Why It Had to Be Biden

The Run-Up

The New York Times

News Commentary, Politics, News

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With Super Tuesday behind us, this week is the end of one chapter of this campaign. On the Republican side, former President Donald Trump’s only remaining challenger, Nikki Haley, is out of the race. And on the Democratic side, President Biden has so far secured more than 70 percent of the delegates he needs to secure the nomination. The general election is here. And so too is the rematch we’ve been expecting, despite the fact that the majority of Americans continue to say they wish they had other options. So for the next two episodes, we’re going to focus on a question we hear more than anything else: How exactly did we wind up with these two candidates? And why? First up: We map Mr. Biden’s path to the 2024 election through conversations with Elaine Kamarck, a longtime member of the Democratic National Committee and the author of “Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know about How America Nominates Its Presidential Candidates,” and Ron Klain, the president’s former White House chief of staff.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week marks the end of one chapter of this campaign.
0:05.0	The primary race is over right now and the general election starts immediately.
0:10.0	On the Republican side,
0:12.0	The time has now come to suspend my campaign.
0:16.0	Trump's only remaining challenger,
0:18.0	Mickey Haley, is out of the race.
0:20.0	I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that. I have no regrets.
0:27.0	And on the Democratic side,
0:30.0	Biden secured more than 1400 delegates. That is more than 72% of the total
0:34.7	that he needs to secure the Democratic nomination.
0:37.8	President Biden swept off 15 states.
0:42.2	So it's Super Tuesday behind us. The matchup that we've been expecting is clear.
0:47.0	Another Trump-Biden election.
0:49.0	That November rematch that most Americans tell us they don't want, well it's exactly
0:54.4	what we're all going to get. There's a hundred million people waking up today just
0:58.2	absolutely shaking their heads at that we're in this position.
1:01.6	Regardless of the fact that the majority of Americans
1:05.4	continue to say that they wish they had other options.
1:09.0	So for the next two weeks, I want to focus on answering the question we hear more than anything else and
1:15.1	answer it more directly than we ever have before. How exactly do we end up
1:20.3	with these two candidates and why.
1:25.1	From the New York Times I'm a Sted Herndon.
	...

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