Thomas Coughlan: NZ Herald deputy political editor on the mood on the eve of the 2024 US election

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are making their final pushes for the presidency on the eve of election day.

Harris is spending the day in the largest battleground state, Pennsylvania, and Trump's turned his attention to North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan. 

NZ Herald deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan is in Pennsylvania.

He says everyone seems confident - but it's not over until it's over.

"At the moment, it looks like all the races and all of the swing states will be close - and tomorrow night will be fairly inconclusive." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ay, good afternoon. Only one day to go in the
US election campaign, and both Karmala Harris and Donald Trump
are holding their final rallies right now at Kamala Harris's
rally for US as The Herald's deputy political editor, Thomas
Coglan Thomas, Hello, hello head, Oh mate, it's awfully quiet.
Is she not turned up yet?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Tell you what, it's a funny old event, this one.
So the Democrats are holding these massive rallies in various
swing states. It's a bit like Live Aid, that big
thing they did in the eighties for the raising money
for Africa. So Kamala Harris started off at the Philadelphia
I'm sorry that the Pittsburgh one. She was there maybe
two hours ago. And she is somewhere between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia,

(00:41):
which is where I am, which is where her last
address we made. But yeah, you're right, she has not
shown up yet. The crowd is getting a bit restless.
Lady Gaga is meant to come on and entertain us,
but she has showed up yet either. So yeah, it's
a wedding game, perhaps a harbinger of things to come.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Lord, you mean the election result, I'd imagine Apparently the
Democrats have been nauseously optimistic for a few days now,
Is that what you're hearing?

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yes, yes, I mean they're doing their best to put
on a brave face. Kamala Harris is saying we're going
to win this everywhere that she can say that. But
but look of those those poles are tied. I mean,
the poles are not moving very much. But where they
are moving, they seem to be narrowing for Trump. So
his chance is certainly looking pretty good. But but but
to be fair, so hers. It's really a coin toss.

(01:30):
So I mean, to be honestly that no one knows
it's It could go anyway, and and the Poles could
be wrong. That they could be all wrong in the
wrong in the same direction. They could be wrong in
different directions in different states. It really is anyone's game, okay.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
And how the how the Republicans feeling? Are they confident
or panicking?

Speaker 2 (01:50):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:50):
I think that confident as well.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
And now you know that they're they're gearing up to
fight this in court of lyp and obviously you know
in Florida in two thousand they successfully have managed to
get a you know, the White House after after the
I think by five hundred votes in Florida when the
when they're hanging chips were litigated. So so you know
that the Republicans are gearing up for that fight and

(02:14):
if the ps are the Democrats as well.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
I think there's something like three thousand different counties in
the United States, and each one of them counts the
votes in their own way, and so you can actually
you can actually expect to see many of those counties
are having having, you know, questions raised about the way
that that the voter is conductive. So so you know,
I think the Republicans are looking at that as well
as simply winning.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Now, now, Thomas, you mentioned before that this could be
a sign of things to come, the waiting game, right,
and I see Pennsylvania's Secretary General has already warned that
the state will not have a result tomorrow night. However,
this isn't on the assumption that everything is tight. If
it actually all of a sudden goes one way or
the other, will we have a result tomorrow, Like if
it's a clear win for Trump or a clear win
for Karmela, will we know tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yes, that is that that is a potential outcome, and
there is actually like there's not a bad probability of that.
Often when polls are wrong, they are often wrong in
the same direction. There are seven swing states, and if
all the poles are in the swing states, which are
currently basically tied, you know, if they're all wrong and
Trump is clearly winning and most of them, or if

(03:18):
they're all wrong and Harris is leaveing winning in most
of them, then we might actually not need Pennsylvania. And
so in that case you probably would have a result,
a pretty clear result tomorrow. But you know, at the moment,
it looks like all the races and all the swing
states will be so close that that tomorrow night will
be farly inconclusive.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Yeah, Hey, Thomas, isn't best of luck waiting for her?
That's Thomas Colin and thank you, of course, the Herald's
deputy political editor in Pennsylvania. For us.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
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Speaker 1 (03:46):
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