Top Political Reporters Talk 2020 Election So Far — and What’s Ahead

Even without a global pandemic, the 2020 presidential election would have been strange, but with it, political reporters at major news outlets are facing a year they never could have conceived.

“In a word, covering this campaign season has been bizarre,” Mary Bruce of ABC News said. “Truly, truly bizarre.”

She is one of the more than a dozen reporters and journalists covering the White House or politics that spoke to WWD about their experiences reporting on this election, compared to previous years, and what they expect to come of it.

With no campaign buses, months of little to no plane rides and the general lack of a campaign trail, all have had to adapt without the in-person meetings political reporting in an election year typically demands.

“It’s so hard to get your finger on the pulse sometimes when you can’t be out on the road all the time,” added Maeve Reston, national political reporter at CNN.

Less than a week out from Election Day, coverage is not even close to being over. Most reporters are expecting the result of the election to take at least several days to be decisive. Some are even expecting “months,” citing President Trump’s refusal on several occasions to agree to a peaceful transition of power should he lose. He and former vice president Joe Biden have already appointed large legal teams in preparation for a contested election.

“I’m packing my patience,” Kelly O’Donnell of NBC News, said.

“I’m planning my November calendar as though there will be some major news stories,” is how Ashley Parker of The Washington Post put it.

“It’s 50-50 between [having a good idea on Election Night], and does everything turn into a vastly partisan hellscape,” Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast said.

When there is, officially, a victor, there’s still further uncertainly that the result will be accepted by citizens. Margaret Brennan of CBS and “Face the Nation” said the idea that people will refuse to believe whomever won the election actually won is “one of the things that worries me the most.”

Lois Beckett, a reporter for The Guardian, got more to the point.

“For nearly the past year, I’ve been interviewing Americans who are suddenly talking about their fears of a civil war,” she said. “Not that it’s necessarily coming right now, but that it’s a real possibility, something that might happen in their lifetimes.”

Here, reporters from top news outlets told WWD about the election so far, and what they see coming still:

Kelly O’Donnell, White House correspondent, NBC News

How have your personal coverage plans changed this presidential election compared to previous elections you’ve covered?

My campaign travel bag now contains a big pack of masks so I always have a fresh one handy — that’s a new one for reporting in 2020. We are all adjusting and learning to shout questions through the mask, adding physical distance and regular testing to our routines but getting the story is as important as ever.

While we all miss things changed by the pandemic, I miss the wild ride of typical campaign coverage that becomes a physical endurance test of endless travel, too much coffee and a joyful journey with colleagues. Telling the story of this campaign feels and looks different but my drive to get at the issues, factors and forces that shape the outcome is only ramped up by the difficult circumstances of this remarkable year.

Have you been doing much on-the-ground reporting around the election or mainly virtual, or by phone and text? Has it had a significant impact on your ability to report?

My assignments have kept me on the move. In a “work-from-home” year, we have stayed on the trail with shorter bursts of travel.

When the President restarted his rallies back in June after a break under COVID-19 restrictions, I headed to Tulsa, Okla. Since then, I have driven to assignments more than ever before but I am also flying commercially and aboard Air Force One to cover the President.

The phone never stops, of course, and I have relied more on virtual interviews for some of my reports, which is a big change. I always feel I get a deeper understanding or gain a new insight when I go to campaign events in person. The opportunity for time with the President and his top advisers on the road is also valuable. The President likes to spar with reporters and that responsibility means I have to be ready with tough, sharp questions that deliver news.

Come Election Day, how long do you think it will take for there to be a decisive winner?

I am packing my patience for election results. The surge of mail-in ballots, patchwork of state procedures and the potential for legal challenges could make for a longer wait for results. That is hard on everyone.

After election night 2000, I flew the next morning to Florida and stayed for weeks covering the recount. Thanksgiving came and went. We added Christmas decorations to our makeshift workspace and we stayed on the story until mid-December, when the race was finally resolved. Election Day may not be the final destination this year. No one on our team has made November vacation plans.

Whatever the final result is, do you think the country on the whole will accept it?

My hope is that our reporting role will provide voters and our viewers with tools they need to understand the results and find acceptance with any outcome. That means we must drill down on every issue about the accuracy and fairness of the election process and tell the stories of voters who invested so much of themselves in their desired result.

Margaret Brennan, “Face the Nation” moderator, senior foreign affairs correspondent, CBS

How have your personal coverage plans changed this presidential election compared to previous elections you’ve covered?

Nothing about 2020 was expected. Everything changed. For us on the show, we’ve been dedicating more to in-depth policy interviews with experts. Health experts. Economic experts. Less of the horse race. In the past few weeks we’ve been doing more on the horse race, per se, but about exactly what the pathways could be for a presidential win. And we’ve been looking at what drives people in their decisions. We’ll respond to the moment, but none of these issues we’re currently grappling with will disappear in November or January, when the President, whoever it is, is inaugurated, We’ll still be dealing with them as a country and we’re not going to suddenly pretend we’re back to zero.

Have you been doing much on-the-ground reporting around the election or mainly virtual, or by phone and text? Has it had a significant impact on your ability to report?

So much of how we even produce the show has had to change. The public has gotten used to seeing Zoom screens. But there is something that’s lost when you’re not face to face with someone and feel the energy and make eye contact.

But I did a voter focus group and it turned out to be a fascinating conversation. Maybe we’re just at a point in the pandemic where we’re just past the fourth wall. People were pretty conversational. I was thinking it would be an inhibition and it wasn’t.

Come Election Day, how long do you think it will take for there to be a decisive winner?

At CBS we’re preparing for this to take a while. But we also know that we will have plenty of detailed information we’ll be sharing on Election Day and into the night.

With mail-in voting in states where they can’t begin tabulating until Election Day, those results will take a while. Just knowing what we do so far, everything can look very different in a day’s time. People voting by mail are predominantly Democrats, for instance. We may have a good sense early Nov. 4, but we may not.

Whatever the final result is, do you think the country on the whole will accept it?

You have hit the nerve. One of the things that worries me the most is exactly that. We’ve spent some time worrying about it here and I know intelligence officers and others have, too. Things are so raw in our country. So will people accept the outcome? A lot depends on the two candidates feeling that burden, the weight of the office and saying, “Let me do what’s right for the country.” A former security official said we need a 9/11-type panel on how voting is done and protected in this country after this election is over.

Any other thoughts about this election and what’s coming at the start of November?

This idea of having a moment to grieve and reflect on where we’re going through as a country needs to happen. We need to have a conversation about how America is protected against the next pandemic and how the next election is protected. We’ll do it on the show, but I do hope we as a country can get to that point.

Ashley Parker, White House reporter, The Washington Post

How have your personal coverage plans changed this presidential election compared to previous elections you’ve covered?

The pandemic has made a tremendous difference. I also covered Donald Trump in 2016 for The New York Times and I went to dozens and dozens of rallies. I was one of a half-dozen people saying, “I won’t be surprised if Trump wins.” I had the advantage of just being out there.

Now in 2020, I’ve not really been to any rallies. In certain ways, at least being able to measure that anecdotal energy, I feel I’m a little bit flying blind. But I’m flexing different muscles and skills.

Have you been doing much on-the-ground reporting around the election or mainly virtual, or by phone and text? Has it had a significant impact on your ability to report?

I’ve not done any Zoom source calls. It’s been a combination of phone calls, like I always would, and recently I started doing outdoor masking drinks and meals with sources. I’d always rather sit down with a source in person. It’s been exciting to do that again.

I’m on the more risk-averse side. For what it’s worth, it’s less a fear that we’ll get the coronavirus. If we’re even exposed, which has happened a couple of times, it just shuts down our child-care system. The one day where I can do no work is when I have no child care.

Come Election Day, how long do you think it will take for there to be a decisive winner?

I will say I’m not expecting night-of. Normally you’ve been working for a year and a half and night-of, you know the result and that week it’s all over. Maybe you take a vacation because you have all these Marriott points, so you go somewhere and recharge. I’m not expecting that this time. It will feel very different. I’m planning my November calendar as though there will be some major news stories.

Whatever the final result is, do you think the country on the whole will accept it?

If Trump loses, which I’m not saying he will, I think some of how the nation responds will come down to how he responds. Is he gracious or does he claim it was all rigged and there was tremendous ballot fraud?

Regardless of who wins or loses, the nation is so polarized. I don’t want to say a part of the population won’t accept it, but they will be so averse to who the winner is, it will be hard for either candidate to unify and heal the nation after the past year or four years.

Any other thoughts about this election and what’s coming at the start of November?

The person who wins the Electoral College, do they also win the popular vote? The average voter understands we have an Electoral College system. But I will say that people are frustrated with that system. A lot of people do not think the current system is the best.

Michael Finnegan, politics reporter, Los Angeles Times

How have your personal coverage plans changed this presidential election compared to previous elections you’ve covered?

The main difference is the pandemic making it impossible to travel for a while. I didn’t travel for six months after Super Tuesday and covered the entire campaign from home, all the way through early September. I think I’ve figured how to do it safely now. But it absolutely inhibits the reporting.

Have you been doing much on-the-ground reporting around the election or mainly virtual, or by phone and text? Has it had a significant impact on your ability to report?

Plenty of telephone interviews and plenty of things that happen on TV.

But I wanted to do a story over the summer about a Black pastor who leads the Souls to the Polls group and it’s cropped up in cities all over the Midwest and elsewhere. I was able to write a story that I think was as good as the story would have been if I’d traveled and done it the way I wanted to, in the person’s setting getting color about his life.

I think overall the coverage across the news media has definitely suffered. You can’t replace actual conversations with people who matter in campaigns. If you don’t go to where they are and meet them face to face, you won’t get the feel for a campaign and election the way you would.

Come Election Day, how long do you think it will take for there to be a decisive winner?

It all depends on the results. The thing that is clear is some states will be faster than others to report results. What I’ll be watching more than anything is Florida and its getting a head start on counting ballots. A lot of the admin work for mail-ins will be done and it’ll be pretty quick. There will be no path to an Electoral College victory for Donald Trump if Biden is the winner in Florida. On the other hand, if the early result is that Trump won there, it could take days.

Whatever the final result is, do you think the country on the whole will accept it?

I’m hopeful that people will accept the results no matter what they are. I’ve been covering elections since 2000 and this is the first time I’ve ever met a lot of people who don’t expect to trust the result if the candidate they support loses and who fear violence as a result of the election. It’s a strange time. I hope it’ll end up like Y2K and I hope violence won’t be a problem and peoples’ anxiety will be resolved.

Any other thoughts about this election and what’s coming at the start of November?

I will tell you one thing: From reporting over the last couple of months on the process of the election and the local jurisdictions that have to carry out the business of the election, as flawed as the system is, it has renewed my faith in the local jurisdictions that have had to do this. In them being able to hold it together and being able to come up with a legitimate result.

Asawin Suebsaeng, White House reporter, The Daily Beast

How have your personal coverage plans changed this presidential election compared to previous elections you’ve covered?

The tools and the methods for covering this campaign and this President are essentially the same you’d use with any other, in terms of maintaining skepticism and the adversarial aspect. But there is this mistake I think some reporters have made in saying things like, “Donald Trump has made journalism great again, because look how people are digging into things.” When you say that, you’re almost endorsing the conservative line, which is bulls–t, that the press went to sleep during the Obama years.

Having said that, President Trump is more of a moron and a doofus than any other president, so that’s changed things. You can’t normalize it; you can’t approach it with kid gloves.

With the pandemic, you’ve just got to be safe. The nightmare scenario for reporters is that you accidentally catch this virus and bring it back to friends or loved ones or strangers. And sometimes it makes covering people who don’t take it with that level of seriousness, chief among them the President, at least a little more infuriating. You’re put in a position as a reporter, as a human being, where you have a heightened sense of civic and familial responsibility in a viscerally personal way.

Have you been doing much on-the-ground reporting around the election or mainly virtual, or by phone and text? Has it had a significant impact on your ability to report?

The vast majority of it has been over secure communications, over the phone. If you’re already sourced up well, once you get to that point, so much of your reporting will be done remotely. The pandemic just made that even more abundantly true.

A lot of people are still getting out there. There’s no shortage of political reporters roaming the country, masks on their faces. I’ve still seen that so many people have risen to the occasion, doing amazing reporting and investigations, whether they’re doing it out there in the field or not. It’s been reassuring to me in many ways and very humbling in some others. It makes me fear even more for the harsh economic realities of this profession. Even when times are good, things are always rickety.

Come Election Day, how long do you think it will take for there to be a decisive winner?

I think it’s a coin toss at this point, honestly, of whether we get the results as solidly as we did in 2016. Before the sun rose we knew who the victor was. This time, it’s 50-50 between that, and does everything turn into a vastly partisan hellscape.

Whatever the final result is, do you think the country on the whole will accept it?

We’re at such a point of hyper-polarization and selective tribal politics and media. If Donald Trump wins, he’ll never be thought of as a legitimate president by a whole lot of people. If Joe Biden wins, there’s gonna be a helluva lot of people that will never believe he didn’t somehow rig it. For so many Americans, we’re just at a point of no return.

Any other thoughts about this election and what’s coming at the start of November?

To anyone in this profession that seems hopeful…that Donald Trump is a deviation from the political norm, (I actually think he’s an outgrowth of it), and you think American voters can limit him to the single term and we can get to some level of what we had, what makes you think he’s going away? If the temperature doesn’t just keep rising for a variety of reasons, I will eat my shoe. I hope I am eating it come 2023.

Gabby Orr, White House reporter, Politico

How have your personal coverage plans changed this presidential election compared to previous elections you’ve covered?

There are two major differences between the 2016 cycle and 2020 and both are inextricably linked to COVID-19. The first is the limit on campaign travel. Recently the President has been out there more and his top campaign surrogates have been all over the country, but that only really started in the last two months. For most of the summer it was really unique to cover a presidential campaign that was essentially grounded.

The second thing is the safety risk. For myself and all the other White House and campaign reporters that have been traveling with the President, or at rallies, briefings and interacting with campaign officials.

Have you been doing much on-the-ground reporting around the election or mainly virtual, or by phone and text? Has it had a significant impact on your ability to report?

Primarily source meetings have moved from coffee dates and drinks to phone calls and Zoom meetings. But last week I was on the ground in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia. I’m heading to Nashville today. Most source meetings are with folks in D.C. and have been virtual, but I’ve had interactions with campaign staffers.

It took a minute to acclimate, because there is so much value in the interpersonal connection you get talking to a source in-person about something they don’t want to, but they can’t just get up and walk away. It’s a lot easier now for someone to say, “I’m getting a call “or “My kids are acting up.” It’s been a unique challenge, but we’re all going through it together. At the end of the day, sources have stories to tell and info they want to get out there.

Come Election Day, how long do you think it will take for there to be a decisive winner?

Based on my own reporting and people inside the Trump campaign, there’s very much a level of uncertainty that wasn’t there in 2016. Most of his advisers and staff then expected he was going to lose, they were ready to give a concession speech. I definitely think this election is a lot closer and there are so many advisers and campaign aides I’ve spoken to convinced that it might take a week or several weeks.

Whatever the final result is, do you think the country on the whole will accept it?

It’s going to depend on how close the results are. There are so many factors. So many doomsday scenarios that have been played out by both campaigns internally. It’s tough to say what’ll happen. But if summer is any indication, the response to the moment of reckoning on race relations in this country, is that how people feel about this President on the left, if he’s able to secure reelection, there will be some discord.

Any other thoughts about this election and what’s coming at the start of November?

One thing that’s been constant this time is unpredictability.

Alayna Treene, White House reporter, Axios

How have your personal coverage plans changed this presidential election compared to previous elections you’ve covered?

It’s totally different. The pandemic has upended a traditional election cycle. It’s been hard. Normally we’d be out on the trail a lot more, following these candidates and we’ve not been able to do that.

And it’s been an incredible year if you look at all the other things that have impacted Washington. The President was acquitted this year. Mass protests. The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. At every turn there’s been something that came out of left field that’s changed the way we’ve had to cover it.

Have you been doing much on-the-ground reporting around the election or mainly virtual, or by phone and text? Has it had a significant impact on your ability to report?

It’s kind of been a mix of all. I started out much more at home, but I also cover Capitol Hill and I’ve been going there and the White House when needed. Probably since midsummer I’ve been getting socially distanced coffees and so on. For the most part, it’s all been via phone. It’s forced me to rely on more of my previous sources. Any new sources, not being in person, it takes away from getting people to trust you. But on the other side, there’s so much news that it’s forcing me to interact with even more people than I did before. So It’s been hard, but not impossible.

Come Election Day, how long do you think it will take for there to be a decisive winner?

I think it’s going to take days. It’s also a likely possibility this will be litigated and in that case, it will take months.

Whatever the final result is, do you think the country on the whole will accept it?

More than ever there’s a possibility that it will be contested, and we’ve heard that from the president himself. Both candidates have assembled teams of lawyers. It’s something we have to prepare for. But it’ll matter if there’s an outpouring of support. If we see Joe Biden get a massive wave of votes, that will make a difference.

Maeve Reston, national political reporter, CNN

How have your personal coverage plans changed this presidential election compared to previous ones?

I normally live on the road during campaign years. This is my fifth presidential campaign so, normally, I would be out in Wisconsin at this point and Michigan. I do a lot of interviews with voters in Home Depot and Costco parking lots because it’s always a great place to get a cross-section of voters. Unfortunately, we just really have not been able to do that this time.

Have you been doing much on-the-ground reporting around the election or has it mainly been virtual?

We had to get a lot smarter about how to do telephone reporting and I found myself early in the pandemic going back through my old campaign notebooks from the other four campaigns because when I talk to voters at rallies or whatever I try to take down an e-mail and a phone number. I actually worked back through a lot of my old campaign notebooks, reaching out to voters in swing states to talk to them about the current election and how their views had changed. Our polling team at CNN has been helpful just in helping connect us with swing voters who they talked to in the polls so that we could call and do follow-up interviews, but I’ve really been missing the road and missing that chance to go into a crowd and talk to a lot of different people all at once.

It feels so different because it’s so hard to get your finger on the pulse sometimes when you can’t be out on the road all the time.

Come Election Day, how long do you think it will take for there to be a decisive winner?

I am preparing for the possibility that it could be several weeks. There’s always the chance for polls to really tighten up in the final days and, given the number of people who have voted early this time and mailed in their ballots, it’s going to take a really, really long time to count all of those ballots. The networks this time will be especially cautious about calling it too early.

Whatever the final result is, do you think the country on the whole will accept it?

I don’t know the answer to that, sadly. It’s going to depend on the margin. If it is a close race, we have heard the President, unfortunately, say so many inaccurate things about mail-in ballots. That’s created a lot of distrust about the system, even though his attacks on mail-in voting have been inaccurate.

I think that his core supporters will always believe that there was something nefarious that went on with this election. But I hope that over time, the country as a whole will see that voting by mail is a very safe process and that there is good reason to trust the result, whatever that result may be.

Sabrina Siddiqui, national politics reporter, The Wall Street Journal

How have your personal coverage plans changed this presidential election compared to previous elections you’ve covered?

This time four years ago I was on the [Hillary] Clinton campaign plane with the rest of the traveling press and on any given day we were in two, three, four different states across multiple cities, clocking in 16-to-20-hour days with the candidate because there was, of course, that criss-crossing that you typically see in the final stretch before Election Day. Now, while I have made a few trips to Wilmington, Del., where Joe Biden is based, and I’ve gone out to a couple of his events in battleground states, there is just not a traditional campaign to cover.

So it’s just about being more creative as we are essentially covering this election from our living rooms and still trying to stay on top of the sentiment across the country and which issues are not resonating with voters.

How will you be covering election night?

I will be wherever Joe Biden is and we don’t yet know where he plans to be. He has essentially been based in his home in Wilmington. His campaign headquarters remain in Philadelphia. But I think a big question, of course, is going to be what kind of event does he hold on election night, where does he choose to place himself?

I will certainly be writing the election night story along with my colleagues. And, of course, figuring out whether or not we’re going to have a result on the night of, or if this is going to be a more drawn-out process.

Come Election Day, how long do you think it will take for there to be a decisive winner?

We just don’t know when we’re going to get a clear picture. I think a lot of it will also depend on how big of a margin we see in these key battleground states…If it looks like a landslide in either direction then the election could very well be called on the night of.

Whatever the final result is, do you think the country on the whole will accept it?

We do know that Joe Biden has said he will accept the outcome of the election and a peaceful transition of power. President Trump has not directly answered that same question.

In his most recent town hall, he signaled that he would, but then he casts doubt on the legitimacy of the process.

But there are a number of Republican senators, including leaders in Congress, who have committed to a peaceful transition of power. So, insofar as the President has not definitively said how he would react, if members of his party have committed to accepting a peaceful transition of power and the institutions are committed to a peaceful transition of power, it could just be rhetoric. A lot of that, of course, remains to be seen.

Any other thoughts about this election and what’s coming at the start of November?

This is now my third presidential race and there is usually a big question about what an election will fundamentally be about. What the candidates are talking about in terms of issues that actually resonate with voters. And I just don’t think we have ever seen anything quite like the coronavirus pandemic insofar as the totality of its impact on the American electorate.

Kristin Fisher, correspondent, Fox News

How have your personal coverage plans changed this presidential election compared to previous elections you’ve covered?

Obviously, the coronavirus has changed so much of our world, but for me personally, in a way it hasn’t changed a lot because I’m still going into the White House most days, doing on-the-ground reporting there and as soon as the President got out of the hospital, I’ve pretty much been on the road nonstop going to his rallies. This is about as busy as it gets.

One other interesting little change that I was just talking about is how just logistically we’ve had to change how we cover these things in order to keep our own staffers safe. A lot of these places are a two-hour drive from any airport. Usually you have a producer driving the car, allowing the correspondent to work, so when you arrive onsite you’re ready to go. But in this world, to keep everybody safe, Fox is asking us to ride in separate cars.

I had to really get used to driving myself for four hours. Being unplugged and out of the mix for a few hours and then showing up and heading into these rallies.

How are you keeping yourself safe at these rallies?

I’ve been taking every precaution available. I wear an N95 mask when I’m at the rallies, wash my hands, try not to touch my face, stay away from the crowd as much as possible, which is unfortunate because usually that is one of my favorite things to do on the campaign trail…you just want to talk to the people who show up to these campaign events and rallies, but that is one thing I have dialed back a bit.

Come Election Day, how long do you think it will take for there to be a decisive winner?

I have no idea. I don’t want to speculate. It’s not my job to speculate. But I could see a scenario for a quick decision on election night. I could see a scenario where it drags on for weeks.

Whatever the final result is, do you think the country on the whole will accept it?

I sure hope so. I like to think so. The American people have been through a lot this year and I just hope as a country, whatever the outcome is, we’re able to rally together and remember that we’re all Americans. I really hope come Inauguration Day in January this is all settled and we can move forward. Until we do this all over again four years from now.

Mary Bruce, senior Congressional correspondent, ABC News

How have your personal coverage plans changed this presidential election compared to previous elections you’ve covered?

In a word, covering this campaign season has been bizarre. Truly, truly bizarre. There were months where I think all of us were completely grounded because the whole country was grounded basically and the candidates themselves were laying extremely low.

I say often it’s amazing how excited we were when we finally got to drive to Wilmington, Del., to do one of those Joe Biden press conferences, because it was just so thrilling to be out.

One of the things I love most about covering a campaign is you get to travel the country, you get to speak to Americans and get a real sense of what they’re looking for out of their leadership in Washington. That’s one of the things that has been so tough about this… to not really get those interactions with voters. So much of covering a campaign involves getting a read from what voters are looking for and it’s very hard just to cold call undecided voters in a swing state. Even though it’s a not very scientific measure, it is nice just to get a read from your Uber driver or the owner of the local coffee shop in terms of how people are viewing the candidates. But we are back on the road now.

Have you been doing much on-the-ground reporting around the election or mainly virtual, or by phone and text?

It’s just working the phones. I think we’ve all been having to work the phones a lot more. A lot of times during a campaign, you’re interacting with the campaign staff on the bus and on the plane and on the sidelines of rallies, you’re chatting with campaign surrogates. So there’s a lot of texting and a lot of phone calls going on much more than there normally would be.

Come Election Day, how long do you think it will take for there to be a decisive winner?

It’s 2020 and it feels like this year anything goes. I certainly am not in the business of making predictions. I think we all are braced for it to potentially go very long. You talk less about election night and more about Election Day, possibly election week, election days.

Being in a pandemic, because more people are voting by mail it could take much longer to tally the votes. You’re prepared for the fact that there will be challenges. The President has made very clear that he’s eyeing that, as well. We know that both candidates have big legal teams standing by in case that’s the direction it goes in. So we are prepared and ready, whether it’s just a long election night or whether it’s a long election week/weeks/month. We’re ready for it.

Whatever the final result is, do you think the country on the whole will accept it?

Yes. I mean, look, I’m not going to make predictions about where this is headed, but I think that there is a long tradition in this country of a peaceful transition of power. We’ve seen the President not necessarily committing to that, but I do think that Americans understand the way our system works and our processes work. I think they have faith in that system and that process, even if it takes us a little bit longer to get there.

Courtney Weaver, U.S. political correspondent, Financial Times

How have your personal coverage plans changed this presidential election compared to previous elections you’ve covered?

It’s changed pretty dramatically. In 2016 and 2018, I was traveling all over the country going to rallies, talking to voters, traveling to multiple states in a single day and this year I’ve basically been doing all of my reporting virtually, which is a huge adjustment.

How have you been reporting virtually?

Before, you were trying to reach undecided voters in swing states at grocery stores or malls or parking lots and now, you have the task of finding everyone virtually, which is a lot harder than finding them in person.

Luckily, what I would do before when I interviewed people on the road is I would usually get their number and that’s been a huge resource. Now, not only am I going back and talking to people I talked to a couple of years ago, I’m asking them, “Do you have any friends who are undecided voters, any relatives?” “Do you know anyone in other states?” I’m kind of leapfrogging my way to different people that way. It’s very easy to find people online and on the Internet who have very strong opinions one way or another, but finding people who are undecided or a bit more moderate can sometimes be trickier.

Come Election Day, how long do you think it will take for there to be a decisive winner?

It’s hard to say. When I speak to most people, they seem to think that we’ll have a result within a week. So maybe by Friday or something. But there are so many different ways this could go.

If one candidate does sweep the election you could imagine a result actually happening on election night or you could imagine one or two states being deeply contested and not getting results until weeks later.

Whatever the final result is, do you think the country on the whole will accept it?

When you look at the polls, they seem to suggest that yes, the country will accept it.

Lois Beckett, senior reporter, The Guardian US

How have your personal coverage plans changed this presidential election compared to previous elections you’ve covered?

My beat this election is covering political violence and domestic terrorism. That’s very different from previous elections.

For months, we’ve seen violent attacks on protesters, political street fights turning deadly, people with guns guarding their neighborhoods, or showing up with rifles at a protest and claiming that they’re there to protect private property. Experts on extremism are warning about violent attacks tied to the election. During the first presidential debate,Trump addressed the Proud Boys, a far-right group known for street brawling, and told them, “Stand back and stand by” and said that “somebody’s got to do something” about the left.

There is so much disinformation, and such intense polarization, and meanwhile, there’s been an estimated 17 million gun sales this year, and we don’t know how many of those sales were to first-time gun owners.

People are very afraid. For nearly the past year, I’ve been interviewing Americans who are suddenly talking about their fears of a civil war. Not that it’s necessarily coming right now, but that it’s a real possibility, something that might happen in their lifetimes.

Have you been doing much on-the-ground reporting around the election or mainly virtual, or by phone and text? Has it had a significant impact on your ability to report?

I haven’t done as much on-the-ground reporting this year, and that’s been hard, especially when it comes to protests. When you just see the most intense or violent 30 or 60 seconds of a protest on social media, or on TV, that distorts your sense of what’s actually going on, and what protests are actually like. Americans who are watching snippets of protests on TV are not getting an accurate sense of what’s actually happening there — like the fact that nearly all of the thousands of Black Lives Matter protests this year have been peaceful.

Being there is always more accurate, and often, much less frightening.

Come Election Day, how long do you think it will take for there to be a decisive winner?

Maybe it will be clear very quickly. But I’m preparing to have to wait a long time. It seems possible, at least, that there is going to be a very uncertain, very tense period, between Election Day and Inauguration Day, with the election results still contested, and a lot of street protests, and a continuation or escalation of violent attacks against people peacefully demonstrating. And ongoing concerns about domestic terror attacks by white supremacist and right-wing anti-government groups — the actors who have been very explicitly plotting to kill innocent people in hopes of sparking a civil war, or a race war.

Whatever the final result is, do you think the country on the whole will accept it?

The real question is whether Trump will accept the election results. And if he doesn’t, how many Americans will stand with him?

Any other thoughts about this election and what’s coming at the start of November?

Experts have been telling me that they’re very concerned about the Trump administration attempting to criminalize large numbers of peaceful protesters in the period after the election. Some experts have suggested the point of so much Trump administration rhetoric about “antifa,” this extremely vague and poorly understood concept, is to make it easy to label virtually any protester on the left as “antifa,” and then call them domestic terrorists.

For more, see:

Andrea Mitchell Has Never Seen Anything Like This Before

Media People: NBC White House Crew Talk Highs and Lows of Covering Trump

Fashion’s Vote Merch Purveyors Say Election Critical for Industry

WATCH: Get To Know Sarah Cooper — Writer, Comedian, Trump Impersonator, and More

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