there s this posturing we re used to, and it s easy for biden, most of his life in government, to fall back into. this certainty about what democracy is and how it s done. and the urgency that we need to be hearing is, look, there s a crisis. the united states over the course of the last ten months is a lesson in how democracies stumble to the edge. we re not hearing the language or the truth. if you don t hear truth, you can t have a conversation. cynthia, i m going to read you a basic news clip from today s axios. and instead of hearing the words donald trump and republican party in here, imagine we were talking about another country and its fledgling democracy. trump and his associates are systematically reshaping the republican party, working to install hand-picked loyalists across federal and state governments and destroy those he feels are disroyal.