Who’s Afraid of Justin Amash?

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

New York Times Opinion

New York Times, Journalism, News, Society & Culture, Ross Douthat

4.0 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2020

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Who would a third party candidate help in the 2020 presidential election? Would adding a Libertarian like Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan to the race hand President Trump his re-election? Or could Amash appeal to would-be Trump voters and goose up the Democrats’ chance at victory come November? With Ross still on parental leave, Frank and Michelle are joined by the Republican strategist Liz Mair to discuss the power third party candidates hold in presidential races. Then, Michelle and Frank hop on a Zoom call to talk about the positives and pitfalls of our new era of video conferencing in both work and play. For background reading on this episode, visit nytimes.com/theargument.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Michelle Goldberg.
0:02.0	I'm Frank Bruney, and this is the argument.
0:05.0	This week, will a third party candidate propel President Trump to another four years in
0:13.0	the White House?
0:14.0	Ross is still on leave, so Michelle and I asked Liz Merritt to come on the show.
0:19.3	Liz is a Republican strategist who has some thoughts on Justin Amash and whether he's
0:23.2	a bigger threat to Biden or to Trump.
0:26.1	I just think that the majority of voters like that in my experience, they're probably
0:30.9	not going to be swinging any actual elections.
0:34.0	Then, Zoom.
0:35.7	The video conferencing platform is where we're working and socializing these days.
0:40.6	It's a godsend, but maybe also a soul killer.
0:44.2	I feel like every new technological innovation, my reaction is always, why would anyone ever
0:50.0	do that?
0:52.6	We want to give the American people more choices.
0:55.0	This is about democracy.
0:56.5	It's about representative government.
0:59.0	Last week, Michigan Congressman Justin Amash announced that he's considering a presidential
1:03.3	bid as the Libertarian candidate.
1:07.0	Since then, Democrats and never Trump Republicans have been in a panic.
1:12.4	They're worried that Amash, who changed his affiliation from Republican to Libertarian
1:17.0	last year, could re-elect Trump by siphoning just enough support from Joe Biden.
	...

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