The Swing Issue That Could Win a Swing State

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2020

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Three Rust Belt swing states are critical to winning the presidency this year — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, there is one issue that could be decisive: fracking natural gas. Opposition to fracking could be fatal for a candidate in the state, yet front-runners for the Democratic nomination have committed to banning fracking nationwide if elected. We went to western Pennsylvania, where fracking affects residents daily, to see whether electability in the state could really be reduced to this single issue. Guests: Shane Goldmacher, a national political reporter for The New York Times, traveled to Pennsylvania with Andy Mills and Monika Evstatieva, producers for “The Daily.” For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading: Our investigative team revealed how immense amounts of methane, the primary gas acquired by fracking, are escaping from oil and gas sites nationwide, worsening global warming.What is fracking? And why is it so harmful to the communities that come in contact with the toxins it leaves behind?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Test one, two, three.
0:04.2	Tell me about your experience going around the country right now.
0:09.0	Yeah, so I've been basically traveling around the country and like everybody I talk to,
0:13.3	you ask them who they support for president, they give you some kind of an answer.
0:16.6	And then what they really are asking though and what they really seem to want to know is,
0:19.6	well, who can win?
0:21.2	Like, who's the best candidate to win?
0:22.9	They don't want to just know who they like.
0:24.9	They want to know who some magical person they don't know in a swing state likes.
0:28.9	This is the electability conversation.
0:32.7	This is the electability conversation.
0:35.4	Everybody seems to want more than anything to be Donald Trump and a lot of people, they
0:40.2	care about what they care about, but they also seem to care what other people who they
0:44.2	don't know who live thousands or a hundred miles away.
0:46.4	Right.
0:47.4	If you like Bernie Sanders, it's like, is he too old?
0:49.3	If you like Elizabeth Warren, it's like, well, can a woman win after what happened with
0:52.0	Hillary Clinton?
0:53.0	If you like Pete Buttigieg, you're like, well, he's gay or you've met a care for all.
0:56.5	He's like, well, is that going too far or is that going to bring out a bunch of young
0:59.2	people?
1:00.2	Everyone's just kind of like gaming who can win, essentially.
	...

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