US Presidential Election: “If we recount the results on November 5, the situation will be extremely tense”

Laurence Haïm vit sa neuvième campagne électorale américaine. EPA - ANDRE PAIN

Former correspondent in Washington from 1992 to 2017, she now works for the show “L’heure américaine”, on the TV channel franceinfo canal 27.

How did you cover your ninth American presidential campaign??

I left in December, for Radio Classique. I followed up with a documentary project that will probably be broadcast at the time of the election on a major French channel.

I stayed in the United States for seven months and I mainly followed Donald Trump's campaign. And then after that, I went on vacation to do the Democratic convention because I really wanted to see the other side too. And then I'm leaving again for the election.

How is this campaign different from previous ones??

It's special because it takes place a lot on social networks. At this point, I had never experienced that.
What is also striking is the enthusiasm around this campaign, it reminded me of Barack Obama's 2007 campaign.

I know I'm a bit alone in saying this, but I have never seen, except in 2007, so many people going to rallies. To Donald Trump's rallies. For which crowds come, with people waiting for seven to eight hours to see the candidate they have chosen up close!

This campaign is also proving to be extraordinary in all the twists and turns that are driving it ?

And I won't make any predictions about what's going to happen in three weeks, because it's unpredictable, and everything is happening at an absolutely incredible speed. We've had an attack on a candidate, the main candidate, Joe Biden, who drops out, a female candidate we've heard little about who appears, a hurricane that's coming, a second attack, an uncertain international climate!

The only valid prediction is that it's going to be a close call ?

I'm not sure. The popular vote will be for the Democrats, like in 2016. Hillary Clinton won it, but Trump won. But the overall vote is not the vote of the electors. It's really the voters of Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, who will decide the choice of the president of the United States. That's how it is, it's an electoral system that has never been rethought. It should be.

But so many things happen every day, every week, every hour, that it's really unpredictable. There could be a big surprise, a real movement for one or the other. Until the end.

This election, you have the feeling of having experienced it in a truly fractured society?

Like never before. There are two Americas, they are two societies. Who no longer think the same, no longer dress the same, no longer eat the same, no longer want the same things. And they are divided on fundamental issues: abortion, religion, the place of the LGBT community. They are two countries in one, like never before, with a real divide, and with people who no longer talk to each other. This radicalization is the new thing about this election.

In this context, do you think that the announcement of the results, whatever they may be, could generate a conflict situation?

Maybe on the evening of November 5, we will realize that America has tipped one way or the other. But if we don't have the results, because there are recounts where it could be very close, indeed, anything can happen. Because we may not have the results for days, or even weeks, or months. Yes, if we recount on November 5, the situation will be extremely tense, even violent. I am pretty sure of that.

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