WTH is going on with President Biden? John 100 days in office Episode #86 | January 20, 2021 | Danielle Pletka, Marc Thiessen, and John Podesta Danielle Pletka: Hi, I'm Danielle Pletka. Marc Thiessen: And I'm Marc Thiessen. Danielle Pletka: Welcome to our podcast, What the Hell is Going On? Marc, what the hell is going on? Marc Thiessen: Well, first, what the hell is going on is, you may have noticed, we have a little change in our intro. We've got a new president, and so we've got a new litany of what the hells to greet you when we start the podcast. And kudos to our producer Alexa for finding them all. In case you didn't recognize all the names, the first one is Joe Biden, then we have Ted Cruz, Devin Nunes, Joe Biden again, Donald Trump, Joe Biden again, AOC, Lindsey Graham, and finally Joe Biden. What I find shocking is just how many people are asking the same question we are Dany, what the hell is going on? Danielle Pletka: I kind of still love to think that these people have the answers, but what is increasingly evident is that like us, they have no freaking clue what the hell is going on. Marc Thiessen: Well, speak for yourself. I know what the hell is going on. Danielle Pletka: Yes. Well, we'll let our listeners decide that. So it's a big day today. Marc Thiessen: Yep. It's Inauguration Day. Danielle Pletka: Yep. Reliably every four years, it's Inauguration Day. I'm going out of town. Marc Thiessen: I flew in yesterday on a flight from Florida and there were TSA agents at the gate doing additional screening on all the flights. And Pam was on a different flight, my wife, and had the same thing. They were screening everybody getting on a plane for Washington. It was really kind of creepy. Danielle Pletka: Well, given what happened last week, I think that's to be expected and regrettable. For those of you who listen to us who don't live in Washington, I'm sure you've heard the streets in Washington are closed. We've got more troops in DC than we have in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is, I feel kind of ridiculous, but 2 again, you can't be too careful. Marc Thiessen: No, absolutely. And look, as you said, after what happened on the Capitol, we need to have security. We need to make sure that this transfer of power is... I guess it's no longer a peaceful transfer of power after what happened to the Capitol, but no more violence for sure. Danielle Pletka: Well, let's hope not. So in honor of our new president and, hopefully a slightly different time and tone in Washington, we invited Democratic power player, veteran of multiple White Houses, John Podesta, to join us for the podcast. And he was nice enough to spend a little time with me while Marc was on a plane. So we're going play that interview for you in just a bit. But Marc, one of the things that we talked about was just how Joe Biden is going to handle the first 100 days. And I started out being kind of enthusiastic and by the end I was a little bit worried. Marc Thiessen: You think? Danielle Pletka: I worry because look, you are one of the people who pointed this out. It's one thing to have a coronavirus relief bill, and it's another to have a coronavirus relief bill that is like the proverbial Christmas tree with every liberal agenda item on the face of the earth on it. Marc Thiessen: First of all, John Podesta is a Clinton Democrat, which means he is a centrist Democrat. He was Bill Clinton's chief of staff. He was the senior counselor to Barack Obama. But he's not part of the Bernie Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez wing of the Democratic Party. And the reality is, that's not the wing of the party that's ascendant right now. Joe Biden is an anomaly. He is an old school liberal, and that means he's a liberal, but he is not a socialist progressive. And he doesn't really represent where the Democratic Party is today. He represents an era where Republicans and Democrats didn't hate each other, where they actually got along and liked each other and agreed to disagree agreeably as our old boss, Jesse Helms used to say, when talking about how he worked with Joe Biden and other Democrats and tried to find a compromise where they could. And weren't crazy leftists who were trying to spend trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars and do all sorts of radical things. Marc Thiessen: And so he is very out of step with his party, and his party is going to be pushing him to be basically their figurehead, the auto pen that signs their bills. And there's no check on him right now. I'm not worried about Joe Biden, the person. I'm not worried about Joe Biden's temperament. I'm worried that he is not strong enough to stand up to the left wing of his party going forward. Danielle Pletka: No, listen that is my biggest concern. I worry that Joe Biden isn't going to be a very strong leader internally. We already all are hearing in Washington that his chief of staff, Ron Klain, is basically the prime minister. I think that even though we can reassure ourselves that Joe Biden is a guy who likes to agree to disagree agreeably, in fact, his party is not that party. And the problem is I think that the slippery slope from issues where we can all agree faster rollout of the COVID vaccine, more relief to businesses and individuals, more employment incentives all of those things that I think Republicans and Democrats can agree AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE | 1789 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20036 | 202.862.5800 | aei.org 3 on. I mean again, they'll disagree on the margins, will quickly morph into single payer health care, into a Green New Deal, into a $15 minimum wage everywhere. And those are things where there's going to be a growing divide. Danielle Pletka: Now, again, I'm not even worried about that growing divide. What I'm worried about is because the Senate is so closely divided, they are going to actually end up getting rid of the filibuster. And then we really are going to be moving towards two years of dictatorship. Marc Thiessen: So a couple of thoughts on that. First of all, when I was in the White House, I worked for George W. Bush. And one of the first things that George W. Bush did when he was elected president was reach out to Ted Kennedy, the most liberal member of the United States Senate and say, "Let's work together on education." And the result was the No Child Left Behind Act, which was bipartisan. It was something that both sides agreed on, brought left and right together, and was a unifying act by finding something that he could compromise with on and actually advance a policy goal together with the most liberal member of the United States Senate. When John Podesta was chief of staff of the White House, and Bill Clinton was elected, one of the first things Bill Clinton did as president was reach out to all of his former Republican and Democratic predecessors, invite them to the White House and push for NAFTA, which was a trade agreement that was opposed by many in his own party, but had bipartisan support on the center right and center left. Marc Thiessen: And both Barack Obama and Donald Trump did not do that when they came into office. Barack Obama came into office and when they started doing the economic relief package, rather than reach out to Republicans and say, "Hey, let's include some of your priorities. Let's include some of our priorities and we need to unite behind reviving the American economy." He told Republicans elections have consequences, and I won and he rammed it through in a partisan vote. He rammed through Obamacare on a party line vote. All of the major priorities he passed were largely done on party line votes. And then Donald Trump came in and of course the Democrats declared themselves a resistance and wouldn't work with him on anything. And he didn't really try and so it got even worse. Marc Thiessen: And so here we are, Joe Biden is the president who, if he has any mandate at all Dany, it's to unite the country, because he said, "I'm not a socialist, I beat the socialist. I'm going to restore unity. I'm going to bring the country together." And where are we starting? We're starting with a two trillion dollar COVID relief package on top of the almost one trillion we just passed a few weeks ago. And it includes all sorts of extraneous things like a $15 minimum wage that are divisive. Why wouldn't Joe Biden come in and say to the Republicans, "Okay, let's do something that includes your priorities. Here's $500 billion, I'll take $500 billion. You do some sort of tax incentives. We'll do something else. And we'll do this together." Marc Thiessen: There's no effort to do that.