Blinken travels to Egypt, Israel for Gaza cease-fire push | The Excerpt
On Monday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is heading to Egypt and Israel, as U.S. officials continue to push for a cease-fire in Gaza. Paste BN Senior National Political Correspondent Sarah D. Wire looks at the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Paste BN National Political Correspondent David Jackson talks about former President Donald Trump's shift on mail-in balloting. Jimmy Carter's grandson shares an update on his grandfather's health. The NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final roll on.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson. And today is Monday, June 10th, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today, Blinken heads to Egypt in Israel amid a ceasefire push. Plus, we talk about RFK Jr., and Trump now backs mail-in balloting.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit Egypt and Israel today at a critical time as Washington seeks to increase pressure on Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire in Gaza. Blinken is set to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Cairo before traveling to Israel later today where he'll meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The visit comes after President Joe Biden at the end of May outlined a three-phase ceasefire proposal from Israel. It includes a permanent end to hostilities, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the reconstruction of Gaza.
Israeli forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas since October in a raid in Gaza over the weekend, during which nearly 300 Palestinians were killed, according to Gaza's health ministry. Meanwhile, Israeli Minister Benny Gantz announced his resignation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government yesterday. The move withdraws the only centrist power in Netanyahu's otherwise far-right coalition during the war in Gaza.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doesn't see himself as a spoiler for Democrats or the GOP. In an exclusive interview with Paste BN, he said that he's the hopeful alternate in an election full of doom and gloom. Do experts agree? I spoke with Paste BN's Senior Campaign Reporter Sarah D. Wire for more. Sarah, thanks for helping on The Excerpt today.
Sarah D. Wire:
Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So Sarah, let's just start with this. Where does RFK Jr. stand in polling right now, and really just how popular is this candidate?
Sarah D. Wire:
Recent polls have shown Kennedy polling as low as 3% and as high as 13%. But really, historically, a third-party candidate can influence the outcome of the election, even if they get a small percentage. Ralph Nader was in the race in 2000. Just getting 1.9% of the vote in Florida was enough to potentially swing the entire national election to George W. Bush.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah, we've heard a lot about RFK Jr.'s potential role as a spoiler this fall. What do elections experts say on this, and how does RFK Jr. himself address those concerns?
Sarah D. Wire:
Election experts are really conflicted on how big of a role he's going to play. Now, the question is is whether the people who support him now are going to follow him all the way to election day. Several months out it's really easy to say, "Oh, I'm going to be a protest vote." But as the race narrows and people start understanding the impact of their individual vote, we tend to see people gravitate back to the parties that they've supported in the past.
Taylor Wilson:
On that note, if he does play the spoiler role this fall, how do experts view this in terms of who he's expected to hurt more? This has been the million-dollar question for lots of folks, Biden or Trump?
Sarah D. Wire:
He believes he hurts Trump more. And from what we're seeing publicly, Trump's taking a lot more swings at him. The campaign seems to be a lot more worried about Kennedy. But quietly, we're seeing the Biden campaign go after Kennedy's ballot access a lot more aggressively. And so it seems like both campaigns are very aware that he could be a spoiler and are not taking this lightly. For his part, Kennedy says that he doesn't want to be a spoiler, he wants to be a hopeful alternative. He says that both major party candidates are spending too much time talking about doom and gloom and the end of the Republic where he wants to talk about the future of America. His platform, such as it is, has kind of been a grab bag of things that both parties have supported in the past. You've got the anti-vaccine movement that has become larger in the Republican Party, but he also has a background as an environmentalist. And so there are going to be little things that his supporters can like or dislike on both sides.
Taylor Wilson:
So Sarah, what issues is he leaning into? And has he stood apart from Biden or Trump at all on those tent pole themes?
Sarah D. Wire:
We're hearing a lot from Biden about the future of the country. We're hearing a lot from Trump about immigration. We're not hearing a lot about that from Kennedy. Kennedy wants to be talking about the national debt and housing and the environment. He recently changed his stance on abortion. He used to believe that access to abortion should be completely unlimited. Now he thinks that we should go back to the standard of Roe V. Wade. His stance on vaccination will probably draw a lot of eyes. Especially in the recent years, he's been extremely vocal since COVID about not vaccinating children.
Taylor Wilson:
Sarah, this is a candidate with a very, very famous last name. What role is the Kennedy name playing in his campaign? And does he see himself as carrying on his father or his uncle's legacy?
Sarah D. Wire:
Some of the experts I spoke to really thought that his name was the reason he's drawing as much support as he is. There's some nostalgia that comes with Kennedy and Camelot, that whole idea that some people still really hold onto. But the Kennedy family has come out very vocally against him. They have endorsed President Joe Biden. And they're not just passively not supporting Robert Kennedy. Jr., they are actively urging Americans not to support him, and that's something you don't normally see from big political families. But for Kennedy's take, I asked him about this directly, would his father support his campaign? And he said he thinks he would, that he checks off a lot of the same boxes that his father does. It is interesting, though, because the Kennedys have a long history of believing in vaccine research. During President Kennedy's time in office, he pumped a lot of federal dollars into research of vaccines. And so Robert Kennedy's stance on vaccination and not believing in it really does run contrary to what his father and uncle believed.
Taylor Wilson:
Sarah D. Wire is a senior national political correspondent with Paste BN. Thank you, Sarah.
Sarah D. Wire:
Thanks for having me.
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Taylor Wilson:
Mail-in balloting is part of a new Republican plan to promote early voting, even after years of Donald Trump attacks on the idea. I spoke with Paste BN National Political Correspondent David Jackson to learn more. David, thanks for hopping on.
David Jackson:
Hey, thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So David, what is this Swamp the Vote USA program?
David Jackson:
It's basically a new Trump Republican campaign project that's designed to encourage their supporters to get out and vote early. Early voting has been more of an advantage for Democrats in recent elections than in Republicans. And the most significant part of it, to us, anyway, is that that includes mail-in voting, which is something that Trump has spent years attacking. And Trump-affiliated groups and the Republican Party have filed numerous lawsuits to try to curb or end mail-in voting. Well, now Trump and his campaign seem to think that mail-in voting is okay and they want their voters to practice it. And this is the project that they're using to try to encourage it.
Taylor Wilson:
As you say, this is a shift really from Trump's previous stances on mail-in voting. Why are we seeing this shift now?
David Jackson:
Well, because he got swamped in terms of mail-in voting both four years ago and a lot of Trump Republican candidates were defeated two years ago in congressional elections because of mail-in voting. Democrats in some states have perfected this to an art, they have very organized mail-in balloting drives. They get these ballots to a lot of people and a lot of people return them. And they've basically beaten Republican candidates two to one in elections in recent years. And the Republicans simply have to catch up. So a lot of Republicans across the country, particularly in states like Pennsylvania that have been urging Trump to promote mail-in voting for quite some time, he's resisted that, but now he's given in because he basically has to. Republicans really can't win unless they have a decent mail-in voting apparatus.
Taylor Wilson:
And David, it appears some GOP lawyers are still filing lawsuits over election procedures. What's the latest on that front, and doesn't that go against this Swamp the Vote plan?
David Jackson:
Very much so. The Democrats are happy to point this out. Trump's starting to promote program that his lawyers are basically trying to kill. But we've got lawsuits all over the place, Pennsylvania and Nevada and Michigan. And four years ago, the lawsuits were designed to try to stop mail-in balloting, period. Those were unsuccessful. Now the Republican Trump tactic is to try to curb mail-in voting, try to restrict the number of mail-in ballots that are actually counted. So they're suing on things like saying that states shouldn't count mail-in ballots that lack a postmark. States should not count mail-in ballots that are received after election day. States should not count mail-in balloting if the forms are filled out wrongly, things like that. All of these lawsuits are in different stages of litigation, but none have really been successful. I mean, as much as the Trump people have tried to restrict mail-in balloting, this hasn't worked in the courts, and that's another reason that they're kind of getting with the program in terms of mail ballots.
Taylor Wilson:
And what did Democrats say about Trump and the GOP's strategies amid all this?
David Jackson:
I think they're a little concerned because if the Republicans do develop a decent mail-in balloting strategy, that is not going to be to their benefit. That's going to hurt them. So they're just trying to point out to people that Trump is a hypocrite and he still doesn't believe in mail-in balloting, still calls it corrupt. So they're reminding all of us of the things Trump has said over the years about mail-in balloting and that they question whether or not they're actually going to be able to put together any kind of decent program.
Taylor Wilson:
David Jackson is a national political correspondent with Paste BN. Thank you, David.
David Jackson:
Thank you, sir.
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Taylor Wilson:
Jimmy Carter's grandson, Jason Carter, has given an update on the former president's health after over a year in hospice care. He shared with Southern Living that his grandfather is experiencing the world as best he can as he continues through the process without his beloved wife. Carter told Southern Living, quote, "After 77 years of marriage, I just think none of us really understand what it's like for him right now. We have to embrace that fact that there's things about the spirit that you just can't understand," unquote. He added that Jimmy Carter isn't awake every day, though he'll occasionally crack jokes as he spends time with loved ones in his longtime home of Plains, Georgia. His late wife, Rosalyn Carter, died last year at the age of 96. Jimmy Carter, now 99, entered hospice in February of 2023. The Carter Center shared in a statement that the former president was choosing to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.
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The Boston Celtics jumped out to a two games to nothing lead over the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA finals yesterday, thanks to a strong defensive performance and 26 points from Jrue Holiday. The series now shifts to Dallas for game three on Wednesday. Meanwhile, on the ice, the Stanley Cup final continues tonight as the Florida Panthers will try to build on their one game to none lead over the Edmonton Oilers. The Panthers are searching for their first championship ever while the Oilers last won it all in 1990. You can follow along with Paste BN Sports. Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.