With two weeks left until the vote, Donald Trump has gained momentum in the polls. On the other hand, every time they gave him up for lost, the tycoon always managed to recover. Even when, in Butler, he literally stared death in the face. If the situation in view of the November presidential elections still remains in the balance in many respects, it is clear that, starting from mid-October, Kamala Harris’ candidacy has entered a state of anxiety. According to the polling average of Real Clear Politicshis national advantage has been cancelled, while, in the key states, the tycoon is slightly ahead. The same predictive model as The Hilllast week, gave him a 52% chance of winning.
In short, those who predicted an easy success for the vice president in August have had to think again. Trump is fully in the game and, despite the unknowns that hover over the electoral race, he could exploit this final rush to bring home the result in November. Well, just to understand what the mood is in the Republican presidential campaign, The Truth decided to interview Trump’s senior advisor, Brian Hughes: he is one of the key men in the tycoon’s entourage. With him, we talked about the situation regarding the swing states and those crucial segments of the electorate, in respect of which the Republican candidate seems to be gaining ground. All this, without overlooking Harris’ weaknesses.
Brian Hughes, Donald Trump has been gaining momentum in the polls since mid-October. Kamala Harris, on the other hand, seems to be in a difficult phase. What’s happening?
“We’re seeing great momentum for President Trump. We know his campaign message about how he can solve America’s problems is working with voters. We see it in the polls and in the enthusiasm in the states where voting is already taking place. The clearest message that people are taking seriously is that Kamala Harris was the second-highest elected official in the country for four years, working side by side with Joe Biden. He has failed to secure our border, which, in addition to bringing crime and drugs to cities across the country, has also led to millions of illegal immigrants, some of whom have committed murder, rape and other terrible crimes.”
Go ahead.
“We see that the economic policies of Biden and Harris have resulted in a scandalous increase in federal spending, which has caused out-of-control inflation, negatively impacting the lives of Americans for food, energy, homes and all the essentials necessity every day. We have also seen that, on the international level, Kamala Harris and Biden have demonstrated a weakness, which has emboldened not only the enemies of the United States around the world but also those who threaten our allies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Only President Trump has a plan to solve these problems. Americans are starting to understand this.”
A certain vulgate persists in defining Trump as “racist”. Yet, according to polls, it appears to be significantly gaining ground in the vote of African Americans and Hispanics. Where does this strength come from?
“I think there are two aspects to consider. The first is that minorities have traditionally voted for Democrats like Kamala Harris. However, over the generations, this support has not brought about a significant change in their lives. The second aspect is that these minority blocs are made up of Americans. They suffer, like everyone else, from failed economic policies, which have increased the cost of living. These blocs see their cities inundated with clandestine crime. And in some cities, governed by liberal policies, they see that public money from social programs for American citizens is used to support initiatives in favor of illegal immigrants both for food and housing. They see, like all Americans, the weakening of the United States internationally and that this can bring chaos and war to the world. Like all Americans, they fear that this could lead to their children and grandchildren being sent to fight in other people’s conflicts. For these reasons, we see record numbers of support from African Americans and Hispanics. President Trump is on track to make a historic achievement, for a Republican candidate, with respect to these voting blocs.”
Relations between Harris and Italian-Americans aren’t particularly idyllic, are they?
“For Italian-Americans, the greatest offense concerns Columbus Day: a traditional holiday for generations of Americans, which represents recognition of Christopher Columbus, the explorer who brought us into the modern age. Harris has chosen to denigrate this, adhering to the idea that Indigenous People’s Day should be celebrated on that day. This rhetoric implicitly argues that Christopher Columbus, rather than being an important figure for the world, is a tyrannical conqueror who killed innocent people: this thing is offensive. This is just one example that shows the liberal mentality with which Kamala Harris treats history. And this directly impacts Italian-American history.”
Trump also appears rather strong in the Catholic vote, while Harris, on this front, seems to be in greater difficulty. How come?”
Catholics and all Christians recognize that in Kamala Harris there is the continuation of a woke ideology, which wants to ban and keep their faith out of public debate. Harris is part of an administration that has targeted churches across the country for publicly defending positions of conscience. Catholic and Christian voters know this. Just the other day, two people at a Harris rally, as she spoke about abortion, exclaimed, “Christ is king.” Rather than agree to a dialogue, he chased them away, saying they were at the wrong rally and should go to another rally. Catholic and Christian voters are understanding this open hostility towards them.”
The FBI revealed that, between June and July, your campaign was hacked by Iran. Do you expect further attacks from the Khomeinist regime?
“Iran has been targeting us all along in various ways, I can’t say much more than that. They have clearly targeted not only our campaign’s information technology functions but also the lives of Americans. Iran funds much of the world’s terrorism, and a terrorist threat was discovered on Election Day aimed at throwing the election into chaos. The Iranians have been linked to numerous assassination attempts. It is very clear that these threats have existed and will continue. President Trump wants to continue the campaign despite these threats, because the next election is very important for America and for the whole world.”
What is the status of your campaign in key states? Are you optimistic?
“As you know, we have seven key states: Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina. Right now, we’re gaining ground in all of them. The latest polls show that we would win in all of them. We are very strong in Arizona and making progress in others. Additionally, we are doing better in metrics regarding early voting, voter registration, and mail ballot requests than we did in 2020 and 2016. Early voting is largely Dem in Pennsylvania. However, in previous elections at this point in the year, the numbers for Democrats were 15 to 20 points higher than they are today. We don’t take anything for granted, but these early trends are very favorable in the seven key states.”
And should we expect any surprises in other states?
“In the states that Trump won in the previous two elections, we are seeing very strong numbers. We have also seen some momentum in states recently won by the Democrats. I don’t know if we are competitive but certainly some of these states could be within our reach. One of these is Virginia: I don’t expect us to win it, but the trend there shows that we are closing the gap. And that’s another reason Harris’ campaign is nervous. After all, his strategy is a failure. Instead of explaining his political agenda to Americans, he attacks Trump, resorting to absurd comparisons with Hitler. The point is, you cannot escape the fact that you have been part of the leadership of this nation for the last four years.”
(Interview published in La Verità on 28 October 2024)
