This is ‘probably the most consequential inaugural since FDR’: Former Senior Speechwriter for President Bill Clinton

Former Senior Speechwriter for President Bill Clinton Ambassador Carolyn Curiel and Former White House Official under President Barack Obama Reggie Love join Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the presidential inauguration.

Video Transcript

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ADAM SHAPIRO: Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is now arriving at the Capitol. She has been there, but is now walking out to where she will be sworn in by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. This is an historic moment, but it started way back in April of 2019, when Joe Biden said at his announcement he was running for president, the core values of this nation are standing in the world. Our very democracy, everything that has made America is at stake.

Two people who understand the importance of what President-elect Biden was saying join us now to discuss what's going to happen next. And we invite into our stream Reggie Love, former White House official under President Barack Obama, as well as ambassador Carolyn Curiel, former senior speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and the former ambassador to Belize. Let's start with you, Ambassador Curiel. And I just want to ask you, as we witness this moment, it is always history. But today in particular what is standing out for you?

CAROLYN CURIEL: Well, first, I hope that-- well, first, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. And I'm grateful for this opportunity to give my thoughts, having been a professor of civic education. I really hope that young people are watching this because this is a stupendous moment.

It is probably the most consequential inaugural since FDR 88 years ago in 1933. The Depression had started in 1929. And his mission was to give hope to America, which was really struggling terribly in the Depression. And he was able to do so. He was bold. His biggest applause line in his speech was when he said that broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency was needed.

Now that verges on authoritarianism, but that is how desperate people were then. And if you look at the challenges that this new president and vice president and their administration will face, it is at least as stupendous. One in four people during the Depression could not find work. That is at least the unemployment rate right now among our lowest paid workers, and probably close to that if you consider all those people who aren't even being counted anymore because they've given up looking for work.

And so, how do you bring joy to this situation? How do you make people feel good? I think that is the main mission ahead this moment, this day, for President Biden.

KRISTIN MYERS: And Reggie, I want to bring you in here now to kind of comment and touch on what the ambassador was just hinting at. And just for everyone at home, we're seeing these live images as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and the second gentleman, Douglas Emhoff, coming down the steps, making their way onto the dais.

But Reggie, you know, what the ambassador is just touching on, that this is a very important inauguration coming at a moment of crisis, we're in the midst of a pandemic. There's racial and political divisions that we have inside this country right now, as we saw on January 6th from the violent riots. We have a lot of folks in this country who feel like their vote did not matter and, in fact, was actually stolen from them. How does a President Biden even begin to govern under those circumstances and try to make the country whole and unified again?

REGGIE LOVE: Well, thank you for having me this morning. And, you know, and I believe deeply that Ambassador Curiel got it right. I think a lot of this is really just around hope and confidence. How do you get people to believe that their voice does matter, that their voice was heard in this past election? And typically, the only way you can do that is by being empathetic and being able to understand the perspectives of others.

I think that Joe Biden historically has been someone who has worked across party lines throughout his entire career in the US Senate and while vice president to President Obama and helping to pass so many different bipartisan legislations that were critical for the country, everything from the Affordable Care Act, everything from the American Recovery Reinvestment Act that helped us lift the economy out of what was the Great Recession at the time.

And so, yeah, I think his hands will be full. I think there are a lot of challenges that he has to overcome. But I think that President Biden will do everything that he can do, will work tirelessly. And he's been a civil servant his entire life and knows the importance--

ADAM SHAPIRO: Reggie.

REGGIE LOVE: --of service, so.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Hey, Reggie, you were not only an advisor to President Obama, you were a friend. I mean, there's the story about you organizing the basketball game at the White House for his 50th birthday. And I bring that up because how important are people like you, who surround the president and, in this case, Vice President Kamala Harris? Those people, how much influence do they have in the day-to-day discussion with the president and vice president?

REGGIE LOVE: I think there's a lot of influence, not necessarily traditional influence. I think the influence is really around, oftentimes, you go into what is a very deep bubble. And sometimes, it's hard to see what's going on in the world actually because of the security and because of the protocols. Like, as you see today with this inauguration, there are hardly any people there, right?

And so, I got to come and go out of the White House every day and oftentimes would be able to share insights with President Obama that he wouldn't be able to see himself and oftentimes a perspective that people might often be intimidated to give him. So I think it's important that there are strong, intelligent people around our leaders and able to be able to articulate those points of views and to share them. Because, ultimately, he represents the people.

KRISTIN MYERS: Ambassador, coming to you now, we're just seeing these first live shots of President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, coming down the steps. Our first look there as they're about to make their way outside and take that oath of office and also deliver that inaugural address. Ambassador, you were just talking about the importance of these inaugural speeches. I, too, was reading a lot of inaugural speeches over the last couple of days.

President Biden will not be the first president to really give an address during a moment of crisis and during division. You know, Abraham Lincoln did it. You talked about FDR. I'm wondering, just as a speechwriter, how difficult and also important is it, in just 30 minutes, to try to speak truth to power, talk transparently about what we have going on in the country, but also craft a vision for what's coming next over the next four years?

CAROLYN CURIEL: So 30 minutes would be a very long inaugural address. And he certainly would not want to go that long. And in fact, one president went rather long in the cold without a coat and died of pneumonia--

KRISTIN MYERS: Right.

CAROLYN CURIEL: --a few weeks later. So this is a different time. It is a crisis that is the first that many Americans are experiencing of this magnitude. You mentioned Abraham Lincoln, who tried in his first inaugural address to hold the union together and, of course, was not successful. Seven states had already seceded.

And so, he went for counsel to a lot of his inner circle that you were just discussing. And William Seward, who would become his Secretary of State, offered him the draft of a line that, of course, being Lincoln and such a beautiful writer, he was able to take and buff and make his own, where he called upon people.

He went into his closing for his address, saying, those of you who oppose this government have not taken a sacred oath to destroy the government. But I have taken a sacred oath to defend it. And then he went on to tell people, we're not enemies. We're friends. And I call on all of you to look at the better angels of your nature to get past the divisions that were just blowing apart the union at that point.

And it had great impact. Of course, it didn't stop the Civil War. And that led to his second inaugural where shortly before he was assassinated, he said that there would be malice toward none. So it is incumbent on a president to set a tone. And I think we can count knowing on-- knowing Joe Biden and his nature.

And I had the good fortune of spending an afternoon with him on the road when I was writing for President Clinton. His predecessors saw people as potential adversaries. Joe Biden sees people as potential friends and partners. And he will be asking the American people to partner with him. He will be telling them that there will be hard times.