David Axelrod on Biden v. Trump 2024

Conversations with Bill Kristol

News, Society & Culture, Government, Politics

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2024

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Where do things stand in the 2024 race? What campaign strategies might increase Joe Biden’s chances? How might the economy, the border, wars in Europe and the Middle East, Trump's trials, and third-party campaigns affect the race? To discuss these questions, we are joined by David Axelrod, chief strategist for Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012. Axelrod explains: “I would not count on the shock and dismay of people over the fact that [Trump] is under 91 criminal indictments, or that he engineered an insurrection, and so on. I think you’re going to get that [vote] for free, but it’s not enough to win.” According to Axelrod, the Biden campaign also should not be complacent in thinking that touting Biden’s achievements during his first term will be enough. Instead, he argues, Biden needs to focus on the economic challenges people face today—while framing the election as a contrast between Biden and Trump, and not simply as a referendum on Biden’s presidency.

Transcript

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0:00.0	And the Hi, I'm Bill Crystal. Welcome back to Conversations. I'm very pleased to be joined for the second time on these conversations.
0:20.0	By my friend David Axelrod, a man with many titles, we're joking about this.
0:25.5	CNN commentator Hax on Tap, a podcast, host, founding director of the Institute of Politics.
0:31.6	I had the pleasure to serve on that advisory board with him where he did an excellent job for 10 years at the University of Chicago.
0:36.0	Probably tougher to manage the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago than
0:39.6	about a couple of presidential campaigns, right?
0:42.5	Students, faculty, you know, all those people.
0:44.8	Actually, you know, easier than many, easier than most.
0:48.3	I can speak, I can point to a few institutions,
0:51.1	including the one you attended, where I think it would be more difficult.
0:54.0	No, no, I give Chicago credit for making it a hospitable environment and one where you insisted on real free speech
1:01.0	and civil discourse. And I'm very pleased to.
1:03.0	And I should point out that Bill Crystal has been an eminent board member of the IOP
1:07.0	from its inception and we try and reflect his temperament and civic values.
1:15.0	I rubber stamp David's decisions, but that's what board members are for, of course.
1:20.0	And most importantly for this conversation, obviously and most famously, the top campaign
1:25.1	strategist in Barack Obama's, Senator Obama's 2008 campaign for the presidency and
1:30.9	then his successful re-election in 2012 which is really what I want to focus on today.
1:35.8	I guess you ran the most recent successful re-election campaign.
1:40.5	Yeah, yeah, you know we came to take for granted that presidents would be reelected.
1:45.8	We had a string of re-elections.
1:48.8	George W Bush got re-elected.
	...

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