Donald Trump is a terrifyingly good finisher
Biden’s campaign, meanwhile, is somnambulant in these final days
Freddy Gray
Sunday
Tuesday
How reliable are the polls?
From our UK edition
18 min listen
The latest polls continue to show Democratic nominee Joe Biden ahead of Donald Trump in crucial swing states. But why could Georgia, which Trump won by more than 5 per cent in 2016, be the most important? Freddy Gray speaks to Marcus Roberts.
The Hunter Biden story isn’t going away
From our UK edition
It’s the election equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting ‘LA-LA-LA-LA’. Joe Biden keeps ignoring questions about his possible role in the business dealings of his shady son. He keeps losing his temper with reporters who dare to insist that he has an obligation to answer legitimate public concerns. Most of the
Saturday
Kate Andrews: Why I switched to Biden
From our UK edition
17 min listen
The Spectator‘s economics correspondent Kate Andrews talks to Freddy Gray about why she’s voting for the Democrats with a heavy heart.
Thursday
The next president: what would a Joe Biden premiership look like?
From our UK edition
38 min listen
Americans look like they’re going to put Joe Biden in the White House – so what would his premiership look like? (00:45) Plus, Boris Johnson’s impossible bind on coronavirus (13:55) and how should you sign off an email? (28:35) With editor of the Spectator’s American edition Freddy Gray; Biden biographer Evan Osnos; political editor James
If Biden wins, who will govern?
From our UK edition
Joe Biden started spouting nonsense about his background again this week. Trying to sound all man of the people, he told a rally in Ohio that he would be the first president ‘in 80 or 90 years’ who did not attend one of those fancy Ivy League schools. Well no, Joe — Reagan didn’t go
Monday
Has Donald Trump already lost the election?
From our UK edition
17 min listen
Joe Biden is well ahead of Donald Trump in the polls, but few are willing to say that the three-time presidential hopeful will win November’s election. Are commentators underplaying the Democrat’s chances? Freddy Gray speaks to Tim Stanley, historian and leader writer at The Telegraph.
Thursday
Who won the VP debate?
From our UK edition
15 min listen
Democratic Senator Kamala Harris and vice-president Mike Pence yesterday battled it out in the VP debate. Ms Harris accused the Trump administration of ‘ineptitude’ and ‘incompetence’ in its response to coronavirus, while Mr Pence said Biden’s plans to tackle climate change would ‘crush American jobs’. But who came out on top? Freddy Gray speaks to
Veeps shall inherit the earth
From our UK edition
‘Who am I? Why am I here?’ That was how Vice Admiral James Stockdale began the 1992 televised vice-presidential debate. It’s now regarded as a famous gaffe, yet Stockdale’s questions reflect the way most viewers feel about ‘veep’ debates. Who are these people? Why am I watching? Four years ago, 37 million Americans tuned in
Wednesday
Are Biden’s poll numbers really soaring?
From our UK edition
10 min listen
The latest national poll from CNN puts Joe Biden 16 points ahead of Donald Trump. Has the President’s short stint in hospital dented his re-election chances, or is an unsettled news cycle and an unrepresentative sample skewing the numbers? Freddy Gray speaks to Marcus Roberts, director of international projects at YouGov.
Tuesday
Is Trump really ‘feeling great’?
From our UK edition
14 min listen
A Covid-positive Donald Trump returned to the White House yesterday evening after spending 72 hours at the Walter Reed hospital. After landing on the south lawn in a helicopter, the President removed his mask and waved to the media below, flanked by American flags. He later tweeted: ‘FEELING GREAT!’ But has Trump really recovered? Freddy
Donald Trump’s greatest gift
From our UK edition
What is Donald Trump’s greatest gift? Some say his finely honed instincts; others, his tabloid genius for publicity. But we all know, really, that it is his ludicrous ability to drive the media into ever greater spasms of apoplexy. Just when you think he can’t make journalists go madder, he outdoes himself. It’s like watching
Sunday
Why are journalists making Trump’s illness all about themselves?
From our UK edition
What’s the most important part of this developing Trump-has-Covid story? Is it ‘how sick is the President?’ Or is it ‘look at journalists trying to find out how sick the President is?’ It can be hard to tell. Yesterday was the day of the ‘mixed messages’. At a press briefing, the physicians delivered what was
Friday
When a president gets sick
From our UK edition
President William Henry Harrison died, famously, after giving the longest inauguration speech in history. On a bitterly cold winter day in 1841, Harrison spoke for an hour and 45 minutes — to prove what a man he was. Then he fell ill with pneumonia and died after just 32 days in office. He tried not
Wednesday
Was that the worst debate of all time?
From our UK edition
19 min listen
Donald Trump and Joe Biden met in the first head-to-head debate of the campaign yesterday evening. The result was a frenzied 90 minutes of outbursts and interruptions from which neither candidate emerged well. Biden lambasted the President as a ‘clown’, while Trump ruthlessly attacked the Democratic challenger’s family, ignoring the tragic death of his son,
Tuesday
The Trump vs Biden debates are bound to be boring
From our UK edition
Ladies and gentlemen — tonight we are going to witness the most hotly anticipated TV debate in history. In the red corner, aged 74 and weighing in at 250 pounds, the reigning champ, the tangerine typhoon, Donald J Truuuuump. In the blue corner, a challenger all the way from planet amnesia, the 77-year-old stuttering cyclone,
Monday
What have we actually learnt from Trump’s tax revelations?
From our UK edition
Is anyone really surprised that Donald Trump’s tax affairs are opaque? Or that he is not as rich as he claims? Is it really all that horrifying that he has for years claimed business losses in order to offset his significant income tax liability? Does it appal us that the Trump family used a Delaware-based
Friday
Was America really ‘stolen’?
From our UK edition
15 min listen
Historian Jeff Fynn-Paul joins Freddy on this episode to discuss whether or not America was really ‘stolen’ from the Native Americans. Fynn-Paul writes about the issue in this week’s Spectator.
Thursday
Closing time: the coming Tory brawl over Covid rules
From our UK edition
39 min listen
Another Conservative civil war threatens to bubble over, so will the government start taking its backbenchers seriously? (00:55) Plus, the contentious fight over the next Supreme Court nominee (15:25) and what is it like to be in Madagascar during the pandemic? (29:05) With Political Editor James Forsyth; Chair of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers
Wednesday
Does Biden really attract young voters?
From our UK edition
26 min listen
A new poll from Harvard suggests that Joe Biden could win the votes of 60 per cent of under-30s in November’s election. But does the Democratic candidate really energise young people, or are they simply repelled by Donald Trump? Freddy Gray speaks to Marcus Roberts, director of international projects at YouGov, about the numbers dictating
