SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Representatives from several different countries were involved in those ceasefire negotiations and, reportedly, an envoy from the incoming Trump administration.
NPR's Ron Elving joins us. Ron, thanks so much for being with us.
RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: How unusual is it for incoming and outgoing administrations to work together like this?
ELVING: On matters of this magnitude, there's usually some effort to work together, or at least to look like they're trying, but there have been exceptions, such as the case of candidate Richard Nixon in 1968, using intermediaries to slow the peace process between North and South Vietnam, telling the South Vietnamese to hold out for a better deal with Nixon in the White House. That's been covered by Nixon biographers, such as John Farrell and other historians. But in the present case, just having both the president and the president-elect on board for the broad outlines of a deal was a significant positive.
SIMON: President Biden's ending his time in office with a burst of action. He extended temporary protective status to millions of immigrants. He removed Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism and issued a record number of pardons and commutations.
ELVING: The last weeks of a presidency tend to be highly revealing. Now, they show us how many things a president might have done on his own if he had not feared the political fallout. This includes Biden pardoning his son after saying he would not, or other presidents pardoning their family members or high-ranking officials they wanted to protect. And there are cases of 11th-hour clemency that deserve respect, such as these mass commutations of sentences for nonviolent crimes, sentences that were clearly in excess of current guidelines. But other things to note here of importance - this week, the Biden farewell speech. Biden chose to make it about something relatively specific. Something hard for politicians to talk about until they retire.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern. This is a dangerous - and that's the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.
BIDEN: The fact is we now do have donors who are able to alter the playing field, change the landscape and do so with relatively little notice. The Supreme Court put an end to a long era of campaign finance reform a few years ago, and the dominance of big money has grown by leaps and bounds with each election cycle since.
SIMON: Inaugural ceremonies are going to be moved indoors because of the predicted cold, and President-elect Donald Trump is going to be sworn in at the Capitol Rotunda.
ELVING: Yes. It's only been used for this purpose once before, 40 years ago, exactly when Ronald Reagan was sworn in for his second term in 1985. The Rotunda is a hallowed space in the mind of the nation, but it is not a large space. It can accommodate the dignitaries and members of Congress, but not the 250,000 people who have tickets for this event and expected to attend the ceremony outdoors on the west front of the Capitol. So there may be people gathering outside there in the cold, but they won't see Trump, and he will not be able to see them. Instead, some will see the livestream of the ceremony at the Capital One Center. That's a sports and concert arena about a mile away, and it can hold 20,000. Trump says he'll put in an appearance there after the Rotunda. Not exactly the inauguration he may have wanted, but on the other hand, he'll make everything of it that he can. It'll be a true Trump rally. And in that sense, it'll be the greatest show on earth.
SIMON: And speaking of a great showman, Ron, I want to - I need to ask you about someone we both thought a lot about, Bob Uecker - died this week at the age of 90. Not a great ball player, but a great wit of the game and a longtime Hall of Fame voice of your Milwaukee Brewers.
ELVING: (Laughter) Not a great player, no, but he did play in the big leagues. He was a catcher for six seasons, collecting a career total of 14 home runs. He took his Mr. Baseball act to movies and television - Johnny Carson's show. And most importantly, he made it to the hall as a broadcaster.
SIMON: Yeah.
ELVING: The voice of the Brewers, as you say, for more than half a century. So if you've ever been a Brewer fan, if you love radio or baseball or both, you understand what it means to say at long last, this man's seat really must be in the front row.
SIMON: And in his memory, we must remember the line that he got to utter seeing a pitch, like, about 30 feet out of the strike zone in "Major League" where he goes, just a little outside.
ELVING: Just a little outside.
SIMON: NPR's Ron Elving.
ELVING: (Laughter).
SIMON: Thanks so much.
ELVING: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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