Biden Battles Back

This episode dives into President Biden's strategies and political challenges as he addresses his potential re-election campaign amidst growing concerns about his capabilities and public gaffes.

1. President Biden is facing significant political pressure and skepticism regarding his acuity and capability to lead, impacting his re-election campaign.
2. Biden's press conference showed a mix of command over issues and troubling gaffes, which did not alleviate concerns about his fitness for office.
3. The episode discusses the strategic moves of former President Trump, particularly his vice presidential selection, which is crucial under the current political climate.
4. Economic insights are provided, noting a decrease in inflation and its potential effects on upcoming Federal Reserve decisions.
5. The political landscape is tense with internal debates within both the Democratic and Republican camps about the future leadership and strategy.

1: Introduction

Host Brad Milke sets the stage for a discussion on President Biden's political challenges and the implications of his recent public appearances. Brad Milke: "With his political life on the line, President Biden battles back."

2: Biden's Press Conference Analysis

A detailed examination of Biden's press conference, highlighting his handling of issues and the slip-ups that might impact voter confidence. Jonathan Karl: "He showed a command of a wide range of issues, just as people had been challenging him to demonstrate."

3: Trump's Vice Presidential Pick

Insights into former President Trump's considerations for his running mate, emphasizing the unusual significance of this decision in the current political scenario. Sarah Isger: "There is a great chance that this time it is really different because of the competency concerns."

4: Economic Outlook

Discussion on recent economic developments, particularly the drop in inflation rates and their implications for the Federal Reserve's policies. Elizabeth Scholze: "The consumer price index showed that prices were up 3% in June compared to a year ago, which is better than expected."

5: Closing Remarks

Brad Milke wraps up the episode, hinting at ongoing political and economic discussions that will continue to influence the national dialogue. Brad Milke: "But I swear, like, it's not slowing down. Right? Like, we have the republican convention next week."

1. Stay informed about political events and economic updates as they can significantly impact personal and national decision-making.
2. Engage in community and political discussions to better understand and influence public policy and leadership choices.
3. Monitor financial news, especially regarding the Federal Reserve's decisions, as these can affect personal investments and the job market.
4. Be critical of media and political communications to discern facts from misstatements or biased reporting.
5. Participate in upcoming elections and political forums to have a direct impact on leadership decisions.

Fighting for his political life, President Biden gives a wide-ranging press conference. Former President Trump prepares to announce a VP pick. And with inflation easing, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell considers cutting interest rates.

People

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Jerome Powell, Elizabeth Scholze, Jonathan Karl, Brad Milke, Sarah Isger

Companies

ABC News

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

None

Content Warnings:

None

Jen Tran
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Brad Milke
It's Friday, July 12, and the entire country was ready for a nice long chat. We start here.

With his political life on the line, President Biden battles back.

Joe Biden
I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, but I think she was not qualified to be president.

Brad Milke
There was substance, but there were also gaffes. Will either make a difference? Meanwhile, former President Trump prepares to pick a running mate.

Sarah Isger
I think there's a fear within Trump world that he has his own political ambitions.

Brad Milke
We'll talk about the pros and cons of each potential candidate. And as inflation goes down, could jobless numbers go up?

Elizabeth Scholze
The Fed chair actually said, now that is what's keeping him up at night.

Brad Milke
The second biggest decision of 2024 could belong to the Fed.

From ABC News, this is start here. I'm Brad Milke.

As of yesterday morning, you'd think people around President Biden were probably saying to themselves, today's gotta go absolutely perfectly. After days of beating back congressional concerns over his acuity, voices of panic were starting to take over in Washington. New polling from ABC News, the Washington Post, and Ipsos showed not only was Biden tied with Donald Trump among registered voters, but that Kamala Harris was doing slightly better still, all within the margin of error. But this made every meeting, every speech, every word feel like a make or break moment. If he was gonna stumble in a big press conference, you could feel members of his own party with their fingers right next to their eject buttons. Before that presser even began, though, Biden was speaking with NATO leaders, he introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Joe Biden
Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin.

President Putin. He's gonna be President Putin. President Zelenskyy.

Brad Milke
Hear that? He called Zelensky President Putin. Now, a flub that he quickly corrected. Sure. The type of thing Biden has done for years, absolutely. But this all raised the stakes even more as President Biden took the mic for a full formal press conference, the most pressurized environment he has faced since that debate a couple weeks ago. So let's break it all down with ABC's chief Washington correspondent, Jonathan Karl. Jon, I mean, how did he do?

Jonathan Karl
Well, look, this was the press conference that people have been challenging to have lasted almost exactly an hour. He took questions from a range of reporters. He called on a number of foreign policy reporters, detailed answers and questions on the Middle east, on the war in Ukraine, on the China factor in terms of supporting Putin.

Joe Biden
It is a concern that you have both China, South Korea, North Korea, Russia, Iran, countries that are not necessarily coordinated in the past, looking to figure out how they can have impact.

Jonathan Karl
He spoke in some cases pretty slow and plotting, but he showed a command of a wide range of issues, just as people had been challenging him to come out and demonstrate that he can. But, Brad, right near the top of the press conference, he was asked one of several questions about Kamala Harris, and he called her vice President Trump.

Joe Biden
I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, not qualified to be president.

Jonathan Karl
Now, it was obviously he inadvertently misspoke. He did not correct himself as he had when he called Zelensky Putin. And, you know, look, we all misspeak. Everybody misspeaks and mixes names up and doesnt even realize it. But, you know, in the space of just a couple of hours, calling Zelenskyy Putin and Harris. Putin and Harris. I did it. Harris, Trump.

Not a good thing and not reassuring. I thought perhaps the most interesting part of the press conference came at the very end when he was asked if he could be shown that Kamala Harris had a better chance of beating Donald Trump, would he step aside? And he answered flatly, no, no.

Joe Biden
Unless they came back and said, there's no way you can win.

Jonathan Karl
And, you know, that's what a lot of Democrats are saying, is that he can't beat a Trump. But look, that was a significant moment because if you remember when George Stephanopoulos interviewed him, he seemed to be suggesting that the only way he would get out of the race is if the Lord Almighty told him, you know, he needed to get out of the race. Now he's suggesting that if somebody could demonstrate to him that he cannot win, he would step aside.

Brad Milke
Jon, it made me wonder as I was watching this, because, like you said, total command of the topics. Like, he clearly knew what he was talking about. Were there flubs? Yes. But, like, he felt very comfortable, especially speaking about foreign policy, but even like domestic politics, he was as on the ball as we've seen him recently. Was this like the worst case scenario for some Democrats in Washington? Like, not bad enough to change the status quo, but also perhaps not enough to change minds. Like, what are you hearing?

Jonathan Karl
Yeah, I think there's something to that. But look, Brad, I think that the truth is that this is gonna do nothing to stop the bleeding, especially the fact that he messed up Kamala Harris and then there were a few other flubs, as you mentioned. But look, this is not going to change the dynamic.

Joe Biden
The coming months that all the attention is on whether he is fit and able to do this job instead of on Trump's lies, we will be set back.

Jonathan Karl
Democrats are deeply concerned about their prospects in November. Not just his prospects that he'll beat Trump, but also what the situation is. The environment is for Senate races, for House races.

Joe Biden
If they think that, you know, run over with Biden at top tape is going to hurt them, then they're going to run away. I get it. But so far, go and look at the polling data.

Jonathan Karl
There is pent up frustration.

And a lot of Democrats, trust me, many more privately than you're seeing publicly, who are saying that Biden really needs to take a step, not for himself, but for his party and for his country and to hand the baton off to somebody else.

Brad Milke
Is that getting through to him, like, at this point? Are there people within the White House exploring strategies, or is it just complete blinders on? This is nothing's happening until it happens.

Jonathan Karl
You know, it's very interesting. The New York Times reported and ABC has confirmed that the Biden campaign has actually been doing polling, looking at what a Harris Trump matchup would look like, how Kamala Harris would do running against Donald Trump. Now, they say they're just doing this because Trump's been attacking HarrIS a lot and it'd be malpractice not to do it. I don't really understand that explanation at all. So clearly, people are even inside Biden's team are at least raising questions about what it would mean if Biden needed to step aside.

Brad Milke
But that's what I'm getting at. I mean, this sounds like it's gotten very real to them just in the last few days. Like, if they thought they were coming into this week being like, finally we put all this behind us. That's not what's happening in the last couple of days.

Jonathan Karl
It's getting very real. And what you have to remember, even if those who are raising all the questions and all the concerns and saying Biden can't win, even if they were wrong, there is a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy here because the concerns have been so loud and so public that everything that's being said about Biden being unable to run is going to be used against him by Donald Trump.

Joe Biden
I believe I'm the best qualified to govern.

And I think I'm the best qualified to win.

But there are other people who could beat Trump, too.

But it's awful.

Start from scratch.

Jonathan Karl
It's creating a situation where, you know, he's wounded not just by his debate performance, but also by all the fallout after the debate performance and all the questions that have been raised about his ability to take on this campaign.

Joe Biden
The only thing aides does is help you with, creates a little bit of wisdom if you pay attention.

Brad Milke
And the bottom line, like, he still has to be convinced. And if he's getting like a bunch of pats on the back after this reasonable press conference performance, you'd imagine, and.

Jonathan Karl
Look, I should say his team thinks that he did fantastic home run high fives all around. I'm not sure that's the way democrats around town will see it. But, you know, yes, there's nothing in what happened last night that's going to suddenly make Biden wake up and say, I got to get out of here.

Brad Milke
Well, yeah. And actually, as the press conference ended, we got word from the highest ranking Democrat in house intelligence saying he also thinks Biden should go. And you got to imagine that he was preparing that before or during the press conference. Another sign that kind of like nothing in some of these Democrats eyes can save Biden now. Jonathan Karl, they're in Washington. Thank you.

Jonathan Karl
Thank you, Brad.

Brad Milke
Next up on start here. Okay, so there's no such thing as Vice President Trump, but former President Trump does have to make a vice presidential decision. We're back in a bit.

Jen Tran
Hey, it's me, Jen Tran, the new bachelorette. Watch me on a groundbreaking season like you've never seen. Monday nights at eight on ABC.

Brad Milke
Don't miss our weekly bachelor podcast playing the field, hosted by me, Ryan Field, as we break down each episode.

Now, as President Biden considers his immediate future, former President Donald Trump also has a big decision to make, not on whether to stay in the race, but who gets to run with him.

Joe Biden
We are going to sweep them all out of office this November.

Brad Milke
Remember, the republican national convention begins on Monday. You gotta have your pick locked in before the end of it. You'd imagine you probably won it before the beginning of the RNC, too. So what should we be expecting? Let's bring in Sarah Isger, a GOP campaign veteran, formerly worked at the DOJ. She's now an ABC News contributor. Sarah, this could come out any moment. You think so? If you put on your campaign hat, what type of person would be a good vp for Trump specifically?

Sarah Isger
Ooh, so many fun things to think about here. So, first of all, Donald Trump has been pretty clear that he wants to build the drama. And in fact, they just changed the rules for the Republican National Committee, allowing him to make this decision public at the very last minute. So there's a chance we won't hear about this until Wednesday, even of the convention itself, even though traditionally we have definitely found out at least the week before. So that's the first thing, the timing, very trumpian right off the bat here.

But in terms of who you would consider in the past, there's various ways in which presidents have thought about picking their vice president. Someone to balance the ticket, someone who can appeal to a type of voters that perhaps the president is weak with sort of that political attributes. But when we look at academic studies, there is no evidence in the modern political era that vice presidents have ever made a difference.

Brad Milke
Oh, like in an election, like they don't get you voted for? No.

Sarah Isger
Like all those political considerations that people are, like, hemming and hawing. And what about Ohio? And this will reach suburban women and all of that. Nope. Makes not one bit of difference historically, but there is a great chance that this time is really different. Why? Because people aren't picking a vice president, someone to be the tie breaking vote in the Senate.

A lot of voters do not think that these men are competent and capable of serving four more years in office. So it's very possible that voters are looking at the vice president as someone who will be president during the next four years. And so there's, I think, a much greater than usual chance that the pick for vice presidential candidates matters politically for very different reasons.

Brad Milke
Okay, so then, then who is on the shortlist at this point from, if it's not about, like, balancing out the ticket, you just want someone you think would be good for the job. Who does Trump think that is?

Sarah Isger
So three people have been publicly mentioned, and again, you've got to sort of factor in the Trump part here. It is possible he's going to pick someone who's not one of the three people we're talking about, simply because it's fun drama. That being said, I actually do believe this time that it will be one of these three. Governor Bergam, North Dakota, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and Senator JD Vance of Ohio are the three names that we're certainly hearing the most. So when it comes to JD Vance.

Brad Milke
Trump is the candidate for peace in the world. And Mike Pence, for his entire career in public service, has constantly advocated for escalatory wars all over the world.

Sarah Isger
So the pro is, he's young, he's energetic. He's sort of this populist avatar.

Khans, he said horrible things about Donald Trump in the run up to the 2016 election.

Brad Milke
You described him as being an idiot and a moral disaster.

Marco Rubio
What's changed?

Brad Milke
Oh, well, what changed? As I saw effective governance, and I.

Sarah Isger
Think there's a fear within Trump world that he has his own political ambitions.

You know, if push comes to shove, is he gonna pick Trump or is he gonna pick himself? And I think in Trump world, they very much feel like JD Vance picks himself. A little different than the Pence problem, but not that different in a lot of ways. So then, Marco Rubio, we elect this.

Marco Rubio
Man as president, we will make together America greater than it has ever been. Thank you, Kellogga. God bless you.

Sarah Isger
Pluses. He's run a national campaign. He's been vetted by the media.

You sort of know he's not going to freak out under the bright lights of a presidential campaign. Cons, has Donald Trump junior said recently he's concerned that if his father picks Marco Rubio, there would be an incentive for republican senators to vote to impeach Donald Trump so that they could put Marco Rubio in as president?

Brad Milke
Whoa.

Sarah Isger
It actually brings up this whole other never before tested theory of who you pick as your vice president. Don't pick someone politically popular. Pick someone politically unpopular as an insurance policy for your own presidency. That's sort of the problem for Marco Rubio, is that he might actually be popular. Didn't see that one coming. All right, next up, you have Governor Bergam of North Dakota.

Joe Biden
Who are we gonna send back to the White House?

Sarah Isger
Trump.

Upside.

He has money. Downside, not a lot.

Joe Biden
You know, he made his money in technology, but he probably knows more about energy than anybody I know.

Sarah Isger
Governor Bergam is like the safe, boring.

He's, you know, graham crackers when your tummy hurts.

Brad Milke
He's the tomato soup candidate. Okay.

Sarah Isger
Yeah.

Brad Milke
So there's the three. Hey, going back to Marco Rubio, by the way, there has been apparently concern. I forgot this was a thing, that he's from Florida. Trump is now a resident of Florida. Like, I get that you often want to vary up the states, but apparently this would be an actual problem if they ran together. Yes.

Sarah Isger
The constitution, in fact, says that the president and vice president cannot be from the same state. We experienced this when George W. Bush was going to pick Dick Cheney as his running mate. They were both residents of the state of Texas. That is why Dick Cheney moved his residency to Wyoming. The problem here is not just that they're from Florida. Obviously, that problem's easy to fix. It's more like, who would move the senator from Florida? Right? Like, normally it's the vice president who would, like, defer, but he's the sitting senator of Florida. So is he gonna resign his Senate seat?

Marco Rubio
I think anyone who's offered the opportunity to serve this country as vice president should be honored by the opportunity to do it. If you're in public service, I'm in the Senate. Cause I wanna serve the country. Being vice president is an important way to serve the country.

Sarah Isger
So it does raise a problem. On the one hand, it's, like, so easy to fix. And on the other hand, when you sort of start looking into it more, it's not that easy to fix.

Brad Milke
Weird. Okay, well, then, I mean, you look at these candidates, like, these shortlist candidates you mentioned, I noticed there's no women there. There's no former members of the Trump administration there. I mean, are there other variables that he should be considering or could be considering?

Sarah Isger
Sure. There's the, like, what if he does the drama thing and picks Elise Stefanik, the, you know, member of the House, the highest ranking female in the House.

Elizabeth Scholze
I'm proud to be the first member of Congress to endorse President Trump for reelection.

Sarah Isger
There's always Katie, Brittany, Senator from Alabama, who gave the State of the Union response.

Jen Tran
The american dream has turned into a.

Brad Milke
Nightmare for so many families.

Sarah Isger
That was widely mocked. But she's still an incredible politician.

I think this is goes to, like, sort of a heart of, like, the inner Trump circle concern, right? Donald Trump doesn't want another Mike Pence.

Jonathan Karl
A mob stormed the Capitol, literally calling to hang Mike Pence. Pence. And Trump defended those chants of hanging Mike Pence.

Marco Rubio
I will tell you this, that when Donald Trump was president of the United States, this country was safer, it was more prosperous.

Sarah Isger
He wants a vp who is Trump only. And in that sense, it's tough. You can't pick anyone who has their own political ambitions. Donald Trump doesn't have a lot of great options on that front. Everyone he's considering, Bergam, Rubio, Vance, Stefanik, Britt, any of those people all have ambitions to be president themselves.

Joe Biden
Wow.

Brad Milke
Really interesting. And you can imagine, like, we have to see a pick here soon. Very soon. So, Sarah Isger, thanks for teeing it up for us.

Sarah Isger
You got it, Brad. Anytime.

Brad Milke
Now. The other big thing happening this week that could have a direct outcome on this election is an influx of economic news like we're always talking about the stock market. Under President Trump, inflation rate under President Trump. Well, each of those measures is actually doing pretty well recently. In fact, the stock market in particular cartoon will be turning bankers eyes into dollar signs and setting off that a noise. Let's go to ABC's Elizabeth Scholze, who covers economics. Elizabeth, we got new inflation numbers yesterday. I mean, what are they telling us?

Elizabeth Scholze
Yeah, and to run with the money sign analogy, I mean, all we've been talking about, it seems, for the past couple of years is these super high prices. And this inflation report that we got yesterday, Brad, really is welcome news when it comes to the price of everyday goods and services. So the consumer price index, which is the main measure of inflation, showed that prices were up 3% in June compared to a year ago. And that was actually a little bit better than expected. And when you really dig into this report, it shows that actually prices were dropping in a couple of pretty notable categories, Brad, like airfares were down a lot. That's good news for people who were traveling during the summer. We saw that close. Prices were down.

New and used car prices were down. Gas prices were down. And a really important area in this report is rent, because that makes up so much of what people's day to day spending goes on. Rent prices are still going up, but they're not going up as fast. And that's kind of the theme that we're seeing right now with inflation, a 3% rate. It's not the 2% target that the Federal Reserve wants to have in a healthy economy, but it's so much better than that 9% peak that we were talking about exactly two years ago. So this is encouraging news when you think about how households aren't having to see these price hikes as much as they have over the past couple of years. And at the same time, we're also seeing typical incomes go up at a faster pace than inflation now. So that's helping households actually absorb some of these higher prices that we're seeing in the economy, too.

Brad Milke
And you mentioned the Federal Reserve. The Fed really seems to be the story then in all this. Right. Does this finally point to perhaps cutting interest rates?

Elizabeth Scholze
It is. And this report on inflation was critical for the Fed because it reaffirmed this view that inflation is back on track. We had this time in the beginning of the year where it looked like inflation was kind of back to where the Fed wanted it to be. And then a couple of months, prices were going up again, and the Fed kind of freaked out. Traders in the stock market were like, what's going on, they got a little worried. But now this report indicates back on track with inflation cooling, and the Federal Reserve sees that as positive news.

Jerome Powell
Over the past two years, the economy has made considerable progress toward the Fed's 2% inflation goal, and labor market conditions have cooled while remaining strong.

Elizabeth Scholze
We actually heard from Fed chair Jerome Powell this week who was optimistic about this outlook for inflation.

Jerome Powell
The likely direction does seem to be in as we make more progress in inflation and as the labor market remains strong, we begin to loosen policy at the right moment.

Elizabeth Scholze
And this is so important, Brad, because the fight has been higher interest rates for borrowers. For a year now, the Fed has kept interest rates at a 23 year high, has done nothing like policy has been totally unchanged during that time because it's just been waiting for inflation to come down. And now the Fed is signaling, well, looks like inflation is in a place where we can finally start to lower those interest rates. Most analysts I'm talking to think that that's going to start to happen in September, so just a couple of months from now.

Brad Milke
And so that's why we're seeing, like, the stock market explode. That's why we're like, are there any concerns here or any, like other parts of the economy then that get affected by that?

Elizabeth Scholze
Well, really, interestingly, there is this kind of concern that's bubbling up, and that's in the other really important part of the economy that the Fed pays attention to, which is the jobs market. And there was a notable shift this week, Brad, from the Fed chair, who said, we have been pretty much single mindedly focused on inflation over the past two years, and we are now starting to notice that the jobs market is also cooling. Like we've talked about, this red hot jobs market. Month after month, employers are adding hundreds of thousands of jobs. It just doesn't seem to cool down. But in the last couple of months, it has showed signs that hiring is slowing. Still strong. Unemployment is still at a historically low number. So that means most people who are out there looking for a job right now should be able to find one. But the Federal Reserve kind of made this important change this week where it started to say, as much as we've been focused on inflation, we're also now really focused on the jobs market. And we don't want to have interest rates so high for so long that that risks companies actually starting to lay off workers.

Brad Milke
Oh, like if you, if you're a company, you want like a loan to maybe hire some more work now you could get it if there's lower interest rates exactly.

Elizabeth Scholze
Keep in mind that these higher interest rates obviously affect consumers. It makes mortgages more expensive. It affects you if you're trying to pay off credit card debt. We see credit card rates at record highs or near record highs, but it also affects businesses. And a lot of those businesses are small or medium sized companies that need to take out loans to kind of go through their day to day operations. And so if we're starting to see signs that businesses are struggling and considering pulling back on hiring or even laying off workers, that would be reason for the Federal Reserve to think about lowering those borrowing costs.

And that's this world that we're now living in, where the Fed is starting to think about that. And the Fed chair actually said, now that is what's keeping him up at night. He wants to achieve this world where we still have a good picture on inflation and we still have a good picture on jobs that would keep the economy kind of humming along.

Brad Milke
That is so illuminated because I feel like for, yeah, for years of my life, we look to the first Friday of every month is like the jobs reports. Then for the last couple of years, it's been all about, let's look at the monthly inflation reports. You're saying this could be the week where now we start looking back to the jobs numbers. All right, Elizabeth Scholsey. Really helpful. Thank you so much.

Elizabeth Scholze
Thank you so much, Brad.

Brad Milke
Okay, one more quick break when we come back. Come to the dark side of website design. One last thing is next.

Elizabeth Scholze
Robert Picton, one of the worst serial killers. A new true crime series from Freeform.

Jen Tran
A lot of victims are people who are in the margins. When all else fails, there's possibly many more victims.

Elizabeth Scholze
Sasha Reed and her team take the case.

Sarah Isger
We're coming for you.

Elizabeth Scholze
I just want answers.

Jen Tran
We're gonna do absolutely everything to get closure to these cases.

Brad Milke
The whole thing is a cover up.

Jonathan Karl
There's so much more here.

Elizabeth Scholze
Free form's Sasha Reid and the midnight new episodes. Wednesday's stream on who coming for you.

Brad Milke
And one last thing.

Are you ever cruising a website or doing some online shopping? When you get an offer to begin a free trial of a product, it's free for the first month. The site promises you, we just need your name, email, and I credit card information, which might make you go, wait, why do you need my credit card if this trial is free? Well, welcome to the world of dark patterns.

Unnamed
They know that the consumer is stuck or the worker is stuck, that they don't have other options.

Brad Milke
Dark patterns are design choices in websites and apps that guide customers to do things, sometimes things that might not even be in the customer's best interest. You know how when you see prices for something like a ride share trip, it'll be one price? Then right before you click to pay, you get all these extra little surcharges tacked on top of that. They're not hidden, but they're introduced so late that you're like, ugh, okay, fine. I guess I'll just go ahead and pay. That is a dark pattern. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission made history by suing Amazon over what it calls manipulative, even deceptive directions on their website.

Unnamed
We believe, and our lawsuit alleges, that if Amazon had not engaged in these illegal tactics, that would have allowed more rival online super stores to emerge, and that would be better for consumers.

Brad Milke
The goal, according to the government, is to make it harder for people to cancel services like Amazon Prime. Amazon denies doing anything of the sort. They say customers don't often cancel because they love the service. The company says the site makes it easy to start and stop your subscription. Well, yesterday, a global network of consumer protection authorities, like a group of ftcs around the world, put out a report detailing how widespread these types of practices are. According to the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network, after looking at 642 online traders, more than three quarters of them used these dark patterns. Two thirds of them employed multiple techniques. So what kind of design choices should you be looking for? Well, the most popular, they say, is the old make it impossible to unsubscribe technique. Right? Adding steps, convoluted directions, whatever it takes to make a user give up. There's also drip pricing that's adding those extra costs at the last minute. Then there's depriving users of information that might affect their behavior. Like, if you don't know when to cancel your free trial, there's a greater chance that you will miss the deadline and start paying for it. There's also a thing called confirm shaming, which you see for stuff like trip insurance all the time. Your two options on screen are in big letters, yes, I want to protect my tickets against illness and weather, all for just $11. And then in smaller, more serious type font, it says, no, I do not want to protect myself.

Like, come on, which one are they nudging you to choose? Then there's this thing called a false hierarchy. This is my favorite because as I was trying to research this story, a window comes up on the website I'm reading. It says, enter your email to unlock. And I'm like, ah, gosh. I gotta subscribe to this website to go any further until underneath, in tiny letters, it says, or continue to your story.

Turns out by entering your email, you're actually unlocking all this extra content that you might not even want. That is a false hierarchy. Now, this report did not name any offenders, but the FTC has said they may sue practitioners of dark patterns in the future. In the meantime, remember that just like supermarkets put candy by the cash register, online layouts don't always have your best interest at heart.

All right, that'll do it. But I swear, like, it's not slowing down. Right? Like, we have the republican convention next week. We thinking about the VP pick? We'll see what Biden does. So just buckle up. Start here is produced by Kelly Torres, Jen Newman, Brenda Salinas Baker, Vika Aronson, Cameron Chertavian, Anthony Ali, Mauro, Milwaukee, and Amira Williams. Ariel Chester is our social media producer. Josh Cohan is director of podcast programming. I'm our managing editor, Laura Mayer. I our executive producer. Thanks to Lakia Brown, John Newman, Tara Gimble, and Liz Alessi. Special thanks this week to Chris Berry, Merriam Khan, and Rick Klein, who, by the way, was just named our Washington bureau chief. Hail to the chief. I'm Brad Milke. I'm off Monday, but J. O'Brien will be in Milwaukee ready to walk you through the RNC. I'll see you next week.