Pod Save America - “Joe Biden is President.”

Episode Date: January 21, 2021

Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, Kamala Harris is sworn in as the 49th Vice President, former game show host Donald Trump retires to Florida, and the new administration immediately gets to work.

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. Today is the first pod of Joe Biden's presidency. Dan and I are going to talk all about the history made in yesterday's inauguration ceremony, talk about all the events, the speeches, break it all down, and then talk about the first couple of days, first couple of weeks of Joe Biden's presidency and what he is trying to achieve. Joe Biden's presidency and what he is trying to achieve. Before we start, check out our other Crooked content this week on Pod Save the World. Tommy and Ben talk about Joe Biden's foreign policy agenda. On Alyssa Mastromonaco's Let's Break It Down YouTube series over at youtube.com slash crooked media.

She and Dan talk about what it takes to plan an inaugural. So go check that out. And check out the very first episode of Rubicon Season 2, which launches tomorrow, Friday. Brian Boitler will walk you through the decisions that will shape the first 100 days of the Biden administration. Subscribe to Season 2 of Rubicon wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's get to the news. On Wednesday, just before noon, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States. Kamala Harris was sworn in as the 49th vice president of the United States. Although the ceremony began under cloudy skies and even a few snowflakes. By the time Biden approached the podium,

the sun was out and former President Donald Trump was nowhere to be seen. Dan, we have waited for and hoped for and worked for this day for the last four years. How did it feel to see Joe Biden replace Donald Trump as president? Good. It felt good. I mean, it was very eloquent. I, I like I had so much joy on the day that the election was called for Joe Biden on that Saturday. the day that the election was called for Joe Biden on that Saturday, my family and I went to Oakland, Kamala Harris's hometown, and we drove around and we saw all the people. It was just this incredible communal joy and I was so happy. And then throughout the post-election period, I was never really worried that Trump was somehow going to steal the election from Joe Biden.

So in some ways, I kind of went into yesterday thinking like, this is a ceremonial moment. And like, what is he going to do first? And thinking about it. But it was way more emotional than I thought it would be. Right. And I sort of started to get that feeling during his farewell speech in Delaware the day before. But watching the whole thing and just for this moment of amidst everything that's happening right now and everything that's happened over the last four years, this moment that felt like normalcy, joyous normalcy around a president who wants to do the job, who wants to be a leader for all Americans standing up there and giving a speech that was not crazy and not trying to divide America. There was so much of it that was just such a happy, happy day. It exceeded my expectations in every way for the quality of the execution, the quality of the speech, and my own personal emotional reaction to it was much greater than I anticipated. own personal emotional reaction to it was much greater than I anticipated.

I had a lot of different emotions. I felt like those of us who were watching had survived a crash landing because of, particularly because of the last several weeks, the insurrection. Like you, I did not have much concern that Donald Trump would successfully steal the election from Joe Biden. I didn't have like that sense of alarmism. My alarmism, and I know you had this too, was that by continuing to tell that lie about the election, that he would stir up his supporters. And sure enough, that is the threat that we had to face. So there was a sense of relief that we have been basically, that America has been given another chance. Democracy has been given another chance. But then that sort of morphed into joy and hope. And, you know, I said on Monday's pod, when I was talking about this with John and Tommy,

that Donald Trump should have gone to this inauguration because I think it would have sent a message that he did believe in the transfer of power. He did believe that Joe Biden won the election. But as I watched the day unfold, I was really happy he wasn't there. I was really and I was really happy that his fucking Twitter account was shut down so that we didn't have to hear from him, because I think if he had been there, it would have made it a very different day. And the commentary about the day and the analysis about the day would have all been about Trump and Trump's reactions and what he said and how and how he was looking and his expressions and all that bullshit. And the fact that he wasn't there really, for me, sort of completed the turning of the page from one era to another. And it was it's also was like hard to believe at times like when that night last night when we were like I was prepping for the pot, I went to I wanted to

see the press release for all the executive orders that that Biden signed. So I went to WhiteHouse.gov and just seeing on WhiteHouse.gov Joe Biden's picture. It was like a small thing, but I'm like, oh, it's real. He's there. It actually happened. There's no more Trump. But Joe Biden is our president. And then like seeing pictures of Joe Biden in the Oval Office, which, of course, he's been in the Oval Office before, but not sitting behind the Resolute Desk signing executive orders, seeing Jen at the briefing, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, give the briefing, like all of these little things. It was almost hard to believe that it was really happening because not just because these four years have been so long, but also these two months since the actual election have felt so long

because of we had to go through an insurrection. I had sort of a slightly different view of that, which it wasn't when I saw Jen at the briefing, Joe Biden in the Oval Office, Joe Biden and Jill Biden walking into the White House, Ron Klain in the White House. It wasn't that I can't believe it's actually happened. It was sort of I can't believe the last four years happened. Like, did I wake up and it was January 21st, 2017, and just all the people who were supposed to be in the White House were in the White House? having to get full on cable news commentary about his expressions and who he shook hands with and the awkwardness of the limo ride with Biden or the tea between Melania and the first lady. That was, skipping all of that was his one gift to America over four years of complete shit. It just made it so much better that he had no involvement in it. And everyone was glad he wasn't there. There was no one.

Like I agreed with you for the theoretical symbolism of him being there. But when you actually saw it happen, having him just completely absent from the stage was so much more powerful. I will say I was also just deeply happy for Joe Biden. Yeah. Who wanted this his entire life since he was one of the youngest senators ever elected to the Senate. He's 29 years old.

He has endured, as people have talked about many times now, tragedy, loss. But also he has lost many presidential elections. He has dealt with everything you can imagine someone can deal with, both personal tragedy, professional disappointment. And he just kept going. faith and optimism was finally rewarded at this moment after this long career, after a very, you know, it just, it made me really, really happy for him. And of course it's bittersweet because, you know, some of the people he's loved most in his life couldn't be there because he lost them too early. But he, I was just, I was really happy for him and I was really happy for Kamala Harris, too. She was just like beaming every time you saw her over the last over the last day and and for both of their families as well.

So it was just it was a rare happy moment for America right now, which we don't get to have very often. I was thinking a lot about Joe Biden over the last couple of days here and what this meant for him personally. And he ran in 1988 and very well could have won that nomination. He decided not to run in 1992 for health reasons. He ran in 2008. He almost ran in 2016, but couldn't because of Bo and his cancer. But he won in what was the right moment for him. This was the moment that America needed Joe Biden. And I think, and this happens with every candidate who becomes president. It is difficult to see that candidate as president

almost until it happens. And then some of them grow into the job and some of them do not. It was hard for us. Are you thinking of anyone? Is there anyone who has recently not grown into the job? No, I was going to say, I think it was hard for all of us as much as we believed in Barack Obama and loved Barack Obama and loved working for him and believed in that campaign. I at least I'm like, I can't believe Barack Obama is going to be president. I remember all of us

in the first week of the White House when Barack Obama invited us all into the Oval Office, all the press and communication staffers, and we're all wandering around the Oval like, what are we all doing here, including him? You know, so it takes some time to grow. And then, of course, some people like our former, last former president, Donald Trump, just never grow into the job. But Joe Biden, like we have to pretend he was a fantastic candidate his entire life when he ran in other campaigns. I think in this campaign, he became a much better candidate. He became much more disciplined. He, I think, sensed the weight of the moment and the responsibilities that would come with the job. of the moment and the responsibilities that would come with the job.

And when I saw him up there delivering that inaugural address, which we'll talk about in a bit, it dawned on me, I'm like, he really is the right man for the moment. And it's not just because the moment found him, but because he worked to make himself the right person for the moment. Like, I think he improved himself as a candidate and ultimately as a president or prepared himself to be a president over these over this last year, which was impressive. So we've promised to quit talking about Trump. But of course, it is hard to go cold turkey. So I do just want to get your reaction to his very small send off ceremony, which i am happy to have slept through yesterday morning you and tommy were i woke up at like six o'clock 6 30 there was like an hour of

texts on my phone now you guys were both up at five well what was going on there um but the the washington post described the event as having quote more of a feel of a county fair than a big budget extravaganza. I just like the fact that he wasn't at the inaugural. So now we can sort of cordon off this moment from the beginning of the day as the Trump moment and then forget about it. Here's a little taste of what it sounded like at the event, including Trump's very last remarks as president. Goodbye. We love you. We will be back in some form. So have a good life. We will see you soon. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Let's just watch in silence as this Air Force One takes off and the Trump family

leaves Washington, leaves the seat of power. Yes, it was my way. Donald Trump taking off to my way as the CNN panel laughs in the background after telling everyone he'll come back in some form and to have a nice life, to me, is perfect. I could not have scripted it any better. That's it. Look, John, the way we're supposed to understand Donald Trump is as a TV man. He is a man who scripts things. He's a showman. He's a showman. He's really a TV producer more than a president. And you have to think about him in that way. And in this way, it was the perfect ending to this sad, It was the perfect ending to this sad, terrible story. It was just he – we had these hopes throughout the election when Joe Biden was winning these very fake polls that had him up 10 points nationally and 15 points in Wisconsin or whatever else that Donald Trump would get this gigantic national humiliation.

And that did not happen because polls were wrong and our electoral system is completely fucked up. And even though he lost the popular vote by 7 million votes, it was very, very close. But in the end, he got that humiliation. He shrank with each passing day. He left as a very small, small man, which is what he is. But I think more of the country than ever before has now sees him like that. And of course, so does the world. So that is fitting. He did give his remarks right after pardoning 73 people.

One last flurry of pardons, including Steve Bannon and Lil Wayne. Of course, he did not try to pardon himself, anyone in his family, or Rudy. Any of this surprise you? Any of this last minute pardon stuff? If you had asked me right after the election, would Donald Trump pardon every member in his family and himself? Of course. But this is the consequence of what happened at the Capitol, because there was a, according to reports from CNN and others, there was a big meeting with his legal advisors over the weekend about pardon strategy. And they kept telling him that if you push the envelope on these pardons, you are more likely to be convicted in the Senate and face all the consequences that come with that. So there was this slight sort of Damocles hanging over this.

I mean, he's still, in a normal world, these pardons are fucking insane. They're just like randomly corrupt people, they're friends and political advisors. And we just think of it this way. He pardons Steve Bannon, who is a Wall Street connected white supremacist, whose crime was bilking Trump supporters over building a fake wall to stop a fake immigration threat, which that is actually the perfect. Once again, perfection. Yeah,

that is the writer's room for season four. God, like that. Like in a normal world, these would be massively controversial pardons. They're just not as terrible as they could have been. And he's gone. And so everything's sort of interesting because Trump has pardoned some Democrats in his four years. But the common theme to a lot of these pardons is that the person was deeply corrupt. He loves pardoning corrupt politicians, Democrat

or Republican. He's bipartisan. But if you are a swampy politician who has committed some white collar crime or stolen some money from people or built the taxpayers in some way, you've got a friend in Donald Trump. Like, I just don't know how much clearer of a message he can send with these parties. Unbelievable. All right. Back to the inauguration. Enough Donald Trump. Unbelievable. All right. Back to the inauguration. Enough Donald Trump. Like everything else in our lives over this last year, the events of. The Biden team installed 200,000 American flags to represent people who couldn't attend in person and then lit up the flags with 56 pillars

of light at night in honor of the U.S. states and territories. On the night before the inauguration, the president, the vice president and their families also held the first national memorial service for COVID at the Lincoln Reflecting Pool for the 400,000 Americans who've died. Here is a clip of Vice President Harris's remarks. For many months, we have grieved by ourselves. Tonight, we grieve and begin healing together. Though we may be physically separated, we, the American people, are united in spirit. And my abiding hope, my abiding prayer,

is that we emerge from this ordeal with a new wisdom, to cherish simple moments, to imagine new possibilities, and to open our hearts just a little bit more to one another. So there was also, you referenced this earlier, a very emotional speech from Biden as he left his home state of Delaware. There was, after the inaugural ceremony, a wreath laying at Arlington Cemetery with the Obamas and the Bushes. There was a virtual celebration on Wednesday night instead of the traditional inaugural balls. What message do you think the Biden team was trying to convey with the inauguration events and how well did they execute on that? I was blown away by what they pulled off of this inauguration. I do not have the creative imagination to think about how you would pull this off because inaugurations in

history have almost always been symbolized and defined by the crowds that gather. You think about the millions who saw Obama, the people who in 1960 came to see JFK. And it's always viewed that way. It's why Donald Trump and Sean Spicer had such a conniption fit over their small crowd size in 2017. And so as you were sort of thinking about this inauguration, it was like, how is this going to work without the crowd? How are you going to be able to replicate the majesty and the sort of historical moments here. And they did an incredible job. And from a message perspective, it was unity and a return to normalcy in a very abnormal time. And I thought they... I was just going to say, I have a problem with the return to normalcy message because of what you just mentioned at the end there,

because it's an abnormal time. Like, I don't see what, and I know the Biden team has been trying to push this as well, but I don't see any of this as a return to normalcy because nothing about how we're living right now is normal. Like, we're still stuck in our homes. There's a raging pandemic. But what I think is, it's interesting,

I think it's a return to reality because the person who was trying to pretend that everything was normal for the last four years was Donald Trump. Like, think about the Republican convention. You know, like they'd have crowds of people outside the White House, a super spreader event and fireworks going off and everyone is celebrating all the time. And Donald Trump pretended the pandemic wasn't there. And what the Biden folks did and what they did around this inauguration is like, yeah, let's have a memorial service because we just lost 400,000 Americans and we're still losing them every single day. So we should match that reality with a somber ceremony. match that reality with a somber ceremony. And I think so much of what the Biden folks have done is it's a return to living the reality

that we're all living through right now and not having a government, not having a leader that seems completely out of touch with what most Americans are going through in their lives, which I think is extremely admirable. I very explicitly tied return to normalcy in mid-admirable times to, I think we're, I think we're basically saying the same thing,

which is what the Trump administration was doing is delusion, right? We're going to pretend this pandemic has not happened. We're going to try to pull the wool over people's eyes because we think it helps us politically. We have access to the best drugs in the world. And so we'll be fine, you know, fuck everyone else is sort of their attitude. But there is an American, like this is a unique crisis, but there is a traditional tempo and set of behaviors for how we respond, how our leaders and our government responds to crisis.

Yeah. Where there is tragedy, you mourn those. You send out, you try to heal the people who have been hurt from it. You try to speak to everyone. You try to bring people together to solve the problem. Trump did none of those things. And it was a, like we were trying to put the Trump, we collectively trying to put the Trump era behind us, but wearing masks, right? That's sort of the, we're doing the things presidents should be doing, but we're doing them wearing masks as we're in the middle of a pandemic that is exponentially worse because the last guy did not care enough to even do the job. Yeah. Just I hadn't realized how much I needed to watch the people who lead us like in mourning along with the rest of us until I saw that service. Right. Like it is hard to even fathom the number of lives we've lost in this country over the last year.

And so many times we have just moved right past it because of the fucking circus that Donald Trump has put us through with everything else. And so we're talking about coups and what he's doing in his Twitter feed as people are just dying in this country every day from a pandemic that is not being controlled like it could be controlled. And so I thought I thought they did a very, very good job at. And it's a balance, right, Because you don't want to make the whole ceremony somber, but I think they balanced sort of those somber moments and those memorials really well with more sort of uplifting moments and joyful moments and performances by artists that we know. And in that way, it was normal. But it was also, I also thought to myself, too, that I was sort of sad for all the Biden folks, the campaign team, the folks that are going to the White House, that, like, they don't have that traditional celebration that you get to have around an inaugural weekend. Not just the parties, but, like, just coming together, you know?

Like, I know that from here. Like, I wish we could have celebrated with the whole cricket team, right? Like, it felt the same way it did when we won the election. Like it's bittersweet and that we won and everything we worked for so hard is here. But we didn't all get to be together. And it's it's it's tough that this fucking pandemic has has robbed us all of that. Yeah. I saw a bunch of people that we used to work with who worked for Joe Biden on Instagram watching the inauguration in their house on TV. And it is the, I mean, this has been the whole experience of 2020, the pandemic, the insurrection, the election is just this detachment from it because we're

watching it through our TV screens without other people. And yeah, I was very sad. Which is unnatural, unnatural and unhealthy. Yeah, it's not good. Well, it's actually, it's healthier than being in large crowds without masks, but it is- Technically, it's healthier. It's the least unhealthy option we have before us,

but it is still unhealthy. Correct. Let's talk about the inaugural address itself. So from what I understand, Biden knew the heart of what he wanted to say from the beginning of the speech writing process, which was led by his longtime message guru, Mike Donilon, who's now going to be a White House senior advisor, and Vinay Reddy, the new White House director of speechwriting. Biden told them at the very beginning he wanted to convey two major themes, unity, and he wanted to talk about truth itself, particularly after the insurrection. Here's one moment from Biden's 21-minute speech where he calls for unity. I know speaking of unity can sound to some

like a foolish fantasy these days. I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real, but I also know they are not new. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we're all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart. The battle is perennial and victory is never assured through civil war the great depression world war 9-11

through struggle sacrifice and setbacks our better angels have always prevailed in each of these moments enough of us enough of us have come together to carry all of us forward. And we can do that now. So I love the speech. I will say as someone who has been involved in two inaugural addresses, they are some of the most difficult speeches to write. A lot of inaugurals end up being presidents and their speechwriters trying to do an impression

of JFK's inaugural and they become like a lot of flowery rhetoric a lot of empty calories don't actually say much people are trying to write for history they're not trying to write for the moment I think if I'm being honest I think we tended to do that a little bit in the 2009, in the first inaugural. I like our second inaugural much better. But Biden, I think he made an argument. Like you can agree or disagree with it, but you can tell that he deeply believes in the need for unity and he made the argument for it. And he did so by acknowledging reality, which he did in the clip we just heard. You know, he talked about the dark forces in this country that we've always had to overcome.

He talked about nativism, racism. He mentioned in another part of the speech, white supremacy and domestic terrorism, the first president that's ever mentioned white supremacy in his speech. So he did not gloss over the forces standing in the way of unity but what he says in that last clip and it's interesting because he ad-libbed uh in the middle there he said you know at each moment in this history enough of us and then he said again enough of us came together to

carry all of us forward which in itself is an acknowledgement that he doesn't expect us to all come together like Republicans, Democrats and insurrectionists. Like he knows it was I think it was a subtle acknowledgement from him that there is there is a portion of the country that calls to unity are going to fall flat on. And yet throughout history, when we've had these moments of deep division before, enough Americans have come together to pull the country forward.

And I thought it was a realistic, yet hopeful sentiment in that speech. And I really liked it. What do you think? Though you basically use the exact words I was gonna use to describe speech, which is realistic optimism, which is that Joe Biden is incredibly optimistic about what America can do, but he's very realistic about the challenges. You mentioned the fact that he used the term white supremacy first time ever.

And I saw someone mention that yesterday, and I was like, I wonder if that's true. It's like, you know what's a fact I don't need to Google? That that was the first time someone said, oh, president said white supremacy in the inaugural address. That is definitely the first time. And look, I thought it was, it's always, it's impossible to separate a speech from the moment in which the speech is being given. And this is obviously this incredible moment.

We are filled with joy from the departure of Trump, fear from what's going to come from both the pandemic, the economic recession, and the fact that we are two weeks removed from a group of our citizens trying to violently overthrow our government. And what I thought was really impressive with that speech was the strength and confidence that Biden brought to it. It was realistic, as you said. I also thought the enough of us line was the key line in there. But it was a speech for the moment that projected the strength that Americans want to see in their leader. Because for all of Trump's phony, strongman, authoritarian shtick, he was a weak person. And what Biden gave was a speech of strength, someone who had confidence in who

they are and confidence in what America is. I saw a few people talking about the speech, writing about the speech, saying that, you know, there was some typical bromides and rhetoric that you'd hear in inaugural addresses, but that because it followed Trump, it was more powerful. And I disagree that there certainly was rhetoric in there, especially in the beginning and at the very end that, yeah, that could have been in other inaugural addresses that you've heard before. When he says democracy prevailed, other presidents could say that it's made more powerful by the fact that democracy has just prevailed over an attempted coup. I get that. But there were there were definitely parts of that speech that no other president would have been able to give at other moments and that were very unique to the moment. You know, I was pleasantly surprised that Biden referenced the lies that led to the insurrection two weeks earlier. Let's listen to a clip of that.

that led to the insurrection two weeks earlier. Let's listen to a clip of that. Recent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson. There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and a responsibility as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders. Leaders who have pledged to honor our constitution and protect our nation, to defend the truth and defeat the lies. Lies told for power and lies

told for profit. That is not something you hear in every inaugural address. Lies for profit, was that a shot at Fox News and right- media? Or am I just, just reading something into that? That's how, that's how I read it. I think that was pretty good of Biden to take that on. And I wasn't, and I wasn't sure that he would. I mean, like I said, it was a incredibly strong speech was what, at least I thought America and I needed to hear after what's happened over the last two months, let alone the last year or the last four years. I will say my one more clip of this, my favorite passage in the speech, and this is usually my favorite passage in any speech, is is one that only Joe Biden himself could have delivered. Here's a clip. If we're willing to stand in the other

person's shoes, as my mom would say, just for a moment, stand in their shoes. Because here's the thing about life. There's no accounting for what fate will deal you. deal you. Some days when you need a hand, there are other days when we're called to lend a hand. That's how it has to be. It's what we do for one another. I thought that was a beautiful passage because first of all, Joe Biden talking about not knowing what fate will deal you. Obviously, he knows that better than most because of the tragedy he's endured in his life. But it wasn't just another call for unity. It was something deeper. It was a call for empathy and for solidarity. And to me, it's a pretty solid progressive governing philosophy that there are some times when you need a hand and there are other times when you're called to

lend a hand. That is why we have social insurance programs. That is why we have progressive taxation, because you don't know what fate is going to deal you. And so we all come together as a community and we give a little bit because someday it might be us that needs that health insurance. Someday it might be us that need that social security. Andeday it might be us that need that Social Security. And I remember that was always, that was an Obama philosophy that went through a lot of his speeches. And it sort of ties the two men together because I think that's what Biden has always believed as well. And it comes from his own personal experience. When I was watching the speech and watching Biden deliver it in that moment, the clip that I could not get out of my head was from the end of his speech the day before his Delaware farewell speech, where he talked

about how this was a speech that Bo should be giving. And I think the way to understand Biden's confidence, his strength, his humanity, his empathy is through the prism of tragedy. And if you can get through the things that he has gotten through, that gives himself confidence that he can take on this gargantuan task of being president in this moment with these circumstances, but also gives you confidence that other people can do it too, that the country can do it. And it's just, he has been, like you said, there were moments during the primary campaign where he was not the best candidate, but really since he became the nominee, he has never wavered and has had this real quiet confidence about his approach to the election in the debates,

in the convention speech, and certainly every moment since the election day that I think is a direct result of sort of the strength you get through coming through the sorts of tragedies he's been through in his life. And it makes you into the kind of person that is, at least it has made him into the kind of person who is the complete opposite of Donald Trump and everything that we went through the last four years, which was characterized by selfishness and meanness and smallness, right? And what Biden is arguing here is, no, the way this country succeeds, it's not just unity. It's not just like sitting down with Mitch McConnell to get things done. It is empathy. It is solidarity, is understanding what our fellow Americans are going through, what our citizens, what our fellow neighbors are going through, and trying to put yourself on those people's shoes. And that, out of that understanding, you know, a good, effective,

progressive government is born. And I think if he, if that is his North Star for the next four years, he'll do well. So I know there's, I know there's obviously there's, we've talked about a lot of commentary on Biden's inauguration representing a return to normalcy. There are a few aspects of the ceremony that would not have seemed normal all that long ago. The most noteworthy being that Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first woman, the first black woman and the first woman of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. And while you usually don't see Lady Gaga or J-Lo on the inaugural platform, the real standout was Los Angeles's own Amanda Gorman, who at 22 is the youngest poet to

perform at a presidential inauguration. Let's take a listen to Amanda's poem. We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be, a country that is bruised, but whole, benevolent, but bold, fierce, and free. We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation. Our blenders become their burdens.

But one thing is certain. If we merge mercy with might and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children's birthright. 22, man. legacy and change our children's birthright 22 man i was emily pointed out to me last night she's like that speech was the one moment where you did not look at your phone the entire time and we're just glued to the screen for the entire poem and i was like i mean i was just i was spellbound poem. And I was like, I mean, I was just, I was spellbound. And it reminded me, first of all, that it was the perfect poem for the moment. It reminded me in many ways, and there's a lot of echoes here, of the first time I heard our old boss speak at the Democratic Convention in 2004,

and some of the themes he touched on about America. And I was blown away by the poem. I thought it was incredible. Yeah, it was unbelievable. I mean, just as a poem itself, it's incredible. To be able to deliver that poem at 22 years old in front of the entire world with that level of confidence and poise is unbelievable. And like Joe Biden, she has overcome a speech impediment as well.

It was so impressive and so emotional and such a fitting and appropriate inclusion in this inauguration in this moment, the inauguration where Kamala Harris is becoming the vice president of the United States. It's just, it is a different vision of what America can be, but we are not yet, we have not all, we have failed at, but what we can be. And like, the Kamala Harris's vice president part was incredibly powerful and emotional as well. And it's all tied in with the Amanda Gorman poem. And we watched it in our house. And because this is a moment.

Like we, our daughter, she wore her first but not last Kamala Harris t-shirt from Ray Gunn in Des Moines. And it's just like we'll always remember this moment. And the fact that it comes after Donald Trump and everything he stood for, everything he said is just so incredibly powerful. I did think several times I thought, what would this be like if Trump was giving his second inaugural? Like that, like we have Amanda Gorman. They would have had like a Kushner nephew giving a haiku about how great donald trump is like the poem would be about trump

right not about america the songs would have been about trump not about america and it was uh it was i mean both parts of that were just so incredibly powerful no i mean you know, Charlie is six months old and we have been saying over the last couple of months, especially as we've gone through this post-election madness, like, boy, Charlie, we're going to have a story to tell you someday about your first six months on this on this earth and what went on, because, of course, you know, anyway. But when that happened yesterday, when Kamala was sworn in, I thought when he's old enough to remember and old enough to be aware of this, he won't. All he'll know is Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president. And that's pretty amazing. And we'll just tell him a story about the time that Donald Trump almost destroyed the country. And it will have a happy ending. It did make me sad because if we were in a normal world and this was a normal inauguration, we would have taken Kyla, who is enamored with Kamala Harris for two reasons. Kamala Harris, also born in California, but most importantly, also has a K in her name.

Yeah, that's big. Yeah, it's very big. also has a K in her name. So like, yeah, that's big. Yeah, it's very big. But at least we got to at least, I mean, it happened and we got to we got to see it on TV. And I think it's a it's one

of those things people remember forever, not unlike Barack Obama's inauguration in 2008. OK, let's talk about President Biden's first day in office. He got right to work after he was sworn in and signed a number of executive orders, including things like mask requirements on federal property. They're also going to do interstate travel, rejoining the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization, ending the Muslim ban, stopping construction of Trump's wall, protecting DREAMers, also a 100-day moratorium on all deportations. You're going to extend a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, extend a freeze on student loan payments, and reverse Trump's orders that allowed the federal government to discriminate based on

sexual orientation and gender identity. Dan, what is the message behind all of these executive orders being signed at once? There's a whole bunch of other executive orders they're signing today and in the days to come in these first 10 days. What's the message they're trying to send there? That we are not going to wait one second to try to fix the problems this country is facing. This is, it is incredibly unusual. The normal course of business here would be inauguration, post-inauguration lunch, hours of parades. Everybody goes back and puts on their formal wear and goes to 10 balls celebrating 10 states. And then you get up and do all of this the next morning. Obama signed his first real executive orders on the 21st. The next morning was when he banned torture and

signed a whole bunch of other executive orders he planned to do. The Biden team did not wait. I mean, obviously there were no inaugural balls, but they went right to work and started doing all those things right away. And it was, I mean, it was very well orchestrated and sent a very clear message that there's a lot of work to do and We're not going to wait to get it done. I was going to ask you, how do you balance, because I know that we struggled with this in the first year of the administration. How do you balance sort of the need to show action, momentum, movement by signing all of these orders one right after another? executive orders one right after another, and also make sure that people understand what you've accomplished because the media cycle moves so fast. And if you do 10 things at once, you know, you could pull someone three weeks from now and people won't know that you reversed the Muslim

ban, or maybe they won't know that you protected dreamers, you know, some of the, some of the executive orders that didn't get as much attention. How do you plan for that from a communications perspective? So I think there are two elements of it. One is public opinion is not a pop quiz. You do not need people to delineate all the things you did. You need them to take an impression that you were doing the things you said you were going to do. And so particularly in these early days, a flurry of activity that is all about fulfilling your campaign promises is the right thing to do. Now in our, and we could, I could nerd out about this or be annoying about it for hours, but I will shorten it here. But in this current communications environment, you don't, there's not such a thing as a news cycle anymore. So you can find ways to communicate

about these things hours, days, and weeks after they happen. You can dispatch people to communicate in Facebook groups or on digital publications that are unique to that. And I imagine the Biden team will have this. It's like, what's the long tail communications plan for how we're going to communicate to people that we know care about the Muslim ban so they know what happened, so they know that we undid it? Who are we going to communicate with about the climate world? There's all kinds of groups of people who congregate on the internet and elsewhere to talk about climate. Who are the influencers you get that information to so they can carry it on? It's not just the New York Times story where they have a paragraph that sums up seven of the 10 things you did. That's sort of the old way of

thinking about it. The long way is how do you educate people outside of the traditional view of what the news cycle is, if that makes sense. No, that definitely makes sense. It does seem like these were in two buckets, these executive orders so far. One is sort of executive orders that undid the damage of the last four years and undid most of sort of Trump's actions that can be easily undone. And then executive actions that relate to COVID, that relate to sort of the most urgent crisis the country is facing right now. You know, the Biden team seems to be sort of trying to set expectations on this. You heard from Ron, you heard from Jen, like it's going to take a couple months to turn this around. There's an administration source on background today saying that like the Trump vaccination rollout plan, there was no plan. It is a disaster. They're going to have to start it from scratch.

One of the executive orders was formally installing Jeff Zients as the COVID organizer, the COVID czar, if you will. What do you think, How does the Biden administration handle sort of inheriting a complete mess on COVID from the Trump administration, knowing that most people in America are like, OK, we got rid of Trump. We got Joe Biden. Let's fix this pandemic now. I mean, you texted me basically at 12.06 wanting to know where your vaccine was. So it's like, you know, yeah, I. I guess I was, I'm asking for a friend and that friend is me. Yes, that's right. I mean, I think there's two elements of it.

One is expectation setting. And they've done some, I mean, Trump had certainly helped lower the bar of expectations by essentially giving up the job of president the day after the election and doing nothing, focusing all of his energy on fomenting insurrection as opposed to-

Yeah, right. It takes a lot of work. It's a full time job. And did you see that clip where Ainsley Earnhardt, whatever name is from Fox News, talked about how hard Trump worked because they said he said, you know, no one will ever say that Trump wasn't a worker. And she listed some things he does. And she included watching all the shows.

Yeah, cool. Yeah, I'm yeah. I'm a president too. Yes. So it is one, we have to, we cannot let people forget the mess that Biden inherited. This is something that Obama dealt with, with the economy. And it didn't buy us all that much time. It actually did. Because I went look at the polling on this. And did you know that in May of 2016, more Americans held George W. Bush responsible for the current economic situation of Barack Obama? I mean, that's that's good, but didn't really help in the 2010 midterms. Oh, yeah. There are all kinds of problems yes but like you have to like in every set of remarks that you wrote for obama about the economy it began with talking about the joke about this with the mess we inherited right we inherited

this terrible mess that started before the financial crisis but was made worse by it and biden has to continue to make that point. I don't think it's going to be a particularly tall task to remind people that Donald Trump was a terrible president who completely fucked up the pandemic. But that's one. And second thing is setting expectations. And they've been doing that from the beginning. They continue to do it.

I think having a metric, like 100 million vaccine doses for 100 million people or whatever the exact language they use is very good. Everyone wants the vaccine right now. We want it right now because we want our family members to be safe. We want our parents to be safe. We want to see our grandparents, our kids, all of that. Yes. But you want to create a metric to be judged by. So they have done that. And if in 100 days, less than 100 million vaccine doses have been administered, then that will not be a success. If more than that have been, then that will be a success. And so people are going to be very impatient very quickly. This is probably going to be a pretty short honeymoon because things are so tough. people about who's accountable for the mess we're in and then showing progress. And that can be passing legislation for the relief checks. That can be some of these executive orders and other things are the sort of the three parts of that. I think the other part is, and this leads us to the press briefing last night, sort of clear and constant communication with the American people,

particularly if things go wrong, if deadlines slip, right? Like people are going to be more understanding if for some reason, you know, we didn't get enough vaccine supply for reasons beyond our control because some drug company fucked up or supply chain had an issue. People are going to be more understanding if you tell them immediately, tell them what happened and are in constant communications with folk. Like I think one of the big problems of the, as crazy as those briefings were because Donald Trump made them crazy.

It was almost when they were, when they stopped and we were all in the dark and you just had governors, mayors, and everyone else sending a million different messages about the pandemic, that became even more complicated for people. And people became even more frustrated because no one had any idea what the hell's going on. So I do think, you know, clear and constant communication is helpful on this front too. I mean, this is the incredibly hard challenge

for the Biden administration is we're going to talk about all kinds of things. Does he have coffee with Mitch McConnell enough or is his message exactly right? Or was he five minutes late to an event? All of that will get a ton of attention. What really matters for the medium-term health of the Biden presidency is how many people get vaccinated how quickly. And the hard part is there's only so much the Biden administration can do to make that happen. They can leverage every resource in the government to distribute. They can use the Defense Production Act and other ways to try to expedite production. But it still, at the end of the day, comes down to states, counties, cities, doctors, hospitals, pharmacies putting the needle in people's arms.

And that's very hard. We have been trying, like Hallie and I have been, mainly Hallie, have been working for days to try to figure out how to get our parents signed up for vaccines. And it is an absolute clusterfuck everywhere. I know. I'm dealing with the same thing with my parents here. And it is like, it's tough. It's like our county, very easy sign up.

My in-laws' county, absolute disaster. Every hospital has different rules. Like they're one doctor. They are only still doing health workers. They've even gotten people over 75. Another hospital like down the street is doing people 65. Like it is just an absolute cluster. And Biden has influence on that, but not control.

And so that's going to be very hard. And that's the point where you have to be constantly talking about it, looking like you're doing things, looking like you're putting every ability you have. You have to demonstrate you're doing everything you possibly can so that people understand that if things are not going exactly right, it's not for a lack of focus or lack of communication. You've got to show your work. You've got to get caught trying. And then, you know, I think about when Biden managed the Recovery Act and some of the tough language he used, like I'm going to manage the hell out of this. And when people are, you know, wasting money or there's fraud or abuse, I'm going to call it out. That doesn't necessarily apply to that. I

don't know if there's gonna be fraud or abuse. There might be. But, you know, calling out when people screw things up to like, you know, Biden said a week ago, I think we're going to make you can I can promise you we're going to manage the hell out of this operation. That's the promise. And that promise is not it's going to go perfect. I'm going to be able to control everything. Everything's gonna be fine. It's I'm going to manage the resources that we have really, really well. And, you know, and that's the standard that he should be held to. that we have really, really well. And, you know, and that's the standard that he should be held to.

So first day of the Biden administration also included the very first press briefing from new White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, who promised to bring truth and transparency back to the briefing room, which starts with, once again, holding regular press briefings. Why do you think Jen held a briefing on the first day,

actually the first night, which is somewhat unusual? Usually there's not a White House briefing the night of the inauguration. I was thinking back to 2009. I don't think Robert Gibbs briefed for like the first three or four days because it's incredibly hard to do. There's no infrastructure to give you all of the guidance. You don't yet have full 360 view into what the government is doing. Because there's still, even though we're in this changeover, there's still a bunch of people at all the agencies still doing things you may get asked questions about. And

it was part of the, we are getting to work right away message. And it, I mean, it, it was, I mean, Jen is a friend of ours. She's our, our colleague. She,

for many, many years in the campaign, the white house, but what she pulled off to do that was unbelievable. I mean, to be able to pull off that briefing on the first day and essentially flawlessly was absolutely incredible. She was, it was It really was impressive. And

it was surreal for me to hear her say the president and have it be Biden, not Obama. Did you see her almost at one point, she said, President Biden? She caught herself really quickly. Well, no, I i mean just so people understand how difficult the white house briefing is god damn i could never do that like you have so jen has a binder in front of her that her staff will put together right of answers on every topic under the sun now i don't care how many topics you plan for there's also probably the possibility of questions that you just you just don't know that come at you probably the possibility of questions that you just, you just don't know that come at you from, you know, left field that you're not ready for.

So you need like the knowledge of the subjects, first of all, for every subject under the sun. Then you need to keep in mind the message from the administration that you're supposed to get out, because you are supposed to like communicate a message and not just sort of like list off, you know, list off items in a briefing book. And you're going to get follow ups. You're going to get sometimes confrontational follow ups. I mean, like, and then you have to like keep yourself composed and have a good tone and not get angry with reporters. And like to keep all of those things together while you're on live television, it's for everyone who's done it, for everyone who's

done the job, it seems like a very, very difficult job. If you are three years in the administration, the prep process for one briefing is half the day, right? Right. Yeah. I remember with Gibbs when we were there, like Gibbs, most of Gibbs's day was, was you guys and Tommy and LeBolt and everyone just like prepping him for going out into the briefing room. And then when he was done, it was like, take an hour to read the news and catch up on email and then start again the next day. Yeah. I mean, I, I really don't know how they pulled that off. And it was, uh, I mean, obviously Jen worked in the white house for many years. She handled the, she was the chief economic spokesperson in the first term or the first few years of the first term before she became the deputy communications director. She was the state department spokesperson briefing in front of the whole world. So she is, there's no person I think who's ever been more qualified for this job than her, but to be able to go out there and do it on day one. And it was just, it is, I don't know where, I don't know what the term return to normalcy is right, right, per our conversation, but that's what it was. It was just like, we're going to go get. That was the term return to normalcy is, right, per our conversation, but that's what it was.

It was just like, we're going to go get. That was definitely a return to normalcy. We're going to show you that we're going to go give a briefing where we're not going to show a campaign video. We're not going to yell at people. It's not going to be performative Jim Acosta bashing or whatever else. It's just like, you're going to ask questions. I'm going to do my best to answer them. You may like the answers.

You may not think they're sufficient. I'll try to get you better answers the next time. And that's just how we're going to do this. And we're going to try to do it every day. Speaking of what's easy, performative Jim Acosta bashing is much easier than doing a good job at the briefing. I could get up there and do that. That takes a lot less prep. Yes. I could go pick a Fox News reporter, have them ask me a question and then just like fucking shit on them for a couple of minutes. Yeah, no, give me that job. OK, so overall, last question. How do you think the Biden administration should approach these first few weeks? They've got a Senate impeachment trial to deal with for the former president. Unprecedented.

They got a enormous COVID relief package, basically their economic plan and their pandemic plan all rolled into one that they're going to try to pass. We've already got today, Mitch McConnell has not even allowed the Democrats to officially take power in the Senate, even though we have 50 votes plus Kamala Harris, meaning 51, because there is something called an organizing resolution that Schumer and McConnell have to agree to before they can sort of formalize how the Senate's going to work. And McConnell has basically said to Schumer, I will not agree to this organizing resolution unless you promise during these first couple years to not use, to not nuke the filibuster, to not get rid of the filibuster. And if you don't

promise to not get rid of the filibuster, I'm going to filibuster this organizing resolution, which means that Republicans will still be committee chairs and we won't be able to move forward under a Democratic Senate. I don't even know what to say about the fact that Mitch McConnell wants to use the filibuster to prevent the majority from taking control unless the majority decides to get rid of the filibuster. He's basically making the best argument against the filibuster in decades. Yes. But let's put that aside for a second. Yeah. The, I mean, what Biden has to do is do what he has been doing.

Be a normal president who wakes up in the morning, doesn't tweet like a giant asshole, does real things, speaks to the whole country and do work. But I think the key for them is going to be to read everyone in on the play. This is the timeline in which we expect to get things done. This is the challenges we have. It's just being very transparent about what they are trying to do, which is, I think, essentially why Jen is going to brief every single day of the week is so that they can do that. And let's just show progress. It is an administration that is being staffed with incredibly competent, experienced professionals,

and let's let them do the work. And in the first few days and weeks here, they'll have the ability to trip over the low bar of expectations of Trump. Just not being Trump is going to be good. But before too long, people are going to start demanding some sort of results. And you sort of have to tell people what to expect and when to expect it, which sort of Joe Biden's in the situation. Joe Biden always says, I think he says his dad said this, which is compare me to the

alternative, not to the almighty. And the way and once you're president, you're not the almighty, but there's not an obvious alternative. Right. But what you can do is you can give people the curve to grade you on. Right. This is by this date, we want to get this done. Our goal is to get these relief checks passed out of the Senate by, I don't know, pick the date. Right. Whatever is reasonable. I mean, obviously, we're being a little slowed down by a senatorial insurrection where they're holding power, even though they've lost the election. a senatorial insurrection where they're holding power, even though they've lost the election. Mitch McConnell's nonviolent insurrection is what we will call this.

But it's really is to lay out a sort of some, what are the first handful of things you want to get done and when you want to get them done by, and then judge me based on that. Here's what we're facing in the next two years from the runway between now and the midterms. You know, in the midterms, the president's party usually loses seats, partly because of the dynamic that you just mentioned, where it's not a campaign anymore, where there's two people that you're judging them against each other. It's Joe Biden's the president. And so voters expect Joe Biden to fix shit. And so Democrats have two years to get stuff done.

Number one, to help alleviate the pandemic. So they have to like they're going to be judged if they make a lot of progress on the pandemic. They will be judged favorably. If not, they won't be. And also to just get a bunch of other stuff done, right? Like people, and when I say people, I mean like the people who vote but don't necessarily pay attention to every political development like we do. They need to see change in their lives. They need to feel change in their lives

from the Biden administration over the next two years. And that sounds very simple. But I think when and we've experienced this too, when you're in government, and there's a million things going on at once, and there's a whole bunch of events that come up beyond your control that you have to respond to, even the best laid plans sort of go awry, because now you're responding to some scandal, you're responding to some, you know, events that happened overseas, right? Like you're just always responding to a million things, The message goes away from you, but you have to keep in the front of your mind that like, I need to deliver on behalf of the American people. I need

to bring about change. I need to deliver on these campaign promises and people need to know that we delivered on those campaign promises because if they don't, it's already a tough map for us in 2022, particularly in the House. And in a normal time, you might say, OK, well, it would suck if we lose the House. But, you know, that's that's politics. Well, now the other party is an anti-democratic, you know, quasi-authoritarian party now that could end democracy if they take control. So not much room for error here, people. So I do think, like, no matter what, over the next two years, they have to prioritize, you know, Derek Thompson wrote this in The Atlantic about what the Biden administration needs to do. And the headline of his piece was big, fast, simple.

And I do agree, like, because it is a difficult to pass legislation and get stuff done in the first place. And then B, it's tough to make sure that people know what it is that you did, that you don't just like pass a bunch of legislation, take have a bunch, you know, make a bunch of executive orders, sign a bunch of executive orders. And it just gets sort of lost in a flurry. And people don't really understand, like you said, what the game plan was, what people, what they've actually gotten done. So that is really, I think, important over the next two years, which I know they know, but it's just easier said than done.

But I mean, this is my optimistic take on this, which is I don't think we should underestimate people's reaction when things return to mostly normal, right? When we have controlled the pandemic, enough people are vaccinated. We have reached herd immunity or whatever you call it. And people are going to baseball games again. They're going to kids' birthday parties again. They're seeing their grandparents. That is at the end of this in some way, shape, or form.

and like that is at the end of this in some way, shape or form. How long that takes, where, you know, what that does to Biden's approval rating or whatever else in the interim between now and you get to that moment, when you get to that moment, that is going to be a, like that there's going to be a political power in that, that is going to override a whole bunch of things that happen between now and then about, did he say the right thing? Did he do the right thing? What was the messaging strategy? Like this is substance, right? Ultimately, and this is my, the thing I will say on behalf of Jen Psaki and Kate Bedingfield, who's the new White House communications director is, messaging is very important. Communication is very important, but how many people's arms do you get a needle in? How soon is going to matter more than anything else?

That's not a message problem. That's not a communications problem. Yes. It's a needle in how soon is going to matter more than anything else that's not a message problem that's not a communications problem yes it's a needle problem yes it's a needle that's and look you're right like if this if the midterms were november 2021 then yeah maybe we're cutting a little close by november 2022 yeah we should all be back to normal lives and if we're not there's bigger fucking problems than so many Democrats win house seats. Yes. Okay. Well, that's all for today. Thanks for tuning in.

And we will talk to you guys next week for the first full week of the Biden administration. Exciting stuff. Joe Biden is fucking president. Joe Biden is president. Trump is golfing in shame and Mar-a-Lago as we speak. You mean former celebrity apprentice host Donald Trump? That's what I'm calling him. I meant twice impeached president Donald Trump. Twice impeached, two-time popular vote loser, one-term president, twice impeached Donald Trump. Donald Trump, the least popular president in the

history of polling, is golfing today. That's how it should always be said. Perfect ending. Bye, everyone. Bye, everyone. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our associate producer is Jordan Waller.

It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin is our sound engineer. Thanks to Tanya Somenator, Katie Long, Roman Papadimitriou, Caroline Rustin, and Justine Howe for production support. And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Nar Melkonian, Yale Freed, and Milo Kim, who film and upload these episodes as videos every week.