If it's Tuesday. President Biden in full damage control as he battles intensifying concerns about his fitness for office amid new calls for him to withdraw and growing Democratic panic about stopping a newly emboldening Donald Trump in November. Plus, the former president and his lawyers seize on the Supreme Court's expansive view of presidential unity as the judge in his criminal hush money case agrees to delay his sentencing until September. The arguments are potentially throwing out his conviction.
And fueled by warming waters and rapid intensification, Hurricane Barrel turns in the Caribbean and heads towards Jamaica as a powerful category four storm. It is the earliest major hurricane ever to form in the Atlantic. Hi there. Welcome to be the press now on Y Nobles in Washington.
And the first Democratic lawmaker is now publicly calling on President Biden to withdraw from the presidential race as the Biden campaign faces growing pressure and criticism following that disastrous debate performance last week and as a Supreme Court ruling has intensified fears about the states this November. This afternoon, Congressman Lloyd Dogg, who's known on Capitol Hill, is an ardent Biden supporter, certainly not a flamethrower put out a statement saying the president has failed to reassure voters that he can beat Trump. Congressman Doggett also cited yesterday's Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, saying he believes a Trump victory could usher America into a, quote, dark authoritarian era. Doggett writes in part, president Biden saved our democracy by delivering us from Trump in 2020.
He must not deliver us to Trump in 2024. The Biden campaign reacting to Doggett statement with a terse three word statement of its own saying he's staying in. It comes as the Biden campaign has also seized on the Supreme Court's ruling as a major reason for the president to stay in the race. It was President Biden last night.
The presidency is the most powerful office in the world. It's an office that not only tests your judgment, perhaps even more importantly, it's an office that can test your character. Today's decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits what a president can do. It's a fundamentally new principle and it's a dangerous precedent.
The only limits will be self imposed by the president alone. American people must decide they want to entrust the president once again the presidency to Donald Trump now knowing he'll be more emboldened to do whatever he pleases whenever he wants to do it. So this speech was also a clear attempt to damage control for the Biden campaign as other lawmakers speak publicly about wanting more proof the president is up to the job. Your honest reaction to the beat I think like a lot of people, I was pretty horrified.
People want to make sure that this is a campaign that's ready to go and win, that the president and his team are being candid with us about his condition, that this was a real anomaly and not just the way he is these days. I have this attitude. Thursday night was a bad night and the president now has to go out and show the American people he can do the job, he's got the stamina and he's up to it. One interview isn't going to fix this either.
I think the campaign's got to listen to people. And by the way, I think the campaign needs to listen to us. So the comments reflect growing frustration within the party, not just about the debate itself, but how the campaign has handled the backlash. Vermont Senator Pete Welch telling Semaphore, quote, I really criticize the campaign for a dismissive attitude toward people who are just raising questions for discussion.
That's just facing the reality we're in. And Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi says she's heard mixed reactions, saying it's fair to ask if Thursday's performance was a one off or something more serious as she urged the president to shift his strategy. I think it's a legitimate question to say, is this an episode or is this a condition? I think my recommendation, my recommendation is for him to have some interviews with serious journalists.
Show your, you know, your value, show your knowledge, show your judgment, show your empathy for the American people. And, and I think that that would be a great thing for him. Such as lawmakers, Democrat donors telling NBC News they are not convinced by the Biden campaign's reassurances. And with post debate polling rolling in showing early signs of a potential erosion in support for the president.
Joining me now is Aaron Gilchrist, is the White House in South Korea is on Capitol Hill. Aaron, let's start with you. We do have the first public call from a Senate Democratic lawmaker for the president to step aside, but the campaign says that he's staying in. How are they now working to reassure Democratic donors and voters?
Yeah, that really is the core of the effort that we're seeing from the campaign right now. Ryan, aside from doing the normal things the campaign we're doing right now, we've heard about these calls with donors. We've heard about contacts with different lawmakers and people within the Democratic Party trying to reassure them that the campaign is not discounting their concerns, that what they saw last Thursday night with President Biden at the debate was a real thing that they acknowledged that he had a bad debate but that that was sort of a one off. It wasn't an example of an ongoing problem that they anticipate the President will have.
And so to help bolster that argument, we've heard the campaign offer, for example, donation numbers, the fundraising numbers for the last quarter, $264 million raised in the second quarter of this year. They pointed out that there were more than $3 million raised since the debate Thursday of last week, showing that there is still support at the grassroots level in particular for what President Biden is trying to put forward. We also heard from Green jump gear, the White House press secretary just a little while ago outlining some additions to the President's schedule this week. He will be doing a sit down interview on Friday in Wisconsin with ABC News.
He also plans to talk them stand with leaders on Capitol Hill sometime this week. Congressman Clyburn suggesting that a meeting with him or calling these could happen today. There will also be a video call we understand, with Democratic governors including President Biden and an event on Sunday in Philadelphia. The White House secretary also telling us that the President will do a news conference next week during the NATO summit here in Washington, D.C.
suggesting that that will likely be a solo news conference. So Ryan's suggestion here now that the President is going to be getting out there as so many politicos and strategists have suggested he needs to do at this point. Okay, Aaron, thank you for that. Let's head down.
Penny to Sahela on Capitol Hill now. So Sahil, explain our viewers who may not be directly familiar with Congressman Doggett, just to kind of put into context who he is. He's the force, the first Democrat to ask for the President to withdraw. How significant is it that he took this step?
Well, it's significant, Ryan, because he's the first. And this is something that many Congressional Democrats have thought privately. We spoke to a number of them who said they believe the President should step down. But Lloyd Doggett becomes the first one to say so publicly.
He is a long serving Democrat from a safe blue district based in Austin, Texas. He's 77 years old himself. He served since 1995. He's the second ranked Democrat in the Ways of Means Committee, one of the most powerful on Capitol Hill.
And he seemed to be giving voice to something that a lot of Congressional Democrats think privately but are unwilling to say. He talked about various things in terms of why he wants President Biden to step down. Of course, that debate performance was not reassuring to him. He talked about that Supreme Court immunity decision.
Between that and the prospect of the Donald Trump presidency, he spoke of a kind of descent into authoritarianism if President Biden doesn't step down and make way for someone who believes would be better. And of course, Doggett mentioned a former president, Lyndon Johnson. Let's show this. Quote, he talked about how Lyndon Johnson made a surprising decision in 1998.
Oh, sorry, 1968, to step aside. Doggett says, quote, I represent part of congressional district once represented by Lyndon Johnson. Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw. President Biden should do the same, unquote.
Very notably, Ryan Johnson announced that in March of 1968, this is now July. And that's one of the arguments that President Biden and his campaign, his advisors, have been making to supporters that there's no operators in place for a replacement if he works at that now. So to that point, Sahil, do we sense that this could be the crack in the dam with floodgates open here, or would Doggy be taking this step without being confident that maybe he'll be joined by others? Is he on an island right now?
Well, yes and no. In terms of other members of Congress, there's nobody else who has explicitly called on President Biden to withdraw yet. But there are other prominent Democrats who have said he should go. That includes Adam Frisch is a candidate for a major congressional district in Colorado, the third District.
He came within a few hundred votes of being Lauren Boebert last time around. He's a closely watched candidate. For Democrats are putting a lot of stock in. Julian Castro, a cabinet secretary in the Obama Biden administration, sat in those cabinet meetings with Joe Biden, said the president needs to step down.
Other Democrats can do better. And just in the last few minutes, Ryan, Congressman Jared Golden, a Democrats who represents a red district in Maine, put out an op ed in his local paper, kind of an unusual op ed, saying he expects Donald Trump to win this presidency even though he won't be voting for Donald Trump. And dismissed the idea that Trump would derail American democracy. Said US Democracy is strong enough to survive Donald Trump.
He didn't call on Biden to step down to basically say he doesn't think he can win. You know, the private and public calls to draw have also been met with the question, if it's not President Biden, who's it going to be? Interestingly, Congressman Clyburn was asked about that. He actually said he'd support Vice President Harris in that scenario.
Take a listen to what he had to say. I will support her if he were to step aside. But I want to support her going forward. Sometime in the future I want this ticket to continue to be Biden Harris and then we'll see what happens after the next election.
No, this body should not in any way do anything to work around Ms. Harris. We should do everything we can to bolster her whether it's in second place or at the top of the ticket. There are few Democrats as close with President Biden as James Clyburn.
He's a campaign co chair. Should we be reading into the fact that he's even dwelling on this hypothetical? Well, we should only be reading into it to the extent that Jim Clyburn seems to be calling off any of the other candidates who might be trying to jockey for that position if Joe Biden has to set aside. But Clyburn made it by unclear he doesn't want Biden to set aside that it should still be a Biden Harris ticket.
But Clyburn's remark in that his warning is still very notable because Clyburn is a very powerful Democrat in a very powerful state. South Carolina was crucial to Joe Biden's nomination in 2020 is even more important now because we move further up the calendar. But beyond that, I wouldn't read too much into it. I think Clyburn is not ready to give up on Joe Biden and Biden himself seems to have bought a little bit of time with other Democrats with that interview that he's announced on Friday.
This is what multiple Democrats have been telling our Team Ryan, that he's got to get out there in non teleprompter setting, that he's got to be unscripted and show that he can do this and still got it. Okay, so thank you for that perspective. Let's talk now about the data by turning to Steve Kwonaki who joins me from the big board with the latest poll numbers. So Steve, yesterday you mentioned that there are some brand new head to head polls out of New Hampshire, but we now also have some new national polling.
What kind of insight does that give us? Is the race moving at all? Yeah, I mean look, we've got three polls now last 24 hours, all conducted after the debate. Just go through here and you can see a couple things.
We're not seeing major shifts in these polls. Of course in a race like this it wouldn't take a major shift to be pretty, pretty decisive. CNN poll released this afternoon, Trump 49, Biden 43. Now it's a six point lead for Trump.
That's very Eye catching here. Keep in mind though, last time CNN pulled this race, this was back in April some time ago. But the last time they pulled this race they also found 49, 43. When they found this result back in April, that then was the biggest margin.
Trump was leading by any poll at that time. A lot of other polls then were much closer. This was largely dismissed as an outlier poll. Now could this one be, we'll see as more polls come out in the coming days.
One thing to keep in mind when you get an outlier, often as a result of a statistical blip with your sampling, it can happen from time to time. But when it happens, you'd usually expect that the next poll wouldn't have the same problem. So could this be two outliers or is this perhaps more accurately measuring right now than back in April, the CNN poll? Because the other thing to keep in mind, the CNN poll is that question of Kamala Harris.
They tested as well, Harris against Biden. So again you see Trump leading Biden, Harris against Trump, excuse me, Trump leaning Biden 4943. When you put Harris in his poll that six points after Democrats comes down to two points. They have Harris doing better than Biden.
They also CNN did they check three other Democrats against Trump. None of them were beating Trump, but all of them were closer than Biden. Four Democrats in total did CNN poll. So that's a little context for that six point margin in the Trump Biden race.
And their poll, you mentioned it. Oh sorry, this is the South. This a national poll also new today. Now again this policy, Trump with a three point advantage over Biden.
Notice they included candidate, they included a number of other third party candidates. Why these totals for Trump and Biden are a bit on the low end, which is generally speaking, but they have Trump ahead by three points in their new poll today, again entirely post debate compared to their pre debate poll. They had it tied. So they've gone from a tie to a three point edge for Donald Trump.
And then you mentioned we showed this yesterday just as it came out, this New Hampshire poll, Trump over Biden. Again, the context for this taken entirely after the debate is there had been four previous polls in New Hampshire since last December. Not been a ton of Biden Trump polling. But there had been four before this.
And those four polls showed Biden had by three. They showed Biden had by five, Biden head by six and Biden head by 10. This is the only poll that's come out New Hampshire since September, since December that has Trump ahead in the state and it's entirely post debate. Okay, thank you, Steve, for breaking that down.
And we are fortunate now to be joined on set by Democrat congressman from Virginia, Ajare Conley. A congressman, thank you for being here. We appreciate it. I want to talk a little bit about a conversation with Miami scenes.
Alex Scott Wong earlier today, and you said you have a very direct message for the Biden campaign team. You said you need to resolve doubts, that they need to work harder and a lot harder to resolve those doubts. Otherwise this is lethal. Explain what you mean by that.
Well, all of us saw what we saw last week in the debate. It's not normal and it looks much worse than a bad night. And if we're going to clarify that that it most certainly was that and only that, then you've got to do two things. Well, we start with a family therapy session and that has not happened.
We need the White House talking to elected Democrats and other Democratic leaders here in Congress around the country. That has not happened and it needs to happen. Secondly, there has to be a plan of action for Joe Biden to be Joe Biden, get out there and show what he did in North Carolina, show what he did in the press conference on the Supreme Court ruling on immunity, presidential immunity. That was the Joe Biden we recognize.
And so but you're gonna have to spend a lot of time reassuring the public that that was an anomaly. And that isn't a characteristic of the president in his 81st year. But do you have the benefit of that time, sir? You're running up against a deadline here where you have to pick a nominee.
It's only a couple of weeks away. Is there enough time for President Biden to get out from underneath this performance he had on Thursday night? I think there can be, yes. But I also think that underscores why we have to have some family therapy.
So what do you mean by that and what are you frustrated by that you're not getting from the campaign? I haven't heard a thing from the White House, not a thing since the debate. And I represent, you know, a member of the congressional delegation to a critical state for job Virginia. And you know, we have to carry Virginia's 13 electoral votes.
And paying attention to critical states and elected officials in those critical states seems to me to be absolutely top on the list or ought to be on top of the list of the White House political staff, campaign staff and White House staff in general. And their silence or lack of aggressive communication right now I think is going to even more Lloyd Doggetts if they're not careful. So talk to me about that. Are you having other quiet conversations with some of your fellow members that are expressing what Congressman Douglas is saying publicly?
Is the universe of House Democrats worried about the President's future even greater than what we're seeing publicly displayed? I think most of my colleagues like myself are processing what happened and we don't want to make decisions in haste or in panic. Joe Biden is a consequential president. He's been a friend of mine and in fact, I worked for him for 10 years.
I've known him for 45. I'm not going to jettison Joe Biden based on the 90 minute debate. But I do want to be reassured that Joe Biden is capable of doing the job, wants to do the job, and that he can reassure the public to both of those things. So what will be your breaking point then?
How long can you wait to get this reassurance from the White House you feel like you haven't gotten yet? You know, Brian, I can't answer that. I mean, three days and 43 minutes? I don't know.
There has to be a process and at the end of that process, I think we will know collectively what is the right decision. I wonder what your take is on how the White House seems to be responding to the reporting around what everyone saw on Thursday night. They're trying to dismiss it. They're accusing the media being too tough on him in certain respects.
They're not necessarily directly answering some of the tough questions that are being asked there. Is that a way to get out from underneath this? I think those are some of the early reactions. Trying to defend a difficult night and a difficult performance.
This is somebody that generates a lot of personal loyalty because of his own character and personal attributes. And so people are understandably protective of the President on that bad night. But what they have to do once you kind of get over that is allow yourself to be engaged in this sort of therapeutic process with certainly your fellow Democrats so we can have a dialogue and arrive at an informed decision that makes sense both for President Biden and for the country. Some of your colleagues have told me privately that one of the things they're worried about is that the cure would actually be worse than the problem that you're dealing with if President Biden were stepped down, if electro broker convention or selection of the new nominee.
Is it going to be Vice President Harris and someone else? Could actually be more difficult. Could serve to blow up the entire reporting process. Is that concern you share?
It does And I think that's another reason why we have to have what I call family therapy among the Democratic family. There are so many permutations involving this issue. It's not a simple proposition. Well, let's just, let's replace Joe Biden with somebody else.
Well, who is that person? How do you do that? How do you, how do you deny Joe Biden the nomination when he's got 3,900 pledged delegates he earned in a legitimate electoral process? So.
And also, how do you make sure that you're approaching this with the dignity and respect Joe Biden has earned? And so I think we have to have that discussion before we rush to judgment about what the next steps are and who's involved in that. Is part of President Biden demonstrating to the country that he has what it takes doing something like taking a mental acuity test, making those results transparent, taking a physical, something along those lines? Would that be productive?
I don't know. Makes me a little, a little leery that we are now going to be subjecting presidential candidates to mental fitness tests and psychology tests. And, I mean, I think Donald Trump would certainly flunk any kind of psychiatric evaluation if he would have one. So maybe we should start there.
But I do think, however, that there has to be more transparency and more information flowing to the public so we make informed decisions about our leadership. I wonder, too, I talked a lot of your colleagues on Friday after the debate on Thursday seemed to be the resilient opinion I got from many of them as well. Donald Trump is so bad. You know, when a comparison between Donald Trump and anyone you pick anyone, do you fear or do you wonder if some of your colleagues haven't really taken into account that there are many Americans that are willing to vote for Donald Trump, even if they aren't necessarily huge fans of his, that there's a significant, maybe even 50% of the country that's willing to vote for him and that Democrats have to provide a viable alternative.
It's not just enough to say that you think Donald Trump is a problem. Absolutely. I think the threat Trump represents is real politically in terms of his ability to win. And that's my North Star.
My North Star in this process is going to be how do we ensure Donald Trump does not get back to the Oval Office? That's going to be my North Star, and everything else is subordinate to that. And how often and how quickly can you have this conversation, this family therapy session, are your leaders talking about? Is Hakeem Jeffries, Pete Aguilar, Congressman Clark, are you having these conversations about how Democrats came together and trying to find a path forward on this, I think there are pockets of conversation happening.
They have to be engaged, however, with the White House and not just to leadership to rent a file. Otherwise you're gonna have people having to make decisions individually in their own silo. And that doesn't help anybody or anything. I respect individual decisions and decisions of conscience.
Your Reporter talked about 1968. I was in college. I remember that vividly. I was canvassing for then Eugene McCarthy against Lyndon Johnson in Wisconsin.
And the reason Lyndon Johnson, among other reasons, got out of the race in March was because he was about to lose the Wisconsin primary. And no sitting president that I know of had ever lost a primary before. And so rather than have that humiliation and on top of all the other presses and stress, he decided to pull up. So it's a little bit of a different kind of context and situation.
So before you go, I just want to definitively on the record at this point, you do not think it's time for the president to step aside, but you need to see more before coming to a final decision. I have too much respect for Joe Biden and too much affection to jettison him solely based on a performance of 90 minute debate. Okay. Congressman, thank you for being honest with us.
Appreciate it. My pleasure. Thank you. Very nice holiday.
Fourth of July weekend. Coming up, we're following the record setting hurricane as barrel turns through the Caribbean, where it's headed and what its rapid intensification could signal for the rest of this hurricane season. But first, the political storm after yesterday's landmark Supreme Court decision. But the Trump immunity ruling could mean for the former president's legal troubles and the current president's campaign next.
You're watching Beat THE PRESS now. Welcome back. The Supreme Court's decision to grant Donald Trump immunity for official acts may deal a major blow to special counsel Jack Smith's election interference case. But the decision could also delay or derail other criminal cases tied to the former president.
Just a short time ago, the judge presiding over Mr. Trump's New York hush money case postponed sentencing until September at the earliest. It was supposed to take place next week. Mr.
Trump requested the delay late yesterday in the Manhattan DA's office says that it did oppose it. The Supreme Court decision, meanwhile, also complicates Mr. Trump's Georgia election interference case. NBC News legal analyst and former U.S.
attorney Barbara McQuaid explaining that the Georgia case is now subject to the same scrutiny as the federal case. I'm joined now by NBC News justice and Intelligence correspondent Ken Delegian. Also with me, NBC News correspondent Yvonne Hilliard. So, Ken, let's start with you.
So what is Jack Smith's plan moving forward with respect to the election interference case? Well, they are scrutinizing this decision and they're trying to decide how much of this can survive. I mean, what's going to happen next is that Judge Tanya Chuck in the judge in the case is going to have a hearing or a series of hearings or even a mini trial on the question of what among the allegations of the indictments constitutes official acts, what are private acts, what can survive what's out where, you know, large chucking the items out. And that's the section about the Justice Department and Trump's efforts to co op the Justice Department.
But all the rest of it is subject to the judge's order and then that will be appealed. And so, you know, we're in for a long slog on that case. It seems as though the Trump campaign and Trump legal team, which is probably not a surprise, they're going to have a very wide interpretation of what falls out of the banner of official. I think it's against organizing fake electors.
Was. That's right. Donald Trump's lawyer, during oral arguments from the Supreme Court, acknowledged that there were some things in that indictment that were private acts because he didn't think the indictment could stand as a whole if the Supreme Court ruled the way the Supreme Court did. And, you know, conspiracy cases tell a story.
It's a mosaic of evidence. And so when you knock out significant chunks of that evidence, it makes it much harder to tell that story to the jury. Okay, let's, in fact, I was gonna place somebody, but we're not gonna do that now. So if, is Trump gonna try now also to use this in almost every case he's dealing with, including the immunity he's gonna try in a certain immunity in a classified documents case as well.
He's gonna try and find a way to use this in every case. Yeah, of course, most people think that he will file some kind of motion arguing that that whole case should be tossed because to the extent to which the documents were transferred from the White House while he was still president, which is most of them, that he's gonna say that was an official act somehow. That was the president gathering up his records and everything that happened after that, including allegations of justice, destruction of evidence, that's all moot. That's not reviewable because it started with official act.
Okay, let's move on now. So what's the Latest view from the Trump campaign amid the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling. Right, if you start number one just with the New York trial, the sentencing for Donald Trump was slated for this upcoming Thursday, July 11th. And you know, this goes on the federal election interference case, but it has to do with the verdict that came out just one month ago here in Lower Manhattan.
And for Donald Trump and his attorneys, just hours after the decision from the Supreme Court, they sent a letter to Judge Mershawn, who was in the New York trial, and requested the opportunity to put forward a motion with briefs that would make the case not so much that the actual charges against Donald Trump were protected under immunity, the actions that he took, which I think were quite clearly more likely to be private acts than official acts, as it pertained to the hush money scheme to pay off the story. Daniels. But, but this had to do with the evidence that was brought before those 12 jurors in New York. And some of the evidence that Donald Trump's attorneys are claiming to have been potentially come through official acts.
That includes speeches that Donald Trump delivered through tweets that under the decision from the Supreme Court, the defense attorney general would like to at least make to Judge Roshan as having been official acts and therefore should have never been presented before the jury. So there is the potential for Judge Roshan's own letter here this afternoon that he is willing to take that under consideration as part of the motion and is therefore delaying sentencing. So how is the campaign using this in their messaging? Is this going to be something that they're going to show their voters, that there's now doubt that's being raised about this conviction?
Absolutely. They're calling this a victory. Donald Trump is saying, you know, the way that he's characterizing it is the spanking of Jack Smith, the special counsel. And oftentimes the social media statements that are coming from the former president are often lacking a lot of the context that actually led to a decision like this from the Supreme Court.
Yet for him, it is a part of a broader message that he is being unfairly tried and that the charges against him should never been brought in the first place. And frankly, for him and his campaign, the American public are seeing not only in Georgia, that the case having to do with the election interference in Georgia, but they are also now saying potentially not only some of the evidence that can be brought forward as part of the federal election interference case, but potentially some of these charges being challenged and ultimately the entire indictment potentially being on the line for Donald Trump. And so for him, his Campaign. This feeds in just less than four months until general election into an idea that the courts ultimately have his side and have pushed back on some of the efforts of prosecutors in their indictments and their attempts to charge him.
And what's the campaign currently thinking about President Joe Biden and the potential that he may be pushed out of the race? This for the Trump campaign is something that I was trying. Chris Lassevida, who was one of the senior advisors I was talking to after the debate, and the messaging has been echoed by Donald Trump himself on social media, and that is that there's only one person who can decide whether the Democrats go a different route, and that's Joe Biden. And they have pushed the idea that Joe Biden will not leave this race.
And frankly, they feel like they have a competitor who they feel comfortable going up in a matchup against. Polling across battleground states has shown them to be meeting Joe Biden, if not at least in a close race with Joe Biden. And Donald Trump is, over the course of now, really his entire political life has tried to portray himself as a political figure of strength. Right.
From somebody who can fix things, alone can fix it was the convention speech he gave eight years ago. Of course, he's talking about being dictated for a day. Really, strength is a character trait that he has tried to portray. And we often hear from voters on the road as to why they find Donald Trump appealing.
And Donald Trump in social media posts just the last 24 hours suggested that this is a matchup over strength versus weakness. So on one hand, they feel like they have an opponent that they are eager and ready to match up against. On the other hand, there's a lot of question marks as to if the Democrats were to go a different route, who would that be? Would be a Kamala Harris.
Would it be one of the governors from a battleground state? And that is where it really becomes a big open variable for a team that has tens of millions of dollars to spend against an opponent who otherwise be undefined. Okay, Vaughn, Hilliard, Kenilin, thank you both. Appreciate it.
Up next, we're diving deeper into the politics of this historic moment and the call coming from inside the House for Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race. The panel is next. You're watching. I would take Joe Biden's worst day at AJ6 so long as he has people around him like, like Avril Haynes, Samantha Power, Gene Raimondo supporting him over Donald Trump any day.
Welcome back. That was the former DHS secretary Jeh Johnson. Making his case for President Biden earlier today on msnbc, essentially saying that Joe Biden in any condition would do a better job leaving the country than Donald Trump. For more on all of this, I'm joined by my panel, Akayla Gardner, she's a White House correspondent at Bloomberg.
Simone Sanders Townsend, a former spokesperson for Vice President Harris and the co host of the Weekend on msnbc and Matt Gorman, former senior advisor to Tim Scott's presidential campaign. So Kayla, I don't know if we would describe Secretary Johnson's endorsement. President Biden is a ringing one there. Pretty much anybody can be run out by good people in the Oval Office and they're not gonna be their 80s.
What do we take from this and what do we take in general about the reaction from people there to try and support President B at this moment? I think this is really the second page of this conversation as votes are really gonna start looking at people like the vice president and wondering if they're gonna be able to take over the helm of this administration should something happen to Joe Biden. I think that's exactly what's happening now. We saw that CNN bull with Harris potentially perform better than Donald Trump.
I think the administration and the campaign is gonna have to ensure that there's trust in Harris and as well as people around Biden. I think that Biden has continued talking about that because he's confident his aides. But at the end of the day, there's no strategy for make up for the fact that the president is 81. I think voters are concerned about that and it's potentially demoralizing.
And they're now circulating an internal poll showing that they believe their poll shows that he's only narrowly trailing Trump. But if they're circulating a poll that shows you losing, that's probably not a good sign, is it? Yeah. That debate certainly didn't help by their arguing that has hurt them.
They believe that the race has changed very much. But it's very interesting to see the Biden campaign talk about polling in general. Some days they say they don't look at it, they don't pay attention to it but seemingly when it serves them, they're certainly topping it. Yeah.
So someone I first Democratic lawmaker to call for President Ryan to leave the race and that's of Texas. Is this a damn breaking Is there going to be more that follow or will he be out by himself for a while? I think it's too early to tell actually, Ryan. I mean to be clear, we have all heard from people who are some of them elected officials.
And Lord Dag is just the first person to put his his name to the statement. And so I do think I have long been propelling my work with White House. I think they quoted me somewhere saying that people who are non misleakers, you know they need to put their name on the statement that they feel free. So I believe people put their name on the statement.
And so the congressman did that. And I think that I would have a conversation open the conversation behind doors in secret with people smiling your face anonymously saying I want him out. So I don't know if the dam is breaking per se but I will say what I heard Jay Johnson say this morning. I was struck by because I was in Montgomery county peno on Sunday.
Melissa Murray and I were doing some conversations with black women in the suburbs. And one of the women in our conversation discussion said exactly what Jay Johnson said and we'll have some sound out from this song. But she said well I'm not ready to dump the President. He will have the people around him.
And I think democracy, unpropular democracy is on the line now. Montgomery county is on the site of Joe Biden's speech launching his campaign this year. So there you go. Is that enough, Matt?
Is the argument that he's gonna have good people around him? Thank God for April Haynes. But no. Let's go back to the point here.
The whole point of this debate was not to keep the race of status quo. It was to fundamentally upend the trajectory of the race which when he started this game in May he was down kind of consisted of three or so points. The whole point was to upend the narrative and shake this race up. So having you know him not just have not lost too much ground is a complete failure of the strategy here.
And I think that what we're seeing is that you had about five or so days of quietness certain but the dam might not be breaking, but damn close to breaking, you know what I mean? Even with local locations on Nancy Pelosi this morning others it is a very tenuous had a window to try and block it. They haven't done it. Yeah.
Well one of the names we had been watching on Capitol Hill was Congressman Jerry golden of Maine. He's always someone of a Democratic outlier. He represents our district. He certainly a blue dog.
He has what I would describe as an interesting op ed that he just posted in his hometown paper. And he writes there are winners and losers in every election. The Democrats post debate handwriting is based on the idea that a Trump victory is not just a political loss, but a unique threat to our democracy. I reject the premise.
Unlike Biden and many others, I refuse to participate in the campaign to scare voters with the idea that Trump will end our democratic system. He doesn't call him Biden to drop out. He also says he's not going to vote for Trump, but he thinks that Trump's going to win. Matt, I'm interested in your take on this because the Democrats tell us time and time again that Americans believe there's an existential choice here, one that we're kind of lying in the road in the future of our country if Donald Trump wins the wiseman tickets to a bad place.
Jared Golden, a Democrat, is undercutting that argument. It certainly is. I think it's a little bit too cute by half. I think that Jared golden strategy here, he's acting in this scenario.
He has a follow question. It's a little too high hat, but that's why this hallmark. I will say this, right. You know, the democracy argument has a better rejoinder as a public than it does not.
Right. Because if Democrats truly believe that democracy is aligned, the only thing staying between the end of democracy and that this country is this election, then why are you running an 81 year old man who's essentially working with his activity supports from 10 to 4. Right. Like that is a very hard now thing for them to respond to.
If their actions match their words, then they should be shooting out for somebody else who can defend democracy more vigorously. So okay, you heard my interview with Congressman Connolly a few minutes ago. We also reporting that the White House has yet to make contact with Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Senate. How King Jeffrey is the leader in the House.
Are you surprised that there hasn't been more aggressive outreach by the White House to their fellow elected officials to kind of rally the troops and make sure everybody is still on this mode as it sails toward election Day. I'm not surprised. This White House is very interesting, but I think the conversation that I've had, most of the concern is coming from donors. It's coming from DNC members.
The Democratic establishment is really rallying around the President. We've seen Democratic leadership in House and the Senate continue to give their support, at least publicly. But I'm not surprised to have it made those contexts. But that is much the frustration of many Democrats in Congress who feel like they need to have those resources, that there needs to be calls right now.
Again, the concern is mostly coming from donors. I know that campaigns have had calls with donors. But again, Congress continues to be frustrated with this slack. I'm actually shocked that the president himself, now the White House is not saying has touched base with the leadership in their staff.
The Gen Z has been on the phone, but I'm shocked that the president has not picked up the hand picked up on Paul, Jim Clyburn. I had picked up the phone call Speaker Martin Pelosi, Leader Jeff Reeves, Chuck Schumer. These are people he knows and at the end of the day, like Joe Biden is nothing. But at the end of the day he is.
He has many things we will tell you. He is his best political advisor. And so I was shocked to learn that these key individuals, people who, people need to go out there and, and frankly defend him because that isn't the fact that they're doing in their interviews and whatnot. These are the elected officials that talk to him and speak to him regularly.
I've been in the room with them that have to work with him and they can serve as validators for his leadership. And why have they not been called? And so that was naturally shocking to me. What do I know?
Okay, I don't know. He was always a guy. Remember during a sequester issue back in 2011, Republicans like can we get a deal? Get a called Joe Biden.
He had relationships that the Obama White House didn't have or didn't want to use. He was always the conduit. To Simone's point, it's very surprising. Well, the thing I could quote at this point, and I tried to make this point in my interview with Carson McConnelly is that there is a timing issue here.
It seems as though Democrats, their feet are stuck in quicksand. It's a lot of hand wringing. It's a lot. We have to have a family conversation.
We got to figure out. We got to look at the polling. Polling. We got to talk to voters.
Simone, how long do they have before they make a declarative decision about what the future of this choices? Well, to be clear, the only person that can make a decision about the future president choice, in fact, Jo Biden, like the elected officials, the party leadership, the donors, they can say anything that they would like. It sounds like they're not doing that. And the point I make about that is yes, I agree with you.
Why hasn't Joe Biden called Chuck Schumer? I mean Joe Biden is the only person can decide about the future. But Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, 4, 5. Barack Obama got Joe Biden in a room to demanded an audience with him and said if you don't get out we're going to lose.
Wouldn't that change the conversation? From my experience with the president, I don't think that would make a difference. You know what's like the president voters, voters and people in districts that have heard from real people coming and talking to them about what he actually heard. Elected people whose actual lies are on the line call from political lies on the line call from President Obama.
All the respect. President Obama is that one person to make a decision about remaining in the race is Joe Biden. Thus far he has said he is in this race and people around him have to the timing. I'll just say this, let's just say Joe Biden does say hey you know I'm out.
I do not think I've been bottom doll. I don't think he said that before actually accepting the nominating convention because saying that before means it's a 4000 delegate free for all. Saying after a couple people going decide who the nominated all. Great conversation with guys K.
Simone that thank you for being here. We appreciate it. Next we are tracking Hurricane Barrel as the dangerous storm breaks records and barrels toward Jamaica. NBC neurologist Bill Karen joins us next.
You're watching THE PRESS now. Welcome back. Hurricane Barrel has been downgraded to a Category 4 storm. The forecasters say it still has the potential to devastate parts of the Caribbean.
Barrel now has sustained winds of 155 mph and is on track to bring heavy rains, life threatening winds and flooding. Forecasters say that it'll pass near Jamaica, Jamaica tomorrow before approaching the Cayman Islands on Thursday. Barrel is already blame blamed for at least four deaths in the Caribbean. At one point it was a Category 5 hurricane with 165 mile per hour winds making it the strongest July hurricane ever recorded.
NBC News neurologist Bill Karens joins me now. So Bill, update us. What's Barrel's latest track? Yeah Ryan, actually we're getting the new advisory.
The five o' clock east coast advisor from the hurricane center as we speak. I just saw the new track that was just posting. So wait to see if this is the latest data on the current conditions. You notice the eye not as well defined.
This is expected. We thought it would peaked last night or early this morning and now the wind shear and the sea of level winds are starting to tear it apart a little bit. So it's gonna be a slow weakening process. But it's moving so, so fast.
It's only 18 hours or away from Jamaica. I mean, it doesn't have enough time to weaken without being a devastating storm for the island. So the hurricane center forecast path does take it right along that south shore of Jamaica, 125 mile per hour wind. So a major category for hurricane.
The last time Jamaica had a Category 3 major hurricane or greater landfall was going back to 1988. So this could be a rare event for Jamaica and a possibly devastating one with the mountainous terrain, the wind and also the torrential rain. And here's what else is new. Now we have Brownsville and Corpus Christi in that cone of uncertainty.
So by the time we get towards Sunday at noon, this storm could be inland somewhere here north of Arakaru near Tampico, kind of similar to Alberto. Or it could be heading and starting to curve up here towards South Texas. Notice the hurricane center. Today we get down to a tropical storm.
The winds are gonna be very harsh. We don't think it's gonna get a devastating storm for Cancun, Belize or Cozumel river moves inland here. But as I head back over the warmer water, the winds may relax a little bit. Hurricane center does hint that it getting a little bit stronger.
So rock our friends in South Texas over the next couple days need to prepare just in case the storm heads your way. Anywhere from strong tropical storm to a lower end hurricane. All right, Bill, Karen, thank you for that. We appreciate it.
After the break, making sense of this history making moment and what comes next as the Supreme Court dramatically expands the scope of presidential power and as the sitting president faces a crisis of confidence, historian Michael Bashlosh joins me to put it all in perspective. Stay with us. So watching me depress now. Welcome back.
Take a deep breath. It's been a couple of chaotic days here at Washington that will undoubtedly go down in history books as some of the most consequential moments in the 2024 presidential elections. The Democrats grapple with their path forward after a disastrous debate performance by President Biden. And as Republicans tout that landmark Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity that could fundamentally reshape the offense of the president presidency.
For more now, I'm joined by ABC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss. Michael, thank you so much for being here. Pleasure to talk about this presidential election. Maybe it seems like a radio of 2020 on paper, but just how unusual is this moment in the presidential race?
What do you make of the seismic impact things like this debate and Supreme Court ruling could have on this election? Well, Ryan, before Thursday night you had one Candidate Donald Trump, who was promising to be a dictator for a day and completely change a lot of our style of government, and incumbent President Joe Biden, about whom people had doubts about his ability to serve for four more years. Then you've got the debate on Thursday night, which exacerbated a lot of those fears. And then that ruling by the Supreme Court, you know, it was only yesterday.
It seems already about two weeks ago, doesn't it? It's amazing. But the Supreme Court that essentially says that whoever is president in January will take an oath to that is probably more powerful than any president in American history. Those are the stakes.
And what do you think that could mean for future presidents, knowing now that they have this broader immunity and we're not just talking about Donald Trump? It could be anyone who has the office already. Presidents have an awful lot of power. They can, as you know, press the button and fire off nuclear weapons, conceivably cause the death of much of the planet, if not all.
And at the same time, you know, as going to war, they have all sorts of other powers over the Department of Justice and others over the Defense Department. So that was true already, but now you've got a situation where the last constraint on presidential power has basically been ripped off because one of them in the Constitution was impeachment and conviction. Well, that's never happened over two centuries. And I think in our own time, impeachment has become toothless.
So essentially, you've relied on the fact that presidents such as Richard Nixon were nervous about doing something terrible when people were not looking like obstructing justice, as he did in 1972 because he might be prosecuted and sent to jail. That constraint is gone, too. We're gonna be living in a different country. Meanwhile, President Biden here trying to put concerns about his age at bay.
Members of his party openly speculating as to whether or not he has the mental and physical ability to do the job. Is there a historic, historic parallel to what the Democrats are dealing with right now? And how unbelievable would it be if they were forced to replace a nominee? Well, in 1984, there were whispers that Ronald Reagan's mental fitness was not what it had been.
He was able to dispel a first bad debate with a joke and a second bad debate. But that line was the world of 1984. That just doesn't happen nowadays. So I think for the part of you, of the Democrats, this is healthy, because there's a process.
They're going to reexamine who this choice is going to be at a moment that it can stop, still be decided once again, can you imagine if this happened the second week of October? Totally different situation. So the president also facing criticism for keeping his circle so small, only listening to a handful of advisors, can that be detrimental to our presidency? Sure it can.
And if we find that the debate performance, for instance, on Thursday night was because of a circle that was too small, that did not manage him well, that's something that people should think about. At the same time, these were the same advisors that gave us a lot of what is a very strong presidential record. Michael Beschloss, we're very fortunate to have some of your expertise to talk us through these historic few days. Have a very wonderful 4th of July.
Thank you for being here. Thank you, Robert. Same to you, Ryan. And we're gonna be back tomorrow with more MEET THE press now.
But NBC's conference continues with Hallie Jackson was an interview with Congressman Lloyd Doggett, the first sitting member of the House Democrats to call on President Biden to step down. You don't want to miss that. Thank you for watching Meet THE I'm Craig Nol. Cheers.
Cheers. Cheers. I've always been a glass half full kind of guy, and now I'm talking to some people who look at the world that way, too. It's really fascinating.
Folks who share their defining moments, their triumphs, challenges, their stories are funny and mechanical. So I hope you'll join me each week. Who knows, you might just come away with your own glass half full. Search Glass Apple with Craig Melton From Today on YouTube, everywhere you get your podcast.