Joe Biden stepped up to protect his administration's legacy in today's Oval Office address.
The US President has explained why he stepped out of the race and endorsed Kamala Harris for President this week.
He'd remained staunch against withdrawing for three weeks despite vast pressure and concern from those close to him about his ability to serve another term.
Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean says it's 'incredibly painful' to recognise the dream is over when you're as far along as he was.
"I think he's a guy of tremendous accomplishments. Is he a guy of tremendous ambition? Sure, but it's pretty easy to forgive that when you're the President of the United States."
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We need to talk about Joe Biden. So US President
Joe Biden this afternoon has made his first oval office
speech since he announced he wouldn't run for president again.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I review of this office. I love my country more.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
It's been the honor of my life to serve as
your president, but in the defensive democracy, which is a
stake I think is more important than any title. Now
it comes as Republicans have started have been told by
their bosses that they should no longer attack Karmala Harris
for what they're calling it being a DEI higher. That's
(00:32):
DEI stands for diversity, equality inclusion. They're essentially calling her
basically a person who's been picked because of her color
and her gender. Howard Dean is a former chair of
the Democratic National Convention, also former governor of Vermonte.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Howard, Hi, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, I know you're welcome. Listen, Joe Biden is doing
a very good job of acting like he's a victim
here who's sacrificing his own ambition for the good of
the country. Do you reckon? People are going to buy it?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, the people who like him are, and the people
who don't like him aren't going to buy it. But
I buy it, I mean, to give up your political
I can't. Can you imagine Trump doing something like this.
He doesn't have a bone of self sacrifice in his body.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
The reason I don't buy it is because I watched
him take three and a half weeks and he didn't
really he didn't really want to write. He held out
as long as he couldn't as long as he could.
So it seems to be like a slight rewriting of history.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Well, you may end up in this job. You're in
a similar situation yourself one day, and you won't think
so rush how well. I had to go through the
same thing when I lost a race that I was
expected to win the nomination for. And it's incredibly painful
when you've come as long as he has and then
your dream is over and it takes a while to
(01:42):
recognize that.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah. I mean, he's doing a pretty good job of
making sure sort of setting up the narrative for his presidency,
isn't he?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah? And I think it's correct. I personally, and I
don't know Biden particularly well, I personally believe that Biden
has been the most effect of president since Lynnon Johnson
on a domestic agenda. He's pretty extracts the first president
of seriously tackled climate change. He has totally redone the
(02:14):
manufacturing business. He's put hundreds of thousands of jobs, mostly
into states that are not going to vote for them,
such as chip jobs, battery jobs, electric car jobs. Brought
those home. He got us through COVID after Trump screwed
it all up and advised everybody to drink bleach and
that would fix their to fix them right up. So
I think he's a guy of tremendous accomplishments. Is he
(02:36):
a guy of tremendous ambition? Sure, but it's pretty easy
to forgive that when you're the president of the United States.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Well, a thing that was pointed out to me that
was missing from the speech was like a really full throated,
wholehearted endorsement of how awesome Kamala Harris was. Why was
that missing?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Because it's not appropriate. If you're given time by the
network to inrest the whole country, it's not expected to
be a part of the speech. I actually thought a
little bit more partisan than I expected, But you're really
not expected to give a point. They would have had
to give equal time to Trump to make a speech
if s she he had gone off on politics.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
It's a really good point. What do you make of
the excitement around Kamala Harris's campaign? Is it surprising you?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
No, She's young, and I think it's long overdue to
switch generation from my generation and Trump's generation and Biden's
generation to the next generation. Harris is I think fifty
nine years old, more than twenty years younger than Biden
and almost twenty years younger than Trump. So now that
she was on the other foot, do we want an
old cajure of declining mental capacity like Trump? Or do
(03:38):
we want somebody who's younger and more ready to take
on the responsibilities. The other issue is that I think
is incredibly helpful is young people have been totally disinterested
in this election, partly because of the age of the contestants.
Now they have somebody they can relate to.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Do you think the excitement that she's got on the
kind of honeymoon period of her campaign will last.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I think it will, but not the way it is today.
You know this is going to be this is a
tough slog. It's the most powerful job in the world,
and you know there's going to be a lot of
blood on the tracks before we get done with this
on both sides. So it'll be a tough, brutal race,
but it is incredibly you know, the United States has
never had a woman running the show, and this is
(04:22):
the first chance. They turned it down with Hillary and
put Trump in, which was of course turned out to
be a bad mistake, and now we'll have a chance
to do something different, and I do think that's going
to be incredibly appealing to young people.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Do you reckon that Americans are ready for a female president.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I think they are, but we'll we're going to find
that out in November. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Well, I mean, how will we even know, because it
may be that they're just not ready for a female
black president.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Well, they may not be ready for a black president.
The Republicans certainly aren't. They're always using a user and
a race to get to the presidency. The Republican's basic
platform is hate and anger, and there are a lot
of people flying into that these days because they don't
have jobs, they don't have college educations. But Biden actually
comes from that class. He came from a working class family,
(05:08):
and I think he's done a lot for working class people.
But Trump, you know, I think Trump is probably a lunatic,
but he is a very skillful lunatic in the sense
that he knows how to push the anger button and
take advantage of people who haven't done so well and
are upset about it. Plus the usual right wing crackpot
conservatives and all that stuff. So it's an interesting coalition
(05:31):
Trump has. I think people are going to want to
move on from that, and I think having a fifty
nine year old black female president is a great way
to do it.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Hey, So what fascinates me is that the Republicans have
been told to stop calling her a dei higher Now.
That suggests to me that they want to stop that
because they realize that actually being a black woman is
a point for her. That's actually a good point, not
a negative point. Is that how you read it?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Well? I think it probably is. That's part of it.
But I think the real is there are a lot
of middle class women in the suburbs who used toly
in Republican now have been turned off by Trump. That's
why Biden won in Georgia, which was really unexpected last time.
So I think it's more fear. I mean, I think
(06:15):
the Republican leadership is just as racist as the Republican backbenchers.
It's just that they are understanding that if they lose
Republican women in the suburbs, they lose the election, which
is exactly what happened when Biden won. And it's exactly
how Raphael, we're not. We have a black man and
a Jewish man as senators from Georgia in the Deep South.
That would not have happened had it not been for
(06:37):
Trump and the decay of the Republican, descent of the
Republican Party and hate and anger.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Howard, it's good to talk to you. Thank you for
your time, mate. Look after yourself. That's Howard Deem, the
former chair of the Democratic National Convention, also the former
governor of Vermont. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
We need to talk about Joe Biden. So US President
Joe Biden this afternoon has made his first oval office
speech since he announced he wouldn't run for president again.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I review of this office. I love my country more.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
It's been the honor of my life to serve as
your president, but in the defensive democracy, which is a
stake I think is more important than any title. Now
it comes as Republicans have started have been told by
their bosses that they should no longer attack Karmala Harris
for what they're calling it being a DEI higher. That's
(00:32):
DEI stands for diversity, equality inclusion. They're essentially calling her
basically a person who's been picked because of her color
and her gender. Howard Dean is a former chair of
the Democratic National Convention, also former governor of Vermonte.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Howard, Hi, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, I know you're welcome. Listen, Joe Biden is doing
a very good job of acting like he's a victim
here who's sacrificing his own ambition for the good of
the country. Do you reckon? People are going to buy it?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, the people who like him are, and the people
who don't like him aren't going to buy it. But
I buy it, I mean, to give up your political
I can't. Can you imagine Trump doing something like this.
He doesn't have a bone of self sacrifice in his body.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
The reason I don't buy it is because I watched
him take three and a half weeks and he didn't
really he didn't really want to write. He held out
as long as he couldn't as long as he could.
So it seems to be like a slight rewriting of history.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Well, you may end up in this job. You're in
a similar situation yourself one day, and you won't think
so rush how well. I had to go through the
same thing when I lost a race that I was
expected to win the nomination for. And it's incredibly painful
when you've come as long as he has and then
your dream is over and it takes a while to
(01:42):
recognize that.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah. I mean, he's doing a pretty good job of
making sure sort of setting up the narrative for his presidency,
isn't he?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah? And I think it's correct. I personally, and I
don't know Biden particularly well, I personally believe that Biden
has been the most effect of president since Lynnon Johnson
on a domestic agenda. He's pretty extracts the first president
of seriously tackled climate change. He has totally redone the
(02:14):
manufacturing business. He's put hundreds of thousands of jobs, mostly
into states that are not going to vote for them,
such as chip jobs, battery jobs, electric car jobs. Brought
those home. He got us through COVID after Trump screwed
it all up and advised everybody to drink bleach and
that would fix their to fix them right up. So
I think he's a guy of tremendous accomplishments. Is he
(02:36):
a guy of tremendous ambition? Sure, but it's pretty easy
to forgive that when you're the president of the United States.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Well, a thing that was pointed out to me that
was missing from the speech was like a really full throated,
wholehearted endorsement of how awesome Kamala Harris was. Why was
that missing?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Because it's not appropriate. If you're given time by the
network to inrest the whole country, it's not expected to
be a part of the speech. I actually thought a
little bit more partisan than I expected, But you're really
not expected to give a point. They would have had
to give equal time to Trump to make a speech
if s she he had gone off on politics.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
It's a really good point. What do you make of
the excitement around Kamala Harris's campaign? Is it surprising you?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
No, She's young, and I think it's long overdue to
switch generation from my generation and Trump's generation and Biden's
generation to the next generation. Harris is I think fifty
nine years old, more than twenty years younger than Biden
and almost twenty years younger than Trump. So now that
she was on the other foot, do we want an
old cajure of declining mental capacity like Trump? Or do
(03:38):
we want somebody who's younger and more ready to take
on the responsibilities. The other issue is that I think
is incredibly helpful is young people have been totally disinterested
in this election, partly because of the age of the contestants.
Now they have somebody they can relate to.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Do you think the excitement that she's got on the
kind of honeymoon period of her campaign will last.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I think it will, but not the way it is today.
You know this is going to be this is a
tough slog. It's the most powerful job in the world,
and you know there's going to be a lot of
blood on the tracks before we get done with this
on both sides. So it'll be a tough, brutal race,
but it is incredibly you know, the United States has
never had a woman running the show, and this is
(04:22):
the first chance. They turned it down with Hillary and
put Trump in, which was of course turned out to
be a bad mistake, and now we'll have a chance
to do something different, and I do think that's going
to be incredibly appealing to young people.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Do you reckon that Americans are ready for a female president.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I think they are, but we'll we're going to find
that out in November. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Well, I mean, how will we even know, because it
may be that they're just not ready for a female
black president.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Well, they may not be ready for a black president.
The Republicans certainly aren't. They're always using a user and
a race to get to the presidency. The Republican's basic
platform is hate and anger, and there are a lot
of people flying into that these days because they don't
have jobs, they don't have college educations. But Biden actually
comes from that class. He came from a working class family,
(05:08):
and I think he's done a lot for working class people.
But Trump, you know, I think Trump is probably a lunatic,
but he is a very skillful lunatic in the sense
that he knows how to push the anger button and
take advantage of people who haven't done so well and
are upset about it. Plus the usual right wing crackpot
conservatives and all that stuff. So it's an interesting coalition
(05:31):
Trump has. I think people are going to want to
move on from that, and I think having a fifty
nine year old black female president is a great way
to do it.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Hey, So what fascinates me is that the Republicans have
been told to stop calling her a dei higher Now.
That suggests to me that they want to stop that
because they realize that actually being a black woman is
a point for her. That's actually a good point, not
a negative point. Is that how you read it?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Well? I think it probably is. That's part of it.
But I think the real is there are a lot
of middle class women in the suburbs who used toly
in Republican now have been turned off by Trump. That's
why Biden won in Georgia, which was really unexpected last time.
So I think it's more fear. I mean, I think
(06:15):
the Republican leadership is just as racist as the Republican backbenchers.
It's just that they are understanding that if they lose
Republican women in the suburbs, they lose the election, which
is exactly what happened when Biden won. And it's exactly
how Raphael, we're not. We have a black man and
a Jewish man as senators from Georgia in the Deep South.
That would not have happened had it not been for
(06:37):
Trump and the decay of the Republican, descent of the
Republican Party and hate and anger.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Howard, it's good to talk to you. Thank you for
your time, mate. Look after yourself. That's Howard Deem, the
former chair of the Democratic National Convention, also the former
governor of Vermont. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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