As Republicans celebrate Donald Trump’s historic sweep of the US election, Democrats are left reckoning with how Kamala Harris failed to mobilize support.

Americast gets together for an election inquest to examine what went right and wrong. Is Joe Biden to blame for Harris’ loss? Or did something else cause the VP to underperform with the voters she needed to win?

Was Trump’s straight-forward messaging a winning strategy? Or has there been a fundamental shift among American voters that goes beyond politics?

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This episode was made by Chris Flynn with Claire Betzer in Washington DC, and Alix Pickles in London. The technical producer was Hannah Montgomery. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including The Global Story, The Today Podcast, and of course Newscast and Ukrainecast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below.

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