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Let's talk more about this week's election results, especially when it comes to what this political shakeup means for both parties. Joining us is Casey Meyers. He is a professor and director of graduate studies at Virginia Tech School of Communication. It is good to see you. Thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me. First, I want to get your reaction. Do you think these midterm results were a rejection of President Trump, the Republican party, or a combination of both? uh without a doubt as a rejection of Trump and the Republicans and I think it's a referendum on what's been going on in this country for the last two years. It is tied largely to the economy which is of course tied to other issues
like the war in Iran, rising gas prices, rising diesel prices, and Americans feeling like they have to uh less to spend but everything getting more expensive. And so this is going to be uh interesting to see what Democrats may be able to do in the next two years. But again, with divided government, it's going to be difficult to achieve any agenda. Yeah. And talk about that a little bit more because we know affordability brought a lot of people out to the polls. They want to be able to afford their everyday lives. What kind of challenges are Democrats facing to follow through with some of those promises and what policies can we expect to uh, you know, be introduced to bring some relief,
right? Well, the biggest challenge is going to be the fact that they don't have the presidency. And so, Congress can pass laws, but they have to have uh, you know, the president sign them. and the veto hat in the Oval Office, I think, is a signal and also with Steven Miller coming in as the chief of staff is a signal that there may be a combative tone going on in Washington between Congress and the president for the next two years. Clearly, there are areas where they can agree on. Whether or not they both sides have the political uh will to do that kind of remains to be seen. But right now what we're seeing is I think uh the next two years looks like a divided government that may be a very acrimonious relationship between the president and
congress and leadership in Congress. Uh and I think that this is something that a lot of voters actually don't want. What they want is solutions to the economy and I think that was really what the message they were trying to send on Tuesday. Yeah, certainly a very clear message. Uh President Trump uh replacing Susie Wilds with Steven Miller. Does that give you any clues about how the president plans to respond to some of these election results? Yeah, I think that's very telling. Miller is someone that is a Trump loyalist and very tied to immigration. He's also very tied to uh some of these more combative sort of rhetoric around uh the Trump administration. And so I
what I would suspect from that what that signals is that there will be a tough relationship going forward with leadership. I think there's also it signals that Trump is willing to not only use veto, but he's also willing to use a lot of executive orders and the executive power to achieve what his ultimate uh agenda may be. Whatever he can get through and whatever he can do with that again is going to depend on a lot of factors including courts and their review of some of the some of his actions uh particularly on the executive order side. Yeah. Uh before we let you go, Congress returns uh on Monday. What are you going to be looking for closely over these next couple of months?
Well, I would certainly be looking at how leadership shapes up. I also am looking at some of these races that have yet to be called. I mean, Mississippi and Alaska and some congressional races. That's going to also signal, I think, some of the strength of the party. I mean, clearly the Democrats won on Tuesday, but those margins are still not solidified yet, and that's going to make a lot of difference, too, and what they can achieve. All right, Casey Myers, we appreciate your insight and time this morning. Thank you so much. Thank you.
