Host William Hudson discusses the 2024 election with PC political science professors Adam Myers and Joe Cammarano. Our conversation reviews that factors that led to Donald Trump’s victory and the Republican gains in the Senate and House. We consider what to expect from a Trump presidency.

Host William Hudson discusses the 2024 election with PC political science professors Adam Myers and Joe Cammarano. They review the astonishing events of this election season since last June, consider the strategies of both the Trump and Harris campaigns, and analyze why the election is so close and what it tells us about the overall state of American politics.

Host William Hudson is joined by Professor Andrea McDonnell, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of PC’s Communication Program to discuss her new research. Dr. McDonnell has been a guest on this podcast previously to discuss the decline of local news and her 2023 book A Gossip Politic. In today’s podcast she discusses her more recent work on what she calls "discursive self-cleaving," a rhetorical strategy celebrities employ to counter accusations of sexual misconduct. In a forthcoming book, she takes an in depth look at the way three celebrities have deployed this strategy to protect themselves from such accusations. Among the three is former president Donald Trump, a master of discursive self-cleaving, who will be the focus of our conversation. Our conversation shows how various developments in communications in the 21st century, a post-truth information eco-system, bullshitting, and public gaslighting, have enabled this strategy. We conclude with comments on how Trump has expanded discursive self-cleaving from being a response to allegations of sexual misconduct to a routine tool in campaign image making.