Speaker 1: President Joe Biden, speaking from Philadelphia's Independence and National Historical Park.
Speaker 1: The speech was titled Battle for the Soul of the Nation.
Speaker 1: He went about twenty five minutes. He started with the
Speaker 1: notion that equality and democracy are under assault, and he
Speaker 1: mentioned Donald Trump by name, and I guess there were
Speaker 1: many of watchers who thought that may not happen, so
Speaker 1: somewhat unexpected. He went on to say that Trump and
Speaker 1: Magna Republicans are threatening the foundation of the republic. We
Speaker 1: are not by standards in the ongoing attack on democracy.
Speaker 1: And he went on to say we are at an
Speaker 1: inflection point and in it is in our power to
Speaker 1: stop the assault on American democracy. This is a special
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Daybreak Asia. I'm Doug Prisoner in New York.
Speaker 1: My colleague Brian Curtis in Hong Kong. Brian, Yeah, this
Speaker 1: was very interesting, and let's bring in Rick Davis, Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Politics contributor and partner at Stone Court Capital, to dissected.
Speaker 1: Rick only a modest attempt to laud his own achievements
Speaker 1: and and really didn't use this as an attempt to
Speaker 1: target Republican ideals at all. This was really an attempt
Speaker 1: to ring fence, the MAGA movement and Trump himself. Do
Speaker 1: you think he pulled it off? Yeah? I think it
Speaker 1: was two speeches here, right, one Brian that you describe,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, hey, these are the Maga Republicans.
Speaker 1: They are, you know, against democracy. You know, they've been
Speaker 1: fooled by Donald Trump. You know, they're not the gop
Speaker 1: of your father is like he's like to say in
Speaker 1: the past. But then he contrasts that with his own achievements, right,
Speaker 1: and the country's moving forward, and I got lower drug prices,
Speaker 1: I was able to get you know, all these things passed,
Speaker 1: and we got a fight on abortion and and and
Speaker 1: and he's kind of pivoted so that there was this
Speaker 1: part of the speech that was dedicated to his legislative achievements,
Speaker 1: and then the other part and that was the light,
Speaker 1: positive part, and then the other part was very dark
Speaker 1: and and fore voting about you know, the threat to
Speaker 1: democracy that Maga Republicans pose. Rick, where is the line
Speaker 1: between what we call mainstream Republicans and the extremist Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that that that he was trying
Speaker 1: to draw one right early in the speech he said,
Speaker 1: you know, not everybody, not all the Republicans are Maga Republicans, um.
Speaker 1: But he didn't really go into much detail on who
Speaker 1: they were or or how he was talking. To my
Speaker 1: own point of view, just from a political lens, um
Speaker 1: there there probably are a few, uh, you know, Republicans
Speaker 1: that are are considered mainstream Republicans and and sort of
Speaker 1: tolerant of the current party as it stands. But I
Speaker 1: do think he was really looking at independence and and
Speaker 1: this kind of you know, sort of setting up the wedge.
Speaker 1: You know, Independence, don't be drawn into that Republican party.
Speaker 1: These are run by MAGA, you know, and they're really
Speaker 1: outside the mainstream and their extremists and and and what
Speaker 1: he's trying to do is probably go that fifty percent
Speaker 1: he got in the general election two years ago, and
Speaker 1: he needs that to show up on the midterms. He
Speaker 1: he did make it a point to say quite early
Speaker 1: that he's not really lead targeting all Republicans, he said,
Speaker 1: many of whom he had worked with in his long
Speaker 1: career in the Senate. He really did try to isolate
Speaker 1: the MAGA group. We don't know exactly how big it is,
Speaker 1: I suppose, but I found it a kind of interesting.
Speaker 1: And you thought that he made a bigger attempt to
Speaker 1: laud his achievements. I thought that was only sort of
Speaker 1: a modest attempt. But he did refer to this being
Speaker 1: the United States, uh, and that the two parties should
Speaker 1: work together. And yet I think I heard you say
Speaker 1: earlier this morning on our air that he really didn't
Speaker 1: reach out to the Republicans with cabinet positions or high positions,
Speaker 1: key positions in government. Yeah. I think there was an expectation,
Speaker 1: considering how much he devoted in the general election his
Speaker 1: rhetoric to talking about unifying the country and bringing in,
Speaker 1: you know, a coalition of Americans who would you know,
Speaker 1: be loyal to the government and to the country and
Speaker 1: not focused on ideology and and and that never really materialized.
Speaker 1: I mean, I actually think there were more Democrats and
Speaker 1: in the Trump cabinet than there are Republicans in the
Speaker 1: Biden cabinet. And that being said, his major accomplishments, short
Speaker 1: of just a couple that he's done just recently through reconciliation,
Speaker 1: have really been bipartisan accomplishments. This massive bill for infrastructure
Speaker 1: was done with Republicans, Democrats and lockstep H and many
Speaker 1: other legislative achievements he's been able to get through. So
Speaker 1: he he avoids wedge politics. That's who he is. But
Speaker 1: I think that's been disappointing to many Democrats who actually
Speaker 1: want to impose accountability on these Maga Republicans, right They
Speaker 1: want to prosecute these guys. They don't want to put
Speaker 1: a you know, handout for them. And and so I
Speaker 1: do think he's running a little bit counter to his
Speaker 1: own party's interests, who sort of got a little bit
Speaker 1: of taste of victory with his election. And I would
Speaker 1: like to put the Maga Republicans on the trash heap
Speaker 1: of history. I had an ear open to see whether
Speaker 1: or not he would say anything along the lines of
Speaker 1: conservative Supreme Court that didn't happen. Talk to me Rick
Speaker 1: about the timing. Is he setting the stage for another term?
Speaker 1: Is it too early for that to happen? Is this
Speaker 1: more about the mid terms? He's got to win at
Speaker 1: his back right now. Yeah, he's got to win in
Speaker 1: his back. I think Democrats have convinced themselves that they've
Speaker 1: got a shot at maybe even leveling the playing field
Speaker 1: in the House and winning the Senate. Uh and and
Speaker 1: and and and there's good reason for that right there,
Speaker 1: pulling data looks good. They've had these great legislative achievements,
Speaker 1: and so this is I think purely focused on trying
Speaker 1: to get a ticket through the mid term elections and
Speaker 1: and hold onto power because they know if that House
Speaker 1: flips to the Republicans and it doesn't matter by one
Speaker 1: vote or a hundred votes, then their legislative agenda is gone. Right,
Speaker 1: They'll be not able to implement anything. It will turn
Speaker 1: into all kinds of investigations by Republicans and it'll be chaos,
Speaker 1: and that will not be good for Biden to think
Speaker 1: through a second term, right, And so this buys him
Speaker 1: an option if he's able to to to find success
Speaker 1: in the mid term elections. And this was all about
Speaker 1: what are the stakes of the mid terms. The stakes
Speaker 1: are you can you can descend into darkness through the
Speaker 1: magarepublican agenda, or you can stick with me and see
Speaker 1: these great things I've achieved and we can continue to
Speaker 1: do it together. Just briefly in twenty seconds. So it
Speaker 1: sounded like a few moments ago that you were suggesting
Speaker 1: that the insurrectionists should not be hauled into court. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean you've noticed, um, he didn't say much about uh,
Speaker 1: any of the legal activity, right. I mean, he clearly
Speaker 1: put the MAGA Republicans on the extreme list. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: he didn't take the language on fascism that we heard
Speaker 1: from him earlier. I don't think there's any doubt that
Speaker 1: the party and in his administration would like to see
Speaker 1: people who have violated the law, whether it's the President
Speaker 1: United States or people broke into the Capitol to be prosecuted.
Speaker 1: But he's done a good job I think as president
Speaker 1: of staying out of the legal fray and and and
Speaker 1: preserving his options for the future. Yeah, that's respecting the
Speaker 1: Constitution and the rule of laws both anyway, Rick, thanks
Speaker 1: very much. Rick Davis Bloomberry politics contributor and partner at
Speaker 1: Stone Court Capital