There was no shortage of finger-pointing among the chattering classes after Donald Trump’s election. But now, as the dust settles and 2024 comes to a close, it’s high time for some soul-searching and reflection. That’s the goal of this year’s final episode of Inside the Hive, which is also the last episode that I will be hosting after having returned to CNN earlier this year as chief media analyst. On the episode, I’m joined by Hive editor Michael Calderone and executive editor Claire Howorth to unpack what they got wrong in 2024 as well as the lessons they can take into next year. That, as Howorth points out, means redefining what actually constitutes “alternative media,” which unexpectedly proved to be instrumental in turning out new parts of Trump’s base. Political charisma and celebrity also can’t go underestimated, Calderone adds, noting that Democrats should strive to elevate leaders who can communicate effectively in a variety of formats. “The next person,” he says, “is gonna need star power.”
Of course, it won’t just be Democrats tasked with leading the resistance; the media, too, will have a big responsibility to its audience: “We’re normalizing Trump in the sense that we’re covering him as a president-elect and the president,” as Calderone explains, “but we’re also pointing out when norms are being flouted and when institutions are being stretched. For instance, this past weekend, his musing about [ending] birthright citizenship I think is an example of where the media, yes, is calling out that this would be a radical change in the Constitution. And so we need to be clear on the norms being broken—but not start this administration questioning whether Donald Trump is the president or not. He is the president. He was elected.”
Another challenge for the media—and Democrats, for that matter—will be fighting the rising tide of sexism that Trump fueled and that likely contributed to Kamala Harris’s loss. Misogyny is “reasserting itself and its supremacy,” as Howorth argues. “I don’t really care who disagrees with me. I think there’s no way of reckoning with Harris’s loss without understanding she is a woman, she is a Black woman…. Let’s talk about whether or not it would be insane for Democrats to run a woman a third time.”
Next year Inside the Hive will return with an all-new format to cover Trump 2.0.
