Via America’s Lawyer: The first round of presidential debates left progressives wondering whether Biden was giving them the stiff arm. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.

Transcript:

*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Mike Papantonio:             Joe Biden might’ve done a job appealing, a really good job, appealing to moderate voters last week in the debate. But the truth is he didn’t do himself any favors trying to distance himself from Bernie Sanders and all of the progressives that support Bernie Sanders. I have Farron Cousins with me from trial lawyer magazine to talk about it. Wow. I mean, you know, it seemed to me that Bernie Sanders was out front in, for him. I mean, Bernie Sanders took it on the chin by all of his base to come out and defend Biden. And then by the other night, what was it? Just an old folks moment or the medication wasn’t right. What happened?

Farron Cousins:                  Well, Trump actually did a really good job of, of making Biden, offend really, the progressive left of the democratic party. He constantly said, well, you, you, Bernie Sanders is pulling the strings. You like Bernie’s plan and Joe Biden would have to say, no, I don’t. I am the democratic party. Joe Biden said at one point, and that’s a terrifying thought to anybody who calls themselves a Democrat. But he, Trump laid the bait for him. Because as soon as Joe Biden would say, no, I don’t like Bernie’s plan, Trump would say, ah, you just lost the progressive left. It was a brilliant trap to be honest, the first time I’ve seen Trump really play politics like that, and Biden fell right into it and, and angered and the entire progressive left.

Mike Papantonio:             Yeah, I mean, but he went out of his way. I mean, he attacked the guy, Bernie Sanders, this old character who’s there for him, goes on the air for him, says, this is the guy. Progressive’s unite around Biden. Please do this for me, Bernie. And then this freak in the middle of the debates starts calling him, you know, like he’s some crazy old socialist, same way with AOC, right?

Farron Cousins:                  Yeah. Distanced from all the policies that they’ve put forward, the green new deal. And even though Biden has a very good climate plan, he made certain to tell people, this is not the green new deal. I do not support the green new deal, which is actually a popular piece of legislation or an idea really. It’s not necessarily legislation.

Mike Papantonio:             Okay. So well, Markey and AOC. Okay. You got Markey and AOC with, with this legislation that has some real potential.

Farron Cousins:                  Yeah.

Mike Papantonio:             It’s got a lot of crazy stuff in it, but it’s got some real potential, to tell you the truth. So the last thing he ought to do is distance himself. He needs to embrace it, say, this is a good idea because look, you know, he’s our next president. I, and if I’m looking at the polling I’m looking at today, I mean 16 points after the debate. What’s your take?

Farron Cousins:                  Well, that, that to me was shocking. I immediately thought after that debate, I said, okay, Biden went in with the most to lose and I don’t think he lost anything, but I don’t think he gained anything. You know, the whole thing was a chaotic mess. I mean, I think that is the best description of it.

Mike Papantonio:             Well, so let’s talk, let’s talk about that. I want to talk about the world looked at that chaotic mess, Farron. I mean, the world looked at it. What, what, as they looked at that chaotic mess, what did, what’s their take on it?

Farron Cousins:                  Well, they they’re shocked, one, that America has devolved into this because I think really this is the first time that the rest of the world is paying such close attention to, you know, things like our debates. They always pay attention to our politics, but not necessarily the way that we do. We see this all the time. This was nothing new, but the rest of the world finally got a good taste of what we have been seeing for 20 years, this disgustingness.

Mike Papantonio:             Okay. So here it is. From the UK, national humiliation, it made me weep. Dog whistling, blatant dog whistling. That was the, that was the night that we watched. Chaotic childish grueling. It was impossible to watch. A terrible storm that came from France. Germany, a TV duel, like a car accident between two dummies. I mean, so that was the take. Two old, crazy guys up on stage yelling at each other. I mean, how do you take anything? But the point is the point is Biden weathered it and I do believe he’s going to be elected President United States. You know, short of something I’m not seeing right now.

Farron Cousins:                  Right. I mean, based on everything we have available at this moment, it certainly looks like Biden has this. But I think the rest of the world is also a little shocked at this moment because they understand, and they’ve been dealing with Trump for four years. So they either say, well, we’ve got four more years of this or four years of this guy.

Mike Papantonio:             Yeah.

Farron Cousins:                  And neither one of those is a good prospect for them because we had both friends and enemies abroad.

Mike Papantonio:             Yeah.

Farron Cousins:                  Saying this is, this is hell. This is hell, what’s coming out of here.

Mike Papantonio:             Yeah. A lot of, a lot of the criticism was, this is your choice. Really? This is your choice.

Farron Cousins:                  Right 330 million people and we got these two bozos.

Mike Papantonio:             Yeah.