ВИБОРЧА ГАЗЕТА

Presidential debates that sparked change

President Joe Biden’s poor performance during the debate against Donald Trump in June led to his withdrawal from the race and the elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. Here’s a look at other presidential debates in history that shifted the direction of the campaign.
…

Harris, Trump to debate Tuesday in pivotal moment of campaign

…

Anxiety, uncertainty build in Ukraine as US election nears

Many Ukrainians are hoping the outcome of the U.S. elections will help bring an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine. While some worry that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will take a softer approach on Moscow, others are concerned that under the policies of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, aid – while significant -will be slow to arrive. Anna Chernikova reports from Kyiv. VOA footage by Vladyslav Smilianets.
…

West Virginia has consistently delivered for Donald Trump

Close to the U.S. capital of Washington, the rural state of West Virginia was solidly Democratic for most of the 20th century. But now it’s a Republican stronghold, delivering overwhelming wins for former President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. VOA’s congressional correspondent, Katherine Gypson, went to Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, to see how the 2024 election season is playing out. Videographers: Adam Greenbaum, Henry Hernandez and Mary Cieslak
…

US adversaries step up efforts to influence results of next election

washington — Russia, Iran and China are ramping up efforts to impact the outcome of the U.S. presidential election and down-ballot races, targeting American voters with an expanding array of sophisticated influence operations.

The latest assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies, shared Friday, warns that Russia remains the preeminent threat, with Russian influence campaigns seeking to boost the chances of Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump over Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.

Russian actors, led by networks created by the Kremlin-backed media outlet RT, “are supporting Moscow’s efforts to influence voter preferences in favor of the former president and diminish the prospects of the vice president,” a senior intelligence official told reporters, briefing on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

“RT has built and used networks of U.S. and other Western personalities to create and disseminate Russia-friendly narratives while trying to mask the content in authentic Americans’ free speech,” the official said.

And RT, the official added, is just part of a growing Kremlin-directed campaign that is looking to impact not just the race for the White House, but smaller elections across the United States, with an added emphasis on swing states.

“Russia’s influence apparatus is very large and it’s worth highlighting that they have other entities that are active,” the official said. “Russia is working up and down ballot races, as well as spreading divisive issues.”

Tracking the Russian influence efforts has become more difficult, with U.S. officials saying that there is a greater degree of sophistication and an increased emphasis on amplifying American voices with pro-Russian views rather than seeding social media with narratives crafted in the Kremlin.

“It’s not just about Russian bots and trolls and fake social media persona, although that’s part of it,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told VOA Friday.

“We’re not taking anything for granted,” he added. “There’s no question that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has every intent to try to sow discord here in the United States, to try to pump disinformation and Russian propaganda through to the American people, through what he believes were our credible sources, be they online or on television and we have to take that seriously.”

The intelligence officials declined to share additional specifics about Russia’s network of influence operations. But indictments Wednesday from the U.S. Justice Department have shed some light on the scope of the Kremlin’s recent operations.

In one case, the U.S. charged two employees of RT with using fake personas and shell companies to funnel almost $10 million to Tenet Media, a Tennessee-based company producing videos and podcasts for a stable of conservative political influencers.

The aim, prosecutors said, was to produce and disseminate content promoting what Moscow viewed as pro-Russian policies.

In a separate action, the U.S. seized 32 internet domains linked to an operation directed by a key aide to Putin. The aim, U.S. officials said, was to mimic legitimate U.S. news sites to spread Russian-created propaganda.

RT publicly ridiculed the allegations while some of the influencers working with Tenet posted statements on the X social media platform saying they were unaware of the company’s links to Moscow.

As for the latest U.S. intelligence allegations, the Russian Embassy in Washington has yet to respond to VOA’s request for comments, though it has described previous accusations as “Russophobic.”

Requests for comment to the Trump and Harris campaigns have also, so far, gone unanswered.

But earlier U.S. intelligence assertions of Russian support for Trump have raised the ire of the Trump campaign, which has pointed to public statements by Russia’s Putin supporting Trump’s opponents.

“When President Trump was in the Oval Office, Russia and all of America’s adversaries were deterred, because they feared how the United States would respond,” national press secretary for the Trump campaign, Karoline Leavitt, told VOA in an email this past July.

U.S. intelligence officials, however, said it would be a mistake to put any faith in Putin’s words, including public comments Thursday expressing support for Harris.

The U.S. intelligence community “does not take Putin’s public statements as representative of Russia’s covert intentions,” the senior official said. “There are many examples over the past several years where Putin’s public statements do not align with Russian actions. For example, his comments that he would not invade Ukraine.”

Experts say Iran, China trying to influence results

U.S. intelligence agencies Friday emphasized Russia is not alone in its effort to shape the outcome of the U.S. elections in November, warning both Tehran and Beijing are sharpening their influence campaigns with just about 60 days until America voters go to the polls.

“Iran is making a greater effort than in the past to influence this year’s elections, even as its tactics and approaches are similar to prior cycles,” the intelligence official said, describing a “multi-pronged approach to stoke internal divisions and undermine voter confidence in the U.S. democratic system.

U.S. intelligence agencies previously assessed that Iran has focused part of its efforts on denigrating the Trump campaign, seeing his election as likely to worsen tensions between Tehran and Washington.

U.S. officials last month also blamed Iran for a hack-and-leak operation targeting the Trump campaign, though they said that Iran-linked actors have also sought to infiltrate the Harris campaign.

As for China, U.S. intelligence officials said it appears Beijing is still content to stay out of the U.S. presidential race, seeing little difference between Trump and Harris.

But there are indications China is accelerating its efforts to impact other political races.

U.S. intelligence “is aware of PRC [People’s Republic of China] attempts to influence U.S. down-ballot races by focusing on candidates it views as particularly threatening to core PRC security interests,” the official said.

“PRC online influence actors have also continued small scale efforts on social media to engage U.S. audiences on divisive political issues, including protests about the Israel-Gaza conflict and promote negative stories about both political parties,” the official added.

‘Malicious speculations against China’

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, Friday, rejected the U.S. intelligence assessment.

“China has no intention and will not interfere in the U.S. election, and we hope that the U.S. side will not make an issue of China in the election,” spokesperson Liu Pengyu told VOA in an email.

Liu added that accusations Beijing is using social media to sway U.S. public opinion “are full of malicious speculations against China, which China firmly opposes.”

While U.S. intelligence officials have identified Russia, Iran and China, as the most prominent purveyors of disinformation, they are not alone.

Officials have said countries like Cuba are also engaging in influence operations, though at a much smaller scale.

And other countries are edging closer to crossing that line.

“We are seeing a number of countries considering activities that, at a minimum, test the boundaries of election influence,” according to the U.S. assessment. “Such activities include lobbying political figures to try to curry favor with them in the event they are elected to office.”

Misha Komadovsky contributed to this report.
…

Toxic or tonic? Voting on masculinity in US election 

Washington — Unlike Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign slogan, “I’m With Her,” there is no overt gender messaging in Kamala Harris’ run for the presidency in 2024. Yet, gender is on the ballot as the Harris campaign and that of her Republican rival, Donald Trump, present competing narratives on masculinity, the latest front line in America’s culture war.

The contrast was clear at the parties’ conventions. At the Republican National Convention, retired pro wrestler Hulk Hogan took off his suit jacket and ripped off his shirt to reveal the muscles bulging under his Trump-Vance tank top. Hogan was preceded by Tucker Carlson, TV personality and star of “The End of Men,” a documentary on American men’s “collapsing testosterone levels.”

The message was unambiguous: Former President Trump, who days earlier had survived an assassination attempt, is the self-proclaimed “warrior” who will “Make America Great Again.” He was introduced by Dana White Jr., CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship, and a day earlier walked into the arena to James Brown’s song, “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World.” The audience greeted him with raised fists, chanting “Fight, fight, fight!”

Trump’s persona is coupled with the traditionalist view of gender roles of his running mate, JD Vance. The Ohio senator introduced his spouse as “my beautiful wife, Usha, an incredible lawyer and a better mom.”

The 40-year-old father of three and Catholic convert has advocated pro-natalist views, including in a 2021 interview where he criticized the “anti-child ideology” of women who do not want to bear children. In the same year, he called Harris and other high-profile Democrats “childless cat ladies” who didn’t have a “direct stake” in the country. Harris has two stepchildren from her marriage to Doug Emhoff but no biological children.

At the Democratic National Convention, speakers focused on reproductive rights and all-gender inclusivity. As the country’s first female vice president, Harris has not focused much on her own gender identity. But her take on gender roles was in clear view as she ended her acceptance address at the DNC, sharing the stage with her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Emhoff.

Before entering politics, Walz was a high school teacher and football coach who served in the military. Emhoff is a lawyer who stopped his practice to dedicate himself full time to being the country’s first second gentleman. In their professional and personal backing of Harris, Walz and Emhoff, respectively, are outliers in the traditional thinking on presidential partnerships, where women usually play the supporting role.

Toxic vs tonic masculinity

Walz and Emhoff are portrayed by the left as embodying “tonic masculinity,” a term coined to contrast stereotypical male dominance over other groups that some brand as “toxic masculinity.”

Trump and Vance have “evidenced a desire for and a love for this old style of masculinity,” said Christine Emba, author of Rethinking Sex: A Provocation.

“The idea that men are in charge and are making the decisions,” she told VOA. “A particular kind of man, a sort of theatrically strong man, a man who has paternalistic control of the family.”

In many ways, Walz is a counter to that narrative. While he is known for being an avid hunter and outdoorsman who shares home and car repair tips, he is also famous for his award-winning “hotdish” recipe.

On gender inclusivity and reproductive freedom — key issues for Democratic voters — Walz speaks from personal experience as a former faculty adviser for a high school LGBTQ club and by going public with his family’s struggle with infertility. In doing so, he is messaging empathy and vulnerability, traits that stand in contrast with more traditional masculine leadership qualities, such as assertiveness and dominance.

That view of leadership is shifting, said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Voters have shown they also value “warmth and compassion and empathy, all of which are traits that are more likely to be associated with femininity,” she told VOA.

The campaign is positioning Walz to resonate with voters who seek those values in their leaders. At the same time, they hope his handy and helpful Midwestern dad persona will appeal to more traditional voters.

“Guys who hunt, the guys who fix their cars, the dads, the heads of families, showing that he can still be male and masculine, but also in support of a female candidate,” Emba said.

This narrative stands in contrast to the Trump-Vance take on masculinity that aligns with the campaign’s broader Make America Great Again message, said Matthew Levendusky, professor of political science at University of Pennsylvania.

Their strategy is to appeal to a particular vision of American life, “a kind of imagined past,” he told VOA, where a woman’s value “comes from being a wife and mother.”

The gender divide

Polls show an overwhelming divide along gender lines. Women favor Harris and men favor Trump, with the gap most apparent among young people.

Anxiety over shifting gender roles may be a contributing factor, coupled with the fact that American men are doing less well than women in general.

In his book, Of Boys and Men, Richard Reeves, a senior fellow focusing on gender inequality at Brookings Institution, outlined various indicators, including education, income, health and access to a social support network, to argue that while American girls and women are making huge strides in recent decades, boys and young men are struggling.

“Profound economic and social changes of recent decades have many losing ground in the classroom, the workplace and in the family,” Reeves wrote. “While the lives of women have changed, the lives of many men have remained the same or even worsened.”

At the same time, with the rise of the #MeToo feminist movement, liberals were increasingly seeking to disrupt the way that power is distributed, Dittmar said.

These conversations can be alienating for some men. “There was a sense that their masculinity and their manhood was in some ways precarious, and that they needed to reassert or reclaim that power that has been threatened or lost,” she said.

Male grievance

The Trump campaign has been aggressively courting male voters through what’s called the manosphere — online forums with male-centric audiences that promote masculinity and, in many cases, opposition to feminism.

It’s a continuation of Trump’s 2016 strategy of “tapping into male grievance politics,” particularly that of white males, Dittmar said.

On the other hand, Democrats are leaning into rights to abortion and in vitro fertilization.

All these issues, in addition to how the candidates “talk about women and talk to women” could influence voter enthusiasm by motivating turnout among different groups, she added.

In many places around the world there is societal discomfort about how quickly women are coming into roles outside the home. However, competing narratives on masculinity may be unique to American politics.

Countries with female leaders have not faced the same struggles; neither in Northern European countries that in general are more advanced in closing the gender gap, nor in developing countries where female leaders are often related to the male leaders who preceded them.

“There’s sort of a generational continuity that is soothing and attractive,” Emba said. “In the United States, we just simply haven’t had that.”

Instead, the idea of women’s role in society “feels very unstable in a comparatively new way,” she added. “America is experiencing that quite strongly in this moment, it’s just showing up everywhere.”
…

Toxic or tonic? Presidential campaigns offer different models of masculinity

Unlike Hillary Clinton — whose 2016 campaign featured the slogan “I’m With Her,” Kamala Harris has no overt gender messaging in her 2024 presidential run. Yet both her gender — and that of her rival, Donald Trump — are on the ballot. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara looks at the two campaigns and their competing narratives on masculinity.
…

On guns: Harris bets on stricter laws, Trump pledges to roll back restrictions

A shooting at a Georgia high school on Wednesday was a stark reminder that firearms kill more Americans per capita than in any other large, high-income country, according to health experts. Vice President Kamala Harris wants stricter gun regulation. Her opponent, former President Donald Trump, pledges to roll back gun restrictions. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias explains.
…

Trump, Harris offer different futures for Ukraine as they vie for US presidency

Ukraine faces wildly different prospects under a potential Donald Trump or Kamala Harris U.S. presidency. But as their campaigns race to the finish line, neither candidate has laid out exactly how they plan to deal with Russia’s war on Ukraine. Experts say in that same space of time, the battlefield in Ukraine has itself radically changed, giving more power to Ukraine in determining its own fate. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington.
…