He was there on August of seen we saw a klansman and white supremacist and neo Nazis come out in the opening through crazed faces, illuminated by tortures, veins, bog and burying the fangs of racism, chanting the same anti Semitic bile herd across Europe in the third. So Joe's takeaway was that racists have fangs. Who knew racism had fangs? I mean, now we don't have to like accuse anybody
of racism. You just haven't undergoing dental exam. That's from Joe Biden's video that dropped today as he officially announces he's running for president UM and an interesting idea that he's at the very least he's saying the that Donald Trump is not morally fit to be president. You could assume that he's saying the president is a racist or at least willing to pander to racist. And that's that's
a heck of a thing for an opening shot. Why don't we start there with lanh Chen, the host of the podcast Crossing Lines with lan Chen, David and Diane Stephy, research fellow with Hoover Institution and director of Domestic Policy Studies at the Public Policy Program at Stanford University. Lan He how are you, sir, I'm doing well. It's a big freaking day, guys, it is, indeed and well said. So I've heard a hundred times from Democratic strategists and
thinkers that we can't make this about Trump. We've got to make it about kitchen table issues and swaying the middle class and the rest of it. This is obviously not running with that. Heard. What do you think of it? Well, you know, that's exactly right, And that's going to be
the challenge for Joe Biden. He wants to position himself as a reasonable alternative to the rest of the progressive lot that's running for president of Democratic Party, and he starts off with an anti Trump message as opposed to one focus squarely on on Middle America and on the challenges that they may face in the economy and other issues that you know, arguably would be a sweet spot for him. And I think this is going to be the issue with Joe Biden. Can he run a general
election campaign during a primary election cycle? And my guess is no, No one's been able to do it before. And I think he's going to fall into many of the same traps that his predecessors have fallen into and pass. You know, I just one caveat to my own thoughts though, pull after poll does say Democrats want more than anything someone who can beat Trump period. Yeah. Well, and I think that's right. Is trying to say, I guess, well, I I don't know that you demonstrate you can beat
Trump by focusing on Trump. I guess that's the point. And and and it'll be interesting to see because at some level the Democrats, you know, they do have this fixation with Trump, and they do have this fixation with elements of Trump's history and Trump's record as president which are not policy based but more character based. And I just don't know if when we get to you know, August and September next year, if those are going to be the issues that voters care about. I'm not convinced
they are. Butters also have a relatively short memory when it comes to these things. So, you know, Biden's strategy today could be very different from biden strategy a year from now, it plays out, I was going to go that direction. So you've been involved in a couple of campaigns. How big a deal is the announcement day anyway, in
the overall scheme of things. I remember Bernie in his announcement, which was mocked on The Daily Show because it looked like it was something he threw together in between meetings, and he did great, as as good as you know
campaign in modern history. So how big a deal is it? Well, it's you know, there's an old thing in campaign politics that you're the best day of your campaign is the first day of your campaign, because you know, from there the tendency is for particularly the media and for others to begin picking it at you. Now, this, of course is the experience from the Republican side. Democrats tend to have a very different experience in a very different relationship
with the media. But I think it's fair to say that whatever happens at the beginning of the campaign probably does not a fundamentally doom the rest of the campaign, with one potential exception, I will say, in this year's campaign, and that's Elizabeth Warren. I think her start was so bad and and and and her initial foray into the contest by you know, doing that DNA test. I mean that that I think did fundamentally doom her. But more
likely than not. What you do early on is not necessarily going to have a huge bearing on your likelihood of winning the nomination later on. Fundamentally doomed as the title of the first volume of my autobiography on he I don't know if you've gotten a chance that I've sent you several copies. Very good, Thank you. Yeah. Lan heat on the line, host of the podcast Crossing Lines, Lan Hea Chen, we're talking about Joe Biden getting in.
Is it significant? Well, two things, uh. He he went with a slick video as opposed to a big rally Kamala Harris style. And let's talk a little fundraising. He's not a zillions of twenty contribution guys. He's a bundler, traditional money guy, isn't he He is? So there's gonna be two things. One, his money is still going to be very important. And I would argue it's I don't know. In my mind, I think it has less to do with where the money comes from than the fact that
he's got money. Yet he's gonna get hit by some of his opponents if he's not raising a ton of low dollar money. But at the end of the day, money is money. It doesn't really matter where it comes from. So I think he's going to have to focus on really animating Democratic donors. In my senses, by the way, he can do that that in my conversations with Democratic donors, they've been waiting for Biden to get in. He's the guy that they want to get behind. So I think
he'll be fine there. It'll be interesting to see how he does on the stump. And that's to your point about video versus having a big rally. You know he can do both in fact, so he can have his campaign announcement today and then go out and do big events. I think he's doing one in Pennsylvania this weekend, maybe recognizing the importance of that. So we'll have to see
how he does when he gets out there. But but my thing about Biden has always been, you know, can this guy from the nineteen eighties and nine nineties run a twenty one century campaign? And I think that's going to be the big challenge Joe Biden is going to face, along with probably being a little bit out of step from where the progressive bass on some issues. Debates a little over a month away, so we're gonna be full
on running here pretty soon. How quickly will the field start to narrow because there's not enough money to go around for everybody want there to be be a certain number of campaigns and just say I gotta quit. I got no money. Yeah, I mean Republican primary of any indication to us. We'll start to see people fold by the time we get to the middle to end of the summer because the money is not going to be there.
They're not getting any traction. I mean, look, I think there's a few of these candidates who probably thought that they would be more closely in the mix, but aren't. Uh you know, I'm thinking of someone like Kirston Jillibrand, the senator from New York. She probably thought, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, send I just gave another hundred dollars to uh to uh what's my boy's name, Scott Walker? Now, just splint it out of my mind. It's funny. I had that joke already to go, and I forgot the
guy's name mid joke. Swallowell swallow Well it's uh it's a swallowell or small ball, I don't know, um but but but anyway, it's it's the point is, you know, we'll we'll have to see kind of how this all all carries out. But yeah, I would anticipate the field thinging out by the summer, and then by the time we get to UM Super Tuesday, which is March up next year, I bet we're down to two or three by then. Well, how much money do you need to
just continue? If your only goal is to raise your name recognition, not all the people to get into a I'm sure you know that almost not all these people on the stage were given these speeches ever planned to be president. They want to get a show on MSS and be your file. Yeah, our book deal or whatever. Yeah. Would you like to name any of names who is clearly a a a resume candidate, a climber candidate. Well, I think Swallwell is the perfect example of that. I
mean he's on MSNBC every day now, every day. Back to the whole idea, I mean, maybe maybe you you find yourself a little bit of a constituency so that when you leave the Congress you have a nice little TV deal waiting. Maybe you do a little book deal. You know, my my six weeks on the campaign trail. Uh, you know whatever it might sound, Yeah, i mean I'm sure it'll sell, you know, five copies. But but the
point is you're you're you guys are absolutely right. I mean, this is what these contests have become is an exercise in profile raising. And if you think back to think about how many Republican names we know now because they got in and they didn't stay in for all that long, but we but we know the names because they decided to get in. And in some cases, you a guy like Ben Carson for example, you know he became a cabinet secretary out of it. So that's the thing. These
guys were in the contest. Maybe they want a book deal, maybe they're looking for money, but maybe they're looking for a potential influence in a future Democratic administration. So a big picture of you from line he Chan of Joe Biden's candidacy, if you were a Biden fan, I mean really thought he'd be a great president. You hope he wins. How nervous and or confidence? Are confident? Are you about
his long term prospects? Well, I think it's it's a little early to tell, because you know, we haven't seen how he performs once he gets out once once he gets out there, I mean I think the it's it's like the car. You know, you know all the specs, you know what it looks like. You think it's going to perform decently well, but then it gets out there and it's just not. In the second you turn the key, it sniff somebody's hair. Yeah, I mean exactly exactly. So
so we'll have to see. But well let's tell you should say that because he's he's run for president more than anybody in the race. But you just think, different times, different age, and so it's it's a completely new go round, different age, different time, very different Democratic Party by the way that he went. He ran in the last time he ran for president in two thousand and eight, very different Democratic Party. I mean ran for president, not not not as part of a ticket, or ran as not
as part of a ticket. It was it was it was a different Democratic Party in a different Joe Biden. And you know, eleven years makes a lot of difference on on on the on the time clock, just in terms of his ability to connect. And we'll see whether he's got the endurance to make it. I mean, you already kind of see Trump framing this up. I guess see the sleepy Joe tweets morning. Uh, he's trying to frame this up already in terms of the the old Knox against Joe Biden that that you know, uh, he's
the intelligence thing and the plagiarism thing. I mean, all that stuff is gonna come back. We'll see how he performs in the spotlight, sleepy. Is he narcoleptic or does he just mean low energy or I don't think I've heard that one. Yeah, you know, I think maybe it's just I think it might be an effort to try and poke him on his age, which is a little like ron given that that the president's no spring chicken either year old makes fun of seven year old for
their age. But you know, the thing is Trump doesn't He doesn't behave like a sepy something. Definitely not. He's got a lot of energy, uh into And so I think I think it'll be an interesting contract. I think that's what he's trying to set up. Lan Hea Chen, host of the podcast Crossing Lines with lan Hea Chen, his intelligence is not in Dowdies, uh, domestic policies, study guy at Stanford University, etcetera. Lan he great to talk to you, thank you, great to do with you, guys.
I appreciate it. Bernie was asked, taking off my glasses. There it is, Director of Domestic Policy Studies. That's it. Bernie was asked the other day are you tooled during for Besnie said, follow me around on the campaign trial for a while. That's true for all of them. If you if you can physically do a campaign, well, then you're physically okay. Now, whether your mind's all right or not,
I don't know. But being president is much less tiring than running for president, no doubt, according to all of them. Very few of us right now listening could keep up the schedule of these people keep up or would keep it up. Um, so that's something. Sleepy sleep and Joe Budden half way when he's a sleep you can't tell how stupid he is. Wait till he wakes up.