tv The Daily Show With Trevor Noah Comedy Central November 5, 2020 1:14am-2:00am PST
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- hey, romper stomper! get up! you got a visitor. - eric! - hey, romper stomper! - wow! i've never had a visitor before. - well, that's not all. i snuck something in for you too. - you did? - you know how you told me you always wanted to see disneyland? - yeah. - [grunting] [water splashes] there's pirates of the caribbean. - whoa! - [grunting] here comes space mountain! [grunting] [water splashes] - oh, yeah! - [grunting] it's a small world! [water splashes] splash mountain comes next! [grunting] >> trevor: hello, everybody.
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welcome to "the daily social distancing show." i am trevor noah running on four hours of sleep. today is wednesday, the 4th of november, which means we are on day two of election day. it's almost like a hannukah miracle that no one wanted! anyway, coming up on tonight's show: we look at how donald trump has had it with all these votes, roy wood jr. will never trust the polls again, and we'll find out why hispanic voters are going maga. so let's do this, people! welcome to "the daily social distancing show." >> announcer: from trevor's couch in new york city to your couch somewhere in the world, this is "the daily social distancing show," with trevor noah. >> trevor: so, election day is over, but because it's 2020, election week has just begun. and that means it's time for more election coverage in our continuing segment "votegasm 2020: the awkward day after."
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let's kick it off with really the only news right now. joe biden looks like he's on president of the united states. at the time i'm saying this, he has leading in enough states to win the whole thing, and it may even be declared tonight. in fact, you might even know, watching this right now, if the election is over. and if you do, don't tell me! no spoilers! i like this feeling of stress. now, this is all happening after a chaotic, nerve-wracking election night that featured all sorts of weird moments, predictions flipping left and right, ballots being delivered with a police escort, steve kornacki's khaki butt. but maybe what's weirdest is that after all of that, the night actually ended up going mostly as everyone expected. trump jumped ahead early in a lot of states because republicans mostly voted in person, and those votes got counted first. and then, as the democratic mail-in ballots came in,
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biden jumped ahead, which is what everyone has known it would happen for weeks. everyone except the president. >> we were winning everything, and all of a sudden, it was just called off. the results tonight have been phenomenal, and we are getting ready-- i mean, literally, we were just all set to get outside and just celebrate something that was so beautiful, so good. we had such a big night. you just take a look at all of these states that we've won tonight, and then you take a look at the kind of margins that we've won them by, we won states, and all of a sudden, i said, "what happened to the election? it's off." and we have all of these announcers saying, "what happened?" and then say said, ooh. >> trevor: yeah, dude, because first they counted your votes, and now they're counting the other guy's votes. i mean, i knew that trump didn't like science, but i didn't realize he had disavowed numbers. i mean, maybe this explains why he's always in debt?
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this is just a level of stupidity from trump i did not expect. he exceeds levels of student. i didn't know you could go higher. sometimes it really feels like trump is a toddler. ( as trump ) "first, i had a nose, then suddenly, my uncle stole it, and i had no nose. what happened to law and order, folks? i don't have a nose anymore." although, trump could just be playing four-dimensional chess here. yeah, maybe he's laying the groundwork for his legal defense over his taxes. ( trump ) "your honor, as you can see, i have no idea how numbers work. therefore, i cannot be held accountable. case dismissed!" ( judge ) "you can't dismiss your own case." ( trump ) "i also don't know how the law works. double case dismissed!" #winning. but, yeah, needless to say, trump was upset. the more votes got counted, the more biden pulled ahead of him. and for donald trump, there could only be one solution: stop counting the votes. >> something breaking in the last couple of minutes as well. things are moving fast and furiously with the president's campaign. the campaign manager, bill
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stepien, announcing the trump campaign has filed a lawsuits in the state of mish saying president trump's campaign has not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to brvg the opening of ballots in the counting process, as guaranteed by michigan law, we have filed suit today in the michigan court of claims to halt counting. >> this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. we were getting ready to win this election. frankly, we did win this election. ( applause ) this is a major fraud on our nation. we want the law to be used in a proper manner. so we will be going to the u.s. supreme court. we want all voting to stop. we don't want them to find any ballots at 4:00 in the morning and add them to the list, okay? ( applause ) it is a very sad-- it's a very sad moment. to me, this is a very sad moment.
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and we will win this. as far as i am concerned, we already have won it. ( applause ) >> trevor: wow. i know everyone was expecting itux but still can we just tack a moment to admit, it is insane that an american president is just demanding that they stop they stop counting votes while he's ahead. this is such a textbook authoritarian move, which is impressive coming from a guy who has never read a textbook. i have to say for a guy who hates shit hole countries, trump likes to jack their style. i never thought of a day when somebody yelling at me to go back to africa sounded more like concern for my rights instead of a threat. be careful, america. if you let trump do this, then voting could soon become one of those things people do to feel better, but doesn't actually do anything-- like taking c.b.d. oil or recycling plastic. now, look, nobody knows what the
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supreme court is going to decide if trump ends up bringing this case to them. we hope they'll be neutral and rule on the merits, but trump also the person who has appointed so many of them. that, who knows, they might be like, "according to the constitution, only the president gets to be president." but let's move on to the the other big news of election night, which is very bad for democrats. it looks like republicans will very likely be holding on to the senate. and some high-profile races really did not turn out the way democrats wanted, even when they spent a lot of money. >> reporter: minutes after the polls closed in kentucky, majority leader mitch mcconnell winning re-election for a seventh term. democrat amy mcgrath giving mcconnell a challenging fight, smashing fundraising records, her campaign spending more than $70 million on the race. in south carolina, republican lindsey graham holding on to his senate seat after harrison raised over $100 million in his campaign.
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>> trevor: goddamn, i don't know who the bigger losers here are: the democratic candidates or the donors who gave them $170 million to lose their races. i mean, those donors gave them the best possible chance, and they still lost. that's like your parents being billionaires, but you still end up as don junior. but, shit, if you can raise that much money, then next time, i am going to run for senate against mitch mcconnell! "all right, if i'm gonna beat this guy, i'm gonna need a tesla, the new ps5, and also 200 gs, for snacks and stuff." i think i got this people." and on one level, i guess it's an encouraging story about the limits of money in politics, because it means you could have all the money in the world, but it can't buy you the charisma of a mitch mcconnell. so overall, even biden does manage to pull off a victory in the next few days or hours, democrats are still a bit shell shocked. they didn't do as well as they were hoping, and they didn't even do as well as they thought they would.
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>> reporter: trump did have a better night than expected, outperforming the polls once again. >> reporter: president trump has actually exceeded his 2016 numbers in every single demographic with gender and race, except for white men. he exceeded his white women vote, blacks, hispanics, with black women and black men. >> once again, the polls and the entire political world in washington, d.c., and new york, totally missed the scale of the democrats' underperformance last night. >> reporter: i'm going to pop over here to wisconsin. there was a poll from abc the other day that had joe biden up 17 points in this state. look where you are right now. 71% of the vote, and trump has got a lead here by four points. >> reporter: the polling was wrong. it was wrong again, even worse than it was in 2016. >> trevor: the polling was even worse than in 2016? how do the polls just keep
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getting worse? what are they, the new york knicks? but that's right: the democrats had super-high expectations last night, and they badly underperformed. basically, the democrats are the cinnabon of politics. it smells amazing, you get excited, but once you're eating it, you're like, "oh, yeah, cinnabon." for more on what went down last night, let's turn to a man who was up all last night: roy wood jr. what's up, roy? >> yo, man, what's up, man. >> trevor, this race was tighter than donalld trump's undershirt. >> trevor this race is tighter than one of donald trump's t-shirts. look at everything he did-- teamed up with coronavirus, killed people, got everybody to hate everybody, managed to pay less taxes and somehow still number this race. that's crazy, dude. i wrote one bad check to circuit city and they still won't let me back in the store. and they had a business! >> trevor: what's the lesson
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here, man? >> i'll tell you what the lesson is for me. the lesson for me is to stop trusting the polls. i'm done. i'm done trusting these polls. you watch all the polls running their mouth about biden they had you thinking he was going to win florida, mexico, diamond and silk. i'm done with all these polls. it's lies. i'll tell you right now, man, i'm never trusting polls again. >> trevor: roy, we talked about this in 2016. you said you weren't going to trust the polls again then. >> don't be bringing up all that old shit, man. yes. but the pollsters said we could trust them again so i did. and they had four years to fix it. silly me thinking they may have actually had some changes to the damn polling system. this is like i got a mexican spot i go to and they get shut down for health violations, but the food is good, so i let it slide. when you go back in, they shut down for a little while, and you go back in and you think they cleaned it up. it's the same old stuff, only now it's a dude wearing a
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different apron. >> trevor: so you're not going to ever try and predict elections again, right? >> no, i will try to predict elections again, only now i will be using more reliable predictions, like astrology, or reading the entrails of a guinea pig. or on the nightave full moon, going outside, yourinating and see if my pee makes words or letters, like a ouija board. >> trevor: you could try to talk to people of different communities and try to susout their perspective of the world. >> i said-- i said talk to astrologists. that's what i said. you're just not listening. >> trevor: so we're on the same page, you're done with polls. >> yes, i'm done-- ( phone ringing ) i got an update. oh shit! biden might win texas! we back in it, baby! biden might win texas, man. >> trevor: roy, i don't think-- >> i'll check twitter real
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quick. hang on a second. this is good news right here. >> trevor: roy, roy, those are pollsters again, roy, why not just wait for the result. >> yeah, no, no, man! i gotta put it up. i have to go, trevor. i have to spread the good news to everybody on the internet, man. hey, we back in it, man. >> trevor: why is he phoning the internet. thanks for that roy. no need to break his heart again today. we're going to take a quick break. when we come back we'll talk about all the election results that weren't about the president. and spoiler alert: if you're in jersey, it's time to get high. you don't want to miss it. i'm a verizon engineer and today, we're turning on 5g across the country.
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1 in 5 pets find homes through petsmart charities. adopt today at petsmart.com/adoptions. daily social distancing show." look, people, it's no secret that donald trump is a polarizing president. some people love him. most people hate him-- and that's just in his family. so it's no surprise that with him on the ticket, people were not going to miss their chance to weigh in. >> to say this country is making history tonight might just be an understatement. >> when all the ballots are counted, more than 150 million americans will have voted, shattering all previous records. >> it looks like we're on track to have the highest voter turnout, in terms of the percentage of the electorate, since the turn of the century-- not this century, last one, 1900. >> trevor: damn, the highest turnout since 1900! although, it's a little different, because back in 1900, most of the electorate was horses. and not even female horses either-- only male horses who
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owned land. very different time. also, back then, people had more time to vote. i mean, they could just switch shifts with their kids. ( factory worker ) "thanks for covering my ass, timmy. i owe you a pint of guinness." ( boy ) ", but dad, i'm only seven years old." "right, straight whiskey then." although, when you think about it, it makes sense turnout this year is close to 1900, because life actually is a lot like 1900: we're home a lot, life is slow-paced, we're baking our own bread. the only difference is we have netflix, and back then, they only had hulu. i can't wait to watch the "handmaid's episode today." now, of course, the presidential race was the main thing bringing people to the polls, and after that, the senate and congressional races. but all across the country, people were also approaching voters on street corners and saying, "yo, you wanna vote on a ballot initiative?" >> also on the ballot in five states, legalization of
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marijuana in four states, arizona, montana, south dakota, and new jersey all voting to allow recreational marijuana use, while mississippi voting to allow the use of medical marijuana. >> voters in d.c. passed a measure dropping magic mushrooms to quote the lowest level of law enforcement priority. >> and a first in the nation in oregon: voters deciding there to decriminalize possession of small amounts of all drugs, including heroin, cocaine and meth. those found in possession, will now have the option to pay a fine or go to a free recovery center. >> trevor: damn, you see? oregon did it right! they're the only state with a backup plan in case biden loses. honestly, though, i think this many people get locked up in america for way too long. although, let's be real-- whoever proposed this bill definitely had a little heroin, cocaine, and meth on them. personally, i don't want to get high in mississippi. that's one of those states where you need your wits about you.
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but i am excite for new jersey to have weed. imagine how next-level edibles are going to be when italian-americans are running dispensarys. "yeah, dis is an indica pepperoni calzone. i like it wit a side of og kush marinara sauce!" and if you're looking for some more good news out of the election, you're in luck, just check out some of the new people who are going to be reporting to work next year. >> reporter: last night's election marked a number of notable wins and firsts on both sides of the political aisle. so first, you've got richie torres and mondaire jones, both from new york, who will become the first openly gay black members of congress when they join the house in january. they will join nine other openly l.g.b.t.q. members of congress, then you've got sarah mcbride, who made history back in 2016 as the first openly transgender person to speak at a major party convention. she made history again as she was elected to the delaware state legislature, becoming the
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highest ranking trans lawmaker in the country. mcbride celebrated last night by saying in a statement she's humbled by the support that she's received, and she hopes her win, "shows an l.g.b.t.q. kid that our democracy is big enough for them, too. >> trevor: oh, yeah. we got transgender people. we got gay people of color. america's legislatures are on their way from being "mad men" to becoming "pose." and it's so inspiring that after so many years, the l.g.b.t.q. community will finally have an opportunity to get their legislation blocked by mitch mcconnell. and having the two first openly gay black members of congress is amazing-- except for all the straight members who are always going to be trying to set them up together. "so, you know who else is gay and black?" oh, and there's one more candidate who's breaking barriers this morning: >> a republican candidate for the state legislature in north dakota, who died from covid-19 in october, won his election tuesday night.
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election results in north dakota showing the bismarck-area district going to david andahl and dave nehring. the district chooses two representatives. andahl died due to complications from covid-19 when he was 55 in october. >> trevor: oh, hell no. if you lose to a dead guy, kill yourself. it will at least make it a tight race. seriously, can you imagine losing to a dead guy. your campaign is literally you just saying, "hey! i'm alive!" and the voters are still like, "yeah, well, i don't know. i don't know." we have to take quick break but when we come back we will be talking about the surprising high vot we love the new apartment. the natural light is amazing. hardwood floors.
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rediscover latinos every four years at election time, and i think this year, it's especially pronounced because latinos seem to have moved towards this president that has, at least on the face of things, spent four years abusing us. you know, the truth is, latinos have voted for the republican candidate in every election since 1972, when richard nixon won reelection at a rate of about 25% to 33%, sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more. you could see there's a half-century tradition by this point of a significant majority of latinos voting for republicans. >> trevor: one conversation that has always stuck with me, when i was at the republican national convention in cleveland, right, right before the 2016 election, and there was a mexican woman in the street, and she was waving a trump flag. and i was genuinely, genuinely curious. and i walked up to her and i said, "hey, how can you support trump?" and she said because he is
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working for me. and she said he's building a wall to stop illegal mexicans from coming over. and she said my family's waiting in line. my people are trying to do things the right way, and he's trying to make us the winners and instead of them. and that shook my perspective because up until that point, american media had always told me the story of latinos as a monolith. this was the first time when i came to realize that maybe, just maybe, these are all human beings who have different political perspectives. >> what a shocking realization. i mean, it's amazing. so, you know, there is no such thing as "the latino vote." but there are truly millions of latinos who do vote and it's, therefore, important to understand their political behavior. i don't think the republican party has given up on recruiting latino immigrants as well. i talked to the chairman of the republican party in el paso, who told me he personally shows up at every naturalization ceremony in el paso to hand out literature describing what the republican party stands for in the united states. you can also look at the latino
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evangelical church. that is, in many ways, an immigrant religion. latin american immigrants are evangelicals in their home countries. come, start churches here and belong to churches here. it's truly a much more divorce lot than you would think. >> trevor: it feels like in many ways the republican approach has really been focused, though. because on the democrats' side, i find that there's a lot of in fighting about how to handle the message. an interesting thing i heard was from the democratic winner in arizona, right, the congressional winner in arizona, who was asked, just asked, "hey, what do you think democrats could do, to do better with the latino vote?" and he said, "well, first of all, stop calling them latinx" that was an interesting one for me. i know that's been a fight. people saying i'm not latinx. i'm puerto rican. i'm dominican, i'm cuban, i'm mexican. don't call me this thing. do you think there's a disconnect sometimes between the academyuc approach that
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democrats take in referring to a group, versus how the groups just refer to themselves in the streets? >> that's really interesting. i mean, i hadn't thought about it in exactly those terms. but i do think that, you know, democrats often fight or identity politics, in some ways more than republicans do. so, you know, remarkably, i think the republican strategy for recruiting latinos has been remarkably consistent since the reagan years in 1980. and it's kind of really relied on, you know, identifying what-- and these might be misunderstandings, but they've nevertheless stuck with this kind of core set of issues, like family values, work ethic, patriotism. and reagan defined those things. and in many ways, trump is just running the same playbook that republicans have run for the past four years. i think you're right. it's a kind of rejection of identity politics in saying that you're mexican americans or cuban americans or-- instead, you're americans of mexican descent. interestingly, when i was interviewing a latino republican
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leader, he rejected the whole idea of hispanic republican. he wanted me to call him a republican of hispanic descent instead. >> trevor: interesting. >> yeah, super interesting displ it's funny that you say that because i find republicans do a much better job of coding their identity politics. i don't agree with the notion that republicans don't engage in as much identity politics as democrats. i think democrats are too blatant about it. so democrats will say, "we've got to get black voters," and "the black vote and the hispanic vote and we have to get these gay people to come and help us." do you know what i mean? where republicans go, "we have to protect our farmers. we have to do a better job of protecting that factory worker in ohio. we've got to protect him. you know who "he" is." it's a very interesting technique that they use that implies a certain connotation of a person, but it doesn't make that person feel like they're reduced only to the color of their skin. do you think that could be part of the reason republicans do so
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well? >> oh, man, i wish i got to talk to you every day about this stuff. that's exactly right, man. if i hear one more time about the dairy farmer in wisconsin, or the autoworker in detroit. never mind the fact there are many, many latinos who work as dairy farmers or work in auto plant. but i do think, yes, these are all kind of coded appeals. and they do very much suggest a republican version of identity politics, even if he don't recognize it as such. >> trevor: i have been coming to the united states i don't know, on and off for a decade. i have lived here for five years now. one thing that always surprised me, people say, "man as the hispanic vote grows, the republican party will be under water." maybe you're the perfect person to ask-- is there not an assumption that may be incorrect that hispanic or latino voters will naturally progress towards the democratic party because they identify in that way, as opposed to understanding that some people can sort of migrate to the space of being white, if that makes sense? and i say this because i come from a country where we had many
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classes of people where they said, "hey, if you work the right way and you act the right way, we'll give you white classifications and some of the privileges white people get." do you think that's a possibility going forward? >> for sure. that kind of-- you know, we also know one of the many ways that latinos are diverse is their skin color, even, or racially diverse, their class background, and there are all kinds of things. so, yeah, that's certainly part of it. i think there are so many problems with the idea that demography is destiny and demographic change is going to naturally lead to more democratic victories. the first, obviously, is latinos are politically diverse, and feel different ways about a lot of different things. the second thing is it kind of takes for granted that the republican party is just going to be stat and i can roll over and play dead as the sea of demographic change washes over them. i think one of the particularly surprising things about the results from last night is that donald trump truly made in roads among latino voters, and that's shocking. the idea that donald trump would
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be the second coming of someone like george w. bush, to actually expand the latino vote. it just kund of blows the mind, right. the fact is he did. and he expanded latino support. if i were a democrat today, i wouldn't kind of rest comfortably on this idea that latinos maybe helped biden win in arizona or nevada. i would be really worried that trump's latino support seems to have expanded by several percentage points. and that's something we need to spend a lot of time thinking about and questioning a lot of our assumptions. >> trevor: well, i will say, talking to you is one of the most fascinating conversations i have had. i thop have you on the show again. and i genuinely recommend everyone read your book. thank you so much for taking the time. >> trevlor: be sure to check out geraldo's great book: "they soc"
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>> you, too. nice to see you, trevor. >> trevor: it feels like the last time i saw you i was 30-something years old, and now i'm 52 but i only aged in one night. how are you doing? >> i'm 112, actually, but holding up okay, thank you. >> trevor: holding up really well. welcome to "the daily social distancing show." >> thanks for having me. >> jon: you are a pulitzer prize-winning author, you are somebody who spent a lot of time living the life of joe biden through the lens of your work. as this moment unfolds, how do you think joe biden is situated to help the country recover from what is going to be arguably one of the most tumultuous elections in history? well, in a strange way, he's had a lot of practice of a certain kind for this. and it's terrible practice. i mean, if we know anything about joe biden, we know that he has been through some really wretched things in his life. after all, we remember his late wife, neilia hunter, his daughter, naomi, they died in a
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car accident when he was just 29. and later scizz son beau died of a brain tumor. i mention that because in politics sometimes we're cynical about things like that. we think it's being used as a prop. what i find fascinating looking into his life is seeing the way it really altered him. it changed him. just being acquainted with suffering in that way, in that very real personal way, resonates with the condition we're in as a country. we're literally suffering beeper literally grieving. so he knows something of that. >> trevor: if joe biden is to win the election, he's going to be in an interesting position where it looks like the republicans will still have the senate, democrats will have the house, and so now, in many ways, his selling point is going to be tested. can joe biden be the person who brings the sides together to get things done for america? even though no president, incoming president-- if that's what he is-- would ever ask to preside over a country as divided as it is, the truth is, he actually has some experience in these moments.
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to give you one example, when they came in, in 2009, one of the first things he did was started lobbying the late senator arlen specter to change parties go from being a republican to a democrat. he was also given an assignment. the obama administration said, "joe biden, we want you to call up members of the senate. try to get them to vote for the stimulus bill." he did that. he started working the phones. he's kind of constantly on the phones with people on capitol hill. he got three votes. and those turned out to be the three votes that ended up being decisive in passing that bill. in a way, if he was a boxer, you would say he's kind of comfortable in the clutch, like, right up close. that's his-- that's his happy place, as centering as it may sound. >> trevor: once obama took office and once the tea party took hold of the republican party and trumpism by extension, there's no denying politics has changed dramatically. do you think he'll still have the same pull and sway with republicans to get them to do it, or do you think now he will be facing-- if he wins-- again four years of just being blocked
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by mitch mcconnell and the senate crew? >> look, we would be insane not to worry about that. that's the reality. that's certainly the politics we inhabit right now. i think there's something interesting that we sometimes lose sight of, which is it matters the posture with which the president sells the policy. meaning, if they're selling it from the middle, strangely enough, you can actually sometimes sell things you can't sell if you're coming at it from a distinctly progressive direction or hard-line conservative direction. analysts have done some surway work, and they find people in america might go for more aggressive climate change legislation if it's being presented to them as job growth or building a sustainable economy, rather than, look, this is a moral obligation to future generations. >> jon: you have written extensively about biden. you have also written extensively about china. this is going to be one of the biggest challenges america faces going forward. where do you think biden begins? he has had some tough rhetoric with china, but you can't deny
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the united states needs a relationship with china. what does he do and how do you see the relationship unfolding? >> i think china is going to be sorry to see donald trump go. even though donald trump uses a lot of language of confrontation, he has efficiently undermined american credibility in the eyes of the world. there's a study showing xi jinping and vladimir putin have higher favorability than donald trump. biden is a recognizable form of a president and diplomat. biden will probably actually hold on to some of this confrontational stuff that the trump administration has done because it makes it easier. it gives him leverage. but what he'll do that's completely different is he'll do it with allies. he'll do it in concert with american allies in europe and asia, rather than america first, which often meant we were doing things alone. >> trevor: do you think biden will be awbl to sell himself as that guy? one of the big differences between trump and really any u.s. president has been trump knows how to sell his
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achievements whether they exist or not. joe biden seems to be the kind of person who says, well, read my record. check what i did" and people are like, "we don't read, joe. we don't read. that's not the world we live in." do you think he will be able to rebuild some of the bridges that have been broken down in many of these industrial areas that he used to have such a strong base in? >> i mean, it is true that he is kind of, like, stubbornly attached to the reality-based universe. he seems to think that's consequential and has to respond to that. we know there are millions of americans who just voted for donald trump. it wasn't a fluke this time. they knew what they were doing. i think his basic strategy, he has said to me other ands, if you begin from the principle that i am listening, i am listening to you in a real way, you would be surprised what the effect might have on our political chemistry. look, that's an optimistic take but he doesn't have any option. it's better than going in saying, "i'm giving up on half of you because you didn't vote for me." >> trevor: when you look at the journey the next american
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president will face, whether it be joe biden, would you say his personal loss and the tragedies that he's faced put him in a position to be the best leader to lead america out of one of its greatest tragedies, which has been the pandemic? >> i do. i think in a curious way, this life of ups and downs that he's had, of failures in some cases, of embarrassment, and then of great successes has primed him to fit into where we are as a country. because let's be frank-- we've had our ups and downs lately. and we are now talking more candidly, also about our whole history, and the ways in which we have not treated people the way we should. and i think he's at a moment now where we are coming to terms with a little bit more of a humbler notion of what it means to be americans, both at home and in the world. and he's a bit of a humbler person than he was when he got into the senate some, you know, 150 years ago. i think he really is coming at this from the position of recognizing our strengths and our limitations. and that's better, probably, than coming at it with an imagined idea of what we are,
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