While in Nevada covering the ongoing primaries and GOP presidential caucus, CBS News White House Ed O’Keefe correspondent sat down with several Biden-skeptical Latinos in Nevada. The interview resulted in a new installment in a series: the ongoing crack-up of President Biden’s 2020 coalition.
Watch as a Democrat-leaning Latina expresses her lack of enthusiasm for Biden, based on his presidential track record:
ED O’KEEFE: Idania Archuleta, a new U.S. citizen who leans Democrat, is among them.
IDANIA ARCHULETA: I was excited when I became a citizen. I was like, yes, let's do it, you know? And now it's like, what do I do?
O’KEEFE: She’d like to vote for the president, but --
ARCHULETA: There's just so many things that have been promised and we still haven’t really seen them.
O’KEEFE: What hasn't Joe Biden done for you?
ARCHULETA: Let's start with immigration. He has- there’s- I see so many people around me that I see them struggle. He promised in the beginning, and we didn't see that. We are still in the same situation.
Our colleague Nick Fondacaro covered O’Keefe’s December trip to Michigan, wherein he interviewed members of the Arab-American community disgusted with Biden’s handling of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. ABC and NBC did likewise, and expressed panic over this apparent splintering.
The Nevada group’s disenchantment with Biden isn’t as white-hot, but it’s there nonetheless. And like the Arab-Americans in Michigan, they hit Biden mostly from the left- on immigration, student loans, health care, and even a subtle dig at his age.
This same video package ran on CBS Evening News (CBS rolls like that), but was time-constricted and did not have the banter we saw at the end between O’Keefe and anchor John Dickerson. And it is here, in response to a question on the dead border bill, that O’Keefe expresses his concern over Biden’s lack of visibility within the community.
JOHN DICKERSON: Ed, I’m going to go back to your White House hat for a second. The border legislation looks like it's dead. The president, President Biden, gets some share of the blame, even though he’ll say that’s all Congress' fault, as your focus group there showed, presidents tend to get blamed no matter what happens in Congress. Biden is trying to basically turn it around and say Republicans never wanted any legislation. They just want an issue. How do you think that plays out in a key state like Nevada?
O’KEEFE: Well, he’s got to keep saying it. I was struck in that conversation, John, how the vote- those three people said, we don't hear from this guy. Whether he’s succeeded in getting something accomplished or not, he should be out there explaining himself better and on amore regular basis. And there's this concern, that perhaps because of his age or for whatever reason, they are not seeing him, and they'd like to see more of him. And that flies in the face of the Biden strategy in 2020, which was a gamble that Americans wanted less of their president instead of more. It may be that things have shifted, and he’s got to get out there to explain himself, and in this case at least, start blaming Republicans more.
Here, again, we have the beginnings of a panic over yet another part of the Biden coalition fading away.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned segment as aired on CBS News Prime Time With John Dickerson on Wednesday, February 7th, 2024:
JOHN DICKERSON: Nevada will be a key state in November's general election, and as Ed O'Keefe is showing us, the party nominees will need to convince a key electorate.
ED O’KEEFE: Every four years, candidates bet big on Nevada. But in order to hit the jackpot in November, they need to win over the key demographic, Latinos, and few here are eager for the likely rematch.
STEVIE CSATREJON: My gosh, this feels like deja vu all happening all over again, honestly, with the same presidential candidates.
O’KEEFE: Maggie Arias-Petrel, a self-described Reagan Republican, voted for Mr. Biden four years ago. Now? She’s not sure.
MAGGIE ARIAS-PETREL: He talked about health care and education, and even student loans for the students, right? A lot of things that I don't think he was able to deliver.
O’KEEFE: But she can’t support Trump either.
ARIAS-PETREL: He needs to put the ego aside- he needs to respect women.
O’KEEFE: Nationwide, at least 3 million more Latinos are eligible to vote from four years ago.
Idania Archuleta, a new U.S. citizen who leans Democrat, is among them.
IDANIA ARCHULETA: I was excited when I became a citizen. I was like, yes, let's do it, you know? And now it's like, what do I do?
O’KEEFE: She’d like to vote for the president, but --
ARCHULETA: There's just so many things that have been promised and we still haven’t really seen them.
O’KEEFE: What hasn't Joe Biden done for you?
ARCHULETA: Let's start with immigration. He has- there’s- I see so many people around me that I see them struggle. He promised in the beginning, and we didn't see that. We are still in the same situation.
O’KEEFE: Independent Stevie Castrejón voted for Trump twice, and says president Biden has been too scripted.
STEVIE CASTREJON: It just seemed like he was not trying to connect with people- to answer the questions we want answered.
O’KEEFE: Do you think it would be any different if you actually had different candidates running?
ARIAS-PETREL: Yes. This is a country where the millennials are just doing wonderful things. Why not give the opportunity to, you know, a woman president or a young president?
DICKERSON: And Ed O'Keefe joining me now from Las Vegas. So Ed, help me figure this Haley loss out Tuesday in the primary. Is it the result of her lack of favorability in the state? Or was this mischief making by the Trump team and Trump voters to vote for Not This Candidate to hurt Haley?
O’KEEFE: Might be a little bit of both, John. She did not spend a cent, did not spend a day in Nevada campaigning, understanding that there would be dirty tricks played by the Trump aligned state party, controlled by a big supporter of his, much of the state favors him, so she put her name on the primary ballot because by state law they now hold primaries in this state, but a judge ruled a few years ago that the parties can figure out how they want to nominate their president. So the Trump-aligned state party said he does better in caucuses, we’re going to schedule one for tomorrow night. And he's essentially the only guy on the ballot. He’s expected to win it easily, and he will get all the 26 delegates. That's why Haley and all other candidates that were in the race back in the day didn't come here. They said, this one? This one is set for him.
DICKERSON: Fascinating. Okay. Give us the temperature check between the two candidates. Haley coming out of New Hampshire, just to review the bidding, went aggressively after Trump on things like his age, his getting confused, his court trials, and all of that. Has she kept that up? Because there's been more legal developments subsequent to the New Hampshire primary. Where are we on that narrative line?
O’KEEFE: She has kept it up, John, but of course she has not been as active on the trail, and we haven’t necessarily been there as the greater political media following every moment of this because there's that five-week gap between New Hampshire and South Carolina coming at the end of the month. She has spent much of the last two weeks raising money. Another million-plus in California today ahead of a big event that she’ll do in the L.A. area tonight. Has other fundraisers scheduled for the coming days. And in those settings, either behind closed doors or in public, yes, she continues attacking the former president, raising concerns about his ability to do the job, pointing out he will cause chaos should he be elected again, just being the Republican candidates the rest of the year. We will see if it's working, but she is insisting on staying in this at least publicly. And the fact that she can raise so much money is a sign that there's runway for her, at least through Super Tuesday if she wants it.
DICKERSON: Ed, I’m going to go back to your White House hat for a second. The border legislation looks like it's dead. The president, President Biden, gets some share of the blame, even though he’ll say that’s all Congress' fault, as your focus group there showed, presidents tend to get blamed no matter what happens in Congress. Biden is trying to basically turn it around and say Republicans never wanted any legislation. They just want an issue. How do you think that plays out in a key state like Nevada?
O’KEEFE: Well, he’s got to keep saying it. I was struck in that conversation, John, how the vote- those three people said, we don't hear from this guy. Whether he’s succeeded in getting something accomplished or not, he should be out there explaining himself better and on amore regular basis. And there's this concern, that perhaps because of his age or for whatever reason, they are not seeing him, and they'd like to see more of him. And that flies in the face of the Biden strategy in 2020, which was a gamble that Americans wanted less of their president instead of more. It may be that things have shifted, and he’s got to get out there to explain himself, and in this case at least, start blaming Republicans more.
DICKERSON: Ed O’Keefe in Las Vegas. Thanks, Ed.
