The NPR Politics Podcast - Weekly Roundup: Thursday, October 11

Episode Date: October 11, 2018

President Trump warned at his rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday night that if his party loses in November's midterm elections, the "radical Democrat mob" will take away everything he has achieved since his election. Senator Mitch McConnell continues to echo those words. Plus, we look at non-voters and what it would mean if they got out to vote. This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, political reporter Asma Khalid, Congressional reporter Kelsey Snell, White House reporter Ayesha Rascoe, and political editor Domenico Montanaro. Email the show at [e-mail]. Find and support your local public radio station at npr.org/stations.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This is Marianne in Orlando, Florida. I registered to vote at my new address with the help of vote.org and today I got my new voter registration card in the mail. This podcast was recorded at 2 19 p.m on Thursday the 11th of October. Things may have changed by the time you hear it. All right, here's the show. Register to vote. Woohoo! Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast here with our weekly roundup of the week's biggest political stories. President Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell began echoing one another as they used the phrase angry mob to describe leftist protesters. And we'll take a look at non-voters, why they choose not to vote, and what it would mean if they did. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I also cover the White House.

I'm Kelsey Snell. I cover Congress. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, political editor. So let's take a second and listen to the president. You don't hand matches to an arsonist, and you don't give power to an angry left-wing mob and that's what they've become Aisha you and I both went to rallies this past week and heard that and heard that very phrase yes yes it is a new favorite from him and he's also been tweeting about it you want to do the honors you don't hand matches to an arsonist and you don't give power to an angry left-wing mob democrats have become too extreme

and too dangerous to govern republicans believe in the rule of law not the rule of the mob vote republican exclamation exclamation point yeah and and i have to say that line in his says, because he feels like it's an accurate description of the protesters after the Kavanaugh hearings and of the way that they were behaving. And Kelsey, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is also using this language and seemed particularly upset about those protests and, you know, people following senators in the hallway to try to make their point in the lead up to the Kavanaugh vote. Yeah, that's absolutely right. He's been talking about it a lot the past couple of days. He came up at his weekly press conference earlier this week. The all-consuming animosity toward this nominee, independent of all the facts and all the evidence, still being stoked.

The far-left mob is not letting up. And it's something that he and I talked about when I sat down with him in his office. You've called Democrats an angry mob, essentially. You've used the term mob. I declared the mob an angry mob. That was not what I said about our Democrat colleagues. I do think that they encouraged what went on. And the Congress, well, you were here in the halls. Well, we were literally under assault ourselves, trailing members to their homes, getting in their faces here in the Capitol, ever to clearly try to intimidate us. He said that he feels like senators were under assault

here in the Capitol. And he made this distinction when I followed up and I said, well, Republicans have their own experience with a very excited base. And I referred back to the Tea Party and their involvement back in 2010. And he said it's just different. This is not something that's unique just to Democrats. What does that say about... You're equating what may happen at a rally somewhere in America with right here in the Capitol. That's a totally different thing. They were inside the Capitol trying to intimidate our members and frighten them into doing voting the way they wanted them to vote. I mean, you know, out in some rally, either theirs or ours out in some different state

around the country is a totally different matter. Well, it's funny, because, you know, when suddenly senators are confronted with this kind of energy and activism, then it's a mob. But when people in other parts of the country are confronted with it, then it's just something that's happening out there. You know, there was scattered violence at various Trump rallies. This is the kind of thing that happens in elections when people are angry and upset and frustrated with whatever the policies are. You know, I covered a lot of the Tea Party, and certainly those crowds were energized and in your face. You know, as a member of the media, I remember being accosted by a lot of people at some of those events, questioning news coverage, and the like, they were upset,

you know, they were frustrated, I would say the violence, quote, unquote, is was pretty minimal. And there isn't really that much violence now, either. But there is a lot more confrontation, the sort of idea of civility in the public space has kind of gone away. aides who are working on political issues who tell me that they are concerned that this could backfire, that it could alienate people, moderate Republicans or independents who haven't made up their minds yet, who will start to associate these kind of tactics with all Democrats. And that's not what they want right now when they're trying to be a bigger tent party rather than cultivating an image of themselves as simply the resistance. I'm trying to figure out what exactly we're talking about here, though. Are we are we

talking about the women who came to the Capitol and told senators about when they were assaulted? Are we talking about people with signs out on the Supreme Court steps? Like, where's the where where does this become a mob? Yeah, well, isn't that kind of the point of using the term mob is that it transitions away from the conversation about those very different groups of people that you're talking about and makes it a conversation about a group of undefined people, right? And this use of the term, like you said, talking about the mob and talking about an angry mob, I talked to George Lakoff, who is a professor emeritus from University of California at Berkeley. He is a liberal focused on linguistics. And he said that by using this, you're saying that these are not rational actors. These aren't people who are making a point that they feel passionately about. They're kind of acting irrationally and that they're not thinking for themselves. They're just part of this group

think. Yeah. And let's not overthink this. This is about trying to keep the Republican base fired up after Kavanaugh getting confirmed. We saw a spike in enthusiasm with the Republican base after and during rather during the Kavanaugh fight. Well, there's a big risk that they won't be that motivated. I took one Republican strategist, Ken Spain, who was the communications director for the arm that tries to get Republicans elected to the House. And he said, look, Republicans have been suffering from an intensity deficit over the course of the last few months, and raising the threat level will hopefully translate to generating greater turnout. And he said this really has to do with those red states like Texas and Tennessee for the Senate to try to maintain the Senate because this fires up Republicans. He said the House may already be gone. So when it comes to independents and suburban

women, this may hurt with them. But if they're going to save one thing, they're going to try to save the Senate. And that's precisely what McConnell said when I talked to him. He said that this is coming at the perfect time that is coming on the eve of the election. And when I asked him to predict how many Republicans were going to be in the Senate next year. He declined to give me an actual number. But what he said to me was that voters are going to know that the Supreme Court fight underscores for Republican voters that the Senate is what he called in the personnel business, and that the project of confirming judges is over for the last two years for President Trump if Republicans lose. How are Democrats reacting to all of this? Democrats haven't been really able to come up with a clear message and to frame the message in a way

that people could relate to, to say that this is what we're fighting for. This is what we're concerned about. This is why people are out there screaming or why people are out there, why people may be so passionate, that they haven't been really able to articulate that. Well, we saw the former Attorney General Eric Holder, who's been involved in these midterms, go out and say that when Michelle Obama used to say, when they go low, we go high, he said, no, we should make it when they go low, we kick them. That spurred all kinds of outrage on the right. You know, people going after him saying he was spurring on violence.

And he said today, you know, they should stop the fake outrage. But it's certainly fueling them. And it seems like of this moment, people are tired. When you talk about civility, when you talk about going high, they're saying that didn't work for us. And they're saying that the other side has not done that. So they would argue that the Republicans have not gone high, that the Tea Party was not polite, that President Trump is not civil. He's not always polite. And he says a lot of things.

So why shouldn't they fight fire with fire? Well, also, when I talked to activists up here, a couple of them said to me that they don't see a point in being polite when they feel like there are very real risks to some of their core beliefs in the political system right now. And that when President Obama was being polite, it was when he was in power. And that there's just simply a difference here that Democrats feel that they have no power in this situation and their visceral reaction is coming from that place of fear. All right. We are going to keep watching this and how it continues to play leading up to the midterms. Kelsey and Aisha, we're going to let you go for now. Aisha,

you will be back for Can't Let It Go. Thanks so much, guys. Thank you. All right. Good luck, guys. All right. Good luck to you. And when we come back, non-voters and why they don't vote. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Grow With Google. Digital skills are becoming more and more important in today's economy. That's why Grow With Google is providing free online training and tools to help Americans learn the skills they need to succeed. Learn more about Grow With Google and get started by visiting google.com slash grow. Support for NPR Politics also comes from Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans, introducing their all-new rate

shield approval if you're in the market to buy a home quicken loans will lock your rate for up to 90 days while you shop it's the kind of thinking you'd expect from america's largest mortgage lender to get started go to rocket mortgage.com slash npr politics rate shield approval only valid on certain 30-year purchase transactions. Additional conditions or exclusions may apply. Based on Quicken Loans data and comparison to public data records, equal housing lender, licensed in all 50 states. NMLSconsumeraccess.org number 3030. I'm Maria Hinojosa, and this week on Latino USA,

a conversation with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who recently adapted her memoir for a young adult audience. That's this week on Latino USA. Find us on NPR One or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back and we're joined by NPR's Asma Khalid. Hey, Asma. Hey there. And we brought you here because we're going to talk about people who decide not to vote.

And you did a major series on this where you traveled to Nevada, West Virginia, Florida and Texas, right? Yep. And, you know, what we were really interested in trying to figure out, Tam, is I think every year leading up to an election, we spend a lot of time talking to voters. But in midterm elections, you're talking about a pretty large chunk of the American population that will not vote. If we look at some of the past couple midterm cycles, a majority of people didn't vote. Turnout was, say, around 40 percent. Yeah. So we spend a lot of time talking about polls that look at likely voters. It is likely a lot of people won't vote. It is very likely a majority will not vote. Right. And that's the whole thing is between presidential elections and midterm elections, you have about a 30% drop off between those two

elections. And that's why you hear the parties talking so much about kind of base politics, things that really rev up their bases, because they need to get the most activist people out to the polls, because this whole other group of folks just don't go out to vote. And I wonder, Asma, when you were out there talking to all these people, did you get a sense of why they don't vote? The why is complicated, right? Like some of it is because they're apathetic, they're too busy, they don't feel like their vote matters, they feel like the system is rigged. I mean, I could go kind of on and on. I feel like there's so many reasons, but those are kind of some of the big ones. I mean, a big part of it also is there are some people who actually are just obstructed from voting. Like they want to vote, but they have registration problems or their name is kicked off the voting rolls. But I would say for a lot of people, it does come down to both a combination of not feeling like their vote matters, but also not really caring too much about the fact that they feel like they have the power to change anything. Every midterm, we see the same pattern emerge. And Asma, I'm wondering,

I think we have a pretty good sense of who these people are. I wonder if you can lay it out for the audience. Sure, sure. I mean, so the one big group I feel like we constantly hear pundits talk about are young people. And, you know, this has sort of historically been a problem, I would say, in terms of big voter turnout. It's even an issue when you look at presidential election years. And I spent some time in a congressional district right around the Las Vegas Strip. And why I went there in particular was that it had one of the worst estimated voter turnout rates for young people in the entire country in 2014. And is it 18 to 25? 18 to 29-year-olds is how they define young people.

Oh, wow. That's not even that young. And there was a young guy I met. His name is Shelby Mabus. He is attending a local community college there in Las Vegas. And, you know, he basically was very confused with the system. He initially didn't know if he needed to register every year. He thinks he registered. But overall, he just seemed confused with how you vote.

I've never voted before. From what all I know about voting is that you show up to a poll place and you vote, I don't know what I need to bring. I don't even know what happens during there. Bring yourself. Some states bring ID. Yes. I mean, there is the argument that, you know, some of this you can figure out now increasingly through like Google. But I do think, Tam, like he wasn't the only person who expressed this confusion with how you vote, which I think is interesting. Like people don't know if they're registered. They don't know if they should register. And maybe to us political junkies, this is sort of things that we assume people know.

But I was really amazed by the amount of people who just did not seem to have that kind of like literacy. 18 to 29 year olds are the lowest age group for voter participation every year consistently. Like these voters keep getting older and they wind up voting later on. But as young voters, 18 to 29, they have the lowest participation rates and they have among the highest, among the steepest drop-off between presidential elections and midterm elections.

In 2012, for example, about one in five 18 to 29 year olds voted 19%. That dropped off to 13% in 2014, and then spiked back up to 19% during the presidential election in 2016. Why is that? I feel like I've heard a couple of big theories, one being that a lot of young people are very transient, so they don't feel attached to the particular place that they live in. And Shelby Mabus actually mentioned this to me, he's originally from Missouri, he thinks he registered there originally. So he doesn't really feel attached to Nevada. And he felt like he didn't know much about Nevada politics. And this is something that

I would say we hear a lot about. The other big thing I've heard a lot from young people about is transportation and just sort of the logistics of trying to get to the polls. And they may not be stakeholders either, younger voters, in that they don't have kids in the schools. Like there are things that happen later in your life that get you more engaged in politics, even just at the local level. But there's also this belief that they don't think that they know enough, which I wonder if this is a factor of just being young. When you look at surveys, you'll see a large percentage of young people say that they don't think they know enough to be able to vote. And so therefore, they don't want to cast a ballot for someone if they don't actually know who this person is. And I've heard that by just knocking on doors and talking to young folks as well.

And yet what's fascinating is if you look at millennials, which are on a whole older than just 18 to 29, they're about 22 to 37. They're people born between 1981 and 1996 is how Pew defines millennials. Millennials for the first time in 2018 are going to be the largest voting block by generation. So Asma, who else is unlikely to vote? So one of the biggest determining factors of whether you're a voter or not a voter is your income and your education level. In fact, some experts that I spoke to said that that's more indicative than any other demographic factor. Is that a cross race? It is a cross race. I mean, some of what we see right to your point, Domenico, is we do know some racial groups are also more likely to be lower on the socioeconomic ladder as well. So they're

kind of intermixed. But they said that they felt economic status in their education levels was the biggest predictor. I think we can guess some of the obstacles, but what are some of them? Some of it also comes down to just not feeling like you know what your options are. But I will say, I don't know that that's always the case. Our colleague, Don Gagnet, spent some time in McDowell County, West Virginia, which has really, really low voter turnout. And he met a guy there whose name is Josh Mullins. He basically feels like his vote doesn't matter. He's unemployed. He used to work in the restaurant business, but said the last time he voted at all for president was 2004 for John Kerry. I just I don't think my vote matters. Not at all. No. I mean,

Hillary won the popular vote and we still have Trump for president. So that kind of makes you down on the whole. Yes. And these are places, and we saw this with a lot of the places we visited, that often have pretty dire financial situations, right? Like the poverty rate is particularly high in some of these places. You'll meet a lot of folks who are unemployed and they don't feel like politicians come talk to them.

They don't feel like politicians are spending time with them. And you talk to them about, you know, have you gotten mailings? Have you gotten leaflets? None of them feel like they're contacted by politicians even. Yeah, I mean, it's obviously something that President Trump capitalized on in 2016, being able to run on sort of an economic populist message and cultural grievance message where he's able to talk to especially whites without a college degree to say that you're the forgotten man and woman. And we did see an uptick, right, from rural voters in a liberal state, your state's probably going to go that way. And if you're in a red state, then your vote's probably going to go toward the Republican. But, you know, I will just say that especially when it comes down to the local levels, votes really can and

do matter because I went and looked up at least half a dozen races over the past 10 to 15 years in statehouse races in particular that were decided by one vote. That's amazing. It's not like, you know, it's made easy. You know, we vote on Tuesdays, which was designed for an agrarian society, you know, in November. So, you know, this has not been updated. And we definitely have one party that has more of a sense of urgency to go and make these changes to make it easier to vote, because a lot of these voters we've been talking about are core key Democratic groups.

You're right. And there's one other group, actually, I really wanted us to talk a bit about. And to your point, Domenico, they also tend to lean more Democratic. And those are folks of color. In particular, Latinos and Asian-Americans have really low voter participation rates. They're even lower in midterm election years. And ironically, the two fastest growing groups in the country. Exactly. And so you hear this time and again, and you can even go to places, you know, this election cycle. People have talked a lot about Beto O'Rourke, who is challenging Ted Cruz in Texas for the Senate and what that could mean. And we have one of our colleagues who also went down and spent some time in El Paso. That is where Beto O'Rourke is from. And she met people who didn't know who Beto was, didn't really know who was running for office. And it just felt like they didn't put their faith in politics because they felt like they've never banked on political institutions changing their lives.

And there's one woman in particular who made this point. Her name is Cristina Rodriguez. She was in El Paso. But I really don't think about it. It's kind of sad to say, but I don't think about like, OK, well, what can be better in my life? It's like I do what I can do to make my life better. I don't depend on them to change things for me. That's an amazing quote. There is this sense of powerlessness that I met from a lot of people that they don't feel like things have changed. So therefore, whoever's in office, you know, they're just sort of moving along because they don't notice a change

from president to president. And the races that could make the biggest difference in your life, like maybe city council or school board or the state legislature, those aren't the sexy races that everybody talks about. Those are the ones where it's really hard to get information about who the candidates are. And that leaves people feeling like they don't know who to vote for. And it's a huge issue in the Southwest in particular. I mean, you look at Texas, Arizona, we were talking about Nevada, where you have this huge surge of Latinos who have come into the country and yet are not registered to vote. So every time you hear people talking about how Democrats could turn Texas blue, for example, that is really reliant on Democrats

being able to not just get Latinos to vote, but get Latinos registered to vote and then be fired up to vote for them. And in fact, there's actually a growing gap that's been seen between the number of eligible Latino voters versus the number of Latino voters who've cast a ballot over the years. So what would happen if all these non-voters showed up on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November? Well, first of all, they might not be able to vote because you have to be registered before the deadline. So people need to go look that up if you're considering it. And many of those deadlines are this week, by the way, or past. Right. But if that were to happen, A, our polls would probably be a lot more accurate because we'd have a better sense and an ability to map out by demographics how

people would likely vote. It would certainly change the shape of not just the races in this country, but I think Asma has been making the point about public policy as well. All right, we are going to take a quick break. And when we come back, can't let it go. in the U.S. economy. That kind of investment will not only create jobs in energy, but also help support millions of U.S. jobs in other industries too. Find out more about ExxonMobil's planned investments at energyfactor.com. ExxonMobil, energy lives here.

Support also comes from Adult Swim. The only way the president can save Washington, D.C. is to nuke it. And if you think that doesn't make sense, you don't know President Phil Kinn-Sebin. Now, the only way to free the president from himself, to save the country from annihilation, and to liberate the world from a power-hungry dictator, is to impeach President Phil Kinn-Sebin. The man for this job is a Birdman. Harvey Birdman is back for a special case.

Harvey Birdman, Attorney General, October 14th at midnight, only on Adult Swim. I have a dream. I have a dream. Let freedom ring. Let freedom ring. We are the ones we've been waiting for. Then it's time for victims to be the change that we need to see. From the American colonies of the 18th century to the resistance in the 21st. This season on The Thread, we unravel the history, the pride and the power of nonviolent protests. Subscribe now to The Thread on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. And we're back. And so is Aisha Roscoe. And we are here to talk about the things that we just can't stop thinking about this week, politics or otherwise.

Domenico, what can't you let go of? Well, you know, this in these election years, sometimes when we're off, we need to be off or at least do something that makes you feel like, you know, it's like life affirming. And for me, sometimes that's going to the movies. And I was excited that there was so much buzz around A Star is Born, the new movie with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. And I was pretty psyched to go to it. And I thought it was pretty good. But I also started to look into the movie a little bit and realized it's a remake. And not only – It's like the fourth remake.

It's the fourth remake. The fourth remake of the same storyline. First it was in 1937, then one in 1954, then it took a country music turn with Barbara Streisand in 1976, and now we have this. I mean, I'm quite impressed. Bradley Cooper disappears into the role and is a great singer. I was really surprised.

And Lady Gaga, to me, was great. She was like Marissa Tomei, who could sing. Bradley Cooper directed it, and I haven't seen it, but I hear he wears a lot of spray tan. Is it spray tan or is it real tan? I don't know because. I don't know, he was very dark, red faced. Like, cause he was alcoholic, right?

Yeah, he was. It was kind of, it's a dark movie in many ways, you know, but, uh, but really well done. I thought. All right, I'm going to go next. Um, I can't let go of this. a woman was removed from an airplane because she decided she needed to bring her emotional support squirrel on the plane. Who doesn't? And Frontier Airlines and the good people

at the Orlando International Airport, they had to remove her from the plane along with her squirrel. I have so many questions. I don't understand. Did she bring the squirrel? How did she bring the squirrel on the plane? In her squirrel. So, but did she bring the squirrel? I don't understand. Like, did she bring the squirrel? How did she bring the squirrel on the plane? In a carrier. Yeah.

What I don't know is if it had a little vest. So, but okay. So, but my point is though, if they let her on the plane, then why did they have to kick her off? Well, they may not have known that it was a squirrel. Yeah. Well, apparently rodents are not allowed on Frontier Airlines. They should have stopped her earlier then. But then when she got off the plane, wasn't she like flipping everyone off?

She was angry. Yeah. So, yeah. Aisha, what can't you let go of? I can kind of let go of this, but I don't think that the world can let go of this. And that is Kanye West at the White House. It was quite a thing. There was profanity.

In the Oval Office. There was an F-bomb. There was talk from everything from the 13th Amendment to manufacturing to male energy. Regarding male energy, he was saying that the Kardashian family doesn't have a lot of male energy? He said they don't have a lot of male energy. And that's why he could he could connect with Trump. He seemed to be saying that Trump had male energy and that Hillary Clinton also didn't have male energy because he was saying she said, I'm with her. And that didn't relate to him as a man. I'm married to a family that, you know, not a lot of male energy going on. It's beautiful, though. But there's times where,

you know, it's something about, you know, I love Hillary. I love everyone. Right. But the campaign I'm with her just didn't make me feel as a guy that didn't get to see my dad all the time, like a guy that could play catch with his son. It was something about when I put this hat on, it made me feel like Superman. You made a Superman. That's my favorite superhero. He is a big fan of President Trump, and President Trump was just sitting there nodding along the whole time. And afterwards, Trump seemed speechless. He was just kind of like, that's something. Yeah. What do you say after that? I just still don't understand

how Kanye went from being the guy who used to rap about like 40 acres and a mule, right? And now he's questioning the validity of, I don't want to say question the validity, but at times that's what it seems like, you know, sort of questioning the circumstances of slavery and how actually detrimental it was. It's just, it doesn't make sense because he's actually saying things that are extremely opposite what he was talking about in his own music just a few years ago. It seems like Kanye West was in the White House, in the Oval Office,

meeting with the President of the United States because he says nice things about the president of the United States. And so President Trump was like, hey, let's bring this guy over here. And it'll get a lot of attention. Yeah. But is it the best type of attention? And they were supposed to be talking about serious issues like clemency and criminal justice reform. Of course, what people will say is that there are experts who can talk about criminal justice reform and can talk about clemency in a way that Kanye West cannot. Well, but Kanye's wife went in there, Kim.

She did. Kim Kardashian. And she was able to get what she wanted for clemency. So, you know, with this president, so much of the politics are personal and you got to get there for him to be able to respond. But I will say this about Kim. Kim had lawyers and legal team. She had a legal strategy and people had been working on getting the woman's name is Alice Marie Johnson out long before her. So there was a platform that Kim Kardashian was elevating. So, Ayesha, I think this is all very interesting and I'm going to let you finish. You're going to let me finish? I'm going to let you finish. But Taylor Swift, I want to say, had one of the most viral political moments of all time this week.

Please, can I not get some applause at least? Awesome. I thought that was Awesome. That was great. That was great. Thank you. Thank you. That was just like a little callback to the what, 2009 VMAs? What year was it? Thank you. So if you are one of the 2% of people who are unfamiliar with this story, let me just give you a quick recap. On Sunday night, Taylor Swift, who has been famously apolitical, posted a photo on her Instagram and she had a pretty political caption. She more or less came out as being a Democrat, saying she could not vote for someone who wouldn't necessarily fight for all Americans and take into account people's race and gender or sexual orientation. She also endorsed Phil Bredesen in the Tennessee Senate race. That's the Democrat running and came out against the Republican Marsha Blackburn.

It was incredibly notable because she has been extraordinarily apolitical. And a lot of people were wondering in the 2016 election why she didn't chime in. And, you know, and I have my own theories about, you know, do we really need singers or actors or sports stars to be political? But pretty much like everybody else weighed in. I mean, Katy Perry, Beyonce, everybody was like doing concerts for Hillary. And Taylor Swift was silent. I think a lot of people assumed maybe she was a Republican even. And, you know, there have been some, let's say, theories that after she posted this on Instagram, she has over 100 million followers on Instagram, that there was some sort of uptick in voter registration. You know, we can debate whether or not that is

entirely true or if voter registration always sees an uptick just a couple of days before the deadline. But I mean, look, at the end of the day, there is some indication that a lot of young people were registering these last couple of days. And I am of the belief that Taylor Swift, who has noticeably been very quiet, if you suddenly start seeing somebody who you are a big fan of post about it, it might've made some people reconsider.

Because I think a lot of folks who don't vote consider Taylor Swift at that camp. They just kind of thought of her as an apathetic person politically. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure she got some people to register. I'm sure there were some young voters in Tennessee who maybe weren't paying attention to the race who now suddenly were. But I mean, ascribing any kind of real political power to a celebrity endorsement always makes me a little queasy. And I, you know, kind of don't necessarily think that there's a huge influence from that person. And sometimes they can really backfire, frankly. I mean, I know that Bredesen embraced this endorsement, but at the same time,

her endorsement was kind of a pretty partisan endorsement, you know, had to do with LGBTQ rights, for example. I'm not so sure for someone like Bredesen, that's the whole message that he wants to embrace, because he's running as a pretty nonpartisan guy. There's a lot of people in Tennessee who don't even know Bredesen is a Democrat. He was the governor there. And putting a celebrity as a face of, as part of your campaign, essentially, you know, that can be polarizing for a lot of people who may not have even realized that you were, you know, a Democrat in the first place. Though I think for younger voters, LGBTQ rights is not really a partisan issue in the way

we're not talking about younger voters necessarily, right? I mean, we're talking about Tennessee, you know, middle of the road, older voters, the kinds of people who actually do vote in elections. Hey, hey, hey, but there is some talk that younger people are showing enthusiasm levels that are not traditionally what we see in midterm elections. So they might surprise us all. All we can say is that there's some bad blood between Taylor Swift and Republicans and that maybe Marsha Blackburn just wants to shake it off. It's really delicate. That's good. That was pretty mediocre, but it's all I got for you.

Look at our producers laughing. Welcome to New York, everyone. And I'm done. This whole thing got swift voted. Oh, my God. I don't know. Okay, those were the things that we can't let go of. We will continue this conversation about Taylor Swift offline. We'll be back in your feeds as soon as there's political news you need to know about.

I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I also cover the White House. I'm Asma Khalid, political reporter. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, political editor. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.