Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) joined Cat Oriel on "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the first debate between former President Donald Trump & President Joe Biden.
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00:00Hello, everyone. I'm Cat Oriel with Forbes Breaking News. Today, I'm here with Congressman
00:06Glenn Ivey of Maryland. Congressman, thanks so much for joining me again.
00:10Thanks for having me.
00:11Of course. So I'm just going to jump right into it. Last night,
00:14we had the first presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and President
00:18Joe Biden. A lot of Democrats are dismayed by President Biden's performance. What's your reaction?
00:24Yeah, I've heard some of that. I'm not panicking, I must say. I think he didn't have his best night
00:31for sure. You know, the State of the Union speech that he gave was fantastic. I was with him in
00:36Philadelphia a couple weeks ago. He was great there. And I've seen him at the rally today
00:42that's been televised, and he looks like he's back on his game. But, you know, there's a lot
00:49more campaign to come. And I think the other part of this that's positive for us was that,
00:54you know, I don't think Trump had a great night either, particularly. I think he lied a lot in
01:01obvious ways that turned off a lot of potentially persuadable voters. And certainly the double
01:07haters weren't going to be drawn to him based on what he did and said last night either. So,
01:12you know, I think we've got a long ways to go. We've got a lot of work to do. But
01:16we're definitely still in a position to win this race.
01:19Can you shine more light on that? Because it is something that we're told constantly that
01:22President Biden is a lot better behind closed doors. Is that true? I mean, you've talked a
01:27little bit about, you know, the other instances in which you've seen him. What is he like
01:31in those instances? Was last night really an anomaly?
01:36It was an anomaly from what I've seen. I mean, the Philadelphia rally was a public event. You
01:43know, we went there, I think it's about two weeks ago. The vice president spoke first.
01:47He spoke second. You know, a few thousand people there, mainly a younger crowd. He did a great
01:53job with it. And everybody saw the State of the Union, you know, and what a great job he did
01:57there. So, you know, the private meetings and things, he certainly, you know, sharp and knows
02:03policy inside and out. But I'm talking about the public aspect of this. And I think he's
02:09definitely able to do it. He had a tough night last night, but I don't think that's indicative
02:14of who he is or what he can do. So Rep. Jim McCliburn, among other Democrats, are saying,
02:20you know, they plan to speak with Biden today, tell him to stay the course. So I'm assuming you
02:23agree with this sentiment from coming from top Democrats? Oh, yeah. I, you know, the
02:31panicky stuff, you know, I don't share that view. I really do think that, well, we know that he's
02:37the only candidate that's ever beaten Donald Trump in a race. I guess Donald Trump doesn't
02:42agree with that. But we all know that Joe Biden won fair and square in 2020, and he can do it
02:48again in 2024. We've got a lot of work to do as far as the campaign goes. I think he's, you know,
02:54had a lot of positive developments with the economy. You know, unemployment being down,
03:00inflation went up, but it's coming back down. There's a lot of positive factors.
03:04But I think we have to do more to explain to individual voters how they're personally
03:10benefiting from the policies he's put in place to really make a difference there.
03:16And I think reminding people of, you know, what a circus the Trump presidency was,
03:22especially on January 6th. And, you know, the lies he told about January 6th last night were
03:27astonishing. But everybody saw that. They remember what it looks like. And they know for themselves
03:32that those people weren't tourists. They weren't invited. And, you know, we had officers that died
03:38that night. It was a big blow against democracy. Fortunately, the nation survived it. But I don't
03:44think we should give him a second shot. Can you speak to that more? Yes. What is
03:48your message to voters who saw last night and are seeing the panic coming from people?
03:53You know, some saying Biden should resign immediately, some saying he shouldn't be
03:56the nominee. Can you speak to the voters and reassure them that Biden is fit to serve?
04:00Or from your perspective, why is he fit to serve? And how would you reassure them that he's fit to
04:04serve for another four more years or much less till January? Well, he's fit to serve because he's
04:10been doing a great job as president. And I don't think anybody is shown or really even argued that
04:16he's been unfit in one way or another based on his performance. I think he's done a great job of
04:22managing the economy. It's a lot of tough circumstances. As you mentioned last night,
04:28the U.S. economy was flat on its back after Covid and the Trump presidency. It's really
04:33rebounded in a great way, I think, with respect to foreign policy. He rallied NATO in a way that
04:40Donald Trump never could have done because he alienated most of the European states when he
04:44was president. But President Biden was able to rally them in support of Ukraine, even though
04:50for many countries like Germany, for example, taking a stand against Russia, which provides
04:57much of their oil or did at the time was tough for them economically. But the president was able
05:02to get them to support it. And he's got a lot of other policies to, you know, ratcheting down
05:07prescription drug prices, insulin for thirty five dollars, for example, bringing back chip
05:13manufacturing to the United States. I mean, the infrastructure, building new bridges and roads.
05:18I mean, the list goes on and on of the things that he's done that have been positive for the
05:22American people. We just have to do a better job of getting that message out there and explaining
05:27to people what it is he's done and how it's benefited them. Right. I think some people
05:31were more distracted by the performance than the actual policy. So I do want to talk about
05:36that a little bit more. So one question that was interesting to me was when President Biden
05:40was asked to respond to black voters who might be disappointed that he hasn't made more progress in
05:44his first term. And he actually did admit that he doesn't blame them. So what do you think that he
05:49has done or hasn't done when it comes to the issues important to black voters?
05:54Well, unemployment's at all time lows for African-American workers. You know, inflation
05:59is has come back down, as I mentioned. I mean, he's done a lot of positive things with respect to
06:05not just African-Americans, but but all young Americans in particular, you know,
06:09forgiving student loan debt is a big example of that, something that hits them right in the
06:14pocketbook and helps them get back on their feet and still maintain the benefits of getting
06:20the education that they went to school so they can improve their lives economically. We've got
06:25a lot of challenges in the country, for sure, that affect African-Americans and all Americans
06:31across the board. But I think he's doing a lot to help improve those things as well.
06:37Sadly, my community, me, for example, suffer from a lot of maladies where we have to take
06:42prescription drugs to maintain our health. He's doing a great job of I mentioned insulin a few
06:50minutes ago for diabetics, but also creating a scenario where the United States government can
06:55negotiate those prices down for a range of other drugs, too. So, you know, there's a lot of positive
07:01things that have happened there, helping historically black colleges with funding and
07:06getting additional grants and the like. It's a lot of positives. We just have to make sure we get the
07:11message out so people hear it and not just for African-Americans. I think that's true for,
07:15you know, other groups across the board. I think he's been a real benefit to America as a whole.
07:21You mentioned the threat to democracy a bit when it came to the claims from President
07:25Donald Trump. What else did you hear from him last night that you were concerned about?
07:30Well, I mean, he he didn't really back away from the, you know, using the government to retaliate
07:37against his opponents. You know, he also never acknowledged that he would just straight up
07:43accept the results of the twenty twenty four election, which I found, you know, it's all
07:47this conditional stuff, whereas everybody else before this, everybody else that ran for president,
07:52if you ask them if they would accept the results of the election, they'd say yes and stop talking
07:58and look at you quizzically like what kind of question is that for Donald Trump? It's a real
08:03issue. And unfortunately, he's inspired other people like the Republican Senate candidate in
08:09Arizona to deny that they lose. You know, if they win, they win. If they lose, it was stolen,
08:15as it seems to be their mantra. And the January 6 piece, an effort to actually steal
08:22the election from President Biden, essentially an attempted coup,
08:27you know, is deeply disturbing, too, because he, again, took no responsibility for his role in that
08:34and basically acted like the things that they were doing were fine. And that's that's shocking
08:40and pathetic, you know, and I think a real scary position for a potential president,
08:46certainly for a former president to take from the standpoint of respecting the rule of law
08:51and American democracy. And beyond that, though, what are the topics that we already talked about
08:56that are important to you and your constituents, such as the cost of prescription drugs,
09:00maybe access to reproductive rights and abortion care? And what about a second Trump presidency
09:09scares you about the other issues that we talked about so far? Well, you know, as you mentioned,
09:15abortion was a huge issue that came up last night. I think he was kind of all over the place on that.
09:20But I think Trump basically said that he well, I think he's trying to flip flop on his position.
09:29But basically, he's previously said that he favored a national ban on abortion. And as
09:35President Biden pointed out, if Republicans take control of Congress and pass a national ban,
09:41Joe Biden would veto it. Donald Trump would sign it into law. And I think that's a fundamental
09:46distinction. We've seen abortion as an issue in states across the country, everywhere that it
09:51comes up on the ballot. You know, the voters support protecting women's rights to make those
09:58decisions, trying to move back to where Roe v. Wade was, instead of as there's another state
10:04that came out today that or yesterday that after six weeks, abortion is going to be banned. And of
10:11course, many women, you know, are just finding out they're pregnant, much less, you know, figuring
10:16out if they have a pregnancy where, you know, for whatever reason, their mind, their health might be
10:22at stake, or the baby's gonna die, or whatever it is, information that they need to know before they
10:28make a decision about whether they should get an abortion or not, frequently comes after six weeks.
10:33And so I think it makes sense to get the politicians out of the exam room and let women
10:38make the decisions as to what they should do with in their own bedrooms and with their own wombs.
10:44Is there anything else you would like to add about the debate that we didn't get to touch on yet?
10:49I think that does it.
10:51Thank you so much for your time today, Congressman.