And developments that are rapidly changing the world were living. In that whatever the problem is of course. Come. On aljazeera. Hi im Steve Clemons and i have a question in a time when handshakes rallies fundraisers and door knocking have all been cancelled what happens to the American Election campaign this year lets get to the bottom line. Look at how fast things are changing around us heres how we started last weeks show across the u. S. So far about 5000 cases of coronavirus have been recorded today that number stands at closer 250000 still rising listen to where the u. S. President was just 3 and a half weeks ago we have the greatest. Greatest tourism country in the world so instead of leaving our country leaving our shores a stay here and again when you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to 0. Thats a pretty good job well that age like milk so now that everything is turned upside down travel plans social gatherings school the way we shop and work and of course the economy wasnt it inevitable that election campaigning would have to change as well candidates on both sides have dropped all the traditional methods while normal life is put on hold but how can you ask for donations when people are stuck at home and potentially unable to work should the candidates pretend to go on business as usual or is that just tone deaf and have we just ushered in the era of the digital dominated campaign fortunately were joined by people who i hope have the answers from washington d. C. Amy daisey former c. E. O. Of the Democratic National committee and currently the executive director of the psion institute of policy and politics at American University and adam goodman a republican media strategist and over in potomac maryland doug for now a democratic advisor and partner at ascii dk a political Strategy Firm so glad youre all with us today id like to just start with amy for a minute just ask you the question is is there something sort of tin ear that something off about campaigning. While the nation is struggling as it is with coronavirus today how do you bridge that the fact that were in an election season we also have one of the Biggest Challenges this nation has ever had i know i mean its challenging you would think with 110000000 americans under a stay at home order you have a captive audience but its challenging the bottom line is is easy you have this environment where we used to be talking about the primary election the general election and then news other news things you know would come but this is just everybodys focus whether its the health you know aspect to it the economic aspect to it i think the election kind of on behind that in campaigns are just conversations with voters but this is one of the most challenging conversations ive seen candidates have to have in quite some time i dont have to question if you were the mayor of milwaukee or charlotte today would you welcome a Party Convention to your city. Well i know is of course advocating not long ago. That we cancel all primaries until we get a handle on this 19 and are ready to really focus on other things again i think its. You know you have to give people hope a sense of something to look forward to at this question yesterday about the olympics shouldnt cancel the olympics the now Start Talking about shifting that date we have to set milestones ahead of us i believe just to give us a sense of optimism something to look forward to that we can still you know imagine could happen with that said i think america should walk here very nervous right now the last thing that what they want to do is hold a convention which bears with it any degree of personal risk to those who attend well doug im going to put the responsibility on you then tell us how a Campaign Today say youre in advise ing Bernie Sanders or advising joe biden or or you were to jump parties and advise President Trump what happens to rallies what happens to handshakes what happens to the people standing behind the president on on on the stage or coronavirus hearings which weve been seeing lately what happens to all of that. Well steve its a great question 1st of all no more rallies no more rallies for the foreseeable future youre not going to have the typical canvassing that occurs for voter Contact People going door to door thats not going to happen i think what youre going to see is a lot of virtual town halls youll see tele town halls youll see candidates i know president bidens building a Television Studio in his house so he can do more interaction with folks from there i think theyre going to use their platforms and all 3 have millions of people who follow them hopefully they use them in a positive way to provide Accurate Information on what the Current Situation is so theres a sort of balancing between traditional campaigning but also doing a service to the people that follow you so that theyre totally informed on whats happening and the services you know theres going to be a huge stimulus that get signed in the next day or 2 and a lot of people are going to need to understand how to access those funds i mean the 3 of you are very very significant in the scaffolding of the Political Parties that are out there playing different kinds of roles and it just asked are we going to stumble ahead into this or this are going to be some master plan or sort of a new negotiation between parties on how this happens you know im reminded today i put out todays topic out on facebook and i said lets crowdsource this lets ask her some questions from the public and i got some fascinating tidbits things i didnt realize were her had forgotten Pamela Stevens writes that Ronald Reagan because of the how cold it was in 1904 move the inaugural parade indoors i mean that was and its a its different than a coronavirus pandemic but it shows that change can happen and im interested in how we get through this do we just stumble forward do we are experiencing experimenting like we all are with you know a Virtual Campaign tour doug what do you think about that yeah i mean amy and adam and myself have done countless numbers of campaigns and i dont think any of any of us have done. The thing like it in a situation like this so im not sure finding senior advisors to be you know the folks who are explaining how to do this i dont think anyone knows how to operate in this field right now and i think it is a little bit of sorting it out and figuring out and calibrating write your message in a proper way so that its not to own death so i think a lot of these campaigns whether president ial on down are going to have to be you know theyre theyre basically operating day by day amy yeah and i think its not you know replacing is it a are we emphasizing more one area because you know digital on line these these tactics that campaigns have used have been growing and growing over the last several cycles but its more that were not able to use some of the traditional things that weve done we might have to over emphasize some of these on line platforms how are we going to you know access and get to to voters where they are and especially having that conversation to persuade and help them understand each is doc said you know each of these individuals has a different platform in the president s having you know a press conference every day center standers a certainly you know involved in the senate in talking about you know what work hes doing right now and again you know Vice President biden set up this studio but i think the challenge is youre over emphasizing one tactic in your tool box where others youre not able to do because of the actual physicality of what were under you know with these health risks adam one of the questions that came in from Mike Demarest was how would a negative campaign ad play out so with so much more going to digital platforms its a really interesting question because we know that you know we always want to pretend earnestly that negative campaigning will not be part of the race and then said dominating big you know some of the largest races and particularly President Trump has shown no aversion to that but how will negative campaigning play out or be felt by people from your perspective. Well it will be received very poorly right now what people want is a shot the arm not a shot across the joke and i think the normal play books are all out the window let me go back also see if i can say that to the last question whats happened in american politics in the last couple years and i know that doug and amy would reinforce this the conversations become nationalized we saw that in a big way in 2016 with the now president night states that using a kind of a National Bully pulpit less focused on the utilization of as in the normal tools of the trade and more to going to wreck the to the public but the National Conversation right now which would have been damaged i think joe biden. Or Bernie Sanders or whoever the democratic nominee is going to be up against ultimately President Trump that National Conversation is no longer about politics and anyone who tries to inject politics into the conversation is kind of shouted down right now and one thing that amy just said about President Trump having Daily Press Conferences the best advertisement for the president or those press conferences the best assurance that he has a chance a good chance to win reelection is how he does with a crowd of virus could personally if he does not handle that night seen as deftly as people would prefer i think that well well were all adam i hear what youre saying but i want to play a clip for you of the president engaging a member of the press Peter Alexander of m s n b c attic rotavirus hearing and it raises the question of whether you know the president s eyeballs are on the virus and whats happening the country or the president is using this as if the Campaign Rally with listen to the clip. Of the. Americans were scared i guess nearly 200 dead 14000 who were said millions as you witnessed who are scared right now what you say to americans who are watching you right now who are scared. I say that youre a terrible reporter thats what i say. President were just i think its a very nasty question and i think its a very bad signal that youre putting out to the American People the American People are looking for answers and theyre looking for hope and your doings insatiate alyssum and the same with n. B. C. And con casts i dont i dont put comcast i could contest so so adam just back to you very quickly that to me feels Like Campaign mode not Coronavirus Briefing mode is there a difference and should there be a difference. You know theres a difference and i think you have a valid point i think all of us who agree that the president keep the president. But theres a bigger message i think that hes trying to convey and maybe its not been you know effectively done so to this point which is a lot of the press and media steve are really focused on gotcha you know theyre trying to find ways to poke holes in the president s in the Coronavirus Task force efforts right now to get up to complete speed from a standing start and anything they find thats inconsistent it doesnt quite add up theyre going after with reckless abandon i think that is bad for the media i think the role right now is to inform not to inflame and i think it actually plays to the advantage of the president hussein lets talk about what were doing what we what we need to do as opposed to what i said 13 days ago or i missed a particular word or a particular piece of information that i had to clarify and suddenly that is blowing up you know the internet i think this is where i have to pull together and that is glued before the stage well i should note that Donald Trumps poll numbers are going up despite these moments of flare ups so works but im going to ask amy to respond to something i have here was sent in by matt cora doni and it is from people to judge its a tweet from people to judge who is no longer in the race but hes done something a bit different and people to judge right here in south bend a local organization that trains people in sewing skills has retooled to produce masks and support area medical providers one more example of people figuring out how to make a difference and theyre looking for help and this addresses the question to some degree of real social need out there you know the protective gear the masks the other equipment and asking folks to come together at the local level but its a politician who was one of the candidates for the democratic nod on this race that is doing that and amy im interested in whether. Thats a way to diminish that awkward feeling of campaigning during the era of the coronavirus yeah i think its really important for anybody who is trying to challenge the current leadership to say that theyre solution driven so that they have ideas or that they highlight ideas of things that people are doing that are coming together you see this a lot with governor homos you know Daily Press Conference as well as talking about the need talking about the challenge but also highlighting things that are happening in the community that can benefit people or how people can engage so you know i think youve also seen with Vice President biden hes tried to show what his leadership would look Like Solutions hes calling around certainly to the leaders are tackling these problems but that is a part of it is to try and show that empathy that compassion and that finding solutions for this i think thats one of the struggles that people are really looking for right now is how do we solve this when its changing every week i think a leader can really highlight that and lean into that light here but it did she did to show that there are solutions out there in the communities and also nationally as we have said these are nationalized you know campaigns doug i dont know what you are up to a few years ago during the Hillary Clinton donald trump race but of course one of the hangovers or overs of that has been the place of political ads meddling in elections particularly digitally by foreign governments so it i dont know i dont they could be responsible to have this conversation without asking about these other 2 big elephants in the room you know russian style meddling again as more and more goes into the Digital Space and to the controversy over facebook and the kinds of political ads its running twitter i should note has suspended running political ads but is this just benefiting 2 of the players that have you know sort of have had dark clouds over their head id be interested in your thoughts on whether or not were ending up in the same court we were in 4 years ago. Well look i think thats a really good question you know i think you have to be on the lookout and hopefully our Intelligence Community is on the lookout for that type of meddling whether its from russia or north korea or if you have a lot of it and so they are im not sure i have confidence they are i have not had confidence that the administration has taken the whole issue of foreign meddling in our elections seriously at all. I think that you know look theres there is a opportunity for these campaigns at least in the short term to be positioned to position themselves as as sort of Constructive Forces for good and what i mean by that is you know i got an email from a member of congress that they sent out that that was it to that was addressed to Senior Citizens and it was about them being on the lookout for fraudulent and scam artists who were trying to take advantage of this moment. Of the covert 19 and it wasnt political it was them using their platform using their office and i think incumbents have an opportunity here to provide to be that source of information and they should use their Digital Channels they should use facebook these folks should be doing Facebook Live interview interviews with experts every day to get that type of information that American People are craving Information Transparency even if its bad news they can handle that they just want the truth. Adam id be interested in your reactions on that as well i saw you nodding and the question of whether these other platforms whether we need to have now more significant governance we have not invested at significant levels in protecting the elections and where they where they are and it raises interesting questions that i think you know senator Amy Klobuchar and others have been pushing about mail in ballots and moving to a different form of paper if you will as opposed to digital side but the folks that you work with on the republican side do they look at this is a serious concern. Well i think its a serious challenge for all of us right and the concern as well. And in terms of where were going to go let me address something that just kind of reference in terms of giving information. And not to be combative or competitive but i had a piece of advice unsolicited of course for joe biden who visit pace it sure does something completely unexpected joe bidens could be the nominee of the Democratic Party who will take on President Trump in the fall i said that the best thing that joe biden can do beyond picking up on dougs point giving information out that may be helpful especially and localized as much as possible as opposed to nationalized i think joe biden should reach out to the president in ited states and say look we have a lot of things we disagree on and well get to that as soon as we get coated 1000 in the Rearview Mirror but right now were all in what can i do how can i help i also have advocated that every living president be on the front lines of doing the same banding together and saying look we have different opinions about all sorts of things but on this we are one we need an aid and in a stand the a state here is stands for america and i think the more we are able to convey that finally after all this defensiveness this is something we can really unite on and really rally around the sooner we do that i think of the healthier were going to feel about how were going out this and the final thing i want to add the one thing that you can count on right now steve in terms of americans who are going to help in some degree of hibernation is that wonderful quality called innovation were going to innovate so we dont have a lot of the answers to these Great Questions youre asking but were going to get them were going to have answers and were were to have things were going to do we just simply havent done before that were the best in all of us amy you are the c. E. O. Of a big operation a big party and out of just put a big idea on the table about you know those that come together do you think what he just suggested is possible and what has really been a toxic political environment right i mean id love to think that they could all come together and talk about these solutions its hard to see them wanting to engage in that way when the conversation that that President Trump has on twitter is very different than what that conversation you know would be on the what hes presenting you know in the public sphere i do think that that you do see pockets of people trying to come together a lot of the negotiations are happening without president trapped and you see how hes been reacting to that so when you see leaders come together to try and figure out some of the solutions you know its hard in a polarized environment but i think citizens are expecting it and i think that you see leadership about how youre going to execute on these things youve seen governors turning to the president to ask for you know federal help that theres things that he could be doing i would lead to see that im sure a lot of kerry but its a very powerful image just to think for a moment of george w. Bush of bill clinton of Jimmy Carter Barack Obama coming out together and you know telling folks to mail in their ballots or to participate in early voting or to participate in each town halls and remain socially distant regardless of what the president a great a president from join that but what a fascinating image that would be and i dont im not normally a coom byock kind of guy but i think this is fairly interesting and its a powerful one so i hope somebody watches the show and suggestion but you know when you get down to it i agree that its a toxic time but just as a structuralist because you ran a big operation how do you feel about the other part of what adam just said about the ability to innovate because i find most decisions are driven by inertia not by innovation how hard is it going to change the balance were facing people are going to find that you know teams around these campaigns are already trying to think of new and creative ways to to reach people and reach into the. Well you got people thinking through in this current environment you know its one thing to campaign its another and i think we have to put a lot of attention to how are people going to actually have the access to vote we can say were moving about by mail but do we have the infrastructure put in place to do that and i think that youve seen in the basin youve seen you know people like mere child lated that are trying to write these opportunities inside 3 m. You know and ford working today is how can they change some of their systems in order to provide writings that are necessary so i do think that you can you know take advantage of the situation here and i think the challenge for a lot of us is its changing every hour its changing every day as well let me just get a snapshot from each of you in our last couple of minutes doug if you just give me a snapshot of the most important things that we should do to move the system forward not get trapped in this paralysis of not being able to go out and engage politically what would you put on the table don well actually i think what Governor Cuomo has been doing in new york has been super effective hes been doing just sort of straightforward no nonsense press conferences on a regular basis they are but they arent Campaign Rallies and i feel like the response to them have been very positive theyre not nessus you know. Its not trump style but i really like how. How hes going about things so transparency putting out all the information right and being stuck in being honest with folks would you cancel or hold the conventions. Well at this point i would cancel them adam let me get your snapshot of what youd like to put on the table and tell me as well what you do with the conventions. Im really well 1st of all in terms of the convention and this is probably something that amy can address technically both the orange c. And the d. N. C. The date disband. As they come to the convention then theyre reconstituted by a vote of the people the delegates who are there obviously if the delegates arent there theyre going to have to change the rules to allow for virtual voting to reconstitute further out of business but i want to pick up on something that doug said and take it one step further hes talking about Governor Cuomo and i think Governor Cuomo is doing an amazing job hes right there on the front lines you know i was right helped in the past Rudy Giuliani when he was going through not 11 i understand what it means when everythings happening and its happy and fast and youve got to get people not just information but a vote of confidence and i think cuomo has done a great job of that i think. Governor new to them in california is doing a terrific job i hope that they would band together those governors and discerning so with the president the administration with dr fallacy and as a Credible Team advisors and deliver one message to the American People which is were going to be ok thank you for that and im going to give you amy the last word. Well i would go back just to the conventions i think you have to modify these are in their original form a Party Meeting it become a media that so the Party Business still has to happen there are certain things that have to happen for the election i just think in this time we have to modify for the world that we live in i think youll still see the process move forward but i think you have to make a change in the way the convention is going to look and how its operated thank you for such a thoughtful exchange id like to thank you all for being with us under these circumstances former Democratic National committee c. E. O. Amy daisey executive director of the sign institute at American University and republican media strategist adam goodman and Democratic Media advisor Doug Thornell from the Strategic Communications firm s k d k knickerbocker stay physically distant but emotionally close. Thank you very much. A big shout out here to all of those who sent their brilliant comments and questions on my Facebook Page so what is the bottom line if americans are looking up to local leaders like new York Governor Andrew Cuomo for their guidance and compassion then we have a serious problem at the level of our National Leadership but americans like all other people in the world are resilient and innovative they will and they should pay more attention to their families and their health those are the important things and they should pay less attention to the long winded elections process in this country theyll tune in when they feel the time is right as for the political conventions as we used to know them bye bye for now and thats the bottom line. From the algerian London Bureau to special guests in conversation when you say a 1000000 times that the comes after you then can create whatever narrative you want unprompted uninterrupted and i realized i was working for something that was evil you know being a part of the creating our maria ressa meets christopher while the death of journalism is only the 1st signal for the death of democracy studio unscripted aljazeera when the news breaks the work. With the ins of getting presentation and Economic Development when people need to be heard the top leadership world where the potential for parity of the bar of weeks before the public were told of the dangers aljazeera has teams on the ground the syrian army seems determined to defeat the rebels and continues advanced was this is a good day to bring you more Award Winning documentaries and live news. In 2010 aljazeera gained exclusive access to a young family in the gaza strip. Fighting forecast for their sick child born with a medical condition curable by routine surgery but cooled in the red tape of the health cant bureaucracy. Rewind born in gaza on aljazeera. We understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world so no matter what you see we are getting the news and Current Affairs that matter to you. The u. S. Now has the most coronavirus cases in the world but its president insists people shouldnt stay home for longer than is necessary. They have to go back to work a country has to get back our country is based on that. And im down in jordan this is al jazeera live from doha with the latest developments in the coronavirus on demick including. We all share this responsibility now
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