A Trumped-Up High-School Election
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 7 November 2016
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every fall, Townsend Harris High School, in Queens, simulates an ongoing election. Students play the parts of candidates, the media, super PACs, and voters. But can the coarsest of elections be cleaned up for school? The New Yorker’s Joshua Rothman visits Townsend Harris and speaks with the students who play Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and with a teacher who's trying to keep a civics lesson from going off the rails.
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| 0:48.9 | I'm Dorothy Wickendon. |
| 0:50.4 | On today's Politics and More podcast, the New Yorker's Joshua Rothman returns to Townsend Harris High School in Queens. |
| 0:58.0 | Last year, Townsend Harris hosted a school-wide simulation of the presidential primary campaign. |
| 1:04.0 | This year, teenaged Trump and Clinton face off in a mock general election. |
| 1:11.5 | Last year around this time, we visited a high school in Queens that runs a school-wide |
| 1:16.4 | mock election. |
| 1:18.0 | A totally immersive simulation of the real campaign with the whole school taking part. |
| 1:24.2 | They were doing the primaries back then in their simulation, and Jeb Bush, remember Jed Bush? |
| 1:29.4 | He was the nominee. |
| 1:30.9 | But that was last year a very innocent time. |
| 1:34.0 | This year, a senior named Daniel Kaldoroff is playing Donald Trump, and Mizba Pochi is Hillary Clinton. |
| 1:41.4 | The stakes are what they are. |
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