- Boycotts work in the Olympics.

We saw it with South Africa.

From that standpoint, I think it's very, very important what the IOC did with Russia.

It's one of the few acts of real courage the IOC has ever committed.

(light pensive music) - Hello and welcome to "GZERO World."

I'm Ian Bremmer, and today I am covering the two biggest political stories of the moment, the first, here in the United States, the second kicking off in Paris.

Number one, after President Biden's stunning withdrawal from the 2024 race, Democrats have acted with remarkable speed and solidarity, passing the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris.

- I revere this office, but I love my country more.

Nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy.

That includes personal ambition.

So I've decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.

- And at the same time, the world's most elite athletes are gathering along the Seine in Paris, lighting a more literal torch.

Of the Olympic variety.

See what I did there?

The U.S. presidential campaign has already had more twists and turns than an Olympic surfing competition, new sport this year, by the way, in the former French colony of Tahiti.

Wish I was going.

But the world will keep spinning regardless of what political bombshell drops next in Washington.

So today I'm gonna say a few words about this unprecedented week in an unprecedented month in the United States.

And then we're gonna talk about the Olympics.

Don't worry, I've also got your "Puppet Regime."

- Sleepy Joe, he's stepped aside.

- Stepped aside?

That psychotic dog of his left pile of crap on carpet?

(Vladimir chuckles) - But, first, a word from the folks who help us keep the lights on.

- [Announcer] Funding for "GZERO World" is provided by our lead sponsor, Prologis, - [Announcer] Every day, all over the world, Prologis helps businesses of all sizes lower their carbon footprint.

And scale their supply chains.

With a portfolio of logistics and real estate and an end-to-end solutions platform, addressing the critical initiatives of global logistics today.

Learn more at prologis.com - [Announcer] And by.

Cox Enterprises is proud to support "GZERO."

We're working to improve lives in the areas of communications, automotive, clean tech, sustainable agriculture, and more.

Learn more at cox.career/news.

Additional funding provided by.

Jerry and Mary Joy Stead.

Carnegie Corporation of New York.

And.

(light upbeat music) - First to the United States.

As Vladimir Lenin never actually said, there are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.

The United States is quickly tilting into the latter camp, a reminder that the cataclysmic CNN debate between Biden and Trump was barely a month ago.

Then came Trump's survival, just barely, of an assassination attempt in rural Pennsylvania.

That was followed by his nomination of Ohio Senator J.D.

Vance as his vice president pick, followed by Trump's emotional coronation at one of the most united RNC conventions in modern history.

Then Biden got COVID.

Then Biden was under pressure.

He dropped out of the race.

And at about the blink of an eye, the Democratic establishment rallied behind Kamala Harris as the new candidate.

Oh, and somewhere in that mix, this happened.

- Enough was enough!

And I said, let Trumpamania run wild, brother!

- But as chaotic and, well, stressful, right?

Stressful as the last few weeks have been, one truth remains.

Presidential campaigns are about stories.

The candidate with the best story wins.

So with just about a hundred days to go until election day, what stories will Trump and Harris tell?

First to Harris.

She's gonna run as the seasoned prosecutor against the convicted criminal.

- Before I was elected United States senator, I was elected attorney general of the state of California, and I was a courtroom prosecutor before then.

And in those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds.

So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump's type.

- Meanwhile, Donald Trump is not happy to lose Joe Biden as a foil.

But behind the bluster, you can bet that the GOP is already trying to game out which tried-and-true Biden attacks will no longer work on Harris, for example, she's 19 years younger and a much more fluent speaker than Trump, and which will still very much stick, like tying her to the border crisis and inflation.

And just one last point here.

There's still plenty of time until election day.

Heck, most democracies around the world run their entire campaigns in less time than a hundred days.

See Britain and France this summer.

So, yes, we're in the final round of the 2024 campaign, but there's still quite a while for our democratic process to stick the landing.

Speaking of tortured metaphors, let's turn to the five-ringed variety.

It's time to talk about the Paris Olympics, just getting underway as I speak.

Geopolitics will loom particularly large at this year's games.

And joining me in just a moment, bestselling author and seasoned Washington Post sports columnist, Sally Jenkins.

Sally Jenkins, thanks for joining us.

- My pleasure.

- This is our first show on sports, so who knows where it's gonna go?

But it's about time.

We've got the Paris Olympics.

And what are you excited about, worried about?

- Well, you know, the French are trying to do something that's so elaborate.

- On the Seine.

- On the Seine where they have over 300,000 spectators, boats, people lined up on the balconies of these, you know, ancient old homes along the Seine.

The logistics of the opening ceremonies will be the first real test.

There's so much that could go wrong.

And yet, you know, they're trying to do this really massive undertaking.

Normally, an opening ceremonies is in a stadium with maybe 80,000 people.

You're talking about something that's three times more complicated than anything any country has attempted to do before with an opening ceremonies.

- At a time of not only great disinformation, but with the major war going on in Europe and the Russians causing a lot of trouble, I mean, you have to think that the French Olympics are an attractive target for them right now.

- Of course they are.

And this is really the first time that the IOC, which normally is the great friend of dictators, it's certainly at the moment very close to Xi Jinping, to the point that they actually exonerated 23 swimmers who tested positive for drugs, this is the first time that the IOC has really made an enemy out of Vladimir Putin.

Normally, they're sitting with Putin in a VIP box.

Normally, Putin is considered, you know, a great friend to the Olympics.

But in this case, because of the sanction against Russian athletes over the Ukraine war, you've got a real enemy in Vladimir Putin, and Vladimir Putin does not deal kindly with his enemies.

- I mean, they can still participate, the Russian athletes, they're still allowed to participate by the Russian government, but under a neutral IOC flag.

- Correct.

So Putin doesn't get quite the prestige that he would like from an Olympics exercise, which is what he's really in it for.

The reason he hosted the Sochi games was to sort of disarm the world on the eve of his antics and invasions.

And so he's not getting that now.

The Russians will be, you know, stigmatized by competing under this neutral flag.

And it's a hit, a blow to his prestige.

And he's clearly quite angry about it.

And the campaign of disinformation so far has been really, really ugly.

And there's no evidence whatsoever that when Putin is unhappy he just stops at disinformation.

- Yeah, there's been a lot of fake, AI-generated disinformation I've seen.

I mean, you know, the U.S. elections, we haven't seen that much of it yet.

But compared to other Olympics that you've covered, and you've covered a bunch of 'em, are your concerns highest in the run-up to France?

- Yes.

Normally, the concerns over an Olympics are largely environmental.

You know, there's been, you know, COVID Olympics where you really worried about the IOC's transparency and honesty in whether they could keep so many athletes and spectators safe from germs, okay?

There have been other Olympics where you knew, for instance, in Rio, that the water athletes would be swimming in was not going to be clean, despite every promise.

This is different by several magnitudes because one of the things Russia is doing with its AI campaign and its cyber campaign, it appears, is whipping up fears of terrorism, which in turn may invite terrorism.

The Palestinian issue is really frightening in its vehemence.

And some of the AI that appears to be coming from Russian sources is almost baiting them, if you ask me.

I mean, I'm not a national security expert, but it certainly is inviting the idea of violence in Paris.

- French leaders I've spoken to, I mean, have absolutely raised the alarm specifically about Russia disinfo and cyber intrusions in the past months.

It does seem like they are bearing the brunt of those efforts right now.

- I mean, one of the things that they could cause is panic, you know, in areas with really, really large groups of people.

I mean, this is going to be the most urban Olympics and also one of the most sprawling Olympics I've ever seen.

You're talking about events in all the major districts in Paris, inside Paris, in very old stadiums.

One of the great things about the Paris Olympics is that they haven't built a whole lot of new structures.

They're actually going to be holding events at already existing buildings that are very entrenched deeply into the city of Paris.

They're also gonna be holding events across the entire country.

They're going to be having events in Marseille, they're having surfing in Tahiti.

So it's a really, really sprawling logistical problem.

And between drones, cybersecurity, and all of the new concerns in the world, you know, this is going to be the most difficult Olympics to secure by a long shot.

- So, you know, politics all over these Olympics, given the world we're living in right now.

You mentioned the Palestinian issue.

A lot of Palestinians saying that the Israelis should have to also compete under a neutral flag given the war in Gaza right now.

How much do you think politics should and should not play a role in the Olympics generally?

The athletes clearly have very, very different views about this.

- Well, you know, the Olympic truce is a wonderful idea, and in large measure, it can work.

I think one of the reasons other Olympics have been secure in dicey situations is because there's been so much brotherly collaboration between governments that otherwise have tensions.

They all agree to set things aside and cooperate in sharing security and contributing to the enormous cost of that.

But, you know, this is probably one of the most divisive eras we've ever faced, and you've got some actors here who are not necessarily rational government actors, right?

And so that's part of the problem.

Now, I'll say this.

I think that if Putin wants to crawl back into, you know, some sort of, you know, brotherhood of government leaders, this is a good opportunity to do it.

You know, to actually, you know, become part of the solution here rather than the creator of tension.

You know, that might go a long way towards resolving some of his issues.

And, by the way, Russia is a sports-crazy nation.

One of the reasons the Sochi games was important to him and one of the reasons why he's so irritated is because they do love their competition just like we do.

So things like boycotts and things like sanctions can really hurt him domestically.

And I think that's one reason why he's aggravated.

You know, as far as politics and the Olympics, one of the great acts of resistance that really, really worked was the boycott of South Africa.

South Africa, very badly in the end, wanted to join the international sports movement because sports were very important to that country.

Boycotts work in the Olympics.

We saw it with South Africa.

And so from that standpoint, I think it's very, very important what the IOC did with Russia.

It's one of the few acts of real courage the IOC has ever committed.

And so I think they're to be congratulated for that.

- Clearly, it's a tool, and I see that embarrassment of Putin being a problem.

Now, on the other hand, a country, an authoritarian country that has done a much better job with sports recently has been Saudi Arabia, right?

I mean, throwing an enormous amount of money around, into golf, into tennis, into the World Cup very successfully.

Talk a little bit about the sportswashing debate and the pros and cons there.

- Well, you're talking to someone who works for The Washington Post, and so my view of Saudi Arabia is not nearly as congratulatory.

You know, I think Saudi Arabia actually has a lot more to prove before they should be allowed to invest.

- By the way, I mean, just for the audience, let me make it clear.

When you say The Washington Post, it's because of course Jamal Khashoggi, who was assassinated by the Saudi regime was a Washington Post reporter.

- Yeah, so Washington Post columnist assassinated by the regime.

I'll be much more willing to look at Saudi Arabia's reforms and so-called progress on, say, women's rights you know, when they stop kidnapping women, when they stop arresting women merely for protesting basic civil rights issues.

So I actually think that the world is being far too kind to Saudi Arabia.

To me, the appropriate limit for whether you're talking about the IOC accepting sponsorship or whether you're talking about the U.S. Open tennis tournament accepting sponsorship dollars.

American companies do a very, very sensible thing, most of them.

They cap capital foreign investment at 20%.

So, in other words, a foreign government cannot buy the NBA because their investment is limited to 20%.

That, to me, is the real common-sense solution for bodies like the IOC.

We should never be in a position where we allow Saudi Arabia to simply buy golf, which is what they've been attempting to do, or simply buy women's tennis, which is something they're attempting to do, simply in order to look better both at home and abroad.

Sportswashing is important, not just because it's a moral issue, sportswashing is important because the more you entangle foreign money with your companies and with your entities, the harder it is for our State Department to do its job and our presidents to do their job by drawing red lines because the stakes rise with the finances.

That's why it matters.

And that's why things like the Olympics matter as far as sportswashing.

You don't want Chinese money or Saudi Arabian money so compromise you that you cannot take the right diplomatic stand.

I think what you'll end up seeing with the PGA Tour and LIV Golf is, again, some kind of sensible cap on Saudi money that does not turn over governorship of worldwide golf to the state fund of Saudi Arabia.

- I want to ask you about the NBA, right?

Which on the one hand has seen to be really leaning into a whole bunch of political issues that would be seen as forward-looking and progressive in the United States.

I also see that China's an absolutely critical market for them, and they have been deeply problematic in the way they've responded, for example, to Hong Kong issues, to Taiwan issues and others.

Talk to me a little bit about that.

- It's really interesting.

You know, scholars of Chinese tactics call it the anaconda in the chandelier.

When you accept Chinese wealth, when you do business with China, it's like letting the anaconda into your house, and it will slowly start to squeeze you.

It lurks overhead as an implicit threat when you do business with China.

And that is what you're seeing with the NBA.

You're seeing the anaconda in the chandelier.

Enormous wealth is coming out and enormous exposure is coming out of that relationship, and yet China can squeeze the NBA.

And this is the danger in overengagement.

Engagement is good, but when you literally leverage yourself so commercially that you've let the anaconda into your house, into your cell phones, into your TikTok videos, you know, you are really asking to be choked to death.

You know, it's one thing to go to Beijing for the Olympics once, but to go twice was a serious mistake.

What you find is that we are not changing their behaviors, they're changing our behaviors.

And this is a critical point.

You know, that idea that somehow we could change China's behavior, that Xi Jinping was going to be someone else, that Vladimir Putin was going to behave as someone else just because he loved Western money has turned out to be utterly false.

- I mean, wouldn't we be better off at the end of the day if we just got rid of all the flags at these events and just let athletes compete as athletes?

- I don't think the flags are the problem.

I think, you know, the United States Olympic movement is one of the great opportunities for kids in this country.

I think that it's aspirational.

I love the Olympic movement.

You know, one of the things that happens at every Olympics is that the kids come in, the athletes come in, and they clean it all up.

You know, their effort and their commitment to compete for four high-stakes minutes after training for four years is one of the great competitive miracles we all get to watch.

And it's a remarkable event in that way.

They really scrape the grime off the Olympics, for me, in a lot of ways.

Sha'Carri Richardson, when she runs, or a Simone Biles, when she competes, you forget everything.

I don't think the flags are the problem.

I think the commerce is the problem.

Clean up the commerce.

I think the money is where, if you start to organize, as we've been talking about in this whole conversation, if you start to organize the sponsorship ties in a more sensible way, if you use the awarding of the games themselves as a reward rather than as an act of corruption, then I think the flags are okay.

But if we continue to award Olympics to bad actors just for their cash, just because we've bloated the Olympics so badly that we don't have any legit offers to hold these games you know, in places that celebrate human rights, and so we're going to human rights violators, and as they're building stadiums, they're committing even more human rights violations, then you're right, take the flags away.

- How about if make the IOC a little bit more like the IMF?

And if you're granting an Olympics to a major country, there are reforms that are actually intrinsic and required in order for you to pull those games off.

- Unfortunately, that is supposed to be in place.

The Olympic Charter, the Olympic contract supposedly holds the host to those very things, and they violate them every single time.

And every human rights organization on the face of the earth pleads with the IOC for four years, "Please hold them to their contract," and they allow Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin to break the contracts every single time.

They displace people, they beat people, they hit 'em with cattle prods, you know, when you're not cooperating in the great state ideology and state exercise of hosting the Olympics for international prestige.

And so that's the problem.

You know, one potential solution.

I think number one, I think that the IOC should have to turn over its governing membership much, much more rapidly.

You've got people who've been in there for 40, 50 years.

- Really, on the board?

- Yes, on the board, which really entrenches corruption.

Number two, there is something to be said for thinking about holding the Olympics on one site and not awarding it to different cities.

- Just give it to Greece.

Give it to Greece.

That'd be the right way to do it, right?

Okay, I'm gonna ask you a completely different question before we close out.

I gotta ask you 'cause I don't know who else to ask.

About the WNBA, okay?

Because, I mean, now suddenly we're watching it, right?

And there has historically been literally zero money in it.

I mean, you know, they're traveling in broken down buses, and they don't have sponsorship deals and all this stuff.

The salaries are horrible.

And now it's suddenly changing.

Is it changing in the right way?

- I think it is.

I mean, just the fact that these women will be able to make a living in the United States playing basketball rather than having to go overseas and get arrested by Putin's government.

- [Ian] I completely forgot we had that issue with Russia and Brittney Griner.

Geez, can't avoid Putin in this conversation.

- Every good WNBA player was having to go to Russia every year to play basketball, to make a living wage in addition to, you know, their more paltry WNBA salaries.

And so one of the things that's happening here is that you're gonna see American women able to stay home to make a living and not have to take that kind of risk.

So that's the biggest bonus I can see from all this.

But, you know, more broadly what's really interesting is you are seeing 50 years of women's sports experiences accelerated into like fast-forward frames.

Like what you're seeing with the WNBA, just in the last year, that's been the experience of all women in sports over 50 years in this country.

You know, Title IX was really the closest thing to an equal rights amendment that passed.

You know, the secret history of the women's movement came through athletics, not through politics.

That's what's so interesting.

Women have proven their physical and emotional competency and overcome these notions that they were handicapped by frailties through women's sports in this country.

And it became a worldwide movement.

And you're seeing that encapsulated in one moment in this particular sport, and it's really thrilling.

The tidal wave has been coming.

It's been building to a crest.

I'm not sure we've crested it yet.

I mean, when you have 2.3 million peoples watching Indiana play Chicago on a Sunday night, a work night in the middle of July, something big is happening.

The big question for women's sports was always, could they ever do that?

People would watch a U.S. Open final, they would watch an Olympics gymnastics or figure skating event or a gold medal game that featured, you know, Diana Taurasi or Candace Parker, but would they watch Indiana versus Chicago on a weeknight in really large numbers?

And that has happened.

- Sally Jenkins, thanks so much for joining us on "GZERO" today.

- My pleasure.

(soft electronic music) - And now the "Puppet Regime" where one foreign leader is still trying to come to terms with Biden's decision to step down.

(phone rings) - Oh, it's Donald.

Hello?

- You heard the news?

- Which news?

- Sleepy Joe, he's stepped aside.

- Stepped aside?

From what?

That psychotic dog of his left pile of crap on carpet?

(Vladimir chuckles) What does he stepping aside from?

- I mean, he's kinda stepping down.

- Down onto what, tarmac?

He's using stairs again?

That could be problem for if he's using stairs again.

- Vladimir, he's decided not to run.

- Run?

He can barely walk!

Why are you wasting my time with this nonsense?

But the guy doesn't want the chance to be president again!

- He what?

What kind of crazy idiot loser does not want to be president again and again and again and again?

- [Both] And again and again and again and again!

- [Vladimir] And again.

- Sorry, what were we talking about?

♪ Puppet Regime ♪ - That's our show this week.

Come back next week if you like what you see or even if you don't, but you think, "Hey, I could be a gold medalist in my own mind, "maybe a bronze."

Check us out at gzeromedia.com.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] Funding for "GZERO World" is provided by our lead sponsor, Prologis.

- [Announcer] Every day, all over the world, Prologis helps businesses of all sizes lower their carbon footprint.

And scale their supply chains.

With a portfolio of logistics and real estate and an end-to-end solutions platform, addressing the critical initiatives of global logistics today.

Learn more at prologis.com.

- [Announcer] And by.

Cox Enterprises is proud to support "GZERO."

We're working to improve lives in the areas of communications, automotive, clean tech, sustainable agriculture, and more.

Learn more at cox.career/news.

- Additional funding provided by.

Jerry and Mary Joy Stead.

Carnegie Corporation of New York.

And.

(light upbeat music)