US Presidential Election 2024: What to Read Ahead of Harris-Trump Showdown

With the U.S. presidential election on November 5 just days away, after one of the most polarized campaigns in recent history, it’s time to start looking at what the future might hold. In the run-up to the election, there have been surprising turns, including the Joseph Biden-Kamala Harris switch as the Democratic nominee, and the assassination of former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump.

In New York City, pictures of US presidential candidates, former US President Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris are displayed on billboards. | Photo credit: Reuters

Several books about the upcoming election make it clear that there are not two, but three possible outcomes: a Trump win, a Harris win, and a contested outcome that will go to the courts, and possibly the streets. According to one exchange, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump loyalist, says, “This is the weirdest election cycle I’ve ever seen…I’m telling people, you’re worried about November, I Worried about tomorrow morning”. i warBob Woodward’s latest book, just weeks before Election Day.

A smartphone screen showing a live broadcast of the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

A smartphone screen showing a live broadcast of the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. | Photo credit: Getty Images

Important conversation

To flip Woodward’s book cover to cover is to spend hours as a fly on the wall in the White House and other places where important conversations take place in the US capital.

From his stellar debut with reporting partner Carl Bernstein on the Watergate scandal that ended the Nixon presidency, and his book All President’s MenWoodward has demonstrated his expertise as the ultimate insider in Washington with more than a dozen books focusing on various presidencies. His trilogy on the Trump presidency (2017-2021), Fear: Trump in the White House, angerand danger (co-written with Robert Costa), brings out in grainy detail the chaos, unpredictability and insecurity of the world’s most powerful country, and how that era changed the world.

Woodward’s latest, in this sense, departs from previous books, Bush at war And Obama’s Warsto talk about how the Biden years dealt with three global conflicts: the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Israel’s invasion of Gaza and Lebanon following the October 7, 2023 attacks. The book is remarkably up-to-date, and provides an insight into the last few years in the Oval Office and just outside it. Woodward noted Biden’s tough decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, something he had failed to convince former President Barack Obama to do.

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet for the US-Russia Summit at Villa La Grange in Geneva, Switzerland.

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet for the US-Russia Summit at Villa La Grange in Geneva, Switzerland. | Photo credit: Reuters

He looks at Biden’s failed attempt to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin from going to Ukraine, even though the U.S. had significant intelligence long before that time that Russia would attack. Woodward also observed how the US presidency has dealt with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a leader with whom Biden has a long history of run-ins, while strongly supporting Israel.

Woodward’s recording of the profanity used by heads of state is sometimes jarring, but conveys the seriousness of the times: In one place, Woodward mentions Biden as saying that Obama had never called Putin. didn’t take it seriously enough and “turned it up” in 2014. The invasion of Crimea, about the same time as Trump says Biden “sucked us” by not handling Putin better.

Anti-war protesters raise their hands behind U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blanken during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Biden's request for funding to support Israel and Ukraine, as well as increased border security, on Capitol Hill in Washington. are

Anti-war protesters raise their hands behind U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blanken during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Biden’s request for funding to support Israel and Ukraine, as well as increased border security, on Capitol Hill in Washington. are | Photo credit: Reuters

Woodward revealed a lunch conversation between U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blanken and Biden, where Blanken convinced the president to drop out of the campaign, as evidence of how close the author is to the principals.

Where they stand.

People wear masks during a demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinians in Dublin, Ireland, featuring images of US Secretary of State Anthony Blanken, Democratic presidential candidate and US Vice President Kamala Harris, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. is

People wear masks during a demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinians in Dublin, Ireland, featuring images of US Secretary of State Anthony Blanken, Democratic presidential candidate and US Vice President Kamala Harris, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. is | Photo credit: Reuters

Although the book is about the Biden presidency, it is by far the best account of where both former President Trump and Vice President Harris will likely stand on foreign policy and dealings with Russia and Israel if they come to power. Trump’s clear admiration for Putin, and easy rapport with Netanyahu, comes across in several incidents recounted in the war. One of the most telling chapters deals with Harris’ heated exchange with Netanyahu in September of this year, where he brought up the civilian casualties in Gaza, and warned that the next generation of Americans would be killed by Israel. Can’t sympathize with the actions she takes.

Unfortunately for readers here, war Little mentions India, other than the White House’s access to India, China, Turkey and Israel to send messages to Putin warning against nuclear ambitions, and the high levels of illegal immigration from India and China. Regarding Even the Indo-Pacific strategy gives little notice or indication of where the presidential candidates will stand.

What do the memoirs tell?

For those looking for less political and more personal stories about the candidates, there are several books, such as Kamala Harris’s latest memoir, The Truths We Have: An American Journey. This further adds to his worldview in the concluding chapter.

A photo of US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, is displayed on a screen inside the arena at Madison Square Garden in New York, US.

A photo of Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in a field at Madison Square Garden in New York, U.S. is displayed on the screen. Photo credit: Reuters

Trump publishes book after surviving assassination attempt Save America.Which is prohibitively expensive and predictably bombastic. A more telling account comes from a book by former First Lady Melania Trump. MelanieHowever, this has been panned as a “no telling” sanitized version of events.

Interesting details of Trump’s beginnings come from his nephew, Fred Trump. All in the Family: Trump and How We Got This Wayrecently out, and by her niece, Mary Trump Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Made the World’s Most Dangerous Mana profile in Trump’s psychology.

suhasini.h@thehindu.co.in

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