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00:00Philip, let's start with Donald Trump's choice of a running mate, J.D. Vance.
00:04What more can you tell us about him?
00:05Well, first of all, I expect everyone wants to know what J.D. stands for.
00:07It's James David, but you shouldn't call him that because he's known universally as J.D.
00:12Vance.
00:13He's 39.
00:14He was actually a former U.S. Marine Corps veteran.
00:16Now, the strange thing about J.D. Vance is that originally he was anti-Trump.
00:21He was a never-Trumper.
00:23He called Trump America's Hitler.
00:25He also described him as an idiot.
00:27But little by little, he's done this U-turn and become now what many are saying is a mini-Trump
00:32himself.
00:33Now, I think what Donald Trump is trying to obtain by calling on J.D. Vance to be his
00:38running mate is two things.
00:39First of all, he needs to have someone who is really a staunch ally, someone who will
00:44always back him up.
00:45Remember that he was let down by Mike Pence, who refused to agree to what Donald Trump
00:50was doing on the day of the storming of the Capitol building in Washington to verify the
00:57election results.
00:58I think there's little doubt that J.D. Vance would go all the way in backing Donald Trump,
01:03even up to breaking the law, and that's what Donald Trump is looking for in all of this.
01:07He's also a populist.
01:09He is against immigration.
01:12He is saying that the 2020 election was rigged and that he's against more U.S. aid to Ukraine.
01:19The second point is I think that he wants to have someone who is a counterbalance to
01:24the youthfulness of Kamala Harris face to face with Joe Biden, even though Kamala Harris
01:28is 60.
01:30I think that Joe Biden, by choosing J.D. Vance, someone who's only 39 and a half of Donald
01:37Trump's age, is showing that he wants to try to bridge the gap and to pull in more blue
01:43collar workers from other states close by, already Ohio, which is moving more to the
01:49right, but also Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
01:52And J.D. Vance is definitely the man for the job.
01:54Philip, the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, of course, really changed the
02:00narrative there in the United States that had really been focused on Joe Biden.
02:04And is he too old for the race, which we were talking about very much last week?
02:08There are still calls for Biden to pull out of the race, even though the president does
02:13remain adamant that he does want to stay in.
02:15Could anything change his mind at this point?
02:17Well, I think there are another couple of things here as well that that will maybe swing
02:21this. The first one is the Democratic National Convention, which is due to take place next
02:26month. I think that's the make or break moment.
02:29But I think before that, if we start seeing as a result of this assassination bid, the
02:33polls beginning to fall and Biden falling sharply in his support base amongst the
02:39American people, that is certainly going to act as a wake up call.
02:42It's a very complicated issue because time is so short now to change the candidates.
02:47The Democrats are really in a quandary over what to do.
02:50There's only one person who could really fill Joe Biden's shoes, and that is Kamala Harris.
02:54Will she be able to do it? Is she popular enough?
02:56It looks like she's been going back up in the polls just recently.
02:59But nobody knows how all of this is going to pan out in the next few weeks after this
03:05failed assassination bid. What effect will that have on the Democrats campaign?
03:08What will that have on all the rhetoric that's been being spoken out about in the United
03:14States, particularly on the Trump side, but even more especially on the Biden side?
03:19All of that, I think, will play into the final decision being made on whether or not Joe
03:23Biden can still run.
03:24All right, Philip, thank you for that.