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The Run-Up

Democrats Are Panicking About Biden. How Did They Get Here?

The Run-Up

The New York Times

News Commentary, Politics, News

4.42K Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As you may have heard, Thursday night was the first debate between President Biden and former president Donald J. Trump. In short, it was not a great night for Mr. Biden. The president’s debate performance triggered significant panic among top Democrats, who for months have been dismissing concerns about Mr. Biden’s age. So, how is this happening? Despite all the concerns polls showed about age, how has the Democratic Party arrived at this moment? That’s a line of inquiry The Run-Up has been putting to senior Democratic leaders for the past 18 months. And we wanted to revisit some of those conversations now in a special episode. They include our interviews with Vice President Harris, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison and Ron Klain, Mr. Biden’s former White House chief of staff.

Transcript

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0:00.0

So as you may have heard, Thursday night was the first debate between President Biden and

0:08.6

Donald Trump.

0:11.6

More Border Patrol and more asylum officers.

0:13.5

President Trump?

0:14.5

I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence.

0:17.0

I don't think he knows what he said either.

0:19.3

And in short, it was not a great night for Biden. I'm dealing with everything we have to do with,

0:27.0

look, if we finally beat Medicare,

0:34.0

Thank you, Biden, President Trump.

0:37.0

This has triggered a big freak out among top levels of the Democratic Party,

0:41.0

which for months has been dismissing concerns about Biden's age and

0:45.7

mental fitness. Often getting angry at reporters like me for even asking the

0:51.6

questions despite the fact that polling and our own reporting

0:56.0

have clearly shown that concerns about Biden's age, physical stamina, and

1:01.0

mental acuity are huge factors in this election.

1:04.0

How are you feeling about President Biden?

1:06.0

He's getting old and I just, that makes me sad because he's really a good candidate.

1:10.0

He's too old.

1:12.0

I feel like he's a lot out of touch, but I think he's too old. I feel like he's a little out of touch but I think he's too old.

1:15.0

It's just flat on, at some point the age thing has to come into play.

1:19.0

I like Joe Biden, he's too old.

1:21.0

I don't think we should have deep senior citizens in office making decisions for the country.

...

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