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The Slate Political Gabfest is turning 15 years old! We will be celebrating with a special live show on Dec 9th-- with wine! Please join us (drinking is optional). Learn more here.

Notes and references from this week’s show:

Karl Rove for The Wall Street Journal: “This Election Result Won’t Be Overturned” 

Rich Lowry for Politico: “The Completely Insane Electoral College Strategy”

The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency by Chris Whipple 

Michael D. Shear and Lisa Friedman for the New York Times: “Biden Could Roll Back Trump Agenda with Blitz of Executive Actions”

Here are this week’s cocktail chatters: 

As part of our 15th anniversary celebration we'd love to have your ideas for politically themed cocktails. Please submit an original recipe (or 2) here!

Emily: Reis Thebault for the Washington Post: “Robin Kemp Lost Her News Job in Clayton County, Ga. — But She Kept Reporting the News. It Paid Off on Election Week.

John: The Queen's Gambit; Garner's Quotations: A Modern Miscellany by Dwight Garner 

David: Robyn Dixon for the Washington Post: “Azerbaijan’s Drones Owned the Battlefield in Nagorno-Karabakh — and Showed Future of Warfare”

Listener chatter from Joshua Weaver @we4v3r: Grace Perry for Chicago Magazine: “No One Can Agree On What Malört Tastes Like, But the Descriptions Are Always Amazing”

Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on the Gabfest each week, and access to special bonus episodes throughout the year. Sign up now to listen and support our show.

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment Emily, David, and John discuss how to redesign the inauguration in order to account for the COVID-19 pandemic. 

You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. Tweet us your cocktail chatter using #cocktailchatter. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

The email address for the Political Gabfest is [email protected]. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank.

Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap.

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In the lead-up to the 2020 election, Iowa polls had Biden and Trump running neck and neck to win the state’s 6 electoral votes. However, one poll in late October showed that Trump had taken a seven-point lead over Biden. Many political observers and Democrats dismissed it as an outlier, insisting that Iowa was up for grabs. On election night? Trump won Iowa by just over eight points.

How did Ann Selzer see this coming? And what does the “Outlier Queen” have to say about the state of her industry?

Guest: Ann Selzer, public opinion pollster and President of Selzer and Company.

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Virginia Heffernan welcomes back Jacob Weisberg, founder of Trumpcast and CEO of Pushkin Industries, and talks about the outrageousness of Trump’s coup attempt and why we’re still going to be OK, sorting out our feelings after election week, and a bookend to that fateful election night four years ago.

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Even though the 2020 presidential race has been called for Joe Biden, President Trump is still baselessly asserting that he is the true winner. His accusations of voter fraud may give republican held legislatures all the ammo they need to further infringe on voting rights. 

Guest: Ari Berman, senior writer for Mother Jones

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Some early exit polls showed Joe Biden winning a strong majority of Latino voters but if you look closely there’s a more complicated story. In some key areas, Biden and Democrats more broadly underperformed with Latino voters compared to Hillary Clinton in 2016. How did the Biden campaign miss the mark?

Guest: Chuck Rocha, head of Nuestro PAC.

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On Saturday, the US presidential race was called for Joe Biden, making Donald Trump a one-term president. However, the outcome of the down ballot races may spell trouble for an incoming Biden administration. 

Guest: Jordan Weissmann, Slate’s Senior Business and Economics Correspondent

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Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz reflect on the election results, the upcoming transition, how senior Republicans are dealing with Donald Trump's loss, and what comes next for Stacey Abrams and Pete Buttigieg.

You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. 

The email address for the Political Gabfest is [email protected]. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by June Thomas.

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Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Amicus’ election law whisperer, UC Irvine election law professor Rick Hasen, to sift through the results, the non-calls, and the many, many lawsuits of this post-election moment.

Then, Dahlia is joined by Jim Zirin, former federal prosecutor and author of Plaintiff in Chief: A Portrait of Donald Trump in 3,500 Lawsuits, to map out the playbook the president is pulling from today and always--from his Supreme Court picks to all-caps claims of voter fraud. 

In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern reports on the big case at the intersection of religious liberty and the right of LGBTQ people to become foster parents that was heard at the Supreme Court this week. And what, if anything, we can draw from Amy Coney Barrett’s first week on the bench (on the phone). 

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Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Anna Szymanski discuss the economic ramifications of the election, China blocking the Ant IPO, and the Department of Justice’s antitrust suit against Visa.

In the Slate Plus segment: How Twitter and Facebook handled the election. 

Email: [email protected]

Podcast production by Jessamine Molli.

Twitter: @felixsalmon, @Three_Guineas, @EmilyRPeck

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Companies like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash have always argued that their workers are independent contractors, not employees. This distinction has been crucial in their rise from startups to multi-billion-dollar companies.

On Tuesday, Californians sided with these companies by approving Prop 22, a ballot measure that enshrines workers’ non-employee status. Why did progressive Californians side with Big Tech? And will the rest of the country follow California’s lead?

Guest: Sam Harnett, Tech and Labor reporter at KQED

Host

Lizzie O’Leary

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