With voters heading to the polling station on November 5th, host Hugh Linehan is joined by Steven Carroll and Keith Duggan to get a sense of what it is like on the ground stateside.
· Keith was at Madison Square Garden in New York last Sunday night for what was a homecoming of sorts for NY native Donald Trump as his election campaign nears its end, but it was one of his warm-up acts who grabbed all the headlines when he described Puerto Rico as a ‘floating island of garbage’.
· Keith was also among the throngs at the Ellipse in Washington to witness Kamala Harris deliver her closing message to a whirlwind campaign. A pointed choice of location given it was the site where Trump issued his notorious January 6th rallying cry.
· Steven has been traversing the swing states with scepticism still apparent in Georgia after the outcome of the 2020 election. The issue on most voter’s lips however is inflation and day-to-day costs like a tank of gas.
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· In Arizona voters are eager to see who can solve the issues of immigration, something Steven saw up close at the border. He also got a first-hand look at the extremely polarised nature of voter views in the US.
Plus, the panellists pick their favourite articles of the week:
· Keith selected two pieces, Fintan O’Toole on Donald Trump’s misogynist attacks against Kamala Harris, and Elon Musk’s nationality not being brought up.
· Steven went for an article looking at the very real effect of Georgia’s abortion ban, and another on the impact of how college-educated women are voting in this election.
Produced by John Casey and Declan Conlon with JJ Vernon on sound.
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