Biden Campaign Damage Control, Kansas Abortion Ruling, Iran Election
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AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Yesterday, President Joe Biden tackled questions about his candidacy.
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Are you going to drop out? What are you going to do? Well, here's my answer - I am running and going to win again.
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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
I'm Scott Simon.
RASCOE: I'm Ayesha Rascoe, and this is UP FIRST from NPR News.
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SIMON: The president was also adamant during an interview with ABC News.
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GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: If you can be convinced that you can not defeat Donald Trump, will you stand down?
BIDEN: Well, it depends on - if the Lord Almighty comes out and tells me that, I might do that.
RASCOE: Is his resolve enough to tamp down pressure from within his own party?
SIMON: Also, the Kansas Supreme Court reaffirms the right to abortion in that state.
RASCOE: And a reformist candidate wins Iran's presidency.
SIMON: Please stay with us. We have the news you need to start your weekend.
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RASCOE: Supporters at a Biden rally in the swing state of Wisconsin yelled, we love you, Joe, as the president made the case for his reelection yesterday.
SIMON: He also sat for an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos. It was widely taken as the president's chance to regain his supporters' confidence after a faltering debate performance against Donald Trump.
RASCOE: Biden says he's not dropping out of the race and that he will defeat Trump in November - just as he did four years ago.
SIMON: NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith joins us. Tam, thanks for being with us.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Glad to be with you.
SIMON: What's your assessment? How did the interview go?
KEITH: President Biden was repeatedly pressed on his insistence on staying in the race and whether he might be fooling himself about his ability to win and serve another four years, but he was defiant. He insisted that polls showing him trailing are wrong, and he often pivoted to talk about what he has accomplished, and the danger he says former President Trump poses, but at times, his answers were also garbled, with multiple ideas tumbling out at the same time in a way that made it difficult to fully understand his point - like when Stephanopoulos asked him whether he realized while the debate was happening how badly it was going.
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BIDEN: I prepared what I usually would do, sitting down as I did come back with foreign leaders or the National Security Council for explicit detail, and I realized about partway through that, you know, all the - I quoted The New York Times had me down, like,10 points before the debate, nine now or whatever the hell it is.
KEITH: That answer went on a bit longer from there, but then there were other moments that were crystal clear, like when Stephanopoulos asked Biden about his fitness for office.
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BIDEN: Can I run the 100 in 10 flat? No, but I'm still in good shape.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you more frail?
BIDEN: No.
SIMON: How sharply did he answer what were some very sharp and real questions about not just debate performance but fitness to serve?
KEITH: Well, with regards to the debate, he said he was exhausted from foreign travel and then had a bad cold and that it was just an off night. Stephanopoulos asked him whether he had taken a cognitive exam, and Biden said he hadn't - that no one told him he needed to, and he insisted that he gets a cognitive test every day just doing the job, which has been the White House talking point for some time now. As a reminder, Trump, who is 78 years old, claims to have taken a cognitive test more than once and insists he has aced them, though a detailed report - or really any details - have never been released, and these tests are not scored like the SAT.
SIMON: Coming into this interview, there'd been growing consternation among many Democrats, and increasingly open conversations from people who feel that the president needs to step aside. Does this interview change anything?
KEITH: There have been a few supportive tweets, but watching what Democrats say on the Sunday political talk shows will give more clues. Biden's performance in this interview was pretty standard Biden, circa 2024. He stumbled, but he also smiled his big, toothy smile and had the look of someone ready to prove all the doubters wrong. Before the interview, I spoke with Democratic Congresswoman Nikema Williams, who's also the chair of the Georgia Democratic Party, and she couched it this way.
NIKEMA WILLIAMS: Members of Congress want to make sure that we are putting the best person forward. Right now, at the top our ticket is President Biden, and I think once we're able to get out of this being the main story, then members of Congress are going to reflect where their voters are - and that is, who is going to deliver for the American people? Because that's what we want.
KEITH: Right now was doing a lot of work there in that quote, but she believes voters are less concerned with a TV interview or even a debate than they are about the issues and the very clear differences between Biden and Trump.
SIMON: And what happens next, Tam? I was up all night refining that question.
KEITH: (Laughter) Yesterday certainly bought some time for Biden to keep campaigning. Sunday, he heads to Pennsylvania. I'll be tagging along for that one. Biden is set to hold a solo press conference during the NATO Summit in Washington, D.C. next week. That will be another test of his ability to think on his feet. Members of Congress who have been out on recess return on Monday, and we'll see how loud the cries get.
SIMON: NPR's Tamara Keith, thanks so much.
KEITH: You're welcome.
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SIMON: The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled against two laws restricting abortion.
RASCOE: That's a big deal because Kansas has experienced an influx of people seeking abortions from surrounding states with more restrictive laws.
SIMON: We're joined now by Rose Conlon with member station KMUW in Wichita. Rose, thanks for being with us.
ROSE CONLON, BYLINE: Hi. Thanks for having me.
SIMON: Please tell us about the laws the court struck down.
CONLON: One law banned a common second-trimester abortion method called dilation and evacuation, and the second one imposed extra licensure restrictions on clinics and doctors that provide abortions that go above and beyond restrictions on other medical providers. Neither law was in effect. Both had been blocked by lower courts, but the decision could affect future rulings on abortion in the state, and the Kansas Republican Attorney General had asked the state Supreme Court to overturn those lower decisions and reinstate the laws.
SIMON: Now, I understand the court found that both laws violated the Kansas state constitution. How so?
CONLON: Yeah, so the majority opinion said that the restrictions violate the constitution's, quote, "fundamental right to personal autonomy, which includes a pregnant person's right to terminate a pregnancy." That interpretation actually goes back to a ruling from 2019, when the Kansas Supreme Court upheld a temporary block on the dilation and evacuation ban.
Yesterday, they said they stand by it, and for advocates, that's giving them some hope that the court might look more critically at other anti-abortion laws that they're currently challenging. So that includes a 24-hour waiting period and a requirement that providers give patients misinformation about abortions - like disproven claims that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer and future premature deliveries.
SIMON: Rose, why is this ruling so significant, both for Kansans and for people who live in nearby states?
CONLON: It's a big deal because so many people are traveling to Kansas for abortions in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision. So, you know, the state has emerged as a leading abortion access point for people living in states with severe abortion restrictions and bans. Over two-thirds of patients at Kansas clinics are from other states, and over half are from Texas alone - and just to put this in perspective, the Guttmacher Institute, which studies abortion access, recently reported that about 20,000 abortions were performed in Kansas last year, and that's over 150% increase from 2020.
SIMON: Rose, what's been the reaction from people on all sides of the question?
CONLON: So reproductive rights groups are breathing a sigh of relief. They weren't necessarily expecting the court to rule against them, but if that had happened, it would have signaled that the Republican-controlled Kansas legislature might be able to do more to restrict abortion rights going forward. Abortion opponents are not happy. They say the opinions overturn, quote, "basic health and safety standards for abortion facilities," which isn't true but is a recurring concern that they've raised. And they also see the state's role as what they call an abortion destination as really harmful and an existential threat to their values.
SIMON: Rose Conlon with KMUW in Wichita, thanks so much for being with us.
CONLON: Thank you.
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SIMON: Iran has a new president-elect.
RASCOE: Voters in the runoff election handed a decisive victory to the reformist candidate, sending a veteran hard-line conservative down in defeat.
SIMON: NPR's Peter Kenyon is following this story from Istanbul. Peter, thanks for being with us.
PETER KENYON, BYLINE: Hi, Scott.
SIMON: Was this a surprise? What happened?
KENYON: Well, certainly, it was a surprisingly resounding win for this reformist and for the moderates who supported him. The winner - his name is Masoud Pezeshkian. He's a former health minister, a lawmaker, and he was squared off against a somewhat better-known hard-line conservative, former nuclear negotiator named Saeed Jalili. And since the first round of voting saw a record-low 40% of eligible voters turnout, no one was sure what to expect. But analysts say Iranians took a good look at these two very different contenders and gave Pezeshkian more than 2.8 million more votes than Jalili, so a decisive win.
SIMON: And what was the turnout like this time? We ought to note that there were not internationally recognized monitors for this election.
KENYON: That's quite true. And it would be hard to imagine turnout getting much worse than the first round, in which none of four candidates managed to achieve an outright victory. Pezeshkian and Jalili were the ones who advanced to the runoff. This time, turnout was a bit larger but still below 50% of eligible voters. That's low for Iran. It's a clear message voters preferred the reform candidate, but many still see no reason to vote.
SIMON: What do we know about the president-elect? How is he likely to govern, compared with his predecessor?
KENYON: Well, there will definitely be a contrast between Pezeshkian and the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi - he was killed in a helicopter crash, resulting in this snap election - but perhaps not quite as dramatic as some Iranians might hope. During the campaign, Pezeshkian laid out a very modest agenda, avoiding any major changes. When he met with student groups, for instance, they were definitely not very impressed. He has, though, promised to engage more with the outside world, which the hard-liners were loath to do, and he's likely to appoint moderate cabinet ministers.
And we should note that Iranian president has certain powers, but all the important matters of state - economic, political, military - they're decided by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Pezeshkian recently told a reporter he wants to elevate the country, have people working together, not competing - fairly generic stuff. Now, I asked Sanam Vakil - she's Iran analyst at the Chatham House think tank in London - what Pezeshkian might actually accomplish. She said maybe a more relaxed approach to social norms like dress codes, things like that, but she cautioned against being overoptimistic. Here's how she put it.
SANAM VAKIL: You know, these are his ideas. It's very unclear if he will be able to push them through and effect change, ultimately, because the Iranian president on his own doesn't have that much independent autonomy.
KENYON: She did say any success in rolling back Iran's morality police or the heavy press censorship in Iran would be welcomed by many.
SIMON: And, of course, the new president takes office at a time of sharp tensions between Iran and the West. How do we assess that now?
KENYON: Well, yes, tensions over Iran's insistence on violating the limits in the 2015 nuclear agreement have only gotten worse over time. Iran began violating the accord after then-President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out in 2018. Tensions haven't eased under President Joe Biden. And, of course, Trump is considered the presumptive Republican candidate in the upcoming election. So the prospects for improvement are unclear, to say the least.
SIMON: NPR's Peter Kenyon in Istanbul, thanks so much.
KENYON: Thanks, Scott.
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SIMON: And that's UP FIRST for Saturday, July 6, 2024. I'm Scott Simon.
RASCOE: And I'm Ayesha Rascoe. Danny Hensel produced today's episode, with help from Gabe O'Connor and Elena Torrick (ph). Michael Radcliffe directed this podcast, and he's awesome.
SIMON: Our editors are the Magnificent Half-Dozen - Roberta Rampton, Ryland Barton, Don Clyde, Matthew Schuerman, Samantha Balaban and Melissa Gray.
RASCOE: Our engineers are also magnificent. Our technical director is Hanna Gluvna, and we had engineering support from Neisha Heinis, Arthur Halladay Lorint (ph), Tom Marchitto (ph) and David Melmer (ph).
SIMON: And the parade of magnificence doesn't stop - Evie Stone, our senior supervising editor, Sarah Lucy Oliver, our executive producer, and Jim Kaine, our deputy managing editor. He's omnipresent.
RASCOE: Tomorrow, on the Sunday Story podcast, what's it like when one political party has near complete control of a state? We hear how three conservative mothers in Tennessee learn to navigate their Republican-controlled state legislature over the course of a year.
SIMON: And you can listen to more news, interviews, sports, entertainment - whatever you want - all weekend long on your NPR station. You can find it by going to stations.npr.org.
RASCOE: It's available all the time (laughter).
SIMON: Yeah. I mean, you and I aren't, right?
RASCOE: No, we're not. Well...
SIMON: Pretty much. You're the mother of three. Yes, of course.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
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