Transcripts For CSPAN Aspen Security Forum Discussion With Former Deputy Secretary Of State... 20240712

And he was assistant to president obama and Deputy National security adviser to Vice President biden and deputy secretary of state for president obama. And now senior Foreign Policy adviser to the biden and great to have tony blimpingen. And jerry is executive editor of the wall street jourm and writes a column which i read and all of us should read. Jerry has had an extraordinary career and for the journal. He covered the white house at the end of the Reagan Administration and Bush Administration and interviewed every american president and part of a team at the wall street journal that won the pull iter prize and book coming out on august 25, we should have seen it coming about the conservative moment and will be coming out. And sure to have jerry tony here. Welcome to both of you. Lets start with the scenario. Joe biden walked out of the white house in january of 2017 as Vice President. Lets say perhaps he walks back into the white house of january 2021 as president. How will the world have changed . How will he have changed in the intervening four years . Thanks for having me. Virtually. Jerry, what has changed, in a word, pretty much everything. The Vice President has talked about this. If he is elected president he ill have a world in disarray and they are linked because our own ability to be a force and protect and advance our own prosperity and values depends on the democracy at home. And that is a challenge. But globally we have a time of extraordinary economic demographic and geo political change. Just over the past four years, technology and transformation has shifted. Nd among nation states and growing challenges that have affected governance within them. What has changed is the need, we have to approach this with humility and confidence. We face the most challenge and most International Landscape and we cant flip the switch. But confidence because it remains within our confidence to shape a Better Future in which our people are more prosperous and opportunities are safeguarded. The big thing, the elephant in the room is covid19 and that is the greatest change that the United States has faced since world war ii. And killed more americans than ied in world war i and every war since 1945 and 9 11 combined. The recession unleashed represents the deepest down turn. Millions of americans unemployed and threatening sectors of our economy and it could wag the covid dog. And more upheavals, more otection nism and xenophobia can go back to the United States. I think in the sense the most acute change driven more is the central dilemma. On the one happened, this should be a wakeup call that our own faith in the United States is linked to events beyond our borders. Hen we have bankers, and interdependence, we have to find collective and global responses. We have eroded faith in government, diffuse of power and resurgent in competition making that cooperation making it difficult to achieve. So we have a lot of work to do if there is a biden presidency. And i would say a couple of quick things. I think the Vice President believes through security for our people requires investing in them, investing in our democracy and solidarity with the rest of the free world and our global leadership. E have to start to rebuild the strength, reinvigorating alliances and partnerships. And that in turn becomes the core for collective defense and high Standards International cooperation across the whole range of policy issues and give us a leverage and the attractive pull of strengthened democracy to shape more responses to these very, very big challenges. Tends to ignore International Rules and advance its own nterests that averts unfounded maritime and territorial planes and represses its own people and democracy in hong kong. This is a huge, huge challenge. But heres the heres what we have to start from. We have to put ourselves in a position of strength from which to engage china so the relationship moves forward on our terms, not theirs. And the problem is this. Right now, by virtually by every key metric, china is stronger and ours is weaker as a result of President Trumps failed leadership. Think about this. The president has in effect helped china advance key strategic goals, weakening america alliances. Leaving a vacuum. Check. Iving beijing a green light to trample human rights. Check. And maybe worst of all, attacking its institutions, its people and values virtually every day and we see its apell with regard to the competition with china and that is checkmate. So the problem is this. I think we have to think about it this way. In many ways, the challenge posed is less about their strength than it is about our selfinflicted weaknesses. This challenge is about us, the competitiveness of our workers and democracy and our alineses and partnership and our values, all of which i believe President Trump has undermined and all of which are under our control. What would a joe biden though . Make sure we are investing in ourselves and technology and workers rment. And show the attracttiveness and working with our partners and putting values back in the center of our Foreign Policy. Thats how you engage china. And that is the best basis to advance cooperation with china where we have true concerns whether climate change, Global Health or nonproliferation. It is nt too late. One of the items that was supposed to fill the vacuum with the democrats walk away from it and wasnt sent. And President Trump has ditched it, what is the Biden Administration do . Does it come back in its current form or relaunch it . And the Vice President said if we were going to reengage we have to see the world has moved on and they have worked an agreement with china. And many of the provisions were negotiated out. That is usually problematic. The idea behind p. P. E. And the high standards, the race to the top agreement in which the rights of workers, the environment, transparency are all front and center. Even in its , if organization conception, it would require china to take steps to undo the steps. So thats positive. And i think the other idea behind it that would have to be realized in a different way is china needs to face a choice. G. D. P. Is50 of world together in a high standards race to the top agreement, then china has to agree whether it wants to be part of it. It would have to adhere to those high standards. At this point, given where we are, Something Like that would have to be renegotiated and whether thats possible, i dont know. Cancelling of the temporary benefits for American Families they got from the tax cuts. Farm bankruptcy were up 20 last year. Farm income was down. And even taxpayer funded subsidies and recession that was wreaking havoc even before the pandemic. You do that and at the same time, you alienate the countries that should be working because they are similarly agreed by china by starting tariff wars and insulating them or do you work with other democracies to set the highest possible standards and take that weight and apply it to dealing with chipe. The answer is selfevident. One more china question. In the middle east where i used to live and work, people were talking about facts on the ground. And artificial islands and territorial claims. Can those be rolled back . I dont think its it. But it is a big challenge, but i think again what you have to do is a few things and reset the foundation to be able to approach china. That requires in the first and ce investing in ours reinvestic in our own alineses. You recall that the rebalance to obamabiden he administration deployed 60 of our assets to the region. And then i think you have to be very clear, very direct and make your views and what you are going to be known. Let me give you an example. During the owe baum ave administration, china declared air identification zone and airplanes flying to identify themselves to the Chinese Government. Vice president went to beijing and saw president xi and said we will not identify that zone and fly our planes through it and thats what we did. And similarly with the Vice President was a strong advocate. If you back up your words with deeds, the government of beijing will respect that. Lets turn to iran, the jcp omp a. Is it back on . Lets think of where we are first. There is a lot of digging out to do. When President Trump walked away, an agreement that was effect ahe promised an better deal and said would make iran less dangerous. Unform, the less has happened. Iran is doing it. And iran now admits to enriching uranium and using more centrifuges and by the calculations i have seen necessary for iran to have enough Nuclear Material has decreased for more than a year now. Andful of months inspectors have been blocked. All of this under President Trumps watch. And at the same time withdrawing, the president has isolated us from our closest partners and encouraged russia and china to move closer to iran and we need to check iran beyond the nuclear file. The president promised that pressuring iran would stop its aggressive behavior in the region. What did we see . It became more aggressive and responded to them targeting oil tankers in the gulf and u. S. Troops in iraq, do you understand an american drone and all of this, President Trump brought the United States pretty close to a possible war with tehran on several occasions and september Additional Forces to the middle east at the time we should be ending these wars and after iranian backed attacks on the Saudi Oil Facility after the death of an american contractor, there was a attack. That has to be done in the context. Iran launched missiles at a u. S. Base and traumatic brain injuries. The bottom line, by walking away nd acting aradically and the Nuclear Program is actually now advancing instead of being stopped which brings us to what is happening right now. This is going to be are important. That is the arms embargo which expires in october. Secretary pompeo says the u. S. Will stepped it indefinitely. As best i know today and maybe this will change, but as best i know, not a single ally has that. And russia and china can keep it. And the Administration May compline about the sunset about the embargo but it was a main element of that embargo was negotiated and put in place by the obamaBiden Administration through the hard work of discipline and diplomacy. Insisted. Snapback needs to be invoked by a participant to the Nuclear Agreement and in pulling out, the administration literally head lined its press release ending its participation in the jcp omp a. Legally, it seems to be on shaky grouped in using the snapback provisions we negotiated. There is a lot of irony, plaming the Obama Administration for the sunset of the poigses and that was put in place and we couldville probably extended those prohibitions from inside the deal through unified fronts with our allies. And there are implications for north korea. So thats the long back drop and the foundation. If joe biden is elected president , he would seek to build on the nuclear deal to make it longer and stronger if, f iran returns to strict compliance. And then we would be in a position to use our renewed commitment to diplomacy to work with our allies and strengthen and if he cantively push back against iran because we would be united with our partners instead of isolated. If you look at the middle east and approach toll President Trumps personal approach, his goal is to slimping the american footprint. On the not the unreasonable logic and what you refer to as endless wars, would the Biden Administration continue that trend line . The numbers have been increased in the greater region. By 14,000, 15,000. It is a string way of saying you want to end these wars by actually increasing our troop presence. At the same time, there have been these erratic actions where seemly on a whim or following a conversation with president ered our and and never mind allies or israel announces a withdrawal of forces from syria, a small amount of forces that are leveraging their presence in very impornt ways to make sure we can not only defeat but keep it defeated. We are already in a headspinning position between what the president says and what he actually does. But i think its fair to say if you look hard at our interests, if you look hard at where the orld is going, we are over leveraged in the region and there are ways of achieving our security and advancing our interests with a lot less. And i think we have to distinguish, jerry, between into coneployments licts to to having a small presences of special operators take onaging 10, 20 who a problem and syria is a good example. We think at its height, we had a couple of special operators and support in country. Nd leveraging, 60,000 and that successful took the fight and eliminated the caliphate. We need to distinguish between those kinds of things. Lets turn to russia. He one of the issues is the renewed agreement to renew the star agreement. China and its advances, those talks not only include russia but chinal as well . Do you agree . There is an issue with china and it is smaller than ours and russias but if we tried to do that and whatever the benefits, it might get nowhere and new start would expire. Nd abide the sfration assuming that russia would be to extend new start. Stability for the huge difficulties in the relationship is a positive. It is good for the United States and should extend it. Is it time for a reset with Vladimir Putin and if so, how do you do it . I was going to read you something very briefly. Quote. And this will be a foundation for answering the question. So, the quote is this, at bottom, at the bottom of the kremlins newer on theic view of world fa affairs is russias sense of insecurity. Russia rulers have sensed that their rule was archaic. As russia came into contact with the west, the fear of a more competent, more powerful and more organized society. For this reason, russias rulers will participate until International Organization where they see the opportunity of extending power or of inhibitting or diluting the power of others. Efforts will be made to disrupt the confidence, to hamstring measures of defense, to increase unrest and stimulate. Plaque against white, young against old, new comers against a president. Tenet and itgeorge sounds like up to the moment. Against that become drop what has been a against that backdrop is russias attitude toward the world that existed in some manifest case before Vladimir Putin and will probably continue after him but that putin has d accelerate ant too accelerant to. We have President Trump standing on the world stage with putin saying he took president putins word over that of our own Intelligence Agency when it comes to interference in the last election. We have the president , of course, taking a two by four, treating it like a protection racket rather than the most vital of our alliances. We of course have maybe the most egregious behavior i have seen and really cant explain, which is when confronted with evidence from the Intelligence Community that russia was placing bounties on the heads of american soldiers in afghanistan, the president ignored it. And maybe even worse than doing nothing, what did he do . Apparently he spoke to president putin half a dozen or so times after this intelligence appeared in the president s daily brief, the most important intelligence the president receives, and by the president s own acknowledgment did not raise the issue once and even invited president putin to washington, tried to invite him back into the g7. So we have a big, big problem here that is almost inexplicable. So what is to be done, to coin a phrase. I think a Biden Administration would first of all confront mr. Putin for his egregious action, not embrace him as this president has repeatedly done. We would not trash nato, we would seek to strengthen it. Strengthen its deterrence. Invest in new capabilities to deal with all sorts of challenges in cyberspace and outer space, under the sea, artificial intelligence, some of which come from russia and others. And provide and ro provide assistance to ukraine, georgia and wen balkans. We would like to impose meaningful costs with coordinated sanctions, exposing corruption. An you need to be clear and specific with mr. Putin about whats at risk. But there also might be incentives as to what he could gain through trade, investment and a seat at the table if russia changes its actions that would help relieve the dependence on china. We would need to build our own resilience by hardening election infrastructure, by getting dark money out of politic, by pushing Tech Companies to deal effectively with disinformation. We knead to extend new start and then we have to look at new ways to engage peopletopeople, support Civil Society, very, very complicated because russia makes society hard but there are ways to do that. There needs to be a comprehensive approach to russia that has much more clarity, much clearer policies and a president who doesnt have an inexplicable relationship with Vladimir Putin. I have about 10 more questions to ask you, but we have questions from the audience. I think you need to make sure unmuted and video is on. I hope i can i hope you can hear me. Thank you for your hard work, its been quite informative. Not a lot has been talked about the african continent and the emerging nations in africa. How important is that to our National Security and where is Trump Administration where has Trump Administration failed in the Foreign Policy there today . I think its usually important in ways we tend not to focus on. I think when you look at it, this extraordinary growth of a youth population, that in and of itself, a quarter of the worlds population in the coming decades is going to be from africa. By definition. We have a need to engage it more positively, more productively. At the same time, i really worry deeply about the effect of covid19 may have particularly in africa with less Resilient Health infrastructure, although with a younger population, maybe the consequences wont be as great with covid19 itself, i hope thats right, well see. But we do need to be thinking in ways that are very different from the way were approaching it now because frankly its being the continent is mostly being ignored. Some of the things i think we need to do and i know President Biden would do, first, i think we want to try to ebb gauge a multiplicity of african countries as actual partners in pursuing some interests we have in common on the security front. Global health. Climate change. Freedom and democracy. Shared prosperity. The Vice President has talked about actually convening a summit with African Leaders as well as u. S. Africa Business Leaders regularly during his administration. This is building on something that we did during the obamaBiden Administration. And if you do that regularly and have that kind of connectivity and then have the need, when you have these meetings, for actual deliverables, thats one way of making progress. I suspect the i suspect President Biden would travel to africa early in the administration and try to reenergize some relationships. But also we need to reener jizz our diplomatic corps and fill key ambassador positions and other positions and make that a priority. Theres a huge economic challenge, charles, as you know, africa has gone into recession for the first time in 25 years because of covid19. Its threatening to roll back years of progress in terms of extreme poverty. Its imperative for us and other countries as well as the relevant Financial Institutions to work with governments in africa, to work with the u. S. Private sector, to try to jump start growth across the continent so that they can return to becoming some of the Fastest Growing places in the world. I would say this, and i come back to the first point. I think by last i checked, the population is Something Like 1. 3 billion people across the continent. The median age is 19 years old. Theres an incredible resource there in the continents young people. So thats again something that we try to engage in the last administration. But i think we need to put those kinds of efforts on steroids including working with the public, private sector, Civil Society partner, to try to jump start initiatives, economic opportunity, to harness some of the innovation and energy. I remember being in nigeria a few times in, i guess it was 2015, 2016, and you know, one of the striking things there was, i think theres Something Like at last count almost 70,000 registered n. G. O. s. There is an extraordinary talent pool of young people, extraordinary minds. And we have a huge, huge incentive to try to channel some of those minds and that youth and energy into moving the continent forward and moving the relationship forward. And ll go to lori garrett mbassador mccarthy after that. Thank you. Theres quite a lag time in getting to the unmute, sorry about that. Clearly there is no Strategic Plan for confronting covid19 occurrence in in the current administration. But ive also scoured every bit of Biden Campaign literature and can find no evidence of a Strategic Plan on the biden side either, although there are large shopping lists of tactics. Any strategy begins with what is your stratenalic goal. With the Biden Administration would the Biden Administration support a goal of eradication . Elimination . Containment . What would it be. Good to see you, thanks for the extraordinary work youve been doing for a long time on these issues. Im not sure i would fully subscribe to the premise of your question. I think there is clearly a stratenalic approach there. Im going to dig through the new website and make sure that if its not there, its put there. But you know, youve forgotten more about this than ill ever know, i wont preto end an expert. Through there are but there are a few basic principles that make some sense. With regard to where we are now with covid19, we have utterly botched the initial response. In the absence of therapeutic, in the absence of vaccine, the measures that needed to be taken to protect populations and the economy have been woefully, tragically absent. And so, you know, for a Biden Administration, a lot would depend on where we actually are come next january with regard to the virus. Do we have a vaccine . And then if we do, or vaccines, plural, do we have the right plan to manufacture, distribute in the right way . In the hopefully there are therapeutics but then i think we have to see whether the various strategies with regard to testing, to tracing, to stockpiling, all the things we need to do that we didnt do can still be put into effect. But stepping back from this, look. Thanks to the work youve done, work that others have done on this, previous administrations saw pandemics as a growing, emerging threat to Global Health and to the United States. And we worked to put in place programs and people to prevent, to detect, to deal with them as best we could. Including in china. And so our administration, the obamaBiden Administration, had a strong c. D. C. Presence in china. We famously had a dedicated White House Office within the National Security council focused on pandemics. We had as you know very well a program literally called predict to try to dedect the detect the emergence of pandemics. So i love it when i hear from President Trump this is unpredictable. I guess if you virtually eliminate, as he did, the program called predict, it is. The administration came along and underfunded or dismantled these efforts. Im not saying whether any of this would have actually helped us in some way to deal with this particular pandemic but when you take down the defenses you put in place, the early warnings you put in place, the mitigation you put in place, then youve got a problem. And of course we had one. Then when the virus struck, and the Chinese Government with held critical information, denied access to international experts, this is the moment to insist that china live up to its responsibility as a great nation and as the apparent point of origin of the virus. But instead, President Trump repeatedly praised their transparency and cooperation for the better part of two months when they were doing exactly the opposite. Then, and this goes to a strategy point, he walked away from the w. H. O. In the midst of a pandemic instead of working to reform it from within, ceding our leadership to china and making it less likely that the w. H. O. Could be a vehicle for actually, for example, investigating what happened to make sure that we can learn lessons from this pandemic, and put in place measures and strategies to make it less likely that it happens again or if it does happen again to much more quickly mitigate the downside. So you know, i think we would look and act on putting in place these people, these programs and the resources on prevention, on mitigation, on detection. We would look and this is i think a different area, we would look at our own resourcing to make sure that critical supplies and Critical Technologies could be sourced in the United States in the event of the reemergence of the pandemic, that we werent dependent on anyone else for them. And we would actually implement International Cooperation and leadership, something thats been totally awol. Let me end with this. When we had past crises, nothing has been of this dimension, but when we had large global challenges in the past, the international the United States, whether it was a Republican Administration or democratic administration, took the lead in working to forge International Cooperation and coordination. Im thinking of hivaids and the extraordinary work the Bush Administration in that moment did, saving, i think, millions of lives. Im thinking of the financial crisis. In 2009. Where American Leadership and engagement, bringing countries together in a coordinated response to the economic crisis, i think significantly mitigated its downside as bad as it was and allowed recovery. Weve been totally awol internationally from dealing with covid19. That needs to change too. That also has to be part of the strategy. I should note, we were scheduled to end at 5 00. Tony agreed to stay on for a few extra minutes, well go to about 5 10 if thats ok. We have time for a few more questions. Ambassador mccarthy. Hello. I guess were going to maxwell. Hi, thank you. A few days ago you said that the Biden Administration would oppose any effort to single out israel be it at the u. N. , or otherwise. Im curious where you personally, and where do you think President Biden, would draw the line between the criticism of israel for things such as annexation of the west nk, increase in settlements, and where youd stand up to criticism you may deem unjust to the state of israel. Thank you. I think the Vice President starts from two propositions. Resolutely he supports the relationship between the United States and israel. And has what you would call an ironclad commitment to israel security. A commitment thats been there again through republican and democratic administrations. Israel has never been, until now, unfortunately, a partisan political issue. And i think its very bad for the United States and for israel that some would try to turn it into one. But the Vice President equally believes that the best way, maybe the only way, to guarantee israels future as a jewish and Democratic State and to make sure the palestinians have the state to which theyre entitled is through a twostate solution, as distant as that may appear. For him, any unilateral action by either side that makes that already difficult prospect even more difficult is something he opposes. And hes been very clear in his on stoigs an exation. Smnizz in his on opposition to Settlement Expansion for that reason. As well as opposition to things the Palestinian Authority does or doesnt do to make the chances for two states more distant than they are. And with regard to b. D. F. s and with regard to actions that he sees as unfairly singling out israel, he opposes those too. But he also fundamentally respects the right of americans to fee speech. So people should be able to say what they believe. And he is he will say, if he disagrees, what he believes. He also believes that we should do our best to have our criticisms and conversations with our closest partners like israel between us and see if we can get change and move things in a better direction that way. Thats how hed approach it. I think we have time for two more questions. Michael cole and then steven keenan. Michael. Ok. Have i am i on . I can hear you. Good to see you. Thank you very much. Going back to strengthening alliances and dealing with russia, the troop withdrawals from germany, i wonder if you could say a few things about that and where youd stand on that issue and how the Vice President sees that. Hes been very clear on. This i think he sees the announce. Of troop withdraws withdrawals as incredibly short sight and counterproductive an in effect ince dated instigated by President Trumps pique at Angela Merkel and germany, not the strategic interest of the United States. An it is going to undermine the nato alliance. Its going to harm u. S. Ierman relations. And its a gift to Vladimir Putin. So i dont think i dont think we could be any clearer about that. Cretary esper tried to do an ex post facto justification and put some strategic lipstick on the pig but its still what it is. And you know, the president was very clear. Moments after secretary esper tried to rationalize what was being done the president came out and acknowledged, admitted that he did it because he believes that germany is, quote, not paying its dues to nato, which i think everyone in this audience knows is a profoundly misguided statement. One the president has made repeatedly. So thats what this is about. And ultimately it just is part actions continuum of that have undermined the alliance. And basically, the president tends to treat it as a protection racket. They pay or we dont stay. Never mind the profound interest that we have in being there, in strengthening and sustaining the alliance. This is not a gift that we give to others. Its profoundly in our own selfinterest. O you know, one of the, to me, at least, most profound tragedies of the last few years has been the dissing of our allies and closest partners and the embrace of autocrats around the world. And its particularly, mike, acute, at a time when, you know, democracy to some extent is in retreat. We have a democratic deficit. Of the 40 or so countries that have been rated fully free for decades by Freedom House in the 1980s, 1990s, early 2000s, fully half are sliding back on various metrics of democracy. So this is the very moment when countries, democracies around the world, are holding out, are looking to the United States to be a leader of the free world. At that very moment, by constantly embarrassing and insulting allies, and embracing ad ver sayres, honestly, President Trump seems to have suited up for the other team. I dont understand it. But its weakened us dramatically. And its also take then floor out of the perception of the United States and the world. Look at the survey that pew does on a regular basis. Others. Right now, the United States in terms of who you trust, which leader you trust to conduct World Affairs in a responsible manner, we are now on par with china and russia. And in terms of respect for leadership, that has dropped by 60, 70, 80 points among most of the worlds democracies from where it was under president obama to where it is now under President Trump. And that is a grievous problem for our own security, for our own prosperity and for our own values and it needs to be corrected. One final audience question. Teven. Thank you, sir. Great conversation. And once again, the Aspen Institute has shown itself to be truly bipartisan. But you know, at this moment, im not. Ony, i wish you the best for getting sanity back into the white house. I dont think that we need to look at the 2016 elections for russian involvement with President Trumps personal life. It goes way back. And hes clearly in putins pocket, in my opinion. Most likely we have the First Time Ever in the history of the United States where a sitting president knows the minute hes a private citizen, Southern District of new york has an indictment waiting for him. And thats a pretty dangerous situation. But my question to you, tony, is that, i just read recently, im in colorado. And were one of six states that have done very successful mailin balloting. What is but im not seeing anything from the Vice President Biden Campaign. Im a big supporter of susan rice being his selection. Susan can patch up our international relations, President Biden can do what hes great, where hes got empathy, and heal the nation. Our nation. But my question to you is, it seems to me looking at two congressional races in new york, and its been a long time in the vote and the voting is not finished yet, dont you think the Campaign Needs to be just as theyre not knocking on doors. Jen rider is an excellent selection to be doing your position but youre not knocking on doors. Dont you think the and i think thats a good idea. Dont you think that the campaign should be reaching out publicly, encouraging all the states to gear up for a massive amount of mailin ballots . I like the idea, someone mentioned earlier in the forum that we know by 11 00 Election Night that were going to have the same president again. Thank you. Tony, dont pass up the chance to tell us who the vicepresident ial choice will be. I dont know. If i did know i couldnt say. I can just say, generically that susan rice, there is no one tougher of mind or warmer of heart for sue than susan. I worked for her for two years, shes a remarkable person. But i have no idea where this is going. The Vice President will make his decision on his time and i know given the people who are in contention its going to be a ood one. To your point, i couldnt agree more. Heres what i can tell you. Our campaign has the most comprehensive Voter Education and protection programs of any campaign in modern history. We are spend manager money, were deploy manager people than ever, including in 2008 or 2012 or 2016. With these very clear objectives. Making sure the American People have the opportunity to vote. Whether its by mail, whether its early, whether its day of. I think youll see increasing manifest cases of that effort including a very significant Information Campaign in the weeks ahead. The first vote is, i think, five or six weeks from now as states begin early voting. But you know, youre right that there are incredibly unique pieces to state the obvious to this election. We already had a fragile election infrastructure. Thats been compounded by covid19. Normally youd think that whoever the american president is, he or she would be leading a National Effort, working with governors, working with state, municipalities, locality, ensure that we could have a safe and democratic election in november. Thats what every past president would have done. Thats what this president should be doing. And of course thats not at all what is happening. So there are significant efforts that are under way and that again will, i think, be more and more visible to register folks, to educate folks about how to vote. We have vote by mail that of course is endangered in part by the failure to replenish the Postal Services budget. Democrats in congress are fighting to make sure that happens. Its unbelievable to me that the American People would accept the gutting of the u. S. Postal service. Its forget the election even, its one of the lifelines that we have in the midst of covid19. We obviously have lots of interesting challenges, youre right, with these primaries have sort of put on full display. The small examples, one is in some jurisdictions a lack of scanners. So you get huge influx of mailin ballots at the locality is not prepared to deal with, doesnt have enough people. The way you normally deal with it is you have a scanner so you can rapidly move through. If you dont have a scanner or you only have one instead of five or six, you have to do it by hand. And if you dont have enough people, because covid19 has made it harder to attract seniors who are the people who normally work the polls, you have a problem. Not just us, not just the democratic party, but a whole host of groups have identified these channels are putting resources to them. But you know, this should be a National Effort. Democrats and republicans and independents should be working together. To make sure the vote goes forward safely and democratically. And it boggles the mind that theres not a National Effort being led by the president of the United States to make sure that happens. Tony andierry, thank you for this illuminating conversation. Tony, i know you have about your 1th meeting of the day to go to. I thought it was so spornt when you started, one of the first points you made, was building america. When you talk about u. S. China relations, its not just what the chinese, but what are we going to do at home to strengthen ourselves to compete . To me thats probably the most important National Security issue right now, starting at home. So thank you for explaining that. Thank you for giving us a a very good sense of what Vice President joe biden stands for in this campaign. His jared, thanks for being a great moderator. I hope everyone buys jareds book which comes out august 25. Thanks to you both. Following a day of gos on capitol hill, treasury secretary mnuchin said due to the lack of progress made on the covid19 relief package, he will recommend that President Trump move forward on executive orders. Heres a portion of his remarks. Secretary mnuchin the chief and i will recommend to move forward with some executive orders. We agree with the speaker, this is not the first choice but people have run out of the enhanced unemployment. That is something well recommend an executive order on. It relates to rental foreclosures. Well recommend executived offer on that and also student loans. Its going to take a lit time for us to finalize these and process them but well do them as quickly as we can. The president wants action. He realizes, again, despite what was a big pickup in job, theres still too many people impacted by this binge watch book tv this summer. Saturday evenings at 8 00 p. M. Eastern set until and watch several hours of your favorite authors. Saturday were featuring books written by former first lady, including rosalind carter, barbara bush, hillary clinton, laura bush and michelle obama. And wash watch next saturday, august 15, as we feature the late nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning toni morrison. Booktv all summer on cspan2. Sunday night on q a. Manhattan Institute President salam examines the question of whether another exodus is ahead for u. S. Cities due to the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest. My fear is that youre going to see a period from 1980 to about 2020 when you saw this tremendous prosperity in