Evan Osnos's Probing Portrait Of President-Elect Biden

(Originally broadcast November 12, 2020)  On this archive edition of Midday, Tom talks with Evan Osnos, a staff writer for The New Yorker, about his latest book, Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now. Tom spoke with Mr. Osnos about a week and a half after the election, on the day that several media sources had added Arizona to the win column for President-elect Joe Biden.  Later that day, the state of Georgia was also called for Mr. Biden, as a hand count in that state got underway.  By the following day, most media outlets had declared Mr. Biden the president-elect. In his nearly fifty-year career in public service, Joe Biden has played influential leadership roles in the US Senate and served eight years as vice-president in Barack Obama's White House.  Along the way, he has also endured deep personal losses and high-profile political missteps and disappointments, events that have given Mr. Biden a humility and an empathy for others in hardship uncommon in career politicians. And though he brings almost unparalleled experience to the nation’s highest office, Mr. Biden faces unprecedented challenges, exacerbated by a recalcitrant predecessor.   On this archive edition of Midday, veteran journalist Evan Osnos -- a winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, and a fellow at The Brookings Institution -- joins Tom for the hour to talk about what kind of president Joe Biden will be.  He joined us on Zoom.Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.