JUDY WOODRUFF: And now it's time
for the political analysis of
Brooks and Capehart. That's New

York Times columnist David
Brooks and Washington
Post columnist Jonathan
Capehart. Mark Shields

is away.

So, hello to both of you
on this Friday night.

I want to start with
something both candidates
did. They went to a city,
David, that is -- where

people are truly in anguish
over the shooting of a Black
man. His name is Jacob Blake. It

is Kenosha, Wisconsin.

We saw both of them go,
make statements. What did
you make, David, of their
different approaches?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, they were
both very true to their core
mission, what they have been

running on, especially
this year, but maybe
since the beginning of
their political careers.

Donald Trump has been running
on a sense of menace, a sense
that there is a lot of danger

out there in the world and
that he is the one to restore
order. And so the keystone

of his visit was the image of
him standing behind -- in front
of a burned-out buildings,

and he wants to
convey that message.

Joe Biden has run as a uniter.
And so he went to speak to the
Blake family. He pleased them

very much with his sensitivity
of what they were going through.

And you would have to say the
evidence so far is that the
law and order campaign that

Trump has been running since
the convention has not shown
much impact on the polls. He

is still down seven
or eight points.

If you ask people on a
whole range of measures
which candidate makes
you feel safe, Biden

wins on -- any way you ask that
question, Biden wins. If you
ask people, is Donald Trump

making it worse, 55 percent say
Donald Trump is making it worse.

So, the law and order message,
at least so far, and as
expressed through Kenosha, not

working.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Jonathan,
how did you see this?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well,
Judy, I look at it as --
at the two trips like this.

One was a political -- both
were political trips, but one
was political; the other was

presidential.

President Trump's trip was
strictly political. To David's
point, it was all about law and

order. It was all about stoking
fear, white grievance, white
fear of Black people, standing

with law enforcement, which,
on its face, is not -- is not
wrong or bad or problematic,

but in a city where
a 17-year-old shot --
allegedly shot at three
people, killed two of them,

and those same police officers
rolled right by him, the
president has had nothing but

good things to say about that
person, who was part of a
militia, right-wing militia.

And so the president goes
to Kenosha to buttress that.

Joe Biden, on the other hand,
I think, did a presidential
trip. He went to the Kenosha

community to meet with the
community, met with the Blake
family, apparently talked with

Jacob Blake. But the community
meeting he did at a local
church, where he heard from

all sorts of folks from the
community, was him sitting,
listening, responding in kind.

And a young woman, Porsche
Bennett, who decided not
to read the list of demands
from her organization,

but instead decided to talk
from the heart, and talk to
Vice President Biden about how

- - quote -- "heavily angry" she
and her community are about not
being treated fairly, and the

way Joe Biden responded to
that, I think, was sort of a
balm over the entire situation,

because, in situations
that happen, as have
happened in Kenosha, people
look to the president

for calm, for leadership.

They got that from Joe
Biden. But Joe Biden
isn't the president.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we --
both candidates during this
past week have released TV ads

that address racial
unrest, address protests
around the police.

Here is just a short
clip from each one.

JOSEPH BIDEN (D), Presidential
Candidate: Rioting is not
protesting. Looting is not

protesting. It's lawlessness,
plain and simple. And those
who do it should be prosecuted.

Fires are burning, and we have
a president who fans the flames.
He can't stop the violence,

because, for years,
he's fomented it.

NARRATOR: Lawless criminals
terrorize Kenosha. Joe
Biden takes a knee.
Biden and the radical

left's weak response has led to
chaos and violence, and their
calls for defunding police

would make it worse.

JUDY WOODRUFF: David, what are
these messages telling you?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, Biden
did something he - -
his party failed to do
during the convention,

which was to acknowledge there
is disorder in the country,
crime really is rising, and

there has been rioting
and looting. It is
not the mainstream of
the protests, but it

has been an element
of the protest.

Maybe about 8 percent of the
protests have turned violent.
That is still a lot and it's

still on people's minds.

And so, with that speech and
then the ad they have cut out
of it, he is acknowledging that,

and he is making it a clear
statement, which we talked about
last week, of setting a boundary

that rioting and looting are
not protesting, and that he
is going crack down on that.

And that was acknowledging a
real flaw in the Democratic
approach at the convention,

where they just didn't
see that reality. And so
I think he helped himself.

I mean, his team -- the downside
of his team is, they are
really experienced. They have

been a part of the Democratic
Party for a long time. The
upside of his team is, they

are really experienced and they
know how to run a campaign.

And so I think they have run a
very effective campaign straight
through. And it showed again

this week.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Jonathan,
does that ad help Joe Biden?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: I think that
ad helps Joe Biden, because
he makes a clear line, which

is obvious to folks on the
ground, that there is a distinct
difference between the peaceful

protesters, who are out there
wanting their voices heard
about what happened to Jacob

Blake being shot in
the back seven times
by a police officers.

That young woman I just
mentioned, Porsche Bennett, she
even in her remarks said she

was there speaking not for the
protest -- not for the rioters
and the looters. No, she is

there speaking on behalf of the
protesters, who want equity.

And I do think it -- I agree
with David. It is important
and good that Vice President

Biden put that ad out there
and made it clear that he
draws a line and a distinction.

And I don't think he is reacting
to President Trump, as much as
he is reflecting the reality

on the ground and the reality
as the protesters see it. They
are not part of the rioters or

the looters either.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Two other
quick things I want
to ask you both about.

And, one, David, has to do
with several announcements
from the administration
in recent days about

rapid testing for COVID, the
president talking about we are
going to have a vaccine this

fall, maybe in October.

Is all this likely to
be effective in changing
the minds of voters
who are skeptical about

his leadership or just
don't know what to think?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, willing
a vaccine into existence like
a week before the election,

probably not going to
work. That's not the
way science works.

But I have to give the
administration some
credit on the rapid
testing. And Abbott Labs

apparently come with a
breakthrough that gives
you a chance to do testing
fast. And the administration

has poured a lot of money
toward that, to get 150
million of these tests.

And for all the flaws of the
administration's COVID response,
they have done a decent job

of pouring money, both toward
a vaccine and toward testing.

And so I give them some credit
at that. The - - from what I
understand of this test, it's

not the ultimate solution for
a testing. You want to be able
to test at home and et cetera.

But if we could do
rapid testing, you could
test as people go into
schools and conferences

and buildings.

If that could be
effective, that is a step
back toward normalcy.
And I have to give them

some credit where credit
is due. They have put a
lot of money into this.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Clearly,
everybody wants vaccine
as soon as possible.

Jonathan, what about the
political effects of this?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, what
is unfortunate about what the
administration is doing -- I

mean, great on
the rapid testing.

A vaccine coming before the
election, not so sure about
that. But it seems that all

of these moves are being made
not because of compassion for
the sick and for the infected

and for those who died, but
as a political maneuver, to
shore up a political problem

that the president has.

He has not been handling
the response to the
coronavirus pandemic
well at all. And I think

what the American people have
been looking for is, where is
the national plan? What are

you doing to safeguard our
health, but, by extension,
safeguard our livelihoods?

Because the pandemic has hit
us in our health, but it also
is hitting us in the pocketbook

and our livelihoods.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally to
both of you, this article that
raised a lot of eyebrows that

has just come out in
"The Atlantic" overnight.

David, Jeffrey Goldberg
reporting from anonymous
sources, but, in his
words, credible sources,

that the president used words
like suckers and losers over
the course of his presidency

talking about people who
served in the military,
people who died in war.

He's -- the White House
completely denies this. Do you
see something like this having

an effect?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I mean, A,
Jeffrey Goldberg has had a whole
series of scoops coming out

of the Pentagon and the Defense
Department in administrations
going back for decades

now. So, he's a
high-credibility journalist.

This story has now been
confirmed by several
other news organizations,
including FOX News.

And so we can fully
expect that he -- he did
call -- he dishonored
the war dead by calling

them losers and suckers. And
it is no so far out of reach of
what he's said in public about

John McCain and others. So, I
find it completely credible.

And that the idea that
a guy who is offended
by Colin Kaepernick
taking a knee, he says

that dishonors the country,
but calling the war dead
losers, that is an absurdity.

And so people are rightly
offended. I mean, we
get offended by this
guy on an hourly basis,

but this is an offense that goes
to the core of the conservative
value system, the military

value system.

And what has been shocking to
me this year is, already, even
before this happens, according

to surveys of active military
personnel, they were already
for Biden, which is extremely

rare, for the active
military to be for Democrats.

And so he was already in
trouble with this group, and
it has got to trouble everybody

who is in and out of uniform.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Jonathan, what
are you thinking about this?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: It -- I
didn't think I could be shocked
anymore, particularly since

Charlottesville, about what
the president says or thinks
about things or individuals.

I was horrified by what I
read attributed the president
of the United States, where

Jeffrey Goldberg got basically
-- on four sources. And the
fact that, to David's point,

that it has been corroborated
by other news organizations,
including my own, The Washington

Post, tells you something.

And it is shameful. But I think
what is even more shameful is
the silence from Republican

leaders around the nation and
on -- and from Capitol Hill.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Tough subject,
tough -- tough everything
right now. It is hard to think

of something uplifting.

But we appreciate both of
you. Thank you for being here.
Jonathan Capehart, David Brooks,

thank you.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Thanks, Judy.