The 2020 US Presidential Elections

2020 has been a year of surprises, disasters and strange going-ons. We managed to miraculously avoid a third world war, parts of the planet have literally burned, the Pentagon has released real footage of UFOs and just when things couldn’t be more action packed we have quite possibly the most eventful American election year. In fact, to call this year’s elections eventful would be an understatement.

This year’s Presidential Elections were full of drama over  mail-in ballots by President Trump and accusations of fear-mongering against him by his rival Joe Biden; in addition to Trump’s refusal to declare that there will be a peaceful transition of power should he lose the elections. A first look into this year’s elections began with first presidential debate in which both candidates traded insults as Trump interrupted Biden multiple times.

This year also witnessed a surge in early voting and mail-in ballots because of the Covid-19 Pandemic that has infected over 9 million Americans according to the Center for Disease Control. A practice heavily criticized by President Trump as most of the early voters were registered Democrats.

In a special broadcast on 24FM, two Palestinian Americans and a Palestinian official weighed their opinions on the current race to the White House. Sam Bahour, a business man and commentator on Palestinian Affairs called the four years of Trump’s administration “the worst in American history.” He also lamented the Democratic parties’ selection of Joe Biden as their presidential candidate. “Anyone politically inclined would have to vote for Biden just to get over trump,” said Bahour, continuing that “by no means does anyone seriously think that voting for Biden and having Biden coming into office means everything will be corrected; the US is broken today.”

Palestinian-American Comedian and activist Amer Zahr, had agreed with Bahour’s opinion on the Democratic candidate. Calling Biden “a run of the mill American politician who supports Israel at every turn.” Referring to statements by Biden that will not cut any aid to Israel regardless of its activities regarding the Palestinians. Both Zahr and Bahour would still call for Biden’s election if only to remove Donald Trump from office. Biden did announce that we will restore funding to the United Nations Relief Workers Agency, as well as other projects that the United States supports for the Palestinians.

Head of the Palestinian Representative Mission to the United Kingdom, Ambassador Hussam Zomlot, stated in an interview that Trump unlike other American presidents allied himself completely with the Israeli far-right. Offering them “gifts” such as recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and support for annexation. Trump also closed down the Palestinian Representative Mission to the United States. Commenting on that, Zomlot jokingly said that they did not install any curtains at his residence as they were not staying in Washington for long. However, Bahour commented on the closure of the mission’s office calling it an opportunity. Bahour said that the Palestinian leadership should tell the Biden administration “we want to re-engage with you, but we are now looking for you to recognize the state of Palestine and open an embassy for Palestine in Washington DC. So we can have an equal peer to peer relationship.” Zahr, on the other hand expressed his worries that a Biden presidency will, according to him will “just really puts us back at the status quo of 2016, without any real fundamental change.”

Things to note about the 2020 US Presidential Elections which have begun. Experts do not expect a winner to be declared tomorrow. Certain states like Texas and Florida will definitely be an immense help to either candidate. States that can dictate the results of the outcome include Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and North Carolina. However, these states have a large amount of early and mail-in ballots that will not be counted until the Election Day ballots are counted. As such, it may seem like Trump could be winning in the early counts of the ballots, while others are waiting to see if the “Blue Wave Theory” that states that most of Biden’s votes were early and mail-in.