Biden Steps Aside. How Might Harris Step Up?

Radio Atlantic

The Atlantic

News, Society & Culture, Politics

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🗓️ 22 July 2024

⏱️ 35 minutes

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Summary

Joe Biden has announced he’ll no longer seek reelection. With a little over 100 days left until the vote, he’s endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement. Staff writer Franklin Foer wrote a book on the Biden administration. And staff writer Elaina Plott Calabro profiled Harris for the magazine. They come together at this extraordinary moment to share their knowledge of the two politicians and talk about what happens next and what to expect from Harris as the presidential candidate. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/podsub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello I'm Atlantic Staff Writer Franklin 4 and I'm coming to you on this bonus episode of Radio
0:11.8	Atlantic because earlier today President Joe
0:14.5	Biden announced that he's abandoning his bid for re-election. He'll finish his
0:19.6	current term but he's endorsed Vice President Kamal Harris as the 2024 Democratic nominee.
0:26.1	Presidents have backed out of re-election in the past, but this is truly a surreal and
0:32.0	unprecedented moment in American politics.
0:34.7	A frenetic three weeks after a disastrously revealing debate performance
0:39.4	ending in the president stepping aside with barely 100 days to go before people vote.
0:45.8	So as we speak on Sunday, there is a lot we don't know.
0:51.7	But with me to discuss where Democrats and the 2024 race go from here is my
0:57.0	colleague Atlantic Staff writer, Elena Plot Calabro. Hey, Elena, thanks for talking with me.
1:03.0	Hey, Frank, yeah, not a lot to talk about these days.
1:06.0	Oh, God.
1:08.0	Day from hell for political journalists.
1:10.0	The Sunday bomb drops and off we go. So let's just start at the very beginning,
1:15.2	Elena. What do we know about this decision from Biden? The reporting that's
1:20.0	come out that I've seen since the decision has been pretty remarkable, which I sort of was
1:25.6	clued into with the fact that about 10 minutes after he made his announcement, I received in my inbox a Biden Harris fundraising solicitation, which I think just kind of reinforced that this decision was not something that was planned days in advance, for example. This was not
1:45.0	the planed days in advance for example. This was not something he and his team were drafting you know five days ago or whatnot.
1:48.0	The New York Times I think reported that as late as last night a Democratic delegate was receiving calls from Biden AIDS
1:54.7	about wanting this delegate to stress their support publicly. So I think this was
1:59.7	something that caught a lot of people even within the White House off guard and has gone to show I think
	...

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