Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily ohs oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It is Thursday, the twelfth of September.
I'm Billy, I'm Zara.
Yesterday we saw the first US presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. It was fiery, robust, and at times it was very messy. It was also very different to the debate we saw between Trump and Biden in June. Then Trump seems like the almost certain winner. But now it is neck and neck. If you missed it or if you're just here for a debrief, we will go through some of the key takeaways in today's podcast. But first, Zara, what is making headlines today?
Australia's anti corruption watchdog has announced its investigating sixth current and former federal politicians. The National Anti Corruption Commission or NAC, was set up last year to independently examine alleged corrupt behavior by public service employees and parliamentary officials. In its latest update, the NAC said it was currently looking into
twenty nine cases of potential corruption. It said six of these cases are about current or former MPs, but it didn't give any further details or names.
Tech giin Meta has admitted to training its generative AI models with users' public Instagram and Facebook posts. Metas Global director of Privacy Policy Milinda Claibor fronted a federal Senate inquiry in Australia yesterday where she said the company had scraped public posts, photos and videos dating back as far as two thousand and seven. Claybor said anyone with a public account could have had their data access for AI training.
Users in the European Union can opt out of their posts and photos being fed into Meta's AI systems, but no such protection exists in Australia yet.
The man accused of murdering Ugandan olympian Rebecca Cheptegy has died from severe burns. Cheptegi's former partner, Dixon Marangutch, allegedly attacked the marathon runner outside of her home in Kenya earlier this month. The thirty three year old mother of two died in hospital later that week. According to an update from a hospital spokesperson to Reuter's, Marangutch died on
Monday from his injuries. Cheptegy is the third female athlete to be killed in Kenya over the past three years, she represented Uganda at the Paris Games.
In today's good news, new research out of Vienna has found clowns can shorten the length of children's hospital stays. Findings presented to the European Respiratory Society tracked the progress of two groups of young patients hospitalized with pneumonia. One group received standard care and the other was visited by medical clowns four times during their first two days in hospital. Visited by clown spent an average of twenty six point
five fewer hours in hospital than the other group. The study found the clowns helped relieve stress and anxiety for patients aged between two and eighteen years.
Billy, this morning, everyone is talking about US politics. We had the first debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris yesterday. If people are just starting to tune in, A, I understand it's been a long ride, but b can you just give us a bit of the lay of the land?
Yeap, So we are less than two months out from the US election. It is happening on the fifth of November, and I'm sure everyone knows now, but just a really quick reminder. So we have Kamala Harris, who is the official candidate for the Democratic Party, which Joe Biden is the current leader of, and the Democratic Party is generally considered to be left of center. Kamala Harris is currently the vice president under Joe Biden. Then we have Donald Trump,
who is the candidate for the Republican Party. So he was the president from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty one, and he beat Hillary Clinton to become the president. Now this is the third time that Donald Trump has run for president, the third consecutive time after he lost in twenty twenty to Joe Biden. And one other thing to just quickly remember about US politics is that, unlike in Australia,
voting is not compulsory. So not only do candidates have to convince people to vote for them, but they also need to convince people to just vote full stop. And one weird little fact about US elections is that it happens on a Tuesday, so people literally have to leave work to go vote. So it's a bit of a heel just to convince people to get to that first step.
Yeah, I mean, the differences are many, but that is a huge one. One of the things that we share with you the US is this idea of debates and getting the leaders up to talk about policy hopefully and debate one and other. In the US, we had the first debate, as I said, between these two candidates since Joe Biden pulled out of the race. What were the experts, the journos, anyone that was keenly watching, what were they looking for in this debate.
So, first of all, Harris and Trump have never actually met in person. That really surprised me when I learned it. Clearly they don't run in the same circles. So that was fascinating to watch just them meeting for the first time face to face.
Carmla Harris, so good debate, you see fun Bako, welcome to you both.
And when they did meet, one thing that was interesting was that they shook hands. That might sound like it's not interesting, but anyone who has watched previous debates between Biden and Trump, they have not shaken hands, and so it kind of shows that there could be this new era of perhaps more respect between Kamala.
I mean, and then you watched it.
Yeah, fair, fair point. But it started off morrisul than others have. That's just a little side note. One other just general thing is that throughout these campaigns, both Harris and Trump have been trying to position themselves as this change candidate. I mentioned this the last time we did an episode on the US election, but it just keeps coming up. So Kamala Harris is trying to say, you know,
we're not going backwards by re electing Donald Trump. She's saying that if you're tired of this Trump era of politics, then you should elect her because she will move the country forward, not back.
It is important that we move forward, that we turn the page on this same old, tired rhetoric and address the needs of the American people.
I think it is also important to note the other kind of change element that Kamala Harris seems to be leaning into is that she is this youthful next generation and I think that's an attempt to separate herself from Joe Biden and all of the kind of criticisms that were laid at his feet.
Yeah, as I said last time that we discussed this, she also just looks very different to all of the US presidents that we've had in the past. I mean, first and foremally, she's a woman.
Yeah, so she did have to stand there during the debate though, and say, I don't know if you can see, but I am not Joe Biden and I'm not Donald Trump. And yeah, that was very obvious to anyone watching.
Yeah, and then we have Trump on the other hand, who is also trying to position himself as the change candidate, and he's trying to tell voters that Harris has been the vice president for the last nearly four years, and so electing her will just be more of the same of this Biden era of politics.
So she just started by saying she's going to do this, She's going to do that, She's going to do all these wonderful things. Why hasn't she done it. She's been there for three and a half years, They've had three and a half years to fix the border, they've had three and a half years to create jobs, and all the things we talked about, why hasn't she done it?
So those were just some of the broad themes that kept coming up before the debate.
Yeah, one of the other key things that I saw coming up a lot as well was this idea that people didn't know a lot about Kamala Harris. She hasn't done a lot of sit down interviews she did, you know her very first one. Fairly recently, she hasn't had as much of an opportunity as someone like Donald Trump to let the world in and get to know her, and so this was a vital moment for her to take center stage and to let America in.
Yeah. I keep hearing that too. You know that people know that Kamala Harris is against Donald Trump, but they don't necessarily know what she's for. And that's a key difference that keeps coming up, and that seems to be less of a problem for Trump. You know, he has been president for four years. I think voters know very well who he is and what he stands.
For, and on that idea of what he stands for and indeed what Kamala Harris stands for. You know, the debates are meant to be solely or at least predominantly about policy. Oftentimes it gets kind of overshadowed by personality, politics and everything else that happens when there are two very strong, very loud and prayer candidates on the stage. But I do just want to start with the key policies because that is important. People are electing somebody based
on what they are envisioning for the country. Can you take me through what both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris committed to in that debate about their vision for America.
Yeah, so at a really high level, I'd say that there are different policies, but both of them are really keen to talk about. So for Trump, he keeps wanting to talk about inflation, so the higher cost of living. We have that in Australia as well, and he's wanting to talk about it in the US. And then also immigration, Yeah, and then for Harris, she really wants to talk about abortion and also crime, and that comes from her background as a prosecutor.
Yeah, and there's a lot there. I mean, all of those topics would take days and days to unpack, but let's just go through it at a really high level. I want to start with immigration because Donald Trump especially did keep bringing the conversation back to this policy idea.
Yeah, it was clear that's what he kept wanting to bring the conversation back to. And that's because he claims that Kamala Harris has been in charge of the border for the past three and a half years. I would say that it was during the immigration section of the debate that it seemed to turn the most messy. One of the examples is when Trump claimed that some immigrants have been eating dogs and cats. I'll play a little snippet of that in Springfield.
They're eating the dogs the people that came in, they're eating the cats, they're eating they're eating the pets of the people that live there.
I just want to clarify here. You bring up Springfield, Ohio, and ABCDS did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed within the immigrant community.
Oh, I've seen people intelligent. Let me just say, this is the people on television. So my dog was taken and used for food.
That was certainly one of the moments of the debate that got a lot of headlines. But as you mentioned, you know, on questions about the economy, on questions about foreign policy, like everything did come back to immigration. And if you do want to read up more about where both of these candidates land when it comes to actual policy, that didn't really get much airtime. It was more about
you know, mud slinging and attacking one another. So there wasn't a whole heap of you know policy announcements per se, but you can absolutely go away and read about where both candidates sit on that issue. I do want to turn to abortion because where Donald Trump favors immigration, it's very clear Kamala Harris is most comfortable talking about reproductive.
Rights, definitely. So basically the debate here surrounds the fact that the constitutional right to an abortion was ended in the US after the Supreme Court overturned it, and that came after Trump appointed justices to the Supreme Court who he knew were anti abortion. Now this meant when the U. S. Supreme Court overturned to the right to an abortion, that abortion then became a state issue in the US as
opposed to a national issue. But now during this campaign there is a debate about if it should become a national issue again. Now Harris is saying that if Trump was reelected, he would sign a national abortion ban. Now Trump outright denies that, but he does agree with several states that have introduced abortion bans since the constitutional right was overturned. Harris, on the other hand, is pro choice, and so she is broadly against restricting access to abortions.
Yeah, and while we were watching this as an office it's just so interesting, you know, reproductive rights and abortion policy specifically time time again and coming up as the top issues in the US alongside the economy and foreign affairs, and it's just remarkable that, you know, we have two candidates who sit so far apart on this publicy there
is very little, if any overlap. And it was really in this part of the debate that we heard mentions of the vice presidential candidates on both sides as well. So Donald Trump came out and attacked Tim Walls, who is Harris's running mate, and Harris did the same on JD Vance. So really that does feel like a kind of battleground issue during this election. Another very big issue that both the moderators and the candidates themselves spent a
lot of time talking about was foreign affairs. And I think that's because right now there are so many different wars that are raging across the globe. And also that under Joe Biden, the US withdrew from Afghanistan, which is another big topic. Talk me through where the candidates landed on these big issues.
Yeah, this was a really big one, and we did hear several times Donald Trump saying that we could be approaching World War Free. So when it came to foreign affairs, both candidates were asked about their respective approaches to the
wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Afghanistan. I'll start with Ukraine, so Trump said that the war in Ukraine would have never happened if he had remained in office, and he then also said that if he was elected president, he would end the Rushie Ukraine war before he actually gets to offer. So he's referring there to the period between when the November election is and when he would actually
become president if he does win in January. Harris, on the other hand, said that she was a staunch supporter of Ukraine and President Zelenski, and she spoke a lot about the role of multilateral institutions like NATO in preventing the war from growing across Europe. Then came a discussion
on the Israel Hamas war. Harris was asked how she would break through this stalemate that Joe Biden has found himself in in terms of reaching a deal between those two parties, which we know has been going on for about a year now. Harris said the war quote needs to end through a ceasefire and hostage deal. And said that she would work towards a two state solution. I think worth pointing out that's not a departure from what Joe Biden is saying. They're clearly very aligned on that topic.
Trump responded to a question about how he would negotiate on this same issue by saying that Harris quote hates Israel and claiming quote Israel will not exist within two years from now if she does win the presidency. Harris disputed that claim quite strongly. Then, finally, the two candidates were asked about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which happened under Joe Biden and that saw the Taliban returned to
power in the country. Harrah said that she supported Biden's decision to withdraw, and then she spoke about Trump doing quote a terrible deal with the Taliban. Trump called the withdrawal the quote most embarrassing moment in the history of our country, and he also went on to suggest that Russia invaded Ukraine after seeing quote how incompetent she and her boss are.
I just want to pick up on that last little quote there, because you said how incompetent she and her boss are, and it was something I noticed the whole time through the debate was that Donald Trump did not use Kamala Harris's name once in the full ninety minutes. He repeatedly referred to Kamala Harris as she or her, and often referred to Joe Biden as her boss. He did mention Joe Biden by name, but not his opponent once.
So interesting, and that wasn't true for Kamala Harritt. She did refer to Trump by his name.
Yeah, and she was talking about you know, Trumpy and politics and Trumpian policies, whereas he did nothing like that for her. Okay, So moving on. Obviously there's a lot there, and again we can only go through it really at a very high level to capture the breadth of it and to understand a bit about what is going on in the US at the moment. One of the quirks of debates is that there is a winner. That winner is crowned by no one person but by media outlets
more generally. Who was crowned the winner of this debate.
One of my favorite things to do with US politics is to watch CNN and Fox News kind of at the same time and tune in as simultaneously as I can, because they just cover the same thing so differently, and watching them after this debate, it was almost like they watched different debates. But despite that, it seemed pretty universal that media publications declared Harris as the winner of this debate.
So CNN's poll said that sixty three percent of debate watchers thought that Harris won the debate, and that was compared to thirty seven percent who say that Trump won. Washington Post asked undecided voters who they thought performed better, and twenty two people said that Harris performed better, as opposed to two people who thought that Trump was better.
And then Fox News also ran an opinion article after the debate that said that Kamala Harris did win, but and this was a big butt for them that they kept bringing up in their broadcast after as well. They say that basically she only won because the moderators were in her favor and basically aided her to have a better performance. So basically we're completely biased towards her.
Yeah, and that really came up because Donald Trump was live fact checked a lot more frequently. I don't even know if Kamala Harris was fact checked once.
No, definitely nearly as much as they did fact check Trump.
Yeah, and so suddenly the right wing media and you know, right wing politicians were pointing to that and claiming that that was bias.
Yeah.
And if you don't know what we're talking about, I mean, you did hear it just earlier when we were talking about the dog claim. You could hear the moderator countering what Donald Trump was saying. He's just one more snippet of when it happened. When they were talking about abortion.
Her vice presidential pick says, abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth, it's an execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born is okay.
There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born.
But there is one person who disagrees that Harris won, and that is Trump. Trump himself was very happy. He seemed very happy with how the debate went, and he said it was his best debate ever. And he also said that he doesn't think that they need to have another debate because he would only want to have another debate if he lost, and in his eyes, he didn't lose.
Okay, So we have well and truly spoken about this debate. But just when media companies around the world thought that they could go to the kitchen to get a glass of water following the debate, Taylor Swift entered the chat.
Yeah she did. She posted to Instagram declaring her support for Kamala Harris and this was really interesting. We had a debate in the office about whether The Daily Ods should cover this, because of course we don't cover every time a celebrity comes out in support of one of
the candidates. But I think ultimately we decided that, you know, she probably is the most famous pop star, probably the most famous celebrity in the world right now, and her influence over young people is indisputable, and so we did cover it. And I'll tell you just quickly what she said. She basically talked about how Trump, just a few weeks ago had falsely claimed that Swift supported him, and she said that the best way to combat that misinformation is
to tell the world the truth. And she said the truth is that she will be voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz at the election in November.
She did also sign off her post as Taylor Swift Childless cat Lady and that was, of course, in reference to Trump's vice presidential pick at Jade Vance, who has been critical of women without children. Billy, we need to let our listeners go.
On way over before we do.
What is the kind of one sentence summary of where Trump and Harris are in the polls? How are they tracking ahead of November?
They are completely neck and neck. All the polls are saying that there is about a one point difference between them, so you just can't separate them. No matter what. It will be an extremely tight race.
That's for sure. And Billy, thank you for jumping onto the pod and explaining everything that we need to know about all things American politics.
Thank you so much for giving me the space to talk about my true love that is us politics.
You're going to say tell us.
No.
And thank you so much to the listeners for listening to this episode of the Daily os. At the moment, we are running a survey to understand what it is you like about the Daily Ozzes podcast and what it is you think that we could possibly improve on. The link for that will be in today's show notes. Thank you so much, and we'll be back again tomorrow.
My name is Lily Maddon.
And I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Caalcuttin woman from Gadighol country. The Daily ozz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.