Robert Wolf, former economic adviser to Obama, on contrasting Trump vs. Biden campaign strategies.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
President Trump, we have a
president trump. We have a
debate coming up and who knows
you know, look
applause.
President Trump, do you know
what hes been doing it for forty seven
years? Ive been doing it for
three and a half years, so he
should be able to beat me. I
would think
hes much more experienced
Steve. You got President Trump
yesterday in Ohio,
the President and Joe Biden set
to faceoff before America next
week at the first presidential
debate, hosted by our own Chris
Wallace, so here to discuss Fox
news, contributor and former
Obama Economic Advisor Robert
Wolf
Good Morning to you,
hi Steve. How are you
Steve im doing? Okay, so there
we heard the president actually
raising expectations about Joe
Biden, reminding people look. He
was a: u DOT S senator for decades,
hes good at debating hes going
to do okay.
What do you make of the tenor
of the President now because
weve heard other things in the
past going into the debate?
You know, I think the
rhetoric beforehand doesnt
mean a lot. Obviously, I believe
that the president has set the
bar incredibly low, for Vice
President Biden, but I think
whats going to happen is whats
important that night and were
fortunate to have Chris Wallace
as the moderator, but its three
things about Vice President
Biden and President Trump
one. What would you have done
differently if you were in
office?
Two? I think the vice president
is going to have to counter any
false claims that the president
may make about the Obama Biden,
administration and three. The
vice president is going to
have to really show what his
statements and vision are for:
health care, the recovery,
climate change and theres huge
differences and believe me with
someone Chris Wallace well make
sure we hear those differences.
Steve given whats happened in
the last seventy two hours, im pretty
sure they will have a vibrant
debate over the Supreme Court,
Yup Steve. If I was Vice
President Biden, I would say a
few things:
election has consequences.
Just like the house has
impeachment. The Senate has
Supreme Court Justices
recall after the Kavanaugh hear,
ings and Kavanaugh got
confirmed. Democrats won the
blue wave and flipped forty one
house seats, so im going to
quote President Obama
dont boo
theres, nothing right now. The
Democrats can do about this
nomination confirmation.
All we can win is at the ballot
box. So if auto, it was Joe Biden
id be making sure that everyone
knows my vision and get out to
vote, because if people dont
vote, then we cant keep
complaining if we lose on the
Senate or the presidency
Steve. But here is the problem
Robert.
You just said that if you were
Joe Biden, youd want everybody
to know your vision and yet
weve heard the Democrats
talking about how they are going
to blow up the filibuster and
how theyd like to pack the
court. So yesterday in
Milwaukee he was asked by a
local NBC affiliate reporter.
You know, would you pack the
court and he said im not
going to answer that and then he
asked he was asked so who be
on your list,
because the president has been
very forthcoming and Joe Biden
says: im not going to tell you
that either. So, obviously his
strategists are of the opinion.
Less is more,
I dont agree with that
Steve.
I dont think he took the bait.
He doesnt have to answer what
he would do on a filibuster
Steve. Why not
because he doesnt have to
answer that because thats not
what the people care about right
now
Steve. It seems like its. The
only thing the Democrats are
talking about Robert
Steve. They care about jobs,
okay,
twenty percent of those jobs, twelve million
people are still unemployed,
twenty million people are under
employed.
We have a pandemic going on
people, dont care about a
filibuster thats, not at the
top of anyones mind.
Whats top of mind is whats,
going on in California, wildfire
whats, going on in healthcare
the affordable CARE act.
I agree with Joe Biden. I dont
think we should deter f what
people are going to vote on im.
Sorry, I just disagree
Steve. Well, you brought up the
city because the economy is
doing great until the pandemic.
I dont know if you saw Axios
yesterday, but their
big story yesterday was the wall.
Street recession is over and
they talked about how the third
quarter growth- the third
quarter of this year, will grow
more sharply than any quarter in
american history.
No doubt we went way down with
the pandemic, but we popped way
back up, so Trump will be able
to say, look were still digging
ourselves out of a hole, but
things are looking better than
they were six months ago.
Steve. Let me be clear:
I want a great economy.
I hope we have a great GDP
number.
I hope unemployment goes way
down.
We want everybody in America
working and the economy grows.
That being said, when theyre
talking about third quarter GDP
numbers, its still negative GDP
for the year,
remember its quarter on quarter
so its based on that growth. So
as they go up, thirty percent were still
down ten percent for the year. So I just
want to be clear that we still
have twelve million people that are
newly unemployed since the
pandemic and our GDP is not
growing. Okay,
the way that we expect it to
grow when we did the Trump tax
reform,
remember used to say, were
going to be zero percent gdp in twenty eighteen and
two thousand and nineteen. We were two point: five percent, so we should
be clear, were not having a
super v shaped recovery, thats,
just not accurate
Steve. You need to go to Axios
com and read this article
because Robert it said the
pandemic has not crimped
economic growth and theres.
Another story out that: U Dot S
household net worth is at
the highest level ever
were. Actually let me look here,
three hundred and eighty dollars billion above where we were
at the end of twenty nineteen
Steve.
Eighty, seven percent of all stocks are owned by
the top ten percent of this country.
Okay,
this is so skewed to the wealthy.
Are you kidding me come on?
You can not tell me that the
middle class feels wealthier
today, since the pandemic
thats just not accurate.
The facts are not telling that
were skewed to the top earners
here, thats. Why trickle down has
not worked and its not trickled
down?
I know were debating this with
Steve Moore, but thats, just not
accurate, where the facts are
Steve. Well, lets see what the
two candidates talk about a
week from today.
Transcript generated on 2020-09-22.