TOPICS DISCUSSED

Processing the Reelection of Donald Trump
The Path Ahead
Outside of Politics: Jason Kelce

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TRANSCRIPT

Sarah [00:00:07] This is Sarah Stewart Holland.

Beth [00:00:09] This is Beth Silvers.

Sarah [00:00:10] You're listening to Pantsuit Politics.

Beth [00:00:12] Where we take a different approach to the news.

[00:00:14] Music Interlude.

Sarah [00:00:29] Thanks for being here. We are here for our first episode after the 2024 election, where Donald Trump won in a decisive victory over Kamala Harris. Republicans took control of the Senate and we are still waiting for the results of which party will take control of the House. Beth, it feels good to be here in person recording together for this very impactful moment.

Beth [00:00:51] Yes, our sound quality is going to be a little different than what you normally hear because we are in our Boston hotel room. But it is nice to be in person together. We say all the time together is what we have and we have it today in an even more present, energetic way. And I hope that you all can feel as you're listening like you're in the room with us, too.

Sarah [00:01:10] And if you want to be together in other ways with each other, our Substack community has really been showing up in the last few days. It just feels like a DM. It just feels like a group chat, like a really good Instagram DM group or a phone group chat in the chat where everyone's just showing up saying what they're feeling. You can reply that, you can start a new thread. That's where I'll start to go when I need something to do on my phone.

Beth [00:01:36] Well, people are sharing a lot of photos too, which really changes the conversation and it just feels like people are really vibing there and I enjoy it. I find it very uplifting and I'm so appreciative of all of you who've decided we're going to make this thing happen here. So if you want to be with people who are doers like that, get involved on our Substack.

Sarah [00:01:56] All right. Next up, let's talk about the election.

[00:01:57] Music Interlude.

[00:02:07] Beth, we did a live together on Substack at about 9:00 Eastern, 8:00 Central. It was not an uplifting chat because I think at that point we both could see the writing on the wall. When it didn't start flowing in and she was blowing it out, I thought we're done.

Beth [00:02:26] Yeah, I think we both knew where it was headed on that live. In retrospect, wouldn't do it again. I mean, I loved being with everybody, but it's that in-between time when you really don't know. And so you got a lot of people who want to keep the optimism and you don't want to be a person who throws in the towel too early in the evening. But we were also just seeing the numbers and understanding how much bigger her numbers needed to be even in the rural states that she was going to lose. She needed bigger numbers coming out of those states to indicate where the trends were going. And so I think we both just felt it settling in. It's why we were like I'm going to bed. I'll deal with this tomorrow.

Sarah [00:03:07] And I had already thought, like, do I want to watch any of this? I don't think I'll do that again. I don't need to watch Steve Kornacki. I just want to know. And there is a part of me on Thursday as we're recording that I'm just glad it's over. That's what I needed more than anything else, to be honest with you. I needed it to be over. I could not live in that space with the tie and the tie poll and then this and then that. It was affecting my mental health. I was like on the edge of a panic attack several times on Election Day. I had to do my alternative nostril breathing just to get my nervous system to take it down from the 13 it had about apparently settled on. And so I was like I'm just going to go to bed. At this point, I just want it to be over.

Beth [00:03:51] I went to bed and then I also woke up in the middle of the night and considered looking at my phone and I just decided I'm not going to do that. There is nothing to be gained right now from that. I'm going to get the sleep I can get because that's important. I think that sometimes watching it feels like you're contributing, but you're not. You're just watching. It's great to care. It's not great to tear yourself up in knots. And the other thing that's not great is to prematurely reach conclusions about what happened. I feel like there is such a rush to describe what happened instead of just taking a minute to be like, well, let's see what actually happened, what the facts are before I start to make meaning of the facts.

Sarah [00:04:32] There's a famous story I think I told on the podcast before, I don't remember, but my mother talks about when I was an infant that she would listen and she felt like I was too quiet in my room sleeping when I was like a newborn and she would think, should I go check on her? Well, if she's dead I'll need my sleep to deal with that. This is the thing my mother told me. And so I think I have really put that in myself. If it's bad news you're going to sleep to deal with it, so go back to bed. Because I definitely woke up in the middle of the night and was like, no, I'm going to sleep. But then when I woke up in the morning, Nicholas came in and woke me up and told me, which is how it happened in 2016 as well. And honestly, I didn't cry until I talked to Griffin. I think I was upset for Griffin. I didn't cry when Nicholas told me. I had a few moments of-- and I mean a few minutes, not very long-- of shock, oh my gosh, by such a margin. And then I just got very quickly to a place of I knew this. I knew this was going to happen. Like just my cellular level just settled into you've been slow rolling this; we've been watching this for nine years. This is, if not expected, not the surprise it was in 2016. That's for sure.

Beth [00:05:57] I didn't get anywhere quickly yesterday. I didn't speak much yesterday. Very few words came out...