Richard Arnold: US correspondent on the last pushes with 10 days until election day, looking to be one of the closest in history

Both US Presidential Candidates are looking to finish their campaigns strong, as election day draws closer.

10 days to go, the latest polls have narrow margins in the seven key swing states, with just one to two percentage points separating Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

US Correspondent Richard Arnold told Tim Beveridge the race is shaping up to be one of closest in America's history.

“Trump will hold a big rally today inside New York’s Madison Square Garden, while in the middle of the week, Vice-President Harris will speak near the Washington Monument – the very same place where then-President Trump spoke on the day of the January 6th attack.”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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International Correspondence with Ends and Eye Insurance, Peace of Mind
for New Zealand Business.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
This is the time to.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Say very good morning for Richard Ardoor, good morning, Good
morning Tim.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
So just over a week, well, it's coming at last
till the US elections. Latest polls are showing a deadlock.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
That was my thinking too. At last it has a long, long, long,
long campaign, right, But big events coming up this week.
Closing messages from Harris and Trump going to be delivered,
starting with the former president making a return to New
York City, the place where he has I guess a
love hate relationship. Trump will hold a big rally today
inside New York's Madison Square Garden, while in the middle

(00:55):
of the week, Vice President Harris will speak near the
Washington Monument, the very same place where then President Trump
spoke on the day of the January the sixth attack
on the US capital. So that's obviously part of the
Democratic camps for now. Though poles are showing little shift,
they're still neck and neck. Harris has regained some strength
in the latest ABC IPSOS national poll, which shows her

(01:16):
four points ahead of Trump fifty one to forty seven
percent overall. But because it's not about national numbers, it
goes according to electoral votes in the system here, state
by state, with two hundred and seventy votes needed to
win the White House. For months, the campaigns have focused
on a handful of so called battleground states which could
swing either way, and those states, including the one time

(01:38):
rust Belt states of Pennsylvania and Michigan Wisconsin, are dead
even or within the margin of era. So these battleground
areas well. They could break all one way, or they
could have some other possibility. So we could be looking
at a kind of electoral landslide, or we could be
looking at, say a possibility where the winner has two
hundred and seventy electoral votes and the rival has two

(01:59):
hundred and sixty eight.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
That'd be great, wouldn't it. Yeah, Long long night.

Speaker 4 (02:03):
Meantime, this could be the tightest election the US has
seen in recent times, which is why a lot of
people at either side of the political friends say they
are feeling a bit anxious. That was the very message
delivered by former First Lady Michelle Obama, who just made
her first campaign rally appearance this season alongside Gamala Harris.

Speaker 5 (02:21):
Y'all know I hate politics. What I hate to see
folks taken advantage of even more.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
Well, Michelle Obama delivered really a searing appeal for now.
She put it men to take women's lives seriously on
the major issues.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
If we don't get this election right, your wife, your daughter,
your mother, we as women will become collateral damage to
your range.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
Well, now there's some tough words, aren't they speaking their
of abortion rights. This election also has fired up early voting.
Some forty million people already have cast their votes through
early voting medicines around the country.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Who they voted for.

Speaker 4 (03:01):
We don't know yet, but Americans are very much invested
in this race. Another issue that has arisen in these
final campaign moments is the accusation by some former Trump
aides that Trump is just out for himself and has
his Trump's former chief of staff John Kelly says fascist
tendencies into the general definition of fascist. Well, Trump is

(03:25):
disputing his former general, saying, a couple of the stupid
people we have at the top, guys like Millie General
Milly and Matters and these guys are lightweights, but we
have the real deal with Yeah, lightweights and losers. He
used to say they were brilliant. But anyway, times changed,
do they not? The Democrats are taking up the critique
of the former Trump associates. Harris was quizzed about this

(03:48):
by CNN's Anderson Cooper.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?

Speaker 5 (03:51):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (03:52):
I do, Yes, I do, And I also believe that
the people who know him best on this subject should
be trusted.

Speaker 5 (04:00):
General John Kelly, donald Trump's former chief of staff, said
that Trump told him he wanted his generals to be
like Hitler.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
So, Tim, when folks are doing you about Hitler, we
know where Ken done to the crunch, don't we?

Speaker 3 (04:17):
By me?

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Just to the early voting, do you have a take
on whether that means the anther thing at all or
is it in terms of which side it favors.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Well, it will mean something. Who's fired up.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
Some of the indications are that Harris voters are very enthusiastic.
But we've seen, you know the scale of the Trump
rallies as well. So let me answer your question in
about what nowadays?

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, give me an answer. Yeah, that'll be great. And now,
Middle East, the US hopes that Israeli Israelian tensions with
Iran will ease.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah, I have the same reaction. Of course, this is
happening right an election eve here on Saturday your time,
we had the Israeli fighter jets roaring into action on
what was a long distance run to Iran, where they
hit a couple of major target sets, striking the ed
offenses that protect Iran and also some giant fuel mixers
that may propelled for Iran's missile flute. All this in
response to the Iranian missile attack on Israel recently. You

(05:12):
know that limitation relatively speaking of targets, so hitting military
sites instead of nuclear and energy sites is something that
Biden administration had been pressing for, hoping to, if possible,
tempt down these Middle East concerns for the moment, Biden
has said that he hopes this is the end of
the latest rounde. That is far from certain. Plainly, these
long distances Raeli strikes demonstrate the Israeli ability to get

(05:34):
through Iran's defenses. So does that create a longer term
worry that Iran will see an increased need to cross
the line and become a full scale nuclear power. That
is the big concern of the White House right now.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Do you read anything into Iran did seem with its
rhetorics and its news media to sort of brush it off.
Does that give cause for any optimism that maybe they're
not going to retaliate or.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
That sounds like politics to meet him? But I don't know.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
There can't be too many people who would be enthusiastic
about the option of a full scale war with the
Aran involved. It would be just catastrophe.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Would really appreciate your time, Richard, Thanks so much.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
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