US Presidential Election 2024: The race is too fierce and who will make history?
To understand the ferocity of this year’s US presidential election, we must go back in time at least to almost exactly four years ago. It was November 6, 2020, when, after a thrilling and controversial election, polling organizations and a series of major news agencies unanimously affirmed that Mr. Joe Biden had won.
Almost immediately, protests against and in support of Mr. Trump took place in many cities across the US, hundreds of people were arrested by police for causing violence. Accusations and denials of fraud continued to appear, and there were demands for recounts in battleground states.
It was a long and difficult journey for the United States until January 3, 2021, when the US Congress reconvened to count the votes and certify the results of the Electoral College. Some Republicans in the House and Senate said they would object to the election results in some states, with then-President Trump pressuring his “deputy” Mike Pence, as Vice President of the United States and head of the Senate, to use his position to overturn the results in battleground states. But Mr. Pence said the law did not give him that authority.
Capitol Police were concerned and the National Guard was alerted as several mass gatherings in December 2020 turned violent. On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, disrupting the vote count, forcing lawmakers and members of the press to evacuate in a wartime fashion. Rioters broke into both the House and Senate and vandalized offices. One person was shot and killed by police, another police officer died of serious injuries after scuffles with rioters, and three others died of medical causes. Trump was charged with inciting the riot.
That evening, Congress resumed its session after the rioters had been driven away. Just before 4 a.m. the next morning, both houses of Congress finished their work and officially certified Biden as the winner. That first day of Biden’s election could also be seen as the official start of Trump’s race to the White House. And the four years since then have been a long, exciting, and tumultuous journey for Biden, Harris, and of course Trump. And now the “rematch” is just hours away.
Before talking about the fierce election journey over the past 4 years between the candidates, we need to talk about the form and method of the US presidential election.
Although the US has 50 states, most of them are not competitive in elections because most tend to vote for one party in every election. Combined with the Electoral College system in US elections and the fact that the electoral votes between Democrats and Republicans in “sure-win” states are always fairly even, the race often depends on the results of a few battleground states.
There are 7 battleground states in this year’s election. Of these 7 states, 3 are known as the “Blue Wall” states: Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania because they are more inclined towards the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina are known as the “Red Wall” because the Republican Party is considered to have a slight advantage.
Let's return to this year's fierce and tumultuous US presidential election. On April 25, 2023, President Biden, despite turning 81, officially announced his re-election bid, in order to continue to break his record as the oldest US President in history. It is undeniable that one of the reasons Mr. Biden does not want to retire is the threat from Mr. Trump, due to concerns that if he does not run for re-election, it will be difficult for anyone to confront the Republican candidate.
However, the burden of age and having to face too much stressful work due to the political instability in both the US and internationally has made it easy to see that he is getting older and weaker day by day. His steps are no longer steady.
Not only American voters but also those who care about the world's number one economy cannot help but wonder how he can continue to run the US for another 4 years, and what will happen to the US with a president who is so old, and whose health and spirit have declined so much?
As is well known, Mr. Biden is already the oldest US President to take office at 78 years old after the 2020 election, which will make him 82 years old at the end of this term and 86 years old at the end of his second term if re-elected. An April 2023 poll showed that 70% of Americans, including 51% of Democrats, believe that Mr. Biden should not run for a second term, with nearly half citing his age as the reason.
However, under great pressure and fear of the prospect of Mr. Trump returning to the White House, President Biden continued to run for election and eventually won the official nomination of the Democratic Party after the primaries.
But in the end, all of Mr. Biden's efforts had to stop after the first and only debate with Mr. Trump in this year's election campaign, when his declining health caused Mr. Biden to have a "disastrous" debate, when he presented "stammering", "unclear" and even at times almost "falling asleep".
Biden’s approval rating plummeted, while the fear of defeat in the Democratic Party grew exponentially. And then, after many statements of resistance, Biden withdrew from the race on July 21, supporting Harris as his replacement.
This almost last-minute “mid-game change of general” is also a rare highlight in the history of US elections and can be said to have helped the Democratic Party change the situation, to have a balanced competitive position with Mr. Trump and the Republican Party before the upcoming US Election Day on November 5.
After receiving the “pioneer seal” from Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris was quickly nominated by the Democratic Party and officially became a candidate on August 5, just 3 months before the US Election Day and when the race had entered the sprint stage. She has the opportunity to become the first female president in US history.
After losing the 2020 election, Donald Trump has continued to nurture a plan for “revenge” as he has publicly stated many times, immediately running for re-election when the White House race opens. If he wins, he will be the second president to win non-consecutive terms, after Grover Cleveland in 1892.
But it has been a difficult and even dangerous journey for him. During his campaign, Mr. Trump appeared in court more than he did on the campaign trail, becoming the first former president to be convicted of a crime. In total, he faces four criminal cases and a series of civil cases, including inciting the January 6 Capitol riot and, in particular, 34 criminal counts related to a New York falsification case.
Despite the above legal troubles, Mr. Trump still did not give up the election campaign, when the US law still allowed convicted people to participate in the presidential election and more importantly, he realized that his supporters were still large, the chance of winning was still very high. On July 18, Mr. Trump accepted the nomination from the Republican National Convention to become the presidential candidate for the third consecutive time.
All of these legal troubles aren’t the worst Trump has endured in his bid to return to the White House. The most horrific came on July 13. At a rally in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Trump came inches from death when an assassin shot him in the ear. It was the first time a president or major presidential candidate had been wounded in an assassination attempt since Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Trump faced a second assassination attempt on September 15 while he was golfing in Florida, where an assassin lay ambush on him for hours with a rifle before being discovered by the Secret Service and arrested. Then, with just over a month to go before the election, another plot to assassinate Trump was foiled in California on October 12, less than a month before Election Day. A suspect with a criminal record was arrested in the case.
After all, the US election has been shaped by the two candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. The second and final presidential debate in the White House race took place on September 10, attracting 67.1 million viewers on television and hundreds of millions on social platforms. At this point, the race has turned around, with Ms. Harris being rated as having a better performance. The Democratic Party is rated higher than the Republican Party for the first time in the 2024 race.
Based on the polls and early results, the race is tight and unpredictable. But no matter the outcome, this will be a historic election that will have profound implications for the future of America and perhaps the world.
Will Mr. Trump return to the White House for the second time as a candidate facing dozens of criminal charges and after three assassination attempts? Or will Ms. Harris, as an “unwilling” candidate, become the first female president of the United States? The answer will be revealed in the next few days!
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/election-of-the-US-President-2024-cuoc-dua-qua-khoc-liet-va-ai-se-lam-nen-lich-su-post320005.html
Comment (0)