Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Well, let's speak to our reporter Ketavan Ghojasthani now.
00:02She's covering the Trump campaign and she joins us live from near his Florida resort
00:07home in Mar-a-Lago.
00:08Ketavan, give us a sense of Donald Trump's plans for this election day.
00:14Well, Donald Trump returned to Mar-a-Lago late yesterday evening after holding that
00:22final rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
00:24And today his main plan, at least public plan, is to go and vote.
00:30He is going to be one of those Americans who votes in person today alongside his wife.
00:36And then he'll be returning to Mar-a-Lago, where his campaign has said that he'll be
00:41holding meetings, final meetings with his advisers, maybe phoning in to a few interviews
00:47on the radio or possibly on Fox News.
00:51That is still to be confirmed.
00:53And then in the evening, he will be heading over across the water to the Palm Beach Convention
01:00Center where there will be the big Republican watch party for this election night and is
01:05likely going to be giving a speech there later on this evening.
01:09So light schedule for the former president of the United States here in Florida, where
01:15already 8 million people, more than 8 million people have voted early, but some still expected
01:22to the polls, just like Donald Trump.
01:26And Ketivan, give us a sense then of the stakes in Florida.
01:30Well, look, Florida, which was once a battleground state, a swing state, has been reliably Republican
01:39for several years now.
01:41The last time a Democrat won the state was Barack Obama back in 2012.
01:46So there's no real expectation that the Democrats could be competitive here in a nationwide
01:51race in Florida.
01:53That doesn't mean that the voters here in Florida don't have things that are very important
01:58to vote for, and that could go either way.
02:01There is a Senate race where the Republican seems very likely that he will win a reelection.
02:07That's the Senator Rick Scott, who has a Democratic challenger, who was doing pretty well, but
02:13the margins seem really too big to close right now.
02:17So Rick Scott expected to be reelected for a second term, even though last time around
02:23in 2018, he won by just 0.2%, so we'll have to look at the margins there that could be
02:30indicative of something else.
02:32And the fact is that Democrats will have a lot running on these elections because they're
02:37down-ballot races, including several amendments, amendments to the Constitution of the state
02:43of Florida, two amendments that Democrats really are looking forward to.
02:48One is Amendment 3, which would legalize the use of recreational marijuana, and of course
02:54Amendment 4 that would enshrine in the state Constitution the right to abortions here in
03:02the state of Florida.
03:03That is very important, of course, because if you remember, after Roe v. Wade was overturned
03:08back in 2022, the state passed a very drastic law limiting abortions before six weeks.
03:16And so this is going to be very key for Democrats here.
03:20That's what they're looking forward to, and they're hoping that that vote on abortion
03:25access is something that is going to motivate Democrats to come to the polls and possibly
03:31help them in congressional races because, of course, all of the representatives from
03:38Florida are running for re-election, and the Democrats are hoping that maybe the abortion
03:43ballot really helps them, dopes a little bit their numbers and their turnout for these
03:48elections.
03:49Ketavan Gorgiastani, live for us near Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
03:53Thanks very much.
03:54Indeed.