[News Now] Harris' 'Negative Offensive' in a hurry...What's the impact of votes?

■ Host: Kim Sun-young Anchor
■ Starring: Cho Byung-je, Visiting Chair Professor of the Institute for Far East Studies at Kyungnam University

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN NewsNOW] when quoting.

[Anchor]
The U.S. presidential election is now 19 days away, but Vice President Harris and former President Trump's approval ratings are still very close. Vice President Harris is stepping up a negative offensive against former President Trump as his approval rating has stalled. Let's talk about the U.S. presidential election. Cho Byung-je, a visiting chair professor at Kyungnam University's Far East Studies Institute, is here. Welcome.


Hello,

[Anchor]
Vice President Harris has now started a negative offensive against former President Trump. Did you feel that impatient? How do I look at it?


At first, we talked about new political reforms and changes, but now that I look at it, I think it's frustrating to be a little frustrating. So I'm doing negative things right now, but if you look at this negative, there are actually people who are good at it. I wonder if I don't get along with Harris, and Trump is the master of negativity, isn't he? So even if Harris does a negative now, I'm a little skeptical about how much this will help move votes at the last minute.

[Anchor]
It is said that he appeared on Fox News, which can be called a pro-Trump media, and there was a lot of criticism about the interview. Is Harris' strategy a lot of negative public opinion right now? How do I look at it?


If you look at the overall trend of support, a survey by traditional polling agencies shows that Harris remains a little dominant nationwide, but according to several other sources, Trump's position seems to be moving quite quickly. I think that trend has accelerated a little since October. There are a couple of factors there, and the first one was Hurricane Helen at the end of September, didn't a hurricane come in? It caused quite a lot of damage in Florida and the south of Georgia, and Trump ran right on the scene a couple of days after the storm.

Come out and talk to people, comfort them in a way, and give them enough support to the Biden administration. Harris, on the other hand, missed that timing a bit. Two days after Trump left, it also appeared. That was a bit of a miss timing and the other bad thing is that now voters are very interested in the Israeli part of foreign policy, the war. But even though Israel says the U.S. should cease fire, Israel refuses to cease fire, and Netanyahu is more so than Israel. At that time, we started bombing Lebanon and Hezbollah. It also had a negative effect. Harris' failure to respond properly to that seems to have affected the negative effect of the vote.

[Anchor]
There are many external variables and many factors, but among them, there are rumors of discord with President Biden when we need to work together now.


It's been said because of some adjustments to the schedule, but I don't see that the rumors of discord are meaningful on some emotional level. Because Biden can buy his legacy only when Harris is elected anyway, and Harris has been expressing her position so far, so he keeps saying, "I'm just following Biden, I'm going to respect Biden's legacy." When it gets criticized, it recently came out on Fox News and I'm going on a different line with Biden. I'm going to show a new look. I said this, but I have no choice but to do so during the election process, but I don't think that the two have emotional problems because of that.

[Anchor]
Do you think this differentiation strategy can work at the last minute?


I think it'll be a little late. Early voting is already underway, and in Georgia, for example, more than 300,000 people voted early on the first day of early voting. By the end of early voting, it will be over in early November, and overall, about 50% of early voting in competing states is expected, so there are many doubts about how much it will affect these voters who have already made up their minds.

[Anchor]
Harris' crisis, various analyses are coming out, and among them, there are many analyses that black people who believed are turning their backs. Why are you turning your back on the black voter base like this?


Harris is black. As a result, I think there was some expectation from the black community. However, Harris has not come up with a specific policy to promote the human rights of black people, and there is nothing that stands out about Trump's proposal about the black community in terms of economics.

Rather, what Harris is emphasizing is that she will strengthen the middle class in the United States, but most middle-class people tend to look toward white people now, and for the third reason, Trump made a very strange personal attack from the beginning to separate Harris from black people. So Harris is a person who originally talks about being Indian and walks around, but now she says she is black, criticizing them and dividing them, but I think that such personal attacks are also being eaten.

[Anchor]
In fact, as Vice President Harris is confirmed as a candidate, there will be a black sensation, and President Obama and his wife are also shooting, right? Even in such a situation, I think there will be criticism that Vice President Harris lacks the strategy for not gathering black votes.


Those criticisms seem to be coming out, and most of all, what people want to see for Harris right now is this part of who can show strong leadership in times of need. As I mentioned earlier, Harris said during the hurricane and then on the Israeli issue, that she respects the Palestinian right to self-determination, but there is no sign of that. In October, Harris expanded her contact with the media considerably, but every time she made contact, it was a little lacking.

[Anchor]
It doesn't have a synergistic effect, does it?

[Trafficial]
It doesn't seem to be working. On October 5th or 6th, I talked to CBS on a current affairs program called 60 Minutes, and Israel, Ukraine, and various domestic and foreign issues came out. But even if I look at it, there was no answer that I could say, "One of them is cool." For example, I asked what we would do about Ukraine's accession to NATO, but I think the biggest reason for the sluggishness right now is that we are not able to provide strong leadership while avoiding answers like this.

[Anchor]
According to the poll, it would be nice if you could continue to show the graphic, but the current figures show that it is very close because of the margin of error, but when you look at the media and reports, there are many analyses that gambling betting sites are leaning toward Trump. How did you see it?


I'm actually watching it because it's fun, but there are a few gambling sites coming in October. There is a famous thing called the polymarket in the United States and a famous thing called the S-market in the United Kingdom, and if you look at both of them, you can see that Trump's rise has risen sharply. It started in early October, and now Trump is over 60%. But gambling sites guarantee anonymity for people who enter this place. Then the results come out on the spot, so transparency and speed are guaranteed, and then what is gambling? I'm doing it without money.

So if you win there, you eat money, and if you lose, you lose money, so people seem to judge very calmly. So when I look at it, I think that information from a few sites is much more sensitive to events than traditional polling agencies' presentations.

[Anchor]
You said that reliability can be subjectively judged, but it can be an important indicator to see the flow anyway. Among the various competing states, the number of Pennsylvania electors is at stake, so you have to take it here to win. What's the atmosphere like here?


What Trump sees on this gambling site is that Trump is dominant, and he seems to believe that he has already tilted. You have to take Pennsylvania. Harris has to take it, Trump has to take this. As you said earlier, the number of electors is the highest at 19.

[Anchor]
As you can see in the graphic, is this a traditionally heavily Democratic area?


That's right. It's the so-called Blue Wall, so the entire Rust Belt area was a stronghold of the Democratic Party. This was broken by Trump in 2016 and it went over to Biden in 2020 because it was a very vulnerable area with a gap of only 0.2%. Trump is targeting it intensively this time and I think it's working pretty well. That's why it's an area that's been damaged by globalization that Trump is criticizing, so considering the glory of the past, when you think about the steel industry and the automobile industry, it's a place where you're already emotionally sympathetic to what Trump is talking about as America First.

[Anchor]
Just a moment ago, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, is a battleground, and former President Trump showed unexpected behavior at a town hall event, so he was very interested in the media. I think it would be nice if you could show me the screen. Former President Trump at a town hall event. He danced like that all of a sudden, but he didn't say anything for 40 minutes and kept dancing like that. How should I interpret this behavior?


Once before, a few months ago, Trump suddenly focused everything on music at a meeting and said nothing for about 35 seconds. A similar phenomenon appeared this time, and looking at the situation closely, I think Trump could have done that by the master of the show, and the evaluation of this is not critical. The Democratic Party criticized him for being a person with a poor mind, but the Trump supporters said that this is a Trump-style party. Then, Trump, who had a meeting like this again at the place where the attempted assassination occurred not long ago, responded positively. So, I think it's very different to accept it depending on the support group.

[Anchor]
The emotions are unsettling. There are criticisms such as this bizarre behavior, but Trump's supporters will take it very naturally, do you think so?


Rather, if you look at the scene, the Trump supporters in the back seemed to be clapping and excited together.

[Anchor]
Should I say it's a dance in a town hall? We need to see what the dance that former President Trump showed will mean to voters, but former President Trump revealed this story again. Apple CEO Tim Cook called and complained to me about the EU, but in a way, Tim Cook supports and believes in me. That's what we're talking about, right?


That's right. The big companies were originally evaluating Silicon Valley as the Democratic Party, but Elon Musk and Tim Cook now seem to be trying to get closer to Trump little by little. Looking at this, I understand that the business side can't help but do that. As I said earlier, as people who do business tend to judge very sensitively with money on gambling sites, they have no choice but to be sensitive about where the direction of power goes. I don't think it's a strange situation at all even if Tim Cook called.

[Anchor]
Lastly, I'll point out this part. First of all, Vice President Harris is focusing on last-minute attacks to catch the votes of black people who have left now, but what level of votes do you think former President Trump will target for the rest of the year?


Trump has been like that from the beginning, and Trump's strategy was to increase voter turnout in any case, by turning my camp to the maximum, and in that context, we need to emphasize America First for white people, low-income people, low-educated people, men, and working people, emphasize American economic nationalism, promote patriotism, and educate children well about parents, because we need to keep progressive people from coming in on education.

I think Trump will just follow this strategy until the end, and from what has been shown so far, especially in October, I think Trump's message seems to be working.

[Anchor]
In any case, many analysts say that the urgent side is now on Vice President Harris' side, but I think this is the point to watch how to plan for the last-minute strategy. So far, I was Cho Byung-je, a visiting chair professor at Kyungnam University's Far East Studies Institute. Thank you.