Checks and Balance: Not so great
Checks and Balance from The Economist
The Economist
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 30 October 2020
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Trump’s effect on domestic policy in his first term has been modest and mostly reversible. The real impact of his blow-it-up style has been felt in the corrosion of an already poisonous political culture. How has his brand of anti-politics changed America?
Trump supporters at one of his last rallies before election day and his former press secretary Sean Spicer tell us why he deserves re-election. Lilliana Mason of the University of Maryland explains how partisanship has become radicalised.
John Prideaux, The Economist's US editor, hosts with New York bureau chief Charlotte Howard, and Jon Fasman, Washington correspondent.
For access to The Economist’s print, digital and audio editions subscribe: economist.com/2020electionpod
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | If just 40,000 people across Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania had changed their minds, I would have won. |
| 0:09.0 | That's what Hillary Clinton writes in her memoir What Happened. |
| 0:13.0 | In the book she rejects the carping that her campaign ignored the Midwest. |
| 0:17.0 | Famously, she didn't visit Wisconsin at all. |
| 0:20.0 | Looking back at the 2016 results now, what's striking is how much flagging turnout helped Donald Trump that year. |
| 0:27.0 | He won Wisconsin, but got fewer votes there than Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate who lost the state four years before. |
| 0:35.3 | A slice of the state's electorate, roughly equivalent to the entire city of Madison, just didn't show |
| 0:40.4 | up in 2016. Early voting turnout this year suggests enthusiasm won't be an issue. |
| 0:47.0 | Mike Trump's divisiveness, surprisingly effective four years ago, come back to bite him this time. With three days to go, this is |
| 0:57.0 | checks and balance. |
| 1:00.3 | I'm John Prado, the economist's US editor, and this is a podcast about the 2020 elections. |
| 1:07.0 | Each week we take one big theme shaping American politics and explore it in depth. |
| 1:15.0 | Today, how has Donald Trump changed American political culture. |
| 1:36.4 | President Trump's effect on domestic policy in his first term has been modest and mostly reversible. The real impact of his blow it up style has been felt in the corrosion of every aspect of public life. What would four more |
| 1:40.9 | years of Mr Trump's brand of anti-politics mean for the country? |
| 1:46.0 | In this episode, we'll hear from Trump supporters at one of his last rallies before election day, |
| 1:51.5 | and from two people who served at the top of the Trump administration and came to different |
| 1:55.8 | conclusions about whether he deserves re-election. With me as ever to discuss all of this are Charlotte Howard, the economist's New York Bureau Chief, and John Fasman, the Washington correspondent. |
| 2:18.0 | Charlotte, three days to go until the election, Halloween just around the corner. How are things looking in New York? |
| 2:25.0 | It's been a really rainy week here in New York, but that hasn't remotely stopped people from |
| 2:29.2 | lining up to vote early. They have just a few more days to vote early if they would like to. And it's |
| 2:36.5 | interesting because in New York, of course, there's not really a question of which |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Economist, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Economist and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.