Lex Fridman: belief

Transcript context

…Both. So again, it depends on what you mean. So was he forced out? Of course he was forced out. You think he just woke up and he is like, “Oh, yeah, you know what? Screw my legacy. I don’t want to be a two term president. I’ll just drop out for no reason.” No, we forced them out. Of course we did. And when I say we, I had a tiny, tiny, tiny role. The people who had the major roles, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and all those folks. But even they were not the main driving force. The number one driving force were the donors. What is the source of power of Bernie or Massey? The people. What is the source of power for Biden? The donors. The donors made Biden. He is the donors’ candidate. And that’s why he told the donors, nothing will fundamentally change. If you say Lex, “No Cenk, I think you’re too extreme that Biden works for the donors 98%. I think he only works for them 80% or 55%.” Fine. We could have that debate. But you can’t argue that it isn’t his source of power. And you can’t argue it anymore, even if you were going to argue it earlier, because once the donors said, “We’re not giving you any more money.” He didn’t have any options. He couldn’t go on. But was he forced out at knife point or something? No. So was it voluntary? Yeah. Ultimately, if Biden decided to stay in, there was nothing we could do about it. And so he had to voluntarily make that decision. But he voluntarily made it, because he had no choice left. Yeah. I wish he stepped down voluntarily from a place of strength. So I think presidents, I think politicians in general, especially at the highest levels, want legacy. And to me at least, one of the greatest things you could do is to walk away at the top. I mean, George Washington, to walk away from power is I think universally respected, especially if you got a good speech to go with it and you do it really well, not in some kind of cynical or calculated or some kind of transactional way, but just as a great leader. And maybe be a little bit even more dramatic than you need to be in doing it. Yeah, I thought that would be a beautiful moment. And then launch some kind of democratic process for electing a different option. Not only did I agree with you 100%, I reached one of his top advisors, one of the guys you see in the press all the time, as in his inner circle. I never said that before, because we were in the middle of it. And I’m never going to betray anyone’s confidence. And I’ll never say who it was. Okay. But he was gracious enough to meet with me as I was about to enter the primary. And look, it is smart too, because get information, intelligence, et cetera. Is this guy going to be trouble, or not trouble? But at least he took the meeting. And the case I made is exactly the one you just said, Lex. This about 10 months ago. I said, “If he drops out now, they build statues of him, the Democrats.” If you are right-wing or you hate him, I get it. But the Democrats would’ve said he beat Trump and protected democracy in 2020, and he steps down graciously now to make sure we beat Trump again in 2024, and he lets go of power voluntarily. He’s going to be a hero, an absolute hero. But if he doesn’t, you’re going to force all of us to kick the living crap out of him, and tell everybody he’s an egomaniac, which he is. And he’s doing this so that he could be… If you don’t know Washington in that bubble, if you’re a one-term president, you’re a loser. If you’re a two-term president, you have a legacy, and you’re historic. He’s running for one reason, and one reason only. My legacy. I will be a two-term president. I will be considered historic. I’m like, brother, now you’re going to be considered a villain, the villain of the story. You’re handing it right back to Trump. You’re not going to win. And you know, look at the numbers. Any political professional knows you’re not going to win. So you have hero or villain, and you get to choose. But if you think you’re going to be a hero and beat Trump, that is not a choice you have. That is not going to happen. And they didn’t believe us. But by then they did.…

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