To Panic, or Not to Panic: The 2024 Election Question

It’s 2024, and the Iowa caucuses are just days away. Host Brian Stelter talks with Michael Calderone, editor of Vanity Fair’s the Hive, and Vanity Fair executive editor Claire Howorth about the defining issues of the 2024 election and how to cover them, including what’s to come in the GOP primary, liberal fantasies and panic, and Trump ideology now. 

To an extent, the media has been preparing for how to cover Donald Trump in 2024 for almost a decade—his rise, his victory in 2016, his loss (despite what he might tell you) in 2020, his 91 criminal charges, and his authoritarian ideology. The team discusses what the news media has learned, the forceful objectivity that has tripped up some news organizations in covering the former president, and the MAGA mediaverse that still exists. 

Of course, Trump and his allies haven’t been shy about his authoritarian plans if he’s reelected, like calling for retribution against political adversaries and saying he’d be a dictator on “day one.” They discuss voter political fatigue and why down-ballot races this year could be particularly important.