How Donald Trump Won the Presidency, Again
Reveal
The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX
4.7 • 8K Ratings
🗓️ 7 November 2024
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris on Tuesday night to become only the second president in US history to win two nonconsecutive terms. (The last one? Grover Cleveland in 1892.) Trump won the presidency following one of the most tumultuous election years in modern US history—one that included an incumbent president pulling out of his reelection bid, the vice president becoming the Democratic nominee a few short months before Election Day, and two assassination attempts on Trump.
A majority of voters elected Trump to return to the White House following a campaign often filled with violent rhetoric, misinformation, and disparaging comments about women, immigrants, and people of color. Harris was unable to build a coalition to defeat Trump, losing both the Electoral College and the popular vote after a campaign that initially energized Democrats around the country after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
“America has never had a Black woman governor,” says Mother Jones editorial director Jamilah King. “So the fact that America’s never had a Black woman president is not surprising. I don’t think we as a country were quite ready for it.”
In this Reveal podcast extra, host Al Letson sits down with King, as well as Mother Jones’ David Corn and Ari Berman, to break down how Trump won, why Harris’ campaign faltered, and where the nation goes from here.
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Listen: Red, Black, and Blue (Reveal)
Read: America Meets Its Judgment Day (Mother Jones)
Read: Republicans Defeat Ohio Anti-Gerrymandering Initiative With Brazen Anti-Democratic Tactics (Mother Jones)
Read: Trump Wins the White House in a Political Comeback Rooted in Appeals to Frustrated Voters (Associated Press)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, this is Reveal. |
| 0:10.0 | I'm Al Letson, and I'm back again, midweek for another bonus election episode. |
| 0:15.7 | It was a historic election night. |
| 0:18.0 | And no matter who you wanted to win or lose, it was a lot. So take a deep |
| 0:23.5 | breath. All right. You with me? Donald Trump was elected to a second term. Only the second president |
| 0:31.5 | in history to win two non-consecutive terms, the first since Grover Cleveland, back in 1892. Vice President |
| 0:39.7 | Kamala Harris conceded the race on Wednesday. Republicans, meanwhile, flipped seats in Ohio, |
| 0:45.5 | West Virginia and Montana, gaining control of the Senate, while the House at the moment is still |
| 0:51.5 | undecided. In seven states, voters approved abortion rights amendments while California and Colorado |
| 0:58.8 | protected same-sex marriage. To help me make sense of it all, I'm joined by three of my colleagues |
| 1:04.3 | from Mother Jones. |
| 1:06.3 | David Corn is a veteran reporter and Mother Jones, D.C. Bureau Chief. |
| 1:18.1 | David is written extensively about the presidential election and spent part of last night with the Harris campaign at Howard University. |
| 1:19.0 | Welcome, David. |
| 1:19.9 | Hello, Al. |
| 1:22.0 | Ari Berman joins us from New York. |
| 1:25.2 | Ari is the National Voting Rights Correspondent at Mother Jones. |
| 1:26.4 | Ari, thanks for being here. |
| 1:28.1 | Hey, Al. Good to see you. Thank you. |
| 1:33.8 | And also joining us from New York is Jamila King. She is an editorial director with Mother Jones, |
| 1:38.7 | who has also been covering Kamala Harris for more than a decade. Thanks for being here this morning, |
| 1:48.1 | Jamila. It's good to be here, Al. All right. Well, let's get into it. So, obviously, this was a little bit of a surprise. I think it was, it was definitely a surprise for me. I'm curious if Trump winning the presidential election, |
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