US Election Live: Lovely Lydia and Lorna Elizabeth Ann
Tuesday 3rd November 2020
Lydia: Good evening and welcome, everybody. Tonight, Lorna Elizabeth Ann and I are going to talk about what's going on with the American election. Today Americans have been voting for not only their President, but also their representatives and senators. So I'm just waiting for an Lorna to join us. I did share, just before this, that, of course, being a Live, unfortunately, I can't subtitle it. So there will be a transcript available and I will try and [pause].
so I'll try and get that done as soon as possible so stand by for that, I'm just waiting for Lorna to join us. And she's here.
Lorna: hello.
Lydia: Hi, now the top of my head is cut off, so I need to sort thatLorna: step Lorna: back a little bit.
Lydia: How are you? All good?
Lorna: I'm I'm practicing lots of deep breathing. Yeah. you know what.. I started a job almost a month ago and has been very busy getting used to all of that. And so I've found it pretty difficult to balance kind of keeping up with everything that's been going on.
So today I have had another busy day at work and I spent the last couple of hours having a look at the latest news, everything that's happening and thinking about it nonstop all day.
Lydia: Amazing. we are even more grateful that you are here with us.
Lorna: You know what? I'm excited to talk about it. I am excited for the coverage to start. And you know what? I'm just glad it's here. I'm glad that we'll finally start to see things happening tonight.
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
Lydia: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So it's now, what, about four o'clock on the Eastern Seaboard of America, PM.. In the afternoon? Is that about right?
Lorna: It's three o'clock, I thought that, well, there was a four hour difference, but they also have daylight saving so that's just changed. So it's three o'clock.
Lydia: That's mid-afternoon. Voting has been happening today. Obviously voting has already been happening. Do you want to give us a little update on kind of where we are at the moment?
Lorna: Yes. So I have seen that we are now over a hundred and two million votes have already been cast. With early voting and mail-in voting. So if you remember back to our Live a few weeks ago, I was saying that that was roughly around 10, 10 percent we were at, in comparison with the total 2016 vote. So I think around one hundred and thirty five million people voted in 2016.
So. Well, if one hundred and two million people have already voted and early and mail in ballots, we're looking at record breaking turnout. I've heard a couple of reports saying that there hasn't been as big a turnout for over 100 years. They're projecting based on the votes that have already been cast. So it's going to be a big one. It'll be interesting with obviously there are several states and state by state it's all done differently. So Pennsylvania, for example, they cannot start counting their ballots until Election Day.
So Pennsylvania is one of the states that we're going to have to wait quite a long time for. Might not happen on the night.
Lydia: And it's also a swing state, isn't it? Pennsylvania is also a swing state. It's really key.
Lorna: Yeah. Pennsylvania is probably one of the main ones that everyone's going to be waiting for. Both candidates have been there a lot more than many other states. They've really been hanging around in Pennsylvania. So I think they'll be quite sick of them already.
Florida, on the other hand, has been counting their votes for a while. So we might see a result from Florida early on in the evening.
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
And I can't remember exactly what time we should expect results starting to come through state by state. But they have been able to count their ballots for a few days now.
So they should be really interesting.
Lydia: I listened to a podcast today, but basically said. If you don't win Florida and you don't win the election, so that's that's major. I mean, is that I mean, are there...? Of course, everything has to be counted and we can go into some go into some of that later. But, you know, Florida being early, is there is there something in the states where you know, how in the UK Sunderland is always the one to declare first in the UK general election there's kind of a race, as to who is going to declare first?
Is that kind of similar race for those states that have already been counting their votes?
Lorna: I don't know if there's like a traditional "I want to be first to announce". I know that Vermont will be quite early on to announce and New Hampshire. It really depends because the USA is so large, the East Coast and the furthermost East Coast states and will be most likely to announce first. And it's just it's by when the election, their pollings close again by state by state it's different. There are some states, I think, that close at midnight, there are others that close at 8:00 p.m. and it's different throughout the country.
So it's less more it's less about tradition and more about actually just the logistics of everything,
Lydia: yes, the pure geography of it.
So, yes. And I mean, we talked a little bit about polling last time and the and the very positive polls in terms of Biden's potential success. But we also talked about the massive caveats that we have to put in place for all of that. I mean, what are the polls telling us at the moment, knowing that they are only now only one point of view, as it were?
Lorna: Yeah, I mean, the polls haven't changed much and they haven't changed much, much since March.
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
They've been pretty stable. And Biden is, I think, 7.2 / 7.5 points ahead in the polls. That's nationwide. However, the nationwide vote or the nationwide poll is sort of like saying, OK, this is the popular vote and the popular vote is nothing. You know, I learned that from 2016. So it's really it's the polls in the battleground states that we need to be looking at. And that's a much tighter race.
And so if we think the nationwide poll average was seven points ahead, we're looking at roughly four points ahead for Biden in the battleground states. And then if we think about back to 2016 and it was a lot tighter than that, I will say for Hillary, she was probably one to two points ahead. However, obviously, we then saw that the polls were off and Trump won the election. This time around Biden is seven points ahead nationally. If he is... If the polls are out by five or four points
Trump will gain more than 270 electoral votes and win the election, but if it's within the margin of error of two to three points out, then Biden has a path to victory. So the polls are interesting, as everyone always says, that the polls should be taken with a heavy pinch of salt. And it's really just going to it's all going to come down to when. Everything's released later on tonight really.
Lydia: Yeah. I mean, it's it's tense times.
I have listened all day to podcasts about America and the election and there's some really interesting points in there. And they're just going back to what you were saying about the early voting turnout and that we're probably already breaking records with the turnout for this election. And that's one of the things that may have assisted Trump in 2016, was actually the low turnout that lots of people didn't go to vote. And as someone who's always keen that people go and express their suffrage, their vote, I'm always keen to see more people going out.
We talked last time as well about postal votes that that might be a considerable element, which, is something that Trump doesn't.... It's something that he's talked down, he's talked a lot about, he has spread a lot of doubt about postal voting and so on. But that's partly because we think more Democrats are likely to vote by post and so on. I mean, do you want to talk a little bit about how those electoral bits and pieces might be in his favour or in Biden's favor at this stage?
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
Lorna: Yes, so our last Live, I mentioned that roughly, well, twice as many or two or three times as many Democrats as registered Republicans will vote early in the election. So they'll mail in ballots they'll have, they'll do early voting. So when we start to see results come through, particularly if it depends on on how they vote their ballots, but if they've been counting early ballots and mail in ballots early, we might see what I'm hearing everywhere of a "blue wave".
So we'll see that Biden.... Biden is appearing to be ahead in many states, dependant on how they're counting their votes. And we know that Republicans are far more likely to be voting on the day. And so, again, in certain states, if they're counting on the day ballots first, we might see a red wave where we, for example, in Pennsylvania, OK, they're not going to be counting their mail in ballots...they haven't been doing that early.
So it could be that in Pennsylvania, we see that Trump is shooting ahead. But over the time that they're counting, which may take days, Biden then pulls ahead and wins the state. But initially, it looks like Trump's ahead. So, yeah, the voting voting takes plenty of time to count, but it's an important one tonight because it could look like Trump is winning this election. But there's a whole load of Democratic votes waiting to be counted.
Lydia: So this leads us to a big thing, which Trump is is probably quite likely to do, which is to- if it looks like that is happening, this is the big conjecture, is that he will claim victory and then will claim that any kind of postal vote that says actuallys Biden's won then he will then say that 'this is fraud'... do you want to try to talk us through that little jollity? which is quite worrying.
Lorna: Just a bit. I read an interesting article in Politico just before coming on here, and he was on Fox..
Trump was on Fox and Friends this morning. And by their reckoning, he kind of sounded a bit tired, forlorn. Obviously, he's been doing a lot of campaigning
Lydia: and he's not been well.
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
Lorna: yes, exactly. He sounded a bit hoarse. So make of that what you will. But he was first of all, he was asked about his first term in office first or maybe only term in office. And he he said 'it's been mean.
You're dealt you're dealt with horrible people. You deal with people that are very deceptive'. So he was quite negative about his first term in office, actually. And then when when asked about when he plans to announce his victory, this surprised me, what he said, he said, ' we'll announce when there's victory. If there is victory, I think we'll have victory. There's no reason to play games.' That's quite a different tone than what I've heard recently as well.
Yeah, and there's been some reports that have said that they're going to get the lawyers out immediately. They're going to announce victory when it looks like he's winning, even though not all of the ballots have been counted. And and, yeah, I just thought that quote from him was a bit unexpected. So it's just it's going to be an interesting one tonight to
see what he does. But I mean, I certainly do think that he will, he's never going to say, you know, comfortably, "I've lost.
I respect that. Congratulations to Biden". That's not something that I can really foresee him doing. You know, unless unless there's like a serious Biden landslide. I think it's going to be definitely a delayed one. But, yeah, I just thought that that quote was a bit surprising.
Lydia: And to be clear that even if he says, "I've won, it's my victory" that does not make him president. He doesn't get to call it. How does the.. Because this is something that, you know, there are lots of scenarios in terms of how it works and who calls the election and when. Trump, as I understand it, him just calling the election doesn't doesn't win the election.. Biden or.. Whoever whoever wins is not them who says "I'm president.
Now, that's fine". It's also him concedes so do you want to talk us through, that's a bit more.
Lorna: Yeah, it's absolutely not down to the candidate who decides who wins. Absolutely not. And on the Republican side, the campaign team, they've they've sort of been suggesting or not even suggesting, they've explicitly said that it would be wrong to not announce a winner on the night. Trump himself has said that it would be horrible not to announce the winner on the night of the election when actually that's just a standard
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
process, a standard process and normal for a winner to not be completely confirmed until all ballots have been counted.
And this is no ordinary year. You know, it's 2020 when we've got a pandemic on, we've had so many more mail in ballots and postal ballots than before. And we've said that when it's been over a hundred million and, you know, things take time. So for him to be suggesting that it's 'horrible to have to wait, it's horrible that we should even be waiting on a winner'. It's inflammatory comments that are leading to the news cycles today then reporting that buildings are, you know, putting up... They're safeguarding their buildings against violence because of inflammatory comments like "how dare you make us wait?
it's wrong to have to wait". And then, you know, "it looks like we're ahead on election night and then the Democrats steal the election back from us", you know, comments like 'stealing the election back', basically. And that's only based on allballots being counted. Democracy at work. It's
you know, pretty horrendous
Lydia: It's worrying. I mean, if anything if anything really worries me right now it's the potential for serious unrest as a result of this. And I've heard lots of different things from different people, including Republican senators saying realistically, if it's showing that Biden is winning, then, you know, Trump doesn't have a leg to stand on, you know, even even his power in the Supreme Court or even the kind of Republican legislatures in the various states that doesn't really matter, that, you know, the swell of evidence.
But as we have talked about in our previous Live, Trump has consistently tried to undermine trust in the system. And in fact, I was listening to a podcast today that said he was doing that in 2016 as well. You know, it was very much the same rhetoric of "I'll beliebe the result, I'll accept the result if I win" was something he said in 2016. So this is this is very common. And this is something that he's he's gone on with.
And it's clear that the population has been whipped up in my view. I mean, that's a personal opinion. But certainly the things that I've read, there's been a lot of a lot of trying to appeal to the base to say, look, your election is being stolen from you by them, them being th Democrats. And I think it's a really concerning state of affairs.
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
Lorna: Yeah, and I agree with you on that opinion as well, I think, the language that's used might seem flippant, but I think it's very calculated and chosen carefully because they know what will happen. They know the the opinions can be easily swayed. They've got a very strong base that will be very motivated today.
So, you know, there's been there's been rumor, there's been worries that his strong, motivated base will be out there intimidating other voters waiting to vote, discourage people from staying in line, which is.. I haven't heard any reports of yet.
But it's still early. You know, it's only three o'clock on the eastern coast, you know don't ask me to tell you all time zones across America.
Lydia: {Laughing} yes I'll test you on your time zones Lorna, that's just what you need!
We talked about if it's clear in each state who was won, it's easy for then, the Electoral College to say, right, it's Biden in this state or or it's Trump in this state and then their votes go forward to the to the House of Representatives or Congress I believe. But that's that's a lot of contention about where at where the votes are very, very close..
And in 2000, of course, we had a whole election that was kind of thrown into disarray by Florida's voting. We talked earlier about the lawyer all poised in each state. So my understanding is that the Electoral College and how much power they have is enormously based on how their voting system works and how an election is called in each state... is that a good way of putting it?
Lorna: absolutely, it's and it's going to take a bit of time. Sorry can you just can you say again exactly .. what was your specific question? I was distracted by someone's comment..
Lydia: So the Electoral College when they decide, they basically call the election in each state and then they would then put all of their votes forward for whichever candidate has won their state. But there might be a point at which they may they might have 'call it'. And t someone was asking me the question earlier 'to what extent does the Electoral College have the power to change the votes?' But I would put it as' how do they call the vote if it's very, very close' or if it's if it's a little bit in question?
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
Lorna: Yeah. the Electoral College doesn't get together until I think it's the 14th of December. so the Electoral College gets together to vote for president on the 14th of December. So today we're voting for the electors. Obviously, this Election Day, we're voting for a president, but the electors are the ones that actually do that. so there's time between Election Day and on that day when the electors come together and vote for contested elections to be dealt with.
So it could be if we have another situation where Florida arises and it is extremely close and it came down to a few hundreds, if less than that in 2000.
Lydia: It was a tiny margin
Lorna: It was ridiculous. if it comes down to situations like that, and to be honest with with Trump who he is, it won't even be a margin as small as that that would that would require him to contest it. Yeah. So, you know, he's already said he's got his lawyers ready to go. So I guess it all depends on what those margins are in each state, whether or not.. and in fact this could happen on the Democratic side as well.
You know, Hillary Clinton has said, she's given advice to Joe Biden," do not concede under any circumstances." So it's going to be an interesting one to see how each party plays this out. But there is time between Election Day and the day in December when the electors come together to make that final vote. Now electors can vote for whoever they want, but they will most likely and traditionally will always go with who their state has voted for. there's a term which completely escapes my mind..." Faithless voters."
So there is a term called 'faithless voter's, which there was only 10 of in 2016. It's a rare occurrence where an elector would go with someone else and it would usually be a third party or someone who's not on the ballot. So it's sort of null and void the situation and rather than vote for the opposite party, but there it is possible that faithless voters could occur in 2020 as well.
Lydia: OK, so incredibly complex. And what we're also talking about here is a long a long time. We've been asked already this evening when are we going to know the result? And the answer is we don't know.
We don't know. One of the podcasts I was listening to today, and I think we talked about this last time as well, said what happens if we get to the 20th of January, which is the
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
inauguration day and we still don't know who's won the election, what happens? And in that situation, I understand Nancy Pelosi becomes president!
Lorna: you're absolutely right. Yes.
Lydia: Nancy Pelosi is the leader of the House of Representatives, and she is a Democrat and she is not running for president. So it's a bit like kind of it's almost like picking someone off the street
and saying " you'll do, you're fine." The one question someone asked us earlier was, let's just imagine that Biden wins and therefore we're talking about a transfer of power here, that we find that out and it's established long before January the 20th, so who who's in power during that time?
Lorna: Donald Trump is still very much president between a potential a Biden win and January 20th. everything stays the same. However, we can kind of enter what's known as a 'lame duck session'.
And so, yeah, you're kind of basically you're just sitting waiting for things to happen. And, you know, as much as my bias says I want Biden to win, I'm also worried that if Biden does win this, what is Trump going to do with the time he has between a Biden win on January 20th? I read a couple of things about this, and it's not conclusive. You know, he could, based on his personality, he could just sit back and say, I don't care anymore.
You do what you like. I've given up because I've been I've been defeated and play the victim, kind of thing .. It could be that he is inordinately absolutely enraged and he goes out on a rampage and signs executive orders after executive orders and which, you know, after January 20th, which would be completely overturned by Biden. it's definitely an interesting one. And the the Supreme Court votes for the Affordable Care Act is still to happen.
And I think that is scheduled for that period of time.
Lydia: It's in November I think?
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
Lorna: it's in February. So it would be slightly afterwards. And, yeah, the discussions would be happening around that that subject. And, you know, it's definitely an interesting one, but Donald Trump would still very much be in power between then and January 20th. So it's going to be an interesting period.
Lydia: Definitely. Very much so. Now, we talked a lot about the electoral race and how that's going to happen and go down. And there's an awful lot in the air at the moment. We've had a few questions come through about the Senate and the House of Representatives, which, of course, are also being voted on. We talked about this a little bit in our last one about the balance of power in the Senate as well. Do we have any indication on whether those polls have moved? because that it was quite close last time we talked about it.
Lorna: Yeah, the House of Representatives is almost certainly going to stay in a Democratic majority.
However, the Senate is much, much closer and much more uncertain. I think the last time I checked, it was still, you know, there was still a chance that the Democrats could flip, flip the Senate and take the majority. However, I think polls have really tightened recently. And I've seen in Iowa there was a race with Teresa Greenfield as the Democratic candidate in Iowa. And I checked her poll recently and it's now in favour of the Republican incumbent where she was ahead beforehand.
So the polls have switched in the Republicans favour in Iowa and there will be similar things across the states with the Senate. But then polls always tighten before Election Day. They will always become close together. So it's very hard to tell. You know, as I
said, they need to have four seats flip so that the Democrats can take the majority. Or is Biden wins the election, Kamala Harris will then become the leader of the Senate as vice president, and they would only need three seats to flip.
So there are so many seats in play for the Senate and it will be interesting to see those races come in overnight.
Lydia: really interesting to watch because, of course... let's just imagine Biden wins and then they also have the House of Representatives and the Senate, that gives huge, huge power in order to change the huge amount, because, of course, in Obama's tenure, definitely in the Senate was against him, but also control of the House of
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
Representatives was as well? And it was very difficult for him to get stuff through because he and the executive, the government and the legislature were at odds.
And then for Trump, it's been easier because he's had the Senate on his side and of course, he's been able to appoint judges to the Supreme Court which is more conservative now. So the context is very much that it really is important who is who holds those other houses as the balance of power to the president.
Lorna: Absolutely, and you're right in saying that.. I'm not sure for his entire eight years... but it was a hard one for Barack Obama to get anything done. However, even if the Democrats have all three branches of government with the Senate, the Congress and the White House, things can still be made difficult by the Republicans because filibustering still exists.
Filibustering is a ridiculous term, ridiculous thing. And so it's essentially existed back in the late eighteen hundreds and in the in the House of Representatives in Congress. And they decided in a very simple process, 'let's get rid of it', because it's actually pretty anti democratic, but it still exists in the Senate. And basically what it is, is it delays any kind of vote from happening. And the most simplistic terms I can explain, and because it's probably not over overly complex, but I just haven't read that much about filibustering.
So for the first time and I didn't do this last time, but I'm going to reference the West Wing in this and which a few people will be applauding I'm sure. There is an episode of The West Wing where filibustering is the main arc of the show.
And essentially there's a vote that wants to be passed. The Republicans want to pass a vote. However, a Democratic senator does not want that vote to be passed. They think it's wrong. However, they know that the Republicans have a majority. So this Democratic senator stands up and start reading front to back a book of recipes.
Lydia: so it's wasting time.
Lorna: They're wasting time. Yep, they're absolutely. There we go with brevity. Thank you, Lydia. But, yeah, it's essentially a huge waste of time.
They're they're wasting the day away so that there's no time left to to to have that vote. And so even if the Senate is a Democratic majority, the Republicans, and they will, will
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
take every opportunity to filibuster any vote that the Democrats want to push through. And we've seen this already. They do it at any opportunity they have.
Lydia: Yeah. So it'll it'll be interesting because, of course, you know, this always comes down to politics and who is in power. And, you know, of course, no side wants to make it easy for the others. So, I mean, the the idea that we do things because it's good for the country, I mean, does anyone think that's still a good idea?
Lorna: Exactly. Absolutely. Wild how much this country... and I've said this a few times over the past few days, and I really don't want to come across like to be offensive in any way.
But I've said this country is so weird with their processes, you know, the way it's not it's not the people. It's the political system is so.... Filibustering and many other things. The gerrymandering that I talked about last time as well is so clearly anti-democratic. But it's
allowed to carry on because, you know, depending on who's in power, it benefits them. And they don't really mind if it's anti-democratic because they still get something out of it. It's absolutely wild.
Lydia: Yeah, I mean, it is. I mean, I think a lot of the systems around the world and, you know, in some ways the UK is the model as the oldest parliamentary democracy and so on. And we can look at lots and lots of issues and archaic rules and lots of things that we never even knew existed. And then you look at the American voting system. I'm sorry, what?
And I ingwas a listen to another podcast today that was talking about the possibilities of what could happen and saying but you've also got a written constitution that should be able to help guide people through this. This rigmarole just said no, they never thought this would happen and no one ever considered anything so difficult or even necessarily population as big as you know now exists in the states or any of the issues. So, I mean, antiquated is definitely is definitely the word.
we're about half past 8 here and I'm also aware that people are watching us all are missing Bake Off.
So talk about loyalty to America! I didn't realise that, I'm going to watch it later, but I'm like, 'oh my god, we'll be in the middle of Bake Off!" Well, I just want to touch on a few
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
points. Let's just imagine that one wins outright and we don't go through all of these kind of terrible unrest and so on. Lots of people think may happen. Let's just hope that this all kind of goes nicely. Do we know anything about what Biden and Trump intend to do with their presidential power, should they be the ones that get it?
Lorna: Yeah, and that's another stark difference, is that Joe Biden has talked about his term or what he would do with his term a lot. He's talked about his agenda. There is an expansive amount of information on his website about every single aspect of governing you could possibly imagine. Plans. He's got a whole covid-19 plan laid out. Everything's
there to be seen.
And Donald Trump and the Republicans are there's there's 'some stuff' there I suppose..!
It's very much... Just suck it an see, you know, it's just let's just see what happens... But the main thing is I Donald Trump, I've won this is that we've got four more years that I'm going to continue to keep America great. You know... There's not... Again, this is very biased, but there's really not a lot of substance to what Donald Trump said.
Lydia: And someone put it today that this election is very much going to be a referendum on coronavirus and how Trump has handled it or rather not handled it versus Biden. And Trump, I believe, is also saying that Biden is going to put America into lock down if he if he wins as a sort of scare tactic
if it does very much feel to me, and this is this my opinion, that Biden is is very much the.. He's the anti Trump candidate and said very early on, "my purpose is to defeat Trump."
And it does feel like a referendum not just in terms of coronavirus but also on Trump's time in office.
Lorna: Hmm, 100 percent. And I think I was saying this earlier that in 2008, I feel like people were very motivated to go and vote for Obama. They were excited by him and they were enthused by him. I don't think that's the case this time around 2016. Many people didn't like Hillary, so they stayed home. They didn't vote. Many people are voting this time. Turnout as I've said, might be 100 year record, but that doesn't necessarily
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
mean that they're enthused to vote for Joe Biden and they're just heavily motivated to get Donald Trump out of office.
and and coronavirus covid-19 has been a big part of that. I think that there are many Republicans and there are a huge group of Republican politicians who have come out in support of Joe Biden and will be voting for Joe Biden and will be because of Trump's response to covid-19 and how he has managed it. So I think this will be a huge, definitely as you're saying, a referendum of, OK, this is what both candidates are going to do over the next four years or however long the immediate aftermath of however long covid-19 goes on for..
Yeah, this this definitely will be who they want to manage and lead them through this. So, again, another reason to be very interested in the result.
Lydia: Very. And the other thing from a UK perspective, and this is where Biden might not be such a good candidate for the UK, is the potential trade deal between the UK and the US. So my understanding is that Trump is keen on Boris. He loves Boris Johnson, thinks he's a great guy. He loves Nigel Farage, more though Nigel Farage was indeed in America at a Trump rally this week. How he got the visa, goodness knows that happened?!
Whereas Biden has been very much quite cool on the British aspect in this whole special relationship that the UK thinks we have with America.. And everyone is going "I don't think it's that special anymore". What are your thoughts on that?
Lorna: Yeah, I was listening to something earlier on, I think I kind of I've listened just as much as you today, I think, and it's all kind of blended into one. And it was actually CNN coverage and it was playing in the background. And I was hearing about the various countries throughout the world and who they would prefer to win the election. And now I don't know too much about the trade deal and attitudes surrounding that.
However, I do know that there was a poll taken of all the constituencies and the United Kingdom of who they would prefer and and one hundred percent of constituencies, and that is 650 constituencies in the United Kingdom, would vote for Biden.
Lydia: Wow. OK, so that's pretty consistent. Oh my God we agree on some thing Lonra, do you realise?!.
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
Lorna: And the margins are pretty huge as well. At the top the top two or three constituencies that would vote for Biden, where around 80 to 83 percent, Biden and the bottom few were around 70 percent for Biden. So even the bottom most constituencies were really heavily in favour of Biden. So I don't know so much about the UK politics of all between the relationships, but for the people, they are heavily, heavily wanting Biden to win this election.
And with CNN, they were talking about the world relationships and how different countries and who they would prefer to win. And then they were kind of talking about Israel. They were talking about the Middle East and their preferences and how it can affect changes between certain places. Definitely interesting.
And what those relationships will look like. Even if Trump stays in office in the next four years it will be an interesting situation, but interesting to see how Biden would shape those relationships and change those relationships.
Lorna: Interesting. interesting. I heard a thing to today that said actually, when he was taken on as Obama's running mate one of the things that he brought to the party was his foreign policy understanding, which Obama lacked at the time. Which I thought was quite interesting. So, I mean, in America, actually foreign policy is really unpopular subject. They generally tend to.. I'm making a big generalization.. but they prefer the inward looking. And that was one of the things that kind of sold Trump was that he had no intention of fighting foreign wars and so on. And so that that will be interesting.
I think certainly from a policy perspective that's been on a lot of talk that I Joe Biden particularly with his Irish Catholic roots is very, very interested in what would happen with Northern Ireland with Brexit. And so that's all of the unknowns that are existing and being recreated by Johnson's government at the moment are certainly not helpful in terms of that trade deal. And I mean, very much it was Obama that said, you know, "the UK would be the back of the queue" in terms of trade deal and whether actually the US would be more interested in a trade deal with the EU.
But this is all to play for and in many ways, I think, with covid on the scene, in n fact, these things are very, very low down the list. Certainly in American terms, though it would be very high up in UK terms.
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
Now kind of coming up to having nearly talked for 45 minutes. So I'm just aware that there's a whole lot of coverage about to happen.. so are there any final points that you would like to make before we before we close?
Lorna: I think don't expect a result tonight. And I've said this a few times. Everyone is saying this really, I think is an acceptance that in 2020, one of the most uncertain years we've had, this is going to be more uncertainty unless we see an absolute landslide in either direction. It's going to take a bit of time for results come through. If you are watching the coverage overnight, I'll be up.
I've spoken to so many people today already who have said I'll try to stay awake, but I'm not sure if I can... My adrenalin will be going through the roof. There's no chance I'll be sleeping tonight and I'm taking tomorrow off work specifically so I could stay home. And but, yeah, I think if you are staying up to watch the election coverage, everywhere
will be showing it. It just depends on what your your preferences are in terms of watching.
I'll be watching on the BBC because there's there's no ads. I just like when there's no ads. And take a look, if you are watching, at the Senate races and also more in certain counties. There are certain counties and states that are interesting to look at and will be influential in how the state is flipped, depending on, you know, they were either really marginal in 2016 or they were heavily in favour of the Democrats in the 2014 midterms.
So there are certain counties that will be very pivotal in this election. So if you are watching the coverage, keep an eye out for them as well.
Lydia: Exciting stuff. It's it's yeah. It's going to be interesting just to know what we're going to wake up to tomorrow, those of us who are going to bed, because I'm going to bed. I'm just going to say that right now. But I think we're going to wrap up here. I know that there are a few questions that we didn't get round to answering. So drop into my inbox or Lorna's inbox as she'll be awake all night.
And also, thank you again Lorna for making time for this and doing so much research and being just such a brilliant explainer on all this complexity. If you would like support Lorna and all of the hard work and you can nip into her Kofi account and buy her coffee for this. I'll share the link after this. And also there will be a transcript available as soon
Lovely Lydia & Lorna Elizabeth Ann – US Election Chat - Transcript
as possible. And I'll let you know is those who wish to read rather than watch us talking about it.
So, yeah, good luck with staying awake and hope you've got some good strong coffee and whatever else it is that's going to keep you awake apart from the adrenalin
Yeah, well, we'll be keeping an eye on your page as well to see what you're putting out up as well.
Lorna: So yeah, I'll be posting all night, I'll be having chats with people. So yeah, it's going to be an interesting one.
Lydia: Fantastic. Well, see you on the other side... We're going to end up in no man's land tomorrow but we'll see. Oh, my God. I am quite nervous about this. I am nervous about the potential of what could happen. And that's not something I feel we should be saying about an election in one of the most advanced nations in the world.
That's scary. So on that joyous note, thank you again and thank you everyone who joined us. This has been really good. Thank you so much.
Lorna: Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Thank you. Thank you.
Lydia: Take care everyone.
Lorna: Bye everyone!