Freddy Gray

Freddy Gray

Freddy Gray is deputy editor of The Spectator and the editor of the US edition. He hosts Americano on YouTube.

Saturday

Freddy Gray

Elbridge Colby on why America must pivot from Ukraine to Taiwan

From our UK edition

29 min listen

The war in Ukraine is only bogging America down, says Elbridge Colby, a former national security adviser to the Trump administration. On this episode of Americano, Colby tells host Freddy Gray why the US should – and likely will – reduce its support to Ukraine and Europe, to focus on the increasing threat China poses over Taiwan. Europe, he says, can pick up the slack on its own continent. Colby has been tipped to become Trump's national security adviser should he win in November this year. Produced by Cindy Yu and Joe Bedell-Brill.

Freddy Gray

Freddy Gray, Angus Colwell, Matthew Parris, Flora Watkins and Rory Sutherland

From our UK edition

30 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: after President Biden’s debate disaster, Freddy Gray profiles the one woman who could persuade him to step down, his wife Jill (1:05); Angus Colwell reports from Israel, where escalation of war seems a very real possibility (9:02); Matthew Parris attempts to reappraise the past 14 years of Conservative government (14:16); Flora Watkins reveals the reasons why canned gin and tonics are so popular (21:24); and, Rory Sutherland asks who could possibly make a better Bond villain than Elon Musk? (25:00).  Presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Thursday

Freddy Gray

Jill Biden’s relentless pursuit of power

From our UK edition

At rallies, Joe Biden often speaks after his wife. ‘My name is Joe Biden and I’m Jill’s husband,’ he begins. It’s a line he has used for years – a faux humble joke about how much more impressive she is. These days, however, it sounds more like an admission of the real pecking order. In the past week, we’ve seen the extent to which Dr Jill Biden (as she insists on being called) has taken charge of her ailing spouse’s collapsing campaign. This week, she appeared on the cover of American Vogue, looking imperious in a white tuxedo dress. ‘We will decide our future!’ shouts the quote headline. That’s a very royal ‘we’, isn’t it?

Monday

Freddy Gray

Can Joe Biden go on?

From our UK edition

20 min listen

The dust has settled from the TV debate that was catastrophic for Joe Biden. What are the possible options going forward? Are things changing behind the scenes? Freddy Gray assesses the situation with Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of The National Interest.

Freddy Gray

Starmer’s Europe dilemma

From our UK edition

13 min listen

As Europe comes to terms with the fallout from Marine Le Pen's victory in the first round of their parliamentary elections, Cindy Yu talks to Freddy Gray and Katy Balls about what it all means for Keir Starmer. If he does win the UK's own election on Thursday, he faces a European landscape that could be harder to navigate. What do the results mean for the UK and what reaction has there been? Produced by Cindy Yu and Patrick Gibbons.

Friday

Freddy Gray

Biden’s debate disaster

From our UK edition

16 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to pollster Patrick Ruffini about the first 2024 presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Just how bad was it and can Biden survive his performance? They discuss the reaction to the debate, including a surprising theory going around Republican circles.  Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Freddy Gray

After last night, nobody believes in Joe Biden

From our UK edition

‘I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.’  Donald Trump, for all his flaws, has always had a knack for expressing what everybody is thinking. With those words, delivered on the CNN debate stage last night after Joe Biden had stumbled and mumbled through yet another answer, he all but buried the 46th presidency.  ‘Joe you did such a great job,’ Jill Biden said, as if talking to a small child Biden might stagger on through the Democratic National Convention in August. But it’s hard to see how his presidency can last much longer. Either he must stand down, be brushed aside, or the American public will soon put him out to pasture. At this rate of decline, he might not even live to see 2025.

Thursday

Freddy Gray

Do Presidential debates decide elections?

From our UK edition

20 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to academic and Spectator writer Charles Lipson about what to expect from tonight’s Presidential debates and whether Trump or Biden's performance could influence the election.

Friday

Freddy Gray

Why is Rishi Sunak scared of the Question Time audience?

From our UK edition

Before Rishi Sunak was allowed to talk on last night’s BBC Question Time Leaders’ Special, he had to receive a volley from Kevin, a bearded Geordie. ‘I’m asking if you would confess to us tonight even just a small amount of embarrassment to be leading the Conservative Party into this election,’ said Kev. Sunak nodded, feebly, and said: ‘Well good evening, everyone. Fiona, thank you for inviting me’ – proving, once again, that he cannot think on his feet. Clap clap clap clap pic.twitter.com/d2HGLxKyC2— Tom Harwood (@tomhfh) June 21, 2024 But it wasn’t just Rishi. The whole show was so grim. The QT format became a form of ritual torture, in which voters were egged on to pour scorn on the hapless pols. And hapless they were.

Freddy Gray

Why are Joe Biden’s poll numbers improving?

From our UK edition

After several weeks of almost daily embarrassing senior moments on the campaign trail, Joe Biden is somehow improving in the polls. The FiveThirtyEight website's average now puts him 0.1 per cent ahead of Donald Trump in national surveys — the first time this year he’s lead his rival.  The current president is still behind the former president in nearly all the swing-state polls, his ‘job approval’ numbers continue to worsen, and bookmakers still have Trump as strong favourite to win again in November. But Trump is not pulling away towards victory.

Thursday

Freddy Gray

Why are US universities so anti-Israel?

From our UK edition

23 min listen

Freddy speaks to Jacob Howland, Provost and Dean of the Intellectual Foundations Program at the University of Austin, about the spread of college protests across American universities in response to the Israel-Gaza conflict. How have campuses become such hot beds of anti-Israeli sentiment and what has the influence of Marxism been? They also discuss the intersection of personal rights at university with freedom of speech. What influence will Biden’s response have on the Jewish vote for the 2024 election?

Wednesday

Freddy Gray

How to save liberalism

From our UK edition

41 min listen

In this episode, Freddy Gray is joined by Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS and columnist for The Washington Post. They discuss liberalism, the state of America, and identity politics. They also cover Fareed's new book, Age of Revolutions, which asks one central question: what are the causes of the seismic social disruptions we are going through and the political backlashes that have ensued?

Friday

Freddy Gray

Is anti-white racism tearing America apart?

From our UK edition

53 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to Jeremy Carl, Senior Fellow at the Claremont Institute. They discuss his book, The Unprotected Class: how anti-white racism is tearing America apart. They also cover affirmative action, and where America goes from here.  Watch this episode on Spectator TV.

Sunday

Freddy Gray

The European elections and the ascent of the right

From our UK edition

Can the ‘far right’ still really be called the ‘far right’ if it becomes the mainstream? That’s a question for political scientists to ponder as tonight’s European elections results come tumbling in. The right is winning in France, with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally will win twice as many votes as president Macron’s Renaissance. Macron has already responded to the humiliation by calling for fresh national assembly elections to be held on 30 June and 7 July. The EU may well have to adapt to the worldview of Marine Le Pen In Germany, the AfD, despite a number of scandals, took 16 per cent of the vote, making them the second most popular party, ahead of chancellor’s Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats.

Friday

Freddy Gray

How can you stop Donald Trump?

From our UK edition

29 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by Alex Castellanos, Republican Party strategist who has served as media consultant to seven U.S. Presidential campaigns. They discuss Donald Trump's presidential campaign, his search for a vice president, and if there's any way Joe Biden can tarnish his image.

Thursday

Freddy Gray

What will Trump 2.0 do to the economy?

From our UK edition

24 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by Christopher Butler who is executive director at Americans for Tax Reform to discuss what Trump's trade policy might look like in a second term. Should economists be worried about a 10 per cent tariff?

Wednesday

Freddy Gray

What’s the matter with America’s media?

From our UK edition

28 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to Ben Smith and Nayeema Raza from the Mixed Signals podcast. They discuss the state of American media, whether the US has any appetite for public service broadcasting, and whether America is too cynical about the press.

Tuesday

Freddy Gray

What Farage gets about politics and entertainment

From our UK edition

Towards the end of last year, Nigel Farage set tongues wagging as he entered the jungle for I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Yesterday he announced his return to electoral politics – and the national conversation about him now is curiously similar to what it was then. Will the masses actually vote for him? Will people find his rhetoric refreshing – or racist? And is this good or bad for GB News? We’re used to talking in a slightly superior English way about Donald Trump, the former host of The Apprentice, as the reality TV president across the pond. But Britain is not so different. Our politics is not just downstream from culture, as the (American) Andrew Breitbart put it.

Saturday

Freddy Gray

Can Keir handle Trump?

From our UK edition

12 min listen

The news that Donald Trump has been convicted of 34 felonies meant that the Labour leader faced questions about the former president on Friday morning, rather than the Diane Abbott selection storm. On his visit to Scotland, Starmer told the BBC that a Labour government would be willing to work with ‘whoever’ was elected in November’s presidential contest. But how would Starmer deal with Trump?  James Heale speaks to Kate Andrews and Freddy Gray.

Thursday

Freddy Gray

Trump is a convict, but will it matter?

From our UK edition

This is an extremely strange moment for American democracy. Polls suggest that independent voters – the people who decide American elections – will not vote for a man who is a convicted felon. But now Donald Trump, currently the favourite to win re-election in November, has been found guilty, on 34 counts, of falsifying business records – and nobody knows if that verdict will make him more popular or less. On the one hand, a court has decided that, yes, he deliberately altered his financial accounts, possibly for election campaign reasons back in 2016. He is now a convict. Trump has a murky past, and his dodgy history now appears to have caught up with him.