Checks and Balance: Joe’s job
Checks and Balance from The Economist
The Economist
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2020
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
No candidate challenging a sitting president has had a poll lead bigger than Joe Biden’s this close to election day. His allure owes a lot to who he is not. The Democrats coalesced around the former Vice President only when the more radical Bernie Sanders threatened to nab the nomination. Who is Joe Biden and what does he want?
The Economist’s US business editor Vijay Vaitheeswaran explains why Wall St is coming round to Biden and we look back at his foreign policy record and role in the Iraq war. Also, Biden’s former deputy chief of staff Scott Mulhauser tells us what makes him tick.
John Prideaux, The Economist's US editor, hosts with New York bureau chief Charlotte Howard, and Jon Fasman, Washington correspondent.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On Wednesday night, Joe Biden was the keynote speaker at the Muslims Making Change National |
| 0:07.6 | Honours Ceremony. |
| 0:09.5 | He told his audience that |
| 0:13.0 | day one and staff his administrations with Muslims at every level. |
| 0:18.0 | His remarks were pre-taped. |
| 0:20.0 | Mr Biden's only other campaign event that day was a virtual fundraiser with Wall Street bosses in the afternoon. |
| 0:27.0 | Republicans complained that the man they call Heiden-Biden is escaping scrutiny that the president has had to answer more |
| 0:34.9 | than twice as many questions from journalists. |
| 0:37.9 | At one point in the campaign, Joe Biden went three months without holding a press conference. But so far, Biden's quiet campaign has been a roaring |
| 0:46.1 | success. No candidate in history has held such a big polling lead over a sitting president |
| 0:52.2 | at this point in the cycle. |
| 0:55.0 | With 17 days to go, this is checks and balance. |
| 0:59.4 | I'm John Prado, the Economist's US editor and this is a podcast about the 2020 |
| 1:07.1 | elections. Each week we take one big theme shaping American politics and explore it in depth. |
| 1:15.0 | Today, what do we know of Joe Biden's political career in 2020 owes a lot to who he's not. |
| 1:30.0 | Polls show the antipathy to the most divisive president in memory is what's driving his current popularity. |
| 1:37.0 | During the nomination contest at the start of the year, Democrats coalesced around Biden only wants the more extreme Bernie Sanders |
| 1:45.3 | threatened to run away with the nomination. |
| 1:48.8 | As he looks poised to become the next president, in this episode we're asking who is Joe Biden and what does |
| 1:54.8 | he want? We'll find out how far he might drag America to the left, look back on |
| 2:00.2 | his influential role in the Iraq war, and here from someone who worked closely with him as Vice President. |
| 2:07.0 | With me as ever to discuss all of this are John Fasman, the economist Washington |
... |
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