Speaker 1: From Schwartz Media. I'm Daniel James. This is seven Am.
Speaker 1: As much as they would hate to admit that both
Speaker 1: Donald Trump and Kamala Harris fit the definition of coastal elite,
Speaker 1: a wealthy New York businessman and reality TV star and
Speaker 1: a San Francisco Liberal with a career in public office.
Speaker 1: That is why each of them are hoping their vice
Speaker 1: presidential candidates will speak to a specific group of voters,
Speaker 1: the blue collar, working class area of the Midwest. And
Speaker 1: yesterday's debates showed that both jd Vance and Tim Waltz
Speaker 1: are taking the opportunity seriously. Both delivered smooth and assured performances.
Speaker 1: It's a stark contrast to the recently established normals of
Speaker 1: US politics. Today, ABC journalist and host of the Global
Speaker 1: Roaming podcast Geraldine Doug on how the two candidates are
Speaker 1: using their roots to appeal to voters in very different ways.
Speaker 1: It's Thursday, October three.
Speaker 2: We have a consequential night ahead, and our focus is
Speaker 2: the issues that matter to you, the voter. Let's introduce the.
Speaker 1: Candidates, Cherline, Dan, thanks for joining us on seven AM.
Speaker 3: It's a great pleasure. Daniel.
Speaker 1: So you've just finished watching the vice presidential debate. What
Speaker 1: did you think?
Speaker 3: I thought that it was enjoyable. I thought it was
Speaker 3: a view of the United States that we haven't seen
Speaker 3: for a while, Like it was genuinely an interesting interplay
Speaker 3: between ideas policies. You sort of sat back and thought,
Speaker 3: oh my god, the place is in actually slightly better
Speaker 3: shape than I thought. And look, ultimately, I thought both
Speaker 3: men actually performed extremely well the question.
Speaker 4: First of all, thanks Governor, thanks to CBS for hosting debate,
Speaker 4: and thanks most importantly the American people who are watching
Speaker 4: this evening and caring enough about this country to pay
Speaker 4: attention to this vice presidential debate.
Speaker 3: And Vance, who's very poised and polished and sort of slick,
Speaker 3: I just didn't think he made great progress. But I
Speaker 3: thought over time, Waltz's sheer experience, combined with his passion
Speaker 3: was born out.
Speaker 5: But what's fundamental here is that steady leadership is going
Speaker 5: to matter.
Speaker 6: It's clear and the world.
Speaker 3: And Waltz did look tentatives at the start, and it
Speaker 3: was sort of startling in a way.
Speaker 6: Around about halfway.
Speaker 3: Through, I thought, my god, this man is really getting
Speaker 3: into his stride.
Speaker 5: And I asked you out there, teachers, nurses, truck drivers
Speaker 5: or whatever. How is it fair that you're paying your
Speaker 5: taxes every year and Donald Trump hasn't paid any federal
Speaker 5: tax in the last fifteen years and the last year
Speaker 5: as president.
Speaker 6: That's what's wrong with the system's.
Speaker 1: Interestingly, this the bit started on the topic of the
Speaker 1: Middle East.
Speaker 4: Earlier Today launched its largest attack yet on Israel, but
Speaker 4: that attack failed thanks to join US and Israeli defensive action.
Speaker 1: What do we learn from the candidates on that front?
Speaker 3: Not a great deal in my opinion. I mean, that
Speaker 3: was the only foreign policy discussion. I thought we might
Speaker 3: get a little more that. I didn't really expect it,
Speaker 3: but they couldn't avoid it.
Speaker 5: His chief of staff, John Kelly said that he was
Speaker 5: the most flawed human being you'd ever met, and both
Speaker 5: of his secretaries of Defense and his national security advisors
Speaker 5: said he should be nowhere near the White House.
Speaker 4: But effective, smart diplomacy and peace through strength is how
Speaker 4: you bring stability back to a very broken world. Donald
Speaker 4: Trump has already done it once before.
Speaker 3: Ask yourself, peace through strength is what brings peace to
Speaker 3: a troubled world. That was a good line from Vance
Speaker 3: That might work with quite a lot of the Americans
Speaker 3: who are listening to him. I just felt that you've
Speaker 3: got the sense that this was not going to determine
Speaker 3: the American election. And the.
Speaker 1: Climate crisis came up as well in the context of
Speaker 1: the hurricanes that's hitting the southeastern states in the US.
Speaker 1: What did they have to say about climate change?
Speaker 3: Well, that was very interesting because they both had to
Speaker 3: quite clearly own that and emote to the people what
Speaker 3: they were going through.
Speaker 4: So, first of all, let's start with the hurricane, because
Speaker 4: it's an unbelievable, unspeakable human tragedy.
Speaker 6: I just saw today.
Speaker 4: Actually a photograph of two grandparents on a roof with
Speaker 4: a six year old child, and it was the last
Speaker 4: photograph ever taken to them because the roof collapsed and
Speaker 4: those innocent people lost their lives.
Speaker 3: And I'm sure Vance you know, very much talked about
Speaker 3: the importance of reassuring manufacturing putting American citizens first.
Speaker 4: The answer is that you'd want to reshore as much
Speaker 4: American manufacturing as possible, and you'd want to produce as
Speaker 4: much energy as possible in the United States of America
Speaker 4: because we're the cleanest economy in the entire world. What
Speaker 4: hath Kamala Harris's policies actually led to more energy production
Speaker 4: in China, more manufacturing overseas, more doing business, and some
Speaker 4: of the dirtiest parts of the entire world.
Speaker 1: I want to say that.
Speaker 3: Whereas Waltz very much talked about the huge Inflation Reduction Act,
Speaker 3: I mean his detailed list of all the production induced
Speaker 3: by the Act and then two hundred fifty thousand jobs.
Speaker 5: The Inflation Reduction Act has created jobs all across the country,
Speaker 5: two thousand in Jeffersonville, Ohio, taking the ev technology that
Speaker 5: we invented and making it here.
Speaker 6: Two hundred thousand jobs across the country. The largest solar.
Speaker 5: Manufacturing plant in North America sets in Minnesota.
Speaker 3: And of course he also talked about Trump mentioning that
Speaker 3: climate change was a hoax.
Speaker 6: Soda, but my farmer's no, climate change is real.
Speaker 5: They've seen five hundred year droughts, five hundred your floods
Speaker 5: back to back.
Speaker 6: But what they're doing I suppose.
Speaker 3: I did think that that emphasis on Middle America being
Speaker 3: offshore was possibly quite a good point by Vance, and
Speaker 3: Walt's all that talk about the farmers. Again, he could
Speaker 3: make it very personal when he chose to Walts, which
Speaker 3: Vance the only thing personal that the events talked about
Speaker 3: was his daughters, his three daughters, and his sort of
Speaker 3: his mother, and I felt that he overdid that, But
Speaker 3: maybe that works very much with the base in America.
Speaker 1: On the issue of border security, Tim Waltz keys Trump
Speaker 1: and Vans of wanting to politicize border security, so it
Speaker 1: remained an election issue. This came up during the presidential
Speaker 1: debate as well.
Speaker 6: How did J. D.
Speaker 1: Evans respond to that accusation?
Speaker 3: This and the discussion about democracy were the high points
Speaker 3: of the debate.
Speaker 1: It got quite heated, didn't it very Laura?
Speaker 6: Thank you, senator.
Speaker 3: We having so much to get to.
Speaker 2: I think it's important toomy things.
Speaker 3: The rules were that Advance just kept going on about
Speaker 3: a really dark version I suppose of the border problem,
Speaker 3: that law enforcement needed to be able to do their job,
Speaker 3: that the aliens coming in the numbers who were criminals.
Speaker 4: We have three one hundred and twenty thousand children that
Speaker 4: the Department of Homeland Security has effectively lost. Some of
Speaker 4: them have been sex trafficked, some of them hopefully are
Speaker 4: at homes with their families. Some of them have been
Speaker 4: used as drug trafficking mules. The real family separation policy
Speaker 4: in this country is unfortunately Kamala Harris's wide open southern border.
Speaker 3: And whilst appealed saying basically, the minute you start to
Speaker 3: talk about this in any sort of decent way, incomes
Speaker 3: Trump and demonizes it all. And of course the Springfield
Speaker 3: became an example of it.
Speaker 5: I believe Senator Vance wants to solve this, but by
Speaker 5: standing with Donald Trump and not working together to find
Speaker 5: a solution, it becomes a talking point. And when it
Speaker 5: becomes a talking point like this, we dehumanize and villainize
Speaker 5: other human beings.
Speaker 3: I thought, if you lived round the border in any
Speaker 3: shape or form, I thought that Vance probably did do
Speaker 3: not a bad job there.
Speaker 1: Reproductive rights inevitably came up. This has been a strong
Speaker 1: area fourteen one, in which he spoken about his own
Speaker 1: personal struggle having children with his wife. At the presidential debate,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump struggled to articulate his position on abortion and
Speaker 1: whether he supports a national abortion ban.
Speaker 4: Did J. D.
Speaker 1: Vance face a similar problem during this debate?
Speaker 3: Yes, I thought he absolutely did. I thought he completely
Speaker 3: dodged that well.
Speaker 1: Nora.
Speaker 6: First of all, I never supported a national ban.
Speaker 4: I did during what I was running for Senate in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty two, talk about setting some men in a
Speaker 4: national standard.
Speaker 6: For example, I thought.
Speaker 3: That Walt's most definitely won that.
Speaker 6: I'm going to respond on the pro abortion piece of that. No,
Speaker 6: we're not.
Speaker 5: We're pro women, We're pro freedom to make your own choice.
Speaker 5: We know what the implications are to not be that
Speaker 5: women having miscarriages, women not getting the care, physicians feeling
Speaker 5: like they may be prosecuted for providing that care.
Speaker 3: And as far as I thought, Vance was not at
Speaker 3: all persuasive that he had changed his mind, throwing it
Speaker 3: back to the individual state. Maybe he really does believe
Speaker 3: what he believes. He can usually cast aside quite a
Speaker 3: few things, but he didn't on that score.
Speaker 1: And towards the end of the debate, the moderator is
Speaker 1: asked about the state of democracy itself in America.
Speaker 2: Legal, would you again seek to challenge this year's election results,
Speaker 2: even if every governor certifies the results. I'll give you
Speaker 2: two minutes.
Speaker 1: How did Jdvans answer the question about whether Hey and
Speaker 1: Trump would accept the result of the upcoming election.
Speaker 3: Well, he dodged it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, Nora, First of all, I think that we're
Speaker 4: focused on the future. We need to figure out how
Speaker 4: to solve the inflation crisis caused by Kamala Harris's policies.
Speaker 4: Make housing affordable, make groceries affordable, and that's what we're
Speaker 4: focused on.
Speaker 3: But I want to and he did say that we
Speaker 3: want issues debated peacefully in the public square. But I
Speaker 3: believe we do have a threat. And then it went
Speaker 3: into that whole thing about the censorship.
Speaker 4: I believe that we actually do have a threat to
Speaker 4: democracy in this country. But unfortunately it's not the threat
Speaker 4: to democracy that Kamala Harris and Tim Wallas want to
Speaker 4: talk about.
Speaker 6: It is the threat of censorship.
Speaker 4: It's Americans casting aside lifelong friendships because of disagreements over politics.
Speaker 6: It's big.
Speaker 3: By this stage, Welsh was really gearing up and that
Speaker 3: this type of debate is tearing our country apart. And
Speaker 3: when this is over, we've got to be able to
Speaker 3: shake hands and move on and get away from this
Speaker 3: type of debate.
Speaker 5: I worked with kids long enough to know, and I said,
Speaker 5: as a football coach, sometimes you really want to win,
Speaker 5: but the democracy is bigger than winning an election. You
Speaker 5: shake hands and then you try and do everything you
Speaker 5: can to help the other side win.
Speaker 3: But I did think that idea that they would have
Speaker 3: to shake hands if it was all over and move on.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of Americans probably do want to
Speaker 3: move on. Yeah, but it just depends how dark they
Speaker 3: feel things are.
Speaker 1: I suppose Jade ad answers question about his previous criticisms
Speaker 1: of Trump as well, and essentially whether changing his opinion
Speaker 1: on Trump shows that he won't be someone to stand
Speaker 1: up to the president if need be. Do you think
Speaker 1: that there's a perception problem for Vance on not only
Speaker 1: his previous comments about Donald Trump, but on his current
Speaker 1: relationship with Donald Trump moving forward.
Speaker 3: I think it's pretty obvious he flip flops around him
Speaker 3: his opportunistic he moves around. I don't like people like that,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't trust them. But I'm not sure
Speaker 3: that that's actually how Americans over there necessarily see him.
Speaker 3: Because he was very poised. My goodness, he's a good debater.
Speaker 3: What struck me was the degree to which he felt
Speaker 3: he had to personalize himself. This constant reference, I thought,
Speaker 3: more or less constant references to sort of sitting back
Speaker 3: at home and sitting with his grandmother or whatever it
Speaker 3: was or is three beautiful.
Speaker 1: Children after the break. How much of a role did jd.
Speaker 1: Vance tim Maltz actually have in swaying the election. Jerline,
Speaker 1: we've been speaking about the debate between JD. Vance and
Speaker 1: Tim Moltz. Both Vance and Walt spend a lot of
Speaker 1: time talking about their backgrounds growing up in rural Midwest
Speaker 1: of America. They focused on seeing a lot of manufacturing
Speaker 1: jobs leaving America. For instance. Who do you think they're
Speaker 1: speaking to when they make that a focus of their
Speaker 1: pitches to voters.
Speaker 3: That's a good question. I mean, they clearly have been
Speaker 3: focusing on the people who are allegedly two hundred thousand
Speaker 3: could swing the election, who are unsure, and in fact
Speaker 3: they're pitching at the undersideds. But my view is that
Speaker 3: they also reinforce a whole lot of other people who
Speaker 3: actually want the place to get back to normal.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 3: I think that's a bigger drive than we've come to
Speaker 3: believe because all our focus has been on Trump, and
Speaker 3: I think there probably is a much bigger drive you know,
Speaker 3: for among them a lot of people to just oh,
Speaker 3: can we please get back to normal? And as we
Speaker 3: have been focusing here in Australia on abortion issues, you know,
Speaker 3: how many of the women will they get in? And
Speaker 3: I think this is very true. But there's an increasing
Speaker 3: writing too about whether disenchanted younger men feel that Trump
Speaker 3: is a very good model of a man who's made it,
Speaker 3: and there's quite a lot of concern, as I understand,
Speaker 3: in the Democrat ranks about just this. Waltz has also
Speaker 3: a very confident maleness about him, football coach, teacher, father
Speaker 3: all that he talked about only having one house, which
Speaker 3: was interesting the whole discussion about housing. Vance clearly is
Speaker 3: a man making money more.
Speaker 1: It seems to me Geraldine, that both candidates, Waltz and
Speaker 1: Vance are in an existential battle as much as anything
Speaker 1: over the definition and role modeling of what is a
Speaker 1: good version of masculinity and manhood.
Speaker 3: Well, there are very good pulses who believe it's playing
Speaker 3: quite a considerable role in this. I mean, I did
Speaker 3: think that Waltz did display a sort of positive view.
Speaker 3: Is it that dad energy that people have been talking about,
Speaker 3: or you know, the sort of wooly labrador of politics
Speaker 3: you know of America. I thought it was very believable.
Speaker 3: Vance models a very different part of American entrepreneurialism, I suppose,
Speaker 3: I mean that is who backs him, you know, Silicon
Speaker 3: Valley entrepreneurs, have backed him, but a lot of young
Speaker 3: men are wondering about precisely that, wondering when they'll ever
Speaker 3: be able to afford their own home and a wife.
Speaker 1: I think it's telling that if you look online that
Speaker 1: Vance has been spending a lot of time speaking to
Speaker 1: what you could loosely describe as the broke media podcasts.
Speaker 1: It's host to buy young men, I guess podcasting two
Speaker 1: young men. So who is he trying to appeal to
Speaker 1: when he goes on these shows.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, this is the argument that you're dealing
Speaker 3: with people who are not sure of them or what
Speaker 3: they really believe. They're certainly not established voters. You know,
Speaker 3: a lot of these young men who will be looking
Speaker 3: on they're they're not well formed. They've seen their communities
Speaker 3: just crack up around them. They're given constant material saying
Speaker 3: reach for the stars, go for broke. You know, don't
Speaker 3: be a loser. That's what Trump says, don't be a loser.
Speaker 3: It's certainly not what Waltz says.
Speaker 1: Outside of the bro vote and outside of the Midwest
Speaker 1: area often called the heartland of America, these are the
Speaker 1: states that we've been hearing a lot about in terms
Speaker 1: of being critical to the outcome of the next election.
Speaker 1: Since Kamalia Harris has come on board as the presidential
Speaker 1: nominee for the Democrats, have there been any other states
Speaker 1: that have come into play for this election?
Speaker 3: Look, as I understand it, North Carolina and Arizona, and
Speaker 3: as I understand it, there's furious of effort going into Pennsylvania. Quietly,
Speaker 3: Nevada seems to be really occupying people's thoughts quite a
Speaker 3: lot as well. I do think that it's neck and
Speaker 3: neck because it is so even and it is all
Speaker 3: happening so late. We're seeing a different layer of coverage
Speaker 3: to anything I've seen in any US election before. That's
Speaker 3: why I actually think this debate will turn out to
Speaker 3: be more important than we thought.
Speaker 1: Well, that's an interesting point to finish on, Geraldine, Particularly
Speaker 1: vice presidential debates are seen there's no more than political theater,
Speaker 1: and historically they've highly moved the needle. Do you think
Speaker 1: that this debate will be more consequential than previous vice
Speaker 1: presididential debates and in particular in relation to what we
Speaker 1: will see happening in November with the outcome of this election.
Speaker 3: Yes, I do think it'll be more consequential you know,
Speaker 3: if Biden had stepped down in June or something and
Speaker 3: she'd come in, would it have been Maybe not. This
Speaker 3: is like concertinaed for the Americans, and I think that
Speaker 3: it will have quite a decent rating. I honestly felt
Speaker 3: you looked at a competent America there. That must surely
Speaker 3: be good for American morale that is pretty battered at
Speaker 3: the moment. Even if you feel like you're doing it
Speaker 3: really tough and you're angry with a lot of them
Speaker 3: sitting there in Washington, it was actually a pretty good
Speaker 3: display of American skills. I suspect it will make a difference.
Speaker 1: Geraldine, thank you so much for your.
Speaker 3: Time, my pleasure. Daniel, thank you.
Speaker 1: Also in the news today, conflict in the Middle East
Speaker 1: has escalated to new levels after Iran launched around two
Speaker 1: hundred missiles at Israel on Tuesday night local time. The
Speaker 1: attack was in response to the killings of senior leaders
Speaker 1: of Hamas Hezbalah and Iran's Revolutionary Guard. In a statement
Speaker 1: following the attacks, Israel's Prime Minister benjaminet Yahu said Iran
Speaker 1: had made a big mistake tonight and will pay for
Speaker 1: it whoever attacks us. We attacked them, he said, and
Speaker 1: New South Wales Police are trying to ban two pro
Speaker 1: Palestinian rallies plan for the upcoming Labor Day long weekend
Speaker 1: in Sydney. In a statement, the New South Wales Police
Speaker 1: Force have said they are not satisfied the protests would
Speaker 1: proceed safely. Monday will mark the one year anniversary to
Speaker 1: the October seven attacks on Israel by Hamas militants. I'm
Speaker 1: Daniel James seven am will be back tomorrow