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Swing state Georgia draws Trump and Harris campaigns

In this close US presidential race, the Southern state of Georgia is one of a handful of states that may decide the outcome. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns reports on what the campaigns are doing in Georgia and how they hope to carry this key swing state.
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What might Kamala Harris’ Mideast policy look like?

Washington — The White House welcomed on Tuesday the rescue of an Israeli hostage abducted October 7 by Hamas and said a Gaza cease-fire deal is being finalized.

But even if an agreement is reached, a truce is unlikely to extend beyond the six weeks of phase one of the three-phase deal. The next U.S. administration will still inherit the role of managing tensions in the region.

Since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris has aimed to strike a balance between reaffirming U.S. support for Israel and advocating for Palestinian humanitarian needs — in essence, signaling a continuation of President Joe Biden’s policies on the Israel-Hamas war and, more broadly, the Middle East.

Harris summed up her position in her acceptance speech as the Democratic presidential nominee at the party’s convention in Chicago.

“President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination,” she said.

Democrats are enthusiastic about Harris, even though she has not yet laid out her own policies. And unlike Biden, a longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, most of Harris’ exposure to foreign policy was during her tenure as vice president.

Not having “foreign policy baggage” might benefit Harris in the eyes of Democratic voters, said Natasha Hall, senior fellow with the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Hall pointed out that in October 2002, Biden was one of 77 senators who gave President George W. Bush the authority to use force in Iraq, a decision that eventually became a liability for Biden, much as his staunch support for Israel has become the most divisive issue in his own party.

Adviser’s influence

Those looking to see whether Harris’ Mideast policy will diverge from Biden’s can look to her national security adviser, Phillip Gordon, who is expected to remain in the role if she is elected. He would be the principal adviser to the president on all national security issues, including foreign policy.

“Phil Gordon is the type of adviser that colors in the lines,” Hall told VOA. “He’s the kind of person that I think very much is sort of old-fashioned American foreign policy.”

Gordon was against ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power in 2003. He chronicled American efforts to overthrow leaders in the Middle East in his 2020 book, “Losing the Long Game: The False Promise of Regime Change in the Middle East.”

“The U.S. policy debate about the Middle East suffers from the fallacy that there is an external American solution to every problem, even when decades of painful experience suggest that this is not the case,” he wrote. “And regime change is the worst ‘solution.'”

Such an outlook would make a Harris administration “very, very cautious to deal assertively with Iran,” said Jonathan Rynhold, head of the Political Studies Department at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University.

From an Israeli perspective, however, Harris’ direct involvement in the administration’s recent decision to deploy more military assets to the Middle East to deter Iran is good news, Rynhold told VOA.

“If that is the policy that she goes on to adopt, then that crosses the minimal threshold of what Israel needs on Iran,” he said. “It may not be what Israel desires, which is a more forceful approach, but it is not a passive one.”

Current Harris aides have told VOA that Harris she intends to stay on the path that Biden has laid out: working beyond a cease-fire toward a two-state solution without sacrificing Israel’s security.

Harris’ former national security adviser while she was in the Senate, Halie Soifer, agreed.

“The vice president and the president have supported U.S. military assistance to Israel, not just for the existing agreement that we have with Israel,” said Soifer, who is now the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America. “But also an increase this year because of their security needs,” she told VOA

Generational and personal background

Biden’s generation, with a more visceral sense of the Holocaust, views Israel as a tiny democracy surrounded by hostile Arab powers. People of Harris’ generation and younger see Israel for what it is today: a thriving democracy and the region’s top military power. While Biden and Harris may share the same goal for Israel’s security, there’s not the same emotional resonance, Rynhold said.

Younger Americans “don’t remember a time when Jews and Israel were extremely vulnerable,” he said. “So they don’t have a same sense of that continuing vulnerability that President Biden really has.”

And for the president, Israel is integral to the story of America’s role in the world.

“America is there to prevent the Holocaust. America is there to support democracies, and Israel is central to his way of understanding that role,” Rynhold said.

If elected, Harris would become the first person to hold the highest office in the land whose parents are both immigrants. Barack Obama’s father was born in Kenya, and Donald Trump’s mother was born in the U.K. Harris’ father came from Jamaica and her mother, from India.

Unlike Biden, who often underscores that he is a Zionist, a loaded term often viewed with scorn in many parts of the world, Harris may be more sensitive to views from the Global South.

In a 2018 speech to an Indian American group, Harris spoke fondly of childhood visits to the home of her maternal grandfather, P.V. Gopalan, describing him as someone who had fought for “freedom and for justice and for independence.”

“She is aware of how the rest of the world may feel about the Middle East, about neocolonialism, neoimperialism,” Hall said. “I really hope that she has the opportunity to bring those experiences to bear if she becomes the president.”

But it’s hard to tell what a Harris doctrine would eventually look like.

“What she says now is directed to winning an election and keeping the Democratic Party together,” Rynhold said.

And since the party is evenly split between those sympathetic to Israel and those sympathetic to the Palestinians, she must express platitudes, he said.

“And that’s what she has done.”
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How would a potential Harris administration handle Mideast tensions?

White House officials welcomed the rescue of an Israeli hostage held by Hamas Tuesday and said they are finalizing a Gaza cease-fire deal. But even if an agreement is reached, a future U.S. administration will still inherit the problem of managing tensions in the Middle East. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara looks at potential U.S. policy under Vice President Kamala Harris should she win the November presidential election.
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CNN to interview Harris, Walz on Thursday

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Border motivating issue for Arizona voters

Immigration is one of the top issues for U.S. voters this November as they decide who will occupy the White House. The difference in policy between the two presidential candidates is stark. VOA’s senior Washington correspondent, Carolyn Presutti, begins our story at a dusty desert stop in Arizona. Video: Adam Greenbaum
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Trump tries to tie rival Harris to chaotic Afghanistan exit

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump used the third anniversary on Monday of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan to try to pin the chaotic pullout on his Democratic rival for the White House, Kamala Harris.

Trump participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery honoring the 13 servicemembers killed during the U.S. exit, then later in Detroit blamed Harris, the vice president, and President Joe Biden for what he termed a “catastrophic” withdrawal.

“Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all over the world,” Trump said in an address to the National Guard Association of the United States.

It was the latest attempt by Trump and his campaign to raise doubts about Harris’ fitness to serve as commander-in-chief as the Nov. 5 election draws near and comes after Harris last week proclaimed herself ready to lead the nation’s armed forces.

The U.S. troop pullout and evacuation of U.S. and allied officials, citizens and Afghans at risk of Taliban retribution saw crowds of desperate Afghans trying to enter Kabul airport and men clinging to aircraft as they taxied down runways in August 2021.

An Islamic State suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. servicemembers and more than 150 Afghans outside an airport gate.

Harris’ campaign said the fault lay with Trump’s tenure as president.

“The Biden-Harris administration inherited a mess from Donald Trump,” said Ammar Moussa, a Harris spokesperson. “Trump wants America to forget that he had four years to get out of Afghanistan but failed to do it.”

The Biden administration was following a withdrawal commitment and timeline that the Trump administration had negotiated with the Taliban in 2020.

A review released by the U.S. State Department in 2023 found fault with both the Trump and Biden administrations in the run-up to the withdrawal.

In recent weeks, Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance, also have sought to turn Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’s decades of service into a political vulnerability. Former military service is often a key selling point for candidates in U.S. political campaigns.

The Republicans have accused Walz of exaggerating his rank in the Army National Guard, where he served for 24 years. Walz has described himself as a retired command sergeant major, one of the highest noncommissioned officer positions in the Army. While he achieved that rank, he did not meet the requirements to retire with that title.

The Harris campaign deleted a reference this month to Walz’s rank as a “command sergeant major” on its website. The campaign also now says Walz “misspoke” in 2018 during his gubernatorial campaign in Minnesota when he referred to “weapons of war, that I carried in war.” Walz was never deployed to a war zone.

Trump, 78, never served in the military. Though he was of draft age during the Vietnam War, he received four student deferments and a health-related one after he received a diagnosis for bone spurs in his feet.

Vance served in the Marine Corps for four years as a combat correspondent and was deployed to Iraq for roughly seven months. His position mainly involved writing reports of military activity for public dissemination and at times interacting with the media.

Harris has not served in the military.

Harris told CNN in 2021 that she was the last person in the room with Biden when he decided to pull U.S. forces from Afghanistan and end America’s longest war. She also said that she was comfortable with Biden’s decision, but it remains unclear what role she played in the discussion.

Both Biden and Harris released statements marking the anniversary on Monday.

“These 13 devoted patriots represent the best of America, putting our beloved nation and their fellow Americans above themselves and deploying into danger to keep their fellow citizens safe,” Harris said.

Asked Monday why Biden and Harris weren’t marking the anniversary of the Abbey Gate attack as Trump did at Arlington National Cemetery, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Trump had been personally invited by the family members and he called it one way to honor the fallen.

“Another way is to continue to work,” Kirby said. “Maybe not with a lot of fanfare, maybe not with a lot of public attention, maybe not with TV cameras, but to work with might and main every single day to make sure that the families of the fallen and of those who were injured and wounded, not just at Abbey Gate, but over the course of the 20-some odd years that we were in Afghanistan, have the support that they need.”

Also Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that Congress will posthumously honor the 13 service members by presenting their families with the Congressional Gold Medal next month. It’s the highest civilian award that Congress can bestow.

Some information for this article came from The Associated Press.
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Court declines to hear challenge; Green Party’s Stein to stay on Wisconsin ballot

madison, wisconsin — Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein will remain on the ballot in the crucial swing state of Wisconsin after the state Supreme Court decided on Monday not to hear a Democratic challenge seeking to oust her. 

Democrats are concerned that third-party candidates could draw votes away from Vice President Kamala Harris and help Republican Donald Trump win Wisconsin. The presence of independent and third-party candidates on the ballot could be a deciding factor in a state where four of the last six presidential elections have been decided by between 5,700 votes and about 23,000 votes. 

The court decided against hearing the challenge brought by David Strange, an employee of the Democratic National Committee, who sought to oust Stein from the ballot. The court did not explain its reasoning. 

“We determine that the petitioner is not entitled to the relief he seeks,” the court said in its unsigned order. 

Strange argued that the Green Party can’t nominate presidential electors in Wisconsin because the party does not have any state officeholders or legislative candidates authorized to nominate presidential electors. 

The Green Party and Republicans countered that the party met all of its legal requirements, and that Stein should be allowed to remain on the ballot. 

Michael White, co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party, called the complaint a “mark of fear by the Democratic Party” and hailed the court’s decision not to consider it. 

“It was an inevitable conclusion because the complaint had no merit to begin with and we knew that,” he said. 

However, White said the attention generated by Democrats attempting to knock Stein off the ballot motivated Green Party members. 

Democratic National Committee spokesperson Adrienne Watson called the decision “disappointing” and said the Green Party should not be on the ballot. 

Stein last appeared on the Wisconsin ballot 2016, when she won just over 31,000 votes — more than Trump’s winning margin of just under 23,000 votes. Some Democrats have blamed her for helping Trump win the state and the presidency that year. 

Strange had challenged a Wisconsin Elections Commission decision in February to grant the Green Party ballot access. The commission did so because a candidate from the party won more than 1% of the vote in a statewide race in 2022, meeting a requirement under the law. Sheryl McFarland got nearly 1.6% of the vote while finishing last in a four-way race for secretary of state. 

The Wisconsin Elections Commission is scheduled to meet Tuesday to certify which candidates can appear on the ballot. Democrats are also challenging the placement of independent candidate Cornel West on the ballot. A Republican National Committee employee is challenging independent Shiva Ayyadurai’s candidacy. 

The Wisconsin Supreme Court kept Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins off the ballot in 2020 after the elections commission deadlocked on whether he filed proper nominating signatures.
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Social platform X edits AI chatbot after election officials warn that it spreads misinformation

chicago — The social media platform X has made a change to its AIchatbot after five secretaries of state warned it was spreading election misinformation.

Top election officials from Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington sent a letter this month to Elon Musk complaining that the platform’s AI chatbot, Grok, produced false information about state ballot deadlines shortly after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.

The secretaries of state requested that the chatbot instead direct users who ask election-related questions to CanIVote.org, a voting information website run by the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Before listing responses to election-related questions, the chatbot now says, “For accurate and up-to-date information about the 2024 U.S. Elections, please visit Vote.gov.”

Both websites are “trustworthy resources that can connect voters with their local election officials,” the five secretaries of state said in a shared statement.

“We appreciate X’s action to improve their platform and hope they continue to make improvements that will ensure their users have access to accurate information from trusted sources in this critical election year,” they said.

Grok is available only to subscribers of the premium versions of X. But the five secretaries of state who signed the letter said election misinformation from Grok has been shared across multiple social media platforms, reaching millions of people. Grok continued to repeat the false information for 10 days before it was corrected, the secretaries said. The platform did not respond to a request for comment.

The change promoting a link to an official voting website does not seem to address Grok’s ability to create misleading AI-generated images related to elections. People have been using the tool to flood the platform with fake images of candidates, including Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Grok debuted last year for X premium and premium plus subscribers and was touted by Musk as a “rebellious” AI chatbot that will answer “spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.”

Social media platforms have faced mounting scrutiny for their role in spreading misinformation, including about elections. The letter also warned that inaccuracies are to be expected for AI products, especially chatbots such as Grok that are based on large language models.

Since Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it to X, watchdog groups have raised concerns over a surge in hate speech and misinformation being amplified on the platform, as well as cuts to the staff that had been moderating content.

Experts say the moves represent a regression from progress made by social media platforms attempting to better combat political disinformation after the 2016 U.S. presidential contest and could precipitate a worsening misinformation landscape ahead of this year’s November elections.
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Trump, Harris quarrel before their debate: Mute the microphones or not?

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Asian American voters diverse in culture, political views

Since 2020, Asians Americans have been the fastest-growing group of eligible voters in the U.S., according to Pew Research Center. In 2022, California had the most eligible Asian American voters in the U.S., followed by New York and Texas. From Houston, Texas, Elizabeth Lee has more on the potential and challenges of the Asian American vote.
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