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Biden Is Winning the Money Race. Does It Matter?

Biden Is Winning the Money Race. Does It Matter?

Released Thursday, 4th April 2024
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Biden Is Winning the Money Race. Does It Matter?

Biden Is Winning the Money Race. Does It Matter?

Biden Is Winning the Money Race. Does It Matter?

Biden Is Winning the Money Race. Does It Matter?

Thursday, 4th April 2024
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0:00

Did you know the average child spends

0:02

less than 10 minutes a day playing

0:04

outside? Trust for Public Land is working

0:07

with local communities nationwide to connect more

0:09

people to the outdoors. Our community schoolyards

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the Mother Nature approved play spaces they

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need. This Earth Month,

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take action to create cool,

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green, climate-resilient playgrounds fit for

0:23

the future. Join the movement

0:25

to bring the outdoors to

0:28

more people across the country

0:30

at tpl.org/Earth Month. That's tpl.org/Earth

0:32

Month. One

0:34

thing I've learned about presidential campaigns is

0:37

that you'll almost never catch a candidate in New

0:39

York City. Unless, of course,

0:42

they need to raise some money. And

0:46

last week, that was the case

0:49

when three U.S. presidents Biden, Obama,

0:51

and Clinton, all

0:54

gathered at Radio City Music Hall for

0:57

what the Biden campaign called, quote, the

0:59

most successful political fundraiser in

1:01

American history. And

1:04

we just have to take the word for it, in

1:06

part because we weren't able to get in. But

1:08

here's the gist. Tickets started at $250 on

1:10

the low end and $100,000 on the high end, which

1:16

got you a photo with all three presidents and

1:18

entrance to a private reception. There

1:21

were performances by Queen Latifah, Lizzo,

1:24

and an appearance from Stephen Colbert. In

1:27

the end, the campaign says it raised more

1:29

than $25 million. But

1:33

this wasn't just another gathering of the rich and

1:35

famous. It's an example

1:37

of something the Biden campaign has done really

1:39

well, courting big donors

1:42

and just in general, raising a lot

1:44

of money. In

1:47

February alone, the Biden campaign

1:49

and the Democratic Party raised $53 million,

1:53

bringing their total cash on hand as of

1:55

the beginning of March to $155 million. That's

2:00

more than 50 million ahead of where

2:02

Donald Trump and the RNC say their

2:04

current fundraising totals are, which,

2:07

theoretically, should allow Biden's

2:09

campaign to build out a more

2:11

robust operation than their opponents. But

2:14

to this point, Biden's money

2:17

advantage is yet to solve his

2:19

political problems, like

2:21

weak poll numbers against Trump, continued

2:23

concerns about his advanced age, and

2:26

the enduring critiques of the administration's role in

2:28

the war in Gaza. That

2:30

cropped up at Radio City, when

2:32

activists disrupted the event several times.

2:36

So, with the general election in its early

2:38

stages, I wanted to check in

2:40

on the dollars and cents of 2024, on

2:44

Biden's impressive totals, Trump's

2:46

financial situation, and all

2:48

the things money can't buy. Today,

2:51

it's all about the Benjamins. From

2:55

The New York Times, I'm Estet Herndon. This

2:57

is the run-up. So,

3:02

I've been going to political fundraisers

3:04

for over two decades, and

3:07

I will tell you that night was electric. I

3:10

wanted to talk with someone who did get in to

3:12

that Radio City event, and solve

3:15

it with some, like, snoopy questions, like, did

3:17

you see anybody cool, or were

3:19

the, like, biggest celebrities of the presidents themselves?

3:23

Well, without a question, you know, the

3:25

biggest celebrities of the presidents. This

3:27

is Robert Wolff. He sat in

3:29

the orchestra. I have to admit,

3:31

you know, for me, I went with my wife, and

3:33

it felt like a great date night. You

3:36

know, we don't come to the city all that

3:38

often, and so it was

3:40

great to see, you know, Queen Latifah

3:42

before, and Lizzo, and Ben Platt, and

3:45

people that, you know, I wouldn't necessarily

3:47

go see perform. And obviously, Colbert, as

3:49

the moderator, you know, he's gonna be

3:52

funny, right? There's a lot of tongue-in-cheek

3:54

there. So for me, it was

3:56

kind of like, it was just a fun night.

3:59

Wolff is a... Democratic fundraiser and

4:02

Wall Street veteran. Most of my

4:04

career I was on Wall Street at Solomon

4:06

Brothers for about a decade and

4:09

then I moved to UBS where I was there

4:12

18 years as the former CEO and

4:14

chairman of the Americas and

4:17

president and COO of the investment

4:19

bank globally. Wolf was

4:21

an early fundraiser for Obama, an informal

4:24

advisor to his presidential campaign and

4:27

like a lot of big donors. He

4:29

later served in Obama's administration including

4:32

on the economic recovery advisory board

4:35

after the 2008 financial crisis. He's

4:38

also what's been called a bundler. I

4:41

can't say I love the

4:43

name but bundler

4:45

is you raise money and then

4:47

you raise other people so let's

4:49

just say I am

4:51

going to an event and I

4:53

asked 10 other people to give you know

4:56

10 grand each and they do then

4:59

Robert Wolf will have not only

5:01

his 10 grand assigned to him

5:03

but also that extra 100 grand

5:06

and if you raise x amount of money

5:08

you get invited to fun things. It's

5:11

a way to supercharge your ability to

5:13

donate as an organizer of other people's

5:15

money along with your own. Correct and

5:18

I'm not a bundler today. Now

5:20

Wolf serves on the Biden

5:22

campaign's national finance committee an

5:24

elite group of some of its biggest donors. So

5:28

he's well known in democratic circles and

5:30

is well appreciated for his insights

5:32

and his wallet. I thought

5:35

he would be a good person to give me the lay of the land

5:37

when it comes to big money in politics. How

5:40

does it work and what should we

5:42

expect when it comes to big donors and President

5:44

Biden? So I had the

5:46

honor of seeing President Biden where

5:49

I was able to chat with him in January

5:51

out of fundraiser in New York City. For me

5:53

I'm not there to ask for anything. Okay

5:56

I'm there to thank him to

5:58

let him know you know. Thank him

6:00

what he's doing on gun violence or thanking what

6:03

he's doing with respect to Ukraine My

6:05

wife and how does that how much money does

6:08

that take it was expensive? Can I know how

6:10

much I think I Think

6:13

we wrote a check that night

6:17

It was high I

6:22

mean listen you can I checks as low

6:24

as a dollar and ten dollars I think

6:26

we wrote a check for like fifty thousand.

6:29

Okay dinner. Okay We've

6:32

we've spent money on politics over the last

6:34

20 years I was one of the question

6:36

I have is just how much Have

6:39

you spent do you think an aggregate and is

6:41

there a single thing? Is there is the $50,000

6:43

the most use written for? I think no, what's

6:46

the most one check you've written? I

6:48

think it was a hundred thousand for

6:50

what campaign Hillary's for Hillary's Yeah, and

6:52

how much do you think you've probably

6:54

given an aggregate? You

6:58

know, I think you can look

7:00

at the non-pack side or non-committee

7:02

side I mean my

7:05

guess is an aggregate. I mean my guess

7:07

is in excess of a million dollars. We've

7:09

given How did you get

7:11

into a political like giving and

7:13

fundraising period? Well, I appreciate that

7:17

You know back in The

7:19

early 2000s for the most

7:22

part it was called fire Finance insurance

7:24

and real estate And if you looked

7:26

at everyone giving the top

7:28

people the top companies were either finance

7:30

insurance or real estate at that time

7:33

You know, I was a senior executive

7:35

at UBS, you know being on

7:37

Wall Street being a senior executive It got you

7:39

the opportunity to meet a lot of people. So

7:41

I got involved early Specifically with

7:44

the Kerry campaign. Okay, I was anti

7:46

Bush. I was against the war I

7:48

had two young boys and I just

7:50

felt like at that time, you know,

7:52

it's not the direction I wanted to

7:54

go And so I got very

7:56

active with Kerry and then it's the list

7:59

you can't get off If you can get me

8:01

off of, let me know how. But it's the gift that

8:03

keeps on giving. And then I hosted

8:05

the first fundraiser for President,

8:07

then Senator Obama, in

8:09

New York in March of 07. We

8:12

raised a ton of money, and I

8:15

became one of his biggest fundraisers nationally.

8:17

Again, I guess, does that just like,

8:19

you just text your phone and say,

8:21

hey, I have this politician. I think

8:23

he's really interesting. What's actually the process

8:26

of translating your interest in somebody

8:28

to a larger group, and then the money

8:30

part? Yeah, so it was interesting. In 2007,

8:32

most of the Democratic Party was all in

8:35

Hillary. I

8:39

was able to meet Obama. I

8:41

aligned with a lot. It was like

8:43

that brocard. We're

8:46

both Ivy League guys. We both like sports. His

8:49

mother died of cancer. My dad was going through

8:51

cancer. All those things. She was against the war

8:53

part was big, too, especially. And then against the

8:56

war. And so what happened

8:58

was I just invited people like,

9:00

hey, you should meet this guy. And they all knew

9:02

of him from the 2004 convention. And

9:05

so with his famous speech, it's not red state,

9:08

blue state, whether the United States, so on and

9:10

so forth. And so what happened

9:12

was I became that

9:14

guy. People at law firms wanted

9:16

to meet him, even if it was just

9:18

to meet him or get their book signed,

9:20

that he had a destiny of hope or

9:24

take a picture with him. People wanted to get

9:26

to know this guy. And

9:28

it was a cheap date back then. It was only like $2,100. And

9:33

so they could meet him at

9:35

a fairly accessible price. Exactly. Is

9:38

it access driven? Like when you're

9:40

saying people want to sign a book, they want

9:42

to meet him, what is the incentive if

9:45

we're thinking about why people want to

9:47

give? I mean, politics is an aphrodisiac.

9:50

You're the most powerful person in the world. At

9:52

that time, most people did

9:54

not get the opportunity to meet a president

9:56

in their life. And here's a possibility to

9:59

meet someone. that could become the president. I

10:01

get what you're saying. Particularly when you were

10:04

getting started, what you were able

10:06

to connect people with is an ability to meet people

10:08

they wanted to, and they

10:11

have the means and access to be able to do

10:13

it through you. Yes, I mean, I became kind of

10:15

that guy. I mean, I guess, again, I'm still thinking

10:17

kind of broadly before we talk about Biden specifically. What

10:21

is the brand like for Democrats among Wall

10:23

Street right now, and how has that shifted

10:25

maybe over the time in which we're talking?

10:28

I think it was always about

10:30

40% were staunch Democrats, 40%

10:34

were staunch Republicans because of

10:36

Reaganomics, which is when I

10:38

started Wall Street in the 80s, and 20% would

10:40

go either way. That's kind

10:42

of surprising to me. I think of that as

10:44

more of a Republican crowd maybe. It's not because

10:46

there's a lot of other issues important

10:49

to them, and not everyone votes with their

10:51

pocketbook. I know that. They view

10:54

us as banksters, instead

10:57

of bankers. But what

11:00

I would say is that I

11:03

would say when it was McCain Obama, it

11:05

was clearly Obama got, I'd say 100% of

11:07

the 20%. When

11:11

it was Romney Obama, I would say

11:13

Romney was the majority of Wall Street.

11:15

He was kind of a Wall Street

11:17

guy, knew him all. I

11:20

think with Clinton and Trump, in my

11:22

opinion, I think Hillary and Bill just

11:25

are so well-liked in New York. My

11:30

gut tells me there were Republicans that

11:32

went her way, not for Trump as

11:34

well. And

11:36

then on the Biden-Trump, it's hard to

11:39

even assess because it was such a

11:41

crazy period. There was no real campaign.

11:44

I was gonna ask you about that. And I guess

11:47

I'm asking about right now, too. Is there a sense,

11:49

I've heard you previously talk about the

11:51

ways that you think the progressive wing

11:54

of Democrats has become too anti-Wall Street.

11:56

I'm wondering, were you few the Biden

11:58

Democratic Party on that? question and

12:01

do you think that the party right now

12:03

makes it easy for you to pitch them

12:05

to your fellow Wall Street folks? I mean

12:07

honestly I don't think we're front and center.

12:09

Wall Street's not who it

12:12

was and what it was. You know you

12:14

can raise money from anywhere in almost

12:17

any sector there is. I

12:19

mean media companies and everyone,

12:22

tech companies, I don't have

12:24

to tell you how many firms now lie.

12:26

Yeah I guess that's part of what I'm

12:29

asking. Yeah small dollar donations has the ability

12:31

to raise money from other firms. Yeah grassroots

12:33

are, it's more important to get grassroots money

12:35

than you know my couple grand

12:37

or whatever I give a little more than

12:40

that. But you

12:42

know what I would say is that

12:44

first of all Wall Street wants to

12:46

give their economic view they don't like

12:48

necessarily to get in the middle of

12:50

the riffraff because I think they're nervous

12:52

about being the meme or being in

12:55

a polarizing environment with their employees right.

12:59

I think voting is

13:01

very personal today

13:04

and there is no generic

13:06

Wall Street voter anymore. This

13:08

idea that you know

13:11

the progressives think that Wall Street's voting

13:13

with their pocketbook I think is BS.

13:16

You know they may care about climate more

13:18

than the progressives care about climate or they

13:20

may care about gun reform. Gun reform for

13:22

me is front and center. My

13:25

wife works at Sandy Hook Promise on

13:27

gun violence prevention and mental health and so

13:29

gun violence for me is front and center.

13:31

So y'all are one issue voters. Yeah

13:34

I would say there is no one issue

13:36

voter. It used to be because of Reaganomics

13:38

right, taxes right or

13:41

anti-regulation that's changed dramatically.

13:44

You know the other thing and this is going

13:46

to get some kind of Biden specifically is like

13:48

we have been talking to so many people about

13:50

how this election puts them in a kind of

13:52

pickle because for the majority of Americans they want

13:55

you know they talk about wanting other options or

13:57

Just being not happy with having the

13:59

same options. since the get. When

14:02

you're in those circles, hours house like out

14:04

of your community feeling about by the. right?

14:06

Now a are you wish community I'm for

14:08

That's a good question as I have two

14:11

sons in their late twenties and our leaders

14:13

of our me a very different conversation with

14:15

we do that we have a hair that

14:17

answer but I'm really specific to I was

14:19

thinking specific the fundraiser like is it's. Easy

14:22

to raise money for by the marina. The.

14:26

Answer's yes, it's easy because

14:28

I'm there's. now a campaign

14:30

August. It's Trump Verse Biden.

14:33

Arm and President Biden.

14:36

Was. Not candidate biden. So.

14:39

This whole idea of democratic bad

14:41

weather's or hey, he's gotta get

14:43

out I was totally the other

14:45

way I, in my opinion. You.

14:47

Know that that? Transition.

14:50

To be coming more of the candidates took

14:52

place at the state of the union is

14:55

and that stated the union and my opinion.

14:57

I thought he was fantastic. I think he

14:59

has a hot the next step. I love

15:01

that he's now out in about a like

15:04

that com Ela Vice President Harris I'm so

15:06

I've known her along. that was I guess

15:08

I think I love that she's out in

15:10

about and now we're in a campaign People

15:13

A more active and engaged yes I said

15:15

senior. I like the are

15:17

pointing to state of the union as that hands point because it

15:19

did feel like. There was like the bed wetting

15:21

has reached it's peak right before that, right?

15:24

Like there was whether it was the or

15:26

Aids questions from the special counsel, Whether it

15:28

was a kind of polling because I was

15:30

getting i want to go up as I

15:33

want to hear about people were people. Do.

15:35

you are you someone who feels the

15:37

anc when he blurring see it was

15:40

insane i was getting calls you know

15:42

why is he running do you think

15:44

he should run hey he's running let's

15:46

not even have that discussion let's talk

15:49

about he's running and who is gonna

15:51

be competing against and let's put all

15:53

of our inner in xiety into helping

15:56

him whence but i was fielding calls

15:58

non because listen people were saying You

16:00

know president Trump and Nikki Haley. They

16:02

were in campaign mode. Yeah, so Yes,

16:05

I was fielding it as said non-stop

16:08

age specifically or other stuff. I think

16:10

other stuff. I think age I think

16:14

there was just You know Listen,

16:17

there was a nervousness, you know, can anyone beat

16:19

Trump? The answer is yes And

16:21

now we're in a situation where it's

16:24

much more mono a mono and

16:26

we now have choices to make Yeah,

16:28

and forget about what was let's look

16:30

at what is let me ask

16:32

something different. Yeah Why aren't

16:35

your sons convinced? My sons

16:37

are very convinced Okay that

16:39

they will be voting for President Biden

16:41

versus President Trump But we

16:43

were talking you and I about the

16:45

excitement and the issues. Yeah, you know

16:47

our dinner table issues are about you know

16:51

You know Gaza and humanitarian. There's a big

16:53

debate going on in the Gen Z

16:56

Generation verse the older generation. There's

16:58

a debate going on, you know

17:00

on climate action verse I'm for

17:03

I'm glad that we're energy independent

17:05

like these debates are becoming talked

17:07

about more and more often Because

17:10

I said to you this idea that democracy is

17:12

on the line or these cultural issues are more

17:14

front and center They are more front and center.

17:16

I would have never thought when I was 27

17:19

or 29 and a half years old like my boys

17:21

I don't think about the things they

17:23

think about today Because you

17:26

know, they weren't front and center to me

17:30

one question I have is like do you see what

17:32

you do in terms of raising money as as

17:35

helping them get there to kind

17:38

of close that enthusiasm gap like Well,

17:40

how do you actually view the role

17:42

of like fundraising versus the work that

17:44

they have to do to pull this

17:46

off money's critical Let's not

17:48

underestimate that. Yes, both sides

17:50

will be able to have a lot of money

17:53

but Getting out the vote

17:56

getting data having the right

17:58

research being both on

18:01

paid media and promoted media. Having

18:04

a bunch of people work with

18:06

the grassroots, that's important. To think

18:08

that politics isn't local, to

18:11

think that you can do this national campaign and

18:13

win, that's

18:17

complete BS. People are tuning out.

18:20

Most people cut the cord. So the

18:22

people that you have to get to, you gotta be local.

18:25

So this idea that raising 26 million

18:28

is anything other than fantastic is ridiculous. Interesting,

18:30

because you know right now there's a lot

18:32

of talk about how Trump can't raise a

18:34

lot of money. How much do we think

18:37

a money advantage matters? How much

18:39

does a money disadvantage matter? You know Donald Trump has

18:41

no problem getting on media, right, like he has no

18:43

problem in that type of space. What do you think

18:45

the money advantage can do for Biden, what do you

18:47

hope is? So I think there's a bunch to unpack

18:49

there. Yes,

18:52

Donald Trump in some ways

18:54

owns the airwaves. You wake up to him,

18:56

you go to sleep to him. But those

18:58

are national airwaves. That's not where

19:00

voting gets done. So

19:02

the answer is yes. It's

19:04

important to localize the campaign.

19:06

It's important to tell someone

19:09

in a certain area how

19:11

they're helping your wages, or how they're helping with

19:15

climate action, or why it's important

19:17

that you're doing red flag laws

19:19

in certain states on gun violence.

19:22

The second part I would say is don't

19:26

underestimate President Trump. He's gonna

19:28

be able to raise his money. I've said

19:30

this the other day, Mar-a-Lago is not some

19:32

homeless shelter. Okay, so it's not

19:34

like he doesn't have billionaires okay

19:36

sitting there. The rumors

19:39

of Trump is broke or overblown. I

19:41

mean that's complete BS, right? Because you're

19:43

gonna have, his

19:46

tax policy is gonna be front and center.

19:49

And so these billionaires, that

19:52

some do vote one dimensional,

19:55

they're gonna make sure that he's got money to

19:57

run on. Yeah,

19:59

this is helpful because. because a lot of what

20:01

we're reading now is about the lack of funds.

20:03

You're saying you trust that in the end, maybe

20:05

it's because of tax policy or just because of

20:08

people's investment in Republicans. Folks

20:11

will give to him. I think, listen, I wanna

20:13

be clear here. I think

20:16

President Biden's gonna out-raise him. I

20:18

think we're gonna out-work him. And

20:20

I think having money early is important for

20:22

building offices. I hear what you're saying. But

20:25

if you're telling me that we don't think

20:27

that there's gonna be money in the RNC

20:29

or the Republican Party for a presidential election

20:31

where the Senate's important and the House is

20:34

important, we're kidding ourselves. Yeah, yeah. When you

20:36

look about the next six months, is there

20:38

a thing that worries you the most for

20:41

the prospect of Biden getting reelected? Listen,

20:44

I think if it's President Biden versus former

20:46

President Trump, I think we're in a good

20:48

seat. I don't think there's

20:50

more people voting for President Trump than in the

20:52

past, and I think it would be less. I

20:56

am worried about the third party situation

20:58

because we saw what happened with

21:00

Secretary Clinton. There was no question

21:03

the third party impacted Secretary Clinton.

21:06

And so, yeah, I'm nervous of

21:09

what a third party can, how

21:11

it impacts us. And if I ask the

21:13

most brilliant people or pollsters in

21:15

the world, they could not give

21:17

me an answer because they don't know. We don't

21:20

know. So, yeah, I'm a Wall Street guy. I

21:22

buy and sell things. I don't live

21:24

great in this gray area. Okay,

21:26

I just don't. And

21:28

this is kind of the last question. I'm

21:30

like, you know, Citizens United, Super PACs, there

21:32

was so much talk about the influence of

21:35

money in politics. What's your assessment of it?

21:37

Do you think campaigns are too

21:39

expensive? Do you think there's too much money in it? Do you

21:41

think that maybe money doesn't matter

21:43

as much as folks saying, and it's

21:45

a little overblown? No, yes, there's way

21:47

too much money in it. It's insane.

21:49

We're gonna spend billions

21:51

and billions of dollars on

21:53

this presidential election, and yeah, there's too

21:55

much money in it. And

21:58

for some, it's transactional being an emba- being

22:00

this that's not where I am but

22:03

I guess to most people this is

22:05

the most important thing that they think

22:07

about you know every four years so

22:10

you know it

22:12

seems like it's too much money at it

22:14

but then again if you're saying the most

22:16

important thing that happens every

22:18

four years I don't know

22:20

it doesn't seem that money for much versus

22:22

our annual GDP yeah yeah here is it

22:25

well thank you I appreciate your time thank you for

22:27

joining us thank you much appreciated after

22:30

the break the other side of the money

22:32

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22:58

comfort of home I'm Anna Martin the

23:00

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23:03

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23:06

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23:08

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23:11

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23:18

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listen to modern love wherever you get

23:56

your podcasts After

24:00

talking to Robert Wolff, I wanted to

24:03

get a bigger picture of the role of money in

24:05

this race, especially on

24:07

the Republican side, where Trump has

24:09

been lagging behind in donations while

24:11

facing mounting legal bills. There's

24:15

also the $175 million bond he just paid,

24:17

the social media company going public, and

24:20

those $60 Bibles he started selling. Well,

24:24

thank you for joining us, sorry. How

24:26

far before it started? No, it's all good. It's all

24:28

good. So

24:31

I brought in my colleague Shane Goldmacher,

24:33

national political correspondent for The Times, and

24:36

the person I usually go to when I

24:38

have questions about money and politics. I

24:40

started by asking him what to

24:42

make of Biden's big money advantage and

24:46

Trump's financial struggles. It's

24:48

a big gap, and I think the issue isn't just

24:50

the size of the gap right now. It's

24:52

the potential size of the gap in the coming

24:54

months, because by all accounts, Democrats

24:56

are expected to raise more money in the

24:59

coming months than Republicans are. So that's the

25:01

gap now, and it's expected to get even

25:03

bigger throughout the rest of the race. What

25:06

is the cause of it? One of them is

25:08

just a general structural cause, which is the candidate

25:10

who's sitting in the White House tends to enter

25:12

the general election with more money. Why

25:14

is that? Just because people like giving money to the president?

25:17

Some of it is people like giving money to the

25:19

president. More important is that they have controlled

25:22

the party apparatus for the three years leading

25:24

up to the beginning of

25:26

the general election. Joe Biden has been raising

25:28

money with the Democratic Party for basically a

25:30

year at this point, and

25:32

it gives you an advantage because Trump was

25:34

raising in much tinier increments just to fight

25:36

through the primary. Just to

25:38

give you a sense of scale, during the

25:41

primary, Donald Trump was raising $3,300 increments.

25:44

So when that Republican primary, that's the most

25:46

he could raise from an individual person into

25:48

his campaign account. Joe Biden was

25:50

going around the country and raising in this

25:52

big mega committee, the shares of the Democratic

25:55

Party, $929,000 increments. You

25:58

end up with a lot more money if you ... and raise in that

26:00

big of a chunk. You're able to ask for more.

26:03

You're able to ask for more. You have smaller donors

26:05

that you can then fund by using those bigger contributions

26:07

to advertise, to get more small donors. It sort of

26:09

builds upon itself. Interesting. Why does

26:11

it cost so much, and increasingly cost

26:13

more, for these campaigns? I mean, theoretically,

26:16

these are two candidates the country knows.

26:18

These aren't people who have name recognition

26:20

problems. Why exactly are campaigns so expensive?

26:23

I mean, the number one answer is

26:25

television ads or the digital version of

26:28

television ads. And look,

26:30

you can spend an enormous amount

26:32

of money on television really,

26:34

really quickly. Just think about Mike Bloomberg's campaign

26:36

when he ran for president, right? He ran

26:38

for president for only a few months, and

26:41

he spent basically a billion dollars.

26:43

He was blanketing the television ads for a

26:45

period, but it is a reminder of how

26:48

high up that number can run. If you're

26:50

buying as many TV ads as you can,

26:53

it's basically an unlimited amount of spending that you

26:56

can go. And so, like, what is the

26:58

driver? The driver's television ads, first and foremost, and

27:00

digital ads that now run on television, right? Like,

27:02

a lot of people are streaming, but

27:05

yeah, running advertising is the overwhelming cost.

27:07

Everything else you hear about, our field

27:09

program, our ground game, it tends

27:11

to be fractions of the dollar spent on

27:13

advertising, on television. So, what is driving that

27:15

big advantage that you're talking about? Do we

27:18

know where the money gap is coming from?

27:20

Is Biden have a specific advantage among small

27:22

donors, big donors? Like, how will we break

27:24

down why he has so

27:27

much more money on hand? I think

27:29

there's important to think about in

27:31

two time frames. The first is right now, and

27:33

I think he has more money right now because

27:36

he's been tapping those bigger institutional donors. Those people

27:38

can give large chunks of money. The big Radio

27:40

City thing we saw last week. Correct, right? They

27:42

had 5,000 people in the room, so there's a

27:44

lot of smaller donors. You know what, there were

27:47

also people raising or giving $100,000 that they were

27:49

gonna get a picture with

27:51

the presidents, right? The next day, he had a smaller gathering

27:53

of 175 of his donors in New York City. Those

27:57

people got sort of personalized briefings the

28:00

entire senior campaign team. How

28:02

much did that cost? You had to, I

28:04

think, at least given 47,000 something dollars. That

28:07

is the entry level. The highest tier

28:10

for his bundlers, $2.5 million. Wow.

28:13

Now if you're raising $2.5 million, you might not be going

28:15

to a big group briefing. You might be getting the president

28:18

visiting your house on a fundraiser, but

28:20

there's enough people that at a roughly $50,000

28:23

limit, you

28:25

still have 175 of them coming to New York for

28:29

that personalized briefing. So your

28:31

first question, where is his advantage right now? It's

28:33

a lot of these major donors. They have been

28:35

tapped. They've built out a whole system. Jill

28:37

Biden, Jill Biden, Kamala Harris, Doug Emhoff.

28:40

They've been traveling around the country at

28:42

events and scooping up big checks, right?

28:45

In the coming months, though, there's

28:48

a wider expectation that Jill Biden's advantage

28:50

will be driven by smaller donors online,

28:52

that online democratic giving

28:54

has become almost habitual

28:57

for liberal donors who are amped

29:00

up about an election. Even about the

29:02

candidates they may not be excited about. They

29:04

give tons of money, right? Key Senate races

29:06

are flooded with money each cycle.

29:08

And whether the Democrats have household name or

29:10

not, they end up raising a lot of money. And

29:13

there's a wide expectation that online, even

29:16

if Democrats aren't enthused about Joe Biden, they're

29:18

gonna be enthused about giving money to

29:21

stop Donald Trump. Okay, okay. Let's focus now

29:23

on Donald Trump, someone who famously

29:26

has a lot of money until he

29:29

doesn't. Why is he struggling in fundraising so much,

29:32

considering he has historically done well with

29:34

small dollar donors? And it

29:36

seems like what you're saying, those donations are slowing

29:38

down. Why is that? Do we know? Yeah,

29:41

I mean, let me give you an answer. I want

29:43

to take one little step back, which is that like

29:45

Trump is facing multiple different financial challenges

29:47

all at once. It's hard to keep them straight.

29:49

It is hard to keep them straight. So number

29:52

one, you're talking about just like politics, like how

29:54

much money does he have in his campaign account?

29:56

And some of that is, look, he just got

29:58

through a nominating contest. and

30:00

he was raising money and spending money

30:03

to win the nomination, now less than

30:05

maybe some others have before, usually

30:07

at the end of that you end up with a little bit less and you have to

30:09

build up. And he hasn't had

30:11

that joint agreement with the Republican Party until

30:13

just now, basically, to raise those bigger chunks

30:15

of money. In fact, he's doing that. Just

30:17

this coming week, he has a big event

30:19

in Palm Beach that they've said they're gonna

30:21

raise 25, 30 million dollars. I

30:24

think they put out the number 33 million dollars

30:26

from a single dinner, because he's getting all

30:28

these people who have not given till now.

30:30

They're gonna come and, you know, a couple,

30:32

right, each member of the couple gives 800,000 dollars, that's

30:34

1.6 million dollars for that couple at that

30:37

dinner. Okay, so this is his answer to

30:39

Radio City. This is his answer, it's his

30:41

coming out party for those mega donor checks.

30:43

It's just coming this week. So

30:46

the first financial challenge is political

30:48

and he just has less money than Joe

30:50

Biden does. The second one is his legal

30:52

bills. And he has been spending, now we've

30:54

reported more than 100 million dollars since he

30:57

left the White House on legal bills, and

30:59

the pot of money he's been tapping for

31:01

that mostly has been this money

31:03

raised in the aftermath of the 2020 election. And

31:06

that money's almost all gone at this point.

31:08

Is that a different pot than the

31:10

money he was spending to win the primary? It

31:13

is, a completely different pot. So what

31:15

happened is, at the end of 2020, he

31:19

loses the election and he says, please

31:21

give to me, dear supporters, this thing

31:23

was rigged. And there's no evidence of

31:26

this yet, but I'm gonna fight this in the

31:28

courts, I'm gonna fight it everywhere I can, my

31:30

election defense fund. And Republican donors gave more money

31:32

to Donald Trump in the post election period of

31:34

2020, than almost

31:36

any period they gave during the actual campaign.

31:38

That is so wild. They were so, you

31:41

know, denying the election result

31:43

paid off for him. He

31:46

raised 250 million dollars online between

31:50

the day after the election And

31:52

the day that Joe Biden was inaugurated. So He spent

31:54

some of that money fighting, recounts, whatever. But you know

31:56

what? he pocketed most of that money, not personally pocketed,

31:59

but he put it. In a political action

32:01

committee and that huge chunk of

32:03

funds paid. Has been paying

32:05

his lawyers ever since then and so

32:07

that money has been spent down slowly

32:09

for we now quickly and quickly. And

32:12

the total amount of money last in

32:14

the account that's been doing that Save

32:16

America Is Political Action Committee is less

32:18

than Five million dollars This point, because

32:21

he's basically tapped out that posts twenty

32:23

twenty surge of money that he got

32:25

through people giving out of the election

32:28

denial space. Correct. Okay, and so he's

32:30

facing not just a political sort fall

32:32

versus Joe Biden, but the legal. Fund

32:34

that he than using to pay. Where's that's

32:36

also. Going. To and for for And

32:38

by the way, he's going on a trial soon. Yeah,

32:40

the cost don't go down Typically when you go on

32:43

a criminal trial and illegal problem have no signs of

32:45

slowing in terms of what the as to. Oh correct.

32:47

So the first one is that political, second, is this

32:49

legal and a third one. We have a little bit

32:51

of resolution right now, but it has been a big

32:53

one. has been like the bond he had to post

32:56

in order to keep all of his businesses active during

32:58

his appeal. On. One of the

33:00

many cases you face which is a

33:02

civil fraud case in New York and

33:04

that's just went down from what I

33:06

understand, The Times reported he posed one

33:08

hundred seventy five million dollar bond with

33:10

a civil fraud case which means that

33:12

the New York authorities can't see says

33:14

while he's appealing that larger four hundred

33:16

fifty million judgements against them to explain

33:18

what that means and more simple terms.

33:20

Jez is that third categories like. Can

33:22

he keep his businesses And can they keep

33:24

running in New York Because the risk was

33:26

that if he could not pay that he

33:28

would have to sell off the businesses to

33:30

pay said judgment? Yes of he has lost

33:33

the case and he's appealing that ruling. And

33:35

under New York law when you lose, you

33:37

still have to pay basically the penalty. And

33:39

so he thanked. The penalty is so big,

33:41

was four hundred and fifty four million dollars

33:43

in so onerous that I can't even get

33:45

a bond to do that And so that

33:47

has been reduced. So now one hundred and

33:49

seventy five million and he has since lined

33:51

up money and so. it's like you're

33:53

borrowing in order to appeal and eventually

33:55

look if he loses a d p

33:57

appellate court levon he loses at the

33:59

final the final court, then he

34:01

will have to make an actual payment, but for now we

34:03

can borrow a bond to like save off. And does that

34:05

actual payment have to be 450 or 175? As

34:09

of now, it's still the 450, but

34:13

some of the legal experts say the fact

34:15

that the bond itself was being reduced is

34:17

maybe a sign that eventually a final judgment

34:19

could be shrunk, but we don't know yet.

34:21

Well, we previously talked to Maggie Haberman about

34:24

how Trump's legal fees were basically consuming the

34:26

campaign in a way that you really just

34:28

laid out for us, but one

34:30

thing I couldn't understand is like, what

34:32

are those possible solutions he has to this? I

34:34

know we have seen some of the efforts with

34:36

things like truth social, his social media company, and

34:38

other ways he's been trying to maneuver. I remember

34:40

hearing about the RNC kind of having an open

34:42

question about whether they would do it. What is

34:44

his best shot to come up with some of

34:46

these answers? I mean, the number one thing

34:48

to remember is that he could, of course, pay for his

34:50

own lawyers with his own money. He's chosen

34:53

not to do so, so far, right? He has

34:55

chosen not to use his own personal finances to

34:57

pay for attorneys. All these buckets are separate from

34:59

Donald Trump's bank account. Like, he could

35:01

choose to use his bank account to solve the issue that

35:04

he's running out of money to pay his lawyers. He's just

35:06

running out of other people's money. It doesn't mean that he

35:08

doesn't have any money left. That is an important reminder. Right?

35:10

Like, he has his own set of money that he

35:13

has chosen not to use to pay his lawyers in

35:15

his multiple criminal cases because he had this big pot

35:17

of money from 2020. So option

35:19

one is you just pay

35:21

for them yourself. There's other more

35:23

complicated options like you

35:25

create a special legal defense fund, what are

35:27

the rules around that if you're an active

35:29

candidate for president? There are other

35:32

ways he can raise money into the pack

35:35

that has been paying the lawyers. And in fact, he's

35:37

done a small thing along those lines. Right? There

35:39

was a little float. Well, will the RNC actually pay its

35:41

legal bills? And they said no. Absolutely

35:43

not. But then that

35:46

first mega committee we talked about, you can

35:48

raise those really big checks. There's a sort

35:50

of order of operations of who gets the

35:52

money. The first always is the candidate. Right?

35:55

The candidate gets the money first. Typically second is the

35:57

party, like the Republican National

35:59

Committee. But in this case, Trump didn't actually put

36:01

the party second. He put his

36:03

pack second. And that pack isn't paying his

36:05

lawyers. So we see Trump coming up with

36:08

these sort of solutions. At this point, if

36:10

I were to give $100 to

36:13

Donald Trump's campaign, do we know how much of

36:15

that is going to save

36:17

America and the legal fees versus how much

36:19

is going to the actual job of winning

36:21

an actual election? Yeah, since early last year,

36:24

10 cents of every dollar that's been

36:26

given online has gone to that Save

36:28

America account, which is paid almost exclusively

36:30

for legal stuff. And so yeah, all

36:32

those small donors, it's 10% of

36:34

what they've been giving for the last year,

36:37

which is not an insignificant amount of money.

36:39

And it's helped pay for some of those.

36:41

Look, the intertwining of all these things is

36:43

real, right? Like to differentiate what is the

36:45

Trump legal issues with what is the Trump

36:48

political issues is kind of, it's

36:50

a fool's errand, right? One of his

36:52

lawyers was recently

36:54

co-hosting a fundraiser for

36:58

his super PAC, right? So

37:00

like, they're not totally

37:02

separate. They have been separate

37:04

in terms of like actual cashflow, right, the

37:07

campaign has not spent money on his personal

37:09

lawyers, but the idea that they're like separate

37:11

things, no, I think it's very

37:13

much the Donald Trump 2024 campaign is

37:16

happening in and around courtrooms. I

37:20

know this is a really unprecedented

37:22

situation that we're in, but like,

37:25

are these rules being made up as we

37:27

go along or like? That's an existential question.

37:29

Yeah, it is kind of, I'm like,

37:32

because we've never been here, like is

37:34

he just test casing new theories about how you

37:37

use money in politics? Like, is it just

37:40

completely uncharted? It's a

37:42

little bit uncharted. It's also that it's

37:44

not just him, right? We're in basically

37:46

20 years of candidates testing new theories

37:49

of how they wanna spend and

37:51

raise money in politics and very little

37:54

policing by the group that's supposed to

37:56

oversee them. So like, there are

37:58

rules that Trump is taking advantage. of that

38:00

others have plowed before him. There are rules that

38:02

he's expanding. But I would say that

38:04

this is not just a Trump issue. This is just

38:07

the broader regime of campaign

38:09

finance that how we run this stuff

38:12

is no longer a thing

38:14

that makes intuitive sense to a

38:16

regular American. You know, I wanted to ask

38:18

specifically about the true social Trump media as

38:21

he's turned into a source of revenue. I've

38:23

only been like kind of halfway following this

38:26

storyline. I guess like help

38:28

me understand how something can become such a campaign

38:30

boom. Or was it or has it

38:32

been? Yeah, so this is

38:34

his private social media company and

38:37

it just went public. And on

38:39

paper, Trump has become a multi-billionaire

38:41

in a way that he really hasn't

38:43

been. And so it's a dramatic increase

38:46

in his wealth on

38:48

paper. This is a stock that

38:50

when they have to also file all these official

38:52

reports now that you're publicly traded stock, you have

38:54

to reveal your books. And the

38:56

books don't look like a multi-billion dollar company.

38:59

There's nothing in the books that's like $4.1 million of

39:02

revenue last year that screams multi-billion dollar company,

39:05

but what it does have is supporters who

39:07

are buying this stock online and driving up

39:09

price. And we've seen this not just for

39:11

Trump. We saw it in like all these

39:14

meme stocks around. GameStop, AMC, right? And it

39:16

bears a lot of similar, the actual finances

39:18

don't merit the valuations that it

39:20

has on the market, but it is valued at

39:22

what it's valued at. Now Trump is the biggest

39:25

shareholder. And so again, multi-billion dollar windfall, but he

39:27

can't sell those shares yet. There's a bunch of

39:29

rules about how long he has to wait. And

39:32

so all of this is really like

39:34

theoretical money for him and certainly

39:36

very theoretical in terms of the campaign.

39:38

I would actually pretty much wall that

39:41

off because for now that isn't money

39:43

he has access to and it's not expected

39:45

to immediately impact the campaign. So that doesn't

39:47

impact those initial three buckets, but it gives

39:50

him money on paper that he can possibly

39:52

leverage to solve one of his many other

39:54

problems. Hope on the horizon. Gotcha, gotcha. Oh,

39:56

what about these $60 Bibles? Are

39:59

we should, should we just expect? a

40:01

level of Trump gimmick-y-ness to

40:03

raise money. I guess

40:05

I look at those things, and he's always

40:08

felt someone willing to grift, to sell, to

40:10

do whatever he needs to. Is

40:12

your sense that we're entering a moment of

40:14

desperation for them? And how's

40:17

that read the Bible? I wouldn't read it as

40:19

something different in kind. You

40:22

go back to 2016 when he was winning those

40:24

competitive primaries, and he had Trump branded stuff

40:26

all around him. He was using that as

40:29

a sales pitch opportunity. He went

40:31

to sneaker con to roll out his own

40:33

set of sneakers. He

40:35

has rolled out his own picture book. Yeah,

40:37

a Bible, I guess, is the next step

40:39

in the journey. The Bible is just, I

40:42

mean, it's hard to say, it's just the

40:44

next step, it's certainly a step, right? But

40:46

we've been on this pathway for a long

40:48

time. Trump's selling his name to sell things

40:50

and make a profit. And again, this

40:52

is money for him personally. This is not a Bible that

40:54

you buy it from his campaign. This

40:57

is just a personal private business deal that

40:59

he's entered into. Oh, this isn't even helping

41:01

these buckets. This is just helping his own

41:03

individual bank out, which he is not famously

41:05

tapping to pay the lawyers. Or

41:08

for his campaign, right? He has not put

41:10

money into his own political campaign. Basically,

41:13

since he became the nominee in 2016, he relied

41:15

on donors and the Republican Party ever since. That

41:17

was such a huge part of his brand when

41:19

he was running in 2016. It

41:22

was like, I am not owned by these people. I

41:24

mean, you talk to voters all the time, it is

41:26

still part of his brand. Republican voters bring this up

41:29

all the time. That's exactly what I was gonna say.

41:32

It's amazing how that brand

41:34

has lasted. But it hasn't

41:36

in our reporting seeped into anyone. And I was gonna

41:38

ask you, have you heard someone think,

41:40

oh, Donald Trump with less money is a

41:43

less appealing Donald Trump? I

41:45

mean, I think some of this is just sort

41:47

of the media silos and what is the information

41:49

that you're consuming. But I think on

41:52

a regular basis and traveling in Iowa, New

41:54

Hampshire and other parts of the country this

41:56

year, last year during the primary, bring

42:00

up his independence and say he doesn't need

42:02

to be running. He doesn't need the money

42:04

that he is not beholden the way that

42:06

Nikki Haley is beholden. He's not beholden the

42:08

way that Rhonda Santos is beholden. Meanwhile, he

42:10

is raising all the money from other people.

42:13

But it was that initial spend that it was

42:15

his own money and his vast claims of wealth

42:17

and his idea that he didn't

42:19

need their money. Even if he's taking it,

42:21

that has taken hold in such a real

42:23

way. It's hard to overstate how

42:26

important that's been in his appeal. I

42:28

think not just to Republican primary voters, but across

42:30

the board. Yeah, it is a core part of

42:32

the brand, even if it's gotten further from the

42:34

truth. I'm gonna ask, what

42:37

do you think are the long-term impacts of

42:39

this current cash crunch with Trump? When

42:41

it comes to the campaign, what will he not be

42:43

spending money on, what will he not see from the

42:45

campaign that otherwise, if he was flush, we would have

42:47

seen? We're

42:50

talking a lot about money, but I

42:52

think that money is often vastly overrated.

42:55

That's my next question. It's importance in

42:57

presidential elections in particular. I've covered House

42:59

races and Senate races, and in an

43:01

average House candidate running, they're not known

43:04

in their community. Even the best House

43:06

candidates aren't particularly well known. So

43:08

if somebody comes and sends a million dollars

43:11

on television ads, that dominates the average voters'

43:13

knowledge of those candidates. With Donald

43:15

Trump and Joe Biden, a bunch

43:18

of advertising isn't introducing you to

43:20

these two candidates. You know who

43:22

these candidates are. You even know

43:24

some of their positions on issues.

43:27

And so money is incredibly

43:29

important in American politics. It

43:31

is least important in

43:34

the biggest races. I guess with that in

43:36

mind, then, what does it do? It

43:38

does a few things. I mean, the number one thing I think

43:40

that it does is it allows

43:42

the candidate or the campaign

43:45

with more money to expand the map of

43:47

what they're looking at at presidential politics. If

43:50

you are the Joe Biden campaign and you

43:52

know that Michigan,

43:55

Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania are your absolute must-win

43:57

states, right? You want to hold those

43:59

three. You hold those three states and

44:01

you win the one little electoral college

44:03

vote in Nebraska, you can get reelected,

44:05

right? But that's not where they're spending

44:07

exclusively. They're also spending in Nevada, in

44:10

Georgia, in Arizona. They just released a memo about

44:12

Florida. They released a memo about Florida, about let's

44:14

see if they spend real money in Florida. But

44:17

like North Carolina, which they lost last time,

44:19

right? Even as he won by a relatively

44:21

large electoral college, they are spending in a

44:23

state that he lost by the most narrow

44:25

margin because they have enough right now to

44:28

spread the map. So if you're the Democrats, elections

44:31

aren't usually won in the winter spring

44:33

before the election, but you can get

44:35

an edge, right? If you're Joe Biden,

44:37

you enter this campaign behind in most

44:39

public polling. The money is allowing you

44:41

to either close that gap or build

44:43

things like campaign offices that can pay

44:45

off over time. But it's

44:48

really the like, how thin can you stretch

44:50

the defenses of your opponent? Can

44:52

you make them need to spend money in North

44:54

Carolina if you're Trump and

44:56

take away from the state that he may otherwise have to

44:58

win? Right. And so the speaking

45:01

of the importance of this period of the race, the

45:03

place we have seen the Biden campaign be the weakest

45:05

is probably with enthusiasm among kind of court constituents. They

45:07

talk a lot about kind of bringing people home right

45:09

now and wanting to do that even more so than

45:12

they think about persuasion or all that type of things

45:14

come later in the year. When

45:16

we think about the impact of money, like how

45:18

much love can money buy? Like when

45:20

you think about the impact of that

45:22

specifically to people who are probably Democrats,

45:24

but maybe soft on Biden. Is

45:27

that ads that they're supposed to convince them?

45:29

Is that texts? Is that door knocking?

45:31

Is it I guess it's all of the above? Yeah.

45:33

I mean, I think that the most recent

45:35

New York Times poll we did had Trump

45:38

winning 97% of the

45:41

people who voted for him in 2020 and had Joe Biden winning

45:43

83% of the people who voted for

45:47

him in 2020. That gap tells you

45:49

why Joe Biden was losing in that poll.

45:52

And so what they're going to try to

45:54

do is use their money advantage to tell

45:56

that chunk of Democratic voters this election is

45:58

coming. on the place, give

46:01

them a reason to care or to

46:03

highlight their awareness. I live this

46:05

every day. You live this every day. This

46:07

is not a central part of most

46:10

people's lives. And if you're

46:12

an average voter, the whole promise of

46:14

Joe Biden was partly, I didn't need

46:16

to care about politics every day. And

46:18

so people have intentionally tuned out. And

46:21

so they're trying to re-engage voters who might be

46:23

likely to vote for Joe Biden, but not

46:25

likely to be tuned into why they should

46:27

care yet. And sometimes that's

46:30

advertising, sometimes that's spending in other ways that are trying

46:32

to reach them. But that is their chief

46:34

goal, and money is one of the ways they're trying

46:36

to resolve it. Thanks,

46:39

Shane. I really appreciate it. This was really

46:41

helpful. All right. Thank you.

46:49

As of Wednesday morning, Justin, Shane

46:52

and Robert predicted Republican fundraising

46:54

numbers were going up. The

46:56

Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign

46:59

announced that they'd raised over $65

47:01

million in March, ending

47:03

the month with $93 million in cash

47:06

on hand. The

47:08

Biden campaign has yet to release its

47:10

March total. So a

47:12

campaign spokesperson said we can expect the

47:14

numbers in the coming days. The

47:23

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right now. netsuite.com/ made the move to NetSuite. Now through April 15, NetSuite is offering a one-of-a-kind flexible financing program. Head to netsuite.com/earnings right now. netsuite.com/earnings. NYT. Thursday,

48:00

April 4th, 2024. And

48:03

now, the rundown. All right, this

48:05

morning, counting votes in four states

48:07

that had presidential primaries. Voters in

48:10

Wisconsin, New York, Rhode Island, and

48:12

Connecticut went to the polls on Tuesday.

48:15

And although Biden and Trump won all those

48:17

states easily, there were warning

48:19

signs for both campaigns. On

48:21

the Republican side... This primary is long

48:23

over, but look at the

48:26

support for Nikki Haley. Nikki Haley won

48:28

at least 10% of the vote in

48:30

all four states, despite having

48:32

dropped out of the race last month. And

48:35

on the Democratic side... More than 45,000 people

48:39

in Wisconsin voted un-instructed. That's

48:41

the terminology. People continue to

48:43

voice their disagreement with Biden's handling of

48:45

the war in Gaza by

48:47

staging a protest vote at the ballot box. Also

48:50

this week... U.S.

48:54

Donald Trump held rallies in Michigan and

48:56

Wisconsin, and in his

48:58

speeches... Under crooked Joe Biden, every

49:00

state is now a border state. Every

49:02

town is now a border town. His

49:05

rhetoric about immigration escalated. The 22-year-old nursing

49:07

student in Georgia, who was barbarically

49:10

murdered by an illegal alien

49:12

animal, the Democrats

49:14

said, please don't call them animals. They're humans.

49:16

I said, no, they're not humans. They're not

49:18

humans. They're animals. Used

49:20

dehumanizing language about migrants. But it's

49:23

a border bloodbath, and it's destroying

49:25

our country. It's a very bad

49:27

thing happening. And called what's

49:29

happening at the border a bloodbath. There

49:32

are now 102 days till the

49:34

Republican National Convention, 137

49:37

days till the Democratic National Convention, and

49:40

215 days till the general election.

49:44

See you next week. The

49:49

run-up is reported by me, Estet Herndon.

49:51

And produced by Elisa Gutierrez, Kate

49:53

Leno-Keeffe, and Anna Foley. It's

49:56

edited by Rachel Dry and Lisa Tobin. With

49:59

original music. by Dan Powell,

50:01

Marion Lozano, Pat McCusker, Cyann

50:03

Wong, Sophia Landman, and Alicia

50:06

Bechit. It was

50:08

mixed by Sophia Landman and fact-checked by Kaitlin

50:10

Love. Special thanks

50:12

to Paula Schumann, Dan Dolnitz,

50:15

Larissa Anderson, David Haufinger, Matti

50:17

Messiello, Mahima Chablani, and Jeffrey

50:19

Miranda. Do

50:21

you have a question about the 2024 election? Email

50:24

us at therunupatnytimes.com. Or

50:28

better yet, record your question using the Voice

50:30

Memo app on your phone. And

50:32

then send us the file. The

50:34

email again is therunupatnytimes.com. And

50:38

finally, if you like the show and

50:40

want to get updates on latest episodes, follow

50:42

our feed wherever you get your podcasts.

50:45

Thanks for listening, y'all. The

50:53

less your business spends, the more

50:55

margin you keep. But today, everything

50:58

costs more. So smart businesses are

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graduating to NetSuite by Oracle. NetSuite

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is the number one cloud financial

51:04

system, bringing accounting, financial management, inventory,

51:06

HR into one proven platform, helping

51:08

you reduce IT costs, maintenance costs,

51:10

and manual errors. Over 37,000 companies

51:12

have already made the

51:14

move to NetSuite. Now through April 15, NetSuite is

51:17

offering a one-of-a-kind flexible financing program.

51:19

Head to netsuite.com/earnings right

51:22

now. netsuite.com/earnings. netsuite.com/

51:26

nyt.

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