Was Last Week Really So Bad for the Democrats?
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 4 November 2021
⏱️ 26 minutes
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Summary
This week, the Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated the Democrat Terry McAuliffe to become the next governor of Virginia. Meanwhile, in New Jersey, the Democrat Phil Murphy narrowly won a gubernatorial race he was expected to dominate. The results further destabilize a Democratic Party struggling to find consensus on the infrastructure and social-spending bills, which are the backbone of President Biden’s legislative agenda. Susan B. Glasser joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss tensions within the Democratic Party, and what this week’s election results portend for the 2022 midterms and beyond.
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| 1:10.9 | This is the political scene, a weekly conversation with New Yorker writers and guests about |
| 1:16.1 | politics. It's Thursday, November 4th. I'm Dorothy Wickenden, executive editor of the New Yorker. |
| 1:23.6 | It's been an unsettling week for Democrats. In Virginia, which Biden carried by 10 points in 2020, |
| 1:30.3 | the Republican candidate for governor, Glenn Yunkin, |
| 1:33.3 | defeated the Democrat, Terry McAuliffe. |
| 1:36.3 | In New Jersey, Democratic Governor Phil Murphy |
| 1:40.3 | was narrowly re-elected in a race that he was expected to dominate. |
| 1:45.5 | Meanwhile, in Washington, two bills central to Biden's agenda, a bipartisan infrastructure package, |
| 1:51.8 | and a $1.75 trillion bill focused on social and climate spending, remain in limbo, largely due to |
| 2:00.5 | two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin and |
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