‘What If Someone Dies?’ And Other 2024 Questions, Answered

The Run-Up

The New York Times

News Commentary, Politics, News

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For the past few months, we’ve been asking our listeners to write in with questions, and we’ve gotten some great ones. Things like: How does polling work? Does Joe Biden’s stance on Gaza present a campaign challenge? And who might Donald Trump select as his running mate? But as we were sorting through them, an underlying theme started to emerge: People can’t seem to fathom that we’re careening toward a Biden-Trump rematch — and they want to know if anything could alter this seemingly inevitable reality. So today, with some of our most trusted colleagues on the Times Politics team, we talk through all of the hypotheticals: What happens in the case of a health emergency? How about a criminal conviction? Could this be the year that a third-party candidate breaks through? Or is it too late? Do you have a question you want us to answer? Nothing is out of bounds. We’re game for everything from the existential (Will democracy survive?) to the more trivial (Do celebrity endorsements make a difference?). Email us a voice memo with your question at therunup@nytimes.com.

Transcript

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0:18.0	Thank you so much for picking up and for more importantly sending in a question to us. Can you first just tell me the question that you sent in to the show?
0:22.0	Yes, so the thing I wanted to know, given the age of the
0:26.8	presumed candidates, what does happen if one or both of these candidates
0:32.4	dies before the election.
0:34.8	I know that sounds harsh, but statistically speaking,
0:37.4	it's possible.
0:38.5	And then what?
0:40.5	I guess, like, when did this question get on your radar?
0:47.0	I know that's a weird way to ask.
0:50.0	Oh, that's a good question.
0:52.0	I don't, I think because probably like a lot of other people, I,
0:57.4	this sounds weird, but like just looking for a way out of this and obviously by no a natural ending I don't want that to happen to anyone but I just thought is there any circumstance where it's just not Trump Biden again, just what is every possibility of
1:15.4	what could happen to set this up any differently whatsoever.
1:18.6	Amy is not alone. For the past few months, we've been asking our listeners to send in questions.
1:28.0	And as November gets closer, there's an increasing sense of desperation reflected in these questions.
1:36.7	You're asking about third-party candidates, health emergencies, criminal convictions,
1:42.2	death, things that could alter the inevitable rematch.
1:47.2	It kind of feels like, as a country, we all fell asleep on the train.
1:52.0	And now, the conductor is announcing that you have to get off at the last stop,
1:56.5	that you have no other choice but this one. And you have this moment of panic. You're like,
2:07.0	this is it? This is my only option? So today, we take on your two biggest 2024 questions. What if something happens to Biden or Trump? is I'm a stethad Harrington. This is the run-up.
2:30.0	Yo, what's up? You're wearing a tie? Oh, just for you, just for you. Do I need to go change?
	...

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