Speaker 1: When you're ready to ride Metro, we want you to
Speaker 1: know we're ready for you. Here are just a few
Speaker 1: of the people at Metro to tell you how we're
Speaker 1: doing our part to keep riders safe. We're cleaning like
Speaker 1: nouble before we half build a great clean You've found
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Speaker 1: need one. We have a few extras at Metro. We're
Speaker 1: doing our part to keep the DC area moving. Find
Speaker 1: out more at we Mada dot com, slash doing our part,
Speaker 1: the Armstrong and Getty Show. And just a preemptive question,
Speaker 1: I know it's gonna come up. Are we seeing any
Speaker 1: widespread fraud? Are we seeing anything that makes us question
Speaker 1: the outcome of the election? We're not see any widespread regularities.
Speaker 1: Are not seeing anything widespread where we are investigating any
Speaker 1: incredible accusation with any real evidence behind it. But let
Speaker 1: me tell you one thing. When you have a narrow margin,
Speaker 1: little small things can make a difference. So everything that
Speaker 1: had to be investigated to protect the integrity of the vote,
Speaker 1: our office intends to do that. And like I said,
Speaker 1: you know, wide margin doesn't matter as much narrow margin
Speaker 1: it does. We're literally looking at a margin of less
Speaker 1: than you know, a large high school. That is, uh,
Speaker 1: what's his title? It's not secret to your state. But
Speaker 1: it's like the head of elections in Georgia, who is
Speaker 1: a Republican? The guy run an accountant. That's that. I
Speaker 1: believe that is his formal titled. Yes, ah so, but
Speaker 1: it's over in terms of who wins. Yes, in terms
Speaker 1: of investigating high jinks, no, which is healthy for everyone,
Speaker 1: and anybody who's not in favor of that is a
Speaker 1: bad American. Try to make elections better election by election.
Speaker 1: But it's over. Joe Biden will be the President of
Speaker 1: United States. It's it's not even a question anymore, not
Speaker 1: a joke. Lon each And David and Diane Stephie fellow
Speaker 1: in American Public Policy Studies at the Whoever Institution joins
Speaker 1: us now. Lon He is also host of the most
Speaker 1: excellent podcast Crossing Lines with laniach and Good morning, sir,
Speaker 1: How are you well? Good morning? It looks like we
Speaker 1: might be closer to a result after all. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's over. I mean, if if we want
Speaker 1: to pretend it's not, we can, but listen to the
Speaker 1: liberal Jack, it's not the result I want and I
Speaker 1: was wondered, you've you've worked on some high level campaigns
Speaker 1: that didn't win. What does it feel like when you
Speaker 1: realize when it's over, what is it all? What is that?
Speaker 1: What is that feeling? I mean, it's it's it's horrible.
Speaker 1: It's it's a sad, sad feeling. And particularly when you've
Speaker 1: invested a lot of your time and energy and you
Speaker 1: believe in the cause. Look, everybody who was involved in
Speaker 1: this campaign, arm on the Trump side, of the Pivate side,
Speaker 1: who worked on these campaigns, they believed in what they
Speaker 1: were doing, you know, and you don't invest that kind
Speaker 1: of time unless you do. Uh. And I've lost a
Speaker 1: lot in my time in politics. I've lost a lot
Speaker 1: more than I've won. And it's it's tough. I mean,
Speaker 1: that moment when you realize I still remember that time
Speaker 1: in twelve when I was working, you know, closely with
Speaker 1: Romney and on election night, you know, when we knew
Speaker 1: we had no pathway. Uh, it's a very difficult thing
Speaker 1: to accept, and it takes a lot of grace, It
Speaker 1: takes a lot of humility to be able to say,
Speaker 1: you know what, it's not gonna happen. Because every instinct
Speaker 1: in your body said you gotta keep fighting, you gotta
Speaker 1: keep going, and and you know at some point you
Speaker 1: just can't. There's no pathway. What does it feel like?
Speaker 1: You know most of us haven't done it. What does
Speaker 1: it feel like? Is it like when you know a
Speaker 1: girl you love dumps you? Or what's a feeling? I mean, um,
Speaker 1: having felt that before too, I could say it's no,
Speaker 1: it's um. You know, it's you sort of sit there
Speaker 1: and you wonder, you know, what could you have done more?
Speaker 1: I think that for me, at least personally, and by
Speaker 1: the way, to this day, I still think about that
Speaker 1: for Romney because you know, I think, um, look, your
Speaker 1: your listeners are going to have different opinions of Romney.
Speaker 1: I get it. Um, I have never met someone who
Speaker 1: is more honorable and who I would have done more
Speaker 1: for than him. And so I feel like at this point,
Speaker 1: even out right eight years later, I still think we're
Speaker 1: their decisions I made and things that I did on
Speaker 1: that campaign that contributed to his laws. He should have
Speaker 1: hired me to give him how to act like a
Speaker 1: regular guy lesson you know, so Trump might spend the
Speaker 1: rest of his life thinking gotta fight it just a
Speaker 1: one more rally in Arizona. You know, one more in
Speaker 1: this county in Pennsylvania had have been president. That's interesting, Hey,
Speaker 1: speaking of that, let me let me let me let
Speaker 1: me be clear. I don't think that Donald Trump will
Speaker 1: think that way. I think he. I think there are
Speaker 1: people on his campaign that will that will question decisions made. That.
Speaker 1: Having been said, I actually think Trump down the stretch
Speaker 1: did exactly what he needed to do to keep this
Speaker 1: race close. I actually think the Trump campaign, Trump's rallies,
Speaker 1: all of that, that's what drove turn out in these states.
Speaker 1: Either you talk about Donald Trump won more vote in
Speaker 1: and I know it's amazing, it's just that the other
Speaker 1: side was was all that more energized, and they were
Speaker 1: all that more voters, and they turned out their people
Speaker 1: as well. So you have to look at this if
Speaker 1: you're the Trump campaign, I don't think there's a whole
Speaker 1: lot more they could have done. I think those guys
Speaker 1: completely easy, knowing that they ran a very tough and
Speaker 1: aggressive campaign down the stretch. Nancy Velosi has stated that
Speaker 1: the election was a mandate for Democrats commend to please.
Speaker 1: The only thing that's a mandate for is her leading
Speaker 1: the Speakership. I mean she was atrocious. Uh And and
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why the Democrats had lost ground
Speaker 1: in the House, which no one expected, by the way,
Speaker 1: is because she completely went off to defend in the
Speaker 1: two weeks at the end of the campaign. I mean,
Speaker 1: I have never seen someone getting more unhinged. Then then
Speaker 1: I saw her her get unhinged in those last two
Speaker 1: weeks of the campaign. I mean talking about psychological examinations
Speaker 1: and the twenty fifth Amendment. And I mean she was
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why people looked at the House
Speaker 1: of Representatives in these races and you know what, we
Speaker 1: ought to send a message. And and voters are smarter,
Speaker 1: by the way than a lot of these media analysts
Speaker 1: give them credit for. Voters. You know, they went and
Speaker 1: they said, you know what, I'm going to vote for
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, but I'm also going to vote for a
Speaker 1: Republican for Congress because i want to make sure someone's
Speaker 1: got to check on this guy. I really believe that
Speaker 1: we saw a lot more split ticket voting than at
Speaker 1: any point in recent American history because American voters knew
Speaker 1: what they were doing. And I wish we didn't some
Speaker 1: credit for it. Interesting Yeah, maybe they couldn't explain it
Speaker 1: with fancy political science words, but they knew it in
Speaker 1: their gut. Hey continuing to look forward. Um So, if
Speaker 1: Joe Biden is the winner, and you know, I'd be
Speaker 1: willing to bet a lot of money right now that
Speaker 1: he is. Um. So, Joe Biden Mitch McConnell are really close.
Speaker 1: You know, I knew they served in the Senate, but
Speaker 1: I didn't know they were this close. McConnell was the
Speaker 1: only Senate Republican to attend the funeral for Biden's son
Speaker 1: bo Um. He stayed away from attacks on Biden's other son,
Speaker 1: Hunter And And Biden is interested in the Senate in
Speaker 1: the way that Obama wasn't. He famously like didn't care
Speaker 1: to go talk to senators or trying to do anything
Speaker 1: that done. Biden knows all these people, most of them.
Speaker 1: So what do you think that relationship will be? Like, Um,
Speaker 1: I have a contrarian opinion on this. I actually think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be very productive. It's gonna be very productive.
Speaker 1: I think I know that the common you know, the
Speaker 1: common wisdom out there is out is going to be gridlock.
Speaker 1: I actually don't agree. I think that Biden is a
Speaker 1: creature of the Senate. He understands the Senate better than
Speaker 1: probably any other human being on earth because he spent
Speaker 1: so long there. He knows how the Senate works. He
Speaker 1: understands the norms and the culture of the Senate, and
Speaker 1: he knows Miss McConnell. And at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: what Biden and McConnell are, they're both dealmakers. They are
Speaker 1: ruthless political operatives, and I mean that in the in
Speaker 1: the best positive way. But they also understand the need
Speaker 1: to get deals done, and they're gonna do deals. They're
Speaker 1: going to do a deal on coronavirus relief, They're gonna
Speaker 1: do deals on Biden's nominations. And I think it's going
Speaker 1: to be a productive relationship and eat for the first
Speaker 1: you know years, so then then all bets are off
Speaker 1: because you get into an election state. Right that first year.
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty productive. Well, that's interesting. What it
Speaker 1: reminds me of is reading all the lb J books
Speaker 1: that I've read. When he got the White House, he
Speaker 1: was the knew more about the Senate than anybody in America,
Speaker 1: and he got all those civil rights stuff through because
Speaker 1: he knew how the Senate worked. Do you expect Lon
Speaker 1: He that Um Joe Biden will re reveal his true
Speaker 1: colors as a moderate as president. Now that doesn't have
Speaker 1: to please the AOC wing. We'll see. That's why the
Speaker 1: Republican Senate for him is a beautiful thing, because he
Speaker 1: doesn't have to take the heat from the progressive left.
Speaker 1: He can say, look, I got these Republicans to dial
Speaker 1: it in the Senate, so I gotta focus on getting
Speaker 1: some things done. We're in the middle of a public
Speaker 1: health crisis. YadA, YadA, YadA. So in some ways it
Speaker 1: gives him the defensive mechanisms he needed against all these
Speaker 1: progressive lunatics in his party. He's going to be able
Speaker 1: to basically say, listen, uh, you guys might want to
Speaker 1: do it, but you and I both know it's not
Speaker 1: gonna happen. So let's focus on doing some things we
Speaker 1: can actually do. So I actually think it's going to
Speaker 1: give him the ability to maneuver a lot more than
Speaker 1: if he had a Democratic Senate. If he had a
Speaker 1: Democratic Senate to be talking about court packing and single
Speaker 1: payer and Green New Deal, and he'd actually have to
Speaker 1: give into something that Now he doesn't have to worry
Speaker 1: about that Wow, how interesting. Lan he chened David and
Speaker 1: Diane Stephy, fellow in American Public Policy Studies at the
Speaker 1: Ober Institution. Is podcast Crossing Lines with Lani chen Well
Speaker 1: worth a listening to you get more of the sort
Speaker 1: of things you heard just then. He had great to
Speaker 1: talk to you. Thanks a bunch, all right, not because
Speaker 1: of me, but that was the best conversation I've heard
Speaker 1: on this today. Agreed, that's really interesting. Nobody understands probably
Speaker 1: because your role. Yes, uh, nobody on the notes. You
Speaker 1: don't play Sean, and that's what they say. Nobody in
Speaker 1: the world knows how the Senate works better than Joe Biden,
Speaker 1: he says, Yeah, and he'll be working with his old
Speaker 1: close friend Mick McConnell. I'm trying to actually get things done. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that would be bi partisan. I'd have to be bipartisan obviously.
Speaker 1: You know, if there is a dream in Joe Biden's heart, uh,
Speaker 1: it is a fairly moderate dream by by most standards.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are things that he will do that
Speaker 1: I will hate, no question about it, especially with the massive,
Speaker 1: unjustifiably large administrative state and regulations in the rest of it.
Speaker 1: But haven't said that. I believe he yeah yeah, Green
Speaker 1: new Deal, Yeah yeah, all that stuff here, why not? Okay?
Speaker 1: And then the minute he gets into office, he's going
Speaker 1: to be more like he's always been. That's my hope
Speaker 1: and and and and you know, pray for his health too,
Speaker 1: because you don't want freaking Kamala Harrison. No, no, oh, no,
Speaker 1: lord no, do your exercises, Joe Biden, eat your vegetables,
Speaker 1: get get on the take to take those shots they
Speaker 1: were giving you. When you're ready to ride Metro. We
Speaker 1: want you to know we're ready for you. Here are
Speaker 1: just a few of the people at Metro to tell
Speaker 1: you how we're doing our part to keep righters safe.
Speaker 1: We're cleaning like noble before were half builded greatly. You've
Speaker 1: found hand sanitizing stations Metro no mask, no Metro need one.
Speaker 1: We have a few extras at Metro. We're doing our
Speaker 1: part to keep the DC area moving. Find out more
Speaker 1: at wilmata dot com slash doing our part