TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Hey there. It is Tamara Keith. Earlier than we begin the present, I must ask a favor. It’s a powerful time for lots of people proper now. And NPR will nonetheless be free and right here on daily basis with the information everytime you’re prepared to listen to it. In truth, some stations have even canceled their fundraising drives to be sure to can get the newest information it’s essential maintain protected. However these fundraising drives are the primary supply of cash for a lot of stations. And I hoped that our NPR POLITICS PODCAST listeners may have the ability to assist fill the hole. So simply should you’re ready, please head to donate.npr.org/politics and pitch in something you possibly can. Thanks. And now this is the present.
JACOB: That is Jacob (ph) from Mundelein, Sick. (ph) and I’ve spent this era of social distancing getting reacquainted with my favourite factor of all time – “The Lord Of The Rings.” I reread all of the books. I’ve rewatched all the films. And as my good friend Gandalf stated, all we’ve got to resolve is what to do with the time that’s given to us. This podcast was recorded at..
ASMA KHALID, HOST:
2:08 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14.
JACOB: Needless to say by the point you hear, issues could have already modified. And simply to cite Gandalf another time, solely a small half is performed in nice deeds by any hero. So though we do not have to destroy the ring in Mount Doom, all of us should proceed to work collectively to make sure our security throughout this troublesome time. Properly, benefit from the present.
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MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: So for all you Tolkien followers on the market, this pod is for you.
JUANA SUMMERS, BYLINE: I’m particularly enthusiastic about this one as a result of I’m an enormous “Lord Of The Rings” fan. So that is, like, proper in my wheelhouse.
KHALID: Properly, hey there. It is the NPR POLITICS PODCAST.
I am Asma Khalid. I cowl the presidential marketing campaign.
SUMMERS: I am Juana Summers. I additionally cowl the marketing campaign.
LIASSON: And I am Mara Liasson, nationwide political correspondent.
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BARACK OBAMA: Hello everyone. Let me begin by saying the plain. These aren’t regular occasions.
KHALID: This morning, Joe Biden’s presidential marketing campaign launched an endorsement video from a person we do not hear from fairly often anymore.
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OBAMA: But when there’s one factor we have discovered as a rustic from moments of nice disaster, it is that the spirit of searching for each other cannot be restricted to our properties or our workplaces or our neighborhoods or our homes of worship. It additionally needs to be mirrored in our nationwide authorities, the type of management that is guided by data and expertise, honesty and humility, empathy and charm. That type of management does not simply belong in our state capitals and mayors places of work. It belongs within the White Home. And that is why I am so proud to endorse Joe Biden for president of the USA.
KHALID: That, after all, is former President Barack Obama. And it’s no huge shocker that the previous president is endorsing his former vice chairman. All of us knew he was going to endorse the eventual Democratic nominee. However nonetheless, what he needed to say was noteworthy and admittedly simply the size of this. This video was about 12 minutes lengthy.
SUMMERS: Yeah. That is completely proper. It was relatively lengthy, and it is Obama sitting in a jacket and a collared shirt, no tie, in entrance of some bookshelves speaking movingly not nearly his former working mate, Joe Biden, however in regards to the second that we’re in politically. It is each – the best way that I heard it, it is each somber and hopeful on the identical time. You actually heard him not simply speaking about this endorsement however I feel acknowledging the truth that we’re in type of uncharted territory, that lots of people are hurting proper now, lots of people are scared and that they are in search of management. And, after all, the purpose that he is making there may be that Joe Biden is the one that can present that management.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)
KHALID: Hey, hey, guys, I have been listening to a canine. Whose is that?
LIASSON: Yeah. I do know. I obtained the – I’ve been frantically waving my arms for the final minute getting the canine grasp to get the canine to close up.
(LAUGHTER)
LIASSON: OK. The canine has been muzzled.
KHALID: He needed to make a podcast look.
LIASSON: He actually did. Possibly he can do the timestamp subsequent time.
KHALID: (Laughter) So to me, what stood out was President Obama’s emphasis on the second that we’re in proper now and actually the necessity for Democrats to have somebody who’s competent to drag the nation out of the coronavirus disaster. He highlighted the truth that Biden was there with him after they rebuilt the nation in the course of the Nice Recession and had this big auto business bailout. And, you recognize, I’ve achieved some reporting in current weeks particularly round Biden’s position within the implementation of the Restoration Act. That was the large stimulus package deal that was, which I assume to us on the time appeared very massive, although, now we’re speaking about way more cash on this explicit disaster. However at that cut-off date, Joe Biden’s job was to basically oversee and supervise how that cash was doled out.
And, you recognize, by kind of most accounts of people who I talked to, they really feel like he did a very good job. He kind of managed this gorgeous successfully. And I assume the query that I’ve is, you recognize, shifting forward proper now, I feel everyone is targeted on Donald Trump and the way Donald Trump is dealing with a selected disaster. However the Biden marketing campaign has this different counter instance to carry up and say, look, you recognize, truly our candidate has additionally dealt with a monetary disaster. And this is how he dealt with issues.
LIASSON: And even greater than that, Obama forged this complete election as a contest of competency.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
OBAMA: This disaster has reminded us that authorities issues. It is reminded us that good authorities issues, that information and science matter, that the rule of regulation issues, that having leaders who’re knowledgeable and trustworthy and search to convey individuals collectively relatively than drive them aside. These type of leaders matter.
LIASSON: He is giving Joe Biden an actual roadmap on the best way to use the pandemic to border this election in his favor. In fact, proper now, it is simply an up or down referendum on Donald Trump’s management. However ultimately, it’ll turn out to be a binary alternative once more. And he – what actually struck me was how he supplied Biden a means out of a gap that Biden’s put himself in. In different phrases, Biden has turn out to be the candidate of restoration, going again to the great previous days earlier than Donald Trump. That is wanting backwards. Elections are by no means about wanting backwards. They’re at all times in regards to the future, as Obama stated immediately. And he stated that this pandemic proves that Democrats should be actually daring. He stated, if I had been working immediately, I would not run the identical marketing campaign that I ran earlier than. The world has modified. Democrats should be daring. We won’t, he stated, simply tape across the edges. We now have to maneuver ahead. There are too many, you recognize, unfinished tasks, like common well being care, everybody wants a public choice, we have to develop Medicare, et cetera, et cetera. So he actually gave Biden a path to having a daring imaginative and prescient for the long run not simply reminiscent of the great previous days of the Obama-Biden administration.
KHALID: Let’s additionally acknowledge that, you recognize, a couple of minutes into this endorsement, he particularly singled out Bernie Sanders and what he has achieved for the occasion, and, you recognize, was effusive in his reward of the Vermont senator.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
OBAMA: Bernie is an American authentic; a person who has devoted his life to giving voice to working individuals’s hopes, goals and frustrations. He and I have not at all times agreed on all the pieces. However we have at all times shared a conviction that we’ve got to make America a fairer, extra simply, extra equitable society. We each know that nothing is extra highly effective than tens of millions of voices calling for change. And the concepts he is championed, the power and enthusiasm he impressed, particularly in younger individuals, shall be important in shifting America in a route of progress and hope.
SUMMERS: So one of many issues, I feel, that is attention-grabbing, is should you take a look at the info throughout the nation, one thing we all know to be true is that Biden nonetheless has room to develop with younger individuals and, significantly, progressives; the forms of people who Bernie Sanders’ marketing campaign energized. And particularly should you’re fascinated with younger individuals, these are the oldsters that Barack Obama energized. So I feel that he is actually making clear right here that there is a place for these people throughout the Biden marketing campaign, and that is one among, like, one other sequence of olive branches that Biden, and now his endorser Barack Obama, are making to these constituencies. However the different factor that I did not wish to get misplaced right here is, I feel, it is also actually essential what Barack Obama is saying about immediately’s Republican Occasion. These are a few of the most political statements he is made since leaving workplace. And he makes the purpose actually clearly that he believes that Republicans immediately, from the White Home on down, are prioritizing preserving their very own energy and devaluing science. He says explicitly that Republicans within the White Home and the Senate – they don’t seem to be serious about progress. They’re solely serious about energy. He believes that they are kicking individuals off their medical insurance. They don’t seem to be prioritizing local weather. And I feel these are simply extremely stark statements coming from probably the most speedy previous Democratic president.
KHALID: All proper. Properly, let’s take a fast break. And after we get again, we’ll discuss in regards to the marketing campaign going ahead.
And we’re again. So my fundamental query is, all proper, Obama’s endorsed Biden; so what? I imply, what does it imply for Democrats now that Obama has reentered the marketing campaign area? And I assume a part of why I am questioning that is I recall so many moments in the course of the 2016 marketing campaign when each Barack and Michelle had been out stumping for Hillary Clinton. And it didn’t imply that Clinton was truly profitable. I imply, she misplaced that election. So what does his position imply, do you assume, this 12 months?
LIASSON: Simply because, in 2016, Barack Obama’s campaigning for Hillary Clinton could not get her to the White Home, does not imply that he is nonetheless not probably the most beloved Democrat on the planet and the No. 1 surrogate that any Democratic candidate would need out for them on the marketing campaign path, apart from Michelle.
KHALID: Mmm hmm.
LIASSON: You understand, the people who Biden wants – the Bernie individuals, younger individuals, progressives, Latinos – can Barack Obama assist him get these individuals?
SUMMERS: Yeah. I feel that is a very nice query, and it is one thing we have been reporting on. I do know months in the past, I did a narrative that appeared on the position of Barack Obama in immediately’s Democratic Occasion. And I feel there is a query that he, partly, answered in his feedback in his endorsement speech – that, sure, the occasion has moved to the left considerably since when Barack Obama was first elected in 2008 definitely. So there’s a query as as to if or not he’ll resonate with these individuals and transfer them alongside to assist Biden. I have been speaking to individuals immediately about this, and so they recommend that crucial factor that Barack Obama and – if she does certainly endorse – Michelle Obama can do is just not essentially to get extra individuals to again Joe Biden. They’ve steered that the Obamas’ energy is in getting individuals to prove in excessive numbers as they did for Barack Obama repeatedly. And if they’ll try this, then that may be one of many huge successes of this endorsement.
KHALID: Juana, I do know one thing else you have talked to me about earlier than is simply the money drawback that the Democrats are in. Republicans – Trump himself – have raised far bigger sums than the place Biden is at this level. And there was an assumption that after Obama got here out and endorsed Joe Biden, he would have the ability to assist him fundraise.
SUMMERS: Yeah, that is completely proper. He has been one of many occasion’s most prolific fundraisers. And I might have envisioned, in a pre-coronavirus pandemic period, Barack Obama hitting the fundraising circuit on behalf of his former working mate and serving to to doubtlessly chip away at that money benefit. Now, after all, we all know that that is not more likely to occur in individual, no less than anytime quickly. However I do surprise if we are going to see him be a part of any of the digital fundraisers that the Biden marketing campaign has been holding. We have seen already – within the final little little bit of time right here since we began speaking, Barack Obama truly despatched an electronic mail out to Joe Biden’s checklist speaking about his assist for the previous vice chairman.
LIASSON: If Barack Obama was probably the most prolific fundraisers Democrats have ever had, it is also true that Joe Biden is among the worst fundraisers the Democrats have ever had. He is by no means been in a position to elevate a lot cash, and he definitely did not this time till he had just about wrapped up the nomination, after which the cash began flowing in. However that is one of many advantages of getting the Democratic Occasion unified sooner than it has – than it did in 2008 or 2016. Biden could be sidelined by the pandemic. Trump sucks up all of the oxygen within the room. Most Democrats wish to hear from Andrew Cuomo. However Biden can use this time to boost cash and to unify the occasion, which he is been doing, to do his VP search. And – as a result of proper now, the race is frozen. It is only a referendum on Donald Trump’s dealing with of the disaster. Later, it’s going to turn out to be a binary alternative between the 2 males.
KHALID: All proper. Properly, we’re going to depart it there for now. We’ll be again tomorrow.
I am Asma Khalid. I am masking the presidential marketing campaign.
SUMMERS: I am Juana Summers. I additionally cowl the marketing campaign.
LIASSON: And I am Mara Liasson, nationwide political correspondent.
KHALID: And thanks for listening to the NPR POLITICS PODCAST.
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