Meet the Press NOW — July 19

If it's Friday, the Biden campaign is in crisis and could be on the verge of collapse as 11 more Democrat lawmakers call on the president to drop out of the race and the Biden family now discussing his potential exit. Plus, anything but conventional. Former President Trump accepts his party's nomination with a record long 93 minute rally style address. Less than a week after surviving an assassination attempt and millions of people are still feeling the impacts of a massive global tech outage that disrupted air travel, hospitals,911 services, banks and businesses around the world.

Hi there. Happy Friday. Welcome to MEET the press. Now on Ryan Nobles in Washington.

As Republicans co close out their national convention, the walls are closing in on President B. Despite his public defiance about staying in at the presidential race, Miami's colleagues report that members of Biden's own family are now discussing what his withdrawal might look like. That's according to two people familiar with the discussions. It comes with a groundswell of new calls for him to step aside.

Eleven more Democrats join the list today, including two close allies of former Speaker Pelosi. The list now includes more than 30 members of Congress, including three senators with names that cut across different demographic ideologies and seniorities. Even longtime Biden allies like Delaware Senator Chris Coons, who co chairs the Biden campaign, seem to be opening the door for him to bow out. I think our president is weighing what he should weigh, which is who is the best candidate to win in November and to carry forward the Democratic Party's values and priorities in this campaign.

I am confident he is hearing what he needs to hear from colleagues from the public now who's later tweeted that he stands behind Biden 100%. And sources tell us that right now the president who is isolating with COVID feels personally hurt and betrayed how so many in his party have left him hung out to dry. Publicly, however, the Biden campaign remains defiant and perhaps hoping to breathe new life into his campaign after former President Trump's rally like convention address last night. In a new statement put out by the campaign in response to that address, President Biden says, quote, I look forward to getting back on the campaign trail next week to continue exposing the threat of Donald Trump's Project 2025 agenda while making the case for my own record and the vision that I have for America.

Meanwhile, top Biden campaign officials acknowledge that their support has slipped, but they remain publicly adamant that Biden is absolutely staying in the race. Joe Biden is more committed than ever to beat Donald Trump and we believe on this campaign we are built for the close election that we are in and we see the path forward. I'm not here to say that this hasn't been a tough several weeks for the campaign. There's no doubt that it has been.

And we've definitely seen some slippage in support. But it has been a small movement and you know this. The reason is because so much of this race is hardened already. But comments like that come of the new reporting that Kamala Harris's allies have begun quietly mapping out what her presidential campaign apparatus would look like and what her path to victory could be in November.

Joining me now is our team of reporters. Maggie Alba is at the White House, Sahil Kapoor on Capitol Hill, and Julie Circuit in the battleground state of Pena. Michael, let's start with you. What's the latest?

It seems like every time I talk to someone, what's going to happen? Did last night's speech by former President Trump have any impact on President Biden's thinking? I think it hardened his resolve, at least publicly, Ryan, that he is dedicated to staying in this race and he is committed to continuing this fight, as he said in that statement that you highlighted in your introduction, where he is talking about the future, he's talking about heading out on the campaign trail next week, saying that he really wants to put the focus back on Donald Trump and his agenda and what was on display during the Republican National Convention this week in Milwaukee. But of course, the backdrop to all of that is this massive conversation that's going on with people that he's close to, with people that he has known and worked with for years who are really wondering about his own path forward beyond the maybe next couple of days or weeks.

And we're evaluating his larger future and legacy. And that has really entered the chat now in terms of the last couple of weeks where there was a lot of day by day discussion and now it's a little bit more long term thinking of how is Joe Biden going to be remembered in history because of this very complicated moment. So I think now that the RNC has wrapped the Democrats in the real effort, obviously trying to project this image of confidence and full steam ahead. And that's what you saw from the campaign co chair and that's what we are hearing from Biden campaign officials on the record who are really talking about this again in terms of what the president is doing.

But what we know from our reporting is that yes, this will be up to President Biden to ultimately make this decision about staying in the race. And from what we Understand, he hasn't decided yet. So that leaves the option that he could ultimately decide to bow out, even if that's not what he's saying right now. Right.

Yeah. Let me talk and expand on that a little bit more because I do think it's significant that the family's even opening up this line of conversation about the potential of him not continuing on in this race. It's important for our viewers to keep in mind that there's only one person that can make that decision. It's President Biden.

And it seems as though he is not quite there yet. I think that's exactly right. And so this is coming from people who obviously love him so deeply that they're trying to take his years of public service and time in office and say, well, if you were to think about leaving the race and bowing out, what would that look like and would it be befitting of what you've done for this country? According to the conversations that our sources have told us about, they're evaluating those kinds of things when they're having the discussions.

But again, it's all very hypothetical because the president himself hasn't come to a conclusion one way or the other. But we do know that over the last couple of days, some of his own conversations with other people, with allies and people who are calling him they have become more reality based, we're told, where he himself is confronting this question of if I was to make this really consequential, really monumental decision, what would that look like? And the takeaway, Ryan, is that we understand the president wants to be able to do that with his own timeline and with a little bit of space. So that is why that is something that could still be a couple of days or weeks potentially.

We just don't know. Meanwhile, that would quickly shift the focus to Vice President Harris. We understand that she let a call with some Democratic donors. What more we know about that.

Yeah, she just wrapped up that call and she offered some remarks that were really similar to what she talked about when she was on the trail in North Carolina yesterday trying to talk about the RNC and this question of unity and saying that if you're going to really use that term, you need to go beyond the one word and demonstrate how you would do that. So again, trying to put that back on Republicans. But she opened the conversation with Democratic donors, I'm told, by saying, look, I'm very confident in President Biden and we're going to win this election. That was her prediction.

And would you point out, Ryan, if people are thinking, wait, well, why is the vice president talking to Democratic donors and not the president? I'm told by campaign official that was the president's advisors who asked her to do this call. But we really should point out to everybody all the reporting we've been doing for weeks, which is that there's a massive issue when it comes to top donors who have severe concerns and anxieties about the health of President Biden's campaign and his future. And they're saying, wait a second, I may not donate if I don't know if he's going to stay at the top of the ticket or potentially move out and somebody else could come in.

So this is probably an attempt to try to calm that in some sense. But again, it was the vice president delivering that message and trying to say that the Biden Harris ticket was fully, fully met. Okay, we'll see how this all plays out. Thank you for that money.

Let's move down Pen Avenue on Capitol Hill. So Sahil seems like a phone. There's a new member of the Democratic caucus on Capitol Hill calling for Biden to drop out today. It seems as though this stream is flowing once again.

Who stands out to you unless that emerged today? A few things stand out, Ryan. The first is the number 11 Democrats in a single day. I believe that's the most number of Democrats who come out calling for President Biden's step aside in any day of this entire campaign.

And then the other thing that stands out in the broad cross section of the party that these new members calling on him to step aside represent, starting with Congressman Zoe. Laughter let's show her statement. She's a California Democrat, close ally, former speaker, anti public House by unorthodox. Your candidacy is on the trajectory to lose the White House and potentially impact crucial House and sent races down ballot is for these reasons that I ask you to step aside from our party's nomination.

In addition, members calling on by this upside include Mark B.C. a member of the Congressional Black Caucus Mark of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Chewy Garcia, a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Greg Langsman who represents a swing district in Cincinnati, one of those districts that will determine which party is likely controlled House and Senator Martin Heinrich and New Mexico Democrat Joe Biden served in that chamber for a long time. The Democrats now himself those voices all matter. So this is not simply one faction of people, one set of people that Joe Biden can point to and say oh you know there's a lot of people who do support me.

This is evidence of cracks all over this Dam. All right. So we'll talk the conference linesman in just a few minutes on this program. So I'll thank you for that.

Let's move now to the battleground, and that's Pennsylvania, where Julie Circuit is standing by. So, Julie, you spent the day with Senator Bob Casey. He is facing a tough reelection campaign. He has, for the most part, stuck by President Biden, albeit, I would say, with a lot of enthusiasm.

Where does he stand today on Biden's candidacy? And I'll tell you, Ryan, having asked him the same questions yesterday in a rural county about three hours from here to come in over here in Drexel Hill, the suburbs of Philadelphia, asking Casey again if he's in Biden's corner. There's a little bit of an opening there, a little bit of softening. And Casey says that's because he's been talking about constituents all around the state like we have, and perhaps he should take in their considerations and concerns about Biden more seriously.

Take a listen to this. I've heard a lot of people across the state come to me and express real concerns about him going forward. And I think that's, that's a concern that I've got to be responsive to and listen to. I don't think there's a specific timeline, but I do think it's, it's going to be very soon where we have to begin to move forward.

We can't stay in the position right now where there's no definitive determination because the differences in these elections and the point Casey was making there is we have to get back to talking about what is wrong with the other side, the problems and the challenges of the Republican Party, especially with former President Donald Trump at the top of that ticket. Casey, though, you're talking about the timeline there. Look, he is overperforming, outperforming Biden in this state. Obviously, that is notable and important for Casey heading into November against his Republican opponent.

But this allyship with the Biden family goes decades back for Casey. And so this is a situation of respect and love for Biden as a person where he just doesn't want to get over his skis here, despite the concerns, I'm hearing mine. But you've also been having the same conversations he's been having with voters. What are they telling you about the political moment we find ourselves in 100?

And I actually spoke to one voter, one woman named Janetta. She was going into the Ben, the case he was holding suburban women here. And I asked her that very question. What do you make of all of this.

And she said yesterday is the day that she decided after talking to her family members and friends that President Biden cannot be the person that wins in November, that leads the ticket. And it is because of that that she came here today to try to talk to Senator Casey she respects as well to try and change his mind here. I also spoke to other Democratic voters. They all overwhelmingly said that they are bleak, they are grim.

This mood over the last month since the debate that we saw on June 27th has just left them feeling sick. One woman I spoke to said there's just no time to make a change for three months until November. She said she would vote for Biden in her words, quote, even if he was on eventually. So a range of opinions here.

But overwhelmingly, as Casey said, he's hearing from voters that they have concerns he's not going to join his other two colleagues under Martin Heinrich and John Tester, another vulnerable Democrat in battleground state, in calling on Biden. Tides of the race just yet, but certain some room there potentially coming days depending on what President Biden does. All right, Julie, getting the important perspective on the ground with the voters that matter. Julie, thank you for that report.

Let's go now to Simone Sanders Townsend, the co host of the Weekend on msnbc. She's of course a former senior advisor to The Biden Harris 2020 campaign worked for Kamala Harris. So Simone, you know the president well. What's weighing him right now?

He says that he's made a decision. Obviously this is being accepted by the party. How could this play out? Well, Ryan, look, I think it's an important question.

I think part of what just knowing the president, what is likely weighing on him is in I think you have this point back to 2019, 2020, when a lot of the Democratic candidates were still in the race in that primary. No one there were many of them did not truly have a bible path. And I remember then candidate Biden pulled us aside one of our meetings and told us he doesn't want anybody calling on anyone else to drop out. That's not something he's going to do.

And he went forward and would have said that publicly when he was asked by reporters at because he said it's a personal decision that this is for the candidate to make and he's been a candidate, he's got to make that decision before and he would never want anyone to pressure him and he would not pressure anyone else. So I have to imagine that he is just personally stunned by the volume of individuals who are coming out that he has known for years saying he should step down. You know better than anyone how close his family is and how he holds them tight and leans on their counsel with almost every decision that he makes, particularly about his own political future. So how important are these conversations that he's having with his family?

Do you think that they would all be on the same page whether there'd be mixed opinions within the family? And how important will they be in preserving his legacy if he does decide that this is the end of his political career? I think the family is going to be a very, you know, I just imagine a conversation with my own family, Ryan, about making a decision. At the end of the day, it's going to be a bit decision as of right now, as we speak at whatever about a little past 4:15 Eastern Standard Time, Joe Biden in this race and he has said for weeks, frankly, in the face of the calls to step down, that he is in this race.

I have described it as he's swimming against the tide. I think as long as the president likes to swim, he's going to continue to stay in the race. And it's really set up right now. Right.

We have elected leaders on Capitol Hill, more which are coming out by the hour saying they like to Biden, but he should step down. And on the other hand, you have voters just yesterday, 1400 black women signed a letter. These are grassroots leaders across the country saying they backed the Biden Harris ticket. And the time for a debate about who the nominees should be was during the primaries.

And so these women who are representative leaders of their communities across the country in many of the battlegrounds saying he shouldn't leave. Then you got DNT members who are saying, look, we're with the president and the DNT members and the delegates, many of which are saying we still I haven't spoken to a delegate I talked to number who hasn't said that they are now not supporting presidential caucus. Shares of the dnc, various caucuses are still saying that their pledge delegates are saying pledge delegates. And so it is like a game of chicken for lack of a better term.

And the question is who is going to blink first? The president is resolute, but the opposition to his candidacy on Capitol Hill is also resolute. And I think the last point I make is that you hear a lot from the elective ends of Congress about polling data. You just heard Senator Casey talk about what he's hearing from people in his district, a voter themselves saying, I want to speak to Senator Casey about this There is.

The polling is not predictive. It's indicative of where people are at any given time. When I heard from a number of House Democrats specifically and Senate Democrats who have always were going to have a tough time to cycle, they what the polling they are saying is they think to do is infallible campaigns to change the folding. I mean, a lot of members say they don't want to do that work with President B on their coattails, but so many more saying that they at this point are still with them.

All right. We don't have much more time. You're such a great person talked about this because your experience is so wide in varying within the Democratic Party. I'm interested in your take on how progressives are gonna respond to all this.

They seem to be the group that right now is most firmly in the camp of Biden shouldn't go talking about Bernie Sanders alc. Others work for Bernie Sanders. If Biden does decide to go, are progressives just going to stand by and let Kamala Harris become the nominee? Are they gonna have to say who her running maide is?

They're such an important part of the base of this Democratic Party. What role are they gonna play in this discussion? Because at this point I feel like they're not giving that much attention. Right.

I think the reality is just from a pure process party standpoint, the vice the ticket is the Biden Harris ticket. And you just put it on the call that Vice President Harris did with the donors. So her name is on the money that's also been raised. I think frankly the most viable, the smoothest path here is that Joe Biden says race and everybody just backs up and Joe has get out of the business trying to win election.

But I think the next step, if the president does decide he can no longer respond against the tide, the vice President is the only choice. You know, she is battle tested. She has been doing the work. And when I say the work, I mean I think back to when the United States had to dust up with France over.

Over their deal with Australia and submarines. It was vice president that the President asked to go to France and deliver things. President Macron, the work that she's done helping the president rally European allies, especially right before the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. And so there's just some of this is like when the Department of Convention comes.

It's. It's about two months until people. A month until people actually start voting. With early vote.

You do not have a lot of time to raise a lot of money and introduce someone to the voters. And so the vice president to me seems like the most viable path. And I don't know if progressives across the board are gonna stick with her, but I saw AOC's live last night and she seems to be in common hairskin. Well, Simone, now you're my queen on levels, but I know you've had a hellish day trying to travel across this country and you were caught up in the travel anger that so many Americans were and went to great lengths to be on this program today.

Coming to you live from Baltimore, Penn Station. Great. It means so much to all of us that you made that effort. I thank you so much.

Thanks. Coming up, toing it down versus trumping it up, what's next for the Trump campaign After his lengthy convention speech that began with calls for unity but then veered into more familiar Trump territory? We'll hear what voters who watch the speech in battleground Michigan have to say. That's next.

You're watching me, the press now. Welcome back. Former President Trump pledged to deliver a unifying speech when he took the stage of the Republican National Convention at the end of a week where Republicans showed they were certainly unified as a party. But instead, the former president's first speech since the assassination attempt was a record breaking long convention speech that had many of the hallmarks of a good old fashioned Trump rally.

Mr. Trump did begin his remarks last night by recounting the moment he was shot and with a nod to unity. I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America. I'm not supposed to be here tonight.

Not supposed to be here. I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God. Now. But despite those moments of reflection, which did bring some members of the audience to tears, and a moving moment of silence to honor the firefighter who was killed at the rally.

Last night's speech was in large part just a return to form for the former president, repeating the grievances, attacks and election fraud lies that are characteristic of his campaign speeches. We must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement, which is what's been happening in our country. And that's fair. The Democrat Party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system.

Every week they get another subpoena from the Democrats. Crazy Nancy Pelosi. They've got to stop that because they're destroying our country. The election result will never let that happen again.

They use Covid to cheat, only use the term once. Biden. I'm not going to use the name anymore. Just one time.

The damage that he's done to this country is unthinkable. It's unthinkable. Joining me on set is NBC News senior national politics reporter John Allen, who is fresh off the blame from Milwaukee, and NBC's Michelle Sindor. She is in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is one of our Sagar counties, where she watched last night's speech with Otter.

So, John, I have to imagine that the speech was pretty at night. He fell asleep at maybe 10:30, quarter 11 o'. Clock. He had a very different impression if he stayed up until midnight.

I mean, what was your impression in the room? Did he stop talking about? I'm not entirely sure this is a Republican Party that is unified behind him, particularly convention, because it's a unifying thing. He talks about being unifying.

What he really seems to mean is to unify the Republican Party. And of course, his survival of an assassination attempt can't help but to give him sympathy not only within the Republican Party more broadly. On a human level, it is hard to look at somebody who has the physical manifestation of having been shot within the last week and not feel some compassion for that. So if you take the extra step that a lot of people at the Republican convention truly adore this man, this was a big moment for him in making sure there's parties behind him going into the general elections.

I do think that a lot of Americans have stopped paying attention to the rambling part of the Donald Trump speech. He gives Israeli speeches once every couple of months. If you're not, even if you're on the margins, they're not paying attention, close to politics. Probably don't ever watch any of these speeches.

This was an opportunity for a lot of Americans to see that style speech. And how could it potentially go over if you're a voter that's in the middle? So I think there's kind of a question of how long people stay tuned in. I mean, not only do they tune it out if they happen to be watching it, like deep in, but I think for most people, you know, they're probably watching the first 10, 15 minutes if they're watching.

And the first 10, 15 minutes of this speech was basically him recounting this harrowing experience of being shot at. So I think a lot of people probably tuned out. I think most independent voters aren't watching the Republican convention to get their feel for like what does the middle look like? But you know, for those that stuck around, they got the Trump rally version of Trump.

There was Nothing, you know, sort of moderate or, you know, reaching out to the middle about the vast majority of that speech. Okay, John, thanks for watching back. Appreciate it. Let's turn to Yamiche now in Michigan where she's been talking voters.

Obviously, Yamiche is a Midwest battleground state that the Trump campaign sets sights on. His VP pick, JD Vance from that region. What were people thinking about when they watch that speech last night? Like you said, I'm in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and this is a city that's in a swing county in a swing state.

It's the kind of place that the meetup press team here loves to look at and study because it's really a place where you can sort of feel the polls of voters here. And last night, that long, long speech, I watched it, lots of voters who were really looking at whether or not former President Trump changed his tone. Take a listen to what they told me by shell support who detected a sort of change in tone from former President Trump. Definitely, initially.

Initially, like in the beginning, I thought he started out okay, but then as the speech went on, it just sounded like the old Trump. I was hoping, though, for the good of the country. Right. If he does win that we would see that the, this message of unity would carry through more consistently through the speech.

And it did not. I go back to Saturday where a 20 year old kid tried to take his life necessary. He kept saying, I shouldn't be here, I should be here. He's here.

And that's a testimony to what he did in the past and what he plans on doing in the future. I think he's going to unite people. I think he's going to bring people together and do the right thing that's best for the country. So it was really fascinating to watch this RNC speech by former President Trump of these voters, because the Trump supporters, two of them that were sitting there with me, they were really praising the speech, they were into it, they were nodding, they were sort of really smiling.

We also had Nikki Hilberto, who remains undecided. He came into it thinking maybe if Trump says something that's interesting, something that's unifying, maybe there's a chance that he maybe get on board with him, but heard nothing that changed his mind. And then you let a Democratic voter, now she's open to voting for Republicans because she doesn't like he's like President Biden. She said that he should step aside, but she's also reluctantly going to vote for him if she doesn't see herself ever being able to vote.

For president, for President Trump. But it's interesting, she said at one point that this speech sounded like a rambling fourth grader who was trying to meet a word count. So she was really sort of biting her criticism at the time. She was even signing and visibly sort of shaking her head saying, look, he's lying.

She said that she really didn't believe a lot of the speech when he was talking about the fraud in the 2020 election as well as tax cuts. So really I think this is a speech that said red day, red beats the face, but really didn't change any minds here. Ryan. Okay, My apologies to all the fuck guys that were watching that.

I suggested that where you are in Michigan is where J.D. vance is from. I'm at region, why not state but you report. I appreciate it.

And up next, you're looking at what folks warmly refer to warmly as the blue screen of death. It greeted millions of people worldwide on their devices today with airports, hospitals and businesses all feeling the effects of a massive tech outage. Well, at the very latest on that watching be the press now. Welcome back.

All day we have been following the fallout from that massive IT outage that has affected travelers, businesses, banks and even hospitals around the world. The outage was caused by a cyber security update from a company called CrowdStrike which then impacted Microsoft Windows users and Microsoft's cloud services. CrowdStrike says that it is rolled out fix for the issue. But the outage has forced the cancellations of hundreds of flights here in the United States and thousands across the globe.

It's also for several major hospitals to postpone surgeries or doctors appointments while also disrupting 911 systems in at least three states. Here's CrowdStrike CEO and NBC earlier today. It wasn't a cyber attack, you know, it was related to this, this content update. When you look at software, it is a, is a very complex world and there's a lot of interactions and always thinking of the adversary is certainly a, you know, a tall pass.

So these sort of things obviously, you know, you try to understand and mitigate them and in some cases you have a weird interaction and it didn't seem like it happened on every Windows system. NBC News Senior Business of course, my Christine Romans joins me now. So what do we know? I mean what causes take his mess about.

Interesting. What a day. What a day. I mean unprecedented.

Look it basically crowdstrike, those are the guys trying to keep the bad guys out of your system, trying to keep the hackers and the cyber thieves out of the system. And a glitch from CrowdStrike actually caused all this problem. So, you know, they're the defenders that didn't cause a whole lot of hurt today. And they're getting under control and they have a patch and a fix.

But it's just, like I said, a dot domino's, and it's gonna ripple for, you know, probably a few more days. And we think all the people today went to reschedule surgery or doctor's appointments or the Social Security Administration closed its doors because it couldn't do. It couldn't do its business. So that's a whole day, a loss for Social Security and others.

So it's just really a difficult, difficult day. And I'll tell you something really interesting, Ryan. I was hearing somebody talking about it, like, was Y2K 24 years ago when the world was worried about one extra number, you know, blowing up all these complex systems? That's what happened today.

Yeah. Yeah. So Is this a CrowdStrike problem or is it Microsoft problem? It seems like it's a CrowdStrike problem.

And one question a lot of people are saying is how come this was rolled out so quickly? I mean, usually, for example, for NBC, right, we had some problems here. You know, should this patch have been tested separately by each of these companies using Microsoft and CrowdStrike? And then if there were no problems, then pass along.

So there'll be some after action research, I'm sure, about what went wrong and how they could have done better, how they should have done that again. So at that point, is this a war off, or should we be concerned that what happened today a red flag for something like this happen in the future? I mean, one thing that it kind of alerts us all to is how interconnected everything is and how easy this was. I mean, this whole system is prevent from cyber attacks, and just the system itself caused a whole bunch of problems.

It seems like it could be one off. I'm pretty sure the cyber. The company will never let this happen again. You know, they've probably learned from this mistake.

But, you know, 300 of the 500 Fortune 500 companies have this particular company software. So it shows you just how big it is and how many systems it is. But it was amazing to watch it roll from Asia to Europe to the United States. You know, by 9:00am this morning, it was very clear that this was, you know, just a real, real tough rolling ball of pain today.

Well, maybe on the protest, somebody got the day off because it's Christine. Maybe somebody somewhere got the day off as well. Christine Roman, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

And hundreds of Morrisons paying their respects to Corey Compren. Of course, there's a private funeral was held for the former fire chief and father of two who were shot and killed during the assassination, attempted assassination of Donald Trump. The former president honored commentary last night during his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention where his firefighting helmet and jacket were on stage. As the investigation into the events leading up to and after the shooting continue.

We learned today that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheadle will testify before the House Oversight Committee on Monday. We are also learning more today about the ongoing investigation into the shooter, Thomas Crooks. Two senior officials tell NBC News a bulletproof vest was found in Crooks vehicle in addition to explosive devices. Those officials also say investigators are looking at whether Crooks possibly scouted the venue where the rally took place days in advance and that the information gathered so far does not show anyone else being involved.

After the break, I'll talk to one of the Democratic House lawmakers who came out today to call for the president to step aside and not run for re election. You're WATCHING me, the president now. Welcome back. And as we said, 33 congressional Democrats are now calling for President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 race.

And that includes Democrats from all wings of the party. Among those who broke with Biden today, Congressman Zoe Loughbridge, a Pelosi ally and a former member of the January 6th select committee and the former chair of the House Progressive Caucus, Congressman Mark Pocan. And Congressman Greg Landsman represents a battleground district in the red state of Ohio. And joining me now is Congressman Landsman to talk more about this decision.

So, Congressman, you were on this program last week. At that point, you weren't ready to call for President Biden to end his campaign. Why today what changes changed? I've had several days back in the district and hundreds of conversations over the course last couple weeks.

And voters here and the district is really interesting in that it's an equal number of Democrats, Independents and Republicans. It's a 50, 50 district. So what happens here I think is very telling in terms of what is going to happen around the country. And what I hear from folks is we want change.

We don't want either of these candidates. We don't think Trump is fit to be president, United States. You know, he's going to upend our democracy, our lives. We're tired of the chaos and extremism.

And Biden should step aside and let somebody else, you know, run this campaign and make the case against Trump. So, you know, the Biden camp's going to have to make the decision, although it's ultimately the president. So whatever he decides, he decides. But I think he should step aside for the good of the party, but more the good of the country.

And President Biden cares deeply about this country and he cares deeply about our democracy and our freedom. I think he did the right thing. So you are calling on him to step down from the race, but you don't think he should resign. And I'm wondering where the disconnect there is.

If you don't think he's able to serve or shouldn't serve another four year term or if it's win re election, how is it you think he's still capable of being President of the United States right now? Yeah. So it's two different questions. One is, can he govern?

And of course he can. And the second one is, can he win this election? Can he make a case against Donald Trump and do so in a way that lifts up candidates across the country and districts like mine and states like Ohio? Because, you know, if Trump becomes president and has the House and the Senate, he will control all three branches of government.

And that is unsettling for most people. There are folks who really love Donald Trump and there are folks who really love Joe Biden. But most people would like to see something new and return to normalcy. They want to see pragmatism and bipartisanship and folks who can protect their democracy and the freedom and build an economy around them, not billionaires and big corporations.

And that requires winning this, this race. And there, as my friend Jim said the other day, there are three races, one for the White House, one for the House, one for the Senate. We have to win all three. And I don't believe that Mr.

Biden can do that, make that case. He has struggled for weeks now. And I think the vice president can. I think she will energize and she's a former prosecutor, so she'll be able to prosecute that case against former President Donald Trump.

So let's pin you down on that. So if President Biden acts a race, you're supporting Vice President Harris to take his place? I think she would be a really good candidate. And again, I think she'll excite young people and she will do a really good job of making the case not just against Donald Trump, but for democracy, what it looks like to strengthen our democracy and the need to pass the John, the Voting Rights Act.

She'll make the case for restoring reproductive freedom in a Very compelling, convincing way. And she'll make the case about what kind of economy we want to build. And so I think she'll, she'll do incredibly well. So let's talk about the time that Democrats have wasted here.

It's been three weeks since that debate performance and there's still a lot of hammering over the future of where the party's head. How concerned are you about all of this time that's been spent in fighting as opposed to taking the case to Donald Trump? Every time, at least in my life, when there's been moments of turbulence, adversity, there is also opportunity that, you know, I can take advantage of or not. And I think there's a real opportunity here to provide the American people with the thing they've been asking for for a while, which is change.

They want new leadership. So, yeah, it's, it's, it's not fun and it's unsettling for a lot of people. But we'll get through it and a few weeks from now we'll have a nominee and whoever that nominee will go left around that person. And you know, look, there's a majority of voters who want to make sure that Trump is not president again.

There are again folks who really love them, but there's a anti Trump coalition that I believe represents a majority voters. So let's talk about your district. You won this race by five points in 2022. You describ during this interview as a 50, 50 district.

Do you think Joe Biden were the top of the ticket that you had a difficult time winning in November? So that is one thing we don't know. I mean, we don't have updated polling and it's one of those things where I feel very confident in what we've been able to do in terms of building a reputation as somebody who just keeps his head down, does the work, is reliable, is accountable, is bipartisan, transparent, all the things that voters wanted in a member of Congress. So, you know, we're in a good position.

Also, the district is one that it's 50, 50 and an equal number of Democrats, independents and Republicans. Most everyone in this district wants to see our democracy protected. They want to see freedoms restored, reproductive freedom in particular, and they want an economy that's built around them. So I think, you know, we'll be fine.

Though I do worry that some folks are just going to not vote. They don't have the kind of energy I think they'll have if we give them the change they're asking for. Let me close with this you are roughly the same age as J. A little older.

You guys are roughly from the same area of Ohio. I know the geography. There is something that you guys take a lot of pride in. What do you think about him as being a member of the Republican ticket right now?

And did his entry into the race impact your decision at all to try and encourage President Biden to get out of this race because you're concerned about J.D. vance being the vice president? It's a great question. No, I'm, I'd be concerned if I were supporting that ticket, the Trump Vance ticket.

We know Mr. Vance here. I grew up in Bell County. He grew up in Butler County.

I lived in Cincinnati. He lives in Cincinnati. We have very different views on where country needs to go and how we need to show up in the world. He wants best security, Medicare.

He wants to ban abortions, no exceptions. He will always put bills, billionaires and big companies before us. And he's part of that terrible rhetoric, that incendiary rhetoric that people are so tired of. And so we're both in Cincinnati.

I won this district, our district. He lost it. So I think that's very fun. Okay.

Congressman Greg Landsman, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it, sir. Thank you. Silicon A pivotal presidential debate, an assassination attempt, a convention and a campaign crisis.

It's been an absolutely massive month in American politics. I'll talk to a former Republican governor and former Democratic senator about the path forward for both parties. You're watching the press now. Welcome back.

It's a whole new campaign. That's what our friend Chuck Todd would say about where we're heading. He writes, we are getting awfully close to the moment where it might be fair to say throw out everything you thought you knew about this election. Explains the pressure on Biden to withdraw.

And the failed Trump assassination attempt could trigger a whole new level of voter interest in this race on both sides of the aisle. I'm joined now by Pat McCoy, former Republican governor of North Carolina, and by Heidi Heitkamp, former Democratic senator of North Dakota. She's now the director of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, and she's a CNBC contributor. Wow.

Take a deep breath, both of you. It's been a wild couple of weeks this month of politics. It seems like even TV drama writers would say it's too far fetched. People would watch the show and not believe it.

So, Governor, I want to start with your reaction, particularly to perhaps the inevitable conclusion of the RNC with a typical Trump stump speech. Are you a little Disappointed that he couldn't hold it together and really stick to what he had pledged. And that was a more unifying speech. I thought the first 30 minutes was the best I've heard.

And then he did go back into the stump speech that I've been hearing since 2016. But it's obvious to me that Chris Lacivita, the campaign manager for Trump, who was my governor's campaign manager in 2016, their whole goal is to get the blue collar worker in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and even the retail worker in Nevada with the no tax on tips. And their whole message, I mean, with Kid Rock from Detroit, Michigan singing, their whole message was trying to get the Biden blue collar worker to make the big difference in a close election. And I thought was extremely strategic with their, their goal, very apparent goal, to get the blue collar working man and woman, black and white, to vote for Trump instead of Democrats, which was pretty gussy, especially with the union worker.

Yeah. Do you think that that's what he means by unity, reaching out to that section of voting traditionally vote Democrat, trying to convince them that this version of the Republican Party is better than then? Absolutely. I think it's, it's all about numbers.

This is an electoral college, state by state. It's not a national election. And the main focus that entire convention was on, I mean, on Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Nevada. And if they get those, they win regardless, based upon the Electoral college votes in the other states in the polls.

And there may be upsets, you know, the New Hampshires and the North Carolinas and so forth, but it was a Midwest strategy all the way. I'd be curious what Heidi has to say. He's pretty smart, too. That's where we're going next.

Senator, I mean, your thoughts on this idea of Trump reaching out to these blue collar voters, that labor Democrats, in many ways is that message that could be resonating, you know, the blue collar movement away from the Democratic Party. I always tell people when I started out in politics, I had two base groups of voters, elderly people over 65 and blue collar, you know, working men and women. And those two groups have really defected from the Democratic Party. And Trump, you know, Reagan brought a bunch back and Trump bought a bunch that were really low propensity or no propensity voters into the fold.

He may have already capped the amount that he could get. I think it would have been a smarter play to play to suburban women. And I think that's make America safer again. That night was really playing to concerns that people have about how secure is their family, how secure are they, you know, both economically and physically?

And, you know, Trump, Trump had a beautiful convention until he talked. You know, he started out for 20 minutes and it was, you know, a different Trump, kinder, gentler, very personal story about, you know, his emotion or how he felt, what was happening when he went, you know, when he was almost assassinated, you know, just really riveting television. And then he just went off the rails. And I'll tell you, at that moment, the Democratic Party breathed a sigh of relief because a kinder, gentler Donald Trump would appeal to those suburban women if they thought he really had changed.

And this proved that he didn't. So I think at the end, you know, we beautifully executed convention until the principle got up and then things went off the rails. Let's talk about how that impacts President Biden's. Does he see that speech last night and does he say, this is a guy I can beat, stop bugging me, I'm staying in this race?

Well, I don't know what the president's thinking is right now. He obviously is getting a lot of advice. But notice that the other Democratic leaders, including the one you just spoke to, who watched that speech last night, didn't come to the same conclusion. And this is a game of numbers.

You know, you say, well, you waited three weeks. Well, a couple things were happening during that three week period. Number one, internal discussions, not a lot of people willing to step out and say it publicly. Then what you have after that is, is, you know, Nancy Pelosi signaling, yeah, go ahead, you know, talk to him publicly.

And, and so I think that he's got a lot to think about. But the most important thing is whether, in fact, he's going to lead a winning ticket. And that's what the concern is among Democrats right now. So, Governor, I wonder if you're a Republican right now and the Trump campaign, particular, Crossville in particular, I know, has been planning a campaign against Joe Biden for quite a while, years, in fact.

If somehow this ticket gets abandoned and it's Kamala Harris or somebody else, how does that impact their game plan? And could this reinvigorate Democrats right now who find themselves in a pretty difficult position? I think anything, any change would probably be good for the Democrats. As a Republican, I'd probably be more concerned about maybe the governor of Pennsylvania or Michigan or maybe even a Cory Booker coming into the race based upon what we've seen in the past with the vice president.

No disrespect, but that's what I would think as a Republican at this point in time, but it would probably be wise as a Republican. I'm saying this to the Democrats. I think their only chance is to possibly change and try to get some new momentum. That obviously is not there.

But I don't think the strategy of going after the blue collar worker would change. And it's still direct toward those Midwestern states, regardless of who they're running against. And that's why he brought up the immigration issue, that's why they brought up the tariff issue. That's why the electric car issue is huge in the Michigan area.

And, and it was very strategic messages at that point in time with all the speakers, and that was their success at the convention. So, Senator, do you agree with the governor here that perhaps the party should look beyond just Kamala Harris, alternative to President Biden? Well, I think that most people in the party think that this shouldn't be a foreign nation, that what would energize is a competition. And, you know, I'm probably not the majority in thinking that, but I think that having a lot of voices saying the same thing and then coming out of the convention unified after the delegates would make their selection would give a huge amount of momentum moving forward.

You know, we in this country think presidential elections have to be two years long. People all across the world duplicate their leaders in four month increments. So I think that this could energize the Democratic base. But I also think that Joe Biden will have a lot of loyalty out there and will also energize the base, whether it'll be enough to overcome, you know, concerns that people have staff or a very strategic, very disciplined campaign with an undisciplined candidate.

I think one of the differences in the, in the Trump campaign this time, as opposed to last two times, is he does have a very good campaign staff who completely understands modern campaigning. And so that's a disadvantage of the Democratic Party. You're seeing it in polling right now. But Joe Biden has a lot of, has done a lot to put a ground game in those states.

Reaching out into 2020. We didn't go door to door because of COVID the Republicans did. And so, you know, I think the thought is the field game would make the difference in those swing states. We got 20 seconds.

You both can only answer this one word. I know that might be difficult for both of you, but will Joe Biden be the Democratic nominee this time next week? Governor, you go first. No, I just can't see it.

But they've got a heck of a process. Senator, yes or no, will he be the nominee? Maybe he said one word. Maybe you both failed the assign.

Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it. Hi, camp. We appreciate it.

We're back Monday with more MEET THE press. Now the news continues with Yasmin Vesivian in for Hallie Jackson right now. Hey, it's Kate Snow, NBC News anchor and host of the Drink. This month, Demi Lovato is my guest.

The global superstar tells me that she is the happiest she's ever been right now. But getting there, it wasn't simple. Demi opens up about starting in Hollywood young and why she now thinks she may have started too soon. She talks about recovery, her new marriage, and the deeply personal reason behind her new cookbook.

The Drink is always about the journey to the top, and this was an honest conversation about what that takes. Hope you'll listen and follow the Drink wherever you get your podcast.