- [Jim] Coming up on this week's "A Lively Experiment".

Donald Trump is elected to a second term in a race that turned out to be not that close.

And how did Rhode Islanders vote in the presidential election?

- [Announcer] "A Lively Experiment" is generously underwritten by.

- Hi, I'm John Hazen White, Jr. For over 30 years, "A Lively Experiment" has provided insight and analysis of the political issues that face Rhode Islanders.

I'm a proud supporter of this great program in Rhode Island PBS.

- Joining us with the analysis: Joe Larisa, attorney and Former Governor Lincoln Almond's chief of staff; Brown University political science professor Wendy Schiller; and Bill Bartholomew, political contributor and founder of "The Bartholomewtown Podcast".

Hello and welcome to this week's "Lively".

I'm Jim Hummel.

Donald Trump defied the polls with a convincing electoral college victory.

And for the first time in his three elections, he won the popular vote in a race that was over by early Wednesday morning.

The post-mortem by the Democrats began almost immediately, while Trump is already getting ready to hit the ground running when he is sworn in about 10 weeks from now.

Wendy, simple question.

Why did Kamala Harris come up so short?

- Well, I mean, I think she ran the best campaign she could have run given the Biden administration record and the mistakes the administration made in terms of campaigning and winning re-election.

They should have closed the border a year and a half ago, not last June.

They should have worked harder to show they were concerned about inflation.

And things like student loan forgiveness, they kept rolling out new student loan forgiveness programs when people who didn't go to college were trying to pay their car loans, pay their mortgage, keep their families intact in very difficult economic times for inflation.

And so, people said, "Wait a minute.

Why are you giving all that stuff away to other people?"

And this was the suburban voters that defected from Trump in 2020 and went back to Trump in 2024, were saying to the Democrat Party, "It's enough.

Do something for me."

And I just think with the record of the Biden administration, there was just nowhere for her to go on that.

- [Jim] Joe?

- Yeah, I agree with Wendy.

And this was a repudiation of the elites in the United States favoring illegal immigrants over everyday Americans.

They see millions and hundreds of millions dollars spent on housing and no stopping it.

And they see apartment complexes taken over by illegal immigrants.

Meanwhile, our people are suffering and they don't have housing.

And they basically said enough.

Inflation was out of control, and the big focus of the Democrats, abortion.

And they thought that would carry the day.

But people cared more about their pocketbooks, economic security, and safety in America, and Donald Trump spoke to them over and over and over again.

And amazingly, it was despite the media and all the things they said about him and all the negativity, the Nazi fascist stuff, the deplorables, the garbage, just no, we're not.

And they went out and vote in droves.

- Well, I agree with some of the sentiment echo here.

I think at the end of the day, what you saw was a population that said, "Hey, we're hurting."

And for whatever reason, through both a messaging campaign by the Trump campaign, by propaganda that was extremely effective, even hearing just there that, you know, you've got illegal immigrants taking over apartment complexes.

It didn't matter if Donald Trump was a convicted felon.

It didn't matter January 6th.

What mattered was Donald Trump was able to communicate to Joe and Mary Public across this country that he was a better representative for their interests on a day-to-day basis and the Democrats simply were not.

- [Jim] I also...go ahead.

- No, I just wanna clarify on abortion.

The interesting thing to me about abortion is that with the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and sending it back to the states, what the Democrats underestimated was that people now view it as a state issue.

And so, in that sense, they worried about whether they had access to reproductive rights in their states.

Seven out of 10 states adopted protections for the right to reproductive choice.

Seven out of 10, including Missouri, one of the reddest states in the country.

So, where the Democrats didn't calculate was that at the same time they were saying, "We'll do this at the federal level," most people were worried about state laws on abortion.

And there, there were a lot of victories, including Arizona, where Trump won by a hundred thousand votes.

They reaffirmed the right to reproductive choice in Arizona.

So I think abortion is not so simple.

I think the Democrats just underestimated the extent to which people now view it as a state issue, not a federal issue.

- But they didn't reach the 60% threshold in Florida, because it was a 60% threshold.

- Well, Florida's legislature set that rule.

Whereas Ohio, they had to put that rule before the state and in a referendum say, "Oh, we're gonna raise this to 60% to change anything."

And Ohio rejected that 60% level, and then voted to protect the right to reproductive choice.

So, I think this is interesting, and it's a little bit of a warning sign to the Republicans going forward.

Leave it alone, right?

Leave it alone.

People have decided it's a state issue, don't go after it if it's protected at the state level.

- [Jim] You mean in terms of a federal ban?

- Yeah, a federal ban.

Because then, you might see a very different result in 2026 midterms.

- That's what Donald Trump said during the debate.

That was his defense.

"We're not outlawing anything.

It's a state issue.

I'm not gonna sign a federal ban, and it's working as it should."

And on the state issue, it's not reproductive rights all through nine months, unlimited abortion.

Those referendum are different.

Some are fetal viability, and then none.

Not even health of the mother.

Some are, Florida's a six weeks complete ban.

So there's different bans around the country, and it's what the voters in each state want- - No, it's what the majority of voters in each state want, - Yes.

- first of all, and second, and women are in fact, I don't wanna get into huge abortion fight with you, but women are in fact dying because of not clarity in the law.

I'm not saying- - Completely disagree with that.

I think that's fake news.

We can do a debate.

- No, it's not fake.

- It's fake.

- It's not fake news that three women in Texas have died because doctors were worried about giving them particular kinds of care in a complicated pregnancy.

- I read those cases and they should sue the hospitals.

It's not the law that did it, but that's not for today.

- And this may very well just be the beginning of what is the undoing of protections for women, for trans folks, for anybody who is, you know, outside of the white male bubble.

And that's what is extremely disturbing on a cultural level here in this country.

The fact that you can get off a different highway exit, and that determines the type of healthcare that you can receive if you're a woman, it's outrageous and it's something that, frankly is embarrassing for this country at this point.

- I think the woke left agenda is part of what did Kamala end.

- The abortion is not- - Sex change operations for trans- - Excuse me, the woke left agenda has nothing to do with abortion, and it also has nothing to do with people who don't conform to the standard gender identification that maybe you believe in.

But these are facts, these are real people, and so scaling back their rights is wholly un-American.

And it's not a woke agenda, it's common decency.

- [Jim] But I also think- - They playing in women sports is not what the majority of America wants and that's not gonna happen anymore.

- How many scenarios have you encountered where you've got, as you say, men, let's say trans women- - I'll say biological men.

- Okay.

- Yeah, but you have to admit that I think on this issue, the suburban voters said no, right?

I mean, this was an issue - Because they did it.

- that was, I think in a campaign strategy, overemphasized by the Biden administration and Democratic party and suburban parents, suburban voters said, you know, "Rights are one thing, but we want our daughters or our sons to be able to play a sport that is for biological sons and daughters."

Whether you agree with that position or not, that is what the reaction of voters.

That's one of the takeaways from this election.

- [Joe] We wanna protect women.

- Democrats have to keep that in mind.

They have to think about sort of, you know, what is the balancing act that they do politically here?

Does it have to extend to sports teams?

Can it be a civil rights measure rather than sports teams?

And as far as sex change operations, I think that's where taxpayer dollars for that also tripped up the Democrats.

So it's not about outlying it, I don't think Republicans - [Joe] No.

- are gonna try to outlaw it entirely.

- [Joe] No.

- They're just saying that because the majority of America may not support this, their tax dollars shouldn't go to that.

That is the federal government's policy on abortion, by the way.

The Hyde Amendment's still in effect that no federal dollars can go to pay for abortion.

So, there are compromises that have to be reached and that's where the Democrats have to recalculate.

- Well, here's the thing.

- Agreed.

- That actually is probably all fair, and it's very true that this was a campaign issue.

This was an effective campaign issue.

But how many instances of, as you say, biological men competing in women's sports have actually popped up around this country and when you scale that with the actual issues impacting people's day-to-day lives.

I spoke with Senator Whitehouse yesterday and he said exactly what I think which is, while Democrats were going around the country patting, this is his words, patting people on the head saying, "Hey, we passed the CHIPS and Sciences Act and the Inflation Reduction Act," Republicans were breaking things, and people wanted things to be broken.

Now, those issues that are being attacked in this break things manner by Republicans are actually issues that are apolitical.

They're just survival issues, and Democrats miss the mark by appearing to be completely out of touch with average everyday Americans.

- And but don't you also think when you talk about climate change and things that are kind of for the long run, if you're paying $70 for a bag of groceries and you look, I think it wasn't just Kamala Harris, it was a lot of the Democrats in general, people are like, "I want change."

No matter how much distant she put herself between her and Biden, that was kind of a brick around her neck.

What I was surprised that the Democrats didn't do more was to say, "The Supreme Court is in play for a very long time.

And you're 20, I'm almost 65.

Your 20, 25, 30.

The decisions that are made in the next four years are gonna affect your life for a long time."

- Never, ever resonates.

I've been watching these elections since 1980s, - [Jim] Why is that?

Why is that?

- The Supreme Court's not an issue because most people, and Thomas Jefferson said this in his presidency, you got nine people sitting on the court.

It's an oligarchy, what is the system?

People do not equate what the Supreme Court does with the quality of their life.

And when you think about inflation, the other thing that the Biden administration failed to do maybe because of Biden's communication capacity in this past year, is that inflation has been coming way down.

It's 2.6%, it's not 9% anymore.

This just really reminds me of the George Herbert Walker Bush election in 1992, when the economy started to improve in the spring of 1992 and he couldn't get out of that.

Like, people said, "Oh, it's the economy, the economy," but in fact, it was getting better on all indicators earlier in that campaign year and he's still lost.

So I think that's a problem.

I don't think if Biden have gotten out it would've made a difference, and here's why.

I don't think any Democrat could have won the nomination not on the issues that Kamala Harris was stressing.

This is a party box.

- Do you think that most Trump voters are thinking prices are gonna come down?

I know inflation, but my bag of groceries is now gonna be 50 bucks rather than...

But that's deflation.

- No, no, here's the problem with inflation.

Wendy's a 100% right that inflation is down.

But what everybody's missing, it's too late.

Yes, inflation rate is down, - [Bill] Right.

- but everything doubled in price already.

- [Jim] And it's not coming down.

- Right, right, but the problem was, you're paying $3 for a can of soup that I used to pay a dollar for.

All these things are way up.

People go to the market, like this $70 bag of groceries was 40.

So yes, now it's only going up by 3%, it's already done.

- So what does the Trump voter, and I heard some interviews say, you know, it's gonna come down, gas is gonna be half of what it is.

I mean, gas is- - Well, gas is fine.

- [Jim] No, what I'm saying is gas is 2.75.

- No, but I hear you.

- [Jim] What it's gonna be?

- Frankly, the truth is it's already started.

You go to fast food places, the prices, you can't go to McDonald's for $12 and buy lunch times four kids anymore.

They've got these specials, the price at the supermarket, they're already re-adjusting to the market.

And I think that's gonna increase with Trump coming into office.

- Well, these are lagging indicators whenever you're talking about economics.

There's no doubt about it.

- Exactly.

- But look, I mean, when you talk about inflation, yeah, it stinks.

No question about it.

But what were we supposed to do?

We would've seen an unprecedented economic collapse during the pandemic if cash wasn't infused $2.5 trillion- - Which started in the Trump administration.

The first two payments were Trump and the raising of the unemployment subsidy.

- [Jim] But the third round was a mistake.

- The Inflation Reduction Act is what caused the inflation.

I've been saying that.

- And that may be debatable, and that may be very well, - Yeah.

- at least on a surface level, why Democrats weren't able to get a message that resonates.

Here's the thing, though.

I mean, when you talk about the prices of goods and services, you're talking about, a lot of it anyway, is corporate controlled.

And that is, it's a space that is apolitical.

Corporations oftentimes are taking advantage of the environment that we're currently in.

And that's why you're seeing a lot of prices that are being dramatically increased while inflation has been reduced to 2.9, 2.6%.

The American people are being frankly screwed by corporations, by and large, in so many different ways.

- And they're elites, too.

So your remark about the elites.

- Yep.

- East Coast, West Coast elites, I don't disagree with that necessarily.

But the idea that all elites were defeated, nuh-uh.

There's a lot of elites with a lot of money.

They're pretty happy.

We saw the stock market futures trading.

Like, the minute Trump was, like, won, everything just exploded.

And I do think, going back to this, it is a time for the Democrats, we saw this in 1988 when Dukakis got sort of blown out by George Herbert Walker Bush and the Democrats were surprised by that, they pivoted and they picked Bill Clinton who had very different policy positions.

And I do think the deficit that, you know, all that stuff.

Now, does the Trump administration take what they've got and not mess it up?

This is the big question.

- Well, I said the same thing in 2016 and it looks, would you agree the House is probably gonna go Republican?

We're taping on - [Wendy] Yes.

- a Friday morning.

- I looked and check this morning and they're already at 211, 199.

They're gonna go Republican.

- I said in 2016, look, they've got the keys to the car.

Let's see what they can do.

And if they don't, what did the midterms do?

In 2018, then it flipped.

- They did well.

The irony of 2018, this is what I mean about don't mess it up and we talked about this a little bit, is that the administration, the Trump administration got the tax cut passed.

They imposed pretty hefty tariffs.

You know, the 25% tariffs, he's not gonna do that high again.

But the economy was still very good in 2018.

It was his rhetoric, his social positions, the tumult, the chaos, the Me Too Movement; that's what undid them in terms of the House elections in 2018.

So the Republicans have to be looking to 2026.

How do they preserve their victory and preserve their majority?

And that's where I expect to see some clashes with the Trump administration in the next two years.

The different incentives Congress has from the President.

- What you say on the campaign trail and what you do obviously are two different things.

That's true for every president.

Barack Obama learned pretty quickly.

He wanted to end the war, and then he got briefings from the generals.

I wonder how much you think of what Trump said about mass deportations, tariffs, all of the things that he talked about are actually gonna become reality.

- He gonna keep his promises, especially when he's got the House.

The mass deportations is happening, that's number one.

Hispanics, unbelievable support for Donald Trump, all the way across the board.

A town on the border, which overwhelmingly was for Biden, flipped for actually voting for Trump.

They care about security, Americans do.

"Deport the illegals," they said.

Now, everybody's saying, "Oh, 15 million's illegals?"

No, as the vice president said, let's start with the million criminals.

Let's start with them, deport them, and let's see where we go.

Here's where it's gonna end up, Jim- - Oh wait, wait.

So you just said he was gonna deport, he was gonna keep his promise, deport 15 million.

Now you said he is only gonna go after a million?

- When Trump speaks, and this is what I think, you can't take everything literal.

It's kinda like the Bible.

He's gonna do what he said, but it may not get all the way there.

Republicans have always said, and this is Bush, we'll do reform on the border.

We'll do that, but the first thing has to be security.

Close the border, then let's talk about what we do with people here.

And the criminals are the easy ones.

Get the criminals out, they shouldn't be here.

Then you get to the ones with family here, long-term here, we can talk about that.

And Trump will.

He's got a Congress to deal with, but first he's gonna close the border, he's gonna deport the illegals, and then let's have a big conversation.

- Just for the record, Biden closed the border on terms of migration in June.

And border crossings have dropped to like almost minuscule numbers now.

- But as you said at the beginning, he should have- - He should have done it a year and a half ago.

- Three years ago.

- [Wendy] No, yeah.

- Final thought on that, and then I wanna ask about Rhode Island.

- All right, so I mean, there's just so much there.

The logistics of deporting undocumented immigrants, I mean, let's get real here.

I mean, it's a total joke that this is even something that comes up.

And in terms of should people have been allowed in mass to come into this country not through the process that's been put forth?

No.

Is the process to come into this country and become a citizen extremely difficult and expensive?

Yes.

Do many immigrants come here through LAX and Boston Logan and overstay their visas and stay here from Anglo countries?

Yes.

Is this a culture war issue more than a practical issue?

Absolutely, and that's just one piece of you say, "Well, you can't take Trump at his word.

It's like the Bible."

This is the President of the United States.

You ought to be able to take the guidance word in everything that he says.

The world is supposedly watching what we do.

The bottom line is Democrats need to readjust everything that they believe in.

Look, Bernie Sanders had unbelievable, you wanna talk about unbelievable support.

Bernie Sanders had unbelievable support at the same populous level that Donald Trump did.

Sanders beats Trump, no doubt about it.

What doesn't win is, and you can laugh, but the average everyday person in America.

They want healthcare.

They want education, all right?

They want common decency in this country.

Democrats didn't hit any of those points.

Republicans do it in a propaganda's way through x.com and Joe Rogan.

They were able to communicate to white males that, you know what, everybody else is here to hurt you and if you want prosperity back, you better get rid of them.

That's the mentality that's been dominated.

- Let me just ask quickly.

Rhode Island, it was a 13 point gap.

I was refreshing the Board of Elections thing, and at one point, Harris was only leading by five or six points.

And I thought that's it, and then the mail ballots came in later and it was a 13 point gap.

Was Rhode Island reflective of the rest of the country?

Were you surprised that it was that close?

- No, I mean, I thought the first time was 40% for Trump, the second time was 34%.

So I thought it'd be somewhere around 40, or, I mean, I wasn't super surprised for that 42%.

- [Jim] 42% - A very important statistic, and to your point is, the majority of people who self-identify as Latino in this country are now born here.

So the percentage of all Latinos, the majority of those are born here and view themselves as Americans, not immigrants.

So it's not that surprising anymore that Latinos would vote for a program that says close the border.

They're born here and they want to be included as Americans.

- And they came in legally and they don't like the illegals.

- No, no, they're born here.

My point is that people who're voting now are born here.

They didn't come here, they're born here.

So, that's something everybody's gotta get used to, is that the majority of people who self identity as Latino are born in the United States now.

So that's a really important new figure that the Democrats I think didn't really get their head around.

And that matters a lot.

And small business things matter.

And taxes matter, particularly in Rhode Island, right?

We have a very large Latino small business community, it matters a lot.

- [Jim] Final word, - Absolutely.

- [Jim] nationally.

- Nationally, here's the question for the Democrats.

They talk about change and reflection.

The Democrats are a radical crew.

Kamala and her running mate are radical.

All their positions; sex change, operations paid for by the taxpayers, for illegal open borders, defund the police; those are all out of Kamala's mouth.

And the radical ring of the Democratic party still believes that.

That's why they couldn't take back their position.

That's why, Jim, you said Kamala has to distance herself, and she didn't do it.

They asked her the question, what policies would you do different than the president?

None, so not only did she not distances, she kept herself with that.

Can the Democrats change in light of the radical left-wing groups in their party that won't let them do it?

And I can add the Hamas pro groups in that group.

- Wait, give me one Democrat that's pro Hamas.

That's outrageous.

- Outrageous?

- Give me one pro Hamas.

Give me a name.

- All they're doing is asking for a ceasefire.

They're supporting Columbia students rioting, and with the Democrats- - Who's they?

- [Wendy & Bill] Who's they?

- Who's they?

- The Democrats in New York.

- What Democrats?

What Democrats in New York?

- That's an outrageous statement.

- They've all a unity.

I mean- - When?

AOC, the Crew, there you go.

Three Democrats right there.

- It's the Squad, not the Crew.

- Okay, the Squad.

Whatever.

(panel speaking all at the same time) - No, no, no, she pivoted back.

She actually affirmed support for Israel.

She sort of got on the bus.

- Well, but there's a huge difference between being pro Hamas - And affirming support for Israel, yeah.

- and standing up for what is one of the all time catastrophes that's happening right now in Gaza.

- You have to admit that the images of the protest hurt the Democratic party.

There isn't any question about that.

- Sure, 'cause they were propagandized by- - Well, it doesn't matter.

The point is, you have thousands and thousands of people marching the streets of D.C. with Hamas flags or a Palestinian flags- - No, no, not a single Hamas flag.

That's a huge distinction.

- Bill, it's really important for the Democratic party to wake up on this issue.

The majority of Americans reacted badly to that.

It is one other issue that hurt the Democrats.

It did, I mean, what happens next though?

- [Joe] From the river to the sea, what's that?

- But what happens next is really important because the Republicans have the equal potential to go way off the ranch and go radical in denying rights and persecuting using the law, going after people, violating free speech, arresting people.

If Donald Trump goes off the ranch and becomes really a scary individual, you and I are gonna be having a conversation two years from now where I'm gonna be saying about the Republicans what you are saying about the Democrats and they're gonna lose those 2026 midterms.

So they have to be careful not to go off the ranch themselves.

- All right, I'd love to continue this for another two hours, but there's one thing, while we have Joe here, I do wanna talk about.

Maybe we'll continue this out in the hall afterwards and set up some microphones.

We will run it as a PBS fundraiser.

The Washington Bridge.

Joe, last time you write at an interesting analysis on the lawsuit why we weren't going after more state workers.

Major development, Max Wistow has pulled out.

What do you read into that?

He was one of the lead attorneys, now he says, "I don't wanna go forward with this," and they brought in somebody else.

- I couldn't get any.

It's a really close kept secret.

- No intel from Joe Larisa?

Come on.

- I know, I tried, I tried.

I don't know if it's on the merits.

It could be.

The only intel I had is the interaction between Max and the Department of Transportation was not going well at all- - Yeah, duh, 'cause they're not giving any information out and Alviti has not been forthright and forthcoming with the Rhode Island voters.

- Well here's, and we talked about this last time.

They're not going to.

Why?

It's not nefarious.

It's because it protects the tens of millions of dollars in the lawsuit.

Did DOT screw up here?

Absolutely.

How much did they screw up?

In Rhode Island, they could have screwed up 90%, 75%, and the case is still were tens of millions of dollars because you base it on how much liability the other guy screwed up.

So that's why Max was able to go after the suit.

But you don't wanna put out there discipline against DOT, "Oh my god, they missed this."

You're making the case for the other side.

Now, that's public policy.

Will the taxpayers deserve to know?

Absolutely.

So do you give up on the case and just get the info out there and fire everybody at DOT, or do you wait at a long time till the discovery's over, the depositions are over, and as we talked about last time there's not gonna be a trial here.

There's never will.

They're gonna settle.

- No, you start with Alviti.

I'll let Bill go, - Go ahead.

- but you start with Alviti.

You don't fire everybody at DOT.

People take orders in a bureaucracy, and the head of the bureaucracy is ultimately responsible, which is Peter Alviti.

And he's gotta own up to that responsibility, which he has not yet done.

- Maybe Mr. Alviti will retire on, you know, be encouraged to retire.

But I agree that if he's terminated, then you put yourself in jeopardy of appearing culpable.

And look, this is a failure of government the likes of which we've never seen.

It's gonna be the story of the decade.

Now what's gonna happen with the open eastbound span?

You've got twice as much vehicular traffic going over it.

You wanna talk about a legacy problem in this state.

For all the good work that Peter Alviti's done on, you know, being transparent with you, Jim, on The Hummel Report.

He comes down with Gene Valicenti and does the call in shows, great work on other bridges.

He'll be remembered.

Peter Alviti will go down as the guy who was at the head of the DOT when this despicable failure of government happen.

- And I think that's tough for him to swallow because of all that other work, but that really doesn't matter.

- [Bill] Yeah.

- Just quickly, 'cause I do wanna get to outrageous quickly.

Max Wistow is a smart guy.

Did he not see this train coming down the track?

Or do you think it's that bad that he's not getting information that he's pulling out?

- No, I don't know.

I'm not ready to say that he saw the case and it was really bad for the state and he wanted out, because I don't think that's the case.

- [Jim] Okay.

- Again, if it's 10%, he's got a case for 10 million, $20 million still that he can bring.

I think it might have just been a personality conflict, a dispute within DOT of how to go forward.

I just, I don't get it.

- Okay, quickly, we only have three minutes left, so let's go to outrageous.

Wendy, let's start with you.

- I'm still a broken record on this.

I just think Dan McKee and Peter Alviti have ignored an extraordinary problem and not really come up with good solutions, and just basically let it go and now they're stonewalling and not telling the voters in Rhode Island why they have to spend an extra half hour a day in traffic.

And it's got extraordinary consequence for the development of Providence, of the East Bay.

It's so important, he should be on it every single day, Dan McKee.

What else is he doing and why isn't he on this?

You know, I actually think maybe the lawyer thought, "There's some ethical issues here and I don't wanna get bogged down to some ethical issues if they're not telling me the truth."

But all I know is that this is a colossal failure of leadership and I don't understand what else Dan McKee is doing.

- [Jim] Mr. Larisa, what do you have this week?

- I have kudos!

- [Jim] Kudos?

- Kudos to the American people.

- [Jim] Okay.

- They didn't keep us up for days on end- - [Jim] Half the American people.

- I say, I'm looking at it as what they actually did in the end.

They voted overwhelmingly for Trump.

All groups greatly increased; Blacks, Latinos.

They didn't make us stay up with a general tie and we're gonna be up for days waiting for the count.

They gave us a Congress, Senate, and House that are Republican.

And they gave a verdict, a very clear verdict.

And the kudos is we've gotta come together now as a country, left-wing, right-wing, and move forward.

So I got for my good liberal friend Bill a compromise towel.

It's got their Trump Wanted sign with four president underneath.

- [Jim] Show that to the camera.

- There we go.

I don't know what camera it is.

But it's got the Trump conviction and Wanted for President.

I'm gonna present this to Bill.

- [Jim] I'm sure Bill will use that regularly.

- There we go.

I don't know where he'll use it, but there it is.

- [Jim] You got 45 seconds and the last word.

- Very quickly, I was at Quonset yesterday for the christening of the first hybrid ferry that was built here in Rhode Island.

The first hybrid ferry nationally that was built in Rhode Island.

- [Jim] Diesel and electric.

- Exactly, well they're gonna build the first electric one and they're gonna have it ready to go for the first of the year.

The intersection of the green economy, the blue economy, manufacturing, the stop and shop ham sandwich, lunch pail economy, right?

And infrastructure, on and on it goes.

And when people talk about it, they moan and groan about we're not doing anything in Rhode Island.

We don't have our act together.

Tell that to the men and women who are at Quonset who built that vessel and the people who supported that.

Rhode Island can be a leader in the blue economy.

It already is.

We need to quadruple down on that sector.

It's manufacturing and it's good for the earth.

- All right folks, I do wish we had about an hour today.

Thank you so much, Joe.

Good to see you and Wendy, and Bill, we'll see where you're gonna use that towel this week.

It's not over yet.

We have a lot to go mopping up from the election.

We'll be back here next week with all of it as "A Lively Experiment" continues.

We hope you join us here next week.

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