With less than a day to go before the U.S. elections, teleSUR spoke exclusively with Arnold August, international analyst. teleSUR
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00:00Let's now welcome international analyst Arnold August to go deeper on Tuesday's key presidential
00:04election in the U.S. Hello Arnold, welcome again to From the South.
00:09Thank you for having me once again. It's always a pleasure to collaborate with Telly's store.
00:14It's always our pleasure as well. Arnold, what were the key topics that dominated
00:18the presidential race and how do you believe they resonate with international concerns?
00:23Well, in my view, there is one main issue that erupted during the election campaign
00:32and that is the issue of Palestine. No one in the United States could deal with it.
00:41That was the issue right up to the elections tomorrow. And, you know, we talk about swing
00:49states like how does Kamala Harris deal with the issue of Palestine given the fact
00:56that her administration with Joe Biden oversaw and still today oversees the notorious genocide
01:06against the Palestinian people as well as the barbaric aggressions against Lebanon, right?
01:14She has, you know, it's interesting to see how they operate. This is typical
01:17of American politics, I have to say. When she's in Pennsylvania, one of the swing states,
01:23Harris puts emphasis on key words that appeal to many of the Jewish voters or the pro-Zionist
01:32voters in Pennsylvania, you know, using terms such as, you know, Israel has a right to defend
01:39itself, etc., which is, in my view, the term Israel has a right to defend itself is synonymous
01:46with accepting genocide. However, when she goes to another swing state, for example, in Michigan,
01:54where there's a very important politicized Muslim Arab community in that state,
02:02she has a different story. She says something else. She does not say Israel has a right to
02:07defend itself. She puts a lot of emphasis on, you know, of course, hypocritically because
02:13they're the ones who did it, right, Biden and Harris, hypocritically about the dire situation
02:20of the people in Gaza and also in Lebanon, but she still says that key word. She is in favor of
02:27bringing home the hostages. So, her main emphasis in Michigan is to garner sympathy from the American
02:34Muslim population there, and so she puts emphasis on the suffering of the Palestinian people, but
02:41she still managed to put in that key word, bring the hostages home. In my view,
02:47bring the hostages home without mentioning the thousands of political prisoners that are
02:53tortured and gang-raped in the jails and the prisons of Israel. Know what is happening in Gaza.
03:00You know, the other atrocity in Gaza is, in fact, to put all the emphasis in support of Israel.
03:09So, that is, you know, one of the main features of the swing states. Will she succeed in doing it?
03:15I don't know, but in any case, talking about swing states and Palestine, which in my view is the
03:21issue, something new has come up yesterday, which I'd like to share with you and the tele-source
03:28audience, which I'm sure is interested, given the fact there's a widespread support for Palestine
03:35amongst the people in the United States, Canada, and other countries that are listening to your
03:40program, and this is what happened yesterday, a breakthrough. We often hear in the mainstream media
03:46Republicans versus Democrats. From time to time recently, Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party,
03:54she erupted in the news a few days ago, a few weeks ago, not because they wanted to acknowledge that
04:00she is important, because of her stance openly in favor of Palestine, but they had no choice.
04:07She erupted in the news. Now, what came, what happened yesterday was that the, there are three
04:13main parties that oppose the two-party system, that is the Democrats and Republicans, and support
04:20Palestine. One is Jill Stein's Green Party, the other is Claudia de la Cruz and her party, and
04:27thirdly, Cornell West, three different organizations, important personalities, and progressive circles
04:35in the United States. They reached the following agreement yesterday. They agreed to, first of all,
04:40not all of these candidates, because of the Democratic attempt to keep them off the ballots,
04:47repeat, Democrats keeping the third parties off the ballots, not the Republicans, because of that,
04:54they have decided, these three entities have decided, where they are on the ballots, of course,
05:00they will present themselves, but where they did not succeed in getting on the ballot, they would
05:06support the one, the another candidate who is on the ballot. So, you have this collaboration going on
05:15where, you know, if they're on the ballots, they vote for, you know, the appeal to vote for their
05:20candidate, but if they are not on the ballot, for example, if Claudia de la Cruz or Dr. Stein is not on
05:27the ballot in such and such a state, they are asking for voters to vote either for Cornell West
05:35or Claudia de la Cruz. This is very significant. Now, a lot of people are putting pressure on them,
05:40oh no, if you, you know, if all this vote builds up, this is going to take away votes for the Democratic
05:46Party. Let's go into it. First, I'd like to point out why it's important for listeners to know about
05:52those three parties. What do they have in common? One, against the duopoly, which reminds you, that
05:59is the key thing. Remember, only about 55% of the voting age population vote in the U.S. elections.
06:07That is, there is a huge amount of a lack of confidence in the two-party system. Secondly,
06:14they support Palestine without any reservation. Thirdly, they oppose Black liberation.
06:21They also support the issues of environment and the question of the right of the working people
06:30and women. This is what they have in common, and they have worked out this arrangement yesterday,
06:35in my view, which will be historic. Perhaps we will see how far they can get to build a new base
06:41in the United States that goes against the two-party system.
06:46As we were saying, Palestine has been one of the main topics, and now these issues,
06:50as you were reporting, we reported that also on these days of this alliance with third parties
06:54criticizing the dual party and not believing in the efficiency. But what other key foreign
07:00policies issues do you think will be influenced by the outcome of this election, and how might
07:04they shift under the new administration? Well, firstly, I say Palestine is the main issue,
07:14but of course it's not the only issue. Let's take the issue of the war in Ukraine. Now,
07:20Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party, so-called progressive Democratic Party,
07:25so-called party of the left in comparison to Donald Trump's Republicans, she has said,
07:32firstly, in the course of her campaign, that she wants to have the most lethal army
07:39in the history of the world. If that is a warmongering statement, I don't know what,
07:44if that's not a warmongering statement, please suggest another one that is as warmongering as
07:50this based on the history of the U.S. military going back to the early stages of the United
07:56States and carrying out aggression, coup d'etat, etc., against the peoples of the world. So,
08:02the issue of Ukraine is very interesting. So, you know, of course, she wants to carry on
08:08full support of Ukraine. Now, I'm not a supporter of Trump, but one has to say the following.
08:14In the debate that took place, TV debate that took place between Harris and Trump,
08:21I think it was about a month ago, one of the hosts asked Trump, do you support
08:30unhesitantly, without condition, Ukraine against Russia? You know what? Trump refused to answer
08:36that. He did not say yes unconditionally. This is different from Kamala Harris.
08:44On the issue of, for example, Venezuela, I think the situation in Venezuela is extremely
08:54touching, very, very difficult. We know what happened on July 28th after the elections.
09:00I was there in Caracas before and during the elections and witnessed directly or indirectly
09:08through television when Maduro showed the films of the fascist attacks in Venezuela. I saw that
09:15on television in my hotel room. So, now, you know, the fascist attack against Venezuela,
09:24of course, this was facilitated by none other than Biden and Harris, who refused to recognize
09:33Maduro as the lawful winner of the elections. Now, these fascist attacks against Venezuela
09:40are increasing. Just yesterday, there was a news coming out of Venezuela where President Maduro
09:47announced that they got wind of more fascist attacks being organized by the United States
09:55from their territory with Venezuelans going to Venezuela illegally in order to carry out
10:02other type of guerrilla or fascist attacks in Venezuela. I don't think it's an accident
10:09that Venezuela is organizing an anti-fascist brunt in Venezuela. It started last September,
10:19is going on today, and will carry on in the month of November. I think it is perfectly just
10:26that Venezuela, as they say, is the epicenter of the world's struggle against fascism.
10:33You know, I guess it's a bit like the republic in Spain before World War II, where all of the
10:39fascist forces are geared, are targeting Maduro to overthrow Maduro. This is a very serious
10:47situation, and I personally think that the holding of these anti-fascist fronts, anti-fascist meetings
10:54in Caracas, is a valuable thing. It's a very important thing. We talk about foreign policy.
11:00How can we forget about Cuba? During the four years of the administration by Harris and Biden,
11:10of course, they carried out exactly all the sanctions and more that Trump instituted.
11:18However, something serious happened only a short while ago, when you had, by coincidence,
11:24on the one hand, the major blackouts in the country over a period of several days,
11:31connected coincidentally, had nothing to do with politics, but by the atmosphere,
11:37the devastating effects of Oscar. So, during the course of the Biden-Harris administration,
11:47you have Cuba suffering so much because of the twin effects of the blackouts, which is,
11:53as a result, in the name of the U.S. policy to disallow oil going into Cuba from various
12:02countries, as well as disallowing, making it impossible for Cuba to buy the spare parts,
12:10which are necessary to keep those goods going. So, this happened under Biden and Harris.
12:20What is the policy of the United States against Cuba has been right from the beginning,
12:26when Mallory said in the 1960s, make the people suffer, starve, so they will rise up and blame
12:33the Cuban government and overthrow the Cuban government. So, what's been happening since 1960
12:39and continued under the Democratic administration is also a genocide against the Cuban people.
12:49Bruno Rodriguez, in the U.N. speech a few days ago, he put all the facts on the line,
12:56showing how the U.S. blockade against Cuba affects the everyday life of the people. Even
13:03with a great health system, they are not able to keep up with certain services. So,
13:08the birth rate has gone down. The age of living has also gone down. There are many
13:25factors that affect it negatively. Putting this together, they haven't committed genocide
13:30successfully in Cuba. Not that they want to. They have not been able to do it because of
13:36the resistance of the Cuban people. So, this is also a policy of genocide. Irrespective of who
13:43wins the elections, both the Democrats and the Republicans, they are in favor, we know,
13:50of the policy against Cuba. I think one thing we have to look at further is how the movement
13:57is going with regard to the third parties for this election, as well as in the future.
14:02I'll stay paying attention on that, as you were saying. But, unfortunately, this is all. We have
14:06time right now in this brief from the South. Thank you, Arnold, for all your inputs and,
14:10as always, your collaboration with us. Thank you for having me. No, it's our pleasure.