Political scientist Chris Cooper on Joe Biden’s recent performance and what it means moving forward

News & Views

Prof. Chris Cooper of Western Carolina University

As the nation heads towards one of its most important elections in modern history, a major ruckus has arisen among some Democrats around President Joe Biden’s age and whether his performance in a recent presidential debate with Donald Trump indicates that it’s time for him to step aside in favor of a younger candidate.
In order to get a better handle on the impact of this discussion and some of the possible implications, Newsline caught up earlier with one of our state’s top political scientists, Prof. Chris Cooper of Western Carolina University. And as Cooper told us, while he thinks it’s still too early to say whether the issue will continue to be a problem for the president or blow over, a lot of it boils down to the president’s ability to persuade people that he’s still up to the job.

In Part Two of our conversation, we shifted to some of the unprecedented challenges faced by Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, including his recent criminal conviction for falsifying business records, his search for a vice presidential running mate, his apparent attempt to disavow Project 2025 – a blueprint for a second Trump administration developed by his aides and supporters – as well as some of the things we can look forward to at this coming week’s GOP nominating convention and the Democratic event that takes place next month.

This interview was recorded July 8th, in advance of the weekend events in Butler, Pennsylvania.