20 min listen
With Americans heading to the polls on Tuesday, the final polls continue to give Joe Biden a clear lead. What do they say, and what are the early signs on the night that his support might not be as strong as expected? Freddy Gray speaks to YouGov's Marcus Roberts.
Imagine there’s no Covid. It’s not that easy even if you try, since the pandemic fogs up everything now. But what would the presidential election look like if the novel coronavirus had never escaped Wuhan? Who would be winning? It‘s easy to think that President Trump would be cruising towards re-election. He would be swanning around the country touting his Greatest Economy Ever. The crisis would not have revealed his eccentric attitudes towards the human body and medicinal cures. His strange and erratic reactions to the virus would not have left voters wondering how America ended up with a conspiracy theorist billionaire in charge. Trump would probably still be talking about the Democrats’ dubious attempt to remove him by impeachment.
39 min listen
Why does the government think the second wave will be worse than the first? (00:49) Will a Biden presidency restore America's fortunes? (18:45) And finally, does Covid mark the end for the silver screen? (30:10)Spectator editor Fraser Nelson talks to Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine at the University of Oxford; editor of The Spectator's US edition Freddy Gray is joined by columnist Lionel Shriver; and reviewer Tanya Gold is in discussion with The Spectator's arts editor Igor Toronyi-Lalic.Presented by Lara Prendergast.Produced by Gus Carter, Max Jeffery and Sam Russell.
21 min listen
Freddy Gray is in America for the final week of the election campaign. The polls show Joe Biden is set to win the race by a clear margin, but his supporters are nowhere to be seen. Freddy asks Roger Kimball, editor and publisher of the New Criterion, why Trump voters are more enthusiastic.
From our US edition
It’s hard not to be impressed by Donald J. Trump’s sheer tenacity, especially when you consider he just had COVID. The President just gave a very long and energetic speech at a rally in New Hampshire, and now he’s off again on to another event in Maine. ‘I’m doing three or four of these suckers a day,’ he says. ‘That’s not bad.’ He’s drastically down in the polls. All those clever mathematical models suggest he has about a 10 percent chance of winning. Yet he’s a fanatically competitive man, an extraordinary campaigner, and a political force that nobody quite understands. He is also a great finisher.
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.
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 media, which supports Biden, can keep insisting that the New York Post’s big Hunter story is a dud, and publishing endless malicious snark about how shabby the paper’s standards are. Twitter and Facebook can keep insisting that they were obliged, according to their own codes of practice, to stop the story circulating online, even though we all know those standards are applied with ridiculous inconsistency.
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.
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 Forsyth; editor of Conservative Home Paul Goodman; Evening Standard columnist Melanie McDonagh; and etiquette expert William Hanson.Presented by Cindy Yu.Produced by Cindy Yu, Max Jeffery and Sam Russell.
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 to an Ivy, nor did Carter, Nixon, Johnson, Eisenhower, Truman or Hoover. Joe also likes to claim that he is ‘the first in his family to go to college’. It’s a line he famously pilfered in 1987 from a Neil Kinnock speech. It also happens to be untrue. Three decades ago, people cared when Biden lied. Now nobody cares. It’s hard to oppose, let alone revile, a man who no longer seems to have any idea of what he is saying.
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.
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 Kate Andrews.
‘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 to watch now Vice President Mike Pence argue with Senator Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate. Even the most ardent followers of American politics would struggle to remember a single phrase. Last night felt different. It’s hard to claim that Pence, the Vice President, vs Kamala Harris, the running mate of former vice president Joe Biden, should be the most consequential debate of 2020.
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.
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 Gray speaks to Amber Athey.
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 Fred Astaire dance, Roger Federer hit a topspin backhand, or Patrick Mahomes glide outside the pocket — you know you are watching a talent that is unique and God-given. It’s art. Take last night, and Trump’s evacuation from Walter Reed hospital. It was all deeply absurd. After days of confusing messages as to the President’s actual condition, Trump had himself helicoptered back to the White House to recuperate.
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 meant to be an upbeat assessment of Trump’s condition. The president had been fever free for 24 hours; his symptoms were ‘resolving and improving’. Then came the questions and the answers became confusing. Dr Sean Conley, the incumbent physician to the President, became evasive when asked if Trump had been given oxygen. It turns out he had.
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 to show weakness. He perished.The lesson for Trump, who has just tested positive for coronavirus, is clear — don’t try to tough it out. Viral infections aren't impressed by machismo. He should put his re-election efforts aside, as much as is humanely possible, rest, and recover.
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, Beau. Freddy Gray speaks to Kate Andrews about whether the debate could possibly have been any worse.
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, Joe Robinette Bideeeeen. Let’s get ready to ruuuuuuuuuumble! Ah, televised presidential debates — exciting, aren’t they? The tension, the massive stakes, the enmity — it’s as close as politics gets to actual entertainment, and people love the idea of them for precisely that reason. Worse is better, these days. We don’t want soaring rhetoric, clashing philosophies, competing visions, Lincoln vs Douglas with brighter lights.
