Speaker 1: Already, and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS.
Speaker 2: Oh now it makes sense. Good morning, and welcome to
Speaker 2: the Daily OS. It is Thursday, the seventh of November.
Speaker 3: I'm Billy, I'm Zara, Zara.
Speaker 2: The air feels different.
Speaker 1: It was a big day yesterday. I'm still tired.
Speaker 2: History has arrived on our doorsteps. The future is here.
Speaker 2: Donald Trump has been elected the next US president. It
Speaker 2: was a historical day, a historical moment, and it was
Speaker 2: a decision that will likely redefine the future of the
Speaker 2: Republican Party. This was largely seen as a referendum on
Speaker 2: the Republican Party and they kind of had two paths
Speaker 2: that they could go down from here depending on this result.
Speaker 2: And clearly the Trump era of the Republican Party is
Speaker 2: here to stay. On today's podcast, we are sharing with
Speaker 2: you how yes today went and our reflections and analysis
Speaker 2: of one of the most important elections of our lifetimes.
Speaker 3: Much has been said about how yesterday's election was, this
Speaker 3: real moment in time. As you said, it was a
Speaker 3: referendum on the Republican Party. Equally, it was a decisive
Speaker 3: loss for the Democrats, and so much to talk about
Speaker 3: and so much to learn from what we have found
Speaker 3: out over the last twenty four hours. Can you just
Speaker 3: tell me a bit about why it was so important,
Speaker 3: why everyone felt like there was this kind of unprecedented
Speaker 3: heir to the election.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So when we say that this election was history
Speaker 2: in the making, that's because whoever won was going to
Speaker 2: make history. So if we take Kamala Harris, if she
Speaker 2: had won, she of course would have been the first
Speaker 2: female US president. On the other hand, we have Trump,
Speaker 2: and he is now one of only two presidents in
Speaker 2: US history to win a second, non consecutive term. So
Speaker 2: what that means is that usually when a president is
Speaker 2: elected for a second term, it is right after their
Speaker 2: first term. So if we look at Barack Obama, for example,
Speaker 2: he was elected in two thousand and eight, and then
Speaker 2: he was elected again in twenty twelve, it was consecutive.
Speaker 2: In this case, Trump won in twenty sixteen, but then
Speaker 2: of course he lost in twenty twenty and now he's
Speaker 2: back in twenty twenty four and he is the second
Speaker 2: president in US history.
Speaker 1: To have done that.
Speaker 2: It's incredible, but there are more ways he has made history.
Speaker 2: So also he is the oldest president to ever be elected.
Speaker 3: I think people will be quite surprised by this because
Speaker 3: so much was said about Joe Biden exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so Joe Biden is older than Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: But when Joe Biden was elected in twenty twenty, he
Speaker 2: was younger than Donald Trump. Is now so interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the last way that Donald Trump has made history, well,
Speaker 2: he had previously made history for being the first former
Speaker 2: president of the US to be convicted of felony crimes
Speaker 2: after he was found guilty of falsifying records earlier this year.
Speaker 2: Now he's the first convicted president. All in all, very historic,
Speaker 2: a big moment and a lot to reflect on, Zara.
Speaker 2: Should we go through how the day played out yesterday?
Speaker 3: It's all a blur, but yes, so, I mean, if
Speaker 3: we're to take the day as a whole, we came
Speaker 3: into the office, we'd sat down for a day's work.
Speaker 3: By mid morning, the first results were starting to trickle in,
Speaker 3: and then within an hour of that, it was quite
Speaker 3: clear that Donald Trump was ahead. It was that lead
Speaker 3: that just continued to strengthen as the hours passed. And
Speaker 3: I think at the beginning, when we first started getting
Speaker 3: those numbers and first started seeing the numbers in those
Speaker 3: swing states emerge, people and especially the media were really
Speaker 3: cautious to say that this meant to anything that he
Speaker 3: was in the lead very meaningfully. I think everyone is
Speaker 3: very burnt by what happened both in twenty sixteen and
Speaker 3: twenty twenty, and so everyone was being very cautious about
Speaker 3: the that they were reporting Trump's lead at that time.
Speaker 2: And when you say twenty twenty, it's because in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty there was a Republican swing at the start, but
Speaker 2: that ended up being misleading because Joe Biden ended up
Speaker 2: winning exactly.
Speaker 3: And that's the conversation that emerges around the fact that
Speaker 3: red states are always the first to be counted, just
Speaker 3: by nature of geography, and you know, when polls close
Speaker 3: and all of that. So we saw at the beginning
Speaker 3: that Donald Trump was well ahead in terms of those
Speaker 3: electoral College votes, and we explained how that worked yesterday,
Speaker 3: But in twenty twenty that was made up over time.
Speaker 3: The same was not to be said yesterday. But I
Speaker 3: think going into election day, a lot of us were
Speaker 3: bracing for a really really long day and really long night,
Speaker 3: and we weren't even sure how we were going to
Speaker 3: do this podcast, what was going to happen. But you know,
Speaker 3: as afternoon came an early evening hit. It was pretty
Speaker 3: clear that Donald Trump was home and host.
Speaker 2: And it was at about six point thirty Australian Eastern
Speaker 2: daylight time that Donald Trump came out and did a
Speaker 2: press conference with his entire family behind him, also his
Speaker 2: vice presidential pick JD. Vance, and he declared victory.
Speaker 4: This was a movement like nobody's ever seen before. This
Speaker 4: was I believe the greatest political movement of all time.
Speaker 4: I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary
Speaker 4: honor of being elected your forty seventh president and your
Speaker 4: forty fifth president.
Speaker 2: Zara, I think it's about now that you can say
Speaker 2: I told you so. You did say on yesterday's podcast
Speaker 2: that you were very confident that Trump would win. Now
Speaker 2: that he has, what are your reflections about his victory.
Speaker 3: Look, I always think that you want to let things
Speaker 3: run their course and let every ballot be assessed before
Speaker 3: you go and talk about sweeping trends. But if I'm
Speaker 3: to look at what we can see from the exit
Speaker 3: polling and from those early calls, two points that I
Speaker 3: thought were really interesting, and what I didn't pick up
Speaker 3: on when we spoke yesterday was the Hispanic vote and
Speaker 3: the Black vote in the US. So Donald Trump's popularity
Speaker 3: among Hispanic voters increased exponentially from the last election. It's
Speaker 3: very interesting, given a lot of his rhetoric and the
Speaker 3: way that he has spoken about Hispanic communities that this
Speaker 3: would be the case. But we saw two major media
Speaker 3: exit polls showing him with at least forty three percent
Speaker 3: of the Hispanic vote, which was up considerably from the
Speaker 3: last time. And then another interesting point that I saw
Speaker 3: is that in North Carolina, exit polls showed that Donald
Speaker 3: Trump had boosted his popularity among black voters. So in
Speaker 3: that state, which is of course a swing state, his
Speaker 3: share of the black vote was up to twelve percent
Speaker 3: from five percent in twenty twenty, so again a really
Speaker 3: considerable jump there. According to that same exit poll, he
Speaker 3: garnered the support of around twenty percent of black mail voters.
Speaker 3: And obviously those were really early numbers that were coming out,
Speaker 3: and it might shift in the days to come, but
Speaker 3: I think those were just two really interesting demographics that
Speaker 3: perhaps wouldn't have been considered traditional. Trump voters still overwhelmingly
Speaker 3: got behind Kamala Harris, but certainly put a lot more
Speaker 3: power behind Donald Trump than people expected.
Speaker 2: So interesting.
Speaker 1: What were your reflections, Billy.
Speaker 2: I think the one thing that I was thinking about
Speaker 2: a lot yesterday is the power of celebrity endorsements.
Speaker 1: And so much has been said about those celebrity endorsements.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and who has a genuine political influence in the US.
Speaker 2: I think the style of the people who endorse Kamala
Speaker 2: Harris versus Donald Trump are very different in many ways,
Speaker 2: but one way is in their style of communication with
Speaker 2: their audience. So if we think of the people who
Speaker 2: endorse Donald Trump, I think of Joe Rogan, Elon Musk,
Speaker 2: and also Jake and Logan Paul, the Paul brothers, who
Speaker 2: are influencers, and all of them have very direct styles
Speaker 2: of communication with their audience, so on owned platforms, exactly
Speaker 2: on their own platform. So if you think of someone
Speaker 2: like Elon Musk, he is talking to his audience every
Speaker 2: single day. And if someone in his audience says I'm
Speaker 2: not sure about Donald Trump, because of this reason, he
Speaker 2: can directly respond to them, he will. Yeah, I say,
Speaker 2: not only can he he does, and he does it
Speaker 2: a lot, and he is speaking to his audience every
Speaker 2: single day, whereas they think if you think of the
Speaker 2: people who endorsed Kamala Harris, and the people who got
Speaker 2: the most attention it was people like Taylor Swift, Beyonce Oprah.
Speaker 2: To me, those people are so big and perhaps so
Speaker 2: inaccessible to their audience. Even if you just think about
Speaker 2: Taylor Swift, who got so much attention when she endorsed
Speaker 2: Kamala Harris, that was one moment and he never heard
Speaker 2: about it again, whereas with again Elon Musk Joe Rogan,
Speaker 2: it was something that kept coming up because they kept
Speaker 2: talking about it with their audience.
Speaker 1: And had multiple touch points as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they directly addressed the concerns of their audience
Speaker 2: multiple times.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's fascinating, and I think that especially
Speaker 3: when we talk about you know, we said yesterday about
Speaker 3: the young male voters, those are squarely the people who
Speaker 3: are listening, reading, watching a Joe Rogan and Elon Musk,
Speaker 3: Paul Brothers.
Speaker 1: So it will be really.
Speaker 3: Interesting to see if there's analysis that's done afterwards about
Speaker 3: what actual influence looks and feels like and whether that
Speaker 3: has a changing face in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Just to clarify, I'm not saying that that is the
Speaker 2: entire picture or the entire reason why Donald Trump has won.
Speaker 1: And an interesting point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that there will be so many contributing
Speaker 2: factors that there'll be so much analyst about, and I
Speaker 2: just personally think that that is perhaps one contributing factor.
Speaker 3: Really interesting. But Billy, that's only one part. You know,
Speaker 3: The presidency itself is only one part of what Americans
Speaker 3: were going out.
Speaker 1: To vote for yesterday.
Speaker 3: They were also going out to vote for what they
Speaker 3: want the Congress, the future of Congress to look like,
Speaker 3: and what the makeup of that looks like.
Speaker 1: What do we find out yesterday?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think this is an often forgotten part about
Speaker 2: US elections, that voters are not just electing the next president,
Speaker 2: they are also looking at the Congress. If you're wondering
Speaker 2: what Congress is, it is the House of Representatives, which
Speaker 2: is the lower house, and also the Senate, which is
Speaker 2: the upper house.
Speaker 3: And just to jump in here, it is often forgotten
Speaker 3: and often overlooked, but I would say it's as important,
Speaker 3: if not more important, as to what the makeup of
Speaker 3: Congress looks like, because a president that doesn't have support
Speaker 3: in either house has a very tough time in getting
Speaker 3: their policy agenda through and so what the makeup of
Speaker 3: today's Congress looks like will very much influence what a
Speaker 3: Donald Trump presidency looks like.
Speaker 2: Yes, and what we know at the time of recording
Speaker 2: is that Donald Trump will have the support of the Senate.
Speaker 2: So we know that the Senate, there are one hundred
Speaker 2: seats there and the Republicans have won fifty one of
Speaker 2: those seats, which means that he will be able to
Speaker 2: pass legislation with the support of the Senate. However, they
Speaker 2: will also need the support of the House of Representatives.
Speaker 2: At the time of recording, the Republicans are ahead, but
Speaker 2: they haven't security yet.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And Donald Trump said when he got up and spoke
Speaker 3: last night that he expected that he will get the
Speaker 3: support from the House, but we'll have to see what
Speaker 3: happens there. But yeah, really can't stress enough how important
Speaker 3: it is when a president has two houses that sit
Speaker 3: on the other side of the political spectrum to them.
Speaker 3: We've seen time and time again the bills just get
Speaker 3: blocked and stalled in Congress, and it looks like Donald
Speaker 3: Trump will not have that problem at all with this
Speaker 3: session of Congress.
Speaker 2: It's often a point of conversation of you know, if
Speaker 2: we look at what Joe Biden's policies were and people
Speaker 2: will say, Joe Biden, you said that you wanted to
Speaker 2: cut student loans for young people. Why didn't you do that?
Speaker 2: Often the reason is because he didn't have the support
Speaker 2: of the Congress.
Speaker 3: Yeah, always a form of negotiation to happen there. Now, Billy,
Speaker 3: I think the one thing to just explain and to
Speaker 3: zero in on is that just because Donald Trump has
Speaker 3: won the presidency does not mean that from today he
Speaker 3: becomes president.
Speaker 2: No good point. So it's not like in Australia where
Speaker 2: you are elected the leader and then literally the next
Speaker 2: day you are the leader. In the US, the election
Speaker 2: is in November, but whoever wins that election is not
Speaker 2: actually inaugury into the presidency until January.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: My fun fact is that I was at Donald Trump's
Speaker 3: last inauguration. I was studying in DC and thought that
Speaker 3: that was, you know, a moment in history, and so
Speaker 3: I went and look fair to say, I don't think
Speaker 3: anyone predicted back then that there'd be a different president
Speaker 3: in the middle, but that Donald Trump would be back
Speaker 3: with a vengeance for a second time.
Speaker 2: US politics is nothing if not unpredictable.
Speaker 3: But just on that, Billy, can Donald Trump have a
Speaker 3: second term now if he has already had a term
Speaker 3: that wasn't consecutively linked to this term has been said
Speaker 3: many times.
Speaker 1: Do you get my drift?
Speaker 2: No? So this will be Donald Trump's last four years
Speaker 2: as president of the US, and that is for a
Speaker 2: very big reason. That is because the US Constitution prevents
Speaker 2: any president from being president for more than two terms,
Speaker 2: so very explicitly says that no person can be elected
Speaker 2: to the office of the president more than twice. Donald
Speaker 2: Trump has now been elected.
Speaker 3: Twice and counting will continue in the days and probably
Speaker 3: weeks to come. But what we can know for sure
Speaker 3: is that we will be hearing a lot more from
Speaker 3: President elect Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: That is a word. We'll be hearing a lot of
Speaker 2: President elect Donald Trump. Zarah, it has been a pleasure
Speaker 2: to go through the US election with you.
Speaker 1: What a journey.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, and thank you so much for listening.
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Speaker 2: We'll be back again this afternoon with your evening headlines.
Speaker 2: We will see you then. My name is Lily Maddon
Speaker 2: and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Caalcuton woman from Gadighl country.
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