tackling major legislation and surviving contentious midterm races.
Some are using the holidays to confer with friends, families and
advisors about next steps in their political careers, and so are
others who are thinking about taking the biggest step or run for
the White House to talk about this and much more. It's political
stakes with Tamra Keith of NPR and Leigh Ann Caldwell with the Washington
In post Amy Walter is away.
And it is so good to see both of you on this Monday, the day after
Christmas, the Monday before New Year's, So let's talk about this
Tam. We do hear politicians, some of them saying Yes, I'm going to
take the holidays to talk to my family and close advisers and friends.
Is that really what they're doing? Is that what this time is meant
for? For some of them? Well, what I will say A is that one of President
Biden's top advisers said that
If they hadn't been at least making preparations for a campaign months
ago, that would be campaign malpractice. So even if they are all
officially spending a lot of quality time, with their families making
decisions, they are also doing all the behind the scenes work of
running a presidential campaign, actually declaring, making it official
on the Federal Elections Commission website and with the paperwork
that tends to happen later, But if you aren't making the preparations
Then you probably aren't running a serious campaign. And there are
many Republicans. Not so many Democrats. There are many Republicans
making all those preparations behind the scenes in addition to, you
know, like going on book tours. So before I come to you, Leanne we
actually have some a few comments that we've been hearing in recent
weeks, and here they are.
I'm gonna listen to my family over the holidays. I have a big Latino
family that's going to come in
this over Christmas. Taking the holidays to kind of look at what
the situation is. President. Biden has said he will have conversations
with his family over the holidays. The president make that decision
I expected shortly after the holidays, Um
But I expect the decision will be to do it. Whether it's it's Rhonda
Santis or Pompeo or or vice president Pence. Everyone has their own
timeline for different reasons, but I think people can wait.
So we have one voice, Governor Sununu, saying Maybe we can wait.
They can wait Others saying, Well, I'm going to think about it over
the holidays. Is this a device or is this really happening? I think
it's a little bit of both. They're thinking about it over the holidays
also includes looking at polling numbers talking to donors. Of course,
they're talking to the family, but they are, as Tam said, doing exactly
what needs to be done to know if they're able to run a viable campaign.
So maybe after the holidays when they're actually not doing their
day jobs and they are trying to consider on if they're going to consider
if they're going to run or not.
All these things are being taken into consideration because what's
critical here is, you know, Are they going to Peter out? Have someone
like Ron DeSantis as he peaked too soon. These are all questions
that they're exploring. So speaking of the Republicans to him, it
does sound like Republicans are more open now to challenges to former
President Trump well, and what I will say about former President
Trump is that a few days after the midterms that were pretty disastrous
for his party, he announced big fanfare he's running for
Re election or running for election again. I guess it doesn't re
election he's running again.
Um, And then he has done basically nothing that looks like a presidential
candidate. Um, he hasn't left Florida. He
Sold some trading card thing. Electronic trading cards quite successfully,
Apparently, um, but he hasn't really
Looked like a presidential candidate. He hasn't held the kind of
rallies that would show people the excitement that exists behind
him or not. Instead, he you know, took a meeting with Kanye and white
supremacist and others. And and all of that looks like weakness to
Republicans, who probably we're going to run regardless, or at least
have been putting together all of all of the scaffolding of a presidential
campaign. And then what about for the Democrats? I mean, are they
clearing the field?
And or not for President Biden. You think
So since the 2020 midterm elections. I think that the the mood among
Democrats has shifted about President Biden leading up to it when
they thought that they were going to get a shellacking in the midterms.
There was a lot of pessimism about the president. But since then,
Democrats did much better than expected, and so they are willing
to give him another chance in Democrats on Capitol Hill are telling
me they absolutely hope that he should that he runs again. We'll
see if that is a
Able to be sustained. But right now, his standing is pretty high
within his party, at least among the Washington, DC crowd.
So leaping from that to the Congress where we know some are thinking
about running for President Tam, is they They look back on this term
this past two years. What are they feeling Good about. What are they
feeling? Well, we didn't We didn't really get that done. So this
was a democratically controlled Congress but very narrowly controlled
by Democrats and
They actually did a remarkable amount of things that I think at the
beginning of the year many of us would not have even predicted were
possible, including gun legislation that was bipartisan. I don't
think anyone had that on on their bingo card
and then obviously passing the two major pieces of legislation that
Democrats passed with Democratic votes alone. These these big spending
bills, one of which is a major environmental bill, Um, even though
it's called the Inflation Reduction Act and
So, you know, as the year went on, Um, there were certainly build
back better didn't happen. But the inflation reduction Act did happen.
There were a number of big, bold ideas that ended up being smaller,
less bold ideas. But still more than most people would have expected
to be possible. What do you see as you? What do you see in their
minds as they are thinking about how this session turned out?
I think Democrats are thrilled. Ah, you know, there's an evenly divided
Senate. The House Democrats had a five, sometimes four, sometimes
three actually, just a couple weeks ago home and they two seat margin
and the fact that they were able to passage major pieces of legislation.
No, they were not as big as they had hoped, but and you know things
like the care economy. We're not able to get past but the fact that
they were able to pass so many things on some of them on a bipartisan
basis. They are
Extremely thrilled, especially at the end of the year. The Electoral
Count Act reforms to to that system is another big win for them,
And that brings up this whole issue which we've talked about all
year, Tim and that is democracy. A lot of people going into the midterms
thinking Where is our democracy? Um, reflecting on it. Are we stronger
at the end of this year or not?
Well, uh,
There were candidates who denied the results of the 2020 election
who ran in 2022 lost and accepted the results. And so that's a win
for the basic functions of democracy. But I would say that
Probably any celebration would be premature. If you look at trust
in American institutions, which are a critical part of American democracy
institutions like the press like us, even institutions like the church,
but things like Congress or the presidency trust in American institutions
is at all time lows, and that leaves the country weaker. It makes
it easier for Democratic erosion to occur when
Then people have their own sources of information where they don't
trust that.
They can trust anything. Um, that that leaves Americans more susceptible.
See this question of democracy as we turn the corner to 2023 think
that Tams, right? I think that
Um, with there was some big wins, I will say in the last two elections
after January, 6th I was in the capital. I saw how divided especially
the House of representatives was Republicans and Democrats refused
to talk to each other. They finished these two years they were able
to pass something like the electoral count Act like I just mentioned
But also you had election deniers around the country running for
office, including these critical positions like secretary of state
and In most instances, voters rejected that the fact that
Voters were paying attention and saw that this was not the direction
that they wanted the country to go. I think that tells us a lot.
And so I think, you know, moving forward. The democracy has probably
been in a stronger place before. But the last two years they've been
able to slowly crawl back. And you know to say that this American
experiments going to continue a little bit longer. A lot to be thankful
for. Yes, we say goodbye to 2022 a few days. Leanne Caldwell, Tamara
Keith. Thank you, both and Happy New Year. Happy New Year Year. Thank