Election 2020 is nearing its end, and President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are making a final push to win over voters. GBH Morning Edition host Joe Mathieu spoke with WBZ Political Analyst Jon Keller as we head into the final week of the campaign. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.
Jon Keller: Good morning, Joe. Yeah, it's coming to an end. Are you going to miss the campaign?
Joe Mathieu: I was going to ask you the same thing. I'm not sure what to expect over the coming week because President Trump continues to hold rallies — I know he's got more — with thousands of people, in many cases not wearing masks. Yesterday in New Hampshire, clearly not acknowledging the fact that this virus is not going away.
We don't have a vaccine still, although President Trump says he is all better. He just tweeted, Jon Keller, "we have made tremendous progress with the China virus, but the fake news" — I think he's talking about you — "refuses to talk about it this close to the election." He writes, "COVID, COVID, COVID is being used by them in coordination in order to change our great early election numbers." This is what it's come to now?
Keller: Well, Joe, I noticed that someone very significant doesn't seem to be buying the president's reassurances that it's all over, and that would be New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, the most popular politician by far in New Hampshire, who is cruising to reelection. He was not present at this rally, continuing his practice of steering clear of these super spreader events that the president loves to stage because it runs contrary to all of the advice he's been giving the people of New Hampshire, and New Hampshire has handled the virus very well. So that tells you, I think, all you need to know. Governor Sununu doesn't want to catch the virus and he doesn't want to catch the 'losers disease' that Trump seems to have contracted, either.
Mathieu: Wow. What do you mean by that?
Keller: Well, look at the "60 Minutes" interview. Here's an opportunity on one of the top-rated TV shows in the country to make your closing argument. And the demographics of its audience are attractive to a candidate like Trump or any candidate, as well. What does he do? He turns it into a microcosm of the first debate: constant interrupting and attacking without ever really pivoting to a more positive narrative, rattling on and on about fake news media [and] how unfairly he's treated, conspiracy theories. It's like building a wine cellar right on the spot.
And then he's followed by Vice President Pence who, love him or hate him, puts on a master class in how easy it is for an experienced pol to smother a critical question in a pillow of lies and denial, and then pivot to touting your success and buttering up the voters. There's that old saying, Joe, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. The Trump campaign doesn't do honey.
Mathieu: Obviously, it has worked for President Trump [and] for Mike Pence to do this fake news routine, Jon. But that closing interview on "60 Minutes," we see this every four years, this is a real opportunity to show your temperament to the American people, is it not?
Keller: Yeah, and Leslie Stahl didn't ask him anything unexpected. These were not unusually pointed questions. They were not as pointed as the questions Axios reporter Jonathan Swan threw at the president. What was that, about a month or so ago? It's hard to keep track of time these days. But interestingly, Trump didn't walk out on that interview. But the sight of a woman asking, "tough questions" apparently is something he can't abide. I don't think that was necessarily lost on a lot of at least female viewers. It wasn't lost on me.
And the final indignity occurred the other day when The Wall Street Journal, of all places, knocked down his big alleged October surprise about the alleged corruption in the Biden family. They dug into it [and] said there's nothing here. When the Wall Street Journal is shooting down your closing bombshell, it it just doesn't look good.
Mathieu: He didn't like it when that came up, and Leslie Stahl was was confirming that it was unverifiable on behalf of CBS News, as well.
We have to talk about Joe Biden, because if we're sticking with this theme of temperament, Jon, I want to ask you, going into this final week, the big questions that people are asking about the Biden campaign have to do with age [and] his cognitive ability, which he was asked directly about last evening on that very same broadcast.
Now, as Norah O'Donnell asking questions of Joe Biden in this case. Our last question for you, Jon Keller: Has he done enough to answer that question, and also questions about what would happen to the economy if he were elected?
Keller: Well, yeah, they're trying to close hard on the notion that help raise everyone's taxes, which he flatly denies. Taxes have not been a make or break hot button issue in national politics for some time, so I don't hold out much hope for that for the Trump campaign.
If you think of the last four years, at least among the solid majority of Americans who disapprove of the president's performance, think of it as a four year tonsillectomy. Biden is the vanilla ice cream they spoon feed you as you're recovering in the hospital, okay? It's bland, it's low energy, it's not exciting. I think that's by design and I also think that's who Biden is, to be honest about it. But if there were any group that would be an early warning sign of people just souring on Biden, I would think it would be younger voters. To them, the issues of age and perhaps he's losing it a little allegedly would seem to be more acute. But so far, according to analysis of the early voting, we're seeing a higher youth vote turnout than in 2016 or 2018, and polls show Biden winning two thirds of that vote. So I don't think it's working.
