Inside the College Democrats’ Rebuke of Biden

The Run-Up

The New York Times

News Commentary, Politics, News

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Here’s what we know when it comes to the antiwar protests on college campuses and electoral politics: President Biden does seem to have a problem with young activists on the left. The disapproval only intensified in the days after the president spoke critically about the protests. But whether or not he has a larger problem with young voters in general remains to be seen. Which is why one statement from a more mainstream group, saying the administration is on a “mistaken route,” is worth considering. That group? The College Democrats of America. That’s an organization that is closely aligned with national party leadership, and the leaders of the group are delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Which means, they’re the young people who would seem most likely to support Mr. Biden. So over the past few days, we reached out to a bunch of leaders within the College Democrats to get the inside story of how that statement came to be — and to understand what it might mean for November.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So here's what we know when it comes to the anti-war protests on college campuses and electoral politics.
0:12.0	President Biden has a problem with young activists,
0:15.0	and the disapproval, particularly from the left,
0:18.0	has only intensified in the days after the president spoke critically
0:22.0	about the protest.
0:24.1	But whether or not he has a problem with the young electorate at large
0:27.6	remains to be seen, which is why one response from a more mainstream organization really caught my attention.
0:35.9	The College Democrats of America who said last week the White House was on a quote,
0:40.9	mistaken route, unquote, that could make it harder to win
0:44.6	young voters. The statement turned heads in political circles because the
0:49.8	college Democrats are closely aligned with national party leadership.
0:54.6	Leaders of the group are delegates to the Democratic Convention, and it's pretty rare to see
0:59.1	them say anything bad about the Democratic president.
1:03.2	And as I soon learned, the statement also divided the group's leadership.
1:09.3	So over the past few days, we reached out to a bunch of the group's members, including members of the Executive
1:15.8	Board, the head of its Muslim Caucus, and the chair of its Jewish Caucus, to get the
1:21.1	inside story of what happened and why.
1:25.0	Today, how the College Democrats of America
1:28.0	came to break with the Democratic president
1:30.0	and what it could mean for the fall.
1:33.0	From the New York Times, I'm a Stadhergent.
1:36.0	This is the runner. Hey, how are you?
	...

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