Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, July twenty three. Tens of millions of dollars
Speaker 1: in political donations are rolling in for Kamala Harris, the
Speaker 1: Democrats likely candidate to take on Donald Trump in the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four presidential race. That's after Joe Biden announced
Speaker 1: he was quitting the contest. The President, without acknowledging his
Speaker 1: clear cognitive difficulties, said he'd decided to step back and
Speaker 1: endorsed Harris. More on that in just a moment. Brittney
Speaker 1: Higgins says she has been forced to sell her house
Speaker 1: in France to pay for her defamation battle against former
Speaker 1: Defense Minister Linda Reynolds. Higgins bought the home with the
Speaker 1: proceeds of a two point four million dollar Commonwealth payout
Speaker 1: after she said she was raped by Bruce Lammon inside
Speaker 1: Parliament House. Lahman was found in a civil court to
Speaker 1: have raped Higgins. He's appealing that finding. She's a fifty
Speaker 1: nine year old lawyer with Indian and African American heritage
Speaker 1: and the darling of America's progressive left and now Kamala
Speaker 1: Harris is said to be the democrats anointed candidate to
Speaker 1: take on Donald Trump. Today, we get to know the
Speaker 1: woman who wants to be the first female president of
Speaker 1: the United States and find out why this could be
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's worst nightmare. Before we start, this episode contains
Speaker 1: some adult language. Soon after the first presidential debate, Donald
Speaker 1: Trump heads to a golf course to play a few
Speaker 1: rounds with his youngest son, Baron. During the outing, the
Speaker 1: former president strikes up a conversation with a group of
Speaker 1: fellow golfers. Someone in the small the crowd whips out
Speaker 1: their phone and surreptitiously films the encounter. In the video,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is sitting in his golf cart with Baron
Speaker 1: sitting next to him.
Speaker 2: A broken down pile of crowd.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a bad he just quit, you know, he's
Speaker 1: quitting The rest is that right? Ye? The person he's
Speaker 1: referring to as a broken down pile of crap is
Speaker 1: President Joe Biden.
Speaker 2: And that means we have Karmala.
Speaker 1: It's your fucking bed. I just can't imagine Donald Trump
Speaker 1: always the showman, tells the crowd to keep knocking them out,
Speaker 1: and then drives off. Listening to this interaction, you might
Speaker 1: think that Biden dropping out of the presidential race is
Speaker 1: nothing but good news for the Trump campaign. But is
Speaker 1: that actually the case.
Speaker 2: No, it's a terrible da've Tald Trump.
Speaker 1: That's Cameron Stewart, the Australian's chief international correspondent.
Speaker 3: I was at the Republican convention in Milwaukee last week. Honestly,
Speaker 3: I spoke to dozens and dozens of Republican did not
Speaker 3: meet one that did not want to face Biden. They
Speaker 3: all wanted to face Joe Biden because they just believed
Speaker 3: Trump would beat Biden. And I think Trump believes he
Speaker 3: would beat Biden. The poll suggests he would beat Biden.
Speaker 2: No one knows.
Speaker 1: With Kamala Harris, Cam is in Washington, DC covering the
Speaker 1: chaotic lead up to the election. We're still months away
Speaker 1: from Americans heading to the polls in November, but already
Speaker 1: there's been an assassination attempt, and now the incumbent president
Speaker 1: has announced he's stepping down.
Speaker 2: It hit like a thunderclap, Claire.
Speaker 3: It was a lazy seven day afternoon, very hot in
Speaker 3: him in Washington, very quiet, and then the President's tweet
Speaker 3: came out at one forty five pm and the whole
Speaker 3: place went crazy.
Speaker 1: We are coming on the air with significant breaking news
Speaker 1: and a critical moment in the presidential race.
Speaker 4: NBC News has learned President Biden will step aside as
Speaker 4: the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Speaker 3: He will suspend his people were checking their phones, go
Speaker 3: to televisions.
Speaker 2: Social media was going crazy.
Speaker 3: Even though it was expected that he would probably drop
Speaker 3: out of the race in the days ahead, it still
Speaker 3: claim as an enormous shock. I think for people in
Speaker 3: the Capitol. I mean, it's such a seismic event. We've
Speaker 3: never seen a president do this at this late stage
Speaker 3: of a race ever before. We're into unknown territory, and yeah,
Speaker 3: the whole capital was absolutely galvanized.
Speaker 1: Now, let's talk about Kamala Harris. She's a former district attorney.
Speaker 1: She was obviously quite successful as a lawyer in her
Speaker 1: pre politics career, but she's become a target of fun
Speaker 1: for conservatives in America.
Speaker 4: You think you just fell out of a coconut tree.
Speaker 4: You exist in the context of all in which you
Speaker 4: live and what came before you.
Speaker 5: So the United States shares a very important relationship, which
Speaker 5: is an alliance with the Republic of North Korea, and
Speaker 5: it is an alliance that is strong and enduring culture
Speaker 5: is it is a reflection of our moment and our
Speaker 5: time right and.
Speaker 4: Present. Culture is the way we express how we're feeling
Speaker 4: about the moment, and we should always find times to
Speaker 4: express how we feel about the moment that is a
Speaker 4: reflection of joy, because you know it comes in the morning.
Speaker 3: She's somewhat of a mystery, which of course is what
Speaker 3: would make Donald Trump nervous, because she's a bit of
Speaker 3: an unknown. She certainly had some failures. People often forget
Speaker 3: that she actually ran for president or the Democratic nomination
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty, and she was terrible. She was very
Speaker 3: incoherent with ther stump speeches, She gaffed a lot, She
Speaker 3: didn't have a clear message as staff came and went,
Speaker 3: and she dropped out of that race before the first
Speaker 3: primary was even held. So she was not a good
Speaker 3: campaigner at that point in time.
Speaker 4: My dear supporters, it is with deep regret, but also
Speaker 4: with deep gratitude that I am suspending our campaign today.
Speaker 3: And then as vice president, certainly in the first half
Speaker 3: of her vice presidency, Biden did a very unfair thing,
Speaker 3: I think, and gave us some responsibility for the southern border.
Speaker 3: And then of course he loosened the policies, and so
Speaker 3: it's been the biggest disaster for the Biden administration. And
Speaker 3: of course she then became known in the Republicans' eyes
Speaker 3: as the borders are so she's taken a lot of
Speaker 3: flak for that, and they will absolutely milk that during
Speaker 3: the campaign. However, in twenty twenty two things turned around
Speaker 3: a bit for Harris. The Road versus Wade decision and
Speaker 3: the Republicans overreach on abortion has been a real problem
Speaker 3: for them, and she's been a very articulate advoicate, if
Speaker 3: you like, for pro choice abortion around the country for
Speaker 3: spotlighting the overreach for Republicans on the issues.
Speaker 4: Let's look at all the I think it's now twenty
Speaker 4: one or twenty two Trump abortion bands in those twenty
Speaker 4: one to twenty two states, which again make no exception
Speaker 4: some for raper incest, which have contributed to IVF clinics
Speaker 4: and being stifled, which have contributed to women having awful
Speaker 4: experiences around miscarriage, doctors and nurses and healthcare providers being
Speaker 4: afraid they might go to jail for administering care.
Speaker 3: She's very much loved in the liberal Democrat big cities
Speaker 3: progressive for a prosecutor from California, a woman of color,
Speaker 3: very high achieving. I mean, she's absolutely adored. She's not
Speaker 3: liked in the Midwest. When I travel for the Midwest,
Speaker 3: gadabars and cafes, talk to people, Karmlala Harris's name comes up,
Speaker 3: and they're very.
Speaker 2: Hostile to her.
Speaker 3: And so I think she's going to have to round
Speaker 3: the ticket out by choosing perhaps a male governor from
Speaker 3: the Midwest, because that's where her weakness will be in
Speaker 3: the campaign.
Speaker 1: Is there symbolic electoral value do you think for the
Speaker 1: Democrats in the fact that she would be the first
Speaker 1: woman president or do you think the Donald Trump factor
Speaker 1: outweighs that that symbolism.
Speaker 3: I think for the Democrats that would be very important symbolism, absolutely,
Speaker 3: and she'll get a lot of supporters a result of that.
Speaker 3: Of course, in the eyes of Republicans, that's not going
Speaker 3: to be particularly important. What will be really interesting here,
Speaker 3: and I think one of the great unknowns clear is
Speaker 3: we're looking at a generational change candidate. We're suddenly not
Speaker 3: having two geriatrics looking at each other. And seventy percent
Speaker 3: of Americans did not want the Biden Trump rematch, and
Speaker 3: now they've got what they want, and so I think
Speaker 3: the great question here is to what degree does that
Speaker 3: generational change attract voters, To what degree that they say,
Speaker 3: oh my god, look at Trump's now seventy seven, and
Speaker 3: we just need a break from this. We're going to
Speaker 3: go with the young candidate. I think that's something which
Speaker 3: is a real wildcard in this election.
Speaker 1: Biden's eventual decision to step down took an excruciatingly long time.
Speaker 1: It's been nearly a month since the presidential debate where
Speaker 1: his cognitive difficulties became painfully apparent, and since then it's
Speaker 1: been a string of Democrats publicly asking him to step
Speaker 1: down or just leaking journalists that he was toast. Then
Speaker 1: Biden got COVID and footage emerged of him walking gingerly
Speaker 1: up the steps of Air Force One. It looked like
Speaker 1: he might not make it.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's a lot of fault to be shared here,
Speaker 3: but it ultimately ends with the president himself, Joe Biden.
Speaker 3: I mean, he really had no sense of his cognitive
Speaker 3: decline as all, and that's why he held on so stubbornly.
Speaker 3: But also his family didn't tell him, His aides didn't
Speaker 3: want to go and actually tell him the bad news
Speaker 3: as well, and it's only when all Americans saw it
Speaker 3: unvarnished in that debate, when he was a disaster. The
Speaker 3: problem here is that it would be quite difficult probably
Speaker 3: for the Democrats to beat Donald Trump anyway, if they
Speaker 3: had a candidate who'd gone through the normal primary process
Speaker 3: and had all the time to prepare. Now they've got
Speaker 3: whoever the candidate is going to be, has only got
Speaker 3: three and a half months to a unified a Democratic
Speaker 3: Party b selely coherent and strong message to Americans to
Speaker 3: actually defeat Donald Trump, who is cashed up, confident and
Speaker 3: on the ascendency.
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris's potential rivals have one by one locked in
Speaker 1: behind her. Pete Boodage Edge, the Transport Secretary, and Governor
Speaker 1: Gavin Newsom were first. So cam what do you think
Speaker 1: about that decision? Is she the right person? Or should
Speaker 1: the Democrats have put this up as an open contest?
Speaker 3: I think they should have had an open contest, a
Speaker 3: quick open contest, but encouraged all candidates to come in
Speaker 3: if they want to. But look, there's a strong strain
Speaker 3: in the party Clare that really thinks that any division
Speaker 3: at this late stage is doom for the Democrats. They
Speaker 3: want to present the most unified face that possibly can,
Speaker 3: even though it's been utterly dysfunctional and chaotic up to now.
Speaker 1: Coming up, given Joe Biden's problems, can he really run
Speaker 1: the world until January? This news broke before most of
Speaker 1: us were awake, but the Australian subscribers were the first
Speaker 1: to know. Join us at the Australian dot com dot
Speaker 1: au and we'll be back after the break. Joe Biden
Speaker 1: has stood aside from the presidential race, but he's not
Speaker 1: stood aside from the presidency. He will still be in
Speaker 1: charge until January when the new president takes over, whomever
Speaker 1: that may be. He's now the lamest of all lame ducks,
Speaker 1: and he obviously has some serious cognitive decline. What do
Speaker 1: you feel about America's fate underneath someone with such serious
Speaker 1: questions about his judgment and ability.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's going to be a problem in
Speaker 3: the next six months. I mean, I think the real
Speaker 3: problem with Joe Biden was, for god, he's not going
Speaker 3: to last four more years. That was the issue he
Speaker 3: was looking ahead. I mean, he'll be fine for six months.
Speaker 3: He's got his team around him. He's not incompetent, he's
Speaker 3: certainly getting much older. But I think people just thought
Speaker 3: it was possible for him the last four more years.
Speaker 3: And I don't think I know the Republicans some Republicans
Speaker 3: that are saying he should step down now if you
Speaker 3: can't continue on.
Speaker 2: I don't think that's correct.
Speaker 3: And Joe Biden wouldn't do that because I think he
Speaker 3: sees it as a massive indignity for him to have
Speaker 3: had to give up the candidacy for the president. He
Speaker 3: wouldn't go one step further and actually walk out of
Speaker 3: the presidency at this point in time. So hook he'll
Speaker 3: be there. I think he'll be perfectly fine and functional.
Speaker 3: He might even improve with less of a workload to
Speaker 3: worry about. And he re elected, so I think he
Speaker 3: will be there. Now he's out of the way, there
Speaker 3: won't be a lot of attention on him. That will
Speaker 3: be all about Carmala and Donald. It's going to be fantastic.
Speaker 1: Cameron Stewart is the Australian's chief international correspondent. Radioactive waste
Speaker 1: will be stored in South Australia after authorities granted the
Speaker 1: Australian Submarine Agency a license to manage the byproducts produced
Speaker 1: while making Australia's new fleet of nuclear powered submarines. That story,
Speaker 1: and all the nation's best news, business, sport and politics.
Speaker 1: It's alive right now at the Australian dot com dot
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