6:00

administration. There are definitely some powerful people

6:02

in Democratic circles who, you know, feel

6:04

that Biden should kind of step above

6:06

the fray. But it seems very clear

6:08

right now that the Biden campaign is

6:10

going to make that point clear. And

6:12

it's part of their efforts

6:15

to kind of develop a

6:17

contrast between Biden and

6:19

Trump. As Stevens was saying, you know,

6:21

in October, they want the American people

6:23

to really be thinking about who do

6:25

you want? They don't want this to

6:27

be a referendum on Biden. They want

6:29

this to be a choice election.

6:32

And the convicted felon, I think they think, works

6:34

in their favor. And of course, we're still waiting

6:36

on a decision from the Supreme Court regarding the

6:38

questions of presidential immunity. And we will likely have

6:40

those in the coming weeks. So we'll have more

6:43

to talk about soon. Stephen, thank you so much

6:45

for doing this. Of course. We're

6:47

going to take a quick break. And when we get back, we're

6:49

going to talk about the Trump campaign's effort to win over black

6:51

voters. In

6:53

this week's episode of Wild Card, comedian Bowen

6:56

Yang says you don't have to feel bad

6:58

for falling short on mindfulness. I get in

7:00

my own way by like overprivileging

7:03

the present. That's so

7:05

interesting because everyone wants to be in the present.

7:08

I feel like being present is overrated. I'm

7:11

Rachel Martin. Join us for NPR's Wild

7:13

Card Podcast, the game where cards control

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the conversation. I'm

7:17

Rachel Martin. After hosting Morning Edition for

7:19

years, I know that the news can

7:22

wear you down. So we made a

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new podcast called Wild Card, where a

7:26

special deck of cards and a whole

7:28

bunch of fascinating guests help us sort

7:30

out what makes life meaningful. It's

7:33

part game show, part existential deep dive,

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and it is seriously fun. Join me

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on Wild Card, wherever you get your

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we simplify the complicated news like How

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8:12

all about amazing innovations in science and

8:15

technology. Listen to Wow in the World

8:17

wherever you get your podcasts. And

8:21

we're back, and campaign reporter Alina Moore joins

8:23

us. Hey there. Hi, guys. So

8:25

Franco, you have some new reporting about

8:27

Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina,

8:30

who I think it is fair to

8:32

say has not been subtle at his

8:34

interest in being Donald Trump's running mate.

8:36

What's his pitch? What's he doing? What

8:38

he's doing is appearing to make

8:40

the best case that he can

8:43

to be Trump's running mate in

8:45

November. And how he's doing that

8:47

is he's launching a

8:49

new campaign to woo black voters,

8:51

a segment of the voting public

8:53

that Trump has made very clear

8:55

that he wants to win. And

8:58

Scott is pointing to a

9:00

path that he thinks can really do

9:02

that. He thinks they can make a

9:05

real difference. Black voters, of course, overwhelmingly

9:07

supported Democratic presidential candidates over the years.

9:09

But he points to recent polling

9:11

that show that support is falling,

9:14

and he thinks he can chip away at

9:16

those numbers. I was part of a

9:18

conversation with him. Here's what he had to say about

9:21

that. There's a lot of reasons why the shift is

9:23

becoming just so blatantly

9:25

obvious that it's now undeniable

9:27

that there is something amissed.

9:30

And it's real. I think, frankly, it's

9:32

not just racial, but it's going to

9:34

manifest itself in a racial shift that

9:36

we haven't seen in probably

9:38

three decades of politics. Now, he's going to put some

9:40

of his own money behind this with his pack. He's

9:42

going to invest $14 million, almost

9:45

$15 million, in

9:47

a campaign to do this. He's going

9:49

to be traveling to battleground states. And

9:51

of course, we can't forget the politics

9:53

here. And this effort could boost his

9:55

chances, because again, Trump has made it

9:57

very clear that he wants to appeal

9:59

to these. voters. Can we also

10:01

I think there is a distinction that's important here

10:03

because polling has absolutely shown that there's been some

10:05

movement towards Trump among black voters and Latino voters.

10:08

But there does seem to be a gender divide

10:10

here. A lot of that movement seems to be

10:12

more male than female. You know, it's a

10:14

very similar trend that we're seeing in other groups.

10:17

I mean, this is an area that Trump has

10:19

been able to kind of, you know, cleave some

10:21

voters from. And Tim Scott

10:23

thinks that he can do more. Again,

10:25

Tim Scott is not expecting all these

10:27

black voters to all of a sudden

10:29

move over onto the Trump aisle. But,

10:32

you know, that doesn't need to happen. You know,

10:34

they just need a few thousand to either

10:37

vote for Trump or not vote in

10:39

these very close races

10:41

and battleground states like Pennsylvania, like

10:44

Georgia. I mean, a small amount

10:46

matters a lot in this coming

10:48

election. When all the swing states are

10:50

decided on the margins, every margin matters. Absolutely. You

10:52

have some recent reporting as well that suggests

10:55

that there is some ability for potentially Trump

10:57

to appeal to these voters. Yeah. And I

10:59

think it's it's less that

11:01

he has ability to appeal to

11:03

them and more that Biden has

11:05

a disconnect with them. We know,

11:07

like what Franco just said, black

11:09

voters overall have overwhelmingly sided with

11:11

Democratic candidates for decades. But we've

11:14

also seen specifically a generational

11:16

divide here. And poll after

11:18

poll, national polls show that

11:20

younger black voters are

11:22

distancing themselves from Biden. And I

11:25

got exclusive access to this new

11:27

poll this week from the University

11:29

of Chicago that extensively polled young

11:32

Americans of color, black Americans, Latino

11:34

Americans and AAPI Asian Americans. So

11:36

among young black voters under 40,

11:39

just a third of them say

11:41

they're going to vote for Biden.

11:44

Around 23 percent say they'll vote for

11:46

Trump, which is higher than the margin he

11:48

had. Exit polls showed that around voters

11:50

under 45, black voters under 45, around 80 percent supported

11:55

Biden four years ago. So

11:58

it's a pretty striking.