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Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. That's Joe

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Speaker 1: Biden in front of a Is that a bun in

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Speaker 1: front of a bunch of firefighters? Firefighter? Beach and run,

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Speaker 1: Joe Run. They sound pretty enthusiastic. Among the many things

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Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about with our esteemed guest, Lan heat

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Speaker 1: Chen is the host of the podcast Crossing Lines with

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Speaker 1: Lan hea Chen. He's also David Diane Stephy research Fellow

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Speaker 1: at the Hoover Institution and Director of Domestic Policy Studies

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Speaker 1: and Lecture in the Public Policy Program at Stanford University.

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Speaker 1: Good morning, long, here are user is? Good morning. Great

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Speaker 1: to be with you, Esteemed. That's that's quite an introduction.

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Speaker 1: Thank you. Gotta ask you, Lan he Now you're brilliant

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Speaker 1: and we know that I don't have any doubts about you,

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Speaker 1: But when you were at Harvard or bumping around Stanford,

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Speaker 1: do you ever run into students and think, how the

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Speaker 1: heck did you get in here? And now you know?

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Speaker 1: Now you know? Yeah? Wow? That was really a stocking story.

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Speaker 1: Not so much for the fact that there's some kind

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Speaker 1: of preference given maybe maybe the people who have legacy,

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Speaker 1: but the fact that now you've got somebody personally profiting UH,

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Speaker 1: and then rigging the process for people who really shouldn't

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Speaker 1: have been able to get in. I mean that was

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Speaker 1: really quite fascinating and stocking to me, because the quality

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Speaker 1: and caliber of student that I run into is usually

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Speaker 1: pretty high. So I've not had one of those occasions

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Speaker 1: recently where I said, boy, this person doesn't belong here.

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Speaker 1: I've met the occasional graduate, just occasional graduate of one

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Speaker 1: of your BESTEAM universities, and I think, what the hell,

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Speaker 1: how did you do? How did you get in? Never

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Speaker 1: mind stay in that? You know, that's funny. My college

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Speaker 1: concerns are mostly about not getting tossed out. Speaking of which, UH,

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Speaker 1: impeachment talk is what we want to chat with you about.

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Speaker 1: The look we get the Nancy Pelosi more moderate root

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Speaker 1: wing is saying no, no's, it's there's backlash. Impeaching Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump is a bad idea. Then you got the o

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Speaker 1: AC radical lefty wing, I call it the college girl wing,

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Speaker 1: which is probably a little dismissive and probably sexist. And

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Speaker 1: then obviously you have the Republican point of view. What

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Speaker 1: are the various some sides and sub sides trying to

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Speaker 1: accomplish with their rhetoric these days. Well, I think it's

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Speaker 1: important that we take a step back and understand that

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Speaker 1: impeachment is not a legal question for political questions. So

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Speaker 1: for everybody who takes a side on this issue, it

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Speaker 1: really comes down to the politics. And so you've got

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Speaker 1: some group of progressive Democrats, and you know that number

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Speaker 1: fluctuates between let's call it and thirty five who just

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Speaker 1: believes that the politics of being opposed to Donald Trump,

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Speaker 1: regardless of what he does, and being opposed to him

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Speaker 1: in an extreme way, uh, benefits whatever it is they're

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Speaker 1: trying to get accomplished. Now, I'm not saying it's completely

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Speaker 1: and sincere. I think they genuinely believe that Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: has not done a good job, and they genuinely would

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Speaker 1: love to get rid of them. But politically they believe

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Speaker 1: it will benefit whatever it is they're trying to do.

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Speaker 1: And then you've probably got an equal number of Democrats

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Speaker 1: on the other side of it who don't believe that

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Speaker 1: it's very smart for a whole host of reasons. And

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Speaker 1: I tend to agree with that group. By the way,

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Speaker 1: I think Nancy Pelosi did a very brave thing in

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Speaker 1: some ways by getting ahead of this and Essentially, she

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Speaker 1: she made herself the target for these progressive Democrats by saying,

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Speaker 1: I don't believe impeachment talk makes a lot of sense,

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Speaker 1: and and for the presidential election, for Democratic prospects. Having

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Speaker 1: someone like Pelosi out there saying what she does, actually

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Speaker 1: I think helps them. It helps them by deflecting attention

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Speaker 1: away from people who are getting a little hysterical quite

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Speaker 1: frankly about this notion of impeaching the president. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: actually think this is one of the worst weeks for

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Speaker 1: the Trump presidency because now they're not going to go

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Speaker 1: down the rabbit hole of impeachment, which I thought was

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Speaker 1: gonna be great for Trump. Um, So I keep asking

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Speaker 1: everybody this, Nancy Pelow, he made some very high minded

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Speaker 1: statements about this, but it's not good for the country,

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Speaker 1: and it's divisive and everything like that. What percentage was

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Speaker 1: being a grown up in the room, being a leader

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Speaker 1: doing what's right for the country, And what part of

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Speaker 1: it was just the politics You've explained. I'm so cynical

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Speaker 1: about this whole thing, and not just about Pelosi, but

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Speaker 1: just about our politics generally. I mean, I think it's

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Speaker 1: probably eighty five percent political. Several people have said of

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Speaker 1: the people have asked, so I would say that's a

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Speaker 1: hindhearted take. Hey, listen, different topic, old man, Joe Biden.

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Speaker 1: I say he doesn't have a chance, But a lot

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Speaker 1: of people disagree with me. What's your take. I think

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Speaker 1: he has got a lane in this Democratic primary, potentially

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Speaker 1: all for himself, given that Mike Bloomberg isn't running, given

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Speaker 1: that you've got a few other people who said that

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Speaker 1: they're not running, who who could potentially occupy this center

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Speaker 1: left to left lane. I think Joe Biden actually have

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Speaker 1: a very very good chance of doing well. Now, whether

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Speaker 1: he wins the nomination with a different question, but I

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Speaker 1: think he can be there in that final two or three.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's very interesting thing. I've told you guys

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Speaker 1: who've got this class on campaigns that I'm teaching this

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Speaker 1: quarter at Stanford wrapped up yesterday and we had two

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Speaker 1: experts right after my sailing practice that is, that is,

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Speaker 1: if you know how to sail at all. But but

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Speaker 1: but the interesting thing about this was that both of

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Speaker 1: these experts said they thought that there wouldn't be any

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Speaker 1: more than two most and most sweet candidates by the

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Speaker 1: time we get to Super Tuesday next year, which I

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Speaker 1: thought was fascinating, given that it's like a twenty person field,

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Speaker 1: and they think it's gonna win no, very very quickly.

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Speaker 1: And they both thought that Biden was going to be

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Speaker 1: there in the end simply because if he decides to run,

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Speaker 1: he's going to be able to occupy a part of

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Speaker 1: the primary uh lane, He's gonna have his own lane

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Speaker 1: that that's going to allow him to to essentially be

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Speaker 1: unopposed for for this set of votes. And so I

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Speaker 1: tend to agree with that. I think Biden's going to

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Speaker 1: be there at the end. I don't know whether he'll

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Speaker 1: win it or not, but I think he'll be there.

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Speaker 1: I just wonder if he comes out and and and says, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm a capitalist. These people who can't say, yes, I'm

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Speaker 1: a capitalist, I'm a capitalist, and no, the Green Deal

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Speaker 1: is not gonna work. It's unworkable. It's unworkable from the start.

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Speaker 1: When I'm here to make sure people have good jobs,

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Speaker 1: blah blah blah, and just completely separates himself from all

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Speaker 1: that that other crowd. Well man, and then that message.

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Speaker 1: I think he's gonna play like crazy in the hard

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Speaker 1: hat Midwest and the kind of wobbly you know, Wisconsin

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Speaker 1: working class voter. I think that work. Yeah, I think

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Speaker 1: that point of view. I think there's two things. One

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Speaker 1: is just his the way that he manages to handle

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Speaker 1: these questions, and if it is a sort of matter

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Speaker 1: of fact, like, hey, this is just where I am.

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to obfuskate. I'm not going to try

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Speaker 1: and confuse people about my point of view. You know,

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Speaker 1: I thought it was just crazy how John Hick and

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Speaker 1: Looper is the guys from Colorado, the former governor who's running.

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Speaker 1: He even refused to admit he with a capitalist. The

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Speaker 1: guy's a serial answerp for or he is a sea.

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Speaker 1: And I agree with the Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks.

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Speaker 1: He said, if pick and Luoper can't say yes, I'm

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Speaker 1: a capitalist, the Democrats are really in trouble. It's nuts.

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Speaker 1: It's nuts. So so I think the first thing is

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Speaker 1: you have Biden able just to be straight like that,

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Speaker 1: and Gon'll help him. And the second thing is you

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Speaker 1: guys are absolutely right. If you look at the makeup

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Speaker 1: of the Democratic primary electorate. Yes, you've got people who

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Speaker 1: are progressive and who are leftists, but you've also got

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Speaker 1: people who have practical people who say, look, we got

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Speaker 1: to figure out a way to beat Donald Trump, and

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Speaker 1: in the Midwest, the Biden message and the Biden style

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Speaker 1: I think will sell very well. So I think those

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Speaker 1: two things will work to a befit. It'll be interesting watch,

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Speaker 1: what with his history of neck sniffins and and the

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Speaker 1: rest of it. But is the host of the podcast

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Speaker 1: Crossing Lines with Lanten and if you like politics, it's

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Speaker 1: absolutely must listen. Uh Lan. He is also a fellow

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Speaker 1: with the Hoover Institution Lectures at Stanford. Lan he good

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Speaker 1: to talk to you as always. Thank good, Thanks, Please

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Speaker 1: tweet at Lane and let him know you're beloved on

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Speaker 1: the Armstrong and Getty Show or listen to the podcast

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Speaker 1: or something. He's a great guy. Yeah, Sean had a

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Speaker 1: good question maybe for next week on is the person

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Speaker 1: who wins the Democratic primary going to be the person

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Speaker 1: most likely that could beat Trump or not. That's what

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Speaker 1: they gotta figure out, right,