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Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christinamio.

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Speaker 1: It's Monday, November four. Top government bureaucrats will be grilled

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Speaker 1: over Anthony Albanesi's relationship with former Quantus boss Alan Joyce

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Speaker 1: this week. Coalition senators have indicated they want to determine

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Speaker 1: if the PM used his authority as Transport Minister to

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Speaker 1: protect the airline from competition. Those stories a live right

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Speaker 1: now at the Australian dot com dot au. The student

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Speaker 1: deads of three million Australians will be slashed without affecting

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Speaker 1: the government's bottom line, but experts say that creative accounting

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Speaker 1: is hiding big deficits in the budget. There's just a

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Speaker 1: few sleeps until Americans decide if Kamala Harris or Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump will be their next president. In today's episode, our

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Speaker 1: correspondent speaks to Democrat and Republican voters on the ground

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Speaker 1: and catches up with one of the most unique players

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Speaker 1: in American politics. On January sixth, twenty twenty one, Cameron

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Speaker 1: Stewart was making his way to the White House to

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Speaker 1: hear then President Donald Trump speak. Cam was The Australian's

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Speaker 1: Washington correspondent at the time, and Trump, the incumbent, had

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Speaker 1: just been robbed, he says, of a second consecutive term

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Speaker 1: as president.

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Speaker 2: Our country has had enough.

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Speaker 3: We will not take it anymore. And that's what this

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Speaker 3: is all about.

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Speaker 4: And to use a favorite term that all of you

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Speaker 4: people really came up with, we will stop the steal.

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Speaker 1: It was there in the street that Cam had a

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Speaker 1: chance encounter with a bare chested man wearing a fur

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Speaker 1: head replete with horns. His bearded face was painted in red,

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Speaker 1: white and blue. In the hours that followed, thousands of

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Speaker 1: Trump supporters would storm the Capitol Building, motivated by a

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Speaker 1: belief the election had been stolen from their leader.

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Speaker 4: I know that everyone here will soon be marching over

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Speaker 4: to the Capitol Building to peacefully and patriotically make your

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Speaker 4: voices heard.

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Speaker 1: As the throngs overwhelmed every inch of the Capitol Building,

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Speaker 1: that man horned hat and all sat atop the chair

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Speaker 1: of the speaker as chaos rained down around him. Jacob

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Speaker 1: Chansley came to be known as the Quenon Shaman, a

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Speaker 1: symbol of the Capital riots and of the resistance against

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Speaker 1: what he calls the deep state that he believes installed

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Speaker 1: Joe Biden as Trump's successor. Last week, Cam crossed paths

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Speaker 1: with him again, this time on the fringe of the

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Speaker 1: Arizona Desert in Phoenix, where he is.

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Speaker 2: I've always wondered what he thinks of American politics four

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Speaker 2: years that it and it was interesting to speak to him.

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Speaker 2: He's very much of that I guess, far right fringe

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Speaker 2: of American politics, where he's very conspiratorial, the very anti government,

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Speaker 2: anti institutions. He doesn't trust them, really thinks that the

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Speaker 2: deep state is controlling a lot of what happens in

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Speaker 2: American politics. And he certainly doesn't believe that if Kamla

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Speaker 2: House wins the election that it will have been a

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Speaker 2: fair election.

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Speaker 4: Oh, the end of America as we know it. The

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Speaker 4: reason why I say that is this there, first of all,

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Speaker 4: importing a bunch of voters from all over the world,

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Speaker 4: and if they give them citizenship, especially in these swing states,

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Speaker 4: then they're going to change the swing states from swing

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Speaker 4: states to blue states. If we start talking about.

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Speaker 2: This, it's very interesting to get those perspectives because in America,

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Speaker 2: this sort of far right, conspiratorial fringe, if you like,

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Speaker 2: is not really that much of a fringe. January the

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Speaker 2: sixth happened. These people are players to some degree in

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Speaker 2: American politics, so I thought it'd be really interesting for

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Speaker 2: the readers to get a bit of a sense of that,

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Speaker 2: and certainly, to be fair to him, he wouldn't strike

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Speaker 2: met all as a violent person or anything like that.

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Speaker 2: He's a guy who's basically very much caught up in

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Speaker 2: these unusual beliefs.

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Speaker 1: Jacob Chansley served twenty seven months in prison for his

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Speaker 1: part in the events of January sixth. His horn, headdress

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Speaker 1: and the spear he carried into the Capitol have been

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Speaker 1: confiscated by the FBI. Because of his conviction, he can't vote,

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Speaker 1: but he believes Donald Trump will win in a landslide

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Speaker 1: when his countrymen cast their ballots on Tuesday. The polls

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Speaker 1: suggest otherwise.

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Speaker 2: It's fascinating because I think for the last ten days

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Speaker 2: we've seen a slow rise in Trump's approval ratings and

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Speaker 2: poles across the board, to such that he's passed Kamala

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Speaker 2: Harris only very narrowly in five of the seven swing

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Speaker 2: states which will determine the election. But this momentum has

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Speaker 2: stalled somewhat, and Harris, according to at least one new pole,

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Speaker 2: is actually up still in the three so.

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Speaker 3: Called blue Wall states.

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Speaker 2: The way Harris will win this presidency is if she

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Speaker 2: wins three states, simple as that, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania,

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Speaker 2: the so called blue Wall states. She's got a much

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Speaker 2: better chance of winning all three of those than she

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Speaker 2: has the other states Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia, and Nevada.

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Speaker 2: And so that's her ticket to victory. And at this minute,

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Speaker 2: she's holding irm and she's actually, depending on the polls

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Speaker 2: you read, she's certainly looking reasonably good in Michigan and

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Speaker 2: Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, which is frankly the state that will

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Speaker 2: decide the election is an absolute toss of the coins.

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Speaker 2: So I think Krmala Harris has actually come back a

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Speaker 2: little bit in a way that some people perhaps weren't expecting. So,

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Speaker 2: you know, good luck in predicting it. But I think

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Speaker 2: that those people who were assuming that Trump is sliding

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Speaker 2: ahead and might have a quite a comfortable victory, it

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Speaker 2: certainly doesn't look like that at this minute.

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Speaker 1: In twenty sixteen, polsters predicted a resounding victory for the

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Speaker 1: Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, but wins by Donald Trump in

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Speaker 1: key battleground states like Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Ohio

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Speaker 1: saw him elected as the United States forty fifth president,

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Speaker 1: and prompted a reckoning among polsters. What went wrong with

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Speaker 1: the numbers? How did the polls miss this? Okay, so

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Speaker 1: we know who won the presidential election, we know who lost,

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Speaker 1: But how come so many pre election polls missed it?

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Speaker 1: Despite efforts to restore confidence during the twenty twenty election,

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Speaker 1: the polls underestimated the Trump vote yet again, and a

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Speaker 1: predicted Republican wave failed to eventuate during the mid terms.

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Speaker 1: So the question now becomes how much credence should we

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Speaker 1: give to the polls this time around?

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Speaker 2: They've been wrong three times in three big contests. However,

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Speaker 2: they've been wrong in different directions. The polsters always say

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Speaker 2: they're improving things, and these poles are going to be

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Speaker 2: the best that we've ever seen. My god, because they're

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Speaker 2: so close, Each of the seven swing states is still

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Speaker 2: within the margin of era according to the polls, and

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Speaker 2: because they're so close, they would have to be very

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Speaker 2: accurate to be entirely right. So I think the answer

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Speaker 2: is the polls probably will not turn out to be

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Speaker 2: as accurate as we think, but only because it's so

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Speaker 2: close between the candidates.

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Speaker 1: Coming up the big issues dividing American voters ahead of

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Speaker 1: Tuesday's election. Cameron Stewart has returned to his old stomping

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Speaker 1: ground in the US ahead of Tuesday's presidential election. There

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Speaker 1: he's been talking with voters from across the political spectrum

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Speaker 1: and the geographical divide.

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Speaker 2: I've traveled through Arizona, through Nevada, and I'm now in Detroit, Michigan,

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Speaker 2: So that's two key swing states. And I've spoken to

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Speaker 2: people from a whole range of suburbs in those places,

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Speaker 2: like the wealthier suburbs, poorer suburbs, speaking of African Americans,

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Speaker 2: Native Americans, a whole range of different type of voting demographics.

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Speaker 2: And look, it's just fascinating what is really concerning people

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Speaker 2: here in America. And of course, obviously what concerns Republican

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Speaker 2: voters or Trump voters is quite different to what concerns

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Speaker 2: Kamala Harris voters.

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Speaker 1: In September, inflation in America dropped to its lowest point

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Speaker 1: in three years. The US Federal Reserve has cut the

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Speaker 1: cash rate by fifty basis points since then, and is

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Speaker 1: widely tipped to do it again at its upcoming meetings.

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Speaker 1: Further easing pressure on mortgage holders. The cost of fuel

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Speaker 1: has dropped by more than ten percent since mid twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty three, but the cost of staples like food and

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Speaker 1: household energy expenditure remains stubbornly high.

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Speaker 2: But certainly across the spectrum, the biggest issue for the

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Speaker 2: Republican voters for sure is price rises. It's inflation. They

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Speaker 2: just say that Trump is better for the economy than

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Speaker 2: Harris because the economy is strong during his first four years,

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Speaker 2: but they do definitely greatly dislike the price rises that

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Speaker 2: have happened. Voters here in America are simply looking at

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Speaker 2: the cup of coffee is now double what it was

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Speaker 2: when Biden came into power, the grocery bills double, et cetera,

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Speaker 2: et cetera. So the great question is to what extent

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Speaker 2: they will punish Kamala Harris for that, because they certainly

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Speaker 2: blame her as much as Biden for that inflation.

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Speaker 1: Republican voters also see Kamala Harris as being weak on

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Speaker 1: border control. She was appointed by Joe Biden to stem

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Speaker 1: the flow of illegal border crossings, but no real progress

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Speaker 1: was made until the middle of this year, when tighter

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Speaker 1: controls were enacted by comparison. Immigration is Donald Trump's favorite subject,

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Speaker 1: and he's been effective at communicating his plan to deport

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Speaker 1: more than ten million undocumented immigrants by force if necessary.

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Speaker 2: Republicans always say to me they're very disappointed in the

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Speaker 2: border because the first three and a half years of

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Speaker 2: the Biden administration was very loose border control. But that

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Speaker 2: residual effect, just the inflation effect, is still really annoying

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Speaker 2: Republican voters.

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Speaker 3: I don't like what's happened in the last four years.

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Speaker 3: I don't like what they do at the border, and

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Speaker 3: just one wise, to me, it was a copse betrayal

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Speaker 3: of America policies, America as we know it.

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Speaker 2: The third motivator for Republicans is Kamala Harris. They say

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Speaker 2: regularly she's not experienced enough what she doing there. A

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Speaker 2: couple of them told me that they believe she's faking it,

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Speaker 2: that she's much more to the left than what she's

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Speaker 2: betraying herself as. And they say that this move to

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Speaker 2: the center from Karmala Harris that we've seen during this

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Speaker 2: campaign is in fact fake. They also don't see her

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Speaker 2: as particularly strong. They're concerned that she won't stand up

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Speaker 2: to other countries around the world in a time of crisis.

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Speaker 4: This will be my third time voting for Donald Trump.

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Speaker 5: I don't care if you're a man, or a woman

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Speaker 5: or a giraffe. Like she can't do the job, you know.

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Speaker 1: The Democrats CAM spoken to, on the other hand, have

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Speaker 1: a much more narrow focus. That's the state of America's

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Speaker 1: healthcare system and specifically abortion access.

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Speaker 2: And as far as the Democrats go, their main issue

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Speaker 2: quite frequently has been abortion, and not just the women

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Speaker 2: I've spoken to, but men as well. Reproductive rights is

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Speaker 2: a very big ticket for the Democrats. They're very disappointed

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Speaker 2: that Republicans have tried to shut down abortion access since

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Speaker 2: Rovers's Way was struck down by the Supreme Court. The

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Speaker 2: other big issue and arguably the biggest issue for all

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Speaker 2: the Democrat but this is simply Trump. It's simply a

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Speaker 2: dislike of who he is as a person. They say

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Speaker 2: he's distrustful, he's thuggish, is his tasteful, Everything about his

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Speaker 2: personality is what they don't like.

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Speaker 5: I voted for Camarala, Harris and Chiehuas Why Because I

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Speaker 5: want us to stay very, very together. I grew up

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Speaker 5: in segregation, so I know where it's like and I

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Speaker 5: never want that for my grandkids.

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Speaker 2: Some of them have relatively different viewpoints. One told me

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Speaker 2: gun control was his biggest issue. Another two ladies I

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Speaker 2: spoke to today who are recovering from cancer, said the

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Speaker 2: fear that Trump might repeal the Affordable Care Act known

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Speaker 2: as a barmacare, was a big motivating factor. So look,

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Speaker 2: every voter if it's understandably motivated by their own things.

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Speaker 2: But that's the themes that I'm seeing here on the

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Speaker 2: ground in America.

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Speaker 1: Cameron Stewart is the Australian's chief international correspondent. You can

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Speaker 1: read all our correspondents reporting and analysis of the upcoming

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Speaker 1: US election right now at the Australian dot com dot

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Speaker 1: au