amna: We turn to the analysis of
brooks and Capehart.
That's New York Times columnist
David brooks and Jonathan
Capehart, associate editor for
the Washington post.
This week so the end of probably
the worst kept secret in all of
Washington it is fair to say.
President Biden officially
announcing his reelection
campaign.
We should note this comes as the
latest newshour/npr poll shows
his approval rating at about
41%.
David, once upon a time there
was a thing called an
announcement bounce, you see
your numbers go up a little bit.
Will we see that or are these
times different?
David: I would bet my bottom
dollar we do not.
He has been around 41, 42, 43
for the longest time.
To my view, he's passed a lot of
legislation.
When you look at the polls, it
is sobering for anyone in the
Biden camp.
Presidential approvals are a
good predictor for where the
vote will end up and it is true
that Barack Obama at this stage
had another four points decline.
He didn't rise at the end of his
term.
It is possible.
Joe Biden is just not where he
should be to have an easy
reelects.
When you look at him running
head-to-head with Donald Trump,
pretty much dead even.
For all that's happened to
Donald Trump the last couple of
years, he is still end -- and
now.
Amna: He's passed a lot of
legislation and I was surprised
in that video we didn't hear a
lot about it.
Should he be talking more about
what he's gotten done?
Jonathan: This is the opening
video.
Do you want it to be a couple of
minutes or an hour long special?
[Laughter]
He will be talking about his
record down the road.
That opening video is about
making the case and the
rationale for the candidacy in
the same way he did for years to
the day earlier.
It's about the battle for the
soul of America with the tagline
of let's finish the job.
Meaning he started with the tiki
torch guys from charlottesville
and started now with the
insurrection on January 6.
Finish the job, restore the soul
of the country and then finish
the job in terms of the things
he's trying to get done.
The pushback about polls being a
predictor of what will happen to
the president, we just have the
ultimate whole in the midterm
elections where the president's
approval rating was stuck in the
low 40's, some in the high 30's.
People predicting 60 Republican
seats in the house and maybe
taking over the senate and none
of that happened.
I think that's because the
American people were able to do
a couple of things -- more than
a couple of things at the same
time.
They blame the president because
he's the president but they also
see what the big issues are.
I think the biggest poll more
than a year out will be November
2024.
Geoff: When people had to the --
amna: When people had to the
voting booth.
Back to the soul of the nation.
This moment is different than
2020, the eminence he of the
threat to democracy, the chaos
of the trump years, the thick of
the pandemic.
We are not there anymore.
Does that message still
resonate?
David: I still think it's the
core message and I love the
phrasing, it suggests that a
miracle has a moral essence.
And that is under threat.
In my view it's under threat
from a moralistic realism not
only of trump trumpism, -- trump
trumpism, the idea that you just
take care of yourself.
It is a lot of the philosophy of
the trump worldview.
It's like we can't help
Ukrainians, we have to take care
of ourselves.
I think Biden's worldview was
very different, that we have to
be a good country, good at
defending democracy, good on
race, good unfairness, good to
the marginalized.
Unlike other presidential
elections there is a contest
between a moral vision and a
moral realism.
I think he is right to highlight
that.
Amna: One about the role vice
president Harris will play?
Jonathan: This is where, to take
the baton from David, this is
where vice president Harris is
at her best.
I think probably two of the
darkly best things to happen to
her, adopts decision, because
she went right out there and
started talking about freedom
and liberty for women and their
choices about their own health
care, and then if you tie in
Tennessee.
The killing of tyre Nichols,
where she spoke at the funeral,
off-the-cuff, no notes.
More importantly when she went
on a surprise trip to Nashville
and met with the Tennessee three
and gave a barnburner of a 20
minute speech -- not a campaign
speech, but a speech where the
subtext was the soul of America.
It was really about freedom and
liberty and the ability of the
American people to send people
to state legislatures in order
for their voices to be heard and
it is antidemocratic and not
right to silence those voices.
You must watch that speech.
If you want to see the real,
true, Harris and what drives her
and her values, that is it.
What David said about the
president, at to that what I
just set about vice president
Harris and you have a formidable
ticket going into 2024.
Amna: She was tethered to the
senate for so long, having to be
the tiebreaker.
We are seeing her out and about
more now.
Jonathan: Right, between being
freed to having to cast a
tiebreak vote but also the
pandemic, I think those things
stunted her ability to get out
and really own the job.
Amna: This week we also saw a
seismic shift for the most
powerful conservative platform
in the country, primetime host
tucker Carlson fired from fox.
What does this mean?
David: Foxes and entertainment
network but also a company.
Executives don't like it when
you annoy them over and over and
over again.
One has a sense that he was
sending emails, internal fights
and squabbles, he was going
further than they were
comfortable with.
One thing we know about fox is
it is bigger than any person on
fox, they got rid of bill
O'Reilly and Megyn Kelly, they
will get rid of you if you think
you're bigger than fox.
It was a very bold move, their
viewership has fallen by half.
I was shocked, I thought they
would never do it but tucker has
successfully built a successful
thing of doing what he does.
They decided business over
pleasure.
Amna: Were you shocked?
Jonathan: I was shocked at some
leave because you get to the
lever of tucker or O'Reilly and
you think they are untouchable I
went point that at which point
the company says you are more of
a liability than we care to deal
with.
What impact will tucker's firing
and disappearance from fox have
on the Republican party?
Will they stand on their own
feet and start articulating a
vision for the party into the
country that is independent of
tucker Carlson an fox?
I don't know if they know how to
do that anymore.
Amna: To someone else step into
that role?
We have to point out that the
lie of the 2020 election being
stolen, tucker Carlson was one
of the leading voices in that.
David: He was following the
audience not leading the
audience in my view.
He saw with the audience wanted,
he brought it to fox and he
represents one version of the
Republican future, which is a
pure populist vision.
He was very against hedge funds
and corporations, big tech.
He takes social conservatism and
anticorporate populism and
that's one version of the
Republican future.
I think the audience will be
there and if the audience is
there, tucker will be on another
network and whoever steps in to
be the new tucker will probably
be there as well.
Amna: We have a minute and a
half left.
Jonathan, on the white house
perspective, we now have when it
comes to the debt ceiling debate
come of the opening salvo from
house Republicans.
The spending plan that speaker
Mccarthy has wrangled his
conference to get behind.
What do you make of the way
president Biden is saying no
negotiations?
Jonathan: I think the
president's right.
In a perfect world, the
president presents his budget,
which he did last month.
The speaker of the house
presents his budget, which he
has yet to do.
Instead he has passed by two
votes a spending plan that holds
the debt ceiling hostage in
order to get it done.
What should be happening is dual
track conversations -- a clean
debt ceiling bill while at the
same time the president with his
budget and the speaker with
Republican budget, hammering out
all the things they want to do,
and that's not happening.
I think the president is saying
I'm ready to negotiate when you
want to negotiate a budget but
I will not negotiate the debt
ceiling.
David: I think the Biden people
thought Mccarthy could never do
this.
They thought they would be too
many dissenters and Mccarthy
pulled it off.
Republicans have leverage on the
debt ceiling and that's we've
got to meet them.
Amna: We will be speaking about
this a lot more I am sure.
Thank you so much.
♪♪