1
00:00:04,920 --> 00:00:07,840
Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.

2
00:00:07,920 --> 00:00:14,680
Speaker 1: It's Thursday May twenty twenty five. One of Australia's most

3
00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:19,120
Speaker 1: experienced Indigenous leaders says people who self identify as Aboriginal

4
00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:24,279
Speaker 1: are undermining First Nations leaders who work with established land councils.

5
00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:28,480
Speaker 1: Roy RC, a Morajuri man from New South Wales, says

6
00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:32,520
Speaker 1: some activists are determined to block resources and development projects

7
00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:40,479
Speaker 1: and are willing to displace genuine elders. High end family

8
00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:43,159
Speaker 1: cars could get cheaper as part of the Albanese government's

9
00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:46,920
Speaker 1: efforts to negotiate a trade deal with the European Union,

10
00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:51,040
Speaker 1: the government is examining lowering the luxury car tax, which

11
00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:54,280
Speaker 1: kicks in on new cars worth over about eighty thousand

12
00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:57,600
Speaker 1: dollars and raises more than a billion dollars a year.

13
00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:02,160
Speaker 1: Those stories alive now at the Australian dot com dot au.

14
00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:10,920
Speaker 1: Joe Biden has advanced prostate cancer, a diagnosis only revealed

15
00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:15,240
Speaker 1: after he unsuccessfully sought another four years as US president.

16
00:01:15,800 --> 00:01:20,240
Speaker 1: As revelations pour out about Biden's rapid cognitive decline while

17
00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:24,080
Speaker 1: in office, We're joined today by Foreign editor Greg Sheridan,

18
00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:27,520
Speaker 1: to ask, why are we only hearing the truth now?

19
00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:37,039
Speaker 1: Greg Sheridan is The Australian's Foreign editor and we're talking

20
00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:41,560
Speaker 1: today about Joe Biden's diagnosis of cancer. Of Course, as

21
00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:44,680
Speaker 1: is always the case in American politics, what seems at

22
00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:46,840
Speaker 1: first like a fairly simple story an old man is

23
00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:50,200
Speaker 1: diagnosed with cancer has sprouted all sorts of theories, from

24
00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:52,200
Speaker 1: conspiracies to blame shifting.

25
00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:56,000
Speaker 2: I'm surprised that the public wasn't notified a long time ago.

26
00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:58,680
Speaker 2: I think that if you take a look, it's the

27
00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:03,120
Speaker 2: same doctor that said that Joe was cognitively fine, there

28
00:02:03,160 --> 00:02:06,800
Speaker 2: was nothing wrong with him. Somebody is not telling the facts.

29
00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:08,359
Speaker 2: That's a big problem.

30
00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:11,359
Speaker 1: Greg, what was your reaction when you heard that Joe

31
00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:13,480
Speaker 1: Biden had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

32
00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:16,760
Speaker 3: Well, of course, at the personal level, you would wish

33
00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,480
Speaker 3: mister Biden, well, you know, he's been a distinguished servant

34
00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:25,720
Speaker 3: of his nation. However, the American president is a human

35
00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:29,359
Speaker 3: being who has to be medically fit to serve, and

36
00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:33,440
Speaker 3: we're seeing now a whole plethora of books revealing the

37
00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:36,919
Speaker 3: fact that Biden was plainly unfit to serve. I mean

38
00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:40,760
Speaker 3: that was obvious to everyone who saw his debate with

39
00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:44,680
Speaker 3: Donald Trump. He was unfit across a whole range of

40
00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:49,240
Speaker 3: physical capabilities. There are stories that his doctors told him

41
00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:52,640
Speaker 3: his crippling arthritis of the spine would mean he'd spend

42
00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:55,960
Speaker 3: his second term in a wheelchair. He refused to take

43
00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:00,600
Speaker 3: any kind of cognitive test, but his cognitive decline was obvious.

44
00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:02,880
Speaker 3: There were stories he wouldn't have a cabinet meeting for

45
00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:07,040
Speaker 3: twelve months because he couldn't bear to face the cabinet secretaries.

46
00:03:07,639 --> 00:03:10,760
Speaker 3: And of course the special prosecutor found that you couldn't

47
00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:14,400
Speaker 3: prosecute him for mishandling government documents, which he did after

48
00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:16,960
Speaker 3: he was vice president, because he would present in the

49
00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:20,200
Speaker 3: court as an old man with a very feeble memory.

50
00:03:20,639 --> 00:03:26,200
Speaker 3: So now you have an advanced cancer diagnosis. On its face,

51
00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:30,440
Speaker 3: it looks as though this couldn't have just developed five

52
00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:33,600
Speaker 3: minutes ago, that there must have been some knowledge about

53
00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:37,920
Speaker 3: it earlier than the election. And by insisting on remaining

54
00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:41,280
Speaker 3: the candidate, he destroyed the Democrats chances in the presidential

55
00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:43,120
Speaker 3: election that was held last November.

56
00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:47,480
Speaker 1: Presidents have regular physical examinations and they always come out

57
00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:50,880
Speaker 1: with hilariously glowing reports. Greg, you know, Donald Trump is

58
00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:53,280
Speaker 1: the fittest seventy eight year old man in the world,

59
00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:56,960
Speaker 1: apparently according to his doctors. But Joe Biden, as you say,

60
00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:00,320
Speaker 1: wouldn't have a cognitive test, and his pre secretary at

61
00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:02,720
Speaker 1: the time said that every day was a cognitive test

62
00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:06,080
Speaker 1: when you are the president of the United States, looking

63
00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:10,160
Speaker 1: back and knowing that it is difficult to tell when

64
00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:14,000
Speaker 1: you are close to someone whether what you're seeing is

65
00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:18,120
Speaker 1: just aging or whether it might actually be dementia. How

66
00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:20,799
Speaker 1: critical do you think we can be of the Biden

67
00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:23,640
Speaker 1: team and of the Democrats in general, for failing to

68
00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:26,520
Speaker 1: see the signs of advancing decline.

69
00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:29,479
Speaker 3: Claire, I think it's actually much worse than that. I

70
00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:33,680
Speaker 3: think they were absolutely aware of the decline but wanted to,

71
00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:36,760
Speaker 3: as it were, fraudulently I don't mean that in the

72
00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:39,800
Speaker 3: legal sense, but in a moral and political sense, fraudulently

73
00:04:40,279 --> 00:04:43,320
Speaker 3: hang on to the presidency and all the perks and

74
00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:45,839
Speaker 3: patronage that go with it. We've had this before in

75
00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:49,920
Speaker 3: American politics, you know. Woodrow Wilson had a stroke, and

76
00:04:50,600 --> 00:04:53,200
Speaker 3: really the White House was run by his wife and

77
00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:55,719
Speaker 3: his chief of staff for a long time, and his

78
00:04:55,839 --> 00:05:00,440
Speaker 3: condition was kept from the public. Franklin Roosevelt's physical condition

79
00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:02,240
Speaker 3: was kept from the public for a long time, but

80
00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:06,240
Speaker 3: he certainly was mentally acute and well and capable of

81
00:05:06,279 --> 00:05:10,799
Speaker 3: being president. Even in distant Australia, it was abundantly obvious

82
00:05:10,880 --> 00:05:13,000
Speaker 3: that the man was just not fit to be president,

83
00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:17,840
Speaker 3: even the articles that I wrote, because they bore on orcus.

84
00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:22,200
Speaker 3: I had a phone call from a friend in the

85
00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:25,760
Speaker 3: Biden administration saying, don't you dare write those articles. The

86
00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:29,440
Speaker 3: president is fit well. Now, that just shows how paranoid

87
00:05:29,480 --> 00:05:33,960
Speaker 3: they were about this. Now, Donald Trump looks extremely unhealthy,

88
00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:37,680
Speaker 3: so overweight, and so forth, But no one could doubt

89
00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:41,440
Speaker 3: that Donald Trump is on top of the job. I mean,

90
00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:43,599
Speaker 3: he may be doing a terrible job, but he's certainly

91
00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:45,400
Speaker 3: on top of the job. He knows who he is,

92
00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:48,440
Speaker 3: where he is, what he's doing, and can reason things

93
00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:51,840
Speaker 3: and so forth, Whereas it was abundantly obvious that Biden

94
00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:55,360
Speaker 3: was incapable of the job, I think for probably twelve

95
00:05:55,440 --> 00:05:57,200
Speaker 3: or eighteen months before the election.

96
00:05:57,640 --> 00:05:59,680
Speaker 1: It's a lot to expect that any of us in

97
00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:03,200
Speaker 1: our ninth decade would be capable of the kind of

98
00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:07,120
Speaker 1: high level decision making that's required of a president. But

99
00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:10,680
Speaker 1: there's a real difficulty in letting go of something that's

100
00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:13,800
Speaker 1: been your lifelong dream, isn't there An example of that

101
00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:17,600
Speaker 1: is Ruth Bade Ginsburg, the Supreme Court justice who stayed

102
00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:19,279
Speaker 1: in the job until her death at the age of

103
00:06:19,279 --> 00:06:23,440
Speaker 1: eighty seven, despite her supporters begging her to step down

104
00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:28,560
Speaker 1: so that ben President Barack Obama could appoint another liberal judge.

105
00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:34,000
Speaker 1: Is it understandable that Biden himself, as a human being

106
00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:34,920
Speaker 1: didn't want to let go.

107
00:06:35,839 --> 00:06:39,200
Speaker 3: It's understandable, but it's not forgivable. There are some jobs

108
00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:42,080
Speaker 3: where you're meant to just carry on until you die. Basically,

109
00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:45,599
Speaker 3: in particular the papacy. Benedict was the big exception, the

110
00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:48,520
Speaker 3: first pope in hundreds and hundreds of years to actually

111
00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:51,720
Speaker 3: resign because he felt he was too frail. A lot

112
00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:55,680
Speaker 3: of people in their eighties, even before modern medicine, have

113
00:06:55,760 --> 00:06:59,760
Speaker 3: been perfectly good prime minister's national leaders doctor mahatire In,

114
00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:05,080
Speaker 3: Conrad Adenauer, Winston Churchill. There have been a lot of

115
00:07:05,240 --> 00:07:08,640
Speaker 3: effective national leaders in their eighties. But sure, you can

116
00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:13,480
Speaker 3: understand Biden's insane ambition. Almost anybody who becomes president or

117
00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:18,600
Speaker 3: who runs for president is defined by insane ambition and

118
00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:22,600
Speaker 3: a kind of crazy narcissism. You know, Biden has not

119
00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:28,120
Speaker 3: been a politician who has stood steadfastly for any particular

120
00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:32,800
Speaker 3: set of policies. Biden, many decades ago, was against bussing

121
00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:38,280
Speaker 3: to end desegregation, and he cooperated closely with segregationists. And

122
00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:42,000
Speaker 3: he was an orthodox handy abortion Catholic until he became

123
00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:45,640
Speaker 3: a pro abortion Catholic, and so on. He is the

124
00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:50,440
Speaker 3: very definition of the machine politician. His life has certainly

125
00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:53,320
Speaker 3: had tragedy in it, the death of his first wife

126
00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:56,040
Speaker 3: and daughter many years ago in a car accident, the

127
00:07:56,080 --> 00:08:01,440
Speaker 3: death of his son from brain cancer, and his whole

128
00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:05,640
Speaker 3: existence has been towards political office. He's a very young senator,

129
00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:10,080
Speaker 3: a very old president, but none of that really counts

130
00:08:10,160 --> 00:08:13,000
Speaker 3: for a hill of beans. What he did was to

131
00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:17,240
Speaker 3: deprive the American people of a proper choice for the presidency.

132
00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:21,760
Speaker 3: If he had said, two years into his term, guess what,

133
00:08:22,280 --> 00:08:25,160
Speaker 3: I'm thrilled to be your president for one term, but

134
00:08:25,200 --> 00:08:27,480
Speaker 3: it's plain to me that I wouldn't be fit for

135
00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:30,480
Speaker 3: a second term. So I'm going to have this fantastic

136
00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:33,000
Speaker 3: first term, and I'm going to open the doors wide

137
00:08:33,040 --> 00:08:35,760
Speaker 3: open for my successor. On the Democratic side, the Democrats

138
00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:38,320
Speaker 3: would have had a proper primary process. They had some

139
00:08:38,400 --> 00:08:43,720
Speaker 3: terrific candidates on offer, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro. They could

140
00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:46,160
Speaker 3: have had a proper primary, worked out the best candidate,

141
00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:48,600
Speaker 3: and they would have been in a good possession to

142
00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:53,760
Speaker 3: confront Donald Trump. Instead of which by indulging himself in

143
00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:57,160
Speaker 3: this self indulgent fantasy that he could hang on, Biden

144
00:08:57,320 --> 00:09:00,719
Speaker 3: was brutally exposed in that presidential bait that he had

145
00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:03,360
Speaker 3: with the Trump When I'm in to.

146
00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:06,880
Speaker 4: Fix the taxis, for example, we had one thousand billionaires

147
00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:10,120
Speaker 4: in America, I mean billionaires in America. If they just

148
00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:13,240
Speaker 4: paid twenty four twenty five percent, either one of those

149
00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:17,079
Speaker 4: numbers in need raised five hundred million dollars, billion dollars.

150
00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:22,480
Speaker 3: It was a humiliating, desperate and terrible event. It was

151
00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:27,280
Speaker 3: almost painful to watch it. You felt sick and sorry

152
00:09:27,320 --> 00:09:29,800
Speaker 3: for the guy. But this is no way for anybody

153
00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:33,640
Speaker 3: to feel about an American president that even then Biden

154
00:09:33,640 --> 00:09:35,719
Speaker 3: wouldn't give UPI hung on and hang on and hang

155
00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:40,040
Speaker 3: on until virtually all the Democratic congressional leadership told him

156
00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:42,680
Speaker 3: he had to leave, and then he left. Kamala Harris

157
00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:45,920
Speaker 3: with a very short period of time no chance for

158
00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:51,040
Speaker 3: a proper Democratic primary and a really dysfunctional American election,

159
00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:54,360
Speaker 3: and the American people were deprived of a proper choice.

160
00:09:54,880 --> 00:09:57,720
Speaker 3: So I had to kind of even here in Australia

161
00:09:57,760 --> 00:09:59,679
Speaker 3: to beat up on the guy when he's just had

162
00:09:59,679 --> 00:10:03,200
Speaker 3: a terr diagnosis of cancer. You feel very sorry for

163
00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:06,880
Speaker 3: him at the personal level. But this was a story

164
00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:13,040
Speaker 3: of hubris, vanity and ego quite as bad as anything

165
00:10:13,040 --> 00:10:14,560
Speaker 3: which Donald Trump has shown us.

166
00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:20,800
Speaker 1: Coming up. Why do the Democrats keep getting it wrong?

167
00:10:21,120 --> 00:10:40,000
Speaker 1: And what happens at the next election? Greg? Why do

168
00:10:40,080 --> 00:10:43,440
Speaker 1: the Democrats keep getting it so wrong? If Biden was

169
00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:45,760
Speaker 1: the wrong choice to begin with, and if they looked

170
00:10:45,760 --> 00:10:49,040
Speaker 1: at him more clearly when he first stood for the presidency,

171
00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:51,960
Speaker 1: it would have been obvious that he was not going

172
00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:54,200
Speaker 1: to last the eight years that they would have hoped.

173
00:10:54,760 --> 00:10:58,199
Speaker 1: They then chose the wrong candidate in Kamala Harris. They

174
00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:01,040
Speaker 1: had previously chosen the wrong candidate in Hillary Clinton.

175
00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:05,480
Speaker 5: You could put half of Trump' supporters into what I

176
00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:17,640
Speaker 5: call the basket of deplorables right, the racist, sexies, homophobic x.

177
00:11:18,760 --> 00:11:21,640
Speaker 1: Do you have any hope that the Democrats might actually

178
00:11:21,640 --> 00:11:23,719
Speaker 1: put up someone next time around who will make it

179
00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:24,600
Speaker 1: a proper contest.

180
00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:28,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, Claire, that's a fascinating question, really complex one. So

181
00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:31,400
Speaker 3: I think Hillary Clinton was quite a good candidate. Remember

182
00:11:31,440 --> 00:11:34,040
Speaker 3: that she won the popular vote by three million against

183
00:11:34,040 --> 00:11:37,320
Speaker 3: Trump and just lost by a sliver a couple of

184
00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:40,800
Speaker 3: those battleground stage which meant that she lost the electoral College.

185
00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:42,920
Speaker 3: And until she got in the ring with Trump, she

186
00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:46,280
Speaker 3: was the most admired woman in America. Trump, even if

187
00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:49,320
Speaker 3: people don't like him, he has a tremendous distractive capacity,

188
00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:51,840
Speaker 3: and he beats up on someone and they bear a

189
00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:55,160
Speaker 3: lot of scars at the end of that process. Then

190
00:11:55,400 --> 00:12:00,600
Speaker 3: the primary process which selected Biden to beat Trump was

191
00:12:00,640 --> 00:12:04,280
Speaker 3: itself very flaw Do you remember that Pete Bootajige won

192
00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:07,480
Speaker 3: the first primary and the Democrats miscounted the votes or something,

193
00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:11,960
Speaker 3: and Bootajidge didn't get that momentum. Then the primary process

194
00:12:12,080 --> 00:12:16,120
Speaker 3: was interrupted by COVID, and the establishment became very worried

195
00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:18,880
Speaker 3: that Bernie Sanders was going to win the primary.

196
00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:29,880
Speaker 6: Thank you, no, hamsure, and let me say tonight that

197
00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:35,000
Speaker 6: this victory here is the beginning of the end for

198
00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:35,920
Speaker 6: Donald Trump.

199
00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:42,000
Speaker 3: So they threw all their weight behind Biden. Now, remember

200
00:12:42,040 --> 00:12:46,600
Speaker 3: Biden had failed dismally at two previous presidential attempts. But

201
00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:49,560
Speaker 3: then Biden was successful against Trump, and he won the

202
00:12:49,600 --> 00:12:52,360
Speaker 3: popular vote I think by eight million. If at that

203
00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:55,880
Speaker 3: time he had committed to one term, then the Democrats

204
00:12:55,920 --> 00:12:58,680
Speaker 3: would have had a good primary season and would have

205
00:12:58,800 --> 00:13:02,520
Speaker 3: chosen their best candidate. I think they probably would have

206
00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:06,000
Speaker 3: chosen Gretchen Whitmer, and she would have been a much

207
00:13:06,040 --> 00:13:10,440
Speaker 3: stronger candidate than Kamala Harris was. But Kamala Harris I

208
00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:13,760
Speaker 3: think she was a poor candidate, but she also came close.

209
00:13:13,800 --> 00:13:17,200
Speaker 3: She only lost to Trump by about I think one

210
00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:19,520
Speaker 3: percent or maybe one and a half percent in the

211
00:13:19,559 --> 00:13:22,920
Speaker 3: popular vote, and she lost all seven swing states, but

212
00:13:22,960 --> 00:13:26,280
Speaker 3: by quite narrow margin, certainly one hundred and fifty thousand

213
00:13:26,360 --> 00:13:30,040
Speaker 3: votes in the right states, and she would have been president. Now,

214
00:13:30,040 --> 00:13:33,679
Speaker 3: the Democrats next time will have a proper contested primary.

215
00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:37,520
Speaker 3: They'll have strong candidates from the left, maybe from the

216
00:13:37,559 --> 00:13:40,480
Speaker 3: so called squad I think Bernie Sanders is now too old.

217
00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:44,200
Speaker 3: They'll have strong candidates from the center, state governors like

218
00:13:44,280 --> 00:13:48,679
Speaker 3: Josh Shapiro and Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom in California, and

219
00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:52,199
Speaker 3: the Republicans will also have a primary process, probably dominated

220
00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:56,240
Speaker 3: by Trump but Trump picked candidates when he's not on

221
00:13:56,280 --> 00:14:00,120
Speaker 3: the ballot himself. Don't have a history of doing that. Well. Oh,

222
00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:02,680
Speaker 3: I think the next presidential election, it's a long way away,

223
00:14:02,679 --> 00:14:05,480
Speaker 3: but it's absolutely wide open. Trump is doing poorly in

224
00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:07,319
Speaker 3: the polls at the moment, so he's likely to lose

225
00:14:07,360 --> 00:14:10,880
Speaker 3: the House of Representatives next November. The American system is

226
00:14:10,920 --> 00:14:14,560
Speaker 3: full of checks and balances and normally works things out.

227
00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:18,440
Speaker 3: I think the Biden episode in particular was a very

228
00:14:18,559 --> 00:14:23,920
Speaker 3: rare example of a president who became manifestly unfit while

229
00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:27,960
Speaker 3: in office. Barack Obahama and George W. Bush were both

230
00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:30,680
Speaker 3: as fit as fleas, and Trump seems to have an

231
00:14:30,760 --> 00:14:34,520
Speaker 3: unbelievable life force. Gosh, I've never known anyone with his

232
00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:40,120
Speaker 3: body shape and his sort of agitated emotional intensity and

233
00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:42,800
Speaker 3: such a high stress job who just seems to thrive

234
00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:46,600
Speaker 3: on it. Big Max, no sleep, tweeting at three.

235
00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:47,600
Speaker 1: Am, rening bid.

236
00:14:47,800 --> 00:14:50,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, all of that, getting mad with everybody all the time.

237
00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:54,200
Speaker 3: It seems to keep him alive. So, you know, different

238
00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:56,000
Speaker 3: strokes for different folks, I guess.

239
00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:05,680
Speaker 1: Greg Sheridan is The Australian's foreign editor. You can read

240
00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:10,480
Speaker 1: Greg's reporting on everything from Ukraine to Taiwan anytime at

241
00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:12,640
Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot au