Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Amber Athey: Spectator's Washington Editor on the upcoming debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump

Transcript

Amber Athey: Spectator's Washington Editor on the upcoming debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: One pm tomorrow, New Zealand time, Biden v. Trump. They've
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: never done it so early, you could argue for the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: incumbent has never been more important to show he has
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the stamina to go to Novimba. It's the first of
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  Speaker 1: two debates. And Berethy is the Washington Editor full this,
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  Speaker 1: Spig Taita and is willis Amba good morning, good.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Morning as for him for us, but thanks for having me.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I can't wait. Does that make me tragic or you
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  Speaker 1: as excited as I am? Oh?
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  Speaker 2: Of course I'm excited. I mean I think it's going
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  Speaker 2: to be a really interesting night. In addition to the
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  Speaker 2: Trump v. Biden matchup, there's also going to be two
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  Speaker 2: sort of side challengers as well. Bidy versus himself. There's
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  Speaker 2: a lot of speculations as to whether or not he
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  Speaker 2: has the mental and physical capacity to serve another four
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  Speaker 2: terms as president. And then there's Trump versus the moderators,
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  Speaker 2: where the Trump campaign has spent the last week really
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  Speaker 2: going over the perceived bias of Jake Tapper and Dana
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  Speaker 2: Bash at CMN. So those are going to be two separate,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: interesting sort of dynamics to look out for tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: The rules, will it Kill the funnel.
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  Speaker 2: Not it will I think diminish the fun quite a bit.
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  Speaker 2: Of course. One of the things that people look forward
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  Speaker 2: to during the debate is the sort of cross talk
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  Speaker 2: and the little jabs that come out as the opponent
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  Speaker 2: is speaking. And because the microphones are going to be
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  Speaker 2: cut off, when the candidates are not given explosive speaking time,
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  Speaker 2: you're not going to really get that same dynamics. And then,
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  Speaker 2: of course with no audience there to cheer or boose
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  Speaker 2: some of the responses, it's going to be harder to
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  Speaker 2: have that lively atmosphere and also that real time reaction
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  Speaker 2: to what the candidates are saying.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Exactly what's your assessment of the role of the debate
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  Speaker 1: or debates in the overall scheme of things, and leading
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  Speaker 1: people to sawn to who they're going to bite for.
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  Speaker 2: Ultimately, the debates don't have as much way on voters
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  Speaker 2: as I think pun like to believe that they have.
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  Speaker 2: If you pull most voters, they typically don't say that
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  Speaker 2: the debates are real deciding factor for them. What a
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  Speaker 2: debate I think is showing mostly this time around, is
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  Speaker 2: one who is fit to be president in terms of
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  Speaker 2: again the physical and mental capacity, but really The only
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  Speaker 2: debate moments that typically stick out are the really really
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  Speaker 2: bad one. So as long as you can get through
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  Speaker 2: it relatively successfully, then not much is going to change
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  Speaker 2: in terms of where voters stand on the candidate.
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  Speaker 1: The fact they're going so early is that to show
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  Speaker 1: Biden's got the goods and if he doesn't, if this
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  Speaker 1: blows up in his face, what are they going to do?
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  Speaker 2: Right? And that's one of the areas of speculation is
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  Speaker 2: if Biden does blow up, are the Democrats going to
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  Speaker 2: try to replace him at the national convention in August.
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  Speaker 2: The reason why the debate was scheduled so early initially
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  Speaker 2: was because Trump was asking for it to happen because
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  Speaker 2: of the fact that the US now has early and
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  Speaker 2: mail in voting that starts a couple of months out
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  Speaker 2: from the November election, So they wanted to give voters
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  Speaker 2: the opportunity to see the candidate's debate well before they
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  Speaker 2: started actually casting their ballots. The debate used to be
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  Speaker 2: held in September and October, and then voters would go
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  Speaker 2: to the polls that first Tuesday in November. That obviously
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  Speaker 2: has changed, but I also think the Biden campaign has
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  Speaker 2: been looking at some of the polling lately and has
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  Speaker 2: real concerns. Biden is trailing Trump in five out of
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  Speaker 2: six battleground states. He's losing on the top issues that
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  Speaker 2: matter most to voters by double digists in terms of
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  Speaker 2: voters who voters trust more to handle those issues. And
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  Speaker 2: we've also seen some of Biden's bates turning away from him,
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  Speaker 2: African American voters, Latino voters, and young voters tending a
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  Speaker 2: little bit more towards Trump. All of these are things
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  Speaker 2: that would give any campaign cause, and I think this
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  Speaker 2: debate is a way for them to try to maybe
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  Speaker 2: inject some life into what is looking like a dying campaign.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Amber. I appreciate your expertise and insight very much. We'll
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  Speaker 1: get you on again, Amber Ethiy, who's the Spectator Washington editor,
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  Speaker 1: with us for.
• 4:08
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• 4:11
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• 4:12
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