The NPR Politics Podcast - After Election Victory, Joe Biden Addresses Nation

Episode Date: November 8, 2020

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris addressed the nation after clinching the election.FOLLOW OUR COVERAGEThis episode: congressional correspondent Susan Davis, correspondent Asma Khalid, and national political correspondent Mara Liasson.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Susan Davis. I cover Congress. I'm Asma Khalid. I cover the presidential campaign. Of course, the campaign is now officially over. And I'm Mara Liason, national political correspondent. And it is 9.35 p.m. on Saturday, November 7th, and President-elect Joe Biden just wrapped his victory speech tonight in Wilmington, Delaware. The people of this nation have spoken. They've delivered us a clear victory, a convincing victory, a victory for we, the people. We've won with the most votes ever cast on a presidential ticket in the history of the nation. Seventy-four million.

Asma, you're there in Wilmington. What was it like tonight? That's right, Sue. Well, I was at the victory celebration tonight. It was a drive-in car rally. And I will say, you know, some of the folks in the crowd actually told me that they had come out on Tuesday night. They were anticipating some sort of victory celebration that night. Of course, we all know that didn't happen, but they had come back out to celebrate. And what I will say is in some ways, this was like a normal party, but in many ways, it was very different. You know, people were hanging out in their cars on the roof, waving, say, Joe Biden flags or big giant American flags and glow sticks. But also many of them were actually in

their cars rather than hanging out, you know, in a crowd close together. And many were wearing masks, just a sign of the current climate that we're all in with the pandemic. Mara, what do you take away from this speech? Well, what stood out to me was first the introduction by Kamala Harris, starting right off with Congressman John Lewis, Joe Biden acknowledging his debt to black voters, but also him reaching out right away to people who didn't vote for him. For all those of you who voted for President Trump, I understand the disappointment tonight. I've lost a couple of myself. But now, let's give each other a chance. It's time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again. And to make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as our enemies. They are

not our enemies. They're Americans. They're Americans. That's Joe Biden's message. He said he's going to be the president for people who did vote for him and didn't vote for him. And then the other thing was just how specific he was about what he thinks his mandate is. Mandates are very ephemeral. They're kind of in the eye of the beholder or the eye of the candidate. But he gave the list, control the virus, build prosperity, secure health care, racial justice, get the climate under control. And then he said, restore decency, defend democracy and give everyone a fair shot. And that's pretty much it. I thought it was important and notable how he made a point to single out the black community for his victory. And at one point, you know, acknowledging that at all the low points in his campaign, it was black voters that sustained it. was that as low as dead, the African-American community stood up again for me. You always have my back and I'll have yours.

And essentially saying, I'm not going to forget you now that I'm president. They helped him win the general election, especially in states like Michigan. And he, you know, elevated the first black woman to the ticket as part of that. Thank you. And I think it's a it speaks to how important that group of voters was to Joe Biden that he felt the need to sort of acknowledge it again tonight. So what stood out to me to echo Mara there is what Joe Biden was speaking about in terms of unity and this being a moment for the country to heal. The Bible tells us to everything there is a season, a time to build, a time to reap and a time to sow and a time to heal.

This is the time to heal in America. He spoke about wanting to be the president of the United States of America, not red states and blue states. And look, this is not particularly like novel language coming from Joe Biden. He launched his candidacy talking about the fact that he wanted to restore the soul of this country. He ran throughout the primaries on this vision of bipartisanship and unity. But I think it struck differently given the results that we've seen from this election cycle and the fact that he specifically spoke to Trump supporters and talked about this idea of giving each other a chance

and the fact that there is this need to cooperate. Now, whether or not folks buy into that message, we will see. But I think there was clearly an attempt to provide some message of unity tonight. I mean, it was upbeat in tone. It was very forward looking. I think that's true for Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. She also spoke tonight. She opened for Joe Biden. I also feel like we have to note her fashion choices. She came out and head to toe white is something we've seen a lot from Democratic women in recent years. I think suffragette white, suffragette white, exactly. Hillary Clinton wore all white, I believe,

at her convention speech in 2016. Democratic women in the House do it all the time. Sort of a clear fashion nod to the historic nature of her own candidacy. And she spoke about the significance of that representation. But while I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities. She spoke, you know, not just about gender identity, but also just what it means to be a black woman, to be a woman of South Asian descent in this position. And, and, you know, it's something that I think given maybe just the sort of longevity of the election results this week, it, you know, might not get the first top

storyline. But it is it's definitely a clear, significant moment. It's a moment that's never occurred in the country before. Is it fair to say that vice presidents tend to take more of a backseat role, but Biden seems to be positioning Kamala Harris to be more of a co-pilot that, you know, he's kind of talked about wanting to advance the next generation of Democratic leaders, she's going to be seen as someone who looks like they want to run for president. And she's already getting a lot of scrutiny from Republicans who say that, you know, she's going to be this big figure in the administration. And that seems really unusual for a vice presidential candidate. It is and there's a lot of peril in it for her. Because even though he hasn't said this, Joe Biden is, I would say, universally expected not to run for a second term because of his age. And he's also, as you said, said he wants

to be a transition to the next generation of Democrats. Of course, the vice president is always seen as a potential presidential candidate. But if she does run for president, it's going to happen in four years, not eight, as it would normally have. And I think that there's going to be a lot of pressure on her. I think Republicans are going to try to paint her as the shadow president, the real president. And that's going to be hard because what she needs is four years of seasoning and on-the-job training. And tonight, she said she wants to be the kind of vice president that Joe Biden was for Barack Obama. Loyal, honest, and prepared.

Okay, well, let's take a quick break and more on tonight when we get back. On the next episode of Louder Than a Riot, Bobby Shmurda's transition from the streets to superstardom and how viral fame led to infamy. I don't ask people from the hood if they got criminal activity

going on. I know in hip hop, the badder the better. Listen now to Louder Than A Riot from NPR Music. And we're back. And Mara,

I gotta say, tonight it was like you could feel the political barometric pressure shift in the universe, because it felt like the first time. And that was the goal that he had every day when he woke up, which was to control the media narrative. Everything was about him. And all of a sudden, it wasn't about him. It doesn't matter to Joe Biden whether he concedes or not. It doesn't matter to Joe Biden whether he brings two lawsuits or 20 lawsuits. Joe Biden is going forward with the work of setting up his administration. I thought he was very down to business tonight.

He talked about that on Monday, he's going to name a group of leading scientists and experts to be his COVID advisors to kind of hit the ground running on January 20th. And it just felt like a new chapter was starting. Even though the Trump campaign says the election isn't over, they're still going to contest it wherever they can. It just felt like this was a new day. And it's the first day that's been a non-Trump day since 2016. Yeah, I mean, I think that the clearest sign of the fact that regardless of whether or not Donald Trump and his team intends to cooperate on a transition with Joe Biden and his team intends to cooperate on a transition with Joe Biden and his folks was just the fact that we got a sense from Biden tonight that, you know, he does intend to move forward in terms of addressing COVID. He said that, you know,

as you mentioned, Mara, that he's planning on naming this group of scientists to his COVID task force on Monday. And this is something that he has signified throughout the campaign he was intending to begin to tackle during this transition period, because it's really not something they can wait to address until Inauguration Day. And, you know, there's been so much talk about how hard it might be for Biden to legislate, especially if Republicans maintain control of the Senate. We won't know that for a while. But one thing that he can do on his own is deal with the pandemic. And I think that I've been told by Democrats that every day, he's going to get a chance to show empathy and competence. And so every day, he will show that he is not Donald Trump,

as he deals with the pandemic. And just by the very nature of winning of becoming the president elect, he's going to do the thing that Donald Trump has done for the past four years. He's going to drive a lot more news cycles. You know, everything's going to be about the transition, his plan for the pandemic, who he's going to appoint to his cabinet. All of that stuff that consumes all of the political oxygen is going to shift away from Donald Trump. And that seems like a really dramatic change in our political lives. But Sue, do you think that that will happen immediately and really entirely? Because Donald Trump is somebody who doesn't really like giving up attention.

I mean, he craves the spotlight. He's not going to fade now. And he hasn't officially conceded yet. I mean, I don't doubt that he's going to keep tweeting and he's going to keep talking, but he's sharing a spotlight now in a way that he wasn't before. And I think that the country has a lot of interest in what the next president is going to be saying and doing. And it's just not going to be all about Donald Trump

unless he somehow is able to get some real traction, real legal traction in these challenges and not just sort of continuing to make unsubstantiated claims. But there are some 70 plus million people in the country who voted for Donald Trump. And at this point in time, he is still trying to sort of rally the troops, fundraise for his legal election defense funds still. And I don't anticipate he is somebody who is going to just stop tweeting come Monday. Absolutely not. And I don't want to give the impression that Donald Trump won't continue to be a major, major factor in American politics. He's the most important

person in the Republican Party, and I think he will be for the rest of his life. But, you know, what's interesting about this, this was a close election, except Joe Biden is heading, it seems like, to get maybe 5 million more votes than Donald Trump. And what we didn't do in 2016 was spend a whole lot of time talking to Hillary voters. The media immediately rushed out to diners and Midwestern bars to talk to Trump supporters. So the question is, how much will Joe Biden continue to reach out to Trump supporters? He mentioned them quite prominently tonight. And I thought that was significant. their homes, you know, and talk about the policies that he wants to enact and, you know, have really demonstrate what he means when he says, I want to be the president for people who didn't vote for me. All right. I think we're going to leave it there for tonight, but we'll be back in your feed soon.

I'm Susan Davis. I cover Congress. I'm Asma Khalid. I cover Joe Biden. And I'm Mara Liason, national political correspondent. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.