“Tamara Keith and Lisa Lerer on Biden-Harris performance abroad, GOP midterm strategy”, PBS NewsHour

Judy Woodruff, Tamara Keith and Lisa Lerer, June 14, 2021

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• Judy Woodruff:

  With President Biden talking national security, climate change and more with leaders abroad, how could his performance affect his packed legislative agenda at home?

  Here to analyze that and more are Tamara Keith of NPR and Lisa Lerer of The New York Times. Amy Walter is away.

  It is so good to see both of you. Thank you for being here, Lisa and Tam.

  And, Tam, I’m going to start with you on President Biden’s trip.

  First of all, how different is this from the trips we saw President Trump make? And if it is seen as a success, could that translate into something that helps him here at home?

• Tamara Keith, National Public Radio:

  So, I was on President — former President Trump’s first international trip, when he went to NATO,and there was this big question, will he or won’t he reaffirm the U.S. commitment to Article 5, which is this mutual defense treaty?

  And he never said the words. And that was just one encapsulation of the drama that swirled around every trip he made to an international summit.

  It was very different with Biden. His first words almost when he got to NATO was to say: We’re totally solid. The U.S. is all in on Article 5.

  And that was certainly on purpose. In terms of whether this will translate domestically, foreign trips, international relations are a critical part of the presidency. It is one of the most powerful parts of the American presidency, and yet it doesn’t necessarily get a lot of benefits back home.

  I will note one funny thing is that build back better is his infrastructure initiative. Well, he has exported the terminology. And now the G7 leaders are talking about build back better world. So, the branding, at least, he’s exporting it.

• Judy Woodruff:

  So, Lisa, how do you say this? And this question of whether it could have any bearing on what he’s trying to do here at home, a lot of challenges.

• Lisa Lerer, The New York Times:

  Well, I think the jury’s still a little bit out, because the big, most sort of stressful part of this trip is going to be his meeting with Putin on Wednesday.

  Republicans I’m talking to, strategists already say that they’re thinking of casting President Biden as weak. They think — see that as a strategy that could work for them in the midterm elections. So, if this meeting with Putin doesn’t go well, he doesn’t show strength, it’s going to play right into the sort of Republican political tactics in some ways.

  And I do think a failure there could make him have a little bit more juice in these negotiations over the infrastructure bill back here that are going on in Congress. Of course, even if that summit with Putin is a great success, those negotiations are really hard. Not only does he have to win over 10 Senate Republicans, which is (AUDIO GAP) number, honestly.

  He also needs to keep his left flank, who would like to see a much bigger bill, one that includes things like climate change and much more spending, on board. And it’s just a really delicate line to walk.

  And I think, like, a failure abroad would certainly hurt that ability. I’m not sure a success, given how hard those negotiations are, helps him all that much.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Well, you’re both right. We do have several more days to go. We have got the big meeting with Vladimir Putin, Tam, yet to unfold.

  But, Tam, I want to turn to something you have been covering in the last few days, and that is Vice President Kamala Harris, some of the agenda she’s been handed. You went with her to Central America. President Biden has asked her to try to deal with the immigration issue.

  What did you see there? How is she handling this challenge?

• Tamara Keith:

  Part of her struggle on that trip was defining her role, which goes to the very beginning of her being given this assignment, which was, her assignment wasn’t the border. It was the root causes in Central America, the root causes of migration.

  But she had difficulty explaining that, in particular this high-stakes interview with Lester Holt on NBC. And it sort of hung over her trip. Part of her challenge is that the president’s Republican opponents have found that she is a much easier target than President Biden himself.

  President Biden is a known brand. He has been around forever. Vice President Harris is less well-known. And now she has returned to the U.S. and she is working on trying to juice vaccinations and get those numbers up. It’s a goal, that 70 percent goal, that the U.S. may not ultimately meet by the president’s July 4 deadline.

  And she’s also working on voting rights. That’s something during her trip, when she was in Mexico, she was very passionate and talking about concerns around voting rights. Legislatively, that looks like it’s going to be a challenge in Congress too.

  But she is starting to use the bully pulpit, and we’re going to see her tomorrow meeting with Texas legislators, who pushed back on an effort there. So it’s — she has a very large and broad portfolio at this point.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And a tough one, and, as you said, voting rights a big part of it.

  She was in South Carolina today, Lisa, talking about that. And I, frankly, want to use that to segue to something else going on in South Carolina. And that is, there’s a Republican congressman who surprised a lot of people, Tom Rice, in voting to impeach President Trump over his role in the January 6 mob takeover of the Capitol.

  And he’s getting a lot of flak. And now there’s real concern about whether he’s going to win reelection. He was in his district. He’s been in his district in recent days. What does it look like for him and for any of these Republicans who stood up to former President Trump?

• Lisa Lerer:

  Yes, well, it doesn’t look pretty. And it certainly doesn’t look easy.

  The Republican 10 — or the impeachment 10, as some Republican strategists have started calling them, they face a tough road in some cases. I mean, support for President — former President Trump has become a litmus test in that party, as has whether Republicans believe that the election was fairly decided or they sort of buy in to these baseless claims that Biden is an illegitimate president.

  We know from polling that a lot of Republicans do. About two-thirds of the party say they have questions about the outcome of the 2020 election. Those are questions that Trump is very eager to stoke.

  And I can tell you, I spent a lot of time last week talking to Republican voters and Republican activists, local party officials. And the thing that comes up over and over again is not the response to COVID or the economy. It is the 2020 election and the role that former President Trump should play in the party.

  So I think it is a tough road for Republicans who broke with the former president. I think they will have a lot of work to do to get right with their base. It’s unclear if they will even be able to accomplish that. It sort of depends how the next year plays out.

  I think it’s also important to remember that former President Trump also has a lot riding on these midterms. It’s going to be a real test of his strength, whether the people that sided with him, the candidates who side with him and the candidates that he endorsed are eventually successful.

  I think a lot of Republicans will be looking for that to gauge how strong President — former President Trump remains and what his political future could look like.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And, Tam, the kind of flak, if you will, that Congressman Rice is facing among his constituents is a message to many other Republicans who may be even thinking about whether they should put any distance between themselves and the former president.

• Tamara Keith:

  You know, when it comes to former President Trump and the Republican Party, there is basically no room for a Republican elected official who separates themselves from President Trump.

  I mean, there might be room for them with cable TV hits. But, in terms of their political future, there is a long line of R retiring or R primaried — the Republicans who stood up to President Trump tend not to be elected Republicans for all that much longer.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Well, we are — we will continue to watch that unfold, because even though that — those midterms are November of next year, they’re on a lot of people’s minds right now.

  Tamara Keith, Lisa Lerer, thank you both. We appreciate it.

• Tamara Keith:

  You’re welcome.

  PBS NewsHour