AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
So a lot going on last week. Right now, there are a lot of big questions about the presidential race, and the biggest is whether President Joe Biden stays in. He's repeatedly said yes. But can he outlast the pressure from some fellow Democrats and some donors to step aside? As for former President Donald Trump, how long will his good luck last? Joining me now to talk about this as political commentator Charlie Sykes. Thanks for being with us, and good morning.
CHARLIE SYKES: Good to be with you.
RASCOE: So, we know you do not have a crystal ball. None of us do. But let's start with President Biden. What are the ways you see this pressure campaign on him playing out?
SYKES: Well, I think that late last week it passed the tipping point of survivability. I mean, I understand that he is digging in, but you've had an intervention by some of the most senior Democrats in the country, and you continue to have this erosion. You have donors who are putting pressure. There are new polls out even this morning showing him losing ground in the swing states. So at some point, I think that the pressure is going to be really intense. I guess the big question is, how long does it go on? How much - how long will the bleeding continue? And will this be a gracious passing of the torch to a new generation, or will it be sort of an embittered and angry stepping aside?
RASCOE: How would you compare today's Democratic Party to the Republican Party of 2016 when Trump was the candidate that everyone thought would lose?
SYKES: Yeah. You know, that's an interesting question. And it is important to remember that we do not have a crystal ball. We don't know what will happen. We don't know for sure that another candidate - and I'm pretty confident that it would be Kamala Harris if Joe Biden stepped aside - we don't know whether she would poll stronger. But what we do know, though, is that we're on this - this sort of - feels like this death march to November at this point. The vast majority of Americans are just - they're exhausted by this. They are disillusioned by having, you know, two old white guys on the ballot. I don't remember a time when the Republican Party felt more unified or more energized. And I don't remember a time when the - I'm sorry, when the Republican Party felt more energized. And when the Democratic Party felt so demoralized. So political analogies are always fun. I like to engage in them all the time, but I think as your Intro made it very clear, we are in absolutely unprecedented time uncharted territory.
RASCOE: Well, I mean, at this point, much has gone Trump's way in the last few weeks, especially since Biden's poor debate performance, the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity, his poll numbers, Democratic infighting, you know, surviving an assassination attempt. But the election isn't being held right now. There's still some time to go. Can Trump sustain this momentum?
SYKES: Well, we don't know. I mean, right now, I think that it's less that Donald Trump - I mean, Donald Trump obviously has had a surge. There's no question about it. The shooting galvanized support. He's going to get a bump out of the convention. Those bumps often fade. But I think when he gave that marathon pretty awful acceptance speech, it reminded Democrats, you know, we can actually beat this guy. He's still Donald Trump. He's not a new Donald Trump.
And I think between now and November, the task is going to be to remind people who Donald Trump is, what he did, who he is right now and the kinds of things that he's promising. So that's the real question. But the big question that I think that a lot of senior Democrats have is, is Joe Biden up for that? Can Joe Biden prosecute the case? Because if he cannot, if, in fact, this becomes a race not about Donald Trump's threat to democracy, but about Joe Biden's age, then they're in trouble.
RASCOE: I mean, I - you know, as you mentioned, Trump during the RNC - at first, they talked about national unity, and there was some thought that maybe the assassination attempt had changed Trump, but he was back to form last night at his rally in Michigan. Let's take a listen. Here he is talking about President Biden.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DONALD TRUMP: I got everything from Mexico, and then this stupid person - low IQ. He's a low-IQ individual. Take his IQ. I guarantee you it's in the low 50s or 60s.
RASCOE: Yeah, and I should be clear that Trump didn't get, like, Mexico to pay for the wall or anything like that. He didn't get...
SYKES: No.
RASCOE: ...Everything. How you think the shooting will actually affect or is actually affecting Trump's message, if it is at all?
SYKES: Well, again, he's able to portray himself as both a hero and as a martyr, which is very, very much on brand, but I think that what you just played is a reminder that Donald Trump is not going to change. It was incredibly naive for people to speculate that we would see a new kinder, gentler Donald Trump. That's not going to happen. And you'll notice that he's not talking about the wall much anymore. He's now talking about mass deportation. We shouldn't sleep on this. He's actually very committed to the forcible deportation of perhaps 10 million people. From this country? So, if we're talking about a message of unity or kinder and softer, I don't think we're going to be hearing that from the Republican nominee.
RASCOE: What do you think about the media's role in this moment? And I'm sure there's some people yelling at the radio right now. There does seem to be an asymmetry in how Republicans respond to criticism of their candidate by pundits and other talking heads and how Democrats respond. Do you think that's the case and how much influence do you think the media has in this moment?
SYKES: Well, that's an extremely interesting question. And let's shift off of the media because we could spend all kinds of time engaging in media criticism. But you are exactly right. There is this tremendous asymmetry, because when Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies, there was no mass call for him to step aside or drop out of the race, was there? There's not a vigorous debate about his fitness for office like you're seeing in the Democratic Party. So this is - and, you know, it is unfair, but then life is unfair. The Democrats and Joe Biden are held to a higher standard right now than Donald Trump. And at some point, I think that we're going to have to shift back to if we're going to have a conversation about Joe Biden's mental, you know, cognitive fitness, we need to have a conversation about Donald Trump's cognitive fitness. And what we saw last Thursday night was a man who I think is pretty unwell.
RASCOE: That's political commentator Charlie Sykes. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
SYKES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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