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Step up to the mic: What would you ask Biden and Trump?
In the run-up to Thursday night’s presidential debate, we asked GZERO readers to play moderator and draft questions for the two main contenders, Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Some even took up the challenge of posing the toughest questions either candidate could face.
Our inbox was soon overflowing with thoughtful responses like these:
Andrew Vickery, Lenox, MA
“It seems that America is on the path to become its own worst enemy. Lack of trust in democratic institutions. Declining public education. Vulnerable critical infrastructure (in terms of security). Identity politics. What will you do to strengthen the US domestically and decrease polarization? How will you remind Americans how lucky we are to be born here?”
_____
Ward Greer, Bernardsville, NJ
“For me, policy issues are not as important in the debate as the ability of the candidates to coherently and presidentially respond to the questions being posed.”
_____
Anonymous
For both: “What moral values or principles guide you when you have to make a difficult decision?”
For Biden: “Did you ask your son not to accept a position with Burisma when you were engaged in questioning the Ukrainian investigation of Burisma in order to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest?”
For Trump: “Do you think the states have done a good job legislating around the issue of abortion since the end of Roe?”
_____
John W. Allen, NY, NY
“What is your definition of a con man?”
_____
David Boling, Arlington, VA
“Please tell us a characteristic that you admire in your opponent.”
_____
JK, Waterloo, ON
“Why didn't you step aside for a younger leader? Do you believe a younger leader couldn't do the job as well as you?”
“Any tough questions will be dismissed as both are experienced at not answering the question asked. It depends on whether the opponent can capitalize on the dismissal answer and turn it into a talking point that becomes part of the highlight reel of the debate.”
_____
John Morey, Woods Hole, MA
“If you could have dinner with a past or present political figure of the opposing party, living or dead, who would that be and why?”
_____
Steve from The Bronx, NYC
“Name the top 5 functions of the federal government in Washington:
Exs:
1 defense
2 currency/debt
3 border control
4 population safety
5 national infrastructure”
_____
Hanna Bärlund, Finland
Which of the current American politicians do you think is smarter or more intelligent than you and would you hire him/her to your staff in the White House?
_____
Brad Michaelson, Scottsdale, AZ
“If you lose, will you accept the results of the election? If either refuses, I would end the debate or as a participant, walk away. If you can’t/won’t accept the results of an American election, you can’t be expected to uphold the fundamental element of this government.”
Hardest question for Biden: “Who does America support in Gaza?” Follow up: “How would you handle Iraq involvement?”
For Trump: “What exactly is the Deep State?” Follow up: “How does it work?”
_____
Tom Quinn, Easthampton, Massachusetts
“Describe what being an American means to you. What traits, qualities, responsibilities, and expectations are there for the American citizen? Please answer the question from your heart and not some prescripted response.”
_____
Laurie Miller, Raleigh, NC
“What will you enact over the next 6-12 months that will make life better for the average American on the street?”
For Biden: “Why was this election not the time for someone younger to step forward for the Democratic nomination?”
For Trump: “Should a convicted felon be allowed to hold the office of President?”
_____
Emily Vondrak, Sioux City, IA
“We have a number of national crises impacting the US today – the border, high interest rates, national debt, drug overdoses, crime spikes, international conflict to name a few. If you could choose one to fully solve during your second term, which would it be and why?”
Tough question for Biden: “It will be hardest for him to defend his strategy at the Southern border. There is really no good answer. A close second is making any definitive statement about Israel. It will need to be somewhat vague or he will further alienate a portion of his own party.”
Tough question for Trump: “He will use his conviction as further evidence of what he considers a political agenda, but it will be hard to talk about that being political and not admit the case against Hunter Biden was also politically motivated – it would be drenched with hypocrisy.”
_____
Richard Willerton, Vancouver WA
“Draw a map of the world with the names of all the countries you have time for. The lower gets his ass kicked by the winner.”
_____
Robert Clark, New York, NY
“The excess of births over deaths has fallen by about 2/3rds in the last 15 years and is projected to head to zero. Population growth directly impacts our capacity to control inflation, address the national debt, and compete economically in a competitive global economy. As a policy goal, do you believe that the United States should target a significant net legal immigration – immigration on our terms according to our laws – as a desirable outcome, and if so, how would you propose we rewrite our failed immigration laws to achieve that national goal?”
Toughest question for Biden: “Mr. President, polls in the key battleground states show you trailing the Democrat's candidate for Senate by 4 to 13 points. Other polling suggests this is less about your performance as President than concerns about your capacity to serve another 4-year term due to age. Given this reality, the reality of voters' concerns here, why not "show them how to say goodbye" to quote the song from Hamilton, and retire to Delaware as a revered statesman who devoted his life to public service? Why not go out on top and hand the mantle of leadership to the next generation?”
Toughest question for Trump: “President Trump, your playful prediction that you could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn't lose any supporters has proven prescient, as your criminal indictments, losses at trial, and recent felony conviction really haven't materially reduced support from your base. But outside of your base, Americans express concern that you are a liar, a serial adulterer, undermine relations with our allies, have no interest in safeguarding American institutions at the core of our democracy, attempted to subvert the peaceful transition of power in the last election, act entirely out of self-interest often in full disregard of the rule of law, and in short are wholly unfit to hold any position of trust in society, much less the Presidency. Do you think you need to attract voters outside your base and if so, how would you answer those concerns?
(Robert Clark, Robert Clark, New York, NY – permission granted)
_____
Bruce Beck, Salt Lake City, Utah
“What is your definition of 'poison blood'?”
_____
Michael Tanchek, Carson City, Nevada
Out of more than 210 million Americans over the age of 35, what makes you think you are the most qualified to be President?
_____
David Taylor, Bourne End, UK
“Given that the mental acuity of both candidates is declining rapidly and the majority of the electorate would prefer other candidates, why have you not stepped aside in favour of a younger candidate?”
_____
Sharon Weight, Half Moon Bay, CA
“What systemic, specific changes would you make to any Federal programs to reduce the deficit? “
An "Aqui Vote Here" sign at the Guerra branch library in San Antonio, Texas, USA.
Biden and Trump fight over a changing “Latino Vote”
Just days ago, President Joe Biden announced a sweeping executive measure that would legalize the status of undocumented immigrants who are married to American citizens. The move, which primarily benefits hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Latin America, was the latest salvo in the contest between Biden and Donald Trump to win over Latino voters.
Both sides have been honing their pitches to Latino communities.
Trump, who recently rebranded his outreach as “Latino Americans for Trump,” has begun visiting Democratic strongholds to find “persuadable Black and Latino voters.” Last month he went to the heavily blue South Bronx, where GZERO was on the scene.
The Biden campaign, for its part, has spent tens of millions on ads targeting Latino voters, including some in Spanglish. “For our abuelos,” one says, “insulin that costs treinta y cinco dólares or cientos de dólares, that is la diferencia between Joe Biden y Donald Trump.”
The campaign even has a new ad called “Goalll!” as part of its pitch to Latinos during the month-long Copa América soccer tournament.
The main audience for all of this? More than 36 million registered Latino or Hispanic voters who trace their heritage to the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America.
At nearly 15% of the electorate, that’s America’s largest group of minority voters, and it’s growing fast. This fall, there will be four million more eligible Latino voters than in 2020. Latinos alone account for half of the total growth in registered voters during this electoral cycle.
They are also more than 20% of the registered voters in battlegrounds like Arizona, Nevada, and Florida, and they could have a big impact even in swing states where their numbers are smaller.
There are more than 600,000 registered Latino voters in Pennsylvania, which Biden won by barely 80,000 votes in 2020. In Wisconsin, which Biden won by a mere 25,000 votes, there are 180,000 registered Latinos.
Hispanic voters have historically leaned left-ish. Between 50-60% of Latinos identify as Democrats while only a quarter say they are Republicans. But they are hardly a one-dimensional group.
“Hispanic voters are diverse in many ways, including in their political identities,” says Jens Manuel Krogstad, an expert on Latino communities at the Pew Research Center. “Factors like origin country, immigrant generation, religion, and geography all intersect in complex ways to shape Hispanic political attitudes.”
Miami Cubans, marked by their flight from Fidel Castro’s revolution, are famously much more conservative than, say, Mexican-Americans in California, traditionally a Democratic bastion, or Puerto Ricans just a few hundred miles north, in the Orlando area.
Those differences sometimes play out under one roof.
“We’ve got four Latinos living just in this house,” says Joe Pabón, 47, a Harlem-raised paralegal of mixed Ecuadorian and Puerto Rican descent who lives in Baltimore with his Puerto Rican-Dominican wife and two kids, “and I don’t know that the four of us would even vote the same. So I really couldn’t tell you what, say, a 25-year-old Latino in New Mexico or LA thinks about things.”
But in recent years, Trump and the GOP have made inroads into the Democrats’ azul wall of Latino support. Trump took 29% of the Latino vote in 2016 and 32% in 2020. In the 2022 midterms, 33% of Latinos reported voting Republican.
Experts caution that the rightward lurch didn’t occur in all Latino communities.
“It was not a uniform shift toward Trump,” says Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas, director of UCLA’s Latino Politics and Policy Institute. “There were particular places in the country where that shift happened more than in others.”
In the 2020 election, for example, the GOP won over South Florida Colombians and Venezuelans by raising the specter of Democratic Party “socialism,” and they gained the support of Mexican-Americans in energy-rich districts of South Texas, who worried that Biden’s environmental agenda would eliminate their oil and gas industry jobs.
And perhaps this undeniably catchy Cuban timba-style anthem also helped: “¡Yo voy a votar, por Donald Trump! (No matter what your politics are, it hits.)
But there was also a “reversion to the mean,” says Dominguez-Villegas. Republican-leaning Latinos or independents appalled by Trump’s openly anti-immigrant rhetoric in 2016 were more receptive to his economic, deregulatory, and anti-lockdown messages four years later.
The picture has gotten even dimmer for Democrats since then.
Recent polls show as many as 46% of Latinos now support Trump. If that holds on Election Day, it would set a new record of Latino support for a GOP presidential candidate. Until now, none has gotten more than George W. Bush, who campaigned on comprehensive immigration reform, spoke passable Spanish, and was reelected with 40% of the Latino vote in 2004.
Part of the reason Trump is doing better among Latinos? Es la economía, estúpido.The top issues for Latinos right now are, overwhelmingly, economic: inflation, jobs, and housing costs, with health care and gun violence rounding out the top five.
While large numbers of Latinos still see Democrats as stronger on many of these issues, the broader sense of economic malaise has taken a toll on Biden’s support in Latino communities. Two-thirds of Hispanics think the economy is going badly, according to a recent CBS poll. That’s two points higher than the national average.
But there’s something else at work too, according to Dominguez-Villegas.
“Although a lot of Latinos fled places that were dictatorships, there is still a sense that strong leadership is good and that Trump had things under control and that Biden has not,” he says.
That sense is one reason Mauricio Hernández, 30, a Colombian-American entrepreneur who runs an aircraft repair business in Miami, supports Trump.
Under the last president, he says, “I remember gas being cheaper, companies prospering more.” And while he thinks both candidates are flawed, Trump seems to take a “harder stance” on key issues like national security and, of course, immigration.
Ah, immigration. Over the past half-century, the majority of US immigrants, both legal and undocumented, have come from Latin America. As a result, immigration policy touches Latinos more directly and more broadly than other groups.
Latino views on immigration are nuanced, but recent polls of the Latino community broadly show hardening opinions. A narrow majority of Latinos now say they would support Trump’s proposal to deport all undocumented immigrants.
“I’m an immigrant, but I came here from the Dominican Republic through the front door,” said Ana Peréz, a woman who spoke to us at Trump’s Bronx rally last month. “Sorry if I don’t think we should let just anyone sneak in to take jobs, to commit crimes. As a woman, I’d like to feel safe walking down the street at night again.”
Latinos in swing states, meanwhile, now view Democrats as worse on immigration than Republicans, according to Equis, a prominent Latino-focused pollster.
But part of the reason for that, the study showed, was the feeling that Democrats “fail to deliver” on immigration policy promises.
A separate study of swing-state Latino voters conducted by UnidosUS, a major Latino advocacy organization, showed strong support both for creating a path to citizenship for long-term undocumented immigrants, while also supporting stronger border measures and cracking down on human trafficking.
“Latino voters want immigration policies that are firm, fair, and free of cruelty,” says Janet Murguía, president and CEO of UnidosUS.
That may be why Biden chose to legalize the status of undocumented spouses last week. The Equis poll showed that this policy, in particular, had a huge net upside for Biden among Latino swing voters.
Biden’s move also helped to repair some of the rift with immigration advocacy organizations that were infuriated by Biden’s decision earlier this month to limit asylum applications at the Southern border.
He will need their support to get out a Latino vote that has historically shown low turnout, in part because Hispanic voters are younger than those of other ethnic groups.
Biden’s narrow victories in Nevada and Arizona in 2020, for example, depended a lot on grassroots organizers who favor less restrictive border policies.
If he is going to carry those states again in 2024, he will need them on his side.
“Those are the boots on the ground,” says Dominguez-Villegas, “and if you don't have them, it's going to be really difficult to win.”
This piece contains additional reporting by GZERO’s Riley Callanan.
Hey, progressives, it’s time to look in the mirror
He has the look of an aging but determined Rafael Nadal trying to make one last comeback. He heaves his body back and looks poised to crush a forehand, as he has a thousand times before. This time, however, it doesn’t go as expected. To his utter shock, the ball hits the net and limply falls to the ground. “Why?” his look implies. “Why are we losing here?” He resets to try for another point, but he nets it again.
Only this isn’t Nadal.
It’s Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans and current co-chair of Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. Landrieu, like so many progressives looking for another Obama moment, cannot understand why so many people are choosing Trump over Biden. It’s like there is an invisible, Don DeLillo-esque cloud hanging overhead with the words, “How are we losing to him?”
Make no mistake, Landrieu is very good at his job and not only deeply understands Biden’s policies — after all, he helped oversee the trillion-plus-dollar infrastructure bill — he’s also a Biden believer. That means he can’t stand Donald Trump. Or, more precisely, he cannot understand why so many people like the former president.
So here he was, playing the anti-Trump hits on stage in Toronto at our US-Canada Summit to a room that just kept shrugging: 34 felony convictions; sexual assault charge; Jan. 6 insurrection; can’t keep staff; Trump’s own attorney general, Bill Barr, called his claims of a stolen election "bogus.” Periodically, Landrieu would look at the crowd, seemingly exasperated by the lack of emotion, and ask, “Why are we normalizing Donald Trump?” But he never asked the more painful question: “Why are our policies so unpopular?” He was like the aging athlete, baffled as to why he is still not winning.
The Dems’ case against Trump has been made countless times, but it simply is not working. At Eurasia Group, we have the odds of Trump winning at 60%. David Axelrod, the former Obama campaign guru and current CNN political commentator, was with us watching Landrieu. As I wrote last week, I asked Axelrod whether Democrats need to spend more time reflecting on why their policies are not connecting with voters and less time trying to convince people that Trump is a big baddy.
“Absolutely,” he responded, going on to describe how Democrats have lost touch with large swaths of the American public, content with lecturing them in condescending tones about how to be better citizens and “more like us” — meaning the folks who run around Washington telling people what to say and what not to say. Democrats are like the kid in the front of the class with his hand up all the time. He may have the right answers, but no one likes him.
“Strong and wrong beats weak and right,” Axelrod said, repeating a Bill Clinton line. And Biden looks weak. Not only that, Axelrod made the point that Democrats focus too heavily on what they have done in the past, not what they will do in the future.
What’s next beats what was, and progressives are losing on that score. Anew poll from the American Survey Center found that “Nearly six in 10 (58 percent) say America’s best days are behind it. Forty percent say America’s best days are yet to come.” This marks a huge change since 2020 when most Americans were optimistic about the future.
As Daniel Cox writes, while most candidates run on optimism, Trump runs on pessimism because it’s connecting with his large constituency — primarily white male voters. “Forty-three percent of Americans who believe people are not to be trusted have a favorable view of Trump compared to 28 percent of those who say people are generally trustworthy,” he writes. It’s not morning again in America, like under Ronald Reagan; this is Trump’s American carnage, reflecting how many people actually think.
Incumbents around the world are facing “Thelma & Louise” moments right now: If they keep doing what they are doing, they will drive off a cliff. So it’s not just progressives. In the UK, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is already airborne and plummeting toward the ground. Narendra Modi got punished in India. Emmanuel Macron is floundering in France, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in even worse political shape.
A new Ipsos poll done for Global News found that 68% of Canadians want Trudeau to step down. Snowstorms poll higher than that in Canada. “This is as bad as we’ve seen it for Trudeau,”Ipsos CEO Darrell Brickertold Global. “It’s close to rock bottom.”
On June 24, Trudeau will face a major test with a byelection in what has long been one of the safest Liberal ridings in the country, St. Paul’s, in downtown Toronto. The Liberals should win easily, but it’s going to be close, and if they somehow lose, Trudeau will feel more heat than from today’s weather bomb to step down. (Conservatives don’t want him to go, preferring to run against a weakened Trudeau in the next election.)
Still, the point remains: Progressive ideas are not connecting. If the policies were actually working — a case both Biden and Trudeau are trying to make — poll results would look rosier. But they don’t.
Trudeau’s signature tax on carbon to deal with climate change is now a shield — not a sword — issue. His attempt to change the narrative by igniting a class war with his new capital gains tax on the rich has done little to reframe the narrative, but the poorly explained policy has alienated lots of centrist voters. In politics, the old saw “Explaining is losing” has always seemed trite to me — policy often takes time to be understood — but if the explanation is bad, then, yeah, you are losing.
Biden is trying to boost his image by offering undocumented spouses a pathway to permanent US residency and his student loan forgiveness. Both may be popular, but neither has really improved his polling. Why?
Trudeau is facing a change wave, and Biden an age wave, but the issues are deeper than that. The fundamental premise that progressives pitch — that their social and economic policies work to improve people’s quality of life — is losing its plausibility, weakened by inflation, a world in crisis, and a long-term, low-growth environment. Trump may not have solid answers — his self-absorbed victimization narrative lacks facts, optimism, and generosity — but his dark view of the world reflects a mood, and people mistake that for truth. Trump reflects how many people feel; Biden is promising things many no longer believe are possible.
Populism always has an angry protest strain to it, but the response to it is usually clear: Show growth. Build things that work: roads, hospitals, opportunities. Don’t go broke. And finally, get stuff done, and be seen to be getting it done. People have to feel better about their lives. And they are not.
Progressives keep looking in the mirror, and they only see opponents they believe are unfit for office. They have to start seeing themselves and figure out why their promises and policies are not connecting more widely. Self-reflection is hard, but tearing down the other guy only works for so long, especially for an incumbent. They need to reinvent themselves as credible leaders promising something better in the future, not just recycled defenders of their past glory days. They must prove their big new promises are doable in short periods of time. Otherwise, they risk looking like those aging athletes who criticize the skills of the new generation of competitors but keep losing. In politics, the past ain't prologue. It just doesn’t work that way. Just ask Rafa Nadal.
President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at Pullman Yards in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 9, 2024.
Biden vs. Trump redux is official
They did it again. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have mustered enough delegates in the primaries to secure their respective party nominations heading into this November’s presidential election — not that anyone expected otherwise.
For Biden, it was his win in Georgia last night that clinched it for the Democrats, while for Trump it was the GOP tally in Washington state. The rematch of 2020 comes despite both men’s unpopularity: Recent polling has Biden’s disapproval rating at 56.5%, while Trump’s unfavorable rating is nearly as high at 52.5%.
What’s next: The matchup that has looked inevitable for months is officially underway, but it’s unclear when, or whether, Biden will face off with his predecessor in debates. Trump has said, “I’m ready to go, ANY TIME, ANY PLACE!” Biden has appeared open to the idea, noting that it “depends on his behavior.”
In the meantime, expect plenty of campaign events and advertisements focused on both men’s ages, abortion, the economy, illegal immigration, and entitlements (more on that below).
Can Donald Trump rescue Trudeau?
The struggling government of Justin Trudeau tried Tuesday to cast itself as the group to handle the vital relationship with the United States — announcing a "Team Canada engagement strategy” at the end of a cabinet retreat — but observers are dubious about the government’s ability to pivot its way out of trouble by invoking the specter of Donald Trump.
Trudeau, who has been trailing his Conservative rival Pierre Poilievre in the polls by double digits since August, reminded voters that his government did a good job salvaging the trade relationship the last time Trump was in the White House, when Trump threatened to tear up NAFTA, and Trudeau managed to save the furniture and negotiate USMCA.
“We made it through the challenges represented by the Trump administration seven years ago, for four years, where we put forward the fact that Canada and the US do best when we do it together,” he said. “Obviously, Mr. Trump represents a certain amount of unpredictability.”
As they did last time, the Liberals are putting together a new Team Canada — drawing on representatives of other levels of government, business, labor, and academia. The team will be led by Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, International Trade Minister Mary Ng, and Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., who gave a presentation at the cabinet retreat.
Who best to handle Trump?
This is a good move, says Christopher Sands, director of the Wilson Center’s Canada Institute. “Team Canada works when it puts Canadians on a focused, common message as was the case during the USMCA negotiations. Champagne, Ng, and Hillman are a good group to have as the face of the effort.”
But the government should be thinking about practical and serious steps to improve the relationship. “If Canada has no plan to increase defense spending, support the EV transition, export food and natural gas to allies in Asia and Europe, then all the feel-good rhetoric Canada can muster won't be enough,” says Sands.
Trudeau’s team signaled at the summit that the Liberals will try to connect Poilievre to Trump in the minds of voters, and get them thinking about who would be better off dealing with Trump.
It is not clear to Sands that this issue will give Trudeau the political boost he is looking for. Trump, after all, did not get along with Trudeau. “All that water under the bridge is going to be clouding Trudeau's relationship with Trump if he gets elected.”
When Canada hosts the G7 in 2025, would it really be good to have a replay of the 2018 G7 meeting in rural Quebec, which ended with Trump denouncing Trudeau from Air Force One as he left for North Korea?
“If it's Trudeau hosting Trump back for a second time, I just couldn't imagine what the sherpa will have to go through to be preparing that one,” says Sands.
Liberals look desperate
Graeme Thompson, a senior analyst with Eurasia Group's Global Macro-Geopolitics practice, doesn’t think this will work: “It does suggest that the government is somewhat desperate,” he says. Conservatives can argue that since Trump and Trudeau don’t get on, they might be better placed to manage the relationship, and what if Trump isn’t elected? “If Biden wins, that argument is dead.”
And Biden has better electoral prospects than Trudeau, according to pollster David Coletto, who concluded this week that Trudeau has little chance of winning another election. Trudeau seems out of touch with the top-of-mind concern of Canadian voters: the high cost of living. His firm, Abacus Data, recently found that the rising cost of fuel and food is the most important issue for three out of four Canadians — an unusually dominant concern.
Biden looks better
The bad news for Trudeau is that only one in four Canadians believe he “understands what life is like for people like you,” while two in four believe Poilievre does.
Inflation is brutal for incumbent governments — in the United Kingdom, United States and France the leaders are all facing stiff headwinds — but Coletto thinks Trudeau’s brand leaves him ill-suited to respond to a public dealing with scarcity.
Biden, on the other hand, could still pull off a win. “Biden is, I still think, better than 50-50. The odds are still in his favor, although not greatly. I think Trudeau has got a 10% chance of winning the next election.” Polling agrees. The horse race numbers for Trump-Biden show a tight race, while Trudeau has been far behind of his opponent for six months.
On Wednesday, a backbench MP in Trudeau’s party called for a leadership review, saying “there’s almost a hatred out there right now for [him].”
Unlike Trudeau, Biden has put an economic plan at the heart of his presidency, and the economy may be turning around. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 both hit record highs on Monday, and consumer confidence reached its highest point since 1991. Economists who study the relationship between the economy and politics think the signs augur well for Biden.
Trudeau does not look poised to benefit in the same way, says Coletto.
“At some point voters just say, ‘I'm done with you.’”
Democratic presidential candidate US Representative Dean Phillips greets supporters at a campaign event ahead of the New Hampshire presidential primary election in Rochester, New Hampshire, on Jan. 21, 2024.
AI has entered the race to primary Joe Biden
For a brief moment this week, there were two Dean Phillips – the man and the bot. The human is a congressman from Minnesota who’s running for the Democratic nomination for president, hoping to rise above his measly 7% poll numbers to displace sitting President Joe Biden as the party’s nominee.
But there was also an AI chatbot version of the 55-year-old congressman.
A political action committee that’s raised millions to finance Phillips’ longshot bid for president from donors like billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, released an AI chatbot called Dean.Bot last week. It only lasted a few days.
The bot, which disclosed it was artificial intelligence, mimicked Phillips, letting voters converse with it like it was the real congressman.
The 2024 presidential election has seen AI-generated videos and advertisements, but nothing in the way of a candidate stand-in — until now. And for good reason: OpenAI, the company with the most popular chatbot, ChatGPT, doesn’t allow developers to adapt its software for political campaigning.
OpenAI took action against Dean.Bot, which is built on ChatGPT’s platform. The company shut down the bot and suspended access for its developer on Friday, saying the bot violated its terms of use. Funnily enough, the PAC behind the bot is run by an early OpenAI employee.
There are no current federal regulations prohibiting the use of AI in political campaigning, though legislation has been introduced intended to curb the politically deceptive use of AI, and the Federal Election Commission has sought public comment on the same issue.
Phillips the man, meanwhile, has had to resort to campaigning in the flesh in New Hampshire ahead of today’s primary since his AI doppelganger is nowhere to be found.