Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / One Leg Up 6-28-24: Lawrence Haas Talks Debate Night From Democratic Perspective

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One Leg Up 6-28-24: Lawrence Haas Talks Debate Night From Democratic Perspective · OneLegUpAlex Media

0:02
Here's your host, Alex Garren. Well, this is a very special day
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here on the Alex Gatt Podcast Network. We have kind of the Republican and
0:11
the Democratic voices talking about the debate last night. I want to lead off
0:16
with Lawrence has the Democratic side, of course the incumbent side, if you
0:20
will. And of course, Lawrence, you were the speechwriter for VP al
0:24
Gore and you've continued to stay in politics and on the Democratic side. So
0:29
what was your thoughts on last night? I mean, there were a couple
0:32
of strong points from Joe Biden, but mostly it looked concerning. I don't
0:37
know if you felt concerned looking at his performance last night, but I wanted
0:40
your take today. Well, I actually was concerned right from the start,
0:45
and I mean before he even uttered a word. When you saw each of
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the candidates walk out on stage, one of them had a strong walk and
0:58
the other one had a shuffle. And then when they began to speak,
1:03
one of them while lying through his teeth in almost every sentence, and that's
1:10
former President Trump. He nevertheless sounded coherent. The incumbent president, Joe Biden,
1:19
unfortunately, seemed quite confused and hesitant at different moments, and it made
1:27
it difficult for viewers and listeners to actually get to the substance of the debate
1:38
where there were pretty dramatic differences. So there's great concern on the Democratic side
1:45
today. Lots of private conversations about how the party should move forward, and
1:55
plenty of talk about someone or group of people going to President Biden and suggesting
2:04
that he step aside, release his delegates, and have the party choose a
2:10
replacement, because there's a real feeling of despair. He was behind both nationally
2:17
and in key states swing states that are going to decide the selection before the
2:23
debate, and this of course only set him back. So it's not a
2:30
good day to be a Democrat today. Well, I want to push back
2:32
on the line thing for a second because I feel like when you talk about
2:35
the immigration that was one of the strongest points for Trump. Would you agree,
2:39
Oh, I absolutely would agree that immigration is a hot button issue and
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that Trump was effective by pounding away at it. Having said that, it's
2:54
also the case that he portrays immigrants in a certain way that is nonsensical.
3:02
He basically denigrates immigrants as being all from you know, insane asylums, prisons,
3:15
terrorist training, camps. We are a country of immigrants, and we
3:22
need more people to immigrate to the United States as our economy grows and our
3:31
workforce needs to grow to provide the continued economic growth and tax revenues that will
3:44
enable us to fulfill our obligations both at home and abroad. So, yes,
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immigration is a real issue. But President, former President Trump was lying
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about the nature of it. All right. I want to ask you this
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because you were at Ukraine, but we'll get that in a second. The
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strongest point Biden Maine last night was he was adamant there would be no late
4:05
term abortion as a Democrat. Wasn't that reassuring to you that that was one
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of the strongest points of the night? Oh? I think basically the issue
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of abortion is where he was at his strongest, not only the question of
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late term abortion, but the question of a Republican government perhaps pushing for a
4:30
nationwide ban on abortion, and he making very clear that he would veto such
4:35
legislation and also suggesting at the same time that President Trump would sign it.
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And I did notice that President Trump did not seem to jump in there and
4:49
disagree. So it was abortion was probably Trump. Excuse me, Biden's best
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issue last night, all right, Ukraine. Obviously, Trump started talking about
5:01
how we've given Zelenski a lot of money. You and I have talked about
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it this before, because you're in favor of that. I sometimes question where
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the money goes. I've asked that before. But on the issue of Ukraine,
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you've been there. Who was stronger last night, Well, they both
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were making very strong points, pretty much diametrically opposed to one another. Biden's
5:26
been very consistent that if we do not if we, that is, the
5:31
United States and the Western world in general, do not stop putin at Ukraine,
5:38
that he will move further. It is a view that I agree with.
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President. Former President Trump argued, I thought, somewhat nonsensically that somehow
5:49
none of these wars would have occurred if he were in office. I don't
5:55
buy that. I don't buy it about Ukraine. I don't buy it about
6:00
Israel and Gaza. I don't know, you know, buy it about terrorism
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in general. But really it comes down to if you're a listener or a
6:15
viewer, are you someone who tends to be an internationalist like Biden, or
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are you part of that minority but growing minority portion of American opinion where you're
6:30
more of an isolationist, where you're more skeptical about America's role in the world,
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and where you are more critical that we are spending lots of money overseas
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that you think should be better spent at home. They were both effective.
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It really comes down to what you found was the more compelling argument. I
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by far think that Biden has the better of the argument, but that's just
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a matter of opinion. It's gonna be up to viewers as to what they
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find more convincing when it comes to America's role in the world. You mentioned
7:08
private conversations. Now, have you been privy to them? I mean,
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I don't want you to leak anything, but have you been privy to anything
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that you could just give us a hint on what you've been hearing. Well.
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I have been engaged in a few myself. They tend to be over
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text. Everybody is texting one another today. I haven't done anything over the
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phone. I think I'm doing what everybody else is doing, which is reaching
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out seeking perspectives. I've been in touch with some leading Democrats today. There
7:44
is a real sense of somewhere between panic and despair, despair in the sense
7:53
of people feeling like Biden's going to continue to proceed and is almost invariably going
8:03
to lose. There's real panic on the part of Democrats running for the House
8:11
and Senate that Biden's going to drag him down in flames. And also there
8:20
is this question of Okay, if someone or some group convinces him to step
8:30
aside, it would be like, under what conditions does he call for kind
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of an open process? Does he feel compelled to anoint Kamala Harris as the
8:43
heir apparent? And that would make a big difference because Harris cannot be Trump.
8:50
She's less popular than he is. So, you know, anointing Harris
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and having the party go with Harris leaves us really same place, which is
9:01
going to be Trump's election in November. Well, I was thinking maybe twenty
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fifth amendment, but they won't do that. They'll let him finish out the
9:07
term. Right, Oh, I do believe. So. I have heard
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no talk of the twenty fifth Amendment, and I don't think that's in the
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cards. All right. Let me ask you this as someone who's probably been
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the debate prep room with Vice President Gore and others over the years. Did
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you feel they prepped him enough last night and were you frustrated thinking about that
9:26
aspect of the debate. No, I was not frustrated by that. I
9:30
do think they prepped him enough. I don't think this was a question of
9:35
preparation the campaign and the White House. The campaign made it very clear that
9:43
he spent more than a week in pretty intense preparation. It wasn't that he
9:48
didn't have information in his head. It was that, for whatever reason,
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he was hesitant, he got infused at different moments, he lost his train
10:03
of thought. And that has absolutely nothing to do with preparation. It has
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to do with, unfortunately, mental acuity, and it's not something you can
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say. And about fifty minutes into the debate, as I understand it,
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some of the campaign people started to text and tweet about how President Biden was
10:26
struggling with a cold. But it was very telling that they started doing that
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about fifteen minutes into the debate. Into the debate, which means they were
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looking for something to say that would explain this poor performance, and this is
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one of the things they came up with. I don't happen to think that
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they were telling the truth when they said that, and frankly, even if
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they were, if you're going to be president of the United States and the
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leader of the free world, a cold cannot get in your way. I
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agree with you there, all right? Oh, Lawrence, has I gotta
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ask you this as well? As a Democrat, do you feel like well,
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let me ask you this. Firstly, there is obviously a rift within
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the Democratic Party. Right there's the moderates in the far left who's calling for
11:13
the you know, removal of Biden as candidate moored, Are you noticing a
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balance there? Yes, I think it's across the board. I don't think
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I'm in a position to say, somehow, who's doing more of this.
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I think there is broad despair and panic that the Democrats as a party are
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going to lose the presidency and perhaps both chambers of Congress if Biden is at
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the top of the ticket, and that is a sentiment that would be shared
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across the different you know, pieces of the Democratic Party. So I don't
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think this a progressive thing. I don't think it's a moderate thing. If
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there is one thing that the Democratic Party is united on, it's that we
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don't want to see the return of Donald Trump. So this is this is
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not being driven disproportionately by any particular wing of the party. And then on
12:18
that note, you're you've been a Democrat forever, right, I mean you've
12:20
been you've been in the Democratic Party and whatnot? Does a win for George
12:24
mvlattimer knocking out Jamal Bowman on Tuesday. I know it's a little off topic,
12:28
but something like that help you feel like maybe there's some more moderescy that's
12:33
coming to the Democratic Party once again. Well, let me step back and
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say something first, which is that I do think it's a bit of a
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myth that somehow progressives are running this party. I mean, it is the
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case that they are very loud, The squad is very loud, the echo
12:54
chamber of progressive thinking in the foundations, among the mainstream media, both broadcast
13:05
in print, they get a disproportionate amount of ink and airtime. But the
13:11
fact of the matter is that the president is moderate. The party nominated a
13:18
moderate president when they nominated him in twenty twenty, and there isn't any particular
13:26
evidence that the progresses are somehow in charge. And at the grass roots,
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I would say the same thing. I was both delighted but not terribly surprised
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that Latimer won that primary. There are more moderate Democrats around the country than
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people realize at the grass roots, and once again progressive. The far left
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gets a lot of attention, but they do not dominate this party. When
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we talk about mine, I think of Chuck Schumer and his handling of the
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Israeli Hamask crisis has really bothered me. Has it bothered you at all?
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Well, look, you know, politics is never far from the thinking of
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a leader of you know, a Senate party, a House party, or
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the party in general. Chuff Schumer is thinking as he speaks about upcoming Senate
14:35
races, who's vulnerable, who's not, and all the rest, and he's
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making all sorts of calculations. Schumer has been sometimes good and sometimes bad on
14:48
Israel since October seventh, since the Hamas terrorist attack. He was very good
14:54
in terms of calling out anti Zionism as frankly another form of anti Semitism.
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I tend to agree with him in the way this has played out over the
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last half year. Where I was very disappointed, if not disgusted, was
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when he was suggesting that somehow the Israeli people ought to topple Netan Yahoo and
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get a new leader. I was offended because I don't think the United States
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ought to be meddling in the political affairs of one of its closest allies.
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And I also think it's quite naive to think that somehow Israel is going to
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take a different approach on its major issues of national security with a different leader.
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I have news for anyone who thinks that, which is that there is
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a broad bipartisan consensus in Israel. It's at the leadership level, it's at
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the grassroots level, and it's on a few basic things. Iran cannot get
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a nuclear weapon. The Global Nuclear Deal of twenty fifteen with Iran was fatally
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flawed, and now most prominently that Israel must finish the job and wipe out
16:19
Hamas. There is broad bipartisan consensus. So if there's an election and BB
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is toppled, which and I don't know that that will happen, But if
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there's an election and BB is toppled and a more moderate Israeli leader comes in,
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I don't really see much of a change in policy, at least when
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it comes to national security. Laurence hass thanks so much for joining. Was
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there anything else that we left off the table. That should we discussed before
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I let you go today. Oh, I don't really know. This is
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a very a very kind of a dynamic time in our presidential politics. This
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is very unusual for this late in the process where one of our two major
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political parties is really mulling its future, is mulling its nominee. I mean
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we are almost in July the convention Democratic Convention and the Republican Convention. Is
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that why the debate happened before the convention to give them more of an idea
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of what they should do. No, President Biden and his team asked for
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an early debate because they know they're losing. They wanted to change the dynamics
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of this race. For whatever reason, President former President Trump said, okay,
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perhaps he was very confident as to what would happen. The Biden team
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made a calculation and it turned into a disaster. That's essentially what happened.
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Normally, the debates all take place in the fall. The Biden folks decided
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to roll the dice. They thought they could change the trajectory of this race,
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and they actually made it worse. All right. One more thing,
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The fact that Trump is what everybody says, now, a convicted felon,
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which he is, was not really brought up except for Biden last night.
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Were you surprised the motteries and didn't ask anything about that, or were you
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happy they didn't ask anything about that? I was neither surprised nor happy or
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unhappy. I don't think that there are many people in America who don't know
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that he's a convicted felon, And I think that Americans are making their judgment
18:33
as to whether this is going to be important to them or not. And
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the people who are going to stick by Trump are going to make excuses about
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it. They're going to buy his line about how this is all a conspiracy
18:45
against them and all the rest, and those who find it important that he's
18:52
a convicted felon and shouldn't be in office probably weren't going to vote for Donald
18:56
Trump anyway. So I don't really think it's as consequential of a matter,
19:03
particularly because it involves hush money payments and sex as some of the other charges
19:11
that he has leveled against him in terms of election interference and insurrection. And
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unfortunately, it looks like none of those other cases are going to come to
19:23
trial before the election, and I thought for Biden to knock him on that
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was a good point for him, wasn't it. I do believe it was
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a good point. It was good to remind people, particularly Independence, that
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he is a convicted felon. I just don't know at this stage of the
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game, with people knowing Donald Trump that well, how many real undecided there
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are. Last night was not about Trump. Last night was about people looking
19:55
at Biden and his performance re enforcing their doubts as to his ability to serve
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another four years on that. Lawrence will do this again, you know,
20:07
as the election season heats up and the conventions heat up. I'd love to
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have you album for more perspective. If you don't mind, I'd be delighted.
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Thank you. Lawrence has, former speechwriter for VP Gore, joins the
20:19
Alex Garrett podcast Networks. Thanks so much, Lawrence, Thank you.