Lanhee Chen talks to Armstrong & Getty

Americans anymore. I thought that is the best moment Betto has had since he announced for running for president. A terrible topic, daft to talk about, obviously, but it's genuine and real and he seems like a real human being. Now. I think the policy is not going to fly very well with the majority of Americans a government gun confiscation, but Betto had some real moments and Bernie gurgled and July and called Biden scene island. That's just part of

the uh, the equation with the debate. Last night, We're gonna talk with Lannie Chen now, David and Diane Stephie research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Maybe our favorite political pundit that we ever have on the air, and he's got a podcast will tell you about coming up, Lonie Chen, Welcome to the arms Strong and get a show. So I do I ask everybody this, I'm wondering how many people actually watched the whole three hours, but it's less than a million in the whole country. Do you watch

the whole three hours? Yeah? I mean I did good for you that people usually drop off after the first thirty to forty five minutes. I mean, that's that that Just remembering from you know, when I did a lot of work with CNN and they had the metrics on this, it seems like most people can stick around for that first half hour, then they go and get a pizza. Yeah,

I'm glad you brought that up. So like when you were prepping candidates, when you're working with either in you know, Mitt Romney or or whoever else, Um, do you guys know that and try to get your best stuff in early knowing people are going to go away later. Oh yeah, absolutely, I mean you you definitely wanted to make a strong first impression and usually maybe front load whatever is most newsworthy or whatever they perceived to be the most an

issue first. So for example, last night, we saw a lot of healthcare earlyaking, a lot of healthcare early, and so since they tend to do that. And then to that point, I was watching the debate and I probably watched two hours of it. Then I went to UH two, started fast forward the clips I heard people talking about

on social media. But early on I thought Biden was strong and made his points and separated himself from the other candidates and got some shots in man his last couple of answers, aside from his closing thought, which I thought was fantastic and another real human moment um, his last couple of answers were a rambling old man who had been on stage for three hours. Yeah, no, I think that's right. I think he started off strong and performed well when he needed to perform well, which was

right as the debate got going. You're right, towards the end it was rambling. Uh. You know, I I thought that exchange with Julian Castro was the exchange of the debate. Um. I don't know if you've played it today, but the one where basically Julean Castro accuses Biden of being old uh and and you know, I didn't think it played well for Castro obviously, but but for Itiden at least,

I thought it was probably his strongest debate to date. Yeah, which, you know, when you've got a double digit lead and you have your best debate, that's a pretty good position to be in. Are are we really down to a three person race? And uh and even the two that are chasing Biden got to figure something out if they want to beat him. Yeah, that sounds right to me.

I think you know, you've got Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, You've got a couple of other people who could potentially make their way back into it at some point, but the odds are beginning to look pretty slim for people like Kamala Harris. Uh. Corey Booker would be another, you know better. Rourke did have that moment you played, but you know, his campaign is effectively done anyway. He's always certain for a moment. Anyway, I'm going to go to to curse words when I feel like I need

to to create a moment. It's the same playbook he had when he ran for the Senate in Texas. And by the way, what Beto Rourke did last night. Is he basically guaranteed he'll never win statewide in Texas. He'll he'll, he'll just not. He doesn't have a political future in Texas given the position he has on guns. It's just not gonna happen. Yeah, let's talk a little bit. Yeah,

I was. I was going to bring up issues as opposed to people, the issue of mandatory gun buybacks, and and the moderator said, some critics would call that a confiscation. That's because that's what it is, a confiscation. How does America feel about confiscation of guns? Yeah, I mean, I I still think in general you'll find that most Americans probably don't like the idea. I think most Americans will

perceive themselves as being for sensible gun control. And I the reason I used that phraseology is because what is sensible obviously in the eye beholder. And you know, when you talk about background checks, expanded background checks, you talk about assault weapons, uh, some controls on that, limits on capacity, things like that, I think people say, yeah, that makes

a lot of sense. Now, when you start to get into policies which are even arguably confiscatory, then I think you run into a little bit more difficult I think people generally out there would say, yes, we need more common sense control. But the defining common sense is really the difficult part of this. And I don't think that Beta or Rourke saying you know, yes, we're gonna come after your A R fifteen, I don't know that that is something that a majority of Americans would say, Yeah,

I agree with that policy. Talking with Lan heat Chen, who you see on a variety of the big national shows, UM, and he's also got a great podcast called Crossing Lines with Lan hea Chen. The latest episode, Meet the Boss features the new Congressional Budget Office director. UM. Maybe you talk about that on your podcast, the budget and everything. But not a lot of deficit talk on the debate stage last night, of course, neither was there on the

Republican debate stage. Yeah, you know, it's one of those things that we've talked about this before. I just don't know that it's a topic that that resonates as much as voters anymore. You know, I thought the interesting thing last night is there wasn't a lot of talk about the economy general, right, you know, there was some talk about China and trade, but for for a topic that really animates most voters decisions when they get to the

ballot box. To not spend more time on the economy was disappointing, and I would have liked them to say a little bit more about what they planned to do on the economy. If the economy slows and we enter into some kind of recession, what's their plan, what are they gonna do? We didn't hear much about that. Now.

Part of that might be because they don't have a lot of ideas for how to how to get out of it that are particularly unique, and so maybe they you know that the moderator's figured let's not talk about it. But for such an important topic to spend such little time is very interesting. I don't want to sound like Julian Castro going after Biden's age, but he had a couple of rambling old man answers, and he had some sort of mouth tooth problem at some point that's become

a like a meme on the internet. I mean, those are serious things to worry about, aren't they. Well, it was I don't know if you've caught Corey Booker that they Corey Booker had an interview I think it was on CNN after they asked the debate, and he said something which I thought, you know, was right. It was sort of cringeworthy, but right. He said a lot of Democrats are worried about Joe Biden's ability to get the

football across the goal. Lock Uh, because because it's like you know, you can you can see him running and running a running and at some point out, oh, he's stumbled. To your point, I think that's the concern. His numbers are durable. Joe Biden's numbers are pretty durable and still got a lot of support. But you're right, there are these moments where people are reminded that Joe Biden is, first of all, who he is he has been his whole political career. Who's somebody who you know, rambles and

and goes on tangents and isn't particularly focused. And then the age issue does kind of come back into it more subtly, and I thought Booker did that much more effectively than Castro did during the debate. But then the last question, which was you know, what, what have you overcome? What's the biggest hurdle you've overcome, biggest setback you've ever had to overcome, and Biden's answer about what's really important in life and and and losing family and a car

wreck and the cancer and stuff. I thought there aren't many politicians that can pull that off without sounding jivy, and he can, Oh, absolutely, and and and you know, it's an incredible life story. It's a tragic by the story, and it's one which connects with people. You know, everybody's experienced pain of some sort in their life and to hear that and and and I think that resonates with people. I think that's what makes ultimately what makes Joe Biden,

I think the front runner of the strongest candidate. It makes his policy positioning. It's not even his ability to be Trump. Really what it is this humanity. And I think the more he connects with that humanity, that more people will forgive him the rambling, they'll forgive him the stumbling, they'll forgive him the thing that don't sound coherent, and they'll realize that he's just a guy who wants to to to do well for his country. And I think

that's something that will be very appealing come next November. Wow, that's pretty good, right there, long Hea Chen, that's interesting. I think you're right, um And and it really makes Julian Castro attacking and make it look even worse. Yeah, well, you know, it comes back to this question again, did anybody realize Julian Castro was running for president? You know, and it makes him look like a small man, which

which you know last night would suggest he is. Um the part of the debate that made me the angriest, And I just wonder why it works this way. You got Jorge Ramos from Univision up there and he tries to force Joe Biden in who apologizing for a Democrat president deporting a few people because it was the law, because we have illegals in this country. Why did the questions come from at such an extreme point of view?

Or Ramas is clearly an advocate for illegal immigration. Well remember the premise of these debates, his conflict the you know, and this is not just I'm not just speaking about the network that hosted last night. I'm saying any network hosting any debate, they want to see fireworks. And so the premise, the fundamental premise I think Ramos was going after the same premise you're going to see future money, which is, will Joe Biden draw a distance from Barack Obama?

Joe Biden disavow things that he was part of during the Obama administration that progresses in Democrats now feel is passing a bad policy, and so that's what he was trying to do. And but I think it's not the last time it's gonna happen. You're gonna see plenty more efforts in the future to separate and distance Joe Biden from Barack Obama. Unfortunately, I think for the networks, Barack Obama remains very, very popular, and it's gonna be tough to get Biden to really disavow things that he did

during the Obama administration. But that's a dynamic that we're seeing there. They're trying to get separation, they're trying to get conflict, and I would expect to see it again. The podcast is called Crossing Lines with Lana heat Chin. Got a new episode called Meet the Boss we just told you about with the Congressional Budget Officer Office Director, and more episodes on the way. Lan he Chin, thanks for your time today, Thanks for having me. Have a

great weekend. You bet you. I think he's absolutely right about that. When when Biden does his real human moments like he did at the end of the debate, there, the sort of stuff that, like I keep saying, Hillary Clinton couldn't come within a hundred miles off. Then he'll be forgiven a little bit for some of his old man's stumbles in the same way you might be uh, you know, you're you're, you're okay with your your grandfather

or whoever. Uh, you'll you'll excuse some of the old person stuff that they struggle with because you like him. My grandparents don't have nuclear codes as far as you know. Um, yeah, I got I'll tell you what. I just keep picturing him giving that long, rambling answer where he went from phonographs to Venezuelan back on a stage with Trump and Trump turning toward the audience and say, well you think of that, and just and just killing with that moment. But we'll see, we'll see a strong and getty