t. We are running for President of the United States. Let’s debate in a transparent way—with the microphones on...the whole time.”
Harris is hoping for an unscripted moment the media will characterize as Trump “bullying” her. Thereafter, she will claim that “nasty” Donald Trump was taking advantage of a woman and her message will be, “he is sexist.”
If he is wise, President Trump will not take the bait and will stick to the original rules, muted microphones.
There must be no tricks to save Kamala Harris. If so, she will be exposed for what she is, a fraud.
Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award-winning program, “Ringside Politics,” airs Saturdays from Noon until 1 p.m. CT nationally on Real America's Voice TV Network & AmericasVoice.News and weekdays from 7-9 a.m. & 6-7 p.m. CT on WGSO 990-AM & Wgso.com. He is a political columnist, the author of America's Last Chance and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and on Crouere.net. For more information, email him at jcrouere@gmail.com
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