The New York Times - USA (2020-11-09)

A2 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2020

In a special episode of “The Daily” recorded after Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s defeat of Presi-

dent Trump, Michael Barbaro interviewed three Times journalists about pressing issues

in the coming days and weeks. Here are edited comments from Alexander Burns, a na-

tional political correspondent; Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent; and

Jim Rutenberg, a writer-at-large. Included below is one segment that began with a ques-

tion from Mr. Barbaro after Mr. Burns said that any Republican efforts or threats to over-

turn the votes of Electoral College electors did not have a realistic chance of success.

So if this legal challenge is essentially

frivolous, should we see these lawsuits and

threats as ultimately a political strategy?

MAGGIE HABERMAN:This is not a strategy.

This is an expression of trying to bend

something to your will that you can’t bend

to your will, and this is what the president

has tried to do over and over for four

years. But he’s reaching the limits of what

he can do here.

But many Americans appear to be convinced

that the election was stolen. So I wonder

if that matters in terms of implications for

the country.

ALEXANDER BURNS:I think it has the

potential to matter if the president really

continues to escalate that in the coming

weeks. It has the potential to complicate

Joe Biden’s job in governing. It has the

potential to really poison the internal

conversation in the Republican Party

about its future.

Jim, we should acknowledge the

history-making nature of this ticket, with

Kamala Harris. You have covered, I’m going

to say, six or so presidential campaigns.

JIM RUTENBERG:It’s an amazing moment

in history that gets lost in some of this

chaos: first woman vice president, first

Black vice president, with Indian heritage

as well. And she’s no normal vice presi-

dent. She automatically has a much higher

stature than other vice presidents. Now

her president is in his late 70s. So there’s

going to be more weight on her shoulders

to be ready to take over. Just reality here.

What are you all looking at right now?

What are the big questions?

HABERMAN:Three things. One, it’s hard

for me to describe the number of texts I

have gotten from people close to the presi-

dent who are not sad about this, who are

relieved, so that tells you something. Two,

a big question is obviously how the presi-

dent handles the next 70 some-odd days.

It’s going to be very interesting. And then

three, the main question, is not what he

can accomplish on policy for the remaining

days. Policy has never been his big motiva-

tor, as we know. What I’m looking for is,

does he start issuing a bunch of pardons?

Because we have seen other presidents do

that. This is a president who has made

pretty liberal use of his pardon power to

help allies and associates.

RUTENBERG:I think the main one is voting

in this country. What we saw was a huge

turnout. That should be a good thing for

democracy, but we saw a countermove-

ment against voting with this notion that

voter fraud is prevalent and a corrosive

force at the heart of democracy. More

broadly, what becomes of Trumpism and

its melding to this sort of media conserva-

tive infrastructure? I’m really eager to see

that play out.

BURNS:The first thing is control of the

Senate, because that will say so much

about what Biden’s governing agenda

might be. There are two Senate races still

to be resolved in Georgia. And they will be

a test of the political coalition that Biden

just put together, whether it’s a coherent,

stable coalition, or whether it’s really just

an anti-Trump coalition that came together

for one night only.

Any final thoughts?

BURNS:One final thought on Biden him-

self. We have never had in our lifetimes

somebody who has so clearly spent so long

wanting to be president and trying to

become president before actually becom-

ing president. And so this is someone who’s

had a long time to think about what he

would want to do. And I think he’s going to

try to start showing us pretty fast with

those thoughts that have been in his head

for a really long time.

Inside The Times

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

The way Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will govern will be shaped by Georgia’s Senate races.

AMR ALFIKY/THE NEW YORK TIMES

After the Vote, What Lies Ahead

To listen to the full episode, go to

nytimes.com/thedaily.

November 9, 1929.The Museum of Modern Art made its public debut with an exhibit that

featured works by Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat and van Gogh. The museum’s temporary

quarters were on the 12th floor of what’s known today as the Crown Building on Fifth

Avenue. Alfred H. Barr Jr., the museum director, said several art connoisseurs who had

been known for their antipathy to modern art “were converted” after seeing the show,

The Times said. Before the pandemic, the museum saw some 3 million visitors annually.

Subscribers can browse the complete Times archives through 2002 at timesmachine.nytimes.com.

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