Today, Explained - Joe Biden wins

Episode Date: November 6, 2020

-And Kamala Harris, too. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit connectsontario.ca. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. has won the presidency. The Vox newsroom made the call this Friday morning in partnership with our election calling analysts over at Decision Desk. Yes, Donald Trump is going to challenge it. Heck, he's already trying to steal it, but you shouldn't be surprised. Donald Trump won the election in 2016, and he never fully accepted those results. There's plenty of time to talk about the challenges and shenanigans, but on today's show, we're going to talk about this historic moment because despite Joe Biden and Donald Trump being two powerful 70-year-old white guys, they really couldn't be more different. One is a reality TV starring porn star hounding, grab him by the egomaniac, and the other is something even worse. A career politician.

I'm Joe Biden, and I'm a candidate for the United States Senate. Politicians have done such a job on the people that the people don't believe them anymore. And I'd like a shot at changing that. When he was elected to the Senate, he was not old enough to serve in the Senate. Biden is a Democrat who's 29 years of age, but will turn 30 on the 20th of November, and thus will be constitutionally eligible to serve should he win.

He is not a great man of history kind of figure. He is not an I-alone-can-fix-it kind of mind. He has lost a bunch of presidential elections. He has not gotten things he wanted to get. There is one less candidate in the race for the presidency tonight. Delaware Senator Joseph Biden dropped out of the hunt today, saying the disclosures about his plagiarism in law school made it impossible for him to continue. He is not some unique force on the American scene, but he's somebody who, in a funny way way holds together a lot of the contradictions of the American political system in himself fairly well. I promise you, the president

has a big stick. Which I think turned out to be the kind of thing that does not work in most election seasons and turned out to be a good foil to Donald Trump in this particular election season. It's a bit of an awkward place to start a story, but his political life begins with tragedy. This is a part of Biden's life that it is hard to look at directly in the face. So he is married, he has two sons and a daughter. And Biden has not yet been seated in the Senate. I was down here in Washington interviewing prospective staff. And I got the call there was a slight accident. His wife is coming home with her children in the car. Well, they were Christmas shopping.

And her car is T-boned. Pulled out of an intersection in a semi-rural part of our state. Tractor trailer coming down a hill, broad side of them. My wife and daughter were on one side of the car and they were killed immediately. My son, Bo, was in a body cast, ankles to neck, both arms, both legs. And my other son, Hunter, had a fractured skull. And he basically calls Mike Mansfield, then the Senate Democratic leader, and he says, I can't do this. Like, I have to be here for my children. I'm going to step down. And Mansfield just says, I totally get that. Let's just wait.

Let's just not make a decision right now. At what point did you decide to stay in the Senate? You know, I never made the decision in the sense it just kept rolling on. The Senate kind of closes ranks around this young man who was about to enter it in a hurry and now has had this terrible, terrible tragedy. They really just kept me busy. Mansfield would have me report to him once a week on some sort of assignment.

Looking back on it, he was just taking my pulse. I was a 30-year-old kid, just turned 30. People who he doesn't agree with are there for him. People who he does agree with go above and beyond. They come visit him and sit with him and work with him and protect him. That, I think think forges him in a really profound way and forges his deep belief, really deep belief, that there's always more to your relationships with your political colleagues and your political opponents than policy and ideology would suggest. They just kept me engaged and kept pulling me in.

And in a sense, it probably was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. So what kind of senator does that make him, especially in these early years that we don't really talk about as much, the 70s and the early 80s? Joe Biden in this period is somebody who is coming up in a Senate where the best thing you can possibly be is a dealmaker. He operates as a centrist Democrat at a time when there's a real conservative wing of the Democratic Party, which he is not part of, and a real liberal wing of the Democratic Party, which he is not part of.

He's somebody who is trying to chart this middle path of how do you win over voters who feel that America is changing too fast? You know, liberal on some issues, but still kind of traditionalist and a little bit socially conservative. And I wouldn't say he always comes down to the right place on this, by the way. Again, Joe Biden is not a politician who for most of his career would make my Hall of Fame list. But this is what he's trying to do. Joe Biden operates in this period in what I would say is a very conventional political stance, trying to recapture some of that Kennedy magic in the 70s and the 80s as Republicans have figured out what appears to be a politically effective backlash response to the civil rights movement,

the women's rights movement, and just the generalized state of American culture and fracture. Is it his centrism that leads to these positions or decisions he's been criticized for lately? To this day, I regret I couldn't come up with a way to get her the kind of hearing she deserved, given the courage she showed by reaching out to us. The way he handled the Anita Hill hearings or proudly working with segregationists. I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland, Biden said. He never called me boy.

He always called me son. At least there was some civility. We got things done. We didn't agree on much of anything. We got things done. Or his support for a crime bill that's been, you know, widely criticized. This is by far and away the most significant federal effort to deal with violent crime in America that has ever been undertaken in the

United States Senate. Ever. Biden has been on opposite sides of a lot of these issues. And so there's a way in which in politics, we look at them like, ha ha, hypocrisy. It's actually sort of bigger tent-ish. Like Biden gets you if on the one hand, you're worried about, not to use it in its euphemistic term, but literally like law and order. You're worried about riots. You're worried about whether or not there's going to be safety in your cities. Like Biden comes from an era in politics when urban riots are a much more present thing.

And also, Biden was the number two to the first Black president. He has seen racism in his career. He has seen it directed against somebody he served and loved. And he believes that America has a reckoning yet to face. And so the thing that Biden tries to do, in a way a lot of other people are not quite able to, is hold both of those things together. Right. I understand you and the fears you have. And also we need to move forward.

And if I can do it, you can do it. Isn't it interesting, though, that this politician who can sort of be anything to anyone, he can be too liberal, he can be too conservative. He can push Anita Hill around and also pick Kamala Harris and he can sponsor the crime bill but be Barack Obama's bestie. Isn't it interesting that he didn't unite more of this country in this election? Look, Donald Trump, and I think it's a really important thing for people to keep in mind, he didn't weaken from 2016 to 2020 as many people thought he would. What Biden did was he built a much bigger coalition than Democrats had in 2016. It looks like he's going to have a bigger margin over Donald Trump than Barack Obama had over Mitt Romney in the popular vote, bigger than George W. Bush had over John Kerry. So in a moment when

there is a clear strength in the Republican coalition, right, when they really are able to turn out voters and then have this huge advantage in the electoral college, Biden was able to hold together a very fractious Democratic coalition, I think with Donald Trump's help as a mobilizing figure, that went from Bernie Sanders all the way on the left to Trump's skeptical Republicans all the way on the right. I actually think it's a mistake to think that what Biden did here was not difficult. There's like, you know, fewer people on this planet who have more experience working within and with the United States Senate than Joe Biden. And it's looking like he'll have to work with a Republican controlled United States Senate. Of course, that might change, but it's unlikely. Will he be able to get anything done? The million-dollar question, certainly, at this point.

Anything, probably. If you need a Democrat who can cut deals with Mitch McConnell, there's probably no Democrat in the country with a better record of that than Joe Biden, for better and for worse. From the Newcastle County Council to the U.S. Senate to the White House, Joe Biden Jr. has forged a uniquely American story, and it's far from over. Enough done, no. Enough done on climate change, no. Enough done to make our health care system decent, no. Enough done to make sure the right to vote is really a right and that all votes get counted and that D.C. gets statehood and Puerto Rico is offered statehood and on and on and on.

All these things we really need to do. No. Joe Biden, if he's with Mitch McConnell, Republican Senate, is going to be highly constrained. Now, Biden is a legislator able to make deals. So I think to the extent like that is a reality, it isn't that I think somebody else could do it better. It's I actually think Biden will get as much as possible done in that space. And by the way, that might end up meaning he does some things other people don't like, particularly on the left. But Mitch McConnell is Mitch McConnell. I don't think he's going to have some great epiphany after this election. And so the FDR level agenda that Biden and the Democrats were thinking about, if they took back the Senate, is not going to happen unless they win these Georgia runoffs and

actually take it back or they're able to convince somebody like Lisa Murkowski to change parties. But while I'll be a Democratic candidate, I will be an American president. I'll work hard for those who didn't support me, as hard for them as I did for those who did vote for me. That's the job of a president, to represent all of us. Electing Joe Biden to the presidency doesn't solve our problems. It solves the problem of Donald Trump being president. That's the problem it solves. There's a huge number of insanely difficult governance and political culture problems we still face.

And they will be made harder, easier by the way the Senate shakes out, by the way the House ultimately shakes out. They'll be made harder and easier by the way the key players, Biden, but not only Biden, act and react. This is a moment when the problem with Trump is that he created this obstruction in the government where the work couldn't even begin. Getting him out of there and putting Biden and his team in means a work can begin. Ezra, thank you. All right, thank you. More in a minute on Today Explained. Support for Today Explained comes from Ramp. Thank you. says they give finance teams unprecedented control and insight into company spend. With Ramp, you're able to issue cards to every employee with limits and restrictions and automate expense reporting so you can stop wasting time at the end of every month. And now you can get $250 when you join Ramp. You can go to ramp.com slash explained,

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to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. This election was particularly long and increasingly gnarly. Pandemic, economy, protests. Remember that one debate? Then the president got corona. I think the historic choice of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden's vice president had won maybe two days in the spotlight before it was just sort of forgotten. Well, it's kind of like pick your first, right? Melanie Mason from the L.A. Times remembers.

I mean, she's the first woman to be vice president. She's also the first black person to be vice president. She's also the first Asian-American person to be vice president, first Indian- American. And then you can really sort of get into a lot of intersectionality here. I mean, the fact that she and her husband, Doug, will be the first multiracial couple to be in these executive positions. And so there's just this sort of breadth of experience, which I think is really reflected in the country at large, but has not been reflected in the leadership for so long that a lot of people can see themselves in Kamala Harris who couldn't see themselves otherwise in the president or vice president. Where does her story begin?

Well, her story begins in Oakland, California, which is where she was born. So she's the child of two immigrants, a breast cancer researcher from India was her mother, and her father is an economist from Jamaica, and they met at civil rights protests in the 60s. It was a very, obviously, socially turbulent, politically turbulent time, and so she really kind of is a product of the Bay Area at that moment. She grew up, her young childhood in Berkeley, just north of Oakland. You know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools.

And she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me. After being in California, she spends her high school years in Montreal, where her mom had a job. She goes to school at Howard University, which is a historically black institution. Thurgood Marshall went to Howard, and he was one of my inspirations as a child. He's the reason I wanted to become a lawyer. And so I always wanted to go to Howard, and I went to Howard. And then she makes her way back to California, which is where she goes to law school and then begins her legal career.

So she really bounces around, although kind of stays away from sort of where we think of the sort of traditional power centers of national politics. I mean, she's not in New York, for example. She's in D.C. a little bit for school, but it's really more of a West Coast story, which is something that we haven't seen a ton of in national politics really since Reagan. Oakland, activism, Jamaica, India, Montreal,

Howard University Law School. Does anything have, like, an especially strong influence on the person she becomes? The singular influence in her life is her mother. Her parents split when she was a young girl, and her mom essentially raised her as a single mom. And you just heard her talk about her mother constantly on the campaign trail, in her memoirs. My mother was a force of nature, all five feet of her. If you met her and then you walked away, you would have thought she was seven feet tall.

Let's take a look at her mother's backstory. She came over from India when she was 19. And this is at a time when that was not particularly common. So I think it says a lot about sort of the ambition of her mother. I think it says a lot about the progressive nature of her family back in India, that they would send an unmarried daughter to the United States at 19 for schooling. And so all of that stuff, you put that in a blender, and I think it's almost inevitable that you're going to come out with somebody that's very socially conscious, very politically active. And so when does she sort of get her start in politics? So in 2003 is when she runs to be San Francisco DA.

And it's actually interesting because she's running against her boss. And her boss was this guy named Terrence Hallinan, who was really known as a progressive stalwart in the city. And in some ways, she sort of used that against him in her run. You know, she brought up the fact that he had a low conviction rate. And that's almost kind of what you would think of as a typical tough on crime approach to running. But she wasn't a hardliner on crime. In fact, she ran against him and one other person, all Democrats, because we are talking about San Francisco after all. But it was unexpected that she won that race, mainly because she wasn't particularly known.

38-year-old Kamala Harris came out of nowhere and was swept into office as San Francisco's district attorney. And as she did, she made history. She was the first woman ever to be the city's top prosecutor. And she is the first African-American in such a job ever in the state of California. And so what is she like when she gets into office? Well, honestly, within the very beginning of her coming into office, there's an episode that I actually think sort of defines her as a political figure going forward.

And this is the death of a San Francisco cop. So he is killed in action, and there is a ton of pressure for her to pursue the death penalty against the person who kills this police officer. And she doesn't. She says right away, we're not going to pursue the death penalty. She had campaigned on being against the death penalty against the person who kills this police officer. And she doesn't. She says right away, we're not going to pursue the death penalty. She had a campaign on being against the death penalty. It is the will, I believe, of a majority of people that the most severe crimes be met with the most severe consequences and that life without possibility of parole is a severe consequence. And she gets a tremendous amount of backlash. You had her own senator, Senator Dianne Feinstein,

speaking at the funeral of this officer and saying that his killer deserved the death penalty. And there's this standing ovation. Meanwhile, Harris is sitting in the pews of this memorial service, I think feeling very uncomfortable. And I think people look back and they give her credit for that

because she sort of stood by her progressive values. But I also think that was kind of a searing moment for her because she got a lot of backlash from law enforcement for that. It took her a very, very long time to earn back the trust of law enforcement. I think what it taught her also was like being boldly progressive and kind of swiftly so. I mean she announced this position before the officer even had his memorial service, can come with backlash. And so I think that it may not have necessarily changed the way that she viewed policy in terms of her sort of policy preferences, but it absolutely changed the way that she articulated policy.

So she was not a progressive firebrand in a state that has a lot of progressive firebrands. In San Francisco, we threatened the parents of truants with prosecution and truancy dropped 32%. So we are putting parents on notice. If you fail to take responsibility for your kids, we are going to make sure that you face the full force and consequences of the law. I think also just inherently being in law enforcement at that time meant that you were participating in a system that now people look at and have a lot of issues with. And that seems to go for both her record as DA and later as attorney general of California, which

is sort of funny to me now, considering, you know, once she's announced as Joe Biden's running mate, everyone on the right is like she's, you know, she's the most liberal person in all of Congress. That's what I've heard. More liberal than Bernie Sanders, believe it or not. And then at the same time, people on the left are like, she's a cop. You know, how does that happen? Where does she get that reputation? I have to say, as a Californian, when I was listening to the attacks on the campaign trail, I kind of had to laugh because it was like, like nobody in California, I think, would accuse Kamala Harris of being like a socialist radical. Right.

But I think that they were able to make those attacks because she sort of lands on both sides of issues at times. So, for example, with this death penalty issue, she makes this pretty bold stance as San Francisco district attorney. And yet, when the state death penalty comes under a court issue, there's a court case against it, as attorney general, she defends it. And she says that she has to do that because she's the state attorney general. But the question is, is like, okay, well, what do you really believe? Because you seem to have taken a bold stance when you were younger, but now you seem to be defending this. The same, I think, when it comes to marijuana decriminalization or legalization. She ran in the primary saying that she was in favor of decriminalizing it.

Have you ever smoked? I have. Okay. And I inhale. I did inhale. But there was clips circulating around of her laughing at the thought of legalizing marijuana. We asked California's current top cop, Kamala Harris, for her position on this controversial issue. Your opponent, Ron Gold, has said that he is for the legalization of marijuana recreationally.

Your thoughts on that? I, that he is entitled to his opinion. There was certainly some skepticism on the left in the primary of like, what does she really believe? What stance does she really come down? But at the same time, she had moved enough to the left, particularly when she got to Washington, that President Trump and Mike Pence and others can say, look at her. She's wildly radical. Look at all these things in her record.

Let's talk about that move. So clearly, as attorney general in California, she builds up enough support to clinch a prized Senate seat for the state, right? I don't want to like overstate the fact, but I was struck after watching her in California, how much she seemed a little bit less cautious being in D.C. I think it was a lot easier as a senator. You're one out of 100. You're not in also the same sort of legal position that you are as state attorney general. And so she didn't seem to have to choose her words quite so carefully. She could be a little bit more out there. You know, think of how she really established her national profile in D.C.

It was in these Senate hearings where she would grill these Trump administration officials. Attorney General Barr, has the president or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone? I wouldn't. I wouldn't. Yes or no? Could you repeat that question? I will repeat it. Has the president or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone? Yes or no, please, sir. The president or anybody else. Seems you would remember something like that and be able to tell us. And yes, it was lawyerly, but it was lawyerly with flair. And I think that that was because she didn't have to worry about, you know, are your words going to be used against you in a court of law kind of thing.

Does she put her name on anything of significance or is most of her highlight reel from those hearings? She introduces legislation and the legislation she introduces is interesting because it kind of gives you a sense of what it means to have a woman and particularly a woman of color in these positions. For example, she introduces a bill focusing on maternal mortality among black women, the fact that black women die at much higher rates due to pregnancy and childbirth. And she wanted to look into the implicit racial bias that doctors may have when they're treating black women. You know, that's a big deal, and that's not necessarily an issue that a white guy would maybe have on his radar. She introduces a bill for more research into the high incidence of fibroids among black women. So I think we get some sense of the sort of 360-degree view

that she's taking to policymaking in these bills. But again, she's in the minority, so these bills are not passing. And so I think we're not necessarily saying that she can claim significant legislation that then was enacted. It's more like she was laid out a roadmap that perhaps can give hints to how she would govern as vice president. So, I mean, throughout her career, she's had, you know, at the same time, a reputation for being, you know, comparatively conservative in California and then rather progressive and liberal in D.C., will all of that experience serve her as a comparatively progressive vice president under a rather moderate president?

I think her experience, particularly in the last couple of years in Washington, is dealing with the modern Republican Party. So she knows what it was like to be in the minority party in the Senate that was being run by Mitch McConnell. And I don't want to say that Joe Biden doesn't know what that reality is, because Joe Biden, of course, had to deal with a very obstinate Senate when he was vice president himself to President Obama. But I think Joe Biden also has these kind of recollections or this faith in a bipartisan governing process when he was in the Senate, particularly dating back to the 70s. And Harris is just much more of a product of that modern political moment. So I think the two of them working together, I think is going to be

really interesting, because I think his instinct is going to be, I can talk Chuck Grassley to come over to my side, I can get Susan Collins to come over to my side. And perhaps he can by virtue of these personal relationships. But I think Harris will be coming at this thinking, I've been in the Senate where it has been nothing but sort of trench warfare for a couple of years. And perhaps that'll inform how she approaches these issues. And she'll be vice president to a former vice president who knows a thing or two about how a vice president can sometimes be sort of irrelevant. Do you think she'll carve out more of a significant role than, you know, Pence? I have had some conversations with people close to her,

and I think that they're just starting to sort of sort that out. The one thing that I'm personally going to be keeping an eye on is how much she tries to stake out a role in foreign policy. The elephant in the room is that she is vice president to somebody who's 78 years old. It is not entirely clear that he will be running for a second term. And I think most people anticipate that she sees the vice presidency as a springboard to ultimately running for president. And if you look at her resume, the one thing that I think is pretty thin right now is having foreign policy experience. And so she can take these four years to build that up, get to know world leaders, get to know world leaders,

get to know military leaders. If she really tries to bulk up that portfolio, I think that that is then a blaring signal that she's looking ahead to 2024 or to 2028. And of course, unlike, you know, say, Vice President Pence from Indiana or even President Biden from Pennsylvania, she's Kamala Harris from Oakland, whose parents came from, you know, Jamaica and India. How essential will that be in this effort to maybe bolster her foreign policy credentials? I think that it's essential in the fact that she looks different and comes from a different experience

than so many of the people that were representing America in the past. And obviously the clear exception is President Obama. And remember how monumental it was when he visited Kenya and the response that you saw across the world. You know, people are paying attention. They do feel an affinity and a sense of kind of pride and ownership, right? The fact that one of their own is now representing America on the world stage.

And I think that that's particularly resonant at this moment where, you know, America's been going through a rough time on the international stage over the last couple of years. And so I think that having her sort of as this public face could be pretty instrumental in maybe rehabilitating the nation's image abroad or bringing in people who perhaps were very skeptical about America abroad. You know, I don't really want to overstate the fact too much because the truth is, is like what really shapes people's perceptions of America abroad is what the country does. But it's not nothing to have that representation. The election of Barack Obama, to go back a little bit further to another historical point,

I think the country sort of told itself this narrative that it was like, we're post-racial now. We did it. We elected a black man as president. And then we elected President Trump. And I think that we had to all come to grips with the idea that America's perception and handling of race was just a lot thornier than a lot of people knew. And I also want to make clear that a lot of people of color were like, yes, we knew this all along. I think that Harris in this role represents the two steps forward, one step back kind of dance that America does on race in that, yes, she has now reached this threshold. She has

crossed that barrier and it is a historic moment. But we should also remember that she did not win the presidential nomination, in part because there were a lot of concerns of, is America ready for a black woman president? There was this electability question, and who did Democrats pick? They picked a 70-something white guy. It says a lot that Harris fell short in that presidential bid. And I think it's a huge historic moment because it shows America's approach to race in its totality, both the fact that we can have these barriers being broken, and sometimes it is also reflecting the fact that

America is perhaps hesitant, in fact, to have a woman of color in the commander-in-chief role. Question is, will they be ready to promote her in a couple of years? Melanie Mason is a politics reporter at the Los Angeles Times. Ezra Klein is the editor-at-large at Fox. I'm Sean Ramos for him. This is Today Explained. I imagine we'll have much more to say

about this election next week. But hey, we got through this week. And for now, that's enough.