Brian Ler on WNYC. In case you blinked and missed it, there was a Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina on Saturday, the first in the nation for the Dems. President Biden got

97% of the vote. Congressman Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson, each got about 1%. Game over on

day one. Officially, probably yes. But Biden's got other problems. Democrats have to turn out in November for him to

win the swing states. So he campaigned in Michigan on the day before the vote in South Carolina,

yes, Michigan, where Arab Americans make up more of the voting population than in most other states,

and Biden's Mideast policies deeply unpopular.

And then there's the border, a big motivator for Republicans at the moment.

Will this deal that came out of the Senate yesterday do anything to assuage them on that?

And the latest NBC news poll shows him trailing Donald Trump by five points in a hypothetical matchup. I realize

it's just a poll, but it's the worst Biden's ever done in five years of that poll since 2019

versus Trump and with basically a tie among Latinos. So don't kid yourselves. The campaigns pay very close attention to a poll

like that and adjust accordingly. With us now, Politico, national political correspondent covering

the presidential campaign, Elena Schneider. Her latest article is called Biden, gets the South

Carolina victory he wanted hi Elena welcome back to

WNYC hey thanks for having me was it the South Carolina victory he wanted there was only a quarter of the

turnout compared to 2020 well look this this was a primary that was essentially totally uncompetitive. President Joe Biden placed South

Carolina first in the nation for this new cycle of presidential primary. So South Carolina

was doing this for the very first time going first. And essentially no one else was really running in this race. As you said,

Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson both were on the ballot. But Dean Phillips, who spent about

$5 million in New Hampshire, which ran an unsanctioned contest. I know the rules get a little

complicated here, spent only about $500 in South Carolina. So look, this was, as we know, very much an uncompetitive race.

But nonetheless, they did get some takeaways that they are saying and are trying to spin as a positive result.

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