The man Democrats call to prepare for debate night

The Conversation with Dasha Burns

POLITICO

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4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 June 2024

⏱️ 53 minutes

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Summary

Bob Bauer is President Joe Biden’s personal lawyer and was general counsel to both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. But over the last three decades, he’s developed another specialty practice: playing the role of his candidate’s rival during debate prep. Bauer has helped Democratic candidates prepare for debates by playing the likes of Bernie Sanders, Al Gore, and Donald Trump. He’s also been involved with efforts to reform the process and production of presidential debates themselves. So with the first presidential debate less than one week away, and both Biden and Trump cramming to prepare for it, Bauer is joining the show to preview the event, as well as to discuss his new book, “The Unraveling: Reflections on Politics without Ethics and Democracy in Crisis”.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Everyone needs a lawyer, even the President of the United States, and if you've been a Democrat in the White House over the last 30 years,
0:08.0	Bob Bauer has, in some capacity, been your guy.
0:13.0	Currently, Bauerower is President Joe Biden's personal lawyer.
0:17.0	Prior to that, he was general counsel for both of Barack Obama's presidential campaigns and Obama's White House Council.
0:25.6	He also served as Council to Senate Democrats during Bill Clinton's impeachment trial,
0:30.1	and in 2000 he was the top lawyer for New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley's presidential primary campaign against Al Gore.
0:36.0	It was in that campaign that Bauer first became an expert in a unique political art, playing the role of his candidate's rival during debate prep.
0:46.0	In 2020, he helped Biden prepare for debates by playing Bernie Sanders in the primaries
0:52.0	and Donald Trump in the general election.
0:54.8	It was his job to insult and impugn Biden the way that Trump would.
1:00.3	In all of the debate preps and whether it was a Trump debate prep or Gore Bradley or others that I've done,
1:08.0	you cannot be afraid of laying down on the table, something that your candidate that you're preparing this for
1:15.0	won't like.
1:16.2	With the first presidential debate, less than one week away, and both Biden and Trump
1:20.0	cramming to prepare for it, I wanted Bauer to come on and help us preview the big event.
1:25.0	Bower also has a new book out, the unraveling, reflections on politics without ethics,
1:31.0	and democracy in crisis, which is an account of his accumulated wisdom in decades of work at the highest levels of American politics and government.
1:42.0	Bower and I met downtown in Washington on Thursday afternoon and
1:46.3	discuss what it's like to prepare Biden for a Trump debate, whether or not Democratic
1:51.1	prosecutors have overdone it on pursuing legal actions against Trump,
1:56.3	whether his book is going to get him in trouble with his number one client,
2:00.5	President Joe Biden. And a lot more. I'm Ryan Liza and this is Playbook Deep Dive. Since it's a week out from the debates and you've got at least a partial chapter on debates and you have been deeply
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