WTH Happened in Iowa...and WTH Happens Next? Sean Trende Explains
What the Hell Is Going On
AEI Podcasts
4.4 • 633 Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2024
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The 2024 Iowa caucuses have come and gone, with the key takeaways some freezing temperatures, low turnout, and a Trump slam dunk. 15 percent of eligible Iowans gave 51% of the vote to the former president. Of course, that also means that about half voted for somebody other than Trump. Most disappointed was Nikki Haley, who surprised us all with a lagging third place, while Ron DeSantis pulled ahead to second. So, is the 2024 GOP nomination a done deal for Trump? Maybe. But the year has just begun, and some more challenging ground is ahead for the Donald and his would-be replacements.
Sean Trende is a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he works on elections, American political trends, voting patterns, and demographics. He is also the senior elections analyst for RealClearPolitics. Before becoming a full-time political analyst, Mr. Trende practiced law for eight years, during which time he represented clients before a variety of settings ranging from state trial courts to the Supreme Court of the United States.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is brought to you by the American Enterprise Institute. |
| 0:03.1 | If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate, review, and share. Thanks for listening. Here's our show. What the hell's going on? What the hell is going on? What the hell is going on? I don't know what the hell he's talking about. You don't have to know what the hell is on it. What hell's the matter with these guys? We don't know what's going on. Hotels gone on. |
| 0:01.0 | Who in God's name knows what it's all about. |
| 0:28.9 | Hi, I'm Danielle Pletka. |
| 0:30.8 | And I'm Martisan. |
| 0:32.0 | Welcome to our podcast. |
| 0:33.5 | What the hell is going on? |
| 0:35.6 | Mark, you're trapped in Detroit. |
| 0:37.2 | What the hell is actually going on? |
| 0:39.6 | Getting in and out of Des Moines, Iowa was quite an adventure. It's been a long time since I've |
| 0:45.0 | experienced minus 17 degrees. But that's when I arrived in Des Moines, Iowa on Sunday. I was |
| 0:52.8 | fortunate to have missed the polar vortex, which sent, |
| 0:56.4 | you know, the wind chill brought it down to like minus 35 or something like that. So I missed that |
| 1:01.4 | part. It wasn't that windy or snowy. The snow had already fallen. But holy Toledo, that was a, |
| 1:06.5 | that was the coldest, one of the coldest places I've ever been outside of Manchuria in China. |
| 1:13.1 | All I can say is, I believe it's Holy Des Moines, you meant to say. |
| 1:16.5 | Yeah, there's exactly. |
| 1:17.2 | So 15% of Iowans probably who live very near their polling places. |
| 1:25.9 | One of the smallest turnouts in recent history in Iowa turned out for their caucuses. |
| 1:35.4 | And the predictions for how this race was going to come down were mostly wrong. |
| 1:41.4 | So if I was reading all of the expert commentary beforehand and I was watching |
| 1:48.0 | the momentum in the poll and I was listening to the candidates themselves, I was going to say |
... |
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