♪ > > The wheelhouse.

A voter trends.

Cabinet picks.

And a look ahead and the next 4 years.

♪ > > Connecticut public on > > For Frankie Graziano.

This is the wheelhouse.

The show that connects politics to the people.

We've got your weekly dose of politics in Connecticut and beyond right here.

2 weeks ago, voters across Connecticut hit the polls.

The votes have been counted.

The results announced and now that the dust has settled, what do we know about what some are calling a red wave?

It's our will move from updates on the new tabulators to blue Connecticut shift toward read it later in the Supporters have on dollar.

John announced Parma will be on the show with me.

Joining me now, though, D and what a man he is.

Investigative editor for the Accountability Project here in Connecticut.

Public.

Jim, great to have you.

thank you, Frank.

Great to be with Great to have you on as well.

Also with us may soon investigative reporter for the Accountability Project CT Public.

Just joined the Accountability Project recently already making her mark, thanks for being thank you.

Happy to be here.

Happy to have you on and listeners.

If you want to share story about your voting experience, maybe you're one of those slick voters may be voted for Biden 4 years ago.

In this time he voted for Trump.

Something like that.

Give us call.

Want to talk to.

Don't be shy.

Give us a call today.

7 to 0, 9, 6, 7, 7, may soon.

You're gonna get the first question want to with the tabulators.

25 million dollars, right?

It's this new new.

Batch of funding that came in to support democracy in Connecticut.

> > And these machines actually run their ballots through after they filled in all the bout ballots.

How a pilot program excuse me to try out the new machines, right?

Had a > > So the pilot program went backup.

pretty well.

Very little hiccups that we know of just kind of one reported issue in one town, which we'll get to later.

this was, again, as you said, part of a pilot program.

So 9 towns, let's cities in Connecticut got these new tabulators and there isn't as machines and Houston has.

If anyone knows they're kind one of the they're up there in terms of providing election equipment to, you know, various states in the country and so it's part of the state's effort to upgrade its aging election equipment, which will also talk about in a bit.

But they got about 2700 tabulators.

All in all went well.

No complaints.

What are they look like?

Compared to the old machines?

So new machines, they kind of have a larger screen.

So with people who might have issues with their site and I'm one of those people, it's a pretty great it makes you the letters are a bit bigger.

So you're able to kind of see once you put your paper ballot and you're able to kind of see all the, you know, inputs that you had.

There is also kind of a pop-up screen that comes up.

If there's issues with your ballot.

so if you, for example, selected 2 presidential candidates instead of one, it'll flagged as an issue.

So it runs a bit more efficiently than the older machines and a bit more accurately as well.

So we have maybe more of a touch screen kind of situation whereas maybe had one of those like large Epsom.

> > Printers or something like that from back in the day that you feed the now it's through.

It seems like a more intuitive process that really yet you got a chance to talk to the Republican registrar of voters in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, about the old machines.

We're gonna take a listen.

Actually, to what he had to say.

> > Very fortunate to become one of the towns because we needed the new voting machines are old voting machines are.

Predate me by a long time.

> > Tom, but police saying that these machines were old.

> > And obviously they need some new tabulators.

What did you get from your conversation with time?

> > So I think for the viewers, especially so important or sorry, the listeners, the lot of the voting machines that are used in Connecticut now are actually approaching 2 decades.

And so a lot of the towns that we even saw some issues with the tabulators are voting machines that are old.

They kind of run into a bit more hiccups.

Sometimes the issues are harder to mend.

And so there was a kind of a dire need for new voting machines to just kind of make Election Day a lot more smooth and fluid.

And so that's exactly what Tom and I spoke about.

These the old machines.

You know, there was a dire need to bring in the new ones.

And so far it went pretty well.

There's a plan to bring rest of the new voting machines to the rest of the state by the summertime of 2025.

For the midterm elections.

So that's kind of the new project that the state's kind of working on to kind of implement the statewide you know, get rid of all the old machines.

> > So a bit of a slow rollout, as we saw with early voting in some of the other things that Connecticut is trying to do to support democracy.

And speaking of democracy, Jim, I know, you know, a little bit about our survey that we did with of listeners this year.

You were very supportive of to that effort.

Thank you so much, Jim.

Jim works with our Accountability project and he was helping us understand what may be the top issues that listeners had on their minds were when we got all these results and you kind of have to disaggregate all that data that we get.

> > Because we had over 750 responses.

Thank you.

Offer your support.

But one common response we heard from people was that they were worried about the state of democracy, democracy at work during voting days, even with the minor hiccups that we had on Election Day.

That will.

> > Kind of talk more about did the Democratic process work?

Well, here in Connecticut, I know it's a big kind of question.

But what he got for me, that's a big Jay question as well.

sure what I do want to say thank you all all of our listeners or viewers who did fill out that election survey.

We really got a robust response.

> > And I did spend a lot of time going over those answers.

And certainly I could see that, you know, concern about democracy about the future.

The country was was a prevailing theme.

There.

So that really helped us and former coverage the seasons.

We appreciate everyone who did participate in terms of, you know, what would happen with democracy this time around?

And I think if you ask the secretary of the state, Stephanie Thomas, I think she enthusiastically tell you that democracy did work in Connecticut.

You know, she was out there as soon as the polls closed on Election Day to say, you know, we've got no major issues.

I think what what we saw around the state was what we kind of typically see in Connecticut, you know, occasionally some places with some long lines that bubble up during the presidential election.

Some hiccups with these older voting machines.

But at the end of the day, things went pretty smoothly.

Also, voters also approved a ballot measure potentially expand access to absentee ballot voting in the future.

And so from that standpoint, you could look at this election and say, you know, we really paved the way for more engagement with the democratic process in the future.

> > Looking on your screen, you can see some of these new tabulators and you could see democracy at work there.

Jim mentioned that some of the issues that happened with old machines were their recounts in many towns in across the state recounts.

Excuse me.

> > Yeah, we We'd have a couple of recounts in the in Trenton, in the 65th House district race between Democratic incumbent Michelle Cook and Republican joke.

And, you know that race did go to a recount and joke, you know, came out on top.

I think the unofficial results of something like 50, 56 ballots in his favor.

So I think things will be finalized in that race.

But it looks like he is the winner in that race.

Also is a quirk of of for kind of an offshoot of The race that recount brought a Senate race that region as part of within the margin where an automatic recount is necessary.

And so we have had a recount taking place in 11 cities and towns that are part of that 8 Senate district.

That is a race between Democrat challenger Paul honing against Republican Lisa Seminar.

And so it looks next ahead in that race.

I think as of last night, towns re-doing the recount in that one.

So that was the other other race that a gun to a recount.

But that was kind of a consequential race holdings.

Victory was the sole flip in the state Senate.

So it kind of helps that the Democratic majority there kind of a trench itself a little more deeply if he if he takes that > > Jim mentioned the race in seat.

the 65th have shared transparency, know with related to the Republican candidate who won Joe, can you know?

So we won't be diving further into that race today.

You've been crunching some numbers based on how Connecticut towns throughout can excuse me.

Towns throughout Connecticut voted this year.

What have you found?

> > So I a lot of us have been looking at these election maps that came out after the presidential election and looking nationwide looks like a pretty significant rightward shift in the electorate.

And I think we saw that here in Connecticut as well.

If you measure how towns voted in Twenty-twenty and how they voted in Twenty-twenty 4, we see what statewide a shift of about 5 percentage points toward Trump's favor that played out in a huge swath of of individual communities to of different types, you know, big cities, smaller communities.

We saw similar shift toward Trump and, you know, Trump had maintained his support in big swaths of new London County and Windham County on the eastern side of the state and Litchfield County the West people came out to vote for him in 2020 in those parts of the state.

And they came back again this year and similarly Democrats were strong in their traditional strongholds around Greater Hartford.

The big cities, the shoreline.

But even in those communities, you did see a higher percentage turnout for Trump this time around and Trump flipped 14 towns in Connecticut that had a, you know, the majority people come out to support President Biden, 2020 and this time around.

We saw those places voting for President Trump.

> > Not super huge margins.

I think we're going to get this with our panel later.

Trump got 20,000 more votes.

This is according to unofficial results.

And Jim, you could tell me if I'm wrong here, but this is unofficial results and doing the math.

You got think 20,000 more votes than he did 4 years ago in Connecticut and he still got a closer percentages.

You said 5 percentage points.

I think differences as compared to last time.

> > Yeah, I think I was looking at this morning.

I think you brought in about 22,000 additional 22,000 2000 this year.

I will say, you know, thing to keep in mind here is we're also turning about we're talking about change in the turnout in the state so, you know, one way to think about this is that indeed, you know, Trump did improve his standing in Connecticut and a lot of other places.

But at the same time, we have another kind of variable changing this equation.

And that is turnout.

We did not have as many people come out to vote in Connecticut this year.

So what you're talking about is smaller pie, a smaller group of votes on so well, Trump's percentage is reflected is, as you know, seeing these increases.

We actually have this kind a lot fewer people coming out to vote and then within that some group of people who had voted for for Biden 2020 coming back to vote for Trump.

We definitely did have some games this time around.

But I think what we're seeing is just a smaller pool of people turning out.

And that's why that increase looks kind of substantial that way before I underscore Jim's point, take a look at the screen.

Look at those beautiful graphics created by Sam Hockaday, Julie and Raci and the visuals team.

> > Here Connecticut, public and the wheelhouse is so supportive.

We've got Jim and team here with may soon.

Con supporting us with the Accountability Project in these great visuals that are putting together the story of how Trump did in Connecticut in 2024 versus 2020 turnout.

As Jim mentioned, it was smaller this time around about 5 percentage point.

Something like that's my thing was 80% of the 2020 election.

And about 75% this time around and Jim and I won't necessarily get into the reasons I guess for why that was right now.

But a lot of people want to say that that has something to do with coal COVID.

But you did have early voting this time around which was popular.

But last time around, you had the opportunity to get a no excuse ballot because of COVID as well.

So interesting over the next few months to kind of track all of all of these kind of things.

And please be sure to stick with wheelhouse and visit CT Public Dot Org, slash wheelhouse.

As we help you unpack the results of the 2024 election.

> > Was there anything in these findings that I want to say.

You were surprised by but something that made you want to dig deeper into it or inspired you to make this a this great.

Discovery that you did?

Well, I think > > a trend we've been following for a couple of years is what we were just talking about.

This kind of drop in turnout in city, particularly in some of Connecticut's urban areas in the big cities.

We saw this in the midterm election in.

22, we did the same analysis and publish a story than showing that some of the cities were really in areas of concern for Democrats in Connecticut.

And I think you saw that again this time in in Bridgeport, for example, I think you saw something like 5,000 fewer people coming out to vote this time to your point around the registrations, the registrations actually look pretty similar this year as they did last time.

So, you know, in terms people who are in position to vote, you have kind of the same pool of people and you just have fewer people coming out this time.

think that really is a question that folks will be thinking about over the next couple of years of kind of what has happened in Connecticut's big cities.

Beyond that, I think.

Election officials were a little surprised by the process of counting votes.

I think something about the combination of a lot of people coming out early to vote and then a lot of same day registration turned the vote counting into a little bit of a longer process than I think people were expecting this time around.

I think we're all kind of learning what it means to have early voting in play that way.

> > Yes, same day registration as you'll see often if you're following on election night, you'll see lines develop in places like New Haven and Bridgeport, as people are taking advantage of same day registration nationally.

We heard stories of Avengers character showing up to the it.

But to the polling locations to try to keep people in line.

So same day registration and other thing that will be falling.

But it's just such a, as Jim mentioned, it's kind of interesting sort of paradoxical election and the fact that on a paradoxical as word, whatever.

But it's it's just a heart election understand because a lot of thought that pundits and people to commentate on these things like me and other journalists in the state of Connecticut, we're thinking was that specifically in the 5th District?

You're gonna have a bigger turnout this time around because it was a presidential election.

And that didn't necessarily happen yet.

Jahana Hayes still won by harder margin.

Then she did 2 years ago.

So it's just it's just a hard election.

Understand that's why I think it's going to be incumbent upon the wheel house and reporters, a Connecticut public to keep telling the story, Jim, over the next couple of months.

Yeah, we'll be following it along.

We keep talking about the shift to the right here in Connecticut may soon as part of your reporting last week you spoke with Ben chairman of the Republican Party in Connecticut.

Let's listen to what he had to say.

> > If Trump can do what he says he wants to do, if he can get the economy under control, he can bring, you know, get pricing under control.

He can make groceries affordable.

He can make every day American lives more affordable.

If he can help ensure the future of our children, our grandchildren, if he could help seal the border, if he can do the things he's been talking about doing as we move into the 2026, I called the midterm cycle.

I think it will be very beneficial for Republicans here in Connecticut.

> > Obviously a lot to be excited about for Ben Proto right now the establishment, at least in terms of Democrats, controlling the United States Senate, the presidency may be there was thoughts that they would make a little more ground in the in House races.

Everything's kind of been flipped, turned upside down as Will Smith might say may soon things are kind changing in America.

And I think that's kind of what Ben Proto was illustrating.

> > Exactly.

So when we're talking about the, you know, Donald Trump's win for the presidential election.

And the impact on the state level.

There isn't a huge impact just on the if we're talking about the Connecticut state Legislature, even Republican lawmakers in the state legislature, there isn't a huge impact, but as you heard, but produce a and even top Republicans in the state legislature, they're kind of making the point that this can really help them in the midterm election.

Coming up in 2026, particularly Trump policies.

Again, you heard kind of been pro.

Do illustrate that.

You know, if Trump is able to keep his promises that could seriously Republicans in the state level make inroads in state, government and local races.

And so that's kind of what they're kind of focused on and so I think, you know, that it makes a point to say that we're going to be turning our eyes to the midterm elections coming up and seeing how you know this pans out > > yeah, those Senate seats that were watching in Fairfield County didn't we did see what was something happened Torrington where we had a candidate that was around for, I terms or something like that last and then of course, you're talking about the national situation and Jim didn't exactly say this, but you had voter turnout down.

We he did say that.

But it may can allude to little bit.

So there's a lot of things to be concerned about.

If you're a Democrat and it doesn't sound like Ben Proto has a lot of concerns these days.

As I imagine he was very happy with the result.

Is there anything else you want to share or maybe alluded to in your reporting that you got coming up, what he got.

Guys give you something here.

Let's tap working on anything you can tell I will say very excited.

We've missing and I have been working closely with our health care reporter on justice in Tree of Austin on job.

> > A couple of projects where we're trying kind of merge our complementary you know, working on the request investigative research partnering with great knowledge and sources that she has in the health world here in Connecticut.

So we have a couple of pieces that we're excited about that are in production now, obviously, we'll be able say a little bit more about that as they come down the line.

But I'd say take a look in the next couple of months for some health care reporting for months.

> > Foreshadowing, if you will.

You can see interview.

I did with to jot the last week that humanize gun violence in really focus on how the discourse impacts survivors at CD, Public Dot Org, which is also the same place that are going to find the great work that Jim may soon.

And so jot they're going to do together.

And some of the other tap colleagues that you have.

We are so excited for that work that comes along and welcome to the wheelhouse.

Mason Com, thank you so much for coming Thank you.

Thank you, Jim.

Thank you for coming on thank you for supporting our survey this year.

it was a pleasure.

Lot of fun from Connecticut, public Radio.

This is the wheelhouse.

I'm Frankie Graziano.

You've been listening to Dean, investigative editor for the Accountability Project.

And you've also heard may soon kind who's just joined the Accountability Project.

A Connecticut public, Connecticut, a blue state.

> > But that doesn't mean that Republican President Donald Trump's policies on impact us here.

That's coming up after the break.

You can join the conversation.

888-720-9677, make those phone lines Glow 888-720-9677.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ This is the wheelhouse from Connecticut, public Radio.

I'm Frankie Graziano this hour were unpacking, though.

Why behind the trend of more voters leaning red, then usually they do here in the blue state of Connecticut.

We'll hear more on that.

Plus, look ahead at how Donald Trump's presidency will impact people across the state joining me now excited to hear Bongo Dama senior political reporter for Wsh Bond.

Thanks you so much for joining us today.

Frank.

You all good to see again over zoom here.

I love your setup.

Thank you.

Also with us, John Moritz State reporter for Connecticut Insider and Hearst Connecticut Media.

John, it's great to have you on with us today.

> > Thanks for having me.

Good morning.

Good to see you this morning.

And also Alex and reporter at Connecticut Insider CT Insider excuse me and Hearst Connecticut media.

good to talk to you as well.

Great to be here.

Thank you.

If you've got a question or comment about how Donald Trump's presidency might impact to join the conversation.

Still looking to hear maybe from somebody who voted for Donald Trump in this election.

Give us a call.

888-720-9677.

> > Just want to know if you all were able to get a chance to listen to the last interview and had any response to what you heard from Connecticut.

Public investigative reporters may soon Con.

And Jim Alex, have you had a chance to speak with voters since the election.

> > Yeah, I thought the first summed up the trends very well.

And and yes, I have Markle team went out to some sort of key towns and cities in Connecticut and spoke with voters and up.

You know, we heard a lot of what you would expect to hear.

You know, it is a blue time.

We certainly heard from Harris voters.

We also heard from Trump voters.

We heard from people I think this is maybe most telling in my experience talking to a guy who voted for Harris, he's glad you voted for Harris and Democrat.

No doubt.

But he said, you know, I get why Trump, killed 2 people in this election, even in Connecticut, even in Hartford, where where we happen to be you felt that Trump was a little bit more relay double, use the term or down to Earth.

And again, this is a guy who who voted for Harris and was disappointed that that she lost.

it didn't seem like people necessarily work were shocked.

I you know, Trump has an appeal and even not everybody understands that There's there's no denying it.

> > Alex, I I did say that.

> > If there is a trend where more people are voting red in Connecticut.

22,000 was the number.

I think we had more votes for Donald Trump and there were 4 years ago.

But you see Jahana Hayes got a little more support in the 5th district and she this time around 2 years ago.

It seems like there was a lower turnout.

I think by 5 percentage points or something like that.

Is it that more people are voting?

Redding, Connecticut, or are less people coming out?

Maybe it's a little bit of both.

What you think.

> > Yeah, definitely a little bit of both.

I would say what you mentioned with John Hayes was kind of a national trend where where Democrats a little bit down ballot did did well.

Democratic senators won in states where Trump won.

> > On the other hand, you know, in the presidential race, I think you're right.

It was a combination of of a little bit more support for Trump and then also people staying home.

You know, I also talked people in Harford who didn't bother to vote because they just, you know, don't feel like the candidates are speaking to them or, you know, in particular, I think in some circles Kamala Harris was a really exciting candidate.

Think they got people, you know, ready to volunteer and donate money.

And then another circles.

They didn't really get the appeal or didn't feel like she was speaking to them.

So I think it was definitely some of both.

> > Some voters turn to Donald Trump 8 years ago when there was that talk of drain the swamp in this time around, I would imagine as as Alex was mentioning, they see Trump as this kind of change maker, whether or not it's for the good or not.

But we want to get into that a little more and a little bit.

But first, let's hear from Tim from Willimantic.

Tim, Go ahead.

I want to hear from you and what you got to say this morning.

Thank you for calling into the wheelhouse.

> > Well, I just want to tell you that I went all Democrats all costs on eye.

I was told I couldn't.

Pamela Harris and mainland on the ballot I was well, take a said no, you can't just put Democrat and we'll play for you as I go.

Yeah.

Well, that being said I have another friend of mine who lives over mandate and he also did Putin.

Kamala Harris came to.

> > So you've voted for you voted for Kamala Harris who didn't vote for Donald Trump.

So people are mad in America about the results.

They can't blame.

Tim from Willimantic is what you're saying.

how are you doing Donald Trump's America here as a as we move on here and he's the president president elect a doing today.

> > Not good at all.

What I just heard that going to hire lady that loved ones and WWE play in Linda McMahon Yeah, I love education lady.

She has.

No, she has nothing to do with education.

She was a shoo-in.

The Board of Education for little while he went turn to Golan presented That's the only experience.

> > Tim, thank you so much for calling us this morning was so good to talk to and hear from you, Linda McMahon 4 years ago, John Moritz finishing up her run in the Small Business Administration Donald Trump Cabinet.

And it sounds like she's going to be back at least preliminarily so Tim from Willimantic shocked by that appointment, anything you want to react to from what you just heard from Tim or at least when Donald Trump assumes his presidency in January says he's going fulfill the promises he's made.

Remind us maybe of what some of those promises are.

> > Well, he has certainly made a lot of promise in throughout campaign.

Probably the biggest Most people buying.

The first thing people think of when they think of his campaign is promise.

For mass deportations.

And that was something that he repeated both on the campaign trail.

I was also actually written into the Republican Party policy platform that was adopted at the GOP convention and Milwaukee this summer.

I you know, looking a he's promised to repeal a Biden administration's electric vehicle mandates, which if you read our reporting in the last year, Connecticut.

Has reverted to following rather than some stricter mandates that of California.

So if you follow through on that, that certainly be an impact.

And Connecticut.

And then, you know, he's he's like all candidates.

He spoke a lot about taxes and his first administration I he passed a round of tax cuts that are set to expire next year.

So you know, whoever won the last election was going to have to deal with a big tax debate Washington next summer.

And that's certainly something that he and Congress will be looking at.

> > I'm trying not to rub my hands together here because it's going to look like I'm a gentleman that wants the world to burn or something like that.

But we talk about this major kind.

A paradigm shift in the country or major change at work if we have mass deportations, at least the way that our economy has worked Charles Bennett or Santiago on a couple of weeks ago here talking about the impact that Latinos talking about the impact that undocumented immigrants have on the economy and if some of these folks that are undocumented returned back to a different country and leave America, then we you would see an economy may be especially one that relies on the work of some of these undocumented immigrants, maybe even collapse.

And then when you're talking about taxes, we're not sure what the IRS is going to look like under Donald Trump.

So are the some of the same concerns that you're hearing about.

If we have mass deportation or if we have changes at these federal agencies, what it?

What are your thoughts here, John?

> > What you asked about talking to voters and out of the nest like Ali, Alex said, you know, we out last trading with people in the before that, you know, I talked with many Republican voters at the polls and pretty much to a person, every every Republican voter that I spoke to in the last couple weeks raised either the issue of immigration or the economy.

So I think that certainly some people, my on people's minds and for Donald Trump's voters.

That's a promise that they're going to be looking for him to fail.

And the next 4 years, my Sokoloff, there's a little bit more about this.

She reported recently the Connecticut has 110,000 undocumented workers.

So the plan that whatever he puts in place, a certainly going to have an impact not just throughout the country, but here in Connecticut.

> > Just recently followed the reporting of CBS News's John Dickerson saying that the bond markets in America concern about immigration.

And that's why you're seeing some of those futures markets struggling a little bit as we look toward a potential years.

Actually, it's coming with Donald Trump here in America.

Alex, we live in a majority Democrat state.

When I say that, I mean, they're almost doubled the number of active voters affiliated with the Democratic Party.

Then our Republican Party members in Connecticut and the congressional delegation is Aldie know ours.

But that doesn't mean that people here aren't impacted by Republican president.

Given what we just heard from John, what do you anticipate a second Donald Trump presidency will mean for people in Connecticut?

> > Yeah.

I mean there, you know, will be many impacts.

you know, some are obviously hard to anticipate, you know, is the Trump administration really going to impose large tariffs that could potentially increase prices on imported goods.

know, we'll kind of have to wait and see.

I think a big story and the next 4 years in Connecticut is going to be sort of the push and pull between state and local officials here in Connecticut then the federal government already, you know, the are.

> > Governor and our congressional delegation of kind of come out firing saying, you know, issue like like deportations.

We have a line going to get that says that state and local law enforcement cannot cooperate with ICE in.

> > Deporting commented immigrants and you know, Attorney General William Tong has said we're going enforce that law.

The ACLU has called on the state to even tightened that law further to make sure there are.

There is no circumstance under local or state law enforcement would cooperate with ICE and deportations.

Similarly, you know, a big part of the Trump campaign's message concerned about transgender rights, the name vilified transgender people in certain ways.

You know, those ads about, you know, sex changes for people in prison.

And a lot of talk about transgender athletes in sports.

What's going to happen with that?

If they change certain federal regulations, you know, the state, there will probably be an effort to protect trans rights to to whatever extent possible.

But that that kind of Bush and Colin, what can the federal government do and what can the state government prevent?

I think it's going to be next or Alex.

Let's stay here for second.

Well, on that point that you just made.

> > A lot of folks that were thinking about the results and weren't exactly happy with what happened.

They maybe wanted Kamala Harris a defeat.

Donald Trump.

> > For president maybe trying to cope with the results afterward telling folks that maybe it'll be fine.

They'd already made it through 4 years of a Trump administration.

For certain folks.

It won't necessarily be fine.

And why think about that is because what you just mentioned, I watch a lot of football, big San Francisco Forty-niners fan.

Every time I'm watching the games.

I'm seeing jokes about he she them pronouns and things like that.

As you just mentioned in those ads and talking about sex change operations and vilifying those, as you mentioned, as well.

So there are certainly people in this country that aren't going to be fine, including maybe athletes from Connecticut.

The choose to identify to a different gender to which they were at birth.

As we saw with that lawsuit, that was very popular among or I should say in for this among among the Trump administration 4 years ago with Betsy De Vos and the Department of Education threatening take money away from the state of Connecticut for their rules.

> > Yeah, I mean, I think that's a good example of you know, I we're up to the Trump administration.

I think that transgender girls would probably not be permitted to play girls sports as they are in Connecticut.

You know, they have also talked about, you know, other things cutting funding for schools teach what court transgender insanity.

They've talked about gender affirming care for minors.

I think a lot of that will be difficult.

I mean, we still have a separation between, you know, state powers and federal powers.

And I think ultimately you know, it would be hard for the Trump administration to to unilaterally, you know, tell states what to do in some of these areas.

However, to your point, I think is going to be issue.

We hear about a lot and I don't think.

You know, regardless of what the policy outcomes wind up being, I can imagine not being fun for a lot of transgender people to have to sort of like lived through.

It's sort of the politicization debate about sort of their very existence.

You know, I even in a psychological sense, it could be very difficult for years.

> > And we've already seen at the federal level here at least a rules change that was trying to be made here ahead of the advent of Sarah McBride is going to be the first transgender member of Congress to join her chamber.

But a fire.

A couple questions here Bong before we end the segment long before I ask you about something that's happening in Connecticut to protect folks against potential national restrictions I want to just kind of toss that you were talking about with tariffs and maybe something that became too hard for the Biden administration to manage.

We are certainly looking that because of the way the tariffs are because of some of the policies of the prior Trump administration.

It looks like inflation, at least experts are predicting that inflation will go back up and it certainly seemed like it was going down under Biden.

But the messaging didn't hit Americans.

Well, maybe maybe they thought that the administration wasn't necessarily giving them the message the right way maybe was bedside manner.

Whatever was they weren't understanding that inflation was going down.

What it what is your take on all that?

Why pay particular attention to > > photos that GOP to?

What he had to say about what he's expected.

I noticed that he talked bring in higher prices on the control and he also talked about controlling the border, but he did mention mass deportation.

Neither did he mention terrorists.

I think there's a feeling that these are not going to be good for the economy.

And so a lot of people try to still away from that.

And just say, well, he's going to he's going to make everything good.

But if you go into the details of what is being proposed economy.

There's no economists that says that this will be good for the economy in the long run.

And that's one of the reasons why the bond market has been down ever since election 2 weeks ago.

> > Many groups across the state have mobilized since Trump's victory, obviously.

And you kind of heard Alex and hit that that at least regarding the ACLU immigration, another front.

Reproductive rights, Connecticut, establishing a new abortion legal hotline.

Is that correct?

What's that hotline going to do?

And who's behind it?

> > Well, basically, attorney General William Tong is pretty much want to be point person dealing with Trump administration.

As a matter of fact, the Democratic attorneys general are getting together to try and have some type of unified to challenge a lot of the these proposals from the Trump administration.

dissipated, and dissipating.

A lot of this stuff William Tong was attorney general.

When.

Trump was in the first time.

So he says they have quite a bit of experience dealing with this so so what's what's going on with the hotline?

Is that it's really set up to help people from out of state who was to come to Connecticut and it will connect them with providers here.

And it will be able to tell them that, you know, give them pretty much.

the out of the approach, the regulations and and what they do if if they get to Connecticut and so basically Lincoln.

People who seeking services with providers and making sure that the providers understand what the noise.

> > It 8, 7, 2, 0, 9, 6, 7, 7, the number to call.

If you'd like to join in and talk to us today, maybe about some Trump policies that you're concerned with, maybe that you support may be voted for Donald Trump may be voted for Kamala Harris.

Maybe you stayed out of the race.

We want to hear your opinions, including one from Robin from Woodbury.

Robin, go ahead want to hear from you today on the wheel House.

Thank you for calling in.

> > Yes So we know that Washington is going step back climate and I guess my question would be 2 panelists to rethink Hartford will step up because we've seen lots of activities in New York State as well as in Massachusetts.

But connect it seems to be falling behind.

I mean it if we're going to take action on climate, it's going to have to be states stepping up now since we know Washington > > Alex, John Avlon, thank you won't.

so much, Robin, for calling in one of you want to take that?

I want to point out beforehand, maybe this will be the pivot point right away.

You saw a pretty much after the election was done.

Governor Ned Lamont saying we're going to ditch plans to try to go.

I think you find a new job.

I-95 go ahead and mandate was off the table the evening and it was off the table.

> > of spoken with the government couple of times since the election and he seems to have a wait and see kind that it's not going to be as bad as as we might anticipate because it's going to be difficult to do a lot of things that being proposed, for instance, gotten rid of the Department of Education.

Will we know that Linda McMahon has just nominated for Secretary of Education?

you she has a history with education in Connecticut.

But what this ad is the little push, a lot of the stuff to the states.

So what the government is more concerned about is Medicaid and the fact that we've expanded Medicaid in the state and we might have to carry a bigger show that if cutbacks room on the federal level I'm basically.

What he says is really seems to he's not up If you notice in California that having a special session and in Illinois, the governor is really taking a strong stand.

seems to be holding back a little bit.

His love of the forefront of this.

But at the same time, he says we've dealt with this before.

We have a track record here and we're prepared see how that goes.

But it's going to be a tough session this next legislative session because the there's going to be a lot of pressure to get rid of some of the guardrails in order to be able to make up some of the funding we might be losing from the federal government from Connecticut, public radio.

This is the wheelhouse.

Frankie Graziano, you listening to reporters have been Ma.

> > John Morton now it's part of Coming up.

We're going to continue our conversation on what 4 years of Donald Trump in the White House could potentially mean for Connecticut's residents.

Plus, we'll talk about some of Trump's most controversial cabinet picks.

Join the conversation.

8, 7, 2, 0, 9, 6, 7, 7, ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ > > Dot org.

> > This is the wheelhouse from Connecticut, public Radio.

I'm Frankie Graziano this hour.

We're taking a look at how Donald Trump's policies might impact.

Connecticut's residents and also diving into Trump's Cabinet picks.

So it's a good time to give you a head's up.

We'll be discussing allegations of sexual misconduct ahead.

Joined by Alex Permanent John Moritz reporters at CT Insider as well Dama.

Senior political reporter reporter for Wsh you.

You can join the conversation.

8, 8, 8, 720-9677.

Alex Governor Ned Lamont, like this liked of > > I have full full disclosure talking about a cabinet picks.

Linda McMahon.

on the board of Sacred Heart University for many years and Sacred Heart University's a licensee of wsh you just like to let that yes.

And so is opposing warmer guests on a Connecticut public television sports program that I produced and she was very happy to come on that program when she was that sh.

But long as you may know, wasn't very friendly to the media last time around when she was in the Trump administration.

I remember Susan Raff having to talk to or a colleague ours on the wheel house trying to get her on camera and that didn't necessarily happened she actually have the lowest profile of any cabinet member That's hard to do in that administration have aug. > > Hey, let's go to that in a second.

But I do want to ask Alex's question, Governor Ned Lamont's going to > > join us in the wheelhouse in the next few weeks.

Talk about the outcome of the presidential election.

Governor Lamont spoke in.

Has he spoken out about the state's stance on people who identify as transgender?

That was a group that Donald Trump some quite a few attacks at during his campaign for presidency.

> > Yes, the day after the election, the governor.

Made very clear that he doesn't intend to back down from defending transgender rights.

He came brought that one of the first things he said to quote, he they spent hundreds of millions of dollars mocking kids like this over the last 3 or 4 months.

And I just like to send a message here in Connecticut.

We love you.

We're all God's children.

Your friends want to see you in school tomorrow.

So, you know, take that for what it's worth.

you know, certainly kinetic.

It not sound like Connecticut will be passing sort you know, dramatic into a trance legislation like the federal government could be considered.

And speaking about health care at the top concern for Governor Lamont, right.

How might the Obama care system change over the coming years?

> > Yeah, I mean, that's huge question.

You know, even during the campaign, it was sort hard to tell exactly whether Republicans want to go through that fight again, trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act or whether you know it.

They tried mean in 2017, 2018 during the first Trump presidency and they were not successful.

You know, they could give it another go.

I think it would, you know, be polarizing.

A lot of people get there health insurance through the Affordable Care Act that would certainly be kind of a seismic You know, 126,000 people in Connecticut alone get health care through the Affordable Care So that would be giant think if they were go out now.

> > We have another caller into the wheelhouse this morning.

All we love the participation.

888-720-9677.

The number to call if you want to get on the line, Gerri, from Wyndham, Go ahead.

> > My good morning.

Thank Nice to talk to you this morning.

Actually out.

> > And you are talking about things that are directly relevant to myself.

I am transgender and I just recently started my journey.

And and, you know, have my health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

And my concern is, is at present the medications that I have to take in order to continue my journey are covered and I'm just what like I know.

You said Alex, that to the governor is is is concerned and he's put all behind it.

But what actions are we taking in the state legislature to assure that maybe a local Connecticut version of the ACA will will help people like myself.

And, you know, others that identify as something other than the bur, the sex that they were born.

> > Alex, before you take that question, let me thank you so much, Gerri, for calling us and we're thinking about you at this time.

Jerry, thank you so much.

Please keep in touch with Connecticut public.

I appreciate your phone call.

Go ahead, Alex.

> > Yeah, just a that's a really good question.

And I don't necessarily know the I will say that.

I think a big story in Connecticut's coming legislative session, which starts in February is going to be sort of different ways to to sort of you know, put up guardrails and protect against things that the Trump administration might try to do that that that Connecticut's state government might not like.

And I think there will be all sorts of proposals around that.

my advice to Jerry would be to get in touch with local legislators and raised that concern.

And, you know, for all we know there could be up lot, you know, directly as a result that advocacy.

that definitely interesting issue.

And something to watch.

> > And already talked about Linda McMahon as one Gavin and picked that you want to talk about when we got a couple of minutes left on the show.

John, is there is there one you want to point out here?

That you're thinking about?

> > Well, as far as you know, what our senators said, they've kind how the fire so to speak.

so far with one notable exception being Trump's promise to former Florida congressman.

That gets to the position of Attorney General.

Our senior U.S.

Senator D*** Blumenthal sits on the Judiciary Committee and within hours of that thick being announced last he was out publicly saying he did not think Matt, many.

The ball Cajuns for all and they'll be voting.

No, it's it's I mean or It looks like at this point Republicans will have 53 seats in the Senate so they can pass any Trump's Cabinet picks without any Democratic The key question will be whether they can prevent 3 of their own side crossing over in opposing any of these backs.

> > Everybody at about 35 seconds to give your final thoughts on Cabinet picks here.

Before we go to Alex.

> > And just like to mention old and from Long Island, who who's the EPA nominee for EPA he's been one who's been a a big climate change denied.

He wasn't that way when he was in Congress when he used to talk to us.

But the since the last Trump administration, he stopped talking with us.

So it's been hard to get get.

Get him on the phone but is somebody that at long is concerned about that.

Thank you so much for that.

He's also talking about Linda McMahon.

Really quickly, > > Yeah, I think we should mention Robert F Kennedy Junior has been nominated to lead you know, Health and Human Services, vaccine skeptic has proposed removing fluoride from drinking water.

I don't think about actually happening, Connecticut, but something to keep an eye on what he's able to that Alex, thank you so much.

> > Thank you so much to John and Alex who work at CT inside.

You can see their work at CT Insider Dot com and Dama senior political reporter at Wsa to thank you all for joining us this morning.

Today show produced by Chloe.

When edited by Robin do in a can or technical producers.

The meister Dylan race.

If you've got time, Connecticut public has a new seven-part podcast.

It's called Generation Barney.

Please listen to this podcast.

Please subscribe.

It's also about the media that shaped us.

You can listen on your favorite podcast app at CD, Public Dot Org.

Slash Barney and thank you so much for listening to the wheelhouse.

We'll see you next week.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ > > be frank.

It.

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