Taking you right to election finish line, when the votes are counted, verified, & certified, & maybe beyond if it all goes sideways the Deadline ElectionLine podcast spotlights the 2024 campaign and the often blurred lines between politics and entertainment in modern America. Hosted by Deadline political editor Ted Johnson and executive editor Dominic Patten, the podcast features commentary and interviews with top lawmakers and entertainment figures. With less than a week to go in a race to close for anyone to call, follow all the campaign news on the ElectionLine hub on Deadline.
SPOILER ALERT: This podcast contain details of the second season of The Diplomat, which launched on Netflix on October 31.
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In less than a week, America and the world will know if Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States.
Maybe.
As you can hear on the latest edition of the Deadline ElectionLine podcast, it’s showtime in the USA and our guests NewsNation political editor Chris Stirewalt and the creator of Netflix’s political drama The Diplomat, Debora Cahn lay out some factual and fictional hard truths.
Chris Stirewalt, who also is anchor The Hill Sunday on NewsNation, gives a glimpse of election night, including what counties he’ll be watching as potential bellwethers as the results come in.
An election that has been cast as an inflection point in American history has come down to pockets of undecided voters, often hard-to-reach citizens who are not paying close attention to politics. Stirewalt says that in contrast to other cycles he’s covered, where the signs start to become clear on who will win, that is not the case this cycle.
Stirewalt also talks about trust in the media. As he wrote in his 2022 book, Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How To Fight Back, news consumers have become siloed into choosing news voices that they want to hear, even when that comes to basic information and facts. As he experienced when he was at Fox News in 2020, network projections on election night have now become controversial moments prone to backlash, as if the media outlets themselves had some control over the vote count.
While this election could very well lead to a 2000 situation, with protracted recounts and legal challenges, Stirewalt says the difference between now and a generation ago is the potential for political violence.
Cahn talks about season two of The Diplomat, and how it unintentionally took a direction that mirrors the real life switcheroo on the Democratic ticket this summer. In fact, she was a bit worried that the show would have been perceived as sending a message about Joe Biden, when in fact it finished up the episodes months before he dropped out of the race.
ALERT!: THERE WILL BE A SPECIAL POST-ELECTION ELECTIONLINE PODCAST ON NOVEMBER 7. STAY TUNED
Also, with a lot of Allison Janney (like that is ever less than a stellar thing), and some Scottish independence in the mix, Cahn gives a bit of sneak peek of what may be coming in the third season of The Diplomat. For real
Stick with ElectionLine all the way to Election Day, & maybe beyond. Subscribe to the Deadline ElectionLine podcast on Spotify, Apple Music, iHeart and all podcast platforms.