Who’s talking
8 speakersTranscript
93 turns · 20 minAll your favorite CBC podcasts are now available on YouTube. The best and award-winning true crime investigations, hilarious comedies, vibrant pop culture conversations, and even more audio series are all available on CBC Podcasts YouTube channel. You'll also find exclusive video-first episodes, YouTube Shorts, and behind-the-scenes content from our hosts and producers that you can't find anywhere else. So if YouTube is your go-to source for podcasts, just search CBC Podcasts and hit subscribe, and you'll never miss the latest update. [upbeat music]
This is a CBC podcast.
Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is The Current podcast.
I get so fed up with Trump, I just cut the TV off.
He's a smart man. He cares 100% about America. I'm trusting that he knows what he's doing.
I have not made up my mind yet because things are changing daily. In four weeks, Americans are heading to the polls for midterm elections. Voters will decide if US President Donald Trump will remain free to pursue his agenda or whether he will face checks from a new Congress as the Democrats try to flip both the House and the Senate. Donald Trump might not be on the ballot, but he is currently on the campaign trail.
We have the greatest numbers of any president in the history of our country. I think inflation's very real, but they're the ones that caused the inflation. I'm the one that's bringing it down. [clapping] So I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot. I'm on the ballot.
That's a request that some Republicans might not want voters to listen to. Donald Trump's approval ratings are at a record low. So how likely is a Democratic wave? How much is this vote a referendum on Donald Trump? And how are voters feeling with a month to go? Josh Wingrove is a senior White House reporter with Bloomberg News, also a Canadian, we should mention, and Barbara Sprunt is the congressional rep- correspondent with NPR. They are both in Washington, DC this morning. Good morning to you both.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Josh, let's start with you. Uh, you've been traveling with the president this weekend. You were with him at a rally on Friday night in Alabama. What was the atmosphere like?
I mean, it's mixed at best. He's been doing rallies in really deep red states, Oklahoma, Alabama. He went to Ohio, a very small venue in Ohio. He's campaigning in Texas. Like, there's defense, and then there's really playing [chuckles] defense, and he's doing the latter right now. There are two explanations for this. It's not really clear which is true. One is that they're trying to go to safe districts to drive Republican turnout, you know, throughout the region. For instance, w- in Alabama, he was near Florida, which has more competitive districts. Another is that he might be too toxic for frontline candidates. Susan Collins of Maine certainly leads the list of candidates that have avoided, uh, appearing with him or the vice president or distanced themselves from the administration. So he is hitting the trail, as you said there. He wants voters to pretend like he's on the ballot. Historically, when they were sort of wiped out in 2018, the midterms in his first term, he blamed himself not being on the
Episode notes
In just over a month, voters in America will head to the polls in the U.S. midterms. The elections will decide if US President Donald Trump will remain free to pursue his agenda, or whether he’ll face checks from a new Congress as the Democrats try to flip both the House and the Senate. Josh Wingrove, Senior White House reporter with Bloomberg News and Barbara Sprunt, Congressional Correspondent with NPR, talk through which races to watch and what’s at stake.