The NPR Politics Podcast - President Trump Pushes Unrealistic Vaccine Timeline In Effort To Win Votes

Episode Date: September 8, 2020

Pressed on whether he was politicizing vaccine development by suggesting that a vaccine could come before election day (very unlikely), President Trump insisted his pitch was that a vaccine would be available by the end of the year, and that he was just saying it may be possible by late October or early November. And, his campaign is struggling with money.This episode: campaign correspondent Scott Detrow, White House reporter Ayesha Rascoe, 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

Hi, this is Denise from Laramie, Wyoming, and I'm attending the celebration of Louisa Swain Day. Today marks 150 years since the first democratically cast ballot by a woman in the United States. Louisa Ann Swain cast her ballot right here in Laramie, Wyoming. This podcast was recorded at... It's 2-0-8 Eastern on Tuesday, September 8th. Things may have changed by the time you hear this. Okay, here's the show. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Scott Detrow.

I cover the presidential campaign. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I cover the White House. And I'm Mara Liason, national political correspondent. That was a huge anniversary that just happened. And obviously a lot of news happened at the same time. So we might not have focused on it as much, but what a monumental anniversary and still one of those things that it always blows my mind that it was something that happened as recently as 100 years ago. Yeah, hard to believe.

But a lot of women had the right to vote, were enfranchised. Women always had the right to vote. Women were able to vote even before 100 years ago. But 100 years ago, it became the law of the land. But even though it was the law of the land that women could vote, there were still a lot of women of color who were not allowed to vote. So we still had a ways to go even after that monumental event. Oh, a very long way to go. Absolutely. And voting rights are something we're still talking about this election.

The thing that looms over this election more than anything, though, is coronavirus. And I think what really looms over that is the question of whether or not we get a safe and effective and fast vaccine. And over the weekend, that inevitable crash between the political calendar and that vaccine began to happen. So let's walk through all of it. And I think we should start with President Trump, who obviously, as we've talked a lot about,

came from the world of reality TV. And in recent days, he's begun to hint more and more about a big, amazing surprise twist of a possible vaccine in late October, right before the election. Let's start with what the president is saying here. So we're going to have a vaccine very soon, maybe even before a very special date. You know what date I'm talking about.

And he seems to be twisting possibly his fate and the vaccine's fate right there, because obviously he's talking about Election Day. What do we make about the fact that the president has been hinting and winking at this more and more and more? It shows that he feels like he needs to show that he's making progress when it comes to the coronavirus. It's absolutely one of his weaknesses. And he thinks if he can just say, look, we may have a vaccine before the election, you know, or at least an announcement of a vaccine, or as he likes to call it, a cure, that's something that he can point to, and that wouldn't necessarily be tested out on the ground to see if it had been effective yet. Because if a vaccine comes out, as we've said over and over on the show, that wouldn't mean that everyone gets it

the next day, right? Let's put this in the context of the scientific reality. Obviously, there is a massive effort here in the United States, all around the Obviously, there is a massive effort here in the United States, all around the world, to get a vaccine as quickly as possible. Last week, NPR's Mary Louise Kelly had a long, interesting interview with Monsef Slally, who is one of the two people in charge of the U.S. effort, Operation Warp Speed. And he pushed back, as much as you're going to hear an administration official push back against this idea from the president that it's coming before the election. There is a very, very low chance that the trials that are running as we speak

could read before the end of October and therefore there could be, if all other conditions required for an emergency use authorization are met, an approval. I think it's extremely unlikely, but not impossible. And therefore, it's the right thing to do to be prepared in case. So maybe not before that very special day. Yeah. And we are moving to that last broader phase where studies look to make sure that this is working and it's safe. But obviously, that data is very important. It looks like it's coming soon. But he seems to be saying, not quite in time for the election.

But Mara, how much do you expect to hear the president say there's a vaccine coming, there's a vaccine coming in the next few weeks? Look, it's very hard to make predictions, especially about the future. But I would bet any amount of money that the president will announce before the election that the vaccine is either just around the corner or it's a week away. There's nothing that says the pandemic is over than the announcement of a vaccine. And I don't think for the president, who is at heart, you know, a reality TV producer, and he knows about suspense and he knows about the big reveal, making the announcement that it's ready or it's going to

be ready on November 6th is what matters. He wants to give people hope. He wants to prove to people that he initiated Operation Warp Speed and he got it done at warp speed. So I think this is something the president is really banking on all along, sometimes for better or for worse for him. He has tried to raise people's hopes and cheerlead about the end of the virus, about certain drugs that could cure the virus, and about how fast a vaccine could be coming online. Right, going back to this will be done by Easter. Yeah, right. Well, originally he said it would all be gone by Easter. But I think he sees a vaccine,

an announcement of a vaccine before the election as something that would really help him. And it might with people who are not paying a whole lot of attention and all they see is the headline, wow, it's over, there's a vaccine, Trump delivered. And this is something that is a bit tricky for former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris to grapple with because they don't want to be seen, right, Scott, as looking as if they are rooting against a vaccine or as if they are, quote, unquote, anti-vaxxers. But they have been raising some concerns. Didn't that happen over the weekend? It did. It happened a lot over the weekend. And this is an area where public health and politics have two very different goals and are really going to clash, especially over the next couple of months. So you've had both Biden and Harris saying they want a vaccine as soon as possible.

Biden said at one point this weekend he he would love to get a vaccine soon, even if a miraculous vaccine pops up and costs him the election. But what they're both saying a lot of is that they just don't trust President Trump to be telling the truth when it comes to science, and that they feel like over and over again, he has mixed politics and his own personal gain with decision making, with governance, with science. So Biden, a couple times yesterday, said that he would be skeptical about taking a vaccine himself.

It was if it was just the president promoting it. Only if it was completely transparent that other experts in the country could look at it. Only if we knew all of what went into it, because so far nothing he's told us has been true. Yeah, I mean, this is a this is a tough thing. Incumbents have a lot of power. They have the whole federal government at their disposal. And Donald Trump can announce a vaccine and box Biden in to being somebody who's throwing cold water on something that could help people.

But what's really interesting is there's so much doubt about whether a vaccine announcement would be credible. We have that CBS poll that 65% of voters thought that a vaccine that was announced before the election to be available before the election, they would be skeptical of that. There are also those nine drug companies that are part of the rush to make a vaccine all signing a pledge that they would not submit their candidates, their vaccine candidates for FDA review until they finish large clinical trials. In other words, they want to boost public confidence that a vaccine is not being rushed

for political purposes. They are moving. The world is trying to move fast to get a vaccine for this much faster than you would normally get vaccines because it's such a huge issue. But people have concerns. I think a lot of times when you have medical treatments that are coming out and if they feel like it came out very fast, they want to know that it's safe. So I think, yeah, so and having President Trump very tightly wound into it could also add another layer to that. All right, we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we're going to talk about something that isn't unique to this campaign at all. And that is campaign fundraising and the resources these two presidential campaigns have going into the final weeks of the race.

Some days reading a bunch of headlines just isn't enough. You need to let the news sink in. On Consider This, NPR's new daily news podcast, we can help you do that. Each day in about 10 minutes, you can find out not just what happened, but why and what it means. Consider This, new episodes every weekday afternoon from NPR. We're back and let's start with a presidential tweet. My campaign spent a lot of money up front in order to compensate for the false reporting and fake news concerning our handling of the China virus. Now they see the great job we have done, and we have three times more than we had four years ago and are up in the polls. Lots of dollars and energy.

This seems to be a response to a big New York Times story that looks at the fact that of the billion plus dollars that the president's campaign raised, you know, 800 million of it or so is already out the door. And in the final weeks, Biden might have more money than Trump. Which is an amazing thing, because Trump was supposed to have a huge financial advantage. He had raised eye popping amounts of money. And now according to this New York Times story, he's been spending money like there's no tomorrow. Of course, the story in the New York Times might have rankled him for other reasons, since his modus operandi is that Donald Trump never overpays. But he was asked today about it by reporters. And he even said that he would consider spending his own money if necessary, which raised a few eyebrows since Donald Trump actually made money

on the 2016 campaign by renting out his properties, etc. But we'll believe that when we see it. But according to that New York Times story is that some of this money was going places that we saw like the big, splashy Super Bowl ads that they did. They said that maybe cost around 11 million. They said that, you know, the campaign manager had his own driver and car and driver, which is unusual, and that that costs money and that there were all these other expenses and some expenses that went to to kind of appease Trump himself, like spending on the D.C. area on ads in the D.C. area, on ads in the D.C. area, which is not likely to go for Trump. And Joe Biden, of course, struggled to raise money throughout all of 2019. But the moment he got the nomination, he raised tons and tons and tons of money, caught Trump.

In August, he raised a totally insane, unprecedented $364 million. But Mara, I feel like we should give you credit very early on when we got the first like quarter's worth of fundraising from that enormous Democratic field and everybody was talking about the fact that Trump had raised so much money than all of the Democrats. You pointed out that if you added all the money together, the Democrats collectively were out raising Trump. And that was something that was kind of unique that usually doesn't happen. Yes, that usually doesn't happen. The incumbent always has the financial advantage. And Donald Trump in the past has been a real fundraising juggernaut. But yes, when you added all that money up together, the money represented the enthusiasm of the Democratic

base to not just vote, but to vote with their wallets to vote against Donald Trump. And once there was only one guy left, a nominee, it all went to him. And I think that part of the huge haul in August was not just the Democratic Convention. It was also excitement around Kamala Harris. And Scott, one interesting thing, because Trump has been so down on this issue and has tried to use it against Biden, is he talks about basement Biden, but Biden has embraced doing these virtual fundraisers and that's worked for him, right? It has. I mean, often the only event on Biden's schedule for the day will be that he's taking part in virtual fundraisers. He hops in front of a camera in his basement or on his deck or in his kitchen, talks to some voters. He's on his way and they've raised,

you know, millions and millions of dollars, especially because you can combine the campaign fundraising with the Democratic National Committee fundraising and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from one individual super rich person. And you don't have to fly to the event. You don't have to cater it. You don't have to rent it out. Like there's no there's no cost for reserving the bandwidth of a big Zoom room. So the campaign has been able to raise a ton and of course they aren't spending as much on things like travel all over the country though that's starting to change soon yeah and you know the the campaign um you know they they they were talking to reporters today and the current campaign manager bill stepien you know

he's they're making the point that uh this isn't all about money. Hillary Clinton had a lot more money than Trump. And, you know, other candidates back in 2016 had more money than Trump. But obviously he is president now. And they feel like they're in a really good position to, you know, get to the electoral college votes that they need to win. So they feel like they're well positioned, even with maybe less money than they had on hand before. All right, that's it for today. You can always hear us on the actual radio on your local NPR station

and check out all of the links in the episode description to see the many, many, many other places that we are reporting on and talking about this election. I'm Scott Detrow. I cover the presidential campaign. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I cover the White House. And I'm Mara Liason, national political correspondent. Thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.