Speaker 1: The Armstrong and Getty Show, and in Odessa I met
Speaker 1: the mother of a fifteen year old girl who was
Speaker 1: shot by an A R fifteen, and that mother watched
Speaker 1: her bleed to death over the course of an hour.
Speaker 1: Because so many other people were shot by that A
Speaker 1: R fifteen in Odessa and Midland, there weren't enough ambulances
Speaker 1: to get to them in time. Hell, yes, we're gonna
Speaker 1: take your A R fifteen, your A K forty seven.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna allow it to be used against follow
Speaker 1: Americans anymore. I thought that is the best moment Betto
Speaker 1: has had since he announced for running for president. A
Speaker 1: terrible topic, daft to talk about, obviously, but it's genuine
Speaker 1: and real and he seems like a real human being. Now.
Speaker 1: I think the policy is not going to fly very
Speaker 1: well with the majority of Americans a government gun confiscation,
Speaker 1: but Betto had some real moments and Bernie gurgled and
Speaker 1: July and called Biden scene island. That's just part of
Speaker 1: the uh, the equation with the debate. Last night, We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk with Lannie Chen now, David and Diane Stephie
Speaker 1: research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Maybe our favorite political
Speaker 1: pundit that we ever have on the air, and he's
Speaker 1: got a podcast will tell you about coming up, Lonie Chen,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the arms Strong and get a show. So
Speaker 1: I do I ask everybody this, I'm wondering how many
Speaker 1: people actually watched the whole three hours, but it's less
Speaker 1: than a million in the whole country. Do you watch
Speaker 1: the whole three hours? Yeah? I mean I did good
Speaker 1: for you that people usually drop off after the first
Speaker 1: thirty to forty five minutes. I mean, that's that that
Speaker 1: Just remembering from you know, when I did a lot
Speaker 1: of work with CNN and they had the metrics on this,
Speaker 1: it seems like most people can stick around for that
Speaker 1: first half hour, then they go and get a pizza. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought that up. So like when you
Speaker 1: were prepping candidates, when you're working with either in you know,
Speaker 1: Mitt Romney or or whoever else, Um, do you guys
Speaker 1: know that and try to get your best stuff in
Speaker 1: early knowing people are going to go away later. Oh yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean you you definitely wanted to make a strong
Speaker 1: first impression and usually maybe front load whatever is most
Speaker 1: newsworthy or whatever they perceived to be the most an
Speaker 1: issue first. So for example, last night, we saw a
Speaker 1: lot of healthcare earlyaking, a lot of healthcare early, and
Speaker 1: so since they tend to do that. And then to
Speaker 1: that point, I was watching the debate and I probably
Speaker 1: watched two hours of it. Then I went to UH two,
Speaker 1: started fast forward the clips I heard people talking about
Speaker 1: on social media. But early on I thought Biden was
Speaker 1: strong and made his points and separated himself from the
Speaker 1: other candidates and got some shots in man his last
Speaker 1: couple of answers, aside from his closing thought, which I
Speaker 1: thought was fantastic and another real human moment um, his
Speaker 1: last couple of answers were a rambling old man who
Speaker 1: had been on stage for three hours. Yeah, no, I
Speaker 1: think that's right. I think he started off strong and
Speaker 1: performed well when he needed to perform well, which was
Speaker 1: right as the debate got going. You're right, towards the
Speaker 1: end it was rambling. Uh. You know, I I thought
Speaker 1: that exchange with Julian Castro was the exchange of the debate. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've played it today, but the
Speaker 1: one where basically Julean Castro accuses Biden of being old
Speaker 1: uh and and you know, I didn't think it played
Speaker 1: well for Castro obviously, but but for Itiden at least,
Speaker 1: I thought it was probably his strongest debate to date. Yeah, which,
Speaker 1: you know, when you've got a double digit lead and
Speaker 1: you have your best debate, that's a pretty good position
Speaker 1: to be in. Are are we really down to a
Speaker 1: three person race? And uh and even the two that
Speaker 1: are chasing Biden got to figure something out if they
Speaker 1: want to beat him. Yeah, that sounds right to me.
Speaker 1: I think you know, you've got Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders,
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, You've got a couple of other people who
Speaker 1: could potentially make their way back into it at some point,
Speaker 1: but the odds are beginning to look pretty slim for
Speaker 1: people like Kamala Harris. Uh. Corey Booker would be another,
Speaker 1: you know better. Rourke did have that moment you played,
Speaker 1: but you know, his campaign is effectively done anyway. He's
Speaker 1: always certain for a moment. Anyway, I'm going to go
Speaker 1: to to curse words when I feel like I need
Speaker 1: to to create a moment. It's the same playbook he
Speaker 1: had when he ran for the Senate in Texas. And
Speaker 1: by the way, what Beto Rourke did last night. Is
Speaker 1: he basically guaranteed he'll never win statewide in Texas. He'll he'll,
Speaker 1: he'll just not. He doesn't have a political future in
Speaker 1: Texas given the position he has on guns. It's just
Speaker 1: not gonna happen. Yeah, let's talk a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was. I was going to bring up issues as
Speaker 1: opposed to people, the issue of mandatory gun buybacks, and
Speaker 1: and the moderator said, some critics would call that a confiscation.
Speaker 1: That's because that's what it is, a confiscation. How does
Speaker 1: America feel about confiscation of guns? Yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 1: I still think in general you'll find that most Americans
Speaker 1: probably don't like the idea. I think most Americans will
Speaker 1: perceive themselves as being for sensible gun control. And I
Speaker 1: the reason I used that phraseology is because what is
Speaker 1: sensible obviously in the eye beholder. And you know, when
Speaker 1: you talk about background checks, expanded background checks, you talk
Speaker 1: about assault weapons, uh, some controls on that, limits on capacity,
Speaker 1: things like that, I think people say, yeah, that makes
Speaker 1: a lot of sense. Now, when you start to get
Speaker 1: into policies which are even arguably confiscatory, then I think
Speaker 1: you run into a little bit more difficult I think
Speaker 1: people generally out there would say, yes, we need more
Speaker 1: common sense control. But the defining common sense is really
Speaker 1: the difficult part of this. And I don't think that
Speaker 1: Beta or Rourke saying you know, yes, we're gonna come
Speaker 1: after your A R fifteen, I don't know that that
Speaker 1: is something that a majority of Americans would say, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree with that policy. Talking with Lan heat Chen,
Speaker 1: who you see on a variety of the big national shows, UM,
Speaker 1: and he's also got a great podcast called Crossing Lines
Speaker 1: with Lan hea Chen. The latest episode, Meet the Boss
Speaker 1: features the new Congressional Budget Office director. UM. Maybe you
Speaker 1: talk about that on your podcast, the budget and everything.
Speaker 1: But not a lot of deficit talk on the debate
Speaker 1: stage last night, of course, neither was there on the
Speaker 1: Republican debate stage. Yeah, you know, it's one of those
Speaker 1: things that we've talked about this before. I just don't
Speaker 1: know that it's a topic that that resonates as much
Speaker 1: as voters anymore. You know, I thought the interesting thing
Speaker 1: last night is there wasn't a lot of talk about
Speaker 1: the economy general, right, you know, there was some talk
Speaker 1: about China and trade, but for for a topic that
Speaker 1: really animates most voters decisions when they get to the
Speaker 1: ballot box. To not spend more time on the economy
Speaker 1: was disappointing, and I would have liked them to say
Speaker 1: a little bit more about what they planned to do
Speaker 1: on the economy. If the economy slows and we enter
Speaker 1: into some kind of recession, what's their plan, what are
Speaker 1: they gonna do? We didn't hear much about that. Now.
Speaker 1: Part of that might be because they don't have a
Speaker 1: lot of ideas for how to how to get out
Speaker 1: of it that are particularly unique, and so maybe they
Speaker 1: you know that the moderator's figured let's not talk about it.
Speaker 1: But for such an important topic to spend such little
Speaker 1: time is very interesting. I don't want to sound like
Speaker 1: Julian Castro going after Biden's age, but he had a
Speaker 1: couple of rambling old man answers, and he had some
Speaker 1: sort of mouth tooth problem at some point that's become
Speaker 1: a like a meme on the internet. I mean, those
Speaker 1: are serious things to worry about, aren't they. Well, it
Speaker 1: was I don't know if you've caught Corey Booker that
Speaker 1: they Corey Booker had an interview I think it was
Speaker 1: on CNN after they asked the debate, and he said
Speaker 1: something which I thought, you know, was right. It was
Speaker 1: sort of cringeworthy, but right. He said a lot of
Speaker 1: Democrats are worried about Joe Biden's ability to get the
Speaker 1: football across the goal. Lock Uh, because because it's like
Speaker 1: you know, you can you can see him running and
Speaker 1: running a running and at some point out, oh, he's stumbled.
Speaker 1: To your point, I think that's the concern. His numbers
Speaker 1: are durable. Joe Biden's numbers are pretty durable and still
Speaker 1: got a lot of support. But you're right, there are
Speaker 1: these moments where people are reminded that Joe Biden is,
Speaker 1: first of all, who he is he has been his
Speaker 1: whole political career. Who's somebody who you know, rambles and
Speaker 1: and goes on tangents and isn't particularly focused. And then
Speaker 1: the age issue does kind of come back into it
Speaker 1: more subtly, and I thought Booker did that much more
Speaker 1: effectively than Castro did during the debate. But then the
Speaker 1: last question, which was you know, what, what have you overcome?
Speaker 1: What's the biggest hurdle you've overcome, biggest setback you've ever
Speaker 1: had to overcome, and Biden's answer about what's really important
Speaker 1: in life and and and losing family and a car
Speaker 1: wreck and the cancer and stuff. I thought there aren't
Speaker 1: many politicians that can pull that off without sounding jivy,
Speaker 1: and he can, Oh, absolutely, and and and you know,
Speaker 1: it's an incredible life story. It's a tragic by the story,
Speaker 1: and it's one which connects with people. You know, everybody's
Speaker 1: experienced pain of some sort in their life and to
Speaker 1: hear that and and and I think that resonates with people.
Speaker 1: I think that's what makes ultimately what makes Joe Biden,
Speaker 1: I think the front runner of the strongest candidate. It
Speaker 1: makes his policy positioning. It's not even his ability to
Speaker 1: be Trump. Really what it is this humanity. And I
Speaker 1: think the more he connects with that humanity, that more
Speaker 1: people will forgive him the rambling, they'll forgive him the stumbling,
Speaker 1: they'll forgive him the thing that don't sound coherent, and
Speaker 1: they'll realize that he's just a guy who wants to
Speaker 1: to to do well for his country. And I think
Speaker 1: that's something that will be very appealing come next November. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's pretty good, right there, long Hea Chen, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: I think you're right, um And and it really makes
Speaker 1: Julian Castro attacking and make it look even worse. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: you know, it comes back to this question again, did
Speaker 1: anybody realize Julian Castro was running for president? You know,
Speaker 1: and it makes him look like a small man, which
Speaker 1: which you know last night would suggest he is. Um
Speaker 1: the part of the debate that made me the angriest,
Speaker 1: And I just wonder why it works this way. You
Speaker 1: got Jorge Ramos from Univision up there and he tries
Speaker 1: to force Joe Biden in who apologizing for a Democrat
Speaker 1: president deporting a few people because it was the law,
Speaker 1: because we have illegals in this country. Why did the
Speaker 1: questions come from at such an extreme point of view?
Speaker 1: Or Ramas is clearly an advocate for illegal immigration. Well
Speaker 1: remember the premise of these debates, his conflict the you know,
Speaker 1: and this is not just I'm not just speaking about
Speaker 1: the network that hosted last night. I'm saying any network
Speaker 1: hosting any debate, they want to see fireworks. And so
Speaker 1: the premise, the fundamental premise I think Ramos was going
Speaker 1: after the same premise you're going to see future money,
Speaker 1: which is, will Joe Biden draw a distance from Barack Obama?
Speaker 1: Joe Biden disavow things that he was part of during
Speaker 1: the Obama administration that progresses in Democrats now feel is
Speaker 1: passing a bad policy, and so that's what he was
Speaker 1: trying to do. And but I think it's not the
Speaker 1: last time it's gonna happen. You're gonna see plenty more
Speaker 1: efforts in the future to separate and distance Joe Biden
Speaker 1: from Barack Obama. Unfortunately, I think for the networks, Barack
Speaker 1: Obama remains very, very popular, and it's gonna be tough
Speaker 1: to get Biden to really disavow things that he did
Speaker 1: during the Obama administration. But that's a dynamic that we're
Speaker 1: seeing there. They're trying to get separation, they're trying to
Speaker 1: get conflict, and I would expect to see it again.
Speaker 1: The podcast is called Crossing Lines with Lana heat Chin.
Speaker 1: Got a new episode called Meet the Boss we just
Speaker 1: told you about with the Congressional Budget Officer Office Director,
Speaker 1: and more episodes on the way. Lan he Chin, thanks
Speaker 1: for your time today, Thanks for having me. Have a
Speaker 1: great weekend. You bet you. I think he's absolutely right
Speaker 1: about that. When when Biden does his real human moments
Speaker 1: like he did at the end of the debate, there,
Speaker 1: the sort of stuff that, like I keep saying, Hillary
Speaker 1: Clinton couldn't come within a hundred miles off. Then he'll
Speaker 1: be forgiven a little bit for some of his old
Speaker 1: man's stumbles in the same way you might be uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you're you're, you're okay with your your grandfather
Speaker 1: or whoever. Uh, you'll you'll excuse some of the old
Speaker 1: person stuff that they struggle with because you like him.
Speaker 1: My grandparents don't have nuclear codes as far as you know. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got I'll tell you what. I just keep picturing
Speaker 1: him giving that long, rambling answer where he went from
Speaker 1: phonographs to Venezuelan back on a stage with Trump and
Speaker 1: Trump turning toward the audience and say, well you think
Speaker 1: of that, and just and just killing with that moment.
Speaker 1: But we'll see, we'll see a strong and getty