 Welcome back to Think Tech. This history is here to help, and I'm Jay Fidel, and the handsome young man is Carl Ackerman. Good afternoon, Dr. Ackerman. Good afternoon, Mr. Fidel, and you are again the supermench that I always love to talk to. Today, we're going to ask a question, a rhetorical question. Can Joe Biden hold the line, or will the GOP chaos undermine his campaign? We forget that he has a campaign running, too. All we see is Trump in the headlines, on the channels, on the cable channels, on the news, the analysts. They will talk about Trump's campaign, but they don't talk about Joe Biden's campaign. In fact, he has a campaign going. And of course, his campaign success, his campaign, is going to run on two things, how well he does, and how much criticism he gets and lies from, you know, the Trump campaign. That's a combination of things. So how is he been doing in running his campaign against the GOP mega campaign? There's a lot of things happening, a lot of factors in play. Can he swing his public opinion in his favor? Because right now in the polls, he's not doing all that well. Will the voters understand the constructive things that Joe Biden has provided and is providing to the country as against the damage and the criticism and the insults that Trump has done to him and his administration and the country? How will all of this change history? Because you will have to agree with me, here on history is here to help, that this we are living in, again, an inflection point, an historical moment in the world, in the history of the United States and humanity. Now this is going to work out. Carl, do you think that Joe Biden is going to prevail in this election just a little more than a year from now? You know, Jay, maybe I'm one of the few people, but I'm very optimistic about President Biden's chances. And the reason I am is because, and I'd mentioned this to you privately at one point, is that if you take all the people that voted for Joe Biden in the previous election, are those people going to change their mind? And my answer to that question is, especially if Trump is the other candidate, I think not. The only way that I think that Joe Biden will not win is that if people do not show up at the polls, or we have a different candidate besides Trump, who happens to be the former Trump appointee to the United Nations. That could be a tough one. But the way things are going now, and the proof in the pudding is in New Hampshire, these national polls are showing Trump and Joe Biden, former President Trump, President Biden, kind of equally aligned in the 40 percentage points. But in New Hampshire, Joe Biden is up by 10 or 12 points. So if I think it would go state by state, that's going to be a different outcome. And of course, if you go to blue states like California, I mean, it's going to be an overwhelming avalanche of voters for Joe Biden. Of course, we have to abide by the electoral system. What did I see recently in one of the newspapers I read that they're not following polls anymore because they have no confidence in polls. I'm not sure that they're talking about the polls that favor Trump or Biden right now, because they're in some ways not really believable. Or they're just saying that the mechanics of polls these days in the political world in which we live are not reliable. But suffice it to say that we hear a lot about Trump, the newspapers, the cable are filled with Trump. We don't hear as much about Biden. And it's Trump's campaign that seems to be, you know, the news, the entertainment, if you will, the reality show, if you will. Joe Biden is almost hard to remember that he's actually running a campaign against the Republican candidate, which we know very well because that's stressed every day that Trump is likely to be the Republican candidate. So, you know, I don't know if people are getting it. I don't know if they realize what Biden is doing for us or trying to do and how he is, you know, a decent law abiding kind of guy. I don't know if they fully understand that. They may be looking for entertainment, you know, shot in Freud, you know, shot in Freud, where people want to see a failure. It makes them happy to see a failure. And that's what Trump is tapping into. He wants to see Biden look like a failure. He wants to capitalize on anything that goes wrong. For example, Afghanistan didn't do so well, although yesterday General Milley said that he would do it the same way if he had to do it again. I think that was, you know, rhetoric. But bottom line, though, is that I don't think, Trump, I don't think Biden is as exciting as Trump. I don't think he captures our imagination. I don't think he entertains us as well as Trump does. And at the end of the day, this is all one great big phantasmagoric reality show, isn't it? Well, yes. And I think that, you know, when I'm going to coin this term first here with you, Jay Fidel, and with ThinkTech, and I think what President Biden has to do is he has to talk about his doctrine. And he hasn't actually said anything really about the Biden doctrine. And he has a specific doctrine that he goes back to all the time. And if people understood this within three basic principles. One, internationally, he wants to promote democracy around the world and avoid the autocrats like we see in China and around the world in places like Cuba and North Korea and, of course, Vladimir Putin in Russia. Number two, he doesn't want to put, and this is where Biden doctrine is not as warmongering as probably the Truman doctrine. I mean, Truman, in his doctrine, he wanted to put troops on the ground. Biden does not. And the reason he doesn't want to put American troops on the ground anywhere is because of his son. And there's no accident that he carries the rosary of his son around who probably died because of his service in the army and of those giant chemical pits that he was in there. And the third thing which is new for a doctrine for an American president is that he is a promoter of everyone getting a fair deal. And what I mean by that is that he is a president that does not tolerate racism, anti-Semitism, anti or any kind of ethnic group. And it's no accident that it was African American women promoted him to be president and were the launching pad for him in South Carolina last time. And so this, again, this Joe Biden doctrine is very strong. And he should emphasize that because every time he speaks, you know, most candidates say, and God bless America, which is a wonderful statement. You know, there's no arguing with that. But that's not what Joe Biden says. He said, God bless our troops and make sure they're safe. You know, this is a guy who utters his doctrine every time he speaks, at least part of it. And the Biden doctrine, we are here on Think Tank to explicate which I just did. And I think that will help him in his campaign. But he has to hit it hard. And his promotion of democracy is the most important thing that anybody could do at this particular point in history, I think. There you go. Being rational again. It's your credentials, Carl, that make you so rational. And it's your world view making you so rational. But there's a lot of people in this country that don't have that view and aren't rational. And they can hear it. You know, for example, you know, we went and looked at the written platform of the Democratic Party versus the Republican Party a week or two ago. And I was really disappointed in the Democratic platform. It goes on and on and on in small type and find it on their website. And by the way, nobody knows who the chair of the Democratic Party is. P.S., it's Jamie Harrison, who ran against what's his name, Lindsey Graham in South Carolina and lost. And he is no great shakes in terms of a speaker, you know, of a person, a leader. There is no leader of the Democratic Party, I'm afraid to say, except Joe Biden. So what we have is this platform that is really, you know, a dishcloth, washcloth, what do you say? It's sad sack kind of platform. It articulates all the right things and great length, but it doesn't get your blood going. And that's a good reflection of where we are in this time of politics. It mentions, as I remember, it mentions Trump's name, like only once in 50 pages of the platform. It mentions the word Ukraine, like only once at the end in this platform. And I'm saying, you know, get my blood boiling, will you? Will you please do that? And I'm not saying that the Republican platform had any really, any meat in it. And, you know, it's like the Republicans don't have a platform. But it was more exciting, I'll tell you. And it got your blood boiling, if you're a Republican, it did. So that's one thing. The other thing is that, you know, here on Think Tech, we have often remarked that Biden doesn't have the energy. And energy counts when you're talking to 330 million people. Energy is really important to win a campaign. And you have got to respond to Trump's energy with your own energy. And we've been, you know, essentially criticizing Biden for not being more energetic when he speaks. He's just as slow. And his speaking does not get your blood boiling. So as if the people in the White House said to him, his advisor said to a few days ago, hey, Joe, you got to get more excited about your speaking. You've got to act like a candidate. You've got to respond. You got to, you know, call it out when Trump makes these ridiculous statements. And he did. He made a speech. And I know you saw it. And I saw it after you did. And I was very impressed with this speech. And it was the best speech in my, for my money that Biden has ever given, for sure. And he called Trump out and all that. But you know what? It wasn't energetic enough. And it only happened once. He's got to do that every day, all the time. Whenever Trump makes these outrageous statements, he's got to do something. He has not convinced the Democrats, the people on the fringe, the independents, if you want, and certainly not the Republicans, that Trump is a monster. Now, if we're rational, we know that Trump is a monster. But there's a lot of people in this country that don't know that. And it's up to Joe Biden to establish that. He's being much too Mr. Nice Guy. You agree? Well, I think that's true. And the other thing is, I think that we have to urge all of our compatriots, you know, everyone on the left and the right, Republican or Democrat, that we have to return to a notion of civility. And I think that's all of our jobs. And, you know, I think Biden, President Biden, I don't want to call people by their last names without their due titles. You can do that. You can do that. I'm happy that you're doing that. You're doing that for both of us. Well, thank you. But President Biden, you know, is someone who believes in civility. And, you know, I think that when he calls out on President Trump, and I want to put it aside here, you know, when President Trump was elected, even though I identify with the Democratic Party now, and I have been a Republican in my past. But when he was elected president, I accepted that. I mean, you know, he won duly and he was democratically elected. And I think that what we have to do is convince our brethren in the far right of the Republican Party that, you know, that Donald Trump did, indeed, lose the election. And maybe they will come to this right kind of truthful understanding at some point. What is that? How do you do that? How do you do that with medicine? Certain a change in diet, perhaps? I think you just have to keep, you know, being calm and saying, you know, I think that Mr. Acosta on CNN News is my, I think he's the new Walter Cronkite, because he really is very calm in dealing with these issues. And if you notice the people on Fox News are always, they're always so angry. And I think we have to stop this anger in civil discourse and things like this. But the reality, Carl, is that these people in that bubble, they're not going to buy it. They're not going to buy it. What's the name? Robert Costa. He's a brilliant journalist. And I saw a piece, I guess it was a front line interview of him recently, and he was fabulous. On the other hand, they're not going to watch him. They live in their bubble. They're going to look at Newsmax. They're going to listen to Sinclair Radio. They live that stuff. And, you know, and honestly, on the other side of it, you and me, we live in our bubble, too. So how do you get from one bubble to the other? How many times today have you called up a MAGA GOP Republican and convinced him to change his views? Well, you know, I haven't done that today, but, you know, there are members of my extended family that are Trump supporters. And, you know, I think you just talk to them and, you know, say to things, say things to them, like for example, are you worried about, you know, all of these court cases? And, you know, the current court case in New York has to do with corruption, you know, business corruption. And, you know, and there's, you know, you have to think, and when you talk to them logically, you have to say, either everyone in the judicial system is against Trump, or alternatively, you know, Donald Trump made some mistakes and they were pretty critical mistakes and they were anti-democratic mistakes. So I think I still have hope, but I think with those Republicans who have doubts about Trump, you form a coalition, as the president just did, and with the Democrats, and we got a budget from our Congress. And I think that that's the way you do things. And I think that what will happen eventually is that we saw this just operating in the legislative parts of our government is because of the far, far right-wing guys that are, you know, like Gates. With those kind of guys, it's going to be hard. You know, it's going to be very hard because I think that they have a different agenda and it's going to be very difficult to work with them. But I think the great majority of Americans are within the great middle and I think that's that's something else. I think though, Jay, if I were running the Biden campaign, I would focus on the same thing that people focused on, you know, when the Republicans offered Barry Goldwater, even though Barry Goldwater turned out to be a fairly upright standing guy later on in his career. And that would be foreign policy because, you know, I initially thought when Trump was elected, there might be hope for him in foreign policy because no one can figure out what the heck he was going to do because he was an outsider and he might have had some additional ideas. What I've discovered now is that, you know, he wants to do things that will make him look good only and the United States is really, you know, a far down the line in terms of what he wants in terms of importance. So to give a man like Donald Trump the keys to our nuclear arsenal, I think it's a mistake, not because he's a bad man, but because he's not educated enough, in orange. Oh, I think you're really, you're really giving, you're giving him much too credit, much too much credit. He is a monster in every way. If led to his own devices, he will destroy the world. To say nothing about civil liberties, our rule of law, our democracy, our constitution, he will destroy it and he will destroy Europe. He will destroy everything he touches. When I say he's a monster, I mean it. I know that. And I think that there are checks and balances that were put into place that prevented him from doing things that were dastardly. But my point of contention here is that, you know, he may have committed monstrous acts and things like that, but I try to figure out, you know, what motivates people, you know, on a personal level. And, you know, his whole motivation comes from self-aggrandizement. And if you read his niece's book, which I did, you know, this comes from the fact that, and I think everyone in America should read it, that he can't accept loss in any form. So this whole election fraud that he has tried to implement comes from this deep set in security. And so he really is not qualified in any way to be President of the United States. And of course, if I were an employer, I wouldn't hire him because he's not for the general good. He's only for the good of himself. And let me say one more thing about President Biden. He understands, unlike Donald Trump, under the former president, that Vladimir Putin is someone that you can't compromise with, meaning you might be able to, you know, form agreements with big term. But he understands that Vladimir Putin thinks in this the following way, that the West is always going to threaten Russia, and the West is decrepit and decaying, and only Russia, Mother Russia, can save humanity. And if you're negotiating with someone like that, it's like negotiating with Adolf Hillar. You have to show him power. And as you know, the Polish president was saying the other day, look, he remembers when the Nazis invaded on one end and the Soviets invaded on the other. If not only President Biden and the US Congress don't stop Putin now, we're going to have to put a man on the ground and stop him someplace else in a NATO country. And that may lead to World War Three. But Biden's foreign policy, including Afghanistan, I may add. Remember the slogan now during the Vietnam War, where you didn't understand that it was not a domino theory. It was, you know, basically people who wanted to settle their own issues in their own country. And there was a slogan that said, out now. And what we have to do is make sure that Vladimir Putin is out now from the Ukraine. Because Putin is, you know, a bad guy in history. You convinced me, Carl. I'm going to vote for President Joe Biden. But the question is whether, you know, the base will vote for Joe Biden, and the answer is probably not. First of all, there'll be suppression votes. The Republicans have already put systems in place that will suppress a lot of votes, including minority votes and African American votes. So it won't be an accurate representation of what the electorate wants to do, even to start. Secondly, there'll be all kinds of litigation as last time. But what troubles me most of all is the connection, the liaison between Trump and Putin, because I think at the end of the day, Ukraine is right in the center of this campaign. So Biden wants to support it. Trump doesn't. Trump is tapping into the populist isolationist movement in this country. And the Republican conservative movement that says, we don't want to spend a penny for Europe, for NATO, for the EU, for the United Nations, let them do what they want to do with none of our business. Okay. And that's really an expression of what Vladimir Putin wants. There was an article yesterday about how Putin was going to use his internet research agency, his social media propaganda machine, to try to get, this is from American intelligence now, to try to get the Congress, and especially the Republicans, but some Democrats too, and to go soft on supporting Ukraine with weapons and money. And so far, he's done some of that. Maybe a lot of it, we don't know. But if he's able to stop Congress from supporting Ukraine, I think the, you know, the syllogism is clear. Ukraine's going to lose. And if Ukraine gets swept over by Putin and the Russians in a war of attrition, which is what Putin is doing, then Trump is going to blame Biden. He's going to make that the centerpiece of his complaint against Biden, just like he complained against Biden regarding Afghanistan. Same thing. Biden is weak. knows how to do this, and I alone can fix it. And I am very worried that the effect there is that, A, Trump wins and does all those monstrous things. I mean, monstrous things that you know he will do. B, we will lose our connection, our support with Europe, the EU, NATO, the United Nations, all of those things. Trump will turn his back on all of that. And see, you know, Vladimir Putin will have his way. He will, right now, he's, you know, essentially attacking. He's already got Belarus. He's attacking Poland with his various, you know, non-kinetic kinds of attacks. He's attacking Slovakia. We saw that. He's attacking Hungary. We saw that. Okay. All these countries are under his attack right now. And I think that he's moving while we're not watching. It's like a magic trick, you know, what's happening behind his back, which we don't see. I mean, we have to read the paper carefully. But in fact, he's moving west into the old Soviet bloc. And if he is able to succeed at that, we're going to have another kind of world, and it won't be pretty. And I don't think the Republicans, or the base, or the conservatives, or the GOP magas, or the people who would vote for Trump understand the stakes here. It's very scary, and it affects you and me. Because if that monster becomes President of the United States, you can kiss your civil rights goodbye. And, you know, Jay, it's profound that you say that because you're a lawyer. And you know, more than anyone, you know, you've studied the law, you've studied the law in the United States, which you and I both love. And, you know, we think the United States is just a wonderful country. And I think, I think, you know, when you go back to the withdrawal of Afghanistan, this is part of the Biden doctrine. He wanted to get American troops away from harm's way. Now, in the pullout, it was messy. And I think no one had known how the Afghan army would just collapse so quickly. But, you know, there's some blame to be cast in that debacle. I mean, I don't think anyone can get away from it. And I'm sure if Biden were to do it again, he would do it very differently. In terms of he would withdraw, but probably withdraw much more gradually, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, I really don't know. I can't speak for the president. But he does not want at this point to be sending American troops into the Ukraine. And if we do not support the Ukraine, we may have to send troops on the ground. And Joe Biden, as part of the Biden doctrine, wants to preserve democracy by giving aid to other countries, not by jeopardizing the American soldier. And I think most people see it this way. And, you know, I think the person who said it best was Lynn Cheney. And Lynn Cheney came out and she said, those Republicans who are not supporting Ukrainian aid are appeasing. Appeasing, Vladimir Putin. And that's the appropriate word. Well, you remember where appeasement led in World War II? The more you appease, the more likely you're going to have to have troops on the ground. Lynn Cheney is absolutely right. And so is Biden. The problem is, do people understand this? He's got to get up there. This is all a matter of rhetoric. You remember, well, you probably don't remember. But in the 30s, FDR had his fireside chats every week on the radio. And he had a huge effect on public opinion. And during the war, he kept on doing that. He knew that he could not initiate a war. He could not maintain a war unless he had public opinion behind him. Right now, don't think he has that. This is a big problem. And if it is the centerpiece of the campaign, and I believe it is or will be the centerpiece of the campaign, he's going to lose the campaign. So what has to happen here is he has to get more more more rhetoric, stronger rhetoric, and he has to do it regularly. And he has to get people to join him. You know, it's just him. Who else is speaking? And you can't you can't say, well, MSNBC, could you deliver the the message, please? Could you deliver Joe Biden's message? No, it's just him. Kamala Harris doesn't say blue. And the result is that, you know, he's not a good speaker. I'm sorry, there isn't enough energy going on here. Trump has the headlines. Trump knows how to play that game. And the Democrats are losing that game. If if you look at it rationally, and I look at it the same way you do, you know, Biden has done a fabulous job as a decent leader. He has helped our country in so many ways. So many initiatives he has tried, some he's failed, because, you know, they won't agree with him and they'll block him just so they can criticize him. But but the bottom line is that he has been a great president, historically great president in very difficult circumstances. But the people in the country don't realize this. We have got to make them realize this. And I agree with you, Jay. And let me let me be very specific besides the Biden doctrine, which Joe Biden has done is he took us out of COVID. We now have vaccinations and, you know, crazy people who don't want to get vaccinated. That's that's dangerous because they're going to die as someone who works in Medicare myself on, you know, every week. And the second thing he did is he gave put people's put people back to work. He basically gave people money in people's pockets. And the other thing that he did was the infrastructure bill. So I mean, you know, he's done everything right. And he's done things, because at times he can't cross over and talk to Republicans. And I think the speech you were referring to an all end here was a speech that he gave in Tempe, Arizona, when he was talking about his his friend, John McCain. And it was interesting to read both John McCain's book and Cindy McCain's book. And I think, you know, as John, John McCain was one of Biden's personal heroes and his friend. And he's he really thought that he was heroic and not allowing anyone else to be go go not allowing anyone not allowing themselves to go in front of anyone and in order to leave Vietnam, even though his the Vietnamese were negotiating with the United States about that because of his father's military status. And how brave he was, you know, flying sores over Vietnam itself during the Vietnam War. And he didn't collapse. He didn't he didn't buy into their propaganda. And he was tortured and everything. And the biggest, the thing that hurt me the most of the many things that Donald Trump has said are done, including, you know, the terrible racist comments about Mexicans and, you know, calling books like planners and Nazis, you know, an equal side to people who were protesting was, you know, you know, talking about John McCain and other military men as losers. I mean, what kind of a man, what kind of a person calls John McCain a loser? In what in what capacity? Well, I think he was speaking, he was speaking, Trump was speaking from his, his bone spur, which got him out of any military service. It's really extraordinary how he escaped the draft. He was a draft dodger in a word. And then he surrounds himself with military people as soon as he gets into the Oval Office. And he tries to use that as a way to control the military. So he can, you know, rely on the, for example, the insurrection act against Black Lives Matter, if you remember. I mean, listen, I haven't changed my mind. Nothing you have said made me, makes me feel differently about the monster characterization. I haven't seen him do anything good. Everything he does is bad. And if you give him a chance, he will destroy the country. Well, I, you know, I'm not disagreeing with you about his about what will happen if we, if we elect Trump again, I think there will be still some checks and barriers against him. But I do think that what one must do is, you know, respect the first time he was elected, he was our president. And I said that Donald Trump is our president. And I said that in argumentation with people who were, you know, on the far left and things like this. And I think that most Americans center around the middle and realize that and will realize, especially if that campaigning goes on the way you stipulated Jay, you meant you, that Biden has to hit on specific things. And my point in this conversation is that he has to outline his Biden doctrine. And he has to emphasize that, you know, allowing Donald Trump to have to hold the reins of foreign policy is sanity on putt on the part of Well, let me close with this because we're running out of time to allow Donald Trump to run this reality show with himself on the headlines every day is Biden's biggest mistake. He has to respond to him in kind every day. And he has to get people around him in his administration likewise to respond. And I only want to mention one other thing on 60 minutes this past Sunday. We had an interview of Merrick Garland. And it was the first interview that Merrick Garland has given as as the Attorney General. And it was really impressive. It was pure Merrick Garland. Without fear of favor, he's going to enforce the law. The president doesn't tell him what to do. He does it as the the Attorney General for the people of the United States. It was a remarkable thing. But the most important part of that interview for me was when the interviewer said to Merrick Garland, why are you doing this? What makes you, you know, what makes you so dedicated to this notion? And Merrick Garland actually got very emotional about this. I don't want to say teared up, but it was right there. He said, my parents were involved, my family was involved in the Holocaust. And some of them were killed, murdered in the Holocaust. And, and I know what it means to live in a country without the rule of law, ruled by an autocrat, a dictator. I know what it means to live in a country without the in a country without the Constitution. And I care desperately about that. And that speaks for both of us, doesn't it? It does. And I'll just say that, you know, I always call you the mention, Jake Vidal, but we should both end this by just saying thank God for President Joe Biden and he is a real supermensch. Okay. But I'm counting on him to wake up and, and, and smell the argument. Thank you, Carl, Dr. Carl Ackerman. Having this discussion on history is here to help. Can Biden hold the line and we sure wish he can. Thanks you so much, Carl. Thank you, Jake.