Biden's hundred days (with Douglas Brinkley & Jonathan Alter)
Skullduggery
Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman, Victoria Bassetti
4.0 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2021
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On the day after President Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress, and to mark the occasion of his first hundred days in office, Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti are joined by esteemed historians and authors Douglas Brinkley and Jonathan Alter to break down the speech, and place Biden’s nascent presidency in important historical context. They discuss parallels with both F.D.R. and Jimmy Carter, place Biden in the history of modern progressive presidents, as well as look ahead to possible pitfalls and obstacles that may stand in the way of the agenda that Biden introduced to the nation.
Also, our hosts discuss the latest news in the ignominious downfall of Rudy Giuliani, who once graced the cover of TIME magazine, but who this week had his office and home searched by the FBI as part of an ongoing investigation into his corrupt practices.
GUESTS:
- Douglas Brinkley (@ProfDBrinkley) Professor of History at Rice University, author
- Jonathan Alter (@jonathanalter), Contributing Correspondent, NBC News; author
HOSTS:
- Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
- Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
- Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)
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| 0:00.0 | I stand here tonight, one day shy of the 100th day in my administration. |
| 0:08.0 | 100 days since I took the oath of office and lifted my hand off our family Bible and inherited a nation we all did that was in crisis. |
| 0:18.0 | The worst pandemic in the century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. |
| 0:29.0 | Now, after just 100 days, I can report to the nation, America is on the move again. |
| 0:39.0 | That was President Biden Wednesday night giving his first speech to a joint session of Congress, laying out an ambitious agenda that would dramatically expand the role of government. |
| 0:53.0 | He urged lawmakers to pass his plans for universal preschool, free community college, and expanded health care, not to mention gun control, immigration changes, climate change, voting rights, and much more. |
| 1:05.0 | His proposals would cost trillions to be paid for by steep tax increases on the wealthy. |
| 1:11.0 | Already, Biden's proposals have been compared to Franklin Roosevelt's new deal in Lyndon Johnson's great society, but can he get as agenda enacted with the narrowest of democratic majorities in the Congress and a still divided country? |
| 1:25.0 | And how to assess his first 100 days? We'll assess with two distinguished historians who have written extensively about US presidents, Doug Brinkley, and Jonathan Alter on this episode of Skull Duggery. |
| 1:39.0 | I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States. |
| 1:47.0 | I will, to the best of my building, reserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. So, help me, God. |
| 1:54.0 | So, help me, God. So, help me, God. |
| 1:58.0 | So, help me, God. |
| 2:00.0 | A Michael is a God for Chief Investigator, of Correspondent for Yahoo News. |
| 2:03.0 | I'm Dan Clydeman, that are in Chief of Yahoo News. |
| 2:06.0 | And I'm Victoria Bessetti, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice. |
| 2:10.0 | So, I thought Biden did pretty well in that speech. |
| 2:14.0 | It was as much tone as it was substance that I thought gave it the applause it has been getting. |
| 2:23.0 | He seemed to be talking in a very familiar way to his audience. |
| 2:28.0 | He wasn't shouting. There was no bluster. There was no rhetorical overreach. |
| 2:34.0 | It was just sort of plain speaking Joe Biden. |
| 2:38.0 | But I was really struck by Dan Bals' analysis in the Washington Post this morning about the ambitious agenda. |
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