The Midterms: A Political Report Card? 🗳️
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The Ten News Season 3: Episode 5
In today's episode:
🗞️ Ten things that you need to know right now: a bridge explosion in Crimea and a new pumpkin record
✔️ Midterms breakdown with Shaniqua McClendon, VP of Politics at Crooked Media
🗳️ Take action: Hear how your voice can make a difference!
🤔 Trivia with Tessa: Desk 80 is a special desk in the US Senate Chamber, but do you know what it's filled with to make it so special?
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TRANSCRIPT:
Ryan Willard 0:02
Oh man, I've got a headache. Okay, Ryan, the lesson you learned today is that fruit punch is not a breakfast food.
Pamela Kirkland 0:12
Well, Katie, I just wanted to make sure you have your voting plan all set. Midterms are right around the corner. Can you hold on for one sec? Hi, mom. Yeah, I called earlier to make sure you have your voting plan all set.
Ryan Willard 0:24
What in the whiskers is going on, Pam?
Pamela Kirkland 0:27
Can you hold on for one sec, mom? Ryan, perfect timing. We're doing an episode on the midterm elections today and I need your help.
Ryan Willard 0:34
Why are we doing an episode on the midterm elections if kids can't vote?
Pamela Kirkland 0:38
A lot of the things that are voted upon affect our Ten'ers, and while kids might not be able to vote, they can use their voices to make sure their grown-ups do vote.
Ryan Willard 0:48
Oh, wow. You're right. We got to dive in like it's a pool full of fruit punch.
Pamela Kirkland 0:52
I don't know about that. But yes, we gotta roll. I'm Pamela Kirkland. It's Wednesday, October 12th.
Ryan Willard 0:59
And I'm Ryan Willard, and this is The Ten News.
Sound Bit 1:03
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Pamela Kirkland 1:11
We have a whole bunch of news to share with you, Ten'ers.
Ryan Willard 1:14
Here are 10 things you need to know right now.
Pamela Kirkland 1:22
Monday, October 10th was Indigenous Peoples' Day. It's a day to honor the cultures and histories of Indigenous Americans. To learn more, check out the resources offered by the National Museum of the American Indian. You can find the link in our show notes. That's great.
Ryan Willard 1:38
Some Pokemon news that makes me wish I held onto my cards. The world's largest Pokemon collection, which is held by an anonymous woman in the UK is going up for auction. The collection has more than 20,000 items and is expected to be worth at least $340,000. Someone's gotta catch them all. I just wish it could be me. In animal news, the race is on for bears to gain weight before winter. In a tournament called fat Bear Week, members of the public vote on which Alaskan Brown Bear they think is the fattest. You can even watch the bears who live in Alaska's Katmai National Park on a live stream just check out our show notes.
Pamela Kirkland 2:18
On Saturday, October 8th, the only bridge linking Russia and the peninsula of Crimea was partially destroyed. This is a big deal because Crimea was once part of Ukraine. But in 2014, Russia took over, claiming it was actually part of Russia. Putin blames Ukraine for the bridge explosion and called it an act of terrorism. Ukraine blamed Russian forces. And in other news from Ukraine, activists from Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus have been awarded the Nobel Peace prize. The prize honors those who fight for peace and human rights and this year's winners brought attention to Russian war crimes, human rights abuses, and abuse of power.
Ryan Willard 2:18
In gaming news 19-year-old chess grandmaster Hans Neiman has been accused of cheating at least 100 times in a new report from chess.com. Neiman was banned from chess.com, but he's still playing in-person chess tournaments. And we have an update to our story on baseball player Aaron Judge, the Yankees star who hit 62 home runs in the regular season breaking the record of 61 held by another Yankee, Roger Maris.
Pamela Kirkland 3:30
Elon Musk is definitely going to buy Twitter, maybe it all depends on if the money comes through. $44 billion is a chunk of change so big that no one, not even a billionaire, can get it at an ATM. Musk's financing comes from several banks and other sources, and he'll have to have everything in order by the end of October to actually buy Twitter.
Ryan Willard 3:55
Down in Florida residents are recovering from Hurricane Ian. Although the storm is over the destructive effects are likely to last months or even years. The cost of the damage could be as much as $67 billion, making it one of the five costliest storms to hit the United States.
Pamela Kirkland 4:12
And farmers at the great pumpkin farm outside of Buffalo, New York are celebrating. They've just broken the US record for the heaviest pumpkin ever grown. At 2528 pounds, the pumpkin weighs a little more than a full-grown rhinoceros. The world record is held by a farmer in Italy who grew a pumpkin that weighed 2702 pounds. And that is the 10 things you need to know right now. The midterms are about a month away on Tuesday, November 8th.
Ryan Willard 4:56
Maybe this is a silly question but I've always wondered exactly... What the midterms are?
Pamela Kirkland 5:02
That's actually a great question, Ryan. I know Ten News Creator, Tracy Leeds Kaplan is passionate about elections. So, let's ask her.
Ryan Willard 5:13
Hey, Kap, can you come by the studio?
Tracy Kaplan 5:18
I'm here, I'm here, you know, Ryan, you're not the only one who doesn't know. I hit the streets to ask some kids what they thought the midterms were. Take a listen... What do you think the midterm elections are?
Ten'er 5:32
I don't really know. But I think that it's for like other stuff, the mayors run a ton of ads on YouTube about this thing called prop 26 and prop 27.
Tracy Kaplan 5:46
Nia, what do you think the midterm elections are?
Ten'er 5:51
I'm not sure.
Tracy Kaplan 5:53
Naomi, do you know what the midterm elections are?
Ten'er 5:56
Sort of. I think I know. I think I know. So halfway through, two years into a presidency. We vote for other things, like, what's that, like?
Tracy Kaplan 6:12
Congress?
Ten'er 6:13
Yeah, Congress and like, wait, do you do anything about the closet? Or, whatever it's called...
Tracy Kaplan 6:20
Lucilia, what are the midterm elections?
Ten'er 6:25
Elections in the middle of the term.
Ryan Willard 6:30
That was awesome, but not as much as me. But, Kap, I still don't know what the midterms really are and why they're so important.
Tracy Kaplan 6:39
Well, I found the perfect person to talk about the midterms with, the VP of Politics at Crooked Media, Shaniqua McClendon. Hey, Ten'ers, we have a really, really great day today. We know that a lot of you are seeing ads, maybe when you're watching YouTube, about the midterm elections coming up. And so we, of course, brought in an expert to help break this down for us.
Shaniqua McClendon 7:03
Yes, hi, Ten'ers. It's such an exciting term. My name is Shaniqua McClendon, I'm the Vice President of Politics at Crooked Media. And there in that job, I develop Crooked Media's political engagement strategy, which determines you know, what candidates we're going to support, what states we think are really important to get involved in, and what organizations we think are really important to support.
Tracy Kaplan 7:26
And for those in our audience who don't have parents who walk around wearing Pods Save America t-shirts. Can you explain what Crooked Media is?
Shaniqua McClendon 7:34
Absolutely. Crooked Media is a media company that was started in 2017. It was started after Donald Trump was elected and pretty much our founders felt like the media was not doing a good job covering politics. And we were getting into the space where equal time was given to people who were telling the truth. And then people who were not telling the truth, it started off as a show called Pods Save America but has grown into a media company. And what they wanted to do was give people a way to actually get involved and change those bad things. And that's where my team comes in. And so that's the stuff that I manage over at Crooked.
Tracy Kaplan 8:05
We're gonna jump into the midterms today. So, first to start us off, like, what are they? What are the midterm elections? Is it a report card for Congress?
Shaniqua McClendon 8:15
Um, I mean, in some ways, but, you know, I, it's funny, when I was looking at these questions, I'd never actually thought about the word midterm. It just kind of it felt like jargon. And then I read the word and was like, oh, it's like the middle of the President's term. When the President who has only been up until now, but when the President, you know, the President is not up for election during midterm elections, it's the middle of his four-year term. But the midterm elections are elections that take place actually throughout the country up and down the ballot for a bunch of different positions. But typically, what people are really focused on is Congress. And so about a third of the Senate is up because senators have six-year terms, and so a portion of them are up, and then the House of Representatives, everyone is up for reelection, because those terms are two years. And so I would say it is kind of a progress report for Congress because people get to show up and tell them whether they're doing a good job or not. But it's also even though he's not on the ballot, most of the time, it's a report card for the president as well. So the President has had two years that he's been in office to kind of execute on the things that he thinks are important, things he campaigned on. Congress is instrumental in doing that and so voters will decide if he gets to have a Congress that will help him keep doing that or will change course because they maybe don't agree with the things that he's been doing.
Tracy Kaplan 9:41
And historically, how has this gone? Like, what do you think President Biden should be... should it be worried or should he be you know, hanging out on a couch relaxing?
Shaniqua McClendon 9:48
I think politicians should never hang out in a couch on a couch and relax because you never know what voters will do. I've been working in politics for over a decade now and that is one constant that voters are unpredictable. But traditionally, the party of the president does not do well in the midterms. So you know, if history holds this election, Democrats would expect not to do well and expect for Republicans to at least take over the House, possibly the Senate. But ever since Donald Trump has been elected things have just been very, very different. There have been some special elections this year where Democrats have won where, you know, people didn't think they were going to win. So history sometimes does not repeat itself. And I think this might be one of the years that we see something different.
Tracy Kaplan 10:38
And, just remind our Ten’ers like who's in charge right now across the House and the Senate?
Shaniqua McClendon 10:44
Yes, very good question. So right now, Democrats are in charge of most of the big things in Washington. So you have the White House where Joe Biden is president, and he's part of the Democratic Party. And then you have both chambers of Congress. And it's actually an even split, there are 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, but because Joe Biden is president and his Vice President, Kamala Harris is the tiebreaker in Congress, that means that gives Democrats one extra vote in the Senate to give them control. So everything they vote on is very close. And Vice President Harris has often been a tiebreaker for a lot of those things. And then in the House, Democrats are also can also control the House, which is why Nancy Pelosi is the speaker of the house there. She's a Democrat. So Democrats control both chambers and the White House right now. But those numbers are so close that it makes every vote, you know, that much more important, but also just unsure you never know what's gonna happen until it happens.
Tracy Kaplan 11:45
Yeah, super, super close. I mean, really down to just one or two seats can make all the difference.
Shaniqua McClendon 11:51
Have you ever heard someone say their vote doesn't matter, voting doesn't matter? It does. And not voting plays just as big of a role as people who do show up to vote.
Tracy Kaplan 12:02
I can't even imagine what election night is like for you, given that this is your job, to be tracking everything. And I certainly always love to watch at home. The cable anchors going crazy with the maps and the numbers. So what does election night look like for you?
Shaniqua McClendon 12:23
It's crazy but it's fun. You know, you've spent an entire cycle supporting candidates and organizations to help them get what they need to be victorious. And then at that point on election night, there's literally nothing else you can do but wait for the results to come in. So that's what you do.
Tracy Kaplan 12:39
And do you have a go-to snack?
Shaniqua McClendon 12:42
You know, honestly, it has to basically just be something I can eat without looking because I have to keep my eyes on everything that's going so I'll keep my drink far away from me. So I have to be thoughtful about picking it up. But like goldfish or chips, just anything that I can just pick up quickly and just not pay attention to it.
Tracy Kaplan 13:02
That makes sense. It is not a time that you want to risk spilling anything on your computer. That's great. Well, it's been wonderful. Just a last thought, you know, for our audiences is 8 to 12-year-olds and their families, like, you know, a lot of them are active and speaking up and looking for ways to volunteer, that what, what advice do you have for them, who are interested in, in learning more about this year's midterms or just getting involved in general?
Shaniqua McClendon 13:33
Yeah, um, I wouldn't be a good company, woman, if I didn't plug Vote Save America. But even if I didn't work it crooked, I would encourage all of you to go to votesaveamerica.com, we have so much information there. If you are just looking for information about voting, or about the elections that are happening, we have 50 state pages that actually have very detailed information about what you need to vote in those states. But we also have ways for you to get involved. And so you can go to those states and at the bottom of those pages, or take action opportunities. And while you do have to be 18 to vote, you can don't have to be 18 to volunteer and that is a way that I always encourage young people to get involved and make their voices heard. Even though I think there are plenty of young people who actually know enough about what's going on to participate making sure that the adults who are old enough to participate do and letting them know that you know, their participation is what's going to make the difference in your future. But we have all of that on votesaveamerica.com You can find elections to get involved that are near you. But for the young people, you can make phone calls, you can send text messages, you can knock on doors, and I can guarantee you adults are always very surprised to see young folks involved but I think it has an added impact on them and their decision to vote. If someone who can't even do that is telling them they should do it.
Tracy Kaplan 14:56
And we'll make sure to put that link in our show notes. So, that everybody can grab it and check it out. Well, thank you so much. This has been wonderful and we'll be thinking about you eating some goldfish crackers on election night.
Shaniqua McClendon 15:10
Wonderful. Well, thank you for having me.
Ryan Willard 15:12
Wow, I didn't realize how just one or two seats in Congress could change who's in charge and whether the Republicans or Democrats will have control of the government next year. Now I see why these elections are so important. Thank you, Tracy, and Shaniqua.
Pamela Kirkland 15:30
So, now you know how important the midterms are. But what can you, someone who's not old enough to vote, actually do about it?
Ryan Willard 15:37
Well, Pam, I was at a q&a the other day and asked Bill Nye the Science Guy, what advice he would give to kids that want to fight climate change, but can't vote, he instantly responded. I'd say get your parents to vote. And then follow it up with this.
Bill Nye 15:51
Recycle, anything. You get the kids excited about recycling and anybody can witness they're just becoming insufferable. Grownups will recycle. So get kids to make sure their parents recycle and have a so-called plan for their vote. I'm not kidding. That's the biggest thing.
Pamela Kirkland 16:14
The first thing you can talk to your grownups about is their voting plan. You can ask them where and when are you voting? Are you mailing in your ballot or going to the polls? Can I come and watch, life can get pretty hectic for grownups. So it's important to have a voting plan set. So what next?
Ryan Willard 16:32
Your voice and opinion matter. Almost every issue that is voted on will affect you, either right now or in the future. So ask yourself, What issues do I care about? And how do I feel about them? Is it climate change, gun safety, LGBTQ+ rights, inflation, the war in Ukraine?
Pamela Kirkland 16:52
Whatever it may be, write down what you want on each issue, and why it's important to you, then do some research and find some facts to support what you believe, like the fact that the wildfire season is getting longer due to climate change. And that Title IX makes it illegal for your school to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students. And remember, two news sources are always better than one. So double check your facts by checking a second source.
Ryan Willard 17:21
Once you know your issues and have some verified facts, sit down with your grownups and tell them what's important to you and why. It might not be easy at first, they might not want to hear it, or they might disagree with you. This is why you came with facts to back up your thoughts and feelings on the issues.
Pamela Kirkland 17:38
And if it doesn't go your way, just be ready to try again, and again.
Ryan Willard 17:43
And as we just heard from Shaniqua McClendon you can volunteer to write letters, or text voters, participate in phone banks, or help adults go door to door reminding people to vote. Let's do this. And Ten'ers, we want to hear what issues you care about in the 2022 midterms. Call 877-TEN-NEWS or visit thetennews.com/contact and send us a message.
Tessa Flannery 18:19
Welcome to the trivia room.
Ryan Willard 18:22
Woo! I'm back baby and I'm ready to rock this trivia throne.
Tessa Flannery 18:26
We'll hop on up there Ryan and get ready for today's trivia question. There is a special desk in the US Senate chamber, desk 80, tt's special because it's filled with something unusual. But what is desk 80 filled with? Is it a) earplugs, b) mousetraps or c) candy? Ten'ers, did you guess it? Ryan, what's your answer?
Ryan Willard 19:03
I'm gonna guess mousetraps because I think all politicians are afraid of mice.
Tessa Flannery 19:09
We're gonna need to talk more about that. But the answer is C, candy. Senator George Murphy was elected to the Senate in 1965 and had a habit of bringing candy and sharing it with other senators, Democrats, and Republicans alike. Oh, he didn't win reelection, but his successors have filled that desk with candy ever since. Ten'ers, do you want to sit on the trivia throne and share your trivia knowledge? Visit us at thetennews.com/contact to get in touch and we might have you on the show.
Ryan Willard 19:46
Pamela, did you know members of Congress have their own private subway?
Pamela Kirkland 19:50
Yes, I do. I've actually been on it. And it's like something out of The Wizard of Oz. If the Ten News had a private subway I could get a few moments of peace and quiet on my commute home.
Ryan Willard 20:04
Yeah, and I could sit right next to you and tell you about all the fun things I thought about when I was eating lunch.
Pamela Kirkland 20:10
Yeah, I might just stick to my electric car.
Ryan Willard 20:12
Oh, that's cool. I'll take a ride home if you're offering.
Pamela Kirkland 20:15
I'll get back to you on that. But I think it's time to wrap up the show. But before we do, here's a quick note for the grownups.
Ryan Willard 20:23
Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Our show is now weekly and drops every Wednesday. But if you want some bonus content, you can join the Ten'ers Club on our website or on Apple Podcasts, club members get special bonus content and more.
Pamela Kirkland 20:36
The Ten News is a coproduction of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts.
Ryan Willard 20:41
The Ten News creative team is reviewing their voting plans and includes Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, and Tessa Flannery. Big thanks to Shaniqua McClendon for contributing.
Pamela Kirkland 20:50
Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle. And our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan.
Ryan Willard 20:58
I'm Ryan Willard, the person that Pamela wants to carpool with.
Pamela Kirkland 21:01
And I'm Pamela Kirkland who prefers to drive solo. Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Now, go out and vote!
