The Ben Shapiro Show - Trump Triumphs, Biden Leaves THIS WEEKEND?!

00:00:00.000 Well, folks, the contrast between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party has never been starker in terms of the consolidation of the parties, the unity of the parties going forward, than it is on Friday.

00:00:11.000 Because here's the reality.

00:00:12.000 The Republican Party is unified behind President Trump in unique and extraordinary ways, and the Democratic Party might not have a candidate for the presidency come Sunday.

00:00:21.000 That is the huge news over the weekend.

00:00:23.000 Joe Biden may very well drop out this weekend.

00:00:26.000 We're going to get to all of this.

00:00:27.000 First, one thing is clear in the 2024 election.

00:00:29.000 The fight for America's core values is now more important than ever.

00:00:32.000 The Daily Wire, as you know, is on the front lines of the fight.

00:00:34.000 We can't win without you.

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00:00:42.000 Alrighty, so we'll begin with the triumphant Presentation of Donald Trump as his party's nominee for the third consecutive time, which is an extraordinary feat.

00:00:50.000 It really is.

00:00:51.000 I mean, just on a pure political level, the fact that Donald Trump won in 2016 was astonishing.

00:00:55.000 The fact that he was then the nominee the next time around is natural.

00:00:59.000 The fact that after losing in 2020, he's back in 2024 and the frontrunner not only For the nomination, now he's the nominee, but also for the presidency itself is an astonishing political feat.

00:01:08.000 It truly is.

00:01:09.000 And the RNC has been about building out the Trump coalition.

00:01:12.000 It's been about providing permission structures for people who historically have not voted Republican and who would not be spotted dead in a red hat to actually vote Republican and wear the red hat.

00:01:22.000 It is an amazing thing.

00:01:23.000 I mean, truly.

00:01:23.000 And you can feel it.

00:01:24.000 You can feel there is a vibe shift in the United States.

00:01:27.000 Tons of people who never would have in a million years said that they're even thinking about voting for Donald Trump are now coming out and saying that they are voting for Donald Trump and supporting Donald Trump.

00:01:36.000 Just take, for example, the tech bros in San Francisco.

00:01:38.000 There are a ton of tech bros in San Francisco who satovoce.

00:01:42.000 Are very anti the Democrats because they don't like the wokeness. 0.93

00:01:44.000 They don't like the regulation.

00:01:45.000 They think that their economic interests are undermined by Democrats, which they are.

00:01:48.000 And they believe that the meritocracy which they rely upon is being destroyed from the inside by the Democratic Party.

00:01:53.000 But for years, they would never out loud say something like, and that's why I'm going to vote for Donald Trump.

00:01:57.000 And now you're starting to see a lot of them say, and that's why I'm going to vote for Donald Trump.

00:02:01.000 You're starting to see this from people pretty much everywhere across the country.

00:02:05.000 Like the dam has now broken.

00:02:07.000 There was such an intimidation about voting for Trump, or saying you supported Trump for years and years.

00:02:12.000 In social settings, particularly, again, a lot of our audience is in red states, in red areas.

00:02:16.000 But if you are in a red state, in a blue area, or in a blue state, or in a purple state, There is this social opprobrium visited upon you if you said that you would even consider voting for Donald Trump, and that seems to be gone at this point.

00:02:29.000 And that is a testament to both the Democrats' incompetence in office, and it's a testament to Donald Trump's campaign thus far, which has been markedly more disciplined than it has ever been.

00:02:41.000 Trump, again, in the last four weeks basically disappeared from the public scene.

00:02:45.000 And as a consequence, I will say, he has had the best four-week period of any presidential candidate I've ever seen.

00:02:50.000 He had his debate with Biden, and then he had the brains to stay out of the spotlight while Biden took all incoming because Biden's performance was so incredibly terrible.

00:02:58.000 He's had a few rallies here and there, but he mainly let the media focus in on his opponent.

00:03:02.000 And now his opponent is so much on the ropes that he may be gone by this weekend.

00:03:06.000 And of course, there was the assassination attempt against President Trump, in which he did display remarkable physical bravery, getting up while the shooter was presumably still out there.

00:03:15.000 He didn't know the shooter was dead already.

00:03:17.000 Getting up and waving his fist and shouting fight was an amazing scene.

00:03:20.000 So amazing, by the way, that the media are now attempting to blot out the spectacular photo of Donald Trump, blood on his face, holding up his fist beneath an American flag because they think that it helps Trump too much.

00:03:31.000 So the Republican National Convention has been a unity convention and it's featured a wide variety of people from left to right.

00:03:39.000 As I mentioned on the show a little bit earlier this week, you know, for people who historically have looked at the Republican National Convention as sort of an exposition of conservative values, it's a little disquieting because there's almost nothing that Republicans agree on other than maybe immigration.

00:03:53.000 On foreign policy, wide variety of opinions.

00:03:55.000 On economics, wide variety of opinions.

00:03:57.000 On social policy, wide variety of opinions.

00:03:59.000 So what brings all these people together?

00:04:01.000 Two things.

00:04:03.000 An absolute discontent with the left wing.

00:04:06.000 I believe that the left wing is a threat to the country.

00:04:08.000 And two, Donald Trump, who provides in his sort of singular figure, the ability to unite all of these factions.

00:04:16.000 And of course, it's had a little bit of razzle dazzle.

00:04:20.000 So the RNC's final night concluded with Hulk Hogan making a surprise appearance at the RNC.

00:04:27.000 And here is Hulk Hogan introducing Donald Trump.

00:04:33.000 But what happened last week when they took a shot at my hero?

00:04:39.000 And they tried to kill the next president of the United States.

00:04:48.000 Enough was enough! 0.98

00:04:51.000 And I said, let Trumpamania run wild, brother! 0.65

00:04:55.000 Let Trumpamania rule again! 0.99

00:04:58.000 Let Trumpamania make America great again!

00:05:05.000 Okay, so, listen, that's great showmanship.

00:05:07.000 I mean, it's hilarious, and honestly, like, it's a little silly, but it's also just kind of amazing.

00:05:13.000 A lot of people were making the idiocracy reference yesterday, because, I mean, it looks like something out of idiocracy.

00:05:19.000 But here's how I view it.

00:05:20.000 Here's how I view it.

00:05:21.000 America is so powerful and so strong, like, we're such an amazing country, that we can have two presidential nominees, or nearly 80, debate about golf, For like fully 90 minute debate about golf.

00:05:34.000 And then we can have one of the presidential nominees be introduced by a wrestler who rips off his shirt and then speak for 93 minutes.

00:05:43.000 And he's the front runner.

00:05:44.000 And let me explain something to you.

00:05:46.000 We don't even care.

00:05:46.000 We don't even care about the rest of the world.

00:05:48.000 That's right because we're America!

00:05:50.000 We're America.

00:05:52.000 So that was the humorous moment of the evening.

00:05:54.000 But of course, the entire evening was not built around Hulk Hogan, though that was obviously the highlight for people like me.

00:06:00.000 I mean, again, like very, very fun.

00:06:02.000 Well, you heard Hulk Hogan.

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00:07:13.000 The highlight, of course, was Donald Trump's appearance.

00:07:15.000 So this is his first major public address, obviously, after being nearly shot.

00:07:21.000 And when he came out, I mean, it was a moment.

00:07:23.000 It was a moment.

00:07:24.000 Again, Donald Trump, there's one thing Donald Trump knows more than anything else, and that is how to put on a show.

00:07:27.000 He's been doing it for his entire career.

00:07:30.000 So here was Donald Trump walking out on stage.

00:07:31.000 And again, this is what political momentum and political unity looks like.

00:07:36.000 ♪ From the lakes of Minnesota ♪ ♪ To the hills of Tennessee ♪ ♪ Across the plains of Texas ♪ ♪ From sea to shining sea ♪ So for those who can't see, he came out in front of a giant screen that says Trump in the background.

00:08:14.000 He walks out, he's got the bandage on his ear, obviously.

00:08:16.000 And it's a real moment.

00:08:18.000 It's a real moment.

00:08:19.000 So, then he gets to his address.

00:08:21.000 And the address accomplishes some things and it fails at others, to be perfectly objective about this.

00:08:28.000 The first 15 to 20 minutes is some of the best Trump you will ever see.

00:08:31.000 The first 15 or 20 minutes, and we're going to play nearly all of it because it really was an incredible, incredible display, is Trump for the first time talking openly about nearly being murdered live on national television when he was shot in the ear.

00:08:45.000 In the assassination attempt last Saturday.

00:08:46.000 And it was amazing.

00:08:47.000 I mean, it was Trump subdued.

00:08:49.000 It was all the things that you would want from Trump in this speech.

00:08:52.000 Again, the kind of lead up to this was this was a unity convention, not just for Republicans, but for the American people more broadly, that it was going to be a moment where Trump said, listen, we all have to come together for all of America because we're all brothers and sisters and we all have to come together.

00:09:04.000 And he had the impetus to do that.

00:09:06.000 I had suggested earlier in the week that the best thing that Trump could do is that, that he could come out and he could say, listen, being nearly shot in the head changes a man.

00:09:14.000 And it makes you think about the important things in life.

00:09:16.000 It makes you think about the fact that we're all Americans.

00:09:19.000 And as much as we may disagree on politics, at the end of the day, we're brothers and we're sisters and we all have to be together.

00:09:24.000 And for the first 20 minutes, that's what it was.

00:09:27.000 Unfortunately, the speech was 93 minutes.

00:09:29.000 It's the longest single Republican acceptance speech in history, the longest single Democratic acceptance speech in history.

00:09:35.000 He went off teleprompter an awful lot.

00:09:36.000 So the first 20 minutes, again, great.

00:09:39.000 And then it turned into sort of Donald Trump's campaign presentations.

00:09:42.000 If you've ever been to a Trump campaign event, he gets up there and he basically does a comedy routine and he rambles and he moves around.

00:09:48.000 And that's what it turned into for the last 73 minutes.

00:09:52.000 And so you could see in real time sort of the reaction, even in the room, Listen, everybody loves him in the room.

00:09:57.000 Everybody wants him to be president in the room.

00:09:59.000 But 93 minutes is a long time.

00:10:01.000 Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory is shorter than 93 minutes.

00:10:04.000 You can watch a solid movie in 93 minutes.

00:10:07.000 With like, Act 1, 2, and 3.

00:10:10.000 And because it was so long, it started to lose momentum.

00:10:12.000 Now again, maybe that doesn't matter very much because the purpose of the speech is just to unify the party.

00:10:16.000 And if that's the case, then the speech is irrelevant and it really doesn't matter what he said.

00:10:21.000 What I do believe is that it was a missed opportunity from the perspective of what it could have accomplished, which was to, I think, put the race basically out of reach for the Democrats.

00:10:31.000 I think if he had come out and this speech had been the first 20 minutes and a five-minute capper, I think this race is over.

00:10:36.000 And it wasn't not because of anything nefarious or anything terrible, but because President Trump, when he gets in front of a crowd, speaks to the crowd.

00:10:44.000 And then he starts responding to the crowd.

00:10:47.000 And he really likes talking with his constituents.

00:10:49.000 He really likes talking with his fans.

00:10:51.000 But we need to begin with the part that was most effective.

00:10:53.000 So he started off with exactly this unity message.

00:10:55.000 We were told before the speech, by the way, he was not going to mention President Biden at all.

00:10:59.000 And in the teleprompter, he didn't.

00:11:00.000 And then he got off the teleprompter.

00:11:02.000 And again, just as a matter of optics, as a matter of President Trump at his best, every great moment he had during his presidency, sort of these giant unity moments, was a State of the Union where he stayed on the teleprompter.

00:11:12.000 Teleprompter Trump is much more effective in these scenarios than off-teleprompter Trump.

00:11:17.000 So the beginning, he was on the teleprompter, and then he was off-teleprompter talking about his personal experience.

00:11:22.000 And again, that part was just phenomenal, just great.

00:11:25.000 For the first 20, 25 minutes, there was fairly universal agreement, right, left, and center, that what Trump was doing was something unprecedented and kind of magnificent.

00:11:34.000 So here was the beginning of his speech.

00:11:37.000 The discord and division in our society must be healed.

00:11:42.000 We must heal it quickly.

00:11:44.000 As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny.

00:11:50.000 We rise together or we fall apart.

00:11:55.000 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.

00:12:08.000 And that's a great message.

00:12:10.000 It's a great message.

00:12:10.000 Well, there are a lot of things that Americans should be unified over, and one of them is opposition to terrorism.

00:12:15.000 The latest from Israel is really, really bad. 1.00

00:12:17.000 There was an actual drone attack in Tel Aviv that was launched from Yemen, from the Houthis.

00:12:21.000 That, of course, is a terrorist group that Joe Biden took off the terror watch list.

00:12:25.000 So...

00:12:26.000 Again, things are still really bad over in the Holy Land.

00:12:28.000 We're quickly approaching the one-year anniversary of the horrific attacks on Israel.

00:12:31.000 The Holy Land continues to be targeted on multiple fronts.

00:12:33.000 Deadly threats are increasing in northern Israel.

00:12:35.000 Hezbollah is causing widespread damage with raging wildfires, destroying precious farmland, blowing up homes, killing people.

00:12:41.000 Anti-Semitic, anti-Israel incidents and attacks are continuing worldwide.

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00:13:10.000 God bless and thank you.

00:13:11.000 And then he gets into, you know, kind of the experience of nearly being assassinated.

00:13:15.000 And this is just, I mean, it's high drama.

00:13:17.000 It's high drama.

00:13:18.000 It's the first time he's spoken about it publicly.

00:13:19.000 He's got the bandage on his ear.

00:13:21.000 So here he was beginning to speak about it.

00:13:25.000 As you already know, the assassin's bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life.

00:13:32.000 So many people have asked me, what happened?

00:13:35.000 Tell us what happened, please.

00:13:38.000 And therefore, I will tell you exactly what happened.

00:13:42.000 And you'll never hear it from me a second time because it's actually too painful to tell.

00:13:50.000 Again, I'm not sure I've ever heard a better opening of a presidential speech than that.

00:13:56.000 And then Trump told the story.

00:13:57.000 And I'm just going to let this play in its entirety, basically, because I think it was really effective.

00:14:01.000 And frankly, I think it's fascinating to anybody who follows politics or doesn't follow politics.

00:14:06.000 Like, what's the experience like of nearly being shot in the head?

00:14:08.000 Here's President Trump beginning to tell the story.

00:14:12.000 It was a warm, beautiful day in the early evening in Butler Township in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

00:14:25.000 Music was loudly playing, and the campaign was doing really well.

00:14:32.000 I went to the stage, and the crowd was cheering wildly.

00:14:36.000 Everybody was happy.

00:14:38.000 I began speaking very strongly, powerfully, and happily because I was discussing the great job my administration did on immigration at the southern border.

00:14:53.000 We were very proud of it.

00:14:55.000 Behind me and to the right was a large screen that was displaying a chart of border crossings

00:15:10.000 under my leadership.

00:15:11.000 Thank you.

00:15:12.000 The numbers were absolutely amazing.

00:15:17.000 In order to see the chart, I started to, like this, turn to my right and was ready to begin A little bit further turn, which I'm very lucky I didn't do, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear.

00:15:48.000 I said to myself, wow, what was that?

00:15:53.000 It can only be a bullet.

00:15:55.000 and moved my right hand to my ear, brought it down.

00:16:00.000 My hand was covered with blood, just absolutely blood all over the place.

00:16:07.000 I immediately knew it was very serious, that we were under attack, and in one movement proceeded to drop to the ground.

00:16:18.000 Bullets were continuing to fly.

00:16:22.000 As very brave Secret Service agents rushed to the stage, and they really did.

00:16:27.000 They rushed to the start.

00:16:29.000 These are great people at great risk, I will tell you.

00:16:43.000 And pounced on top of me.

00:16:46.000 So that I would be protected.

00:16:49.000 There was blood pouring everywhere, and yet, in a certain way, I felt very safe because I had God on my side.

00:16:58.000 I felt that.

00:17:13.000 The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had not moved my head at that very last

00:17:20.000 instant, the assassin's bullet would have perfectly hit its mark and I would not be

00:17:28.000 here tonight.

00:17:30.000 We would not be together.

00:17:32.000 The most incredible aspect of what took place on that terrible evening in the fading sun was actually seen later.

00:17:42.000 In almost all cases, as you probably know, and when even a single bullet is fired, just a single bullet, and we had many bullets that were being fired, crowds run for the exits or stampede, but not in this case.

00:18:00.000 It was very unusual.

00:18:02.000 This massive crowd of tens of thousands of people stood by and didn't move an inch.

00:18:15.000 In fact, many of them bravely but automatically stood up looking for where the sniper would be.

00:18:21.000 They knew immediately it was a sniper.

00:18:24.000 And then began pointing at him.

00:18:26.000 You can see that if you look at the group behind me.

00:18:28.000 That was just a small group compared to what was in front.

00:18:33.000 Nobody ran, and by not stampeding, many lives were saved.

00:18:39.000 But that isn't the reason that they didn't move.

00:18:45.000 The reason is that they knew I was in very serious trouble.

00:18:49.000 They saw it.

00:18:50.000 They saw me go down.

00:18:52.000 They saw the blood and thought — actually, most did — that I was dead.

00:19:00.000 They knew it was a shot to the head.

00:19:02.000 They saw the blood.

00:19:04.000 And there's an interesting statistic.

00:19:06.000 The ears are the bloodiest part.

00:19:09.000 If something happens with the ears, they bleed more than any other part of the body.

00:19:13.000 For whatever reason, the doctors told me that.

00:19:16.000 And I said, why is there so much blood?

00:19:18.000 He said, it's the ears.

00:19:19.000 They bleed more.

00:19:20.000 So we learned something.

00:19:22.000 But they just...

00:19:27.000 They just — this beautiful crowd.

00:19:29.000 They didn't want to leave me.

00:19:29.000 They knew I was in trouble.

00:19:31.000 They didn't want to leave me.

00:19:32.000 And you can see that love written all over their faces.

00:19:36.000 It's true.

00:19:36.000 Incredible people.

00:19:42.000 They're incredible people.

00:19:43.000 Bullets were flying over us, yet I felt serene.

00:19:48.000 But now the Secret Service agents were putting themselves in peril.

00:19:52.000 They were in very Dangerous territory.

00:19:56.000 Bullets were flying right over them, missing them by a very small amount of inches.

00:20:02.000 And then it all stopped.

00:20:05.000 Our Secret Service sniper, from a much greater distance and with only one bullet used, took the assassin's life.

00:20:17.000 took him out.

00:20:19.000 I'm not supposed to be here tonight.

00:20:27.000 Not supposed to be here.

00:20:29.000 Audience Members Chanting — No truth for you! No truth for you!

00:20:33.000 Audience Members Chanting — Yes, you are! Yes, you are!

00:20:37.000 Yes, you are!

00:20:48.000 Thank you.

00:20:52.000 But I'm not.

00:20:53.000 And I'll tell you.

00:20:56.000 I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God.

00:21:02.000 Okay, so, obviously, the emotion is deeply effective.

00:21:10.000 People can see, written across Trump's face, exactly what he is feeling.

00:21:14.000 They can see that, I mean, it has to be for any human being, a disturbing experience to have a bullet whiz by you so closely that it hits you in the ear.

00:21:23.000 Well, Trump's story is really a fascinating and shocking one.

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00:22:37.000 Trump then continued the story.

00:22:39.000 In watching the reports over the last few days, many people say it was a providential moment.

00:22:48.000 Probably was.

00:22:49.000 When I rose, surrounded by Secret Service, the crowd was confused because they thought I was dead.

00:22:56.000 And there was great, great sorrow.

00:22:58.000 I could see that on their faces as I looked out.

00:23:01.000 They didn't know I was looking out.

00:23:03.000 They thought it was over.

00:23:05.000 But I could see it.

00:23:06.000 I wanted to do something to let them know I was okay.

00:23:11.000 I raised my right arm, looked at the thousands and thousands of people that were — breathlessly waiting and started shouting, fight, fight,

00:23:21.000 fight. Thank you.

00:23:34.000 Once my clenched fist went up and it was high into the air.

00:23:41.000 You've all seen that.

00:23:43.000 The crowd realized I was okay and roared with pride for our country like no crowd I have ever heard before.

00:23:57.000 Never heard anything like it.

00:24:01.000 For the rest of my life, I will be grateful for the love shown by that giant audience of patriots that stood bravely on that fateful evening in Pennsylvania.

00:24:14.000 Tragically, the shooter claimed the life of one of our fellow Americans.

00:24:20.000 Cory, compare it to our unbelievable person, everybody tells me.

00:24:29.000 Unbelievable.

00:24:32.000 And seriously wounded.

00:24:35.000 Two other great warriors.

00:24:37.000 Spoke to them today.

00:24:39.000 David Dutch and James Copenhaver.

00:24:44.000 Two great people.

00:24:47.000 I also spoke to all three families of these tremendous people.

00:24:52.000 Our love and prayers are with them, and always will be.

00:24:57.000 We're never going to forget them.

00:24:58.000 They came for a great rally.

00:25:00.000 They were serious Trumpsters, I want to tell you.

00:25:03.000 They were serious Trumpsters, and still are.

00:25:06.000 But Cory, unfortunately, we have to use the past tense.

00:25:09.000 He was incredible.

00:25:10.000 He was a highly respected former fire chief.

00:25:13.000 Respected by everybody.

00:25:15.000 Was accompanied by his wife, Helen.

00:25:18.000 Incredible woman, I spoke to her today, devastated.

00:25:22.000 And two precious daughters.

00:25:24.000 He lost his life selflessly, acting as a human shield to protect them from flying bullets.

00:25:30.000 He went right over the top of them and was hit.

00:25:33.000 What a fine man he was.

00:25:37.000 All of this culminated in Donald Trump, after having paid homage to the man who was in fact killed by a bullet that was meant for Donald Trump.

00:25:47.000 Paying homage to Cory Comparatory and walking over to his firefighting helmet and jacket and giving it a kiss.

00:25:57.000 Now, some of the media were very angry at this.

00:25:58.000 Some of the media were like, oh my gosh, it's maudlin and it's terrible.

00:26:02.000 It wasn't.

00:26:02.000 It was great.

00:26:04.000 It was great.

00:26:05.000 Because again, Comparatory was a Trump supporter.

00:26:07.000 Comparatory also happened to be a person who heroically saved his family from an assassin's bullet by shielding them with his body.

00:26:13.000 And Trump expressing his appreciation in what will be his most watched speech of the campaign was

00:26:20.000 a truly great moment.

00:26:29.000 I thank you.

00:27:10.000 And they're going to do something very special when they get it.

00:27:12.000 But we did something which cannot match what happened.

00:27:16.000 Not even close.

00:27:17.000 But I am very proud to say that over the past few days, we've raised $6.3 million

00:27:23.000 for the families of David, James, and Corey, including from a friend of mine just called up.

00:27:39.000 He sent me a check right here.

00:27:40.000 I just got it.

00:27:42.000 One million dollars.

00:27:46.000 From Dan Newland.

00:27:47.000 Thank you, Dan.

00:27:52.000 And again, when speaking to the family, I told them, I said, well, I'm going to be sending you a lot of money, but I can't compensate.

00:27:59.000 They all said the same thing.

00:28:01.000 You're right, sir.

00:28:02.000 We appreciate so much what you're doing, but nothing can take the place in the case of Corey and the other two.

00:28:08.000 By the way, they were very, very seriously injured, but now they're doing very well.

00:28:13.000 They're going to be okay.

00:28:13.000 They're going to be doing very well.

00:28:19.000 And then he continued.

00:28:20.000 And again, this is like top-notch Trump.

00:28:23.000 This is like as good as it gets.

00:28:24.000 He observed a moment of silence and he talked about how the spirit of bravery is the spirit of achievement.

00:28:29.000 That's the spirit of America.

00:28:30.000 And this is really, really good stuff.

00:28:32.000 Like really great stuff here from President Trump.

00:28:35.000 So now I ask that we observe a moment of silence in honor of our friend Corey.

00:28:44.000 And then he, you know, he's standing there for those who can't see it

00:28:56.000 and observing a moment of silence. It's very somber in the hall.

00:29:01.000 There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for others.

00:29:06.000 This is the spirit that forged America in her darkest hours, and this is the love that will lead America back to the summit of human achievement and greatness.

00:29:18.000 This is what we need.

00:29:20.000 Despite such a heinous attack, we unite this evening more determined than ever.

00:29:27.000 I am more determined than ever, and so are you.

00:29:29.000 So is everybody in this room.

00:29:33.000 I mean, that's a great moment.

00:29:34.000 It's great.

00:29:35.000 Just politically speaking, it's great.

00:29:37.000 You know, for the mood of the nation, it's great.

00:29:39.000 He's paraphrasing, obviously, the book of John, 1513.

00:29:41.000 There.

00:29:44.000 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

00:29:47.000 That's what he's paraphrasing there.

00:29:49.000 And it's great.

00:29:50.000 I mean, it's just great.

00:29:52.000 And then he continues and he says, our resolve is unbroken.

00:29:56.000 Our resolve is unbroken and our purpose is unchanged to deliver a government that serves the American people better than ever before.

00:30:06.000 Nothing will stop me in this mission because our vision is righteous and our cause is pure.

00:30:13.000 No matter what obstacle comes our way, we will not break, we will not bend, we will not back down, and I will never stop fighting for you, your family, and our magnificent country.

00:30:27.000 Never.

00:30:30.000 Okay, thus concluded the excellent portion of the speech.

00:30:32.000 Okay, again, that was like the first 20 minutes.

00:30:34.000 And he should have gone for maybe 10 more minutes talking about how my opponent's policies are wrong.

00:30:39.000 Let me explain all the things that my opponent's policies have done.

00:30:42.000 He should have done that, then he should have said, and here's where I left the country.

00:30:45.000 When I left office, here's where the country was, and here is what our plans will be, right?

00:30:49.000 And that takes like 10, 15 minutes, and then he's done.

00:30:52.000 And at that point, You know, that's one of the great campaign speeches in history.

00:30:57.000 Instead, it took a turn.

00:30:58.000 And the reason I feel that this is necessary to point out is because a missed opportunity... So if you feel like a campaign is sort of like a baseball game, and I'm a huge baseball fan, so if you... It's like a baseball game.

00:31:10.000 And if you've ever been to a baseball game where your team is up three runs, and it's like the sixth inning, and your team has bases loaded one out, and somehow, The other team brings in a reliever, they induce a pop-up, and then they induce a strikeout.

00:31:23.000 And you end up getting no runs out of that situation.

00:31:25.000 You have a bases loaded, one-out situation, you're already up three runs, and you have the opportunity to break the game wide open.

00:31:31.000 One hit breaks the game wide open.

00:31:33.000 Taking a walk, a sack fly, something breaks that game open, and you miss the opportunity.

00:31:39.000 You start to have the feeling in the pit of your stomach like this game is not over yet, and there are still a lot of moves left on this particular chessboard.

00:31:46.000 And this is the flaw with what President Trump did last night.

00:31:50.000 Because again, first 20 minutes are like amazing.

00:31:52.000 Amazingly good Trump.

00:31:54.000 Like the best Trump.

00:31:55.000 And then, things take a turn.

00:31:58.000 And then things take a turn.

00:31:59.000 We're gonna get to where things took a turn here for President Trump.

00:32:02.000 And then we're gonna get into the actual big story of the day, which is not Trump's speech.

00:32:05.000 That's gonna be obliterated by all the news over the weekend.

00:32:08.000 Because we may have a brand new Democratic presidential candidate by the end of the weekend.

00:32:12.000 We'll get to more on this in a moment.

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00:33:19.000 Hey folks, over this week, obviously we witnessed history.

00:33:21.000 We are in the middle of living history.

00:33:23.000 After a failed assassination attempt, Donald Trump rose defiantly with his fist in the air.

00:33:26.000 Last night, he ascended the stage to accept the Republican nomination to become the 47th president of the United States.

00:33:32.000 Listen, we are excited, we are motivated, but we can't forget, this election is not nearly over.

00:33:36.000 There is a long way to go.

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00:33:59.000 So again, Donald Trump's speech, the first part of his speech, just amazing.

00:34:02.000 Just great stuff, unifying, excellent.

00:34:05.000 A different Trump than you've seen just in terms of tone and tenor.

00:34:08.000 He looks more subdued because, again, a bullet should change a man.

00:34:11.000 And then, about half an hour into the speech, things take a turn.

00:34:15.000 They take a turn precisely when he moves away from his unifying message and towards sort of the festivus portion of the speech, where it's time for the annual airing of grievances.

00:34:27.000 So here we go.

00:34:29.000 In an age when our politics too often divide us, now is the time to remember that we are all fellow citizens.

00:34:37.000 We are one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

00:34:43.000 And we must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement,

00:34:58.000 which is what's been happening in our country lately at a level that nobody has ever seen before.

00:35:04.000 Thank you.

00:35:05.000 In that spirit, the Democrat Party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system

00:35:10.000 and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy.

00:35:15.000 Especially since that is not true.

00:35:23.000 In fact, I am the one saving democracy for the people of our country.

00:35:31.000 Now, I agree with what he's saying, but the question is whether it's politically astute for him to be the one saying it.

00:35:36.000 If this is a unifying speech, then immediately going into sort of his grievances against the Democratic Party and the justices, and there are plenty of people on the stage yesterday who did this for him, he didn't have to do this.

00:35:44.000 He should be rising above this.

00:35:46.000 And this, I think, is sort of the problem with where the speech went.

00:35:49.000 And by the way, we're only at minute 30. 0.94

00:35:50.000 This sucker went on like another hour.

00:35:54.000 Which means that, like, only the true diehard stuck around for the whole thing. 0.95

00:35:56.000 So just in terms of, you know, the viewership and the optics, my guess is most people had probably tuned out by this point because it was a very, very, very long speech.

00:36:04.000 But again, once he got into it, he almost couldn't get out.

00:36:06.000 So he started talking about the documents case.

00:36:08.000 And again, this is not something that, like, when you sit down at your kitchen table, I don't think you're talking about Donald Trump's documents case.

00:36:15.000 And he's got the bandage on his ear to prove that people hate him. 0.80

00:36:18.000 That some people hate him so much they want to kill him.

00:36:21.000 And he's got all the battle scars, like the physical battle scars who showed the thing.

00:36:24.000 And so again, kind of providing the most divisive vision of himself here,

00:36:30.000 provides an opening. This is leaving the bases loaded with one out with no runs in the sixth.

00:36:35.000 That's what this is right here.

00:36:36.000 And very big news, as you probably just read. On Monday, a major ruling was handed down from a

00:36:46.000 highly respected federal judge in Florida, Eileen Cannon, finding that the prosecutor and the fake

00:36:53.000 documents case against me were totally unconstitutional, and the entire case was thrown

00:37:01.000 out of court.

00:37:04.000 With all of that publicity thrown out of court.

00:37:12.000 Okay, again, we're only at, like, minute 35 now, and the reality is this went on for, like, another hour.

00:37:17.000 So, we were told in the run-up that he was going to not say Joe Biden's name.

00:37:21.000 He ended up saying Joe Biden's name twice.

00:37:22.000 He went off teleprompter.

00:37:23.000 Now, does any of this have, like, a major impact?

00:37:25.000 The answer, of course, is no.

00:37:26.000 It's just a missed opportunity.

00:37:28.000 So, again, the speech was there to do two things.

00:37:32.000 One was to unify the Republican Party.

00:37:34.000 Republican Party is totally unified.

00:37:36.000 So it certainly accomplished that.

00:37:38.000 And you didn't even need the speech to do that because the Republican Party was clearly unified throughout the entire convention.

00:37:42.000 And the first 20 minutes of the speech unified it even further.

00:37:45.000 So in terms of like the dual goals, one was to solidify the base, that one totally fulfilled.

00:37:51.000 Goal number two, which is to reach out to people who might be kind of like Trump-curious, I'll say that this was a missed opportunity.

00:37:59.000 But, the left's response to all of this is absolute, sheer panic.

00:38:04.000 Sheer panic.

00:38:05.000 And you can see it over on MSNBC, it's wild.

00:38:07.000 So I will say, my friend Van Jones, and again, I'm friends with Van Jones, we disagree on a lot of things politically, but Van is an honest broker.

00:38:14.000 Van will actually say the thing that everybody is thinking.

00:38:17.000 He said, and he's correct, on CNN, that he hasn't seen people excited like this since Obama 2008.

00:38:23.000 The last time I was in a convention that felt like this was Obama 2008.

00:38:29.000 There's something happening.

00:38:30.000 You just wrote a headline, by the way.

00:38:33.000 You just wrote a headline with that comment.

00:38:36.000 Just like Obama, Trump is showing in this convention he has the capacity to alter the composition of the electorate.

00:38:44.000 The difference between 2008 and now is that Obama was actually popular outside of his own party.

00:38:49.000 And that's not the case.

00:38:50.000 I don't think you should overstate it.

00:38:54.000 Yeah, that's what Axelrod is saying.

00:38:55.000 David Axelrod trying to make the argument differently.

00:38:57.000 But the reality is, again, the enthusiasm for Trump is extraordinarily high.

00:39:01.000 Meanwhile, Democrats are in a state of sheer panic.

00:39:03.000 All of MSNBC was in a state of sheer panic.

00:39:05.000 And they're going back to all their playbooks and they're not really finding a great narrative.

00:39:10.000 Joy Reid is now slandering, as you would imagine she would, the entire Trump coalition, suggesting that basically they're white supremacists and closeted black and brown white supremacists, which is a weird take.

00:39:23.000 You've seen this kind of election before. 0.75

00:39:25.000 You see the same thing in Hungary.

00:39:26.000 Like the Orbanism of the party is, it's rooted in returning white Christian men, but also white men, white adjacent men, you know, black men, brown men who are like white adjacent in terms of trying to also be in that dominant position in society. 0.81

00:39:43.000 And then you have women who are willing to go along with that, right?

00:39:46.000 There are a certain number of women who are also willing, the trad wife sort of thing. 1.00

00:39:51.000 I mean, just, she's, she's so pathetic. 1.00

00:39:53.000 I mean, like, if that's your attack is going to be on the Trump supporters, that black and brown Trump supporters who, by the way, Trump might win Hispanics this year. 0.99

00:40:00.000 I mean, it's, it's that bad for the Democrats that they are white adjacent. 0.81

00:40:05.000 I can't imagine why you guys have lost popularity.

00:40:07.000 Joy Reid is the reason for Donald Trump. 1.00

00:40:10.000 Meanwhile, Rachel Maddow doing her thing.

00:40:12.000 So, she is pointing out that vice presidential nominee J.D.

00:40:15.000 Vance is a Lord of the Rings fan and named one of his companies after a place in Lord of the Rings.

00:40:22.000 And she now claims that this is white supremacy. 0.98

00:40:23.000 Okay.

00:40:26.000 Lord of the Rings is white supremacy.

00:40:27.000 Go with that one, guys.

00:40:28.000 It'll be great.

00:40:30.000 Lord of the Rings is a sort of favorite cosmos for naming things and cultural references for a lot of far-right and alt-right figures, both in Europe and the United States.

00:40:40.000 Peter Thiel names all of his things after Tolkien figures and places, like his company Palantir, for example, like his mentor, like Peter Thiel, who had given him all his jobs in the world.

00:40:51.000 Mr. Vance also, when he founded his own venture capital firm with help from Peter Thiel, named it after a Lord of the Rings thing.

00:40:58.000 He called it Narya.

00:41:02.000 Oh no!

00:41:03.000 Oh no!

00:41:04.000 Lord of the Rings!

00:41:05.000 That coded white supremacist text!

00:41:07.000 But everything is white supremacy according to MSNBC.

00:41:09.000 MSNBC actually said the other night after J.D.

00:41:11.000 Vance spoke and talked about how there are seven generations of Vances who are buried in the family plot and one day he'll be buried there.

00:41:18.000 They said that that is effectively a form of white male privilege or some such nonsense.

00:41:25.000 I sort of understand the idea of sharing the burial plot, but it also reveals someone who believes that the history that the family should inherit, and indeed the history that should be determinative in the story of the Vance family, is the history of the Eastern Kentucky Vances, and not the Vances from San Diego, which is where his wife is from and where her Indian parents are from.

00:41:47.000 But in America, it doesn't always have to be the white male lineage that trumps That defines the family history, that that branch of the tree supersedes all else.

00:41:57.000 And I just think the construction of this notion reveals a lot about someone who fundamentally believes in the supremacy of whiteness and masculinity.

00:42:09.000 Oh my goodness.

00:42:10.000 Oh my goodness.

00:42:10.000 Well, you wonder why Elon Musk has joined the Republican Party for this election cycle?

00:42:14.000 It's because he tweeted, true, the Democratic Party has moved so far left,

00:42:17.000 the Republican Party is now closest to the center. MSNBC is a giant part of that.

00:42:21.000 The left's move, the left's breakdown is the big untold story of the election.

00:42:26.000 It was being told, but now, of course, it's the RNC.

00:42:28.000 There's a lot of talk about the Republican side.

00:42:30.000 But what's happening on the Democratic side is, frankly, significantly more interesting, because it's something we have never really seen.

00:42:36.000 A man pursue the nomination, win the nomination, and then be forced by his own party to step out.

00:42:43.000 So in 1968, Lyndon Baines Johnson was president.

00:42:46.000 He decided very early on that he actually did not want to run for re-election.

00:42:50.000 He actually decided that before the New Hampshire primary where Eugene McGovern did surprisingly well.

00:42:55.000 LBG actually won that primary anyway, but he had decided he wanted out.

00:42:59.000 He dropped out like before he had secured all the primary delegates.

00:43:03.000 We have not seen this happen ever, where a candidate wins the nomination, and then after winning the nomination is like, you know what?

00:43:11.000 Maybe I'll give it up.

00:43:12.000 And that's where we're at with Joe Biden, maybe right now.

00:43:16.000 That is happening, of course, because everybody has seen over the course of the last couple of years, the massive decline.

00:43:23.000 And so the only question right now, it's the clash.

00:43:25.000 Should he stay or should he go?

00:43:26.000 And no one really knows the answer at this point.

00:43:29.000 Like a lot of rumors out there that he's gonna go.

00:43:31.000 And then you'll see occasional pushback, desperate pushback from Andrew Bates over at the White House going, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, he's gonna stay.

00:43:36.000 And there'll be more stories about how he's gonna go.

00:43:38.000 And like, no, no, no, no, he's gonna stay.

00:43:40.000 Honestly, the best take last night came courtesy of CNN's Jake Tapper.

00:43:45.000 It is a very, very solid cultural reference take.

00:43:48.000 So all credit to Jake on this one.

00:43:51.000 Meanwhile, events no less momentous are playing out in Delaware, where President Biden is self-isolating after testing positive for COVID, we're told.

00:44:00.000 To hear top Democrats tell it, President Biden is like Bruce Willis' character in the movie The Sixth Sense.

00:44:05.000 He is the only one who seems unaware of his grim fate.

00:44:09.000 Former President Obama has told allies recently that Biden's chances of winning have greatly diminished.

00:44:15.000 Interesting choice of words.

00:44:17.000 And that Biden needs to seriously consider the path forward.

00:44:22.000 That is where things stand inside the Democratic Party.

00:44:25.000 So again, the big story this weekend.

00:44:26.000 Will Joe Biden stay or will Joe Biden go?

00:44:29.000 Democrats are preparing for the coup, according to the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

00:44:34.000 One thing we've learned over the years is that Washington Democrats are ruthless when threatened by a loss of power.

00:44:38.000 You almost have to admire their cold-blooded calculation.

00:44:40.000 President Biden is now learning this harsh lesson as the Democratic media complex organizes to persuade him to withdraw from the presidential race.

00:44:47.000 That effort, which began after Biden's failed debate on June 27th, is now in full orchestrated gale.

00:44:52.000 The president has not taken the hint to drop out from the withdrawal calls by the media and Congress's backbenchers.

00:44:56.000 So now the big names are letting it known they, too, want Joe to go.

00:44:59.000 So the backstage coup accelerates.

00:45:01.000 First, the press learns somehow Hakeem Jeffries, House Democratic leader and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, visited Biden to deliver the news he could cost Democrats control of Congress.

00:45:09.000 Neither man denied it when asked.

00:45:10.000 The press also alerted that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a master of political martial arts, delivered the same message to Biden.

00:45:16.000 On Thursday, word came out, again leaked to the press, that Barack Obama is likewise concerned about Biden's ability to defeat Donald Trump.

00:45:22.000 Biden might continue to hold out.

00:45:23.000 He still commands the delegates to win the nomination at the August convention or before that is mooted in a virtual vote.

00:45:28.000 And again, that's happening like August 1.

00:45:30.000 They've accelerated this thing so there's like 10, 11 days that Democrats have to get their act together by getting rid of him.

00:45:35.000 But the party message to the president is you're on a path to lose, you'll take down the House, you'll take down the Senate, your legacy will be ruined and we will never forgive you.

00:45:43.000 And so it's very difficult to tell right now whether all the pressure tactics on Biden and all the reporting that he's going to leave, whether that is wish-casting by Democrats in the media or whether it's true.

00:45:53.000 You're hearing super mixed messages coming out of the White House via the media.

00:45:58.000 And some of that is because the media desperately wanted to drop out.

00:46:00.000 I mean, it would be the biggest story in several generations, politically speaking.

00:46:04.000 And so, again, you're getting all the Democratic leadership leaking like sieves to the press that they want Biden gone, that they believe that the best possibility for defeating Donald Trump is, in fact, getting rid of him and putting someone else in.

00:46:17.000 Senator Jon Tester, who's in the middle of a very rough re-elect race in Montana, probably will lose that.

00:46:23.000 He's the second Democratic senator to call for President Biden to drop out of the race.

00:46:28.000 Again, he's the most vulnerable Democratic senator who's up for re-election this cycle.

00:46:32.000 Jamie Raskin, Who is a hardcore Democrat to the point that he actually challenged electoral votes in favor of Donald Trump in 2016.

00:46:41.000 Raskin is now calling for Biden to step aside as well, comparing him to an exhausted Pedro Martinez in the 2003 ALCS, for those who have a baseball memory.

00:46:52.000 That, of course, was the famous game where Grady Little did not actually pull Pedro Martinez and the Red Sox ended up blowing a lead to the New York Yankees and then losing a series they never should have lost.

00:47:03.000 So, Again, there's heavy pressure coming from inside the democratic circles.

00:47:09.000 According to CNN politics, the next 72 hours are big.

00:47:11.000 One Democratic governor in close touch with party officials relayed to aides, this can't go on much longer.

00:47:16.000 In interviews with CNN, more than two dozen sources familiar with the dynamics inside the West Wing campaign said there is now widespread acceptance that Biden remaining in the 2024 race is wholly untenable.

00:47:25.000 Everyone is saying it privately, said one senior Democrat.

00:47:28.000 People see and feel the walls closing in.

00:47:30.000 Another Democrat close to the White House described Biden as having become exceptionally insulated and isolated since the debate June 27th.

00:47:38.000 Apparently multiple sources close to Biden say that all of his advisors are taking the brunt from Hunter and Jill, that council of geniuses.

00:47:47.000 That has had only the effect of making Biden's inner circle of advisors with free access to the president even tighter.

00:47:53.000 Deputy White House Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini, longtime aide to the Bidens, joins Tom Donilon and Steve Ruscetti in forming a protective bubble around the president.

00:48:02.000 Again, a lot of speculation about what exactly Lawmakers coming out and asking the president to step aside.

00:48:08.000 Now, leaks about leadership conversations last night.

00:48:09.000 Can we expect more of this?

00:48:10.000 they keep hoping that if they say it often enough, then magically it will happen.

00:48:13.000 Here is an NBC reporter, Ali Vitale, saying the ground has shifted beneath Joe Biden's feet.

00:48:19.000 The lawmakers coming out and asking the president to step aside.

00:48:24.000 Now, leaks about leadership conversations last night.

00:48:28.000 Can we expect more of this?

00:48:29.000 What do you hear?

00:48:31.000 What it really feels like, Jose, is that the drips and leaks might be the thing to finally

00:48:35.000 That this is not going to be some kind of massive watershed moment publicly, but instead that it might come through blind reports that we're seeing overnight about conversations that the president had with top members of Congress.

00:48:49.000 Okay, so Obama tried to stick the final knife into Biden over the last 24 hours.

00:48:57.000 He leaked to the Washington Post That he has told the allies in recent days that President Biden's path to victory has greatly diminished, and he thinks the president needs to seriously consider the viability of his candidacy.

00:49:10.000 So, none of these people have gone public yet.

00:49:12.000 That would be the next stage here, is if Biden does not drop out over the weekend, then presumably, all these Democrats would start going extremely public with their worries.

00:49:22.000 The sort of most trafficked report yesterday was one from the reporter Mark Halperin.

00:49:28.000 Mark Halperin, said that multiple sources outline the apparent state of play on Biden, plans to announce withdrawal from nomination as early as this weekend with Sunday most likely, John Meacham polishing up remarks, Biden will not resign the presidency, and most importantly Biden will not endorse Kamala Harris, which is like the final knife in the back for Kamala Harris.

00:49:47.000 My goodness.

00:49:49.000 So he elevates her to the vice presidency over the advice of his wife, Jill.

00:49:52.000 And then, on his way out, he's like, and by the way, nope, not gonna do it.

00:49:56.000 Don't think you can do it.

00:49:57.000 Don't like you.

00:49:57.000 Don't think you can do it.

00:49:59.000 And then throw the convention wide open.

00:50:00.000 It would turn into an open convention with Harris and about three others.

00:50:03.000 Now, here's the problem.

00:50:04.000 You can't restrict it.

00:50:05.000 Once it's an open convention, anybody can get in.

00:50:07.000 I'm gonna put out a dark horse name that nobody's talking about right now.

00:50:11.000 They're all talking about Josh Shapiro or Andy Beshear or a bunch of other candidates.

00:50:16.000 Why not Bernie?

00:50:17.000 Seriously, he has the hardest consolidated base inside the Democratic Party.

00:50:22.000 Why wouldn't Bernie make a play for the top spot?

00:50:25.000 Yes, he's really old.

00:50:26.000 But so what?

00:50:27.000 So what?

00:50:28.000 He's still alive.

00:50:29.000 He's significantly livelier than Joe Biden is at this point, and everyone can see it.

00:50:34.000 Now, superdelegates would not be allowed to vote on the first ballot, so some of the politicking behind the scenes would have to be saved for the second ballot.

00:50:40.000 But, again, the first ballot is unlikely to result in an actual nominee unless Harris basically consolidates support right now.

00:50:47.000 Harris is already—she's getting ahead of herself.

00:50:48.000 She's vetting at least four possible running mates, including Andy Beshear and possibly Josh Shapiro, the pretty popular governor of Pennsylvania.

00:50:55.000 The hope would be that that wins them the swing state of Pennsylvania.

00:50:58.000 And it would be.

00:50:58.000 It would be a good move, obviously.

00:51:01.000 Now again, all of this is a little early because Joe Biden's team apparently has not been informed.

00:51:08.000 Joe Biden, according to NBC News, is feeling angry and betrayed by top Democratic leaders who are wavering on his campaign.

00:51:17.000 Again, sources say Biden feels angry at how the party has tried to push him out.

00:51:20.000 A source close to Biden criticized senior Democratic leaders for giving us Donald Trump.

00:51:24.000 Quote, can we all just remember for a minute these same people who are trying to push Joe Biden out are the same people who literally gave us Trump?

00:51:30.000 In 2015, Obama, Pelosi, Schumer pushed Biden aside in favor of Hillary. 0.98

00:51:33.000 They were wrong then, they're wrong now, according to this source.

00:51:36.000 That source pointed to polling in the 2016 election that found Hillary Clinton leading by as much as nine.

00:51:41.000 How'd all this work out for everyone in 2016?

00:51:42.000 Perhaps we should learn a few lessons from 2016.

00:51:45.000 One of them is polls RBS just asked Secretary Clinton.

00:51:47.000 And two, maybe, just maybe, Joe Biden is more in touch with actual Americans than Obama, Pelosi, Schumer.

00:51:52.000 The source added an unusually blunt language that represents the views of those closest to Biden.

00:51:57.000 Hey, first of all, that sounds like some solid Hunter Biden political analysis right there.

00:52:02.000 If your lesson from 2016 is that polls are bunk, and therefore a Democrat who is losing in the polls can win, that ain't the lesson in 2016.

00:52:09.000 Lesson in 2016 on the polls is, polls are bunk when they overly favor Democrats.

00:52:16.000 Reached for comment, the campaign referred NBC News to Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Foulkes' remarks Thursday, vowing that Biden is staying in the race.

00:52:21.000 But again, no one knows, because he's staying in until he is not staying in.

00:52:26.000 Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting differently.

00:52:28.000 They say that Joe Biden is soul-searching right now.

00:52:32.000 One of the sources, who requested anonymity, said, quote, his soul searching is actually happening.

00:52:36.000 I know that for a fact.

00:52:37.000 He's thinking about this very seriously.

00:52:40.000 Another source, a Democratic congressional aide, said the writing appeared to be on the wall.

00:52:43.000 Quote, it feels like a matter of when, not if.

00:52:46.000 Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, who's close to Biden, told CNN, Biden will be, quote,

00:52:50.000 resting and reflecting this weekend as he recovers from COVID-19.

00:52:54.000 But the Biden campaign, again, keeps saying over and over that they're going to continue.

00:53:00.000 But then another source inside the Biden campaign said, quote, Yes, it's over.

00:53:02.000 Just a matter of time.

00:53:05.000 It's hard to see how this maintains.

00:53:06.000 I mean, frankly, it's just it's very, very hard to see how this maintains at current status.

00:53:13.000 According to Jake Sherman over at Punchbowl News, the New York Times reporting Biden has begun to accept the idea he may not be able to win in November and may have to drop out of the race.

00:53:23.000 And there's a...

00:53:25.000 Developing sense that if Biden does not exit the race by next week, says Punchbowl, Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will be forced to go public with their misgivings about Biden's candidacy.

00:53:33.000 Pelosi is at wit's end, too.

00:53:36.000 The DNC's virtual roll call to formally re-nominate Biden could come as soon as August 1st, which does not leave much time to get Biden out.

00:53:42.000 But that's what a huge number of House and Senate Democrats want. 0.98

00:53:47.000 Presumably, Trump will get a bit of a conventional bump.

00:53:49.000 You get a bump coming out of the convention, the polls are going to start looking real bad for Joe Biden over the weekend.

00:53:55.000 Needless to say, Biden has put Schumer and Jeffries in an incredibly difficult position, says Punchbowl News.

00:54:00.000 Biden has done nothing to improve his standing since the debate.

00:54:04.000 So, what happens if Biden steps aside?

00:54:07.000 That is the big question.

00:54:09.000 Now, he has delegates.

00:54:11.000 Those delegates are pledged to him.

00:54:12.000 If he frees his delegates, they do not have to go to Kamala Harris, even if he recommends.

00:54:17.000 Even if he says, you know, I'm leaving, but my vice president, we booked her for a reason. 0.84

00:54:22.000 They don't have to vote for Kamala Harris. 0.82

00:54:23.000 So theoretically, somebody could make a strong move to consolidate an anti-Harris vote inside the Democratic Party.

00:54:29.000 And there's a strong case for that because again, Kamala Harris is a terrible, terrible candidate. 1.00

00:54:32.000 I mean, she spent like the last 24 hours out campaigning.

00:54:37.000 And I don't know why Democratic candidates do this.

00:54:39.000 Hillary Clinton used to do the same thing. 1.00

00:54:41.000 Here is Kamala Harris randomly dropping into dialect for no reason. 1.00

00:54:45.000 We're too busy watching what you're doing to hear what you're saying.

00:54:53.000 I don't even, what?

00:54:54.000 What now?

00:54:55.000 Oh, she's so terrible.

00:54:56.000 Can you imagine three and a half months of this?

00:54:58.000 Can you imagine?

00:55:00.000 Oh, no!

00:55:02.000 With that said, CNN's Harry Entenpolster, he says that Kamala Harris would have a better shot at the presidency than Joe Biden does because every day is worse for Joe Biden. 0.99

00:55:10.000 I don't only believe she could win, I believe she stands a better chance of winning than the current President Joe Biden, and we can see that in two important states, right?

00:55:18.000 Virginia, which is of course just north of North Carolina, and then the pivotal Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which, if Joe Biden doesn't win, that map is cooked for him.

00:55:30.000 Okay.

00:55:32.000 That said, the polling shows that she is highly vulnerable.

00:55:35.000 There is some data from Public Policy Polling, which is a Democratic polling firm, and it finds that Harris, with the right running mate, according to Politico, likely can defeat the Republican ticket in two of the three blue wall states the Biden campaign now sees as critical, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

00:55:49.000 Public Policy Polling, it is a bit of a dicey polling firm, because again, it's a Democratic polling firm.

00:55:55.000 It has a 1.4 star rating out of three in FiveThirtyEight's pollster rankings, but The poll shows Trump leading Biden by a point in Michigan and four points in Pennsylvania.

00:56:05.000 Harris replacing Biden makes the Democrats' chance worse in Michigan, with Trump leading her by five points, 46-41, and better in Pennsylvania, where she cuts Trump's lead in half.

00:56:14.000 Now, if she picks Gretchen Whitmer, you have an all-female ticket, which, you know, is politically interesting for sure. 1.00

00:56:21.000 Then maybe Michigan, it moves out of the R column and into the D column.

00:56:26.000 But does that win her Pennsylvania?

00:56:28.000 I don't know.

00:56:29.000 If she picks Josh Shapiro, maybe it wins her Pennsylvania, but does it win her Michigan?

00:56:33.000 I don't know.

00:56:35.000 The thing that is very clear is that generic Democrats is better than any of these people.

00:56:40.000 Generic Democrat is not Kamala Harris, which means that actually the best thing Democrats can do at this point, politically speaking, would be to dump Biden in favor of a no-name.

00:56:48.000 Somebody who has high levels of political name recognition with donors, but none with the general public, like a Josh Shapiro or like an Andy Beshear in Kentucky.

00:56:56.000 But Harris is not going to step out of the way.

00:56:58.000 According to Axios, there are five reasons why a mission to bypass Kamala Harris is unlikely to succeed.

00:57:03.000 First, the $91 million campaign war chest for Joe Biden can be transferred to Harris, but not to any other candidate.

00:57:10.000 Second, it's hard to pass over the first black female VP for the presidency. 1.00

00:57:17.000 Third, a bunch of endorsements have already come from people like Jim Clyburn.

00:57:21.000 The Obamas and Clintons would probably throw their weight behind Kamala Harris too, especially if Biden jumps in first. 0.99

00:57:26.000 Fourth, senior Democrats are very worried about a fragmented party going into the election.

00:57:30.000 And fifth, legitimacy because she's been on the national ballot even though obviously she had nothing to do with Joe Biden's victory in 2024.

00:57:38.000 And already Kamala Harris behind the scenes, her team is preparing the Kamala Harris defense. 0.98

00:57:43.000 The informal campaign, according to Politico, is complicated because of how urgently Harris would need to build a political operation as well as craft a biography that makes it clear she has more to offer than her high-profile defense of abortion to include other foreign and domestic issues.

00:57:55.000 The plan is to create a set of talking points around her accomplishments to paint a more fulsome picture of a candidate. 0.99

00:57:59.000 This, of course, is likely to fail because she has no accomplishments and she is, in fact, a terrible vice president who ran a horrible presidential campaign and was basically gifted into the Senate on the basis that she was running in an all-Democrat state. 1.00

00:58:12.000 If you want to know about the very likely next Democrat nominee, you need to check out.

00:58:16.000 Just another reason you should subscribe for a 47% off with Code Fight.

00:58:20.000 Go to Daily Wire, subscribe, watch our three-part mini-doc on Kamala Harris titled, Scamala, because it is what you need to know about Kamala Harris and why she should never be President of the United States.

00:58:32.000 With that said, if Biden is out, she is very likely in, and she will be just as much Of a perversity, constitutionally speaking, as Joe Biden has been.

00:58:43.000 I mean, here's Kamala Harris just the other day, bragging about defying the Supreme Court. 1.00

00:58:50.000 It is we who have canceled debt, including student loan debt.

00:58:55.000 In fact, testify if you have received it.

00:59:05.000 God, she's awful.

00:59:06.000 Again, I still think that Donald Trump is the frontrunner against Kamala Harris, even if they replace Joe Biden with Kamala.

00:59:12.000 But let's not pretend.

00:59:13.000 It's a whole new ballgame.

00:59:14.000 And so, here is my message from the RNC and from what the Democrats are doing for this weekend.

00:59:17.000 Do not get sanguine if you're a conservative, if you want to see Trump elected.

00:59:21.000 Do not get sanguine.

00:59:22.000 Do not pretend that this race is over.

00:59:23.000 It is not.

00:59:24.000 It is July.

00:59:25.000 Do not pretend that Joe Biden is likely to be the nominee.

00:59:27.000 At this point, it's very likely he will not be the nominee.

00:59:29.000 It's going to be about voter turnout.

00:59:30.000 It's going to be about on-the-ground movement.

00:59:32.000 It's going to be about making sure that everyone you know votes early.

00:59:36.000 It's going to be about making sure that you do all the work you need to do.

00:59:39.000 This is not a foregone conclusion by any stretch of the imagination.

00:59:42.000 Again, I look at the polling data and here is what I see.

00:59:44.000 I see Donald Trump has just had the best month of any presidential candidate in recent memory, and the RealClearPolitics polling average, he's at 47.7%.

00:59:51.000 He's not at 55%, he's not at 54%, he's at 47.7.

00:59:55.000 And even though, in the swing states, again, he's doing really, really well in the swing states.

01:00:03.000 By the RealClearPolitics polling average, he's finally pulled ahead in Virginia, slightly, over Joe Biden.

01:00:08.000 If Biden is not on the ticket anymore, Virginia probably ticks back into the blue column, at least initially. 0.93

01:00:15.000 And with all the systemic variables out there, we all know about them, the media, certain voting rules in certain states, Republicans are going to have to fight this fight all the way down to the wire.

01:00:23.000 Do not get complacent.

01:00:25.000 You cannot afford to be complacent at this point in time.

01:00:28.000 Alrighty, folks.

01:00:29.000 Coming up, we're going to jump into the Ben Shapiro Show Mailbag.

01:00:31.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

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The Ben Shapiro Show - July 19, 2024

Trump Triumphs, Biden Leaves THIS WEEKEND?!

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