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Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics, power, and prejudices.

This year, 2024, is an election year in America, a presidential election year.

And so we will be doing two podcasts a week, rather than our usual one, because we want to

and because we know you can't get enough Americano in your life.

Hello and welcome to the Americano show.

I am here on the bank of the river Chicago, opposite

bar called the Tapp, and I happen to be with a Labour MP called Mike Tapp, who is

Labour MP for Dover and Deal, and also Lucy Rigby, who is MP for Northampton North.

And you have been here, you are here, at the Democratic National Convention,

and you've just given an interesting talk about the centre-left. And Mike, I'll start with you.

This is a kind of interesting moment to centre-left politics, because everybody thought,

not everybody thought, but a lot of people thought

Donald Trump was going to win and Joe Biden had no chance. Suddenly Kamala Harris might win.

What's the Labour Party thinking about a Harris victory and what it means for politics?

Firstly, I'd say we are seeing, you know, an uptick in the polls for the Democrats here, but they mustn't be complacent.

Donald Trump is a force of nature when it comes to campaigning, and he's got a hell of a lot of

support here, as we know, he's been the president before.

So their campaign is going to be really important.

I think this meeting in Chicago is vital for them setting out their stall for

...