In the final stretch of the presidential campaign, both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have appeared on several lifestyle and comedy podcasts in a bid to humanize themselves. On the latest episode of Impromptu, three of our columnists — Charles Lane, Molly Roberts and Perry Bacon — listened to both of the candidates’ various appearances to see if this gamble will pay off.
Use the audio player or The Post’s “Impromptu” podcast feed to listen to the entire conversation.
Podcast episode
Charles Lane: What was your impression of Trump on these podcasts? Was it any different from the impression you form from other venues?
Perry Bacon: As [someone who is] openly not a Trump fan, I found these podcasts to be interesting — they humanized him. There were a lot of questions about him being a parent, what his relationship with his kids was like. Trump loves his kids, as everyone does. But he discussed it in some detail. That was interesting.
[In “This Past Weekend”] with Theo Von, there was a long discussion about Trump’s brother and how he was addicted to alcohol, and how that’s in part why Trump doesn’t drink. I assume some people knew that. I didn’t know a lot about that. And that was actually a pretty detailed, interesting, revealing — a kind, empathetic side of Trump.
There were no new facts about public policy. But I got a sense of how Trump sees the world. This podcast definitely made me more favorably inclined to Trump than I usually am. So it definitely worked in that sense.
Molly Roberts: Yeah, it was one of the only times I had heard Trump so engaged. He was talking about UFC, which he appears to be a big fan of and knows a lot about. He was talking about the first fight he ever saw, and he seemed to have this vivid memory in his head about it. And it wasn’t just a story about him. It was a story about two great fighters fighting — not him fighting, which is usually what we hear about.
And then he was really interested in Von through that vehicle of his brother and his brother’s struggles with addiction. He was asking Von about his own addiction. And he even didn’t want to talk about policy. Later, when he was supposed to be talking about opioid policy, he wanted to pivot back to Von’s addiction. It just sounded like a real person. And not just a real person, but an interested person. To hear him talk about anyone but himself was fascinating.
Listen to the full conversation here:
