Expected and surprising at the same time. The American presidential campaign is not the dreaded repeat of the 2017 campaign between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. A week after the historic assassination attempt on the Republican candidate, the Democratic candidate threw in the towel under pressure from all sides calling for his withdrawal. A turnaround that upsets all forecasts as well as the Republican camp’s campaign.
Biden’s health, one less topic
For months, Donald Trump and his allies have played on concerns about the 81-year-old president’s health, sharing videos of his every stutter, gaffe and stumble.
“Joe the crook was not fit to run and he is certainly not fit to hold office,” the Republican candidate said on his Truth Social network shortly after the withdrawal announcement. But the Republican, who escaped an assassination attempt, needs to make a strategic shift. “This is bad news for Trump,” Henry Olsen of the conservative think tank Ethics and Public Policy Center told AFP.
President Biden had “the lowest approval ratings ever recorded in a first term and is hopelessly burdened by his age,” the political analyst noted before the announcement. “It’s much better for Trump to run against him than against any other potential opponent.”
Republicans play on confidence
“I’m going to run and campaign, whether it’s against him or somebody else,” Trump said, citing polls that also gave him the edge over several other Democrats.
The campaign “is not going to fundamentally change,” Jason Miller, one of the Republican candidate’s closest advisers, told AFP at the convention in Milwaukee. “Whether it’s Joe Biden, Kamala Harris or another radical left Democrat, they are all responsible for the destruction of our economy and the disintegration of our borders.”
La menace Kamala Harris
Voters have been telling pollsters for months that they want a younger candidate to represent them. Choosing a young Democratic governor from a key state could pose a threat to the fiery Republican, who would be 82 at the end of a possible second term.
Kamala Harris, a 59-year-old former senator from California who became the first woman and first black and Asian person to hold the position, is expected to compete with other Democratic Party figures. A campaign led by Kamala Harris could also prove dangerous because she could appeal more to women, who historically vote more than men and are the Republican’s Achilles heel.
Our report on the 2024 American presidential election
It would also give Democrats a chance to recast this presidential campaign as a culture clash at the party’s convention in August. Indeed, the former prosecutor would be running against the first president in U.S. history to be convicted of a crime and still beset by other legal cases. In addition, Harris has embodied the Biden administration’s defense of abortion rights, an explosive issue that has already hurt the Republican Party at the polls.
Source: www.20minutes.fr
