July 1, 2024 • 17 mins
Late last week, millions of people in the U.S. and around the world tuned into the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
President Biden’s performance unleashed a wave of panic among Democrat strategists, as senior officials and donors started calling for him to step down ahead of the November election.In today’s deep dive, we will look at the first debate and why there are calls for Joe Biden to step aside.
Hosts: Harry Sekulich and Zara Seidler
Producer: Orla Maher
Sign up to TDA's sport newsletter here!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Already, and this is the daily This is the daily
ohs oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Tuesday,
the second of July.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I'm Zara, I'm Harry. Last week, millions of people in
the US and around the world tuned into the first
presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Now please welcome the forty sixth President of the United States,
Joe Biden.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Biden's performance unleashed a wave of panic among Democrats' strategists,
as senior officials and donors started calling for him to
step down ahead of the November election. In today's deep dive,
we'll look at the first debate and why there are
calls for Joe Biden to step aside. But for Sarah,
what's making headlines.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
The federal government has appointed the first Illicit Tobacco and
e Cigarette Commissioner. Current Assistant Commissioner of the Austra Borderforce,
Aarin Dale, has been temporarily appointed until a formal appointment
is made. The commissioner will be focused on controlling the
importation and sale of illicit tobacco and e cigarettes. Health
Minister Mark Butler said that coordinated efforts are working to
(01:15):
control these products which are hooking Australians on nicotine.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Starting this month, the visa fee for international students coming
to Australia has more than doubled from seven hundred and
ten to one thousand, six hundred dollars. It's part of
the Federal government's migration strategy, which is targeting so called
visa hopping, which refers to overseas students and other temporary
visitors changing their visas to extend their stay in Australia.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Staff from Melbourne Airport have allegedly been involved in smuggling
illicit substances between Victoria and Tasmania. The Australian Border Force
worked with air Border Security at Melbourne International Airport in
a one year operation which was aimed at unc covering
criminal activity in the Victoria and Tasmania supply chain. An
investigation found a number of airline crew members were involved
(02:08):
in the domestic distribution of illicit substances.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
And today's good news, Simone Biles has made it to
her third Olympics after flying through the US Olympic Gymnastics trials.
The gymnast holds seven Olympic medals from the twenty sixteen
Games in Rio di Genio and the twenty twenty Tokyo Games.
Biles scored one hundred and seventeen point two to two five,
earning her the top spot at the US Trials, followed
(02:35):
by Sunny Lee, who scored one hundred and eleven point
six seven five. The twenty seven year old athletes said quote,
I feel like we have a lot of weight on
our shoulders to go out there and prove that we're
better athletes. We're more mature, we're smarter, and we're more consistent.
If you'd like more sports news, subscribe to our sport newsletter.
The link will be in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Okay, so, Harry, the election in the US is very
much nearing and feels like it's all anyone is talking
about at the moment. I was on holidays and everywhere
I went, you absolutely cannot escape it.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I had to tell my partner to turn down the
volume while he was listening to the debate, because there's
nothing that rips you out of your holiday mood more
than a presidential debate.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Mean, while every newsroom around the country and probably around
the world was turning at the blue heads were turned.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
That there was so I want to talk about the debate,
but before we get there, can you just give us
a bit of a lay of the land. Where are
we up to in the presidential kind of nomination process,
because it is a process.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Absolutely, So where are we at so far? So I
think it's important to say that we did see a
debate play out between Trump and Biden. But it's actually
interesting to note that neither of them have been selected
formally by their parties just yet, so they need to
go through what's called a Democratic or Republican convention, so
that's host by their parties, where they are officially confirmed
(04:03):
as the party's nominee. The Democrats will be hosting theirs
in August, the Republicans in July. Before that happens, they
are what's called the presumptive nominees because they've already won
all the primary races that they need to and so it's,
as the title suggests, presumed that they will be running
(04:24):
for their parties come the November election. So we know
that Joe Biden will be running for the Democrats as
things stand, as with Donald Trump will be running for
the Republican Party, and he's trying to get back into
the White House. And so the campaign's heating up. Both
candidates are speaking at more and more rallies, and there
are many blue and red posters around the US, and
(04:47):
the mood was really building, especially in the media when
it came to this first presidential debate that we saw
late last week.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Talking about the debate, much has been said about it.
I want to just get in to quickly the particularities
of the debate itself, because it was quite unique, wasn't it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So it was really unusual for a couple of reasons.
So first of all, there was no audience. It was
just the two CNN moderators and Trump and Biden. That's
the only people we heard from. And so there was
no doing, There was no hissing, there was no clapping
or applause. So you know, when either candidate went to
make their maybe mic drop moment, it was kind of unusual, Yeah,
(05:28):
because we know couldn't really gauge reaction. The second thing
that made it a little bit unique was the sense
that this was deja vu for so many people. We
have seen Trump and Biden debate before, so this was
the first time that a former president and a sitting
president went head to head in a presidential debate.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
How interesting.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Okay, so what exactly did they talk about? Because I
think a lot of the kind of post mortem has
been about performance, not necessarily about policy. So what specifically
were the two presumptive nominees talking about.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I think there were four main areas of policy that
were debated. So the first was on immigration, so both
men talked about the need to be tough on borders,
to crack down on what they say is illegal migrants
arriving in the United States. The second thing was the economy.
Those were the opening questions about high inflation, about cost
(06:25):
of living, about how much families are struggling right now.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
So a familiar topic for our Australian listeners.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Very much so. And both Trump and Biden were keen
to point at each other's records and say that they
were respectively responsible for high inflation and high cost of
living for families.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And well, that's the really unique thing, right because normally
the incumbent has to defend their record, but here both
have been in power at different times and can both
be held responsible, you know, for the bad things and
for the good things.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
It's a strange environment exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
So Biden was able to say, you left the economy
in a mess, and Trump was out saying the economy
is currently a mess. So they were both at pains
to emphasize each other's records respectively. The third thing that
I think was quite poignant in the debate was the
discussion around abortion. And as we know, when abortion gets raised,
(07:21):
it can get quite heated quite quickly. It's a very
sensitive issue for many people. But Trump in the debate
claimed that everyone wanted the states to control their own
abortion laws, and by that he's referring to the Supreme
Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. So those are
the national protections for abortion access across all of the
(07:43):
United States that had been in place since nineteen seventy three.
He also said Biden wanted to legalize late term abortions,
which Biden denied straight away and instead said that when
it comes to this medical procedure, that should be between
a doctor and a woman and not politicians. And I
think the final policy area that was discussed a lot
(08:07):
during this debate was democracy more generally, but in particular.
Trump was asked whether he would accept the outcome of
the twenty twenty four election. Will you accept the results
of the election, regardless of who wins, yes or no.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Please if it's a fair and legal and good election.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
At one point, Biden said Trump had quote no sense
of American democracy.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
So obviously very big issues there, abortion, democracy, the economy,
a lot of very meaty policy. And yet, as I said,
what's being spoken about now isn't actually any of that policy.
I've seen barely, if any kind of commentary around the
actual substance of the policy. Everything since has been about
Joe Biden's performance.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Talk me through it. Why is that the case?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
The conversation turned really quickly into to Joe Biden's performance,
and that became the headline. So his voice was noticeably
quite hoarse. A campaign source later confirmed that he had
a cold. He also stumbled quite a few times. On
multiple occasions. He seemed to get lost in what he
was saying, sort of go a bit off track, and
(09:19):
there was one moment that was picked up and went
viral pretty much straight away.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary
person eligible for what I've been able to do with
the with the COVID I scud me with dealing with
everything we have to do with what if we finally
beat Medicare.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And after one of Biden's answers, Trump said this, I
really don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
What he said at the end of this.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
I don't think he knows what he said either.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
It's worth remembering Joe Biden is the oldest president in history.
He is eighty one years old, and if he carries
through for a full second term as president, he will
be eighty six once he's completed that term. So there
have been concerns about Joe Biden's age up until the debate.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I'm going to say that hasn't necessarily been a new
trope that's emerged, but it's certainly been amplified post debate.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I think that this was the moment that a lot
of people said, he is eighty one years old, and
it shows I.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Think it must be said just before we go on.
Donald Trump is seventy eight years old at the moment,
a young man, not considerably younger, but certainly the difference
in age appeared to be quite prominent during that debate.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Talk me through the reaction. You said, it was immediate.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
What were people saying so straight away? CNN, which hosted
the debate, had a panel of experts and strategists to
dig into some of the issues, but as I mentioned,
the conversation was all about Biden's age. A former Democrat
staffer and CNN journalist Van Jones summed up them among
some of the Democrats and their supporters.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
That was painful. I love Joe Biden. I worked for
Joe Biden.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
He didn't do well at all. So senior Democrats were
going out to defend Joe Biden to say that he
had been stronger on policy than Donald Trump. But even
his Vice president Kamala Harris, had to admit that Biden
had had a quote slow start to the debate, and
it quickly emerged that there was some serious panic going
on among the Democrats. Some donors to the parties suggested
(11:29):
there was an urgent need for Biden to step aside.
The New York Times editorial board also published an opinion
piece calling on the president to make way for another candidate, saying, quote,
Joe Biden was not the man he was four years
ago when he beat Trump.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I don't think that the power of a New York
Times editorial can be underestimated like that. He is so
key in so many states to you know, the perception
of how the Democrats positioned and how they're thought about.
For The New York Times to come out with that
was fairly strong.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
There would have been a lot of thought going into
that article before it was published. It definitely wasn't an
off the cuff piece of commentary. It's an entire editorial
board at one of the most respected newspapers in the world.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, and then when straight after the debate, when you
refreshed the New York Times website, it was just like
op ed after op ed after op ed, and they
were all saying the same thing.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
It's quite remarkable.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
But even if they were saying the same thing, even
if there were some donors and some fellow Democrats who
were worried, like does that mean anything? Are we expecting
Joe Biden to actually heed those calls and to step aside.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
So, just going back to a point that I made
a little bit earlier, Donald Trump and Joe Biden have
both not yet been confirmed as the candidate's fisher party,
not officially, not quite yet. So there are two scenarios
that could potentially play out between now and the Democratic Convention,
which is between the nineteenth and the twenty second of August,
(12:55):
so in about six weeks time. The first one is
that Joe Biden could voluntarily step down as the Democrats
chosen candidate and give way for someone else. Now who
that someone would be is another matter altogether. It's possible
it could be Kamala Harris, but her pole ratings have
been quite consistently low. But some other names that have
(13:18):
been floated around, the California governor Gavin Newsom or the
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. But there's a whole pool of
people that they could choose from these high level senior
Democrats that could come forward at that point. So it's
really not too clear yet.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
But for that to happen, the key thing that needs
to happen is that Joe Biden needs to step.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Aside, needs to choose to do it of his own accord.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Okay, what's the second scenario?
Speaker 1 (13:42):
So the second one's a little bit more difficult. Basically,
high level Democrats would have to change the rules about
how they choose their candidate in time for the convention
and then put someone else forward.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Sounds complicated.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
It could take me in entire episode Sarah to explain.
But for the sake of time. I think it's just
worth noting that most experts are in agreement that that
is very unlikely to happen. That the more probable scenario
of the two would be that Joe Biden would step
down of his own accord, that he would make way
(14:17):
for someone else.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Okay, so a couple of scenarios, one of them being
that Joe Biden voluntarily steps down.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Is he going to? What does your crystal ball tell you?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I'm going to say confidently no, Yeah, I don't think
Joe Biden will step down. He has been pretty clear
that he isn't going to at this stage. He spoke
at a campaign rally in North Carolina a few hours
after the debate where he really dug his heels in
and he was going to keep going.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
I don't walk as easy as I used to, I
don't speak as smoothly as I used to. I don't
debate as well as I used to. Well, I know
what I do know, I know how to tell the truth.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
He had a lot more energy during this rally.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
It was quite remarkable.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah, it was quite a shift. I think a lot
of people did notice that that this was a Joe
Biden that had some zeal And some energy to just
really keep going, and he looked like he was definitely
wanting to take on Trump and that he believed that
he could as well. So The New York Times is
also reporting that Biden is currently at Camp David, which
(15:25):
is the president's country retreat, where he's surrounded by his
family and they're trying to figure out how they can
manage the anxieties of the Democrats and what the next
steps will be in their campaign. And I think there's
also just one thing that's really important to note. I
think we can get carried away talking about the debate
and analyzing the debate and Biden's performance or Trump's performance
(15:49):
for that matter, and I think it's important to just
remember that debates don't necessarily win or lose elections. So
if we cast our minds back to twenty sixteen when
Hillary Clinton was running against Donald Trump, Clinton won pretty
much every debate between the two of them, and a
lot of the polls also pointed to her winning on
(16:11):
the day, as we know, she wants to be right, Yeah, yeah,
she lost in twenty sixteen. It was a little bit
of a shock for most people, but it just goes
to show that You really just don't know what's going
to happen until people are filling out the ballots on
the day and that they go in there with their
little pencils and they choose who they actually want to
(16:32):
be their president exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Thank you so much for that explanation, Harry, and thanks
for listening to The Daily os. If you learn something
from today's episode, you can hit follow on Apple or Spotify,
and if you are watching this episode on YouTube, you
can hit subscribe.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
We'll see you again tomorrow. Bye.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Dunda
Bungelung Kalgutin woman from Gadigal Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadigal people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torrestrate
island and nations. We pay our respects to the first
peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Already, and this is the daily This is the daily
ohs oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Tuesday,
the second of July.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I'm Zara, I'm Harry. Last week, millions of people in
the US and around the world tuned into the first
presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Now please welcome the forty sixth President of the United States,
Joe Biden.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Biden's performance unleashed a wave of panic among Democrats' strategists,
as senior officials and donors started calling for him to
step down ahead of the November election. In today's deep dive,
we'll look at the first debate and why there are
calls for Joe Biden to step aside. But for Sarah,
what's making headlines.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
The federal government has appointed the first Illicit Tobacco and
e Cigarette Commissioner. Current Assistant Commissioner of the Austra Borderforce,
Aarin Dale, has been temporarily appointed until a formal appointment
is made. The commissioner will be focused on controlling the
importation and sale of illicit tobacco and e cigarettes. Health
Minister Mark Butler said that coordinated efforts are working to
(01:15):
control these products which are hooking Australians on nicotine.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Starting this month, the visa fee for international students coming
to Australia has more than doubled from seven hundred and
ten to one thousand, six hundred dollars. It's part of
the Federal government's migration strategy, which is targeting so called
visa hopping, which refers to overseas students and other temporary
visitors changing their visas to extend their stay in Australia.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Staff from Melbourne Airport have allegedly been involved in smuggling
illicit substances between Victoria and Tasmania. The Australian Border Force
worked with air Border Security at Melbourne International Airport in
a one year operation which was aimed at unc covering
criminal activity in the Victoria and Tasmania supply chain. An
investigation found a number of airline crew members were involved
(02:08):
in the domestic distribution of illicit substances.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
And today's good news, Simone Biles has made it to
her third Olympics after flying through the US Olympic Gymnastics trials.
The gymnast holds seven Olympic medals from the twenty sixteen
Games in Rio di Genio and the twenty twenty Tokyo Games.
Biles scored one hundred and seventeen point two to two five,
earning her the top spot at the US Trials, followed
(02:35):
by Sunny Lee, who scored one hundred and eleven point
six seven five. The twenty seven year old athletes said quote,
I feel like we have a lot of weight on
our shoulders to go out there and prove that we're
better athletes. We're more mature, we're smarter, and we're more consistent.
If you'd like more sports news, subscribe to our sport newsletter.
The link will be in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Okay, so, Harry, the election in the US is very
much nearing and feels like it's all anyone is talking
about at the moment. I was on holidays and everywhere
I went, you absolutely cannot escape it.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I had to tell my partner to turn down the
volume while he was listening to the debate, because there's
nothing that rips you out of your holiday mood more
than a presidential debate.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Mean, while every newsroom around the country and probably around
the world was turning at the blue heads were turned.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
That there was so I want to talk about the debate,
but before we get there, can you just give us
a bit of a lay of the land. Where are
we up to in the presidential kind of nomination process,
because it is a process.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Absolutely, So where are we at so far? So I
think it's important to say that we did see a
debate play out between Trump and Biden. But it's actually
interesting to note that neither of them have been selected
formally by their parties just yet, so they need to
go through what's called a Democratic or Republican convention, so
that's host by their parties, where they are officially confirmed
(04:03):
as the party's nominee. The Democrats will be hosting theirs
in August, the Republicans in July. Before that happens, they
are what's called the presumptive nominees because they've already won
all the primary races that they need to and so it's,
as the title suggests, presumed that they will be running
(04:24):
for their parties come the November election. So we know
that Joe Biden will be running for the Democrats as
things stand, as with Donald Trump will be running for
the Republican Party, and he's trying to get back into
the White House. And so the campaign's heating up. Both
candidates are speaking at more and more rallies, and there
are many blue and red posters around the US, and
(04:47):
the mood was really building, especially in the media when
it came to this first presidential debate that we saw
late last week.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Talking about the debate, much has been said about it.
I want to just get in to quickly the particularities
of the debate itself, because it was quite unique, wasn't it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So it was really unusual for a couple of reasons.
So first of all, there was no audience. It was
just the two CNN moderators and Trump and Biden. That's
the only people we heard from. And so there was
no doing, There was no hissing, there was no clapping
or applause. So you know, when either candidate went to
make their maybe mic drop moment, it was kind of unusual, Yeah,
(05:28):
because we know couldn't really gauge reaction. The second thing
that made it a little bit unique was the sense
that this was deja vu for so many people. We
have seen Trump and Biden debate before, so this was
the first time that a former president and a sitting
president went head to head in a presidential debate.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
How interesting.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Okay, so what exactly did they talk about? Because I
think a lot of the kind of post mortem has
been about performance, not necessarily about policy. So what specifically
were the two presumptive nominees talking about.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I think there were four main areas of policy that
were debated. So the first was on immigration, so both
men talked about the need to be tough on borders,
to crack down on what they say is illegal migrants
arriving in the United States. The second thing was the economy.
Those were the opening questions about high inflation, about cost
(06:25):
of living, about how much families are struggling right now.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
So a familiar topic for our Australian listeners.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Very much so. And both Trump and Biden were keen
to point at each other's records and say that they
were respectively responsible for high inflation and high cost of
living for families.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And well, that's the really unique thing, right because normally
the incumbent has to defend their record, but here both
have been in power at different times and can both
be held responsible, you know, for the bad things and
for the good things.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
It's a strange environment exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
So Biden was able to say, you left the economy
in a mess, and Trump was out saying the economy
is currently a mess. So they were both at pains
to emphasize each other's records respectively. The third thing that
I think was quite poignant in the debate was the
discussion around abortion. And as we know, when abortion gets raised,
(07:21):
it can get quite heated quite quickly. It's a very
sensitive issue for many people. But Trump in the debate
claimed that everyone wanted the states to control their own
abortion laws, and by that he's referring to the Supreme
Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. So those are
the national protections for abortion access across all of the
(07:43):
United States that had been in place since nineteen seventy three.
He also said Biden wanted to legalize late term abortions,
which Biden denied straight away and instead said that when
it comes to this medical procedure, that should be between
a doctor and a woman and not politicians. And I
think the final policy area that was discussed a lot
(08:07):
during this debate was democracy more generally, but in particular.
Trump was asked whether he would accept the outcome of
the twenty twenty four election. Will you accept the results
of the election, regardless of who wins, yes or no.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Please if it's a fair and legal and good election.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
At one point, Biden said Trump had quote no sense
of American democracy.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
So obviously very big issues there, abortion, democracy, the economy,
a lot of very meaty policy. And yet, as I said,
what's being spoken about now isn't actually any of that policy.
I've seen barely, if any kind of commentary around the
actual substance of the policy. Everything since has been about
Joe Biden's performance.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Talk me through it. Why is that the case?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
The conversation turned really quickly into to Joe Biden's performance,
and that became the headline. So his voice was noticeably
quite hoarse. A campaign source later confirmed that he had
a cold. He also stumbled quite a few times. On
multiple occasions. He seemed to get lost in what he
was saying, sort of go a bit off track, and
(09:19):
there was one moment that was picked up and went
viral pretty much straight away.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary
person eligible for what I've been able to do with
the with the COVID I scud me with dealing with
everything we have to do with what if we finally
beat Medicare.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And after one of Biden's answers, Trump said this, I
really don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
What he said at the end of this.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
I don't think he knows what he said either.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
It's worth remembering Joe Biden is the oldest president in history.
He is eighty one years old, and if he carries
through for a full second term as president, he will
be eighty six once he's completed that term. So there
have been concerns about Joe Biden's age up until the debate.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I'm going to say that hasn't necessarily been a new
trope that's emerged, but it's certainly been amplified post debate.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I think that this was the moment that a lot
of people said, he is eighty one years old, and
it shows I.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Think it must be said just before we go on.
Donald Trump is seventy eight years old at the moment,
a young man, not considerably younger, but certainly the difference
in age appeared to be quite prominent during that debate.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Talk me through the reaction. You said, it was immediate.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
What were people saying so straight away? CNN, which hosted
the debate, had a panel of experts and strategists to
dig into some of the issues, but as I mentioned,
the conversation was all about Biden's age. A former Democrat
staffer and CNN journalist Van Jones summed up them among
some of the Democrats and their supporters.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
That was painful. I love Joe Biden. I worked for
Joe Biden.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
He didn't do well at all. So senior Democrats were
going out to defend Joe Biden to say that he
had been stronger on policy than Donald Trump. But even
his Vice president Kamala Harris, had to admit that Biden
had had a quote slow start to the debate, and
it quickly emerged that there was some serious panic going
on among the Democrats. Some donors to the parties suggested
(11:29):
there was an urgent need for Biden to step aside.
The New York Times editorial board also published an opinion
piece calling on the president to make way for another candidate, saying, quote,
Joe Biden was not the man he was four years
ago when he beat Trump.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I don't think that the power of a New York
Times editorial can be underestimated like that. He is so
key in so many states to you know, the perception
of how the Democrats positioned and how they're thought about.
For The New York Times to come out with that
was fairly strong.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
There would have been a lot of thought going into
that article before it was published. It definitely wasn't an
off the cuff piece of commentary. It's an entire editorial
board at one of the most respected newspapers in the world.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, and then when straight after the debate, when you
refreshed the New York Times website, it was just like
op ed after op ed after op ed, and they
were all saying the same thing.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
It's quite remarkable.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
But even if they were saying the same thing, even
if there were some donors and some fellow Democrats who
were worried, like does that mean anything? Are we expecting
Joe Biden to actually heed those calls and to step aside.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
So, just going back to a point that I made
a little bit earlier, Donald Trump and Joe Biden have
both not yet been confirmed as the candidate's fisher party,
not officially, not quite yet. So there are two scenarios
that could potentially play out between now and the Democratic Convention,
which is between the nineteenth and the twenty second of August,
(12:55):
so in about six weeks time. The first one is
that Joe Biden could voluntarily step down as the Democrats
chosen candidate and give way for someone else. Now who
that someone would be is another matter altogether. It's possible
it could be Kamala Harris, but her pole ratings have
been quite consistently low. But some other names that have
(13:18):
been floated around, the California governor Gavin Newsom or the
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. But there's a whole pool of
people that they could choose from these high level senior
Democrats that could come forward at that point. So it's
really not too clear yet.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
But for that to happen, the key thing that needs
to happen is that Joe Biden needs to step.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Aside, needs to choose to do it of his own accord.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Okay, what's the second scenario?
Speaker 1 (13:42):
So the second one's a little bit more difficult. Basically,
high level Democrats would have to change the rules about
how they choose their candidate in time for the convention
and then put someone else forward.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Sounds complicated.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
It could take me in entire episode Sarah to explain.
But for the sake of time. I think it's just
worth noting that most experts are in agreement that that
is very unlikely to happen. That the more probable scenario
of the two would be that Joe Biden would step
down of his own accord, that he would make way
(14:17):
for someone else.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Okay, so a couple of scenarios, one of them being
that Joe Biden voluntarily steps down.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Is he going to? What does your crystal ball tell you?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I'm going to say confidently no, Yeah, I don't think
Joe Biden will step down. He has been pretty clear
that he isn't going to at this stage. He spoke
at a campaign rally in North Carolina a few hours
after the debate where he really dug his heels in
and he was going to keep going.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
I don't walk as easy as I used to, I
don't speak as smoothly as I used to. I don't
debate as well as I used to. Well, I know
what I do know, I know how to tell the truth.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
He had a lot more energy during this rally.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
It was quite remarkable.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah, it was quite a shift. I think a lot
of people did notice that that this was a Joe
Biden that had some zeal And some energy to just
really keep going, and he looked like he was definitely
wanting to take on Trump and that he believed that
he could as well. So The New York Times is
also reporting that Biden is currently at Camp David, which
(15:25):
is the president's country retreat, where he's surrounded by his
family and they're trying to figure out how they can
manage the anxieties of the Democrats and what the next
steps will be in their campaign. And I think there's
also just one thing that's really important to note. I
think we can get carried away talking about the debate
and analyzing the debate and Biden's performance or Trump's performance
(15:49):
for that matter, and I think it's important to just
remember that debates don't necessarily win or lose elections. So
if we cast our minds back to twenty sixteen when
Hillary Clinton was running against Donald Trump, Clinton won pretty
much every debate between the two of them, and a
lot of the polls also pointed to her winning on
(16:11):
the day, as we know, she wants to be right, Yeah, yeah,
she lost in twenty sixteen. It was a little bit
of a shock for most people, but it just goes
to show that You really just don't know what's going
to happen until people are filling out the ballots on
the day and that they go in there with their
little pencils and they choose who they actually want to
(16:32):
be their president exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Thank you so much for that explanation, Harry, and thanks
for listening to The Daily os. If you learn something
from today's episode, you can hit follow on Apple or Spotify,
and if you are watching this episode on YouTube, you
can hit subscribe.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
We'll see you again tomorrow. Bye.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Dunda
Bungelung Kalgutin woman from Gadigal Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadigal people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torrestrate
island and nations. We pay our respects to the first
peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.