Joshua Rothman on a Mock Election at a New York High School
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 9 May 2016
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Townsend Harris High School, a competitive magnet school in Queens, mounted a school-wide Presidential-election simulation, with students playing the candidates, pollsters, fundraisers, and journalists. This civics lesson got intense, especially when the student playing Donald Trump unleashed some Trump-style sexism on the student playing Hillary Clinton.
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| 0:48.5 | I'm Dorothy Wickenden. On today's Politics and More podcast, the New Yorker's Joshua Rothman visits Townsend Harris High School in Queens. |
| 0:57.0 | Last fall, the school held a mock presidential election with students taking on the personas of the large field of presidential hopefuls. |
| 1:05.0 | Josh Rothman, who's an editor at The New Yorker, spent a lot of time this fall at a public high school where every year the senior class gets involved in reenacting elections. |
| 1:16.8 | One year it can be a city council seat or a judge. |
| 1:20.3 | This year, it's the whole shebang. |
| 1:22.1 | This year, they're doing the presidential race, Donald Trump and all. |
| 1:26.9 | If any of you don't know, I'm Donald Trump, but I mean, everyone here should know that by now, |
| 1:32.0 | if they've even watched the news. I mean, the media loves me, guys. I'm all over it all day, |
| 1:37.8 | every day, right? If you're wondering who you're listening to, his name is Matthew McCandrew, |
| 1:43.5 | and he's a senior at Townsend Harris High School. |
| 1:46.3 | He's been given the most coveted assignment of the fall, being Donald Trump. |
| 1:51.5 | Luckily, with so many candidates running for president right now, there are a lot of starring roles to go around. |
| 1:56.6 | Max Lachoma, I'm playing Jeb Bush. |
| 1:58.6 | Hi, my name is Yasmin Ali. I'm a senior at Townsend Harris, and in the election |
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