Shut up and listen: The election 'fixer' has some advice for Biden, Macron and Sunak

Power Play

Election fever is gripping both sides of the North Atlantic. As Britain heads into the final weeks of a long election campaign, French voters face a snap parliamentary election. The Biden-Trump race for the White House draws ever closer. One man who knows about how to run a campaign is Jim Messina — known in Washington as "the fixer."

Messina is the mastermind behind President Obama's re-election campaign in 2012 and David Cameron's surprise victory for Britain's Conservatives in 2015. In this week's edition, host Anne McElvoy asks him what advice he would give to President Biden as he prepares for the first televised debate with Donald Trump next week — and to Rishi Sunak, who's leading the Conservatives to what may be an historic defeat in the U.K.

Messina says parties on both sides of the pond need to "shut up and listen to voters" about their concerns on immigration and the economy. "Voters are so much smarter than anyone gives them credit for," he tells McElvoy. "If you have bad ingredients, you're not gonna make a perfect cake," he adds — saying that a disciplined campaign can only achieve so much.

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