The Current - Divided voters react to Trump victory

Episode Date: November 6, 2024

Tracey Danka is a staunch Trump supporter; her husband Ed voted for Kamala Harris. They tell us about the mood in their house the day after the election. And we check back in with voters we met in Michigan: Audrey Lance, an obstetrician who campaigned for Kamala Harris on reproductive rights; and Brian Pannebecker, founder of Auto Workers for Trump.

In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news, so I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with Season 3 of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy.

On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is The Current Podcast. Tracy and Ed Danka are a couple who do not see eye to eye when it comes to this election because Tracy is a Trump supporter. Her husband, Ed, voted for Kamala Harris. Tracy's at home in North Carolina this morning. Ed is in Pennsylvania. Good morning to you both. Good morning. Tracy, how are you? Tracy, how are you feeling this morning, Tracy? I am beyond thrilled. I wasn't feeling well yesterday. I laid down. I got up at like 2 o'clock this morning.

I was watching all the returns. I could not be more thrilled. I could not be more energetic. I am beyond. We're going to have peace the next four years. Our children are going to be safe for the first time in four years. Our children are going to be safe for the first time in four years. I just, the woke are now going to wake up because enough of this. Ed, do you share your wife's enthusiasm?

uh definitely not i i am uh excuse me surprised and very disappointed in the result of the election um i cannot believe the majority of americans voted for a candidate like this to be our leader for the next four years and unfortunately that that does not vote well for the rest of us who didn't vote for him. Can I just ask you how you understand that? I mean, it's not just Americans. One of them is your partner. How do you understand how she voted in this election? I don't. That's the issue. Of course we don't agree. For whatever reason, his constituents don't see his faults, don't see things that he's done in his past that would, in an ordinary election, eliminate a person almost immediately. And all of a sudden, he's the new president. To me, it's shocking.

Tracy, what would you say to somebody like Ed who says this is shocking and can't wrap his head around the vote that you cast? Well, I can understand his point of view. I don't agree with everything with Donald Trump. I do not agree with giving billionaires tax breaks. I do not agree on that. I do not agree on him being flip about different things. That is where my husband and I agree 100 percent. I think we also agree that children should not be giving puberty blockers. And we agree, you know, about, you know, all this transgender nonsense. So, you know, we agree on a lot of things, but we also disagree. But that's never going to affect our marriage.

But I personally believe that my husband is a great man, and I see his side of it, but I have to be thinking of the children of the future. I have to think about my future grandchildren, and that's what's most important to me. Ed, how do you think, just before I let you go, because we are out of time, and I apologize for interrupting, but Ed, how do you think, just before I let you go, because we are out of time, and I apologize for interrupting, but Ed, how do you think the conversations over the next four years are going to go when it comes to how you talk to Tracy about not just the vote, but where America goes from here?

Well, I'm sure we're going to have many discussions over the next four years, depending on how Trump proceeds during the next four years. But right now, I'm at a loss. I'm just confused and, again, very disappointed. I think in many ways, the relationship and the conversation is a microcosm of the country, but it's seen through the lens of, of one household. Thank you both for talking to us. Appreciate it. You're welcome. Thank you so much for having us. We appreciate it. Tracy and Ed Danka, a couple from North Carolina, as you heard,

she voted in favor of Donald Trump. Ed voted for Kamala Harris. Audrey Lance is a gynecologist and abortion provider in Michigan. She campaigned for Kamala Harris in that state, focusing on reproductive freedom. Audrey, good morning to you. Good morning. Thanks for having me. Thank you for being here. How are you feeling this morning? I feel really deflated. It's a really hard morning. You know, so many of us worked so hard to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and really believed in the promise that they had for our country and what they could

bring. And so this is, it's a really hard day. It's a really hard reality. How do you understand that reality and why it is that that promise that you talked about did not resonate with what appears to be millions and millions of Americans who voted for Donald Trump instead? you know, a reminder of how I think our country really dislikes women, dislikes women in charge, particularly dislikes women of color, and cannot fathom and imagine having a woman in charge. You know, in 2016, it was really a gut punch to realize that our country had picked a reality TV show host instead of Hillary Clinton, this incredibly qualified woman, senator, secretary of state. And so this time it's less of a shock because the shock was over in 2016. But yeah, it's less of a shock to see these results. But it's still so disheartening to be reminded of the racism and the sexism in this country that I think has led to Americans? We've been hearing from people who said the part of this is, or an overwhelming part of this is about the economy and the fact that people are exhausted, that coming out of the pandemic, people can't afford to put gas in the tank. They can't afford to have a roof over their heads. And that a promise to address that is something that's

going to turn people's ears. Is there part of you that can see the appeal of that message? Is there part of you that can see the appeal of that message? It's hard for me to see the appeal of him in any way, to be honest with you. But I do think you're right. And I think that obviously there has been some huge appeal to his message. And I think probably the economy has a lot to do with it. Unfortunately, every economist out there says that his plan for the economy is terrible. So I'm not sure why that didn't come through.

But, you know, I think for me as an abortion provider, as a physician, I think key to economics, I think key to economics, to personal, you know, financial stability is the ability to control your fertility. And so I liken that, you know, that is just as much of an economic issue as anything else, I think. And obviously that didn't kind of come through, I guess. We spoke with you about abortion rights when we were in Michigan with The Current. Of the 10 states with abortion measures on the ballot, seven voted to protect a woman's right to choose, including Arizona, Montana, New York, and Missouri. Florida was interesting in that a majority of people voted in favor of a ballot measure that would have protected that right, but not enough that would have met the threshold from it. What do you make of that and this issue, how it played out during the election? Yeah, Florida was definitely disappointing. And,

you know, to see it get so close and 57% is a large majority. It needed to get to 60% or something like that. Right. It needed to be 60%, which is a really big threshold. Although actually, some of the ballot measures that passed last night did pass with more than a 60% majority. But of course, Florida is a tough state there. But, you know, I'm concerned that these victories in the seven states that that did pass measures to protect abortion rights are really going to end up being meaningless, because I think that there will be a national abortion ban, especially since, you know, Republicans have control of the Senate and they very well may have control of the House as well. And I think that these, you know, as I discussed previously, we are lucky in Michigan to have abortion rights enshrined in our Constitution. But if and when there is a national abortion ban, or if they decide to do things like enforce the Comstock law, those victories are just going to be meaningless because the national abortion ban would take precedent.

Why wasn't this the motivating issue that some Democrats felt it would be? In 2022, in the midterm elections, many people believed that the advances that Republicans had predicted were blunted because of outrage from Democrats and others, independents perhaps, and some Republicans over the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The expectation perhaps was that that would repeat itself in this election. Iowa and elsewhere, that there could be a wave of women who would go to the polls as a protest vote in many ways against what you're talking about, against further restrictions to abortion rights. Why didn't that materialize, do you think? Well, I'm not sure.

I think in some ways it did. I mean, in terms of the fact that so many of these ballot measures did pass. So I think that that shows, and again, even in Florida, 57%, although it didn't meet the threshold needed there, but there was still a majority of people that are in support of abortion care being legal. But I think that there's also a lot of split-ticket voters when it comes to these types of issues, especially abortion. You know, abortion really does cross party lines. And there are I think that the Republicans and Donald Trump have done a good job of convincing people that this is don't worry, this is just going to be left up to the states. It's OK where it's backwards, supposed to be at the state level, which is kind of crazy because

a right shouldn't depend on where you live and what state or zip code you live in. But I think they've done a good job with that messaging. And I think a lot of people said, I'm going to vote for this ballot measure because I believe that abortion should be legal. But, you know, I'm going to vote for Trump because I agree with his messaging on a lot of other things, not realizing that those things are going to kind of cancel each other out, I think. We just have a minute or so left. One of the things that you told us when we were in Michigan was that you had booked hotel rooms in D.C. for the inauguration in hopes of sharing what would have been an historic moment with your daughters if Kamala Harris were to become the first woman

president in the United States. What will you tell your daughters this morning? Yeah. Well, we're not going to go. Obviously, I would be really scared to be there in light of this outcome. I had a good cry cry this morning and my older daughter saw me and said, why are you crying? And I told her it was because Donald Trump was elected. And so she day for a lot of people. And I'm just so sad for my patients. I'm so sad for all of the people needing abortion care across this country. And I feel like I have less rights than my mom had. And I'm very sad that my daughters are going to have less rights than I have. Audrey, thank you for speaking with us this morning. Thank you so much. Audrey Lance is a gynecologist and abortion provider in Michigan who campaigned for Kamala Harris. In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news. So I started a podcast called On Drugs.

We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with season three of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy. On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. As you've been hearing, Donald Trump will be the 47th president of the United States. He is projected to win most of the swing states with Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin already won by Republicans. Michigan is another one of those swing states. We spent time there.

A lot of people have been keeping a close eye on what's going on in Michigan. Right now, Trump is leading in Michigan, but it's tight and too close to call. One of the people we spoke with when we were in that state is Brian Panbecker. He is the founder of Auto Workers for Trump. He campaigned for Donald Trump, appearing alongside him at rallies in Michigan. Brian, good morning. Good morning. Thanks for having me on. What was going through your mind as you watched the results come in last night? Well, I had been with the Trump campaign the previous night in Grand Rapids with about a dozen of my autoworkers for Trump group, which is a Facebook group with a couple thousand members in it. And the Trump campaign that I was hanging out with were very, very upbeat and optimistic. So I had

a good feeling about it. They had seen some very recent data and the poll numbers from the early voting showed that the Republican early voters were low propensity voters, which is a good thing. And that meant that they got those people out to vote early, people who didn't always vote in every election, but when they did, they voted Republican. On the Democrat side, the early voters had been more their regular base, the voters who voted for them every election cycle. So they felt good about that going into election day. We spoke about your belief that Donald Trump would be better for people in your industry, in the auto industry, despite the fact that the leadership of the union that represents those auto workers had endorsed Kamala Harris. What is your sense as to what happened? Did

those workers in that auto industry, did they line up behind Donald Trump? Did they believe in what you were saying? Absolutely. It wasn't a matter of them believing what I was saying. It was a matter of me hearing them say what they were saying. I had been holding a Trump rally outside of a different auto plant every week since Memorial Day. So for almost five months, I had been talking to those auto workers and UAW members, and I had been listening to them. And they were telling me that the support inside the plants, whether it was Chrysler, GM, Ford, the support was up around 65% or even higher, even as high as 70%. Now, it sounded surprising, but you got to remember this.

Donald Trump had a record to run on. He opened up Anwar for drilling. He opened up more federal lands out West in America for drilling, and he brought oil prices way down, got gas prices way down, which allowed the domestic automakers to build and sell more pickup trucks and large SUVs, which is where their profits all at. Also, he had torn up the NAFTA agreement in his first term and renegotiated a much better free trade agreement called the USMCA. So he had a record to run on. And then compounding that, his opponent this time, Kamala Harris, had said she did not want any more internal combustion engines to be produced in the US by the year 2035. Well, that would basically mean the end of the domestic auto industry.

So it wasn't hard to understand why the UAW members were voting in big numbers for Donald Trump. What do you think his win is going to mean for our auto industry in this country? In many ways, these industries are tied at the hip. And you would know in Michigan, I mean, Windsor's right across that border and parts of cars go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth before the car is finished. What's it going to mean for our auto industry, do you think, when it's America first? Well, I think if the American auto industry and the American economy is doing well, that is good for Canada also. It's not going to come at the expense of Canada? No, I don't believe so. It's not like we're trying to poach jobs from Canada.

Mexico was where, when plants close in Michigan and move to other places for lower labor costs. They don't go to Canada. They don't move into Ontario. They move south of the border into places like Santia, Mexico, and that's what was going on. And Donald Trump just stopped the construction of a super huge plant that was being built by China just south of the American border in Mexico. So no, I don't think it'll come at the expense of Canada. I think Canada is going to share in our prosperity and that'll be a good thing. Michigan has yet to be called. I said that it's very, very close. I mean, close probably isn't even a strong enough word. What do you make of the division among voters in Michigan? Well, I think Donald Trump, you know, the peace and prosperity that he promises

to bring, and he has a record that shows that's what he did bring when he was in the Oval Office. I think that will heal a lot of the wounds. And we've seen a real coalition put together by Donald Trump in his campaign, especially over these last two or three months with Muslim Americans in Hamtramck and the Dearborn Arab American community coming over and strongly endorsing Donald Trump. The Jewish vote came his way. Hispanics, I think he did historically well with the Hispanic American vote. And those are good Americans. Those are great Americans, all of them, who have come to America legally like my grandparents did. So I think if people will give him a chance, if the Democrats don't try to impeach him on day one

for some made-up fantasy like the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax and give him a chance, we will see that Donald Trump will heal the wounds and bring the American people together behind his leadership. Just finally, what's the word that you would give to the 48.3% of Michigan's residents who didn't vote for him? I would say that don't believe what the mainstream media here in America has tried to do, which is to divide us. Listen to Donald Trump when he says America first and make America great again. He means all Americans. So stop listening to the mainstream media who are trying to divide us and unite behind Donald J. Trump. Glad to have you on

the mainstream media here in Canada. Thank you very much for having me. We love you guys over there. Brian Panbecker is the founder of Auto Workers for Trump.