Forget policy debates and serious political discussions, the race to elect the 47th president of the United States has been plunged into unprecedented chaos. Former President Donald Trump has been shot, President Biden has officially withdrawn, and now Kamala Harris stands on the brink of making history as America’s first female president. Hang onto your seats because the race to the White House has never been this high stake, or rather this absurd.
The presidential race kicked off with a highly criticized debate on June 27th, which global media outlets likened to a “reality show”. Not only was the debate significant as it marked the first time a sitting president faced off a former president, but it was also the first debate marked by controversial exchanges and a level of theatrics. The debate began with both leaders refusing to shake hands. Not long in, President Joe Biden, was visibly strained, put to the test against an aggressive Donald Trump, accused of telling blatant lies and mangled sentences. The debate saw Trump, only 3 years his junior, boast about his health while challenging Biden’s golfing abilities. Furthermore, when discussing foreign affairs, Trump called Biden a “Bad Palestinian “for his stance on Israel and later both candidates clashed over Immigration and abortion while falsely accusing each other of “killing people with a bad border” and “opening the safest border in the world to terrorists and prisoners”. Numerous insults later a flustered Joe Biden seemed to lose his train of thought resulting in backlash from global media calling his muted performance “90 minutes of self-destruction”, while Russian owned, channel one and Rossiya 1’s opinion polling indicated that 60% of viewers expected Mr. Biden to be given a stimulant to get through the debate. After their spar over who is a worse president, as well as several personal and unrelated insults later Trump openly refused to “commit to accepting the election results if he were to lose”. Many claim that Biden’s lack of presence during the debate is what cost him the election including many of his fellow democrats who reported, “I’ve never seen a freakout like this.”
Only 16 days later in a plot twist series of events, President Donald Trump was shot in his right ear only 6 minutes into a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The FBI shortly identified this shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Mathew Crooks; however, no motive was recovered, this being the 7th presidential assassination attempt and the first to occur in the 21st century. Joe Biden later responded to the incident with, “An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation. Everything.” and later (contrary to Biden and Trumps relationship during the presidential debate), President Joe Biden echoed a message of unity to America claiming, “nothing is more important than unity right now.”
Just when we thought this election could not get any more eventful, Joe Biden test positive for Covid 19 on July 17th, disrupting a key campaign event aimed to increase support from Latino workers. It was unclear when and where President Biden contracted the virus however, he was nonetheless put behind closed doors, backtracking his campaign and contributing to his eventual withdrawal from the election.
On July 21st, 2024, only 29 days before the beginning of the Democratic National Convention and less than 4 months before the election, Joe Biden officially announced that he will end his presidential campaign. This decision was unexpected as just the day before Biden told senior aides it was “full steam ahead” for the campaign, however later that evening he had changed his mind following a long discussion with his two closest aides. This brought an abrupt and humbling end to his half-century-long political career, Biden spoke of a growing sentiment within his party that he was “too frail to serve and destined to lose to Donald Trump in November”.
On August 2nd, Vice President Kamala Harris formally secured the Democratic presidential nomination, following a virtual vote by nearly 4,000 Democratic delegates the day before. Kamala Harris born in California to an Indian mother and Jamaican father, became only the second person of colour in America’s nearly 250-year history to head a major presidential ticket, after Barack Obama.
As the election approaches, both candidates have taken increasingly unconventional tactics to secure voters, particularly youth votes. Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have taken their campaigns to Tik Tok defying political strategy with ‘brat’ memes and coconut emojis, seizing the attention of younger voters. This later turned into a fierce competition to outdo each other for youth votes, with both Harris and Trump trying to top each other with their incredibly audacious stunts. The latest twist in their rivalry saw Kamala Harris inviting rapper Megan Thee Stallion to perform at her presidential campaign rally in Atlanta. This unpredictable collaboration resulted in the slogan, “Hotties for Harris” and a viral Tik Tok video, the response to the star-studded event was swift and dramatic. One Tik Tok comment read, “Trump has kid Rock”, referring to Trumps own attempts to capture the youth’s attention at his republican convention. Trump himself didn’t miss a miss the moment to critiques Harris’s rally with his tweet, “Crazy Kamala Harris, voted the WORST Vice President in American history, needed a concert to bring people into the Atlanta arena, and they started leaving 5 minutes into her speech.”
As the election nears, the campaign stage has become a place for unprecedented theatrics with the stakes higher than ever. Kamala Harris stands on the brink of history while Donald Trump tries to regain his spot in office, leaving voters wondering if this election will redefine the boundaries of political chaos.
