‘Restoring the First Brick of Dignity’: Biden Supporters on His Inauguration (Published 2021)

From The New York Times. I’m Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

For millions of Americans, the past four years have been a national trauma. Today: As Joe Biden prepares to take the oath of office and become the 46th president of the United States, some of his supporters are filled with hope, some with concern, but all with relief. It’s Wednesday, January 20.

There he is.

Hey, Brian.

Hey, Michael. How’s it going? It’s been a long year, huh?

Has it ever.

Boy, oh, boy.

Well, Brian, I’m sure you remember the last time that we talked.

Yeah.

And let me refresh your — let me refresh our listeners’ memory. Because you surely remember it. It was right before Super Tuesday in the middle of the Democratic primary. And you were a deeply conflicted Democratic voter, because —

Yes.

— you loved Joe Biden. You had a personal connection with him dating back to your college days, when he spoke at an event that you organized. And what you told us when we spoke to you back then was that you feared Joe Biden was not necessarily the right candidate to beat back Bernie Sanders, who was ascendant at that moment, and whose views you disagreed with. And you frankly feared that Joe Biden was not necessarily the right candidate to beat back President Trump. And I want to just remind you of what you said back then. You said —

— very quickly. So just to put this very bluntly, you were wrong on both fronts, because Biden did beat Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday, and afterwards, he beat President Trump by 7 million votes. So is there anything you want to say for yourself?

Sure. This is what my daughter calls the “Brian Keane Effect.”

[LAUGHTER]

The very next day, Biden just rolled over everybody else and won all those primaries. It was unbelievable, right? It was Virginia. It was South Carolina. It was everything. And he was the de facto nominee —

Right.

— literally the next day. And that’s the Joe we were looking for. And by the way, the next day I voted for Joe. And so ultimately the Democrats picked the right candidate to do that.

What do you think was at the core of your wrongness? Not to put that too weird.

Well, my wrongness was actually more, not so much a wrongness as a struggle that I think a lot of voters were having, which is: Do we go with the dignity of a guy like Joe Biden, or the fight of either a Bernie Sanders or a Michael Bloomberg? And that was really the challenge. Which one is going to win? And actually I think at the end of the day, what we saw — and I think what this country sees, particularly now — is really that it’s the dignity of a guy like Biden that won people over.

In our original conversation, what you seemed to fear was that Biden, in terms of his energy, his presence, his very nature —

Yeah, right. Yeah.

— might not be up for the task of winning the primary and beating Donald Trump. And if that was your fear back then, is it your fear that he might not be up to the challenge of this very unique and pretty dark moment, now that he has won, which is somehow governing as president successfully at what feels like a breaking point in the United States?

Yeah, it’s good. That’s a — it’s a good point from before to now. And to me, he’s proven his mettle in the way he’s run his campaign.

What do you mean?

In part — well, because he’s been so consistent in not taking the bait. And he was always above it. And it was like, oh, this is a guy, he’s not going to get down there and play that name-calling game. He’s going to keep focused and do the job.

What you would call “dignity.”

Yes, exactly. And it was like, oh, he’s already president.

It sounds like you’re saying that Joe Biden will model the unity he wants himself in his conduct as president. And so I wonder what signs, or images or rhetoric you will see from him that makes you think that he’s on the right track towards trying to build unity in this moment?

Well, in order to build unity, I think we have to almost break some of the notions that we assume, which is: What is unity? Because quite frankly, to some folks, unity sounds like weakness right now. Oh, you know what? We’re not going to have unity. How can I stand there with people who have, quite frankly, stood and watched people invade the U.S Capitol?”

They incited them.

Right. They have to be punished for it. We can’t just be unified with these people. There has to be a punishment first before we can just be unified. People need to be held accountable before you can say everything’s OK. And that I think that’s true, whether someone’s five years old and they broke a window. And you can’t just say, hey, no, it’s OK. You have to actually show that, no, you actually have to fix the problem before you can say, hey, you’re never going to do it again. And a coup attempt on the United States of America from within, I mean, that was un — it is unbelievable. It’s scary. Scarier to me than 9/11. I mean, that day, I was talking to my children, I’m like, do you understand? These are not — this is not a foreign invader. These are our neighbors. These are people from just an hour flight away. I mean, it’s like this is — we’ve never ever seen anything like this. And that needs to be fixed, so it never happens again. But there’s real opportunity here, to, by the way, use that as an opportunity to bring together the country and say, yeah, you know what? I am Joe Biden, and I am the president. And this is how it is going to be fixed. And there’s your strength.

Well, what if dignity, and modeling unity, and reaching across the aisle just isn’t enough and does not convince — and there’s very good reason to think it might not convince — tens of millions of Republicans who have been told Biden’s victory is illegitimate to see him as their president, and for there to be any healing? And is that something you fear?

Well, by and large, people are of good nature. And I think we really need to remember that, that we really are. Now, when we’re called to our worst natures, all of us are prone to actually perk up to our worst nature, and myself included. So we just — if we can be called to our best nature, we’re there already. So that’s kind of number one. And what I really think is fascinating is just social media — Twitter particularly — is a real challenge for free speech, quite frankly. And we’ve seen as soon as Trump is now off Twitter, the fake news is dropping precipitously. And that is unbelievable to me, that in fact, the President of the United States has been the one to create this fake news. And so it’s like, OK, well, you know, I can’t call fire in a crowded movie theater. Maybe I shouldn’t be able to say a lie to a million people. And that then actually may help the republic survive.

So you’re saying, just turning off that faucet is a step toward unity?

Huge. I mean, it really is huge. Now, the problem is not fixed. I mean, but it is a huge step. And it’s like, oh, hang on, everybody. We really don’t hate each other that much. Because I just found out that you’re not as terrible a person as I had thought. I just — I’m being fed constant information about how terrible you are. And if I am not fed that constant information about how terrible you are, because you’re not really that terrible, then maybe we can actually have a real conversation. Not that we all have to get along and hold hands, but maybe you’re just not that terrible a person. Like, we don’t have to talk about, oh, my God, can you believe what he did? No, I loved what he did. Oh, he hates these people. Now, well, I guess I hate those people then, too. We might as well hate them. It’s like, no, we don’t have to do that.

So just to summarize the Brian Keane theory of the case here is, turn off the flow of misinformation, inaugurate a president who represents dignity and a generally lower temperature in American politics, creates less drama all day, and you start to have a real shot at unity — Americans seeing themselves as people, not enemies, and the chance of actually getting big things done.

And that’s what I think we’ve done. By putting Biden in place, we are restoring the first brick of dignity to the United States and to the world.

I remember you telling me that when you were a young man in college and you first met Joe Biden — he came to speak at your political union — you had dreamed he would run for president. You’d go on a long political journey with him of skepticism and then affection, but you had that dream when you first met him. So now that he has done it, and he has won, are you scared? Are you grateful? Are you nervous? Are you excited? I mean, where is your mood, knowing the challenges that he’s going to face starting at noon on Wednesday?

Well, that’s so — all right, so I met him in ‘89, 1989. And it’s now 2021. So this is working out just like we planned. [LAUGHTER]

40 years later.

Yup. Exactly. 31 — 30 some odd years later now, this is exactly like we planned. This is unbelievable to me. This is the moment meeting the man. I swear to God. And he ran in ‘88. He ran in 2007. This is the moment meeting the man. And I swear, if he had won the other times, it would not be this momentous. But today, this is a president that this country needs right now after Trump. We always say politics is a pendulum. This is that swinging pendulum. But it is not the pendulum of left and right. It is the pendulum of personality. And this is the personality that we need — a man who is going to restore dignity through his own actions, his own faith, and his own faith in the American people. To actually restore dignity to our country, and actually, quite frankly to each other. We’re going to be better people to each other. And we need to be. Because we are.

Well, Brian, I want to thank you for making time for us again. We really appreciate it.

Any time. And really, thank you for having these discussions. I think it’s really important, Michael. And I really think — I know there’s a lot of concern and angst across the country about — just about all of this, but I think we’re a step closer to really unbelievable days ahead for all of us.

I’m Jenny Medina, a politics reporter with The Times. I met Erika Andiola earlier this year. She’s an immigration policy activist in Arizona, who famously heckled Biden over the Obama administration’s immigration record during a debate in the primaries.

And yet —

We’ll be right back.

This is Neena Pathak. We first spoke to Sharhonda Bossier back in the summer. She’s a 36-year-old activist who had been organizing as a part of the Black Lives Matter movement for years. When we spoke, the movement was newly energized by the ongoing protests and the outpouring of support following the police killing of George Floyd. Then the national conversation shifted to the election and the pandemic. We wanted to see if the Biden administration felt like a new opportunity for the movement.

Sharonda and many of her fellow activists also have complicated feelings about Kamala Harris, namely because of her experience in law enforcement.

But they also see the potential for greater opportunity with Harris than with Biden.

This belief is why Sharhonda worries about the safety of the incoming administration. It’s a worry that’s been with her essentially since the moment Biden was elected.

We’ll be right back.

Here’s what else you need to know today. Late Tuesday night, President Trump granted clemency to his former White House adviser Steve Bannon, who has been charged with defrauding Trump supporters in a fundraising scheme involving the border wall with Mexico. Bannon himself lobbied Trump for the pardon, one of many to friends and allies that are expected in the hours before Trump leaves office. And —

On his final full day as Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell held President Trump directly responsible for the attack on the Capitol during a speech from the Senate floor.

The remarks reinforced the view that McConnell is open to convicting Trump of inciting violence when the impeachment process moves from the House to the Senate. McConnell ended his speech by vowing a peaceful transfer of power later this morning.

The inauguration of President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. Eastern.

Today’s episode was produced by Neena Pathak, Alexandra Leigh Young, Sydney Harper, Austin Mitchell, Leslye Davis, Rachelle Bonja, Eric Krupke and Jessica Cheung. It was edited by M.J. Davis Lin, Paige Cowett and Lisa Tobin, and engineered by Chris Wood.

That’s it for The Daily. I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.