things that directly affect not just me, but it affects my
family as well. >> President Joe Biden is off
the campaign trail for now with a case of Covid. There was
already what's described as rising anger and panic among
many of his supporters about his ability to go on. What must this
be like for state party leaders who help deliver Wisconsin to
Joe Biden in 2020? We asked Democratic Party of Wisconsin
Chairman Ben Wikler, and thanks a lot for being here.
>> Thanks so much for having me on, Fredricka.
the Republican National Convention with the growing
number of Democrats calling for your candidate to step aside,
what's so striking this week is that the Republican Party has
been completely subsumed by MAGA.
the Republican Party. Leaders around a candidate who selected
one of the most outspoken proponents of a 100% national
abortion ban as his vice presidential candidate. There's
unity with people like Eric Hovde around project 2025, Trump
and JD Vance, their staffers going out and writing this
playbook for not only ripping away access to abortion and
emergency contraception, but eliminating the Department of
Education, shredding any kind of protections for the environment
and climate change. It's a wholesale plan to kind of repeal
the last 50 years of progress in this country. They didn't talk
about it from the convention stage, but they have written
down what they want to do. And in this election, it's a choice
between a future where Trump's vision of being a dictator on
day one becomes a reality, or the vision that Biden and Harris
have laid out that President Biden laid out in his speech in
Detroit right before the RNC, of of signing the pro act to
workers can organize and unionize of expanding Social
Security and Medicare. I think I know which future most
Wisconsinites and most Americans want.
>> What is your message to Wisconsin voters about Joe
Biden's ability to beat Donald Trump with his poll numbers and
money slipping? much conversation and press and,
you know, around the state and around the country, it's not
about whether Democrats want to defeat Donald Trump. It's about
the best way to do it. And what I know from so many
conversations is that there's a enormous level of intensity and
focus on making sure that we defeat MAGA this fall, and that
President Biden's vision for the next term is enormously popular
in a way that unites Democrats. So I feel like you know, debates
happen, conversations happen. I think Democrats are going to
come together. And I think that when we do that, we're going to
reelect President Biden and Vice President Harris and reelect
Tammy Baldwin and flip House seats. And I think flip the
state Assembly and break the supermajority in the state
Senate, because what we are fighting for is much, much more
popular than what Republicans are trying to inflict on the
country. about Joe Biden's decision to
stay in or step aside? >> I was speaking with my
friends on the Biden campaign yesterday and others this
morning. He is full steam ahead and organizing and working to
make sure that this message carries out across the country.
And, you know, of course, many people are are trying to game
out how the how the whole thing comes together. What we know is
that when Democrats speak with one voice about the stakes for
voters in their lives, then from from President Biden down to
local, state legislative candidates, we're going to
defeat MAGA this fall. >> So regardless of who is at
the top of the ticket, well, President Biden's at the top of
the ticket. >> And Biden-Harris as a as a
team won Wisconsin last time. We overcame the odds and Democrats
won the governor's race in 2022. We flipped the Supreme Court in
the in the course of 1820 and 2023. And on the ground, we have
volunteers going out every week, knocking on tens of thousands of
doors, having conversations with voters. Ultimately, voters care
about how politics affects their lives, and they know that
President Biden isn't trying to get into their doctor's offices
and override their personal medical decisions. They also
have reason to fear JD Vance and Donald Trump. JD Vance has
flirted with the idea of tracking menstrual cycles to
figure out whether people are accessing abortion care against
the law. Trump has floated the idea of punishing women who
access abortions. Those ideas are politically toxic, and we
have to defeat them this fall. have to defeat them this fall.