 It's Wednesday, 11 o'clock. It's January the 19th, 2022. That can mean only one thing. Welcome to What Now America, and I'm Tim Apachele, your host. Today's title is Joe Biden Needs an Agenda Reset. It wasn't more than a year ago and on January the 20th, 2021, when Joe Biden became President Biden. And at that time, he enjoyed a favorability rate of about 49 to 51%. Oh, the many things that have happened in 12 months. Here we are January 19th, and he hovers anywhere between 49 or, yeah, excuse me, 39 to 41%. He's dropped almost 10 basis points in favorability. And the question is, how did that happen? And what's he going to do about it? Coincidentally, he's at the podium right now, talking about this very thing on how he's going to reset his agenda. So we won't get the chance to listen to President Biden about that, but we'll have a better discussion. And with me today is Jay Fidel and Winston Welch. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Tim. Winston. Hey, you know, Jay, let's identify those things where that may correlate to, you know, cause effect to Joe Biden's drop of favorability. I know in previous shows, you thought it was in part due to the media kind of taking pot shots at them. But the question is, were those pot shots well deserved? What has happened in 12 months that would warrant his drop in favorability, only second to Donald Trump's low ratings back in the day? I'm trying to figure that out, you know, he was a great vice president. But, you know, if you say the buck stops here, it's problematic. He doesn't seem to have the moxie to convince people to get them fired up, to take strong decisions. And one of the points that we should discuss today is how come he didn't reach across the aisle in this voting debacle and actually talk to Republicans. He must have just assumed they would not agree with him. And that was that. He never approached Romney, for example. So I'm not sure if he has the stuff, and I think little by little it's being revealed. Afghanistan was not a success no matter how you put it. And, you know, I don't think his Department of Justice is doing very well, frankly. And, you know, other gaps as well. So what we have here is a lukewarm president who has lost his main two initiatives. And I think you're right to pose the question as to whether he should reset agenda or actually the question is, you say he needs to agenda reset. Well, the question is how can he do that? Because he's made so much of a fuss over build back better and voting rights, which is actually more important than build back better. Let me interrupt you for a minute, Jay. Let me interrupt you because right now he's at the podium. And what he's going to do to reset his agenda is talk about his accomplishments. And the question is, is that enough? Is it enough to talk about how he got the bipartisan infrastructure deal for 1.2 trillion? Is it enough to talk about how the employment rate has improved vastly in 12 months? Is it enough to talk about the 1.9 COVID relief bill? Is that a reset of the agenda? Or does he need to get something done that he can't get done? Yeah, that's old news. There you go. Thank you. News right now today is voting rights, which is I think first and build back better. And he's lost those. He's lost the two of them. To be president, it's like multiple chess games. You have a chess game with the adversaries, the GOP of it, a chess game with your own government, with your people around you. You have a chess game with public opinion. You have a chess game with Russia and China. It's like playing half a dozen chess games at the same time. And frankly, he's not good at that. Because what he's done here, I mean, it's classic chess mistake. He's boxed himself in. He's in check right now. I don't know how he gets out of that. He's lost the two major initiatives that he was camping on for 60, 90 days. Where do you go from here? There are no other. What is he going to do? Go to clean food? Is he going to go to the environment? I mean, he gets old. He keeps on trotting down the path with these initiatives and he loses each one. And that's what the Republicans want. They want to make a fool out of him. Can you argue that it's only been 12 months and, hey, I can only get so much done in 12 months? Can you use that argument? Well, at the outset, Trump stalled him on the transition. Remember that? And he didn't get information and Trump left him with all kinds of time bombs in the government and the people in the government. Louis de Joie is a perfect example of that. But there are many, many others. He left them with holes in the State Department and various other agencies. So, you know, he hit the plan that Trump had, regardless of his big lie and voting in Michigan, is that he wanted to set it up so Biden failed. And Mitch McConnell wanted us. And all the GOP, you know, sick of fans, they want to set it up so that Biden fails. And so the clock has been, by virtue of that, moving very fast. He should have had to keep up with that. He should have been talking about how they left him these time bombs for the past year. But he hasn't really made that part of his public face. So the result is, you know, the guy's struggling with this, that and the other thing. People don't understand the struggle. They don't understand the time bombs. And they see him failing, you know, one initiative after another. I don't know how a middle-of-the-road guy forget about a GOP or, for that matter, a progressive middle-of-the-road guy can say that Biden is doing a good job. We're all sympathetic. We all think he's decent and honest and his heart is in the right place. But we need a president. All right. Thank you, Jay. Winston, are you in agreement with Jay as far as the two primary items that is maybe a count for his 10-point drop in favorability is build back better and the Voting Rights Act? Is it something more than that? Or are those the two primary reasons, in your opinion, what's going on here? I don't think it's those two reasons. I think that he inherited a terrible mess when he took over as president, just barely able to take over based on an active insurrection by the outgoing president. This country had never been more divided than when Joe Biden took office. And while he may not be passing these huge pieces of legislation, he doesn't have the support of 50 percent of America to go into it with that. He doesn't have a Senate. He barely has a House right now. So he's inherited something where he has to walk the finest of lines. And he's relying on moral, ethical courage from our senators, from our representatives to get the job done. Now, can he do more? Could he have done things differently? Maybe. It's easy to hindsight 2020. But basically, what do we have with Joe Biden? We have a stable, sane, decent, honorable person in the White House who is guiding us through an incredible pandemic through what could have been a complete economic collapse, through divisiveness that we've never seen in this country before. We have a person where we don't have to follow 24-7 in tweets and figuring out what he's going to pull out of next or threaten to pull out of next. He's rejoined us into the international community. He has stabilized our country where there's millions of more jobs right now. Is inflation higher than it's been in years? Yes. Is it the levels of the 70s? No. Okay. Let me interrupt, because isn't it enough for him to discuss his accomplishments, to gain back his favorability rating? Or is that enough? Or is he going to have to do a whole lot more? And that is actually either get a Build Back Better Bill passed in some fashion and form and some form of voting rights. Either break it up in pieces and pass them on an individual basis, which it doesn't seem like that strategy is going to do much for him. Is it a combination of things? Or is it just talk about his 12-month accomplishments? I think he can stand on what he's been able to accomplish in 12 months. There's some significant laws that have been passed. And a lot of them that are important to the very fabric of our society, like things where you're increasing food stamp eligibility to the poorest families, or other things where we're trying to make a more equitable and just America. I think we're seeing that. But he also has a Supreme Court that I don't know, which whenever stuff comes out of them, we don't know where the wind is going to blow on that because we had one ruling that voted against mandates of 100 people with 100 employees or more. But the next day it was held up for health care workers or the next week. So he's got these enormous challenges in front of him. And I think what he might want to do is focus on the, I would call it more intangible, more bringing back the country to sanity, to calmness, to more even keel. And while, you know, we may press and say, he didn't do this, he didn't do that. Well, you know what? Having a sane, calm person, the country's still running. Last time I checked, I just filled up my car, you know, at the gas station. And there was no problem with taking my car to do that. I went and got milk too. Are there some bottlenecks? Let me ask you this. Hang on here. I just want to know, does he have a messaging problem? Is that his problem? Is it not getting good advice from his chief of staff or what? I think he does have a messaging problem. And I think he needs to focus on getting America back to itself, rediscovering America, rediscovering our decent, honest, common, shared core values. I think that is a problem. I think he has an entire wonderful group of people that are heading his various cabinets that he needs to let loose and be the Eleanor Roosevelt's for his Franklin Roosevelt because he's not getting out there and selling it. And he needs to sell it better or put someone in charge at selling it better. I mean, we got a Merrick Garland who's barely come up with any indictments or prosecutions. What was it the day before January 6th? We're seeing very, very little PR. He needs to ramp up the PR machine. Jay, you had an opinion here. What is it? Well, I don't think he can stand on his record because the public and the press is asking him, what have you done for us today? But I think his messaging is wrong. Because the way it all sets up is poor Joe. Poor Joe, he's taken on this big burden and all these handicaps and vulnerabilities and he just can't do it, poor bugger. And that doesn't work. You can't go off as soft and weak, especially in- Is this his chief of staff giving him advice to take that tact? I always think of Ron Klain as his closest, most rational advisor, but I don't know. I could be wrong. That's a wild guess. I like Ron Klain. I think he's a very smart guy and he's good at messaging. But what Biden is missing is kind of like, it's oblique of what Winston was saying. It's this, I'm trying. I'm a good man. I'm you. I'm a representative of a good man from the public. I'm John Q. Everyman is who I am. And I have certain skills and experience. But I have these problems that Trump left behind. And I have these problems about the divided country. And I'm trying my best. But please, you've got to understand that I can't, this is my operative statement, I can't do this myself. I haven't been able to do it myself. It's not a one-man band. Trump thought it was a one-man band. It is no one-man band. I need your help. I need all of you to either agree or give me away. Because if you just throw me out there and you throw all these darts at me and you make it so impossible, I won't be able to help you. I won't be able to help you. You've got to help me. This is going to be a partnership. Think of not, think not of what the country and I can do for you. Think of what you can do for me. And that John Kennedy idea really is what he should be messaging. We're in this together and I want your help. I can't do it without you. Well, speaking of what can't get done without just by himself, we have the dilemma of the Build Back Better and the John Lewis Voting Rights Bill and the other Voting Rights Act. Which one should he really focus on? And does he have to accomplish that? Does he have to get them both done or one done? Well, his big, strategic chess-playing problem here, I don't think he plays chess, honestly, is that he painted himself in a corner. He put all his eggs in those baskets, one first one, and when that failed, then the other. And when each of these, both of the two of them failed, he's in the corner. He's boxed in. What is he going to do now? Dog food? I mean, there's nothing left. Well, let's go back to your idea that we talked about. An initiative for him to adopt and marry now. There really isn't one. So he's got to find something else. Now, if it was me, I'd look for some new thinking. I'd look for something around the corner. I'd look for something out of the box. And that made me look. We have a problem with this voting business. A lot of what they're doing in these states is frankly unconstitutional. I'm launching my attorney general to take this up in court right now, because we have to at least get some judicial imprimatur on it before November or October, whenever that voting starts. That's one thing. The second thing is don't be discouraged. You guys still have the power to win the election, even though they're trying hard to disable you. You've got to get down there and vote. You've got to follow all the stupid rules they're putting. I am going to have my staff help you state by state, give you advice and marshal our collective efforts so that everybody gets a chance to vote. We will overcome. That's without legislation. That's with the use of the executive power. And may I say the Department of Justice, wherever it is. Okay. Good advice. Maybe you can listen to with Think Tech Hawaii. Winston, are you in agreement with Jay on that point? Or does one of those two bills have to get passed in order for either his favorability ratings to go up, or they salvage the midterm elections for the House of Representatives? Well, you still have Kristin Sistema and whatever it is she's purporting to hold back on wanting to have. Okay. Hang on. What is to prevent Joe Biden from picking up the phone to call Murkowski of Alaska, Portman of Ohio, or Mitt Romney and say, will you support a micro adjustment to the filibuster to allow voting rights bill to be passed? And what amendments to the bill would need to take place for you to vote yes and forget about Joe Manchin and cinema? It's an interesting question and begs to be asked because there are obviously some cracks in the front on the Republican side or the so-called Republican side. And there shouldn't be any opposition to people having fair and free voting in this country. It's a non-issue. Where it gets down in the weeds is you could argue whether or not people should have mail-in ballots or no mail-in ballots or whatever it is. You could take away the parts that seem most egregious to whoever doesn't like it and still pass something through that's better than what we have. But I do agree with Jay. Let the lawyers loose. Let them loosen every state and say, does this bill interfere with a person's basic right to vote as we understand it? And if it does, then sue now before the elections come down for the midterms. It's something that all Americans should be on board with, not just Democrats. Republicans, Democrats, it's an American thing. It's a bedrock value. Let the lawyers loose, but also start the messaging. And I think that idea of maybe at this point, he's already in the corner, as Jay said. He doesn't have Kirsten's system. He doesn't have Kirsten or Joe Manchin. And for whatever reasons they're holding out, I mean, the energy bill alone, when Joe Manchin owns coal companies, he's not going to vote against his best interests unless someone buys him out. So it literally buys his company. And even then, he comes from one of the red estates. He doesn't have a lot to lose in that battle. But there's others that maybe people of... And I don't know that Joe Manchin is a man of bad conscience either. And maybe Kirsten's system is of the same thought pattern that we should keep this theoretical filibuster. So we have 60 votes. Well, that's a nice idea in an olden day's time. But we also have to remember that the party that is not in power right now has one goal, as it did during the Obama administration. And that is to see this administration fail at any cost. Instead of coming together and saying, where can we support this man as he advances the interest of all of us as a nation? And that's probably exactly where he needs to go, as you suggest, is reach across to the Rob Portmans, reach across to the Mitt Romney's and to the Lisa Murkowski's. Is it an unfair criticism? I gotta say, that's a long shot. The Republicans are together. If they cross the line on that, they come the other side. Their political careers are pretty much dead. Okay. Well, I want to take that point, Winston. Is it an unfair criticism to say that, well, at least Donald Trump could whip everyone in line, and he has total unity on everything he wanted to get passed, whereas Joe Biden has the House, he has the Senate, and he has the pen of the executive office, and he can't whip two senators into line. Is that a fair criticism or not? No, because he never had those folks in line. I mean, really, Kirsten Sistema and Joe Manchin should have an R after their names in reality. And as I've said before, he should sort of make this sort of grand coalition and say, for those of you who are principled Republicans who believe in the values of your party, say, eight years ago, for those of you who understand the gravity of what's at stake here, I may not agree with you on many items, but it might be just the shade of color versus a completely different system that we're talking about. So if you can join with me, if you are a Liz Cheney type who was no liberal, if you can join in and say, what can we do that's going to preserve and protect our nation as we understand it, then you're welcome to join in in this. And I will do all I can to accommodate you in that. And that may mean that the progressive the AOC wing of the Democrats, that they may not be getting their wishlist passed. And that is just a reality to it's maybe for the better good, because he doesn't have any majority here. He is operating on nothing. So he has to reach across in this way that you're describing in order to get anything done in. Well, wasn't that what he said when he became president of the United States in his presidential campaign that I'm going to reach across the aisle and I'm going to get a bipartisan agreements on everything I try to get. Yet here we hear from Mitt Romney that he never called me whether he wanted my support on anything on this voting rights bill and the modification of the filibuster. Is that a full power or where does not getting the right story out of Mitt Romney? Probably a little bit of both. But if that's true and Mitt's saying basically call me with that and hold him to it and say, okay, I called Mitt and he said, no, I'm standing with Mitch McConnell. I'm just out to defeat every initiative you have. Let's take Mitt at face value and say if he hasn't called him then call in those senators and congressmen and congresswomen who may be seeing beyond last year and four years ago and might be saying, you know what, America is sick of the ranker. It's sick of the divisiveness. It's sick of the cult personalities. We need to go back to our basic principles. We need a principled Republican party. And there are people who are doing who in their states can run as principled Republicans of say eight years ago. And that is, that's true. Remember Lisa Murkowski was a write-in candidate. She buffed the system all the way. And I don't think that while it's that is a hard proposition in most states, I think you're seeing cracks throughout the opposition block there that hopefully will allow two or three or four or 10 to come through on the other side. Okay, great. Jay, what does bipartisanship look like on either Build Back Better or the Voting Rights Act? If to follow up on Winston's point, if Murkowski who's been in the gun sites of Donald Trump as far as him promising that he'll primary her and make her look bad as possible and Ron Portman who's not going to run again in 2024, what's the reason why these senators wouldn't want to come over on a bipartisanship basis on a reasonable bill, either Build Back Better or on the Voting Rights Act? My partisanship is not the name of the game here. It's like the Democrats are always being nice. And as Winston says, we have to appreciate Biden for being a fair man and honest man, a genuine article, but that's not what's winning the game. What's winning the game is the Republicans, they're doing war and they want power. They want to win this election in every state. They want to win both houses and they want to have their way. And Biden's not on the trail. He's not on the track for that. He's boxed himself in. So we try, we try. It's wishful thinking that they're going to rise to some moral level and see the light. Gentlemen, that's not going to happen. Is that why he's down 10 points? Because people realize that's not going to happen? We have a host in India. And I asked him one time whether he supports Trump. And he said, yes, I do. I support Trump. I said, why? This is in India 9,000 miles away. Why? Because he is strong. We need strong leaders. The world is moving towards strong leaders. Biden is not a strong leader. These guys are sworn to make him look weak and they are doing it. That's their motivation. And let me go back to something I wanted to say before. We, that means everyone, and especially the liberal press, look at mansion and cinema as if they were sincere, well-meaning, noble, high-principled people, and they're just acting out of their sense of principle and policy. I don't buy that at all. I don't think they're sincere. I don't think they're acting out of any altruistic means or interest in the public good at all, or the continuation of our democracy. They're not stupid. They know exactly what they're doing. And they're wrecking the whole thing. They're sinking the ship. And it's more than money. It's more than self-interest. Are they dinos? Are they really Republicans, like Winston suggested? Well, you said, let's put R next to their name and all that. I think they're operatives. I think they're working for McConnell. I think they have conversations with him and they're the greatest asset he has. They're swinging the whole thing, toward the Republican power structure. They're not sincere, honest, genuine, and they're not going to get that way. They're not going to change. So I don't know why we keep on banging our head on a wall, hoping, wondering, wishing that they're true self-interest or rather public interest and not self-interest will appear. It's not going to appear. Connected dots. That's one thing and think that we can do. We can follow these events and start to make conclusions. We've been covering this story for a year. They haven't relented on anything. Everything they have done is to kill time. Everything they have done is to make Biden look bad. Is that going to change? Forget about it. Stop wishful thinking. Don't count on them for anything. The only way he can do it is, A, talk to other Republicans. It's a long shot. B, talk to the public. And C, talk to the voters. The issue that will save this country is the voting in November. I'm not even talking about 2024. November, he's got to get people to go to the polls and jump over the hurdles and do somersaults to vote and win. And his entire structure and following should be directed at that, not fooling around with mansion and cinema. They are a waste of time. All right. When's the last question before final comments? And that is, President Biden has taken the hit in his favorability. If bill back better and voting rights does not get done, will the minorities party in the Democratic fold, do they just stay at home in November and say, I've had it. I'm not coming out to vote. I'm done. It didn't get done. So I'm done. And does the, you know, does the progressives of the Democratic party say he couldn't even get back, get billed back better done? I'm done. Does his numbers go down even further from where it is today? No, I don't think so. I mean, he's probably, yeah, there's a big chunk of the population that may not even know who the president is, honestly. And I don't know what that number is, but it's out there. We also have, you know, huge numbers of people that don't deal with any objective reality on any number of issues. So he may be at a bottom level, but it's also about where Donald Trump was, I believe, you know, in a low point. Remember, people weren't voting for Joe Biden. They were voting for not Donald Trump. That's still going to continue, whether it's a year from now or three years from now. And they don't want the chaos. They don't want the divisiveness. They don't want the rancor. They want to be able to sit down with their friends, families, co-workers and neighbors and have a talk about the flavor of peaches, or I don't know, you know, how nice their dog is. They don't want to have this anymore. And so Joe Biden, while he might not be passing major policy initiatives, he's not an FDR. He's not Ronald Reagan, but they're going to look at him and they can compare and contrast very easily with the substance and the character of the man in office and what that means for the nation as a whole. So I would say he does what Jay said, absolutely spot on. Get your messaging out. Get the voters to the poll. You're not going to get everything you want. You're not going to get, you know, paid help for taking care of your folks or a sick one. That's not going to happen yet. Maybe in some dream scenario in the future, whatever that was in that bill that was just not going to pass isn't going to pass. They got to deal with it. There's nowhere else to go. This is their party that they will eventually have to support anyway. So he needs to reach out. He needs to do exactly what Jay said. And he needs to turn on the PR machine big time and say, did you like it what it was like two years ago? You know, having nightmares and sweats and not being able to talk to your brother or your sister or your parents or your kids. No, you didn't like that. Much better to have things the way they are, even if there's not a lot getting done. I don't think Americans particularly care about Build Back Better or the Voting Rights Act. Exactly. I'm not sure that they're really even aware of what's in those things. So for people that want to discuss it, yes, but for the masses, they want a calm, sane, decent man. And they don't want inflation either, certainly. And they want an end to COVID. But compared to what we had, we've got him for another three years, by the way. So he has plenty of room to grow and to maneuver and to change and to get things done the way that he wants to get them done as best as he can, given his limited maneuverability here. Okay. Great final comment. Thank you, Winston. Jay, your final thoughts and words. Well, I'll track on something Winston said. He's got another three years. So right now, he's in the pits right now. Sorry. He made all these promises and invested his credibility into these two initiatives. And it didn't work at all. He looks weak. Sorry. At the same time, and this is so interesting, I went on the web and you can buy gear for Biden's campaign in 2024. You can buy hats and shirts and beer holders. You can buy shopping bags. Well, they might be collector's items because they're not, I don't think he's running. Well, I mean, this is an indication that maybe he thinks he should run. I wrote a commentary about this, and I think it's worth mentioning before we go off the air. One of the things that Biden has to do, he must do, is reinvigorate the Democratic Party and the slate, the ticket for 2024. Because what we need is people who will go out there and galvanize the Democrats. The most worrisome thing for all this trouble in Republican-led states is that people will not vote at all. They will be discouraged. I met a woman in China on one of my trips there, and I said, do you vote? And she said, no, I never vote. Why don't you vote? Because I don't think my vote means anything. And if the masses out there decide with all this noise and confusion, with all the Republican machinations in these state houses, they won't mean anything. They won't vote. And then we are sunk. Okay. You get the last word, and those are great words. I suppose after this show, we'll find out how Joe Biden is planning on resetting his agenda. News at 11, as they say. I want to thank Jay Fidel and Winston Welch for joining us today on What Now America. Please join us again at Wednesday at 11 o'clock for What Now America. I'm Tim Apachele, your host, and hope to see you then. Aloha.