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tv   To the Point  Deutsche Welle  January 22, 2021 8:30am-9:01am CET

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how does a virus spread. why do we parent and when will all of us. just through the topic from cover and we couldn't read your blog the show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the quantum arash or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast so you can get it wherever you can get your podcast you can also find us and call it one slash science fair. the united states has a new president sworn in during a ceremony that was a mix of familiar tradition and extraordinary precaution and normally joe biden's oath wouldn't have been witnessed by tens of thousands but due to the jewels threats of the pandemic and extremist violence security forces made up the biggest crowd at the capitol outgoing president trump broke with custom and stayed away joe
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biden immediately signed a slew of executive orders to reverse trump's policies promising to heal the country's deep partisan divisions after trumps wrecking ball can joe biden fix america that's our top and. on. the balance. hello and welcome to to the point it's a pleasure to introduce our guests motto limon writes for the berlin daily the target spiegel and he formerly led the paper's washington bureau he argues biden stands for unity and reconciliation but many other democrats want trump and his supporters to be brought to account it doesn't fit together and it's great to have matthew crunchie with us on the program once again he's european correspondent with the u.s. daily politico his opinion biden will manage to repair a mare. because divisions whether he'll succeed in repairing the relationship with
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germany and europe is a different matter and great to have with us david will she is from the transatlantic think tank german marshall fund and she says joe biden will list stall a new version of global leadership for america but he will also think about policy in terms of how it affects the american middle class. one headline that we are seeing in the newspapers reads inauguration triumphed over insurrection referring to the worries that we could see a repeat of the extremist violence that gripped the capital just 2 weeks before the inauguration let me get a quick reaction from all of you about what was uppermost in your minds as you watched the inauguration matthew. well it felt to me like a restoration of american norms to be honest so you see biden there with
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former presidents clinton obama and george w. bush sitting behind him as well as many republicans including former vice president now mike pence it felt to me like the entire ceremony was a important step towards reconciliation towards normalization of american democratic life so i would agree with matthew and i think it was also a big contrast the 2 speeches what we heard from president trump in 2017 about american carnage verses american healing. this week with president biden and i think my daughter captured the moment very well who's 16 you know who has experience president trump these past 4 years she said it was so refreshing to hear president biden's speech a lot of people have used the words refreshing and relieved. what about the view
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from from someone who knows washington well but of course is of german roots i'm afraid i have to say relieved as a bow there is a deep sense of that because we lived in the 4 years of permanent feeling of tension you never know what's going to happen each each day and know the feeling that things are coming back to civility and normalcy and quietness and and reason. in washington d.c. . it was a sense of relief. sort of mentioned carnage which was of course the reference to donna by donald trump in his own inaugural address and in fact the carnage is what we saw on january 6th exactly 2 wicked weeks before the inauguration as a mob stormed the capitol let's hear what americans around the country were saying in light of those events in the run up to the inauguration about their own concerns for their country. the. time for.
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one. and. you don't know who to trust these days i don't know what work i think. i can trust i don't know what individual in government i can trust and think it's awful. i am hopeful that we have a leader that will focus on unifying i hope that our politicians will move past the political divide these people heard so it's heartbreaking you know this is a this is a wonderful country that god has given us it's terrifying just to see you know the the capital of our country and you know we stand on values like freedom and democracy and you see these these walls and these are struction the last 4 years i have been ashamed to be american and finally although i'm not perhaps a biden advocate i am for anybody that's not tromp and i'm so excited to
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bring in this new change. that's where your opening statement was perhaps surprisingly optimistic in regard to biden's ability to heal those divisions what makes you so confident. well i think it's as the last woman that we heard there said even people who are not particularly excited about biden are happy to see trump gone and i think that speaks for a glorified majority of the population i think in a lot of the reporting about the election there's this sense that the country is still very divided and you know that biden only won by a small margin he actually won by a pretty convincing margin he won by 7000000 votes which is you know not not a small number of votes by by any number by any measure and you know i think that if you look at the polling of the last week in particular looking at the entire
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population of the united states it's clear that a majority of americans are optimistic about biden they want him to succeed they want the country to move forward and i think they just want an end of the chaos that we've seen over the past 4 years at the same time suder there are polls taken less than a week before the inauguration that show that many many republicans still do believe that the election was stolen from president trump and conservative groups were very quick to brand the new president immediately after the inauguration as far left so how optimistic are you that he can truly repair the divide well i think joe biden is really the right candidate for america's division he is a moderate by you know all standards and i think he will want to govern from the middle he will want to reach across the aisle and work with republicans and it may
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be that right now the majority of republican voters and 2 thirds of the republican caucus are saying that the election was not legitimate but i do think that there are pragmatic republican members that see that this you know illusion or this lie could really break the republican party and for the you know for. sponsible leaders of the republican party because i do think there are still republican leaders that are responsible it's in their interest to you know sort of get rid of this bad blood in the republican party and move forward i was one point on that i think that also gets overlooked too often is that since trump became president the republicans lost control of the house of representatives they had amalgams in the midterms 2 years ago they have now lost control of the senate and they have lost the presidency so even though he has this very devoted following it has become clear that you cannot have a majority in the united states on a federal level with
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a candidate like trump because he just loses too many people in the middle and they drift to do they don't want to come back to the direction of the republicans in just a moment but let's stay a little bit longer with with the new president. must say you were in washington from 2000 to 2005 if i'm correct. joe biden was a senator for i believe over 35 years and he is known to have a lot of experience working across the aisle working with politicians of the other party even on a friendly basis with mitch mcconnell the majority speaker who in fact during the trumpet ministration and prior to that has done everything possible to democrat denigrate democrats. joe biden these skills that he has they were from a very different time in america do you really think they are still capable of
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creating the same kind of bipartisan cooperation as in that past era very good question i mean he doesn't actually need the but part is new collaboration because as you just said the white house the senate and the house of a. suzanne it is all in the hands of democrats so he has a lot of leverage he personally has a biography that that gives him some credit the personal losses she has and he has on family it's very hard to to consider him as a partisan put it isn't. what i think it might be a problem is see you have 74000000 people voting for trump and this is the new everything it was everything said about his lies about his tweets about everything that he did in knowledge about that 74 people all of them have different motives but can the be something like reconsideration with any kind of remorse
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there is i think the crucial question do 74 people feel some kind of oh i'm sorry i voted for him and i supported him for years why did they say well i had a lot of credit after this 6 genuine other lot i think a lot of time i think a lot of people and i hope for the 2nd lowest approval rating since since george bush the elder. it was just that george bush jr started with a low approval rating according to pew so so let's come back to that in just a moment but i'd like to 1st take a listen to how the newly inaugurated president himself is promising to heal the political divide and what he's had to say about its causes let's start afresh all of us must begin to listen to one of our again here one another see one another show respect to one another there is truth and there are lives. lies told
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for power and for profit. you need give us has a duty and a responsibility as citizens as americans especially as leaders leaders who have pledged to honor our constitution protect our nation to defend the truth and defeat the lies. matthew that was as close as president got to mentioning his predecessors culpability in his inaugural remarks and some apparent some republicans apparently were relieved by the subtlety are you seeing signs that the party is ready to break with trump. and trump isn't it strong mentally ization that was just mentioned of hate and lies i think there are clear signs of that clearly not everybody is going to do it but in the past week we've also seen mitch mcconnell who you mentioned who's now the minority leader in the senate. make very
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clear that in his view trump was responsible for the insurrection on the 6th of january mcconnell is somebody who has stood behind trump throughout the last 4 years and has now broken with him of the big question will be when the impeachment trial of trump begins in the coming weeks if mcconnell and others vote to impeach trump you need 17 senators in the group of 100 to come over to the democratic side there and that will be you know the biggest indication that we'll have but i just make one more point on that that i think is also often not really understood is that in the house of representatives which is a larger body you have republicans who are much more extreme in their views because they have to appeal to a much smaller segment of the of the populace and the senators represent entire states so they tend to be much more moderate and i think again as saying before for these republicans who want to appeal to a broader who need to appeal to
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a broader slice of the american public if they want to remain in power over the long term they're going to need to. leave trump ism behind and pursue a more inclusive. politics. the president mentioned in his in his remarks that we just heard lying for profit and of course interesting is the fact that a number of big donors seem to be now be turning away from those politicians who who were most egregious about lying and supporting trump or do you think sudha could a 2nd impeachment help discredit to trump in a way that will promote healing and reconciliation or could it in fact widen the divisions so i mean and it teaches process by virtue always better and it's usually a partisan affair but the fact that the house and peached president trump with 10 republicans is quite remarkable and i think january 6th was a watershed moment the storming of the capitol really was a wake up call for
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a lot of republicans and mitch mcconnell said you know he told his caucus vote your conscious so he's open the door to for republicans to find a way to leave trump isn't behind and the question is will the senate get a 2 thirds majority to convict trump in the coming weeks welcome let me ask you about another aspect of what we heard there from the president to mention not only lying for purposes of power but also purposes of profit and that goes to the role of the media which in fact was one of the points mentioned by by those vox pops that we heard with that one woman saying i don't know what media to believe. joe biden's asking americans to hear him out and to listen to each other but will they be able to do that given that did in of poisonous chatter on polarized media from fox news to the social media platforms i'm afraid to pull a relation of the media even accelerate the kooning of people just in their own
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living in the old will accelerate one thing that contributes. 2 this is the bending from trump from twitter and facebook and the you tube instagram because that leads to the thing that even twitter the seen as partisan and other like polar and other forms are coming up so that the not just the t.v. stations and the printed media polarized but no the social media as well gets more and more polarized and allows people to stay in their own bubble if if i could just expand on that i do think though americans and even president biden recognizes that the democracy is very fragile he said that in his speech and social media and the fact that journalism is so fragmented in the united states plays a role and fortunately in this just functionality and i won't be surprised to see if there is more regulation of big tax and washington moving forward i want to come
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to that as one of the policy priorities of the next administration but let me ask you about one other point souter when we look at that both the inauguration ceremony and the new administration we see an absolutely astonishing degree of diversity in fact if we take gender into account this is the most diverse cabinet in history so clearly that will be read as a signal of hope and change and unity by the many americans who are worried about structural racism but what about the others well you know i think if joe biden as he said in a speech works for all americans and most likely this is his only term in office and he said that he's going to go into it with all his soul this is really nothing to lose this is probably his last term in office so he was i think he will make it a point to make sure that the american middle class gets its strength and yes the diversity in the cabinet is very important very symbolic to what our country stands
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for but it's also the he picked experts it really is a technocratic for example national. security team so even though it's symbolic he also has real professionals behind when it comes to foreign policy for example in fact interesting lee enough some of the most diverse faces are also the most moderate members of the cabinet structural racism is just one of the complex problems that president biden has promised to address with rapid action he takes office in the midst of an unprecedented crisis in the face of mismanagement at federal level the us has seen the most covert deaths of any country worldwide and that has had deep repercussions on the economy here's a closer look at the new president's tough priorities. fighting the coronavirus the us has seen the most cobi 19 deaths of any country worldwide. what will joe
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biden do differently he plans to invest $160000000000.00 in testing vaccines and health personnel and impose a mask mandate. rebuilding the u.s. economy in light of the devastating economic impact of the pandemic biden has announced a $1.00 trillion dollars stimulus program. it includes massive investments in businesses research and infrastructure. increasing action on climate change. joe biden has vowed to promptly rejoined the paris climate agreement he also wants the u.s. to be climate neutral by 2050. overhauling trumps immigration policies joe biden will overturn the travel ban for citizens from several muslim countries. he also wants to open a path to citizenship for millions of migrants who currently live in the u.s.
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without a residency permit. with these measures biden intends to quickly reverse the policies of his predecessor. but could that jeopardize attempts at reconciliation with trump supporters. that you biden seems to be assuming that pandemic recovery in both the health and economic sense is is something that can unify and really bring both sides together but even mask wearing became a partisan issue under donald trump so 2 questions will that change and does biden need to bring in people attentions from the other side mount is reminding us in fact the democrats do have at least a thin majority in both houses of congress i think that massacring will remain a partisan issue i'm not sure how much that will matter in the long term because of the availability of vaccines and so many people have had covert now in the united states to be a step you know your your protocol point where you know the mask might not matter
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as much as it does in other countries i think that biden will need cooperation from the other side on a lot of research he does have a majority for the next 2 years in 2 years they're going to be new elections been term elections as they're called united states and the house of representatives and in the senate and there you could see these majorities slip so i think he does need to move fast to get you know what he can through now and to not antagonize the republicans maybe too much that they're going to sort of seek revenge on his agenda so to your opening statement talked about policy for the middle class and in fact republicans who celebrated their great love for the middle class and also supported an enormous rise in the national debt are now pushing back on biden's recovery program saying it's much too generous how much can he achieve with this wafer thin majority he's got particularly in terms of the economic recovery well i think he
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needs to make it a point to republicans and he has a good ally and janet yellen as treasury secretary designate that it's necessary to . you know spend more to get the united states out of this economic crisis and he does need republicans because he wants to be able to legislate rather than do everything by executive order because you have precedent like the paris climate accord or the iran deal where if the republicans do take the majority and 2022 in the congress they can easily reverse a lot of policies and i think also for immigration reform it would be very good to have republican support for comprehensive immigration reform. with a view to the clock let me ask you to talk a little bit about the foreign policy implications of biden's priorities where do you see all real opportunities for transatlantic cooperation transit i mean the real fight of we're calling the the western world i mean if you'd stay though if it's europe trans-atlantic relationship that's
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a goal in itself that it's revitalized and people are talking to each other not just about each other. so i think strengthening of nato. germany has tests to put some more money in the defense budget. has to show willingness to to recognize american demands as reasonable and so i think if that is done we've done a lot but what about climate because climate was in fact one of the 1st things joe biden did right after he took office executive order returning very very important in european markets and but the climate climate change as well as the fight against climate change needs time if we talk about the next 2 years he might have a conference in the united states even this year international conference about the climate i don't know but but but the fight against climate change the times and perseverance his problem is he has to be fast with
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a lot of things. recalls to gauge needs time but does he has just to use in 2 years if the senate is occupied with impeachment if if he needs to reconcile 1st before he goes so there's a sense of urgency in doing things but trends against working against it matthew biden promised in his inaugural address i quote to repair relations with allies in order to jointly address present and future challenges your opening statement cast doubt on the success of the repair effort as it were which president future challenges do you think are going to be especially thorny for the transatlantic alliance well to begin i would say north stream too which is the pipeline between russia and germany that has been a thorn in the side of the u.s. and many other german allies in europe for many years germany has shown no signs of being willing to let go of that project that will remain
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a problem. mentioned the investment in defense in germany that will remain an issue but i think the really big. is china the united states sees china as a massive threat to the western world and to the stability of the world as a whole europeans. don't appear to agree with that assessment this is a consensus in the united states between democrats and republicans we just saw the e.u. led by germany signed an investment pact with china against the objections of the incoming by the administration so i think that it's a little bit too simple to say you know the atmospherics are going to improve because biden's a nice guy i think it's going to remain very difficult. you know to take us back to our title for the last few seconds of the program we talked about the wrecking ball of trump ism how strong wrought irreversible damage in transatlantic relations i mean it definitely has caused a lot of mistrust among europeans about america but i do believe that joe biden has
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a chance to show europeans and others that america is back in its traditional role but will approach things differently with more restraint and humility thank you very much great closing words for our show on the new president joe biden thanks to all of you out there for tuning in.
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a game day in the middle of the week closed out the 1st half of the season to. labor costs and took down dog their 1st win in 5 games. shall become lost against columbus better to
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a bitter 1st half of the season. since d.w. . tragic. the rarely very old people here these are young people just kids want to mollify violent. chill and terrorize with no fear of consequences sure the bush years boy's death has are asking. why don't they see another way. in 75 minutes on d w. it's about billions. it's about our work. it's about the foundation of the border the silk road.
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china wants to expand its influence. with his trade network and so on the conflicts are inevitable the consequences contradicted the commission of a shaky in the chinese state has a modest money at its disposal given to him and that's how it's expanding that kind of asserting its status and position in the world to be fair to combine forces moving to china he's promising its partners rich profits but in europe there's a sharp mornings you could never accept money from the new superpower will become dependent on an. china's gateway to europe. starts feb 19th on double.
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cut. this is news coming to you live from berlin u.s. president joe biden announces sweeping new measures to combat the cut it 19 crisis he says the pandemic is a national emergency and must be treated as such but he also has a warning things are going to get worse before they get better also coming up india has started back snaking its population against kobe 19.

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