Should Biden Step Aside?

Open to Debate

Education, Society & Culture, News, Government, Politics

4.5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Biden continues to dismiss concerns about seeking re-election. But after a disappointing debate performance, some Democratic leaders are increasingly concerned about whether he’s still fit to lead. Those in support of Biden argue his withdrawal would fragment Democrats and they don’t want to risk losing undecided voters to Trump. Those calling for him to step aside argue that a new candidate could re-energize the Democratic base and improve election chances. Now, we debate: Should Biden Step Aside? Arguing Yes: Michelle Goldberg, Opinion Columnist at The New York Times Arguing No: Dmitri Mehlhorn, Co-Founder of Investing In US Emmy award-winning journalist John Donvan moderates Please note: This discussion was recorded on July 11th before the assassination attempt on former President Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	A quick note for our listeners before we start this episode. This debate was recorded prior to the assassination attempt made on President Trump.
0:07.6	Let's get to the program.
0:08.8	This is open to debate. I'm John Don Van. Hi everybody. We hear it said about a lot of things in recent years.
0:15.2	We're uncharted waters this time.
0:18.0	Well, in regard to the presidential candidacy of one
0:20.2	Joseph Biden, Democratic incumbent,
0:22.2	the metaphor is precisely accurate.
0:25.4	The idea that a party's presumptive nominee, an incumbent who swept the primaries and has all
0:29.7	the delegates he needs and more, would be pressured to step aside weeks before the
0:34.0	nominating convention is something we've never seen before. The two questions being
0:38.1	asked can Joe Biden beat Donald Trump can Joe Biden govern if he does are premised on concerns around his age and attendant cognitive abilities
0:46.0	and a weak performance in a presidential debate.
0:48.0	Unique in this challenge to a sitting president
0:51.0	is that the doubts aren't being raised by his enemies, by his
0:53.2	opponents, but by people who respect him and people who admire him and who know how disruptive
0:59.2	it would be to switch candidates now so very late in our presidential election process. So what
1:04.8	calculations make sense of this idea? Are they valid? Or is there a better case to
1:09.4	be made for the Democrats sticking by Joe Biden all the way.
1:13.0	I'd open to debate, we present sharp disagreements
1:16.0	on important policy issues thoughtfully.
1:18.3	And in that spirit, we are asking this question
1:20.4	for this debate, should Joe Biden step aside?
	...

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