Freddy Gray

Freddy Gray

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

Monday

Freddy Gray

Deplorables don’t riot

For months, the media has warned us that a narrow Joe Biden victory in the presidential election could lead to civil war. President Donald Trump would refuse to accept the result and his supporters would resort to violence. Well, the first part seems right; Trump is clinging on to the bitterest of ends. The second part, however, is wrong — so far, at least. There have been no outbreaks of Trumpist violence. The Proud Boys are not marauding the suburbs and ‘pivot counties’ with AR-15s. Buildings are not being set on fire. Yes, there have been entirely (not just ‘largely’) peaceful protests.

Sunday

Saturday

Freddy Gray

When will Trump concede?

22 min listen

Joe Biden edges ever closer to the White House, but the Trump campaign has launched a flurry of lawsuits to aim for recounts of the vote in various states. Will he concede? Freddy Gray talks to Amber Athey and Matt McDonald.

Friday

Freddy Gray

Biden sleepwalks to the White House

‘You all... declare me dead. Guess what? I ain’t dead. I’m not going to die.’ That was Joe Biden back in January, speaking to the New York Times editorial board. ‘Everybody dies,’ replied a female Times board member, showing that lightness of spirit that is her newspaper’s speciality. ‘I’m not going to die politically,’ said Biden. Well, Joe was right. He ain’t dead, politically. Assuming he doesn’t die, physically, he will on 20 January become the 46th president of the United States of America. Not bad for a 78-year old boy from Scranton, Pennsylvania with a lifelong speech impediment and a worrying tendency to forget where he is.

Thursday

Freddy Gray

Is this the end for Trumpism?

28 min listen

What are the latest developments in the US presidential election? (01:15) - Lara is joined by the Spectator's economics correspondent Kate Andrews and the Spectator US's editor Freddy Gray, who is currently in Pennsylvania.What is it like to care for a disabled child during a time of lockdown? (09:19) - The journalist Sam Carlisle discusses the lack of support for her daughter Elvi with the Education Select Committee Chairman Robert Halfon. And finally, should churches keep their doors open throughout the pandemic? (20:42) - Journalist Laura Freeman thinks so, and considers the issue with Reverend Steve Morris from St Cuthbert's Church in North Wembley.Presented by Lara Prendergast.

elections
Freddy Gray

Is America a banana republic?

From our US edition

Is it all over bar the litigation? Joe Biden is six Electoral College votes shy of victory, unless Arizona flips. The Trump campaign will contest to death. They’ll claim voter fraud in Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania — or any state they have narrowly lost. Those claims may have legitimacy; it’s too early to tell. But nobody said democracy was fair. The pursuit of power is a grubby business. With an electorate as big as America’s there will always be shadiness around the edges. We all knew that a late and vast blue mail-in surge was coming. We just didn’t know it would be this late. Donald Trump will cry foul. He has been suggesting that the election would be rigged for years. Mail-in voting is indeed open to all sorts of abuses.

Freddy Gray

Trumpism hasn’t been defeated

It’s all over, bar the litigation. Without some mind-blowing legal reversal in the coming days, Joe Biden will be the 46th president of the United States of America. Donald Trump must be extracted from the White House in the coming weeks, though if he is unwilling to leave nobody is quite sure how he’ll be removed. Trump believes the election has been stolen from him — so do many of the 70 million Americans who voted for him. Trust is a vanishingly rare commodity in American democracy. But Trump started crying foul weeks, even months ago. ‘This is a fraud on the American public,’ he declared in the early hours of Wednesday. ‘We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.

Monday

Freddy Gray

What do the final polls say?

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.

Freddy Gray

What if Covid hadn’t infected the US election?

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.

Thursday

Freddy Gray

The long winter – why Covid restrictions could last until April

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.

Wednesday

Freddy Gray

Why are Trump voters more enthusiastic?

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.

Sunday

Freddy Gray

Donald Trump is a terrifyingly good finisher

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.

agenda trump finisher

Tuesday

Freddy Gray

How reliable are the polls?

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.

Freddy Gray

The Hunter Biden story isn’t going away

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.

Saturday

Thursday

Freddy Gray

The next president: what would a Joe Biden premiership look like?

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.

Freddy Gray

If Biden wins, who will govern?

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.

Monday

Freddy Gray

Has Donald Trump already lost the election?

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

Freddy Gray

Who won the VP debate?

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.

Freddy Gray

Veeps shall inherit the earth

‘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.