Jill Lepore on Why Biden Is No F.D.R.
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 1 September 2022
⏱️ 34 minutes
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Summary
Joe Biden has had a remarkable reversal of fortune this summer. He signed three bi-partisan bills, and the Inflation Reduction Act, a multi-billion-dollar combination of climate and healthcare legislation, was surprisingly revived and passed by Congress. That was accompanied by a drop in gas prices and a slowdown in inflation. Suddenly it seems like the Democrats could hold onto the Senate, and even the House, in the upcoming midterms. But, according to the Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore, these successes do not make Biden the equivalent of Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Lyndon Baines Johnson, as some—the President among them—have suggested. Lepore speaks with the guest host Evan Osnos about this turning point in the Biden Administration, and about the inextricability of a President and their historical moment. The two also discuss the looming question of whether the Justice Department should prosecute Donald Trump, whether over the hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago or the insurrection. Of January 6th, Lepore says: “the crime is much more dire than Watergate, which just looks goofy and low rent compared to this.”
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| 1:12.3 | Welcome to the political scene. I'm Evan Osnos. Joe Biden has had a remarkable reversal of |
| 1:18.0 | fortune this summer. He signed three bipartisan bills on veterans benefits, domestic manufacturing, |
| 1:24.1 | and gun control. The Inflation Reduction Act, which is a multi-billion dollar combination |
| 1:28.8 | of climate and health care legislation, was surprisingly revived and passed by Congress. And that was |
| 1:34.7 | accompanied by a drop in gas prices and a slowdown in inflation. The net effect of all this has been a |
| 1:40.7 | bump in Biden's approval ratings by about five points, which is raising |
| 1:44.6 | talk that the Democrats may hold on to the Senate and even the House in the upcoming midterms. |
| 1:49.7 | Like a lot of us in Washington, I've followed the ups and downs of Joe Biden's political |
| 1:53.4 | career for a long time. But if we really want to understand this moment, I think we need |
| 1:57.8 | a broader historical perspective. And for that, I wanted to talk to my |
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