The Megyn Kelly Show - BREAKING： Biden DROPS OUT of Presidential Race, with Emily Jashinsky, Rich Lowry, and Mark Halperin

00:00:00.520 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations.

00:00:11.980 Hey, everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:00:15.160 It is Sunday afternoon at 3.30 p.m. Eastern, and we knew it was coming.

00:00:20.280 We told you it was, but what a moment in U.S. history.

00:00:23.540 President Joe Biden officially dropping out of the 2024 race for the White House this afternoon.

00:00:30.000 Ending his bid for re-election after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump, one that revealed his infirmity.

00:00:40.280 Yes, mental, also physical, something he, his team, and a compliant, dishonest media have been denying and telling us not to believe for years now.

00:00:54.520 Okay, that's how we got to this point.

00:00:56.400 He lied, so did his vice president, so did his staff, and a compliant, complicit, lapdog media ran to help them in this cover-up.

00:01:09.620 Only when we saw it with our own eyes, what a mess he was that night of the debate, did their game plan fall apart.

00:01:19.840 And American citizens from coast to coast said, I can't vote for that.

00:01:25.420 That man can't be president.

00:01:26.900 Those of you who may have been focused on other things, like the attempted assassination of our former president, Donald Trump, may have memory-holed a bit what happened during that debate about a month ago.

00:01:42.280 It was moments like these when President Biden could not follow his own train of thought.

00:01:48.540 The man remains the commander-in-chief right now.

00:01:51.600 He's not stepping down as president.

00:01:53.300 He is infirm enough that he admits he can't do a second term, but he will hold on to the reins of power for some half a year still.

00:02:02.200 Moments like this one, where he could not follow his own train of thought, that raised a five-alarm fire for all normies coast to coast.

00:02:10.960 All those things we need to do, child care, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system, making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with, look, if we finally beat Medicare.

00:02:38.800 Thank you, President Biden, President Trump.

00:02:42.260 Well, he's right, he did beat Medicaid.

00:02:43.060 And then there was probably the most eye-popping moments of the debate when President Biden turned a conversation about abortion into one about Laken Riley, a nursing student who was murdered down in Georgia, a debate about illegal immigration, which has nothing to do whatsoever with abortion.

00:03:02.860 I am a person that believes, and frankly, I think it's important to believe in the exceptions.

00:03:08.980 Some people, you have to follow your heart.

00:03:10.340 Some people don't believe in that.

00:03:12.080 But I believe in the exceptions for rape incest and the life of the mother.

00:03:17.080 I think it's very important.

00:03:18.560 Some people don't.

00:03:19.380 Follow your heart.

00:03:20.140 But you have to get elected also, because that has to do with other things.

00:03:24.580 It's been a terrible thing, what you've done.

00:03:26.300 The idea that states are able to do this is a little like saying we're going to turn civil rights back to the states, let each state have a different role.

00:03:34.180 Look, there's so many young women who have been, including a young woman who just was murdered, and he went to the funeral.

00:03:40.740 And the idea that she was murdered by an immigrant coming in, they talk about that.

00:03:48.320 But here's the deal.

00:03:49.380 There's a lot of young women who are being raped by their in-laws, by their spouses, brothers and sisters.

00:03:57.620 It's just ridiculous.

00:04:01.480 What a nightmare just seeing it again.

00:04:05.880 It was alarming.

00:04:07.500 It was repeated.

00:04:09.060 You can remember the moment in which he incredibly claimed that zero U.S. service members died during his administration.

00:04:17.700 Well, Terry, you know, when he was president, they were still killing people in Afghanistan.

00:04:23.080 He didn't do anything about that.

00:04:24.600 When he was president, we still found ourselves in a position where you had a notion that we were this safe country.

00:04:31.600 The truth is, I'm the only president this century that doesn't have any, this decade, that doesn't have any troops dying anywhere in the world like he did.

00:04:42.160 I was getting out of Afghanistan, but we were getting out with dignity, with strength, with power.

00:04:47.960 He got out.

00:04:48.740 It was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country's life.

00:04:52.180 It was a debacle, and not as the left would put it thereafter, because he wasn't able to make his great points against Donald Trump.

00:05:03.680 Because what we saw was that our sitting president and commander-in-chief, the man with the nuclear football, is non-compass mentis.

00:05:09.620 He should be 25th Amendment-ed right out of office, but they wouldn't go that far.

00:05:15.100 They understood what that would mean, and probably were calculating that it would also mean the immediate elevation of Kamala Harris to the presidency,

00:05:22.740 which was not popular amongst Democrats, because they don't much like her.

00:05:27.300 It's not just Republicans.

00:05:29.180 After that debate, that night, I came on this show in a special live broadcast and told you, point blank,

00:05:36.080 his race for the White House, whether he knew it or not, was over.

00:05:39.620 In my view, it is over for Joe Biden.

00:05:43.680 His presidential campaign came to an end tonight, whether he knows it or not.

00:05:48.140 There will be meetings tonight, first thing tomorrow, amidst Democratic Party leaders about how to get him off the ticket,

00:05:58.820 how to change in somebody else.

00:06:01.160 There have to be.

00:06:03.100 Already we're seeing some reaction come in from top Democrats who rarely criticize the president,

00:06:08.480 suggesting he needs to have a serious look at this performance tonight and assess for himself whether he can go forward.

00:06:15.700 That number will mount.

00:06:17.660 There will be more and more.

00:06:19.080 It was an unmitigated disaster.

00:06:21.540 And indeed, here we are about a month later, and he's done exactly that, withdrawn not from the presidency,

00:06:32.260 but from his candidacy for a second term.

00:06:34.600 Joining me now, Mark Halperin, founder of the Wide World of News Substack,

00:06:38.780 longtime political journalist, and the man who's been breaking a lot of this about President Biden's plans this weekend

00:06:45.680 to step down with considerable pushback and mocking even from the White House spokespeople,

00:06:51.620 saying he was dead wrong.

00:06:53.740 And yet, Mark, what you reported late last week, what happened today, Sunday,

00:06:58.280 is almost exactly what happened, with the exception of, I don't know,

00:07:04.240 he did endorse Kamala in his letter saying he's stepping down, I think.

00:07:09.400 Not in the letter, but in a tweet that followed it up.

00:07:12.300 And so it seems like he's getting behind Kamala, though.

00:07:15.260 Are we sure?

00:07:18.140 Well, I think that his, I'm pretty sure his intention was not to endorse her.

00:07:22.760 And some people close to her didn't want an endorsement.

00:07:25.040 They want to separate themselves from the Biden-Harris agenda.

00:07:27.620 They don't want to be seen as a tool of kind of being established.

00:07:30.540 Stand by, Mark. Stand by. Stand by.

00:07:31.520 Because you're really echoing.

00:07:32.480 Is he echoing just for me?

00:07:33.660 Is he echoing in the broadcast, you guys?

00:07:36.680 It's just for me.

00:07:37.520 All right, so keep going, Mark.

00:07:38.780 Never mind, it's just me.

00:07:39.440 I can deal with it.

00:07:39.960 I just don't want my audience to have to.

00:07:41.340 Okay, sure.

00:07:42.800 So I believe what happened was after I reported he wasn't going to endorse,

00:07:46.380 that he was besieged with calls, and his team was besieged with calls,

00:07:49.640 with folks to say, if you get out, you must endorse your vice president.

00:07:52.980 You've said she's the most qualified person to be the president.

00:07:55.920 You have to endorse her.

00:07:56.680 So I think I was right at the time what his intentions were,

00:08:00.520 but it changed because of the pressure that he got in the interim.

00:08:05.360 A lot's happened behind the scenes.

00:08:07.520 Since my initial reporting, but the basic thrust of it is,

00:08:11.480 I think this will be what I call a contested convention that's not contested.

00:08:16.320 I've talked to people close to all the other people who are named as potential candidates,

00:08:20.640 and I don't at this point foresee anyone challenging her.

00:08:24.180 Although, again, the desire in her camp is to make this seem as open a process as possible.

00:08:29.200 The delegates will be the one who pick, and they're Biden-Harris delegates.

00:08:32.280 They're aligned with her personally and ideologically.

00:08:34.660 So I suspect, even if challenged, she'll be the nominee,

00:08:37.660 and I don't right now see any major challenge to her.

00:08:41.760 How did this come about?

00:08:43.040 Because for weeks now, all we've heard from the White House is he's not going anywhere.

00:08:46.800 Only if God Almighty comes down and tells him to drop out, will he go?

00:08:50.940 He teetered a little bit on it this past week, saying, well, if there were a medical condition,

00:08:55.860 and then there was the announcement of COVID.

00:08:57.260 But what did it, Mark?

00:09:00.420 Well, I'm still reporting that out.

00:09:02.180 I think the money was a big issue.

00:09:03.960 I think Nancy Pelosi made it clear there'd be no money for this campaign.

00:09:07.900 And you can't run a presidential campaign with no money.

00:09:10.680 You can run with less than the other side, but not with no money.

00:09:13.520 That was part of it.

00:09:14.360 And part of it was the data.

00:09:15.660 Although his campaign liked to downplay how badly his position had deteriorated,

00:09:20.640 it had deteriorated in their own polling quite a bit, I'm told.

00:09:23.380 And then the Democrats, he was going to potentially drag down an Electoral College wipeout.

00:09:29.260 And remember, it's important to remember, Megan, as I know you know,

00:09:32.100 before the debate, he had one path to 270 electoral votes.

00:09:35.640 It was exactly 270.

00:09:37.280 And it involved no margin of error winning Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin,

00:09:41.940 and Nebraska's Omaha congressional district.

00:09:45.200 No one's ever won the White House with one path to 270.

00:09:48.120 So he had a weak, weak position, which deteriorated dramatically.

00:09:52.340 And the Democrats who were telling him to get out were looking at an Electoral College landslide

00:09:58.420 and with implications for down ballot.

00:10:01.460 Everyone can talk at length about the risks of this change,

00:10:05.040 about the electoral questions about Kamala Harris.

00:10:08.940 But the alternative was doom.

00:10:11.400 They'll take chaos and risk over doom.

00:10:13.220 You tweeted out earlier today as follows, as he was digging in his heels publicly.

00:10:21.700 If an angry and defiant Joe Biden tries to hold on by running out the clock,

00:10:25.260 Speaker Pelosi will have to raise the pain quotient to unimaginable levels.

00:10:29.520 Veteran Pelosi watchers believe that is what she will do, starting as early as today.

00:10:35.400 What was behind that?

00:10:36.520 Well, I don't know exactly what happened.

00:10:39.820 I hope to be able to report it out and see exactly what was communicated.

00:10:44.440 But as we saw on Friday, there were many more Democrats who came out,

00:10:48.740 but still a tiny percentage of Democrats who thought Joe Biden should step aside

00:10:52.820 had publicly said that.

00:10:55.160 And you started to see, for instance, in the op-ed piece in the Boston Globe by Congressman Malt,

00:11:00.120 who's very close to Joe Biden, talking about the loss of mental acuity.

00:11:03.520 You started to see what I think would have been a campaign to turn up the pressure on

00:11:07.400 the president, to make it so painful for him to stay that he would have no choice but to turn.

00:11:12.440 And I think Nancy Pelosi and others masterfully orchestrated this to turn up the pain just

00:11:17.140 enough as a preview of coming attractions to say to Joe Biden, do it your way or we can

00:11:22.520 do it the hard way.

00:11:23.980 And he didn't want to go through it the hard way, particularly when his donors, much of

00:11:27.980 his staff, many of his congressional allies already made it clear to him directly or indirectly,

00:11:32.580 you should not go forward because you cannot win and you'll bring down the Democratic Party.

00:11:37.900 What turned the tide, Mark, as far as we know?

00:11:40.320 Because, you know, in the days after the debate, they were 100 percent dug in and they had almost

00:11:44.380 seemed to tamp down the furor over him.

00:11:47.500 And then Pelosi opened the dam back up on Morning Joe that Thursday after the debate saying,

00:11:52.920 well, we need to let him decide after he had said repeatedly, I've decided.

00:11:56.640 So what what turned?

00:11:57.980 Do we know?

00:11:59.600 Fundraising, polling and political support.

00:12:01.560 All of those went from very far south, further south than is publicly known.

00:12:06.560 And it's not it wasn't sustainable.

00:12:11.620 And so do you think that ultimately it was Nancy Pelosi who was behind this?

00:12:15.900 Yes.

00:12:16.960 Not alone, but she she no one else.

00:12:19.820 She she was the person who had to be behind it.

00:12:21.960 She's the only one with the political skill, the freedom, because she's no longer leading

00:12:25.460 a divided caucus because there were people in the caucus in the House and the Senate who

00:12:28.820 who wanted to keep him in or at least said so.

00:12:32.200 And because she's a Joe Biden's friend and therefore had had the authority to basically

00:12:39.040 threaten him.

00:12:41.100 And there doesn't seem to be much pushback from Obama, Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer or

00:12:47.920 others.

00:12:48.340 I mean, it doesn't seem like at least behind the closed doors they disagreed with her.

00:12:51.880 No, they all agreed wholeheartedly.

00:12:54.580 And again, you've got to go back three weeks.

00:12:56.980 They thought this was a nightmare three weeks ago before the debate.

00:13:00.600 And so this is an extraordinary story.

00:13:04.300 It truly is.

00:13:05.180 And again, no one has told the full story of what exactly happened.

00:13:08.240 But you didn't have any leader who was for him.

00:13:11.820 You had, though, were people like Bernie Sanders and Kristen Gillibrand and others who were still

00:13:17.120 for Joe Biden publicly.

00:13:18.940 And that made it complicated because as long as he could cherry pick a poll that looked

00:13:22.940 good for him, as long as he could say, hey, this person's still for me, he could go forward

00:13:27.340 until Nancy Pelosi made it clear he could not.

00:13:31.800 She's the most powerful person in Democrat politics.

00:13:34.000 That seems clear.

00:13:35.100 She just released a statement that reads in part, his legacy of vision, values and leadership

00:13:39.860 make him one of the most consequential presidents in American history.

00:13:42.460 She made no mention of Kamala Harris.

00:13:46.740 What does that mean?

00:13:49.140 Well, the speaker, I think, would rather have a different nominee, but it's just not plausible

00:13:54.480 for a variety of reasons to think about a different nominee.

00:13:58.960 And again, there's a school of thought that says, even if you love Kamala Harris, even if

00:14:03.720 you think she'd be a great person to beat Trump, even if you think she'd be a great president,

00:14:07.440 and there's plenty of doubts across the board and portions of the Democratic Party about

00:14:11.580 those things, even if you think all those things, better to not have her be the establishment

00:14:15.600 candidate, better to make it appear, even though I don't think she'll be challenged,

00:14:19.360 that she's doing this on her own.

00:14:20.960 And that's why, if you want to make a charitable read of the speakers not mentioning her, that

00:14:26.000 would be it.

00:14:26.540 The other reason is, part of the way they got Joe Biden out of this, I believe, was to

00:14:30.820 make it clear that he would be celebrated as a great president and historically generous

00:14:36.200 figure like George Washington, stepping away from power.

00:14:38.940 And I think, you know, they want this to be his day.

00:14:41.760 It's possible she'll endorse him tomorrow, endorse Kamala Harris tomorrow.

00:14:46.620 Mark Halperin, thank you.

00:14:48.400 And, you know, for the record, Halperin was right.

00:14:50.880 And the White House attacks on him were ill-founded.

00:14:53.620 What a shocker.

00:14:54.980 Great to see you.

00:14:55.920 Thank you.

00:14:59.280 Okay.

00:14:59.720 I want to bring you up to speed on exactly how the president announced this before I

00:15:05.140 bring in my next guests.

00:15:06.360 He posted it on X.

00:15:08.660 Pretty extraordinary.

00:15:09.940 He says he's going to be making a longer statement later this week, but he posted it

00:15:13.720 on X.

00:15:14.460 And this is how it reads.

00:15:16.260 Over the past three and a half years, we've made great progress as a nation.

00:15:19.220 Today, yada, yada, yada.

00:15:20.940 It's all the reasons he's great.

00:15:23.340 None of this could have been done without you.

00:15:25.020 It's been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president.

00:15:27.200 Here we go.

00:15:28.380 And while it's been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my

00:15:33.200 party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as

00:15:38.200 president for the remainder of my term.

00:15:41.680 I will speak to the nation later this week in more detail about my decision.

00:15:45.200 So here, again, there's not much detail other than I believe it is in the best interest of

00:15:49.480 my party and the country for me to stand down.

00:15:52.860 For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all of those.

00:15:55.580 I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all

00:15:58.860 of this.

00:15:59.580 Let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people.

00:16:02.700 I believe today what I always have.

00:16:04.220 There's nothing America can't do.

00:16:05.860 And so on, right?

00:16:06.700 You get it.

00:16:07.100 And then there was a follow-up tweet in which he wrote,

00:16:10.600 quote, my fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all

00:16:14.840 of my energies on my duties as president for the remainder of my term, reiterating the letter.

00:16:18.760 My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my VP.

00:16:23.460 And it's been the best decision I've made.

00:16:25.640 Today, I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our

00:16:31.760 party this year.

00:16:32.800 Democrats, it's time to come together and beat Trump.

00:16:35.400 Let's do this.

00:16:36.640 Pretty interesting that she seems to have been an afterthought, or at least that's how it seems.

00:16:42.940 Joining me now with more, Rich Lowry, editor-in-chief of National Review,

00:16:46.440 and Emily Jashinsky, DC correspondent for Unheard.

00:16:49.720 So guys, we were together the night of the disastrous debate.

00:16:53.480 And here we are, what, one month later?

00:16:56.220 And he's gone.

00:16:57.260 And I don't think anybody on this panel is surprised.

00:17:00.760 But what a seismic moment in American politics, Rich.

00:17:05.680 Yeah, huge.

00:17:06.640 You called it.

00:17:07.340 I was skeptical that he would get out, at least initially.

00:17:10.020 I just thought there's no mechanism to get him out.

00:17:12.060 He's really motivated to stay in.

00:17:14.060 He's wanted us his whole adult life.

00:17:15.800 A lot of things are very important to him.

00:17:18.940 You know, the stature of it, the prestige, you know, what it does for his family, all that.

00:17:23.400 But it became unsustainable.

00:17:25.320 And it just turns out Nancy Pelosi, this isn't the first time we've learned this, has more

00:17:29.020 cojones than all the rest of them.

00:17:30.640 It looked like Biden was just going to bulldoze him two weeks ago before that Morning Joe appearance

00:17:34.460 where she said, you know, you haven't decided, even though he had decided.

00:17:38.860 And she basically said, you haven't decided until I've decided you've decided.

00:17:41.940 And that kept the door open, kept the pressure going, and it ultimately became unsustainable.

00:17:46.660 But the most shocking such move since LBJ pulls out without much notice after underperforming

00:17:54.840 very early on in the Democratic primer is biggest political story since the rise of Donald Trump in 2016.

00:18:02.900 The other story, which is infuriating, and even more so at the moment, Emily,

00:18:11.200 is the massive cover-up that was engaged in by the White House and the media.

00:18:18.000 And right now, as predicted, they're falling in to praise Joe Biden.

00:18:24.460 Oh, he's such a hero.

00:18:26.540 He's such a patriot.

00:18:28.060 All of the ones who enabled this fraud to begin with.

00:18:33.300 And, you know, that's something Kamala Harris is also going to have to answer for,

00:18:39.480 because Kamala Harris clearly, as the vice president, was complicit in not being honest

00:18:44.840 with the American people about the day-to-day lapses in the president's cognitive abilities.

00:18:50.240 I mean, there's just no question about it.

00:18:52.100 And, you know, the Veep caricature that Selena Meyer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus caricature of the

00:18:56.700 vice president being out of the loop on important issues, et cetera, et cetera,

00:19:00.080 obviously isn't entirely true.

00:19:03.500 The vice president is interacting with the president, even if they're just at a bill signing.

00:19:07.380 She was seeing this.

00:19:08.540 She is going to have to answer for it over and over again.

00:19:12.260 But I will say, to see everyone fall in line so quickly is fascinating.

00:19:18.140 It's not surprising, but it's fascinating, because if Kamala Harris is the nominee,

00:19:23.400 if a bunch of people consolidate behind her, donors, actors, media figures consolidate behind

00:19:30.180 Kamala Harris, the snowball starts rolling down the hill, she is going to have that same machine

00:19:35.740 that was so powerful that they covered up Joe Biden's cognitive issues for years.

00:19:40.700 And we're so lucky that that debate happened when it did, because it was a crack in that facade.

00:19:46.160 That facade stood, because these people are lying, and they're lying with very powerful platforms.

00:19:51.260 That's now going to be behind Kamala Harris, who is objectively a bad candidate.

00:19:55.560 Her unfavorability rating is up there with Donald Trump's.

00:19:58.460 Her favorability is actually lower than Donald Trump's, according to RealClearPolitics.

00:20:02.840 But that machine is really, really powerful, and it is desperate to keep Donald Trump out of office.

00:20:08.620 This is going to be a stomach-turning couple of months, Rich, as all of these media enablers

00:20:18.220 pretend they're just honest brokers who were really shocked by what they saw in President

00:20:24.500 Biden that debate night.

00:20:25.840 And now he's just done the right thing, as he's recognized his deterioration, and is going

00:20:32.680 to save democracy, he'll get his big library, he may be sainted, right?

00:20:39.140 And it will be completely memory-hold what he did, his staff did, his vice president did,

00:20:45.760 and they did.

00:20:47.440 Totally.

00:20:48.360 Totally.

00:20:49.200 You know, and it wasn't because they all suddenly became conscience-stricken and said,

00:20:52.600 we can't have this man continue to serve for another four years.

00:20:55.980 It's preposterous and wrong.

00:20:57.280 They got caught.

00:20:58.240 They got caught by the debate.

00:21:00.700 And I keep going back to that fundraiser in Hollywood, George Clooney co-host in a race,

00:21:06.120 whatever, it's $30 million.

00:21:07.480 And we saw Joe Biden's state.

00:21:09.300 You didn't even have to listen to anything he said.

00:21:11.300 Just that seven-second freeze-up on stage where Barack Obama has to lead him off by his

00:21:17.520 hand.

00:21:17.940 That's normal.

00:21:19.140 That's not normal.

00:21:20.100 That doesn't happen with anyone who's in good shape.

00:21:22.560 And we all saw it with our own eyes.

00:21:24.220 But the AP did a fact check saying we were wrong and we were cheap-faking it to make a big

00:21:29.540 deal of this video.

00:21:31.020 And they're just – and then we learn George Clooney was freaked out and disturbed by Biden's

00:21:36.920 state.

00:21:37.300 And according to Jon Favreau, you know, on CNN after Clooney's op-ed came out, he and

00:21:42.000 his wife and everyone they talked to after the fundraiser was freaked out and disturbed.

00:21:45.820 Did they say one peep, one peep to indicate that there was some level of concern?

00:21:51.220 No.

00:21:51.640 You know, so their lie didn't really work with the public because about two-thirds, three-quarters

00:21:55.860 of people didn't think he was fit to serve another three-quarters.

00:21:58.360 But they deluded themselves and got themselves in to this fix where they have to do this

00:22:02.940 quick switch out of the president of the United States, which is, you know, she'll be better

00:22:08.500 than him, I guess, just because she doesn't have the age thing.

00:22:11.400 But this is not a great process.

00:22:14.720 It's going to smell rotten to a lot of people.

00:22:17.700 But they did it to themselves because they believed, as Emily was saying, they believed

00:22:21.280 in the power of their own lives.

00:22:23.340 And thank God at least there's some limit to what they can get away with.

00:22:27.000 Now we're getting reaction pouring in.

00:22:29.160 Bill and Hillary Clinton, per the New York Times, endorsed Kamala Harris, writing in a

00:22:34.000 statement that they would do, quote, whatever we can to support her.

00:22:37.140 President Obama not going that far, praising Biden, his former VP, in a statement but does

00:22:43.660 not endorse Harris, appears to endorse, quote, a process for picking someone, quote, I have

00:22:49.140 extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process

00:22:52.980 from which an outstanding nominee emerges.

00:22:56.320 But here's the question, Rich, one more for you.

00:22:59.320 Is that window dressing, as Halperin was suggesting, because realistically they can't get another nominee

00:23:04.580 in, so they just have to make it look to the voters they assume are dumb that they're

00:23:10.200 doing the process, but the fix is in for her, for Kamala?

00:23:15.220 Yeah, probably.

00:23:16.160 I bet, you know, because Barack Obama is a pretty good political analyst, he wants someone

00:23:20.320 else.

00:23:20.880 Nancy Pelosi wants someone else.

00:23:22.540 But if you don't know what the process is going to be, and the process is going to,

00:23:25.780 whatever it is, it's going to be three weeks long, and you have the vice president who's

00:23:29.860 the natural person to fill in for the president when he's debilitated in this way, and he just

00:23:34.880 got endorsed by the president, by the former president.

00:23:36.980 If you're Josh Shapiro or Gretchen Whitmer, are you going to get in, you know, and potentially

00:23:42.420 hurt yourself in your own state?

00:23:43.820 I think that would be the best ticket, by the way, if you could wave a wand and you're

00:23:46.740 a Democrat, do two blue state governors, one of whom at least has a relatively moderate

00:23:52.080 image, and just go for broke and try to hold on to those three states and win by two electoral

00:23:56.780 votes.

00:23:57.240 Instead, I think it's likely that they're stuck with Kamala, and maybe, probably likelier than

00:24:03.240 not, that there's not a challenger.

00:24:04.660 Emily, what we've seen so far in these polls is that Trump is crushing Biden when it comes

00:24:12.880 to the male vote, and that Biden's female advantage was limited down to the latest poll

00:24:19.220 showed, I think, three points.

00:24:21.020 Now, it's possible some women will come to the ticket once this infirm man is off of it,

00:24:27.720 but my own gut instincts tell me there is no way enough will come, because Kamala Harris

00:24:33.660 is an inherently unlikable person, to diminish, to dwarf, to blunt the advantage Trump has

00:24:41.220 with men, which I think is only about to grow, again, because of Kamala.

00:24:47.120 So what do you make of my male-female analysis?

00:24:51.540 I could not agree with that more.

00:24:53.260 I think that's a really important point.

00:24:54.960 It reminds me, actually, of what James Carville said when he was talking about why working men,

00:25:01.300 for example, look at the Democratic Party, and it's kind of coded as feminine.

00:25:05.860 This is about to go into hyperdrive, and he had some specific things that are kind of funny

00:25:10.680 about why that is, down to making people wear prophylactics.

00:25:14.820 But in all seriousness, that's about to go into hyperdrive, because we are now in the

00:25:19.720 post-2020 DEI backlash.

00:25:23.200 Companies have been reacting to it, and you can bet that Kamala Harris is going to be,

00:25:29.400 whether the media does it or her campaign does it, I would guess both.

00:25:32.820 This is a candidacy that would be the first female presidency ever, the first Black female

00:25:38.080 president ever.

00:25:39.080 It is going to have that air of history crammed down people's throats.

00:25:43.600 And with a lot of voters, especially male voters, that are already in the Trump camp by huge

00:25:49.200 margins, it's going to be irritating, and it's going to backfire.

00:25:53.880 There may be some people that it works with.

00:25:55.980 It didn't work for Hillary Clinton, I think.

00:25:58.860 And that was before 2020, and before things sort of came to that fever pitch, which turned

00:26:02.840 so many people off that now even companies are reacting to the market in ways that they're

00:26:07.720 trying to hide their DEI initiatives.

00:26:10.240 So, I mean, I think that's a very, very real part of the dynamic.

00:26:13.300 If it's a Trump versus Harris campaign, the gender divide is going to be even starker than

00:26:17.440 it already was.

00:26:18.820 The anti-woke backlash is real, to the point where I was listening to a podcast with Jonathan

00:26:24.280 Swan and Ezra Klein the other day, Rich, and they were both saying, like, yeah, Americans

00:26:28.240 have had enough of the woke DEI stuff that's really fallen apart.

00:26:32.500 And so even they, the New York Times, two New York Times reporters and columnists are

00:26:36.040 admitting it.

00:26:36.940 And let's not forget, not only is she the product of that DEI system, he openly said, I need to

00:26:44.380 find a black woman.

00:26:45.240 Here's a black woman.

00:26:46.040 I'm going to promote her.

00:26:47.860 But she's been one of its biggest promoters.

00:26:50.460 And let's not forget, this is a woman who called Jacob Blake, who pulled a knife on cops

00:26:58.020 after digitally raping his ex-partner and kidnapping the children between the two of them,

00:27:04.680 a hero.

00:27:06.520 She called him a hero.

00:27:08.440 She fundraised.

00:27:09.800 She sent out a link to a fundraiser for the BLM arrestees, people who had been arrested

00:27:17.080 for causing massive damage, engaging in arsons, violence against cops, and worse.

00:27:22.640 She was their number one fan.

00:27:25.860 There is just, maybe Americans have forgotten that because she was number two, but the team

00:27:31.600 Trump's not dumb.

00:27:32.620 And in fact, he's running a much more disciplined campaign this time around.

00:27:35.820 That stuff's going to be stuck down her craw by Monday.

00:27:39.640 Yeah.

00:27:40.140 So as a matter of substance and affect, she was really a post-George Floyd type candidate

00:27:44.740 that in that two-year period when the country went crazy, like, okay, maybe this is plausible.

00:27:50.160 Maybe.

00:27:50.760 It's not anymore.

00:27:52.380 And one of the advantages of Biden of his age, he pushed it too far, 81 years old and saying

00:27:58.000 he's going to be in there for another four or five years.

00:28:00.260 But he just seemed like a doddering, harmless old man, even though, as Mark was pointing

00:28:05.640 out, it was AOC and Elizabeth Warren that were backing him here because they'd gotten

00:28:08.880 so much from him.

00:28:10.300 You couldn't really make the case that he was a radical and have it stick.

00:28:14.200 You can make the case he was incompetent.

00:28:15.780 He'd done a bad job as president.

00:28:17.180 He was too old.

00:28:18.080 Kamala, I think that the radicalism charge will hit home.

00:28:24.960 And then also, if you just look at what the Democratic establishment has done the last

00:28:28.120 several years, 16, they insist on Hillary Clinton, maybe the one Democrat who could have

00:28:31.940 lost to Donald Trump that year.

00:28:33.720 20, they get Biden right.

00:28:35.040 But by the time they get Biden right, the only alternative was Bernie Sanders.

00:28:38.080 So that wasn't that difficult a choice.

00:28:40.120 Then before the debate, they're insisting on Joe Biden, who, again, was obviously not up

00:28:46.800 to the job and very likely to lose to Donald Trump.

00:28:49.160 And now the establishment is telling us Kamala Harris.

00:28:51.980 So maybe she'll be different.

00:28:53.920 Maybe they'll be batting 500 because she'll turn out to be a great candidate.

00:28:56.920 But the likelihood is that this will work out as well as the other candidates.

00:29:01.460 They basically jammed down people's throats without a legitimate process.

00:29:05.900 And if Biden had had one debate with Dean Phillips, who was not a serious candidate, just one in

00:29:10.180 prime time, 9 p.m.

00:29:11.720 Eastern Standard Time, with Joe Biden having to stand there for 90 minutes, they might have

00:29:15.640 known what was going to happen or had a better idea of what was going to happen against Trump.

00:29:19.720 But they didn't do it because they kept all serious candidates out.

00:29:23.000 And then they wouldn't even go through the motions with a couple other serious with a

00:29:27.180 couple other candidates who were in.

00:29:29.500 Yeah.

00:29:29.980 Or RFKJ.

00:29:31.200 You know, he's been in it as well and polling, you know, in the double digits for months now.

00:29:35.160 And they they also didn't debate him.

00:29:38.420 Here is.

00:29:39.160 Let's see the Trump.

00:29:40.720 Oh, OK.

00:29:41.640 Do we have the ad?

00:29:42.620 Hold on.

00:29:42.880 There's a Trump PAC ad that's going up in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona.

00:29:49.380 All right.

00:29:49.600 So Pennsylvania is part of that blue wall, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona.

00:29:54.320 He lost all those states last time around, but is polling very well in them right now

00:29:58.180 as soon as possible.

00:29:59.680 According to the super PAC backing Trump, this is part of MAGA's five million dollar per week

00:30:06.940 ad blitz.

00:30:08.400 Let's see it.

00:30:10.220 Kamala was in on it.

00:30:11.600 She covered up Joe's obvious mental decline.

00:30:14.640 Our president is in good shape, in good health, tireless, vibrant.

00:30:18.360 And I have no doubt about the strength of the work that we have done.

00:30:21.920 But Kamala knew Joe couldn't do the job.

00:30:24.320 So she did it.

00:30:25.580 Look what she got done.

00:30:26.780 A border invasion, runaway inflation, the American dream dead.

00:30:31.500 They created this mess.

00:30:33.160 They know Kamala owns this failed record.

00:30:36.820 That's the thing, Emily, because she may have his assets in terms of his, you know, nearly

00:30:43.720 200 million dollars in donations since she was actually on the ticket when they became

00:30:47.360 the nominee and vice presidential nominee.

00:30:49.920 She also has his liabilities.

00:30:51.380 Yeah, there are a couple of really big things the Trump campaign has going forward in the

00:30:57.580 Kamala Harris candidacy.

00:30:58.860 One is that it's really easy to, you know, at the RNC last week, there's just so much

00:31:04.180 talk of Biden migrant crime, Bidenflation.

00:31:06.940 That's actually really easy to swap out with Harris migrant crime, especially because she

00:31:10.460 was the immigration czar and Harrisflation.

00:31:12.680 So those parts are actually pretty transferable.

00:31:16.660 But also this coup argument that we've heard more and more from the Trump campaign that

00:31:21.420 Democratic donors fomented a coup and ousted Joe Biden against the will of the voters.

00:31:28.620 I mean, we could get into the merits of the argument, but it's actually a pretty powerful

00:31:32.700 argument.

00:31:33.720 It's one that suggests that a narrative a lot of people already buy into, which is that

00:31:38.760 elites are rigging these processes against them, that they're putting, you know, people

00:31:44.080 who are paid for by corporate interests up there.

00:31:46.560 That will go right into something a lot of people believe in a populist sense.

00:31:51.920 So those Obama-Trump voters in places like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and Ohio will have

00:31:57.820 a lot to think about in addition to this super powerful cover-up argument.

00:32:02.240 If you have clips of Kamala Harris talking about how vibrant Joe Biden is, that you can run

00:32:06.820 over and over again in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, places like that, Michigan, for

00:32:12.480 the next couple of months.

00:32:13.560 It's a huge problem for her to deal with.

00:32:15.140 There's no question about it.

00:32:16.280 Here's a little bit more of that.

00:32:17.820 The Trump campaign found some.

00:32:19.380 We found some more.

00:32:20.020 Watch.

00:32:20.760 I think that if there is any question about the President Joe Biden's ability to do the

00:32:26.280 job and do it well and do it with vigor and passion, last night dispelled any of that

00:32:32.300 in terms of any notion of that.

00:32:34.180 You know, I ask with all due respect.

00:32:35.300 But, you know, would you, are you capable or are you ready to step into the role and

00:32:39.140 do whatever the country would need?

00:32:40.460 I'm absolutely ready.

00:32:41.540 But thank God our President is in good shape and good health and is ready to lead in our

00:32:47.760 second term.

00:32:48.480 So the way that the President's demeanor in that report was characterized could not be

00:32:55.680 more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated.

00:33:02.820 Gratuitous.

00:33:03.380 I spend a lot of time with Joe Biden, be it in the Oval Office or the Situation Room.

00:33:09.440 So this whole issue that they are raising about his age is, again, because they've got

00:33:16.800 nothing to run on.

00:33:18.980 Because Joe Biden is very much alive and running for re-election.

00:33:22.540 We have a very bold and vibrant president in Joe Biden.

00:33:28.060 Wow.

00:33:32.280 Those are worse than the ones the Trump campaign ran.

00:33:35.220 Those are way worse than the ones in the ad.

00:33:38.020 We could have kept going.

00:33:39.540 There's so much out there.

00:33:41.340 She, of course, has been covering for him.

00:33:43.720 And I do wonder, though, because if you look at it, Emily, the Democrat Party, there was

00:33:48.060 this large faction that did not want Joe Biden to go, that actually didn't really like her,

00:33:53.320 preferred him, said, you know what?

00:33:54.900 He can do it.

00:33:55.480 He's got a team around him.

00:33:57.100 I'm not really too keen on her.

00:33:58.480 She's annoying with her weird laugh.

00:34:00.280 I was just like all of it.

00:34:01.400 Her unburdened by what has been stupid attempts at rhetorical flair, which never land.

00:34:06.220 Never.

00:34:07.000 She's never inspired anyone.

00:34:10.120 Those people may be ticked off.

00:34:11.980 We're just kind of assuming over on the Democratic side that they're going to be relieved.

00:34:16.100 Like we're hearing sort of the establishment Dems, they sound relieved.

00:34:20.360 He's a hero.

00:34:21.360 He saved democracy.

00:34:23.080 He's like JFK.

00:34:24.240 He said, ask what not what you your country can do for you.

00:34:28.020 But there may be a significant backlash yet to come by those Dems who said, hell no, don't

00:34:34.020 go.

00:34:36.060 I think so.

00:34:36.960 I mean, AOC just put her neck on the line and did what, like a very long Instagram live

00:34:42.620 just a couple of days ago about how this was an elite coup against Biden that her voters

00:34:47.280 didn't have the luxury to afford being thrust into this chaotic process and potentially Democrats

00:34:52.460 losing the next election.

00:34:54.160 That's a pretty hard line in the sand to stake out.

00:34:56.300 And so now asking people like her, and there were other people like that, I think a lot

00:35:00.220 of them were sort of in the Justice Democrat arena, those types of people now are going

00:35:05.600 to be asked to defend a process that, to the point Rich was making about Obama not endorsing

00:35:11.840 Kamala Harris yet.

00:35:13.320 I mean, if it's a sham process where you have a bunch of Democratic establishment leaders,

00:35:18.680 Bill Hillary Clinton, come out backing Kamala Harris and everyone else is intimidated from

00:35:24.000 jumping into it because he can transfer the war chest over to her and she's got all these

00:35:27.680 endorsements.

00:35:28.320 She's a sitting vice president.

00:35:30.500 If that happens, then you're asking AOC to go along with it.

00:35:35.420 I mean, Democrats have had a good time.

00:35:37.020 I think I've had a good run of getting AOC to take her marching orders, but this is asking

00:35:43.360 a lot, especially if the candidate is Kamala Harris.

00:35:47.580 A hundred percent.

00:35:48.500 Yes, it's a fraud.

00:35:48.840 And voters will see that.

00:35:49.700 I mean, I personally am all for the Democrats decision to bounce him from his second term.

00:35:54.900 As I've said repeatedly, I agree he's very easy for Trump to beat.

00:35:58.880 I mean, not very easy because the Democrats have a very powerful get out the vote machine,

00:36:02.580 but he would be easier, I think, than anyone else given his infirmity.

00:36:06.600 But I just love the country too much to root for it.

00:36:08.800 I mean, he needs to go.

00:36:09.680 He needs to go as president.

00:36:10.900 That's the page I've been on since that debate and before.

00:36:13.480 Um, but the Democrat voters deserve to make this decision, not Nancy Pelosi, not Bill and

00:36:23.800 Hillary, not Obama, even though he's smart enough to protect his own skin to outward facing

00:36:28.860 and say, oh no, we're going to have a process.

00:36:30.940 But if it's a rigged process in which it's already Kamala's, I do think a lot of Democrats could

00:36:36.720 be pissed off enough to say, you know what?

00:36:41.080 Screw you, Democrat elites.

00:36:43.840 I was close enough to team Trump, Vance, who are kind of flirting with some of my Democratic

00:36:49.080 ideals anyway, that I'm jumping ship.

00:36:52.360 That's one of the, that's one of the dynamics we have to see, to watch over the next couple

00:36:57.360 days.

00:36:57.940 I want to tell you a couple of things that are just in, um, vice president Harris has

00:37:02.220 issued a statement.

00:37:03.060 I'm honored to have the president's endorsement.

00:37:04.900 And my intention is to earn and win this nomination, uh, representative Lloyd Doggett,

00:37:11.740 right?

00:37:12.040 Okay.

00:37:12.320 The Texas Democrat, who was the first to publicly call for Biden to withdraw says that while

00:37:16.320 vice president Harris is clearly the leading candidate, we should be open to all talented

00:37:19.980 individuals who wish to be considered.

00:37:21.680 He commended the president for his painful and difficult decision.

00:37:24.760 Um, and then there's this, do we have this Coons?

00:37:27.940 Soundbite guys.

00:37:30.380 Okay.

00:37:30.780 Look at this.

00:37:31.420 Um, Chris Coons, Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, who is the Biden Harris campaign co-chair, and

00:37:38.100 he'd been one of Biden's staunchest defenders is on TV in tears.

00:37:43.200 Look at this.

00:37:44.080 Joe Biden is grounded.

00:37:45.680 He's grounded in his faith, in his family and in our state.

00:37:48.860 Excuse me.

00:37:52.780 Oh God.

00:37:54.620 I'm sorry.

00:37:55.760 Um, this was a very difficult decision.

00:37:59.520 You should cry.

00:38:00.580 You lied and you got caught.

00:38:02.020 Now you've been publicly humiliated.

00:38:03.180 You caused all this chaos in your own party.

00:38:05.180 Rich, it's an outrage.

00:38:06.560 The media is going to let them get away with this.

00:38:08.420 They're going to let them get away with, oh, and you and I talked about it at the debate

00:38:12.020 night.

00:38:13.340 Joe Scarborough, liar in chief, is going to take to the airwaves tomorrow morning and

00:38:18.640 say, God bless him.

00:38:21.480 He's a Jesus-like figure.

00:38:22.880 Great statesman.

00:38:23.920 Yeah.

00:38:24.360 Yeah.

00:38:24.960 And forget that he's the one who got them into this mess.

00:38:29.140 Yeah.

00:38:29.820 Four months ago, Joe Scarborough, the best Joe Biden we've ever seen.

00:38:34.020 The coal walls.

00:38:34.720 We have it.

00:38:35.400 Watch it.

00:38:36.040 And then you pick up on the back end.

00:38:37.660 We got it.

00:38:38.520 Let's watch it.

00:38:39.660 He might misplace a word here and there, but you talk to him for hours at a time.

00:38:45.040 Is he slower?

00:38:46.240 Does he move slower?

00:38:47.000 Yeah, he's moved slower.

00:38:48.860 Is he stiffer?

00:38:50.020 Yeah, he moves stiffer.

00:38:51.420 Does he have trouble walking sometimes?

00:38:53.320 Yeah, so did FDR.

00:38:54.540 I've said it for years now.

00:38:56.640 He's cogent.

00:38:58.400 But I undersold him when I said he was cogent.

00:39:01.560 He's far beyond cogent.

00:39:04.040 In fact, I think he's better than he's ever been.

00:39:07.300 Start your tape right now, because I'm about to tell you the truth.

00:39:11.220 And F you.

00:39:11.780 Well, we did.

00:39:12.320 If you can't handle the truth.

00:39:14.240 Okay.

00:39:14.640 I was afraid you were going to leave that part out.

00:39:17.340 This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever.

00:39:23.400 Not a close second.

00:39:25.160 And I've known him for years.

00:39:26.800 The Brzezinski's have known him for 50 years.

00:39:29.260 If it weren't the truth, I wouldn't say it.

00:39:33.500 No.

00:39:34.300 F up.

00:39:34.960 F you.

00:39:35.460 It's the clip of the year.

00:39:35.960 Joe Scarborough.

00:39:36.500 F you and your smarmy, dishonest, bootlicking need to be close to power.

00:39:42.640 Go ahead, Rich.

00:39:43.840 Yeah, it had nothing to do with the fact that Morning Joe is Joe Biden's favorite program,

00:39:48.380 that he was saying that, right?

00:39:50.600 And that's the worst example.

00:39:52.560 But there are many, many others.

00:39:53.820 But I just fear that a lot of Democrats, you know, they're not going to like this process.

00:40:00.700 The way to do it right would have had a real primary challenge last year.

00:40:04.440 They forestalled that.

00:40:06.080 But I don't think Biden really has loyalists.

00:40:08.480 You know, he has his family and this inner circle that's been with him for 30 or 40 years.

00:40:12.780 But I think other than that, everyone else, it was totally transactional relationship with Joe Biden.

00:40:17.220 So, you know, this isn't going to be like, you know, Democrats dumped Barack Obama in 2012

00:40:24.420 and a third of the party would say, no way, this is a messianic figure for us.

00:40:29.200 Yeah.

00:40:29.880 So, and the media coverage, all this will be forgotten.

00:40:34.640 All the lies will be forgotten.

00:40:35.760 Their complicity will be forgotten.

00:40:37.380 And they'll go ahead with puffing up, assuming it's Kamala Harris.

00:40:41.060 Kamala Harris, you know, she'll be on the cover of Vogue every month until the election and all the rest of it.

00:40:45.840 So it wouldn't surprise me if she gets a little bounce.

00:40:49.020 She's been polling about even with Joe Biden.

00:40:50.960 It's not obvious from the polling that she's better.

00:40:52.920 But she might get a bounce here and it will look more like a race than it has.

00:40:59.240 You know, Trump is ahead in Michigan by seven points and winning in Metro Detroit, right?

00:41:05.260 That's a debacle.

00:41:07.080 I assume she'll do a little better than that.

00:41:11.020 Here's where, look, I am a woman.

00:41:14.300 I have a daughter.

00:41:15.040 I hate the fact that there's been no female presidents.

00:41:18.320 I really do.

00:41:19.020 I hate the fact that when you take out your little placemat, when your kids are learning

00:41:21.920 the presidents, there's no female face on there.

00:41:23.640 And then you have to explain why.

00:41:24.680 It's just, it's effed up.

00:41:27.060 I would love to see a female president, like a Margaret Thatcher type, somebody who's strong

00:41:31.300 and serious and sober and respected.

00:41:34.460 This ain't it.

00:41:35.240 I am telling you, America is not going to elect this Nimrod as its first female president.

00:41:45.560 I trust in them too much for that.

00:41:48.080 They're just, they're not that dumb.

00:41:51.080 And they're not that open to a female president to where they'd be like, anybody will do anybody, anybody.

00:41:59.400 Like, we have so many, so many montages of hers.

00:42:05.360 Let's just play 11, just to remind the audience who she is.

00:42:09.140 I can imagine what can be and be unburdened by what has been, you know?

00:42:14.480 What can be unburdened by what has been?

00:42:18.160 What can be unburdened by what has been?

00:42:22.620 What can be unburdened by what has been?

00:42:26.580 What can be unburdened by what has been?

00:42:31.100 What we can see, what we believe can be, unburdened by what has been.

00:42:36.020 What can be unburdened by what has been.

00:42:39.420 What can be unburdened by what has been.

00:42:44.440 And by the way, here's another one for you, 18, where she speaks to us like we're all about four.

00:42:49.540 I have a particular fondness, I must tell you, for electric school buses.

00:42:53.400 I love electric school buses.

00:42:55.300 I was proud to introduce the first piece of legislation to electrify our nation's fleet of school buses.

00:43:01.960 I'm excited about electric school buses.

00:43:05.040 I love electric school buses.

00:43:08.880 I just love them for so many reasons.

00:43:12.940 Maybe because I went to school on a school bus.

00:43:16.160 Raise your hand if you went to school on a school bus.

00:43:21.540 No, it's a no.

00:43:23.820 I'm telling you.

00:43:25.300 We're not doing it.

00:43:26.400 She had to be drunk.

00:43:29.240 I mean, if you're drunk, I'd like her more.

00:43:31.920 That would work for me.

00:43:32.900 If she came out and said I was hammered, I'd be like, oh, everybody's kind of dumb with her.

00:43:36.040 No, it's too repeated.

00:43:37.460 It happens all the time.

00:43:38.600 Remember when she was trying to explain Ukraine?

00:43:40.360 I think it was on Charlemagne the Gods program.

00:43:42.060 And she was like, there's a big country named Russia.

00:43:46.100 And there's another big country.

00:43:48.180 We'll pull it.

00:43:48.900 In any event, you tell me, Emily, maybe I'm just a sexist pig, but I'm not.

00:43:53.760 It's not happening with her.

00:43:56.300 So I would say that was all.

00:43:59.100 I would agree fully with that if Donald Trump wasn't still so unpopular.

00:44:02.980 And I don't know.

00:44:04.060 Like, I actually don't know how this is going to shake out.

00:44:06.220 I do think there's something to be said about how the media worked with the Democratic Party to cover up Joe Biden for years and years until he was actually in a debate.

00:44:15.740 You know, he would do interviews, whatever.

00:44:16.980 They would chop him up.

00:44:17.900 They would make him the most favorable possible version of Joe Biden.

00:44:20.680 And maybe they start cutting out the bad gaffes of Kamala.

00:44:24.900 Maybe they start downplaying all of that.

00:44:26.800 She's on the cover of Vogue.

00:44:27.960 Like, I know that it's going to backfire with a big chunk of the public.

00:44:31.120 But I also know that there's a big chunk of the public that just wants a sentient Democrat to be able to vote for.

00:44:37.080 That said, that said, she does have just this unlikable nature about her to the point where after all the media hype surrounding Kamala Harris's candidacy for the nomination back in 2020, she didn't even make it to Iowa.

00:44:52.780 She had lots of money.

00:44:53.860 She had lots of hype.

00:44:54.780 She had amazing media coverage.

00:44:56.520 And people just don't like her.

00:44:58.640 So it comes down to whether or not there are enough people who want to vote against Trump and are willing to sort of go over that, to ignore, to get over the unlikability of Kamala Harris.

00:45:11.520 Because one thing we know for sure is a lot of people aren't suddenly going to be like, oh, Kamala Harris, very inspiring, very inspiring, need her to be the first woman president.

00:45:20.340 Just love her so much, put her on socks, make her the next RBG.

00:45:23.840 That's not going to happen.

00:45:26.060 We are two seconds.

00:45:27.460 They probably already have it from making our superhero doll out of her in my old neighborhood on the upper one side.

00:45:31.520 They had Fauci.

00:45:32.340 They had AOC.

00:45:33.340 They had Michelle Obama.

00:45:34.740 She's probably already up there.

00:45:36.980 Rich, we're just learning a little bit more on how Biden's staff found out of his decision, according to Politico.

00:45:44.120 I take it with a grain of salt because, I mean, I agree.

00:45:46.600 I believe he didn't leak it to his staff first because he knew they'd leak it to somebody else.

00:45:51.880 But all their denials, no ways is happening.

00:45:55.240 Those are dishonest.

00:45:56.480 Those are dishonest.

00:45:57.260 They knew better than any of us that he was inching closer to making this decision because they read what we read plus.

00:46:04.000 In any event, political reports as follows.

00:46:06.440 As the staff found out on X at the same time we did, they were stunned up until this afternoon.

00:46:12.420 They were insisting he would stay in the race.

00:46:13.680 Many of them, including some senior aides, first found out that he was no longer going to stay in the race by reading the letter he posted on X.

00:46:21.300 Quote, we're all finding out by tweet, said one, none of us understand what's happening.

00:46:25.580 In a sign of the abruptness of Biden's decision, the campaign blasted out a fundraising email for, quote, Joe and Kamala at 1.54 p.m.,

00:46:33.000 eight minutes after Biden announced that he was stepping aside.

00:46:37.220 I mean, I'm sure that it ultimately did come down to Jill, maybe some hunter, but mostly Jill.

00:46:46.080 And I am persuaded by the Halperin reporting on Nancy Pelosi.

00:46:51.320 I mean, just really having him having him.

00:46:54.060 Yeah.

00:46:54.340 You know, by the by the you know, you know, by the by the what and saying it's only going to get more painful unless you get out.

00:47:00.140 Yeah. Yeah. Well, this was a game of chicken between him and his party ever since the debate and Biden's play is say, I don't care what you say.

00:47:07.680 I'm staying in. So if you criticize me, if you say I should go out, leave the race, if you cut off my fundraising,

00:47:14.060 you're just hurting your inevitable nominee and making it more likely this guy you hate and fear beyond words.

00:47:20.020 Donald Trump's going to be president of the United States. So stop. Forget it.

00:47:23.000 I'm in that. That was his part in the game of chicken. Then there was the party saying, and I think Pelosi, it sounds right to me that Pelosi was leader in this.

00:47:30.700 No, we are going to make we're going to say you got to go. We're going to do it privately.

00:47:35.260 We're going to leak. But then we'll we'll go public with it. We'll cut off your fundraising.

00:47:39.440 There won't be any activism. There won't be any energy to this campaign.

00:47:42.960 So your campaign is a wasting asset. So you can say, sure, you're still running, but you're not going to win.

00:47:48.680 It's going to be inevitable failure. So that was the game of chicken.

00:47:51.220 And at times it seemed Pelosi was going to win. Times it seemed Biden was going to win.

00:47:55.480 But by the time late last week where he had the leaks of the conversations between Biden and Pelosi, Schumer and Jeffries,

00:48:03.160 it seemed one, they told him in private to they leaked that they told him in private.

00:48:08.080 And the next stage is going public. So it wouldn't shock me if if either he figured that out or it was made clear to him.

00:48:16.680 And that's why he finally stood down and lost the game of chicken.

00:48:19.720 Mm hmm. And now you've got reactions like this. Keith Olbermann, a hero.

00:48:24.920 Joe Biden, Norm Eisen, one of the most stunning acts of patriotism of my lifetime.

00:48:29.880 Lawrence Tribe, like JFK, Biden asked not what his country could do for him, but what he could do for his country.

00:48:34.820 He will go down in history as a truly great president and a great human being.

00:48:38.360 Jon Favreau, former Obama guy, a courageous, selfless decision.

00:48:42.040 The exact opposite of Donald Trump. Axelrod, the selfless decision he made.

00:48:46.500 He understands what Trump does not. Our country's bigger than any one person, even the president, George Conway of the Never Trump or Lincoln Projects.

00:48:53.940 He's a patriot. He's selflessly served the nation with distinction. Blah, blah, blah.

00:48:58.160 Thank you, Ezra Klein, an actual hero.

00:49:02.020 I mean, would you stop an actual hero?

00:49:04.160 This is like when we call like people who showed up to be grocery clerks during covid actual heroes.

00:49:08.900 With all due respect to the clerks, a hero is what we saw in Normandy.

00:49:14.020 OK, just stop. If we overuse that ridiculous word, this is not heroic.

00:49:18.920 This is a man who got caught committing a fraud. Did you see the movie Dave?

00:49:22.820 He's the movie Dave with Kevin Kline, where he had a stroke in office and instead of revealing it, they kept him hooked up to life support in the basement of the White House.

00:49:32.680 And his ambitious chief of staff became sort of a fake president and found a lookalike to play the part.

00:49:39.540 That's what he's been doing. Thanks to his wife. Thanks to his family. Thanks to the greedy pariahs around him.

00:49:45.440 There's no heroic behavior here by anybody. OK, hold on.

00:49:51.620 Here's one more on Kamala that I promised you. This might be my favorite.

00:49:55.640 This woman is now running to be president of the United States.

00:50:00.260 So Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia.

00:50:09.020 Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country.

00:50:12.140 Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine.

00:50:16.160 So basically that's wrong.

00:50:18.600 This issue of transportation is fundamentally about just making sure that people have the ability to get where they need to go.

00:50:26.340 Space is exciting. It spurs our imaginations.

00:50:32.160 And it forces us to ask big questions.

00:50:37.880 Space, it affects us all.

00:50:40.260 It gives us a sense of the magnitude of it all.

00:50:48.860 Earth is kind of small.

00:50:51.060 Right?

00:50:52.660 The Earth is like a speck compared to the sun.

00:51:00.140 The Trump campaign is going to have so much fun with her.

00:51:02.800 They're going to have so much fun with her.

00:51:06.240 Endless possibilities.

00:51:07.420 It's impossible.

00:51:10.500 I realize we've had dumb people elected president before.

00:51:13.460 She wouldn't be the first.

00:51:14.840 But I mean, she's not only is she a woman, she's a black woman.

00:51:18.500 Yes, we've elected a black person before mixed race, President Obama.

00:51:22.900 But that alone, let's just be honest, that would be a challenge for her as the first black woman.

00:51:28.480 But on top of all that, she's an idiot.

00:51:32.900 That's the real problem.

00:51:34.820 The first black woman president is going to be somebody who is sharp and inspirational and unquestionably qualified.

00:51:44.440 And while we might not like her politics on one side or the other, we will begrudgingly respect her intellect and her strength, because that's the only way we're going to put a woman in this office.

00:51:55.100 Our history proves it.

00:51:56.400 In any event, here is another one of the worst offenders in the lies that were told to build up this man.

00:52:05.240 They told us they were cheap fakes.

00:52:07.320 They were cheap fakes.

00:52:08.720 They were the ones who were doing the cheap faking, as Emily just points out.

00:52:12.560 They were the ones who were editing the videos to try to protect him.

00:52:16.320 We weren't the ones editing the videos to try to make him look extra bad, unfavorably.

00:52:20.380 We know all that from the Obama fundraiser out in California, where everybody said he got lost on stage.

00:52:27.260 The media said, no, that's a cheap fake.

00:52:29.280 Then Obama or Clooney, who was there himself, said no.

00:52:32.960 It was all real.

00:52:34.020 He was terrible there.

00:52:35.960 Nicole Wallace, who for some reason barely opens her mouth when she speaks, is a very tiny little woman.

00:52:42.900 I don't know why.

00:52:44.880 Here she is.

00:52:45.900 There's a growing and insidious trend in right-wing media, broadcast, print, and social media.

00:52:52.140 It is to take highly misleading and selectively edited videos of President Biden directly from Republican National Committee social media accounts

00:53:01.620 and then use those videos to spread messages virally to cast doubt on President Biden's fitness for office.

00:53:08.960 Here is this headline from the New York Post.

00:53:11.220 Quote, Biden appears to freeze up, has to be led offstage by Obama at Megabucks LA fundraiser.

00:53:16.800 The full video posted by Biden finance chair on Twitter shows something entirely different.

00:53:23.300 Biden reacting to applause and then walking offstage with former President Obama.

00:53:27.960 It's stomach turning.

00:53:31.680 But the thing is, you know, as I do, Emily, there will be no accountability for these people because the Democrats wanted to believe those lies.

00:53:38.060 And now they'll want to believe the new lies about Kamala Harris and how perfect she is.

00:53:41.840 There will be no accountability also because they were so complicit that it would damn them.

00:53:47.320 You know, if there's to be accountability for Kamala Harris, they were going, I mean, with the cheap fakes thing,

00:53:51.620 sometimes they were actually just taking a cheap fakes talking point.

00:53:54.660 It was the argument that was coming out of the White House, and you could trace it straight to the stories.

00:53:58.860 White House would put out a statement saying it was a cheap fake.

00:54:01.200 Then you'd start to see journalists amplifying this argument that it was a cheap fake.

00:54:05.180 So they can't turn around and now be critical of Kamala Harris.

00:54:09.060 They were Kamala Harris up until that debate when they got caught, as Rich just said, and couldn't keep up the facade anymore.

00:54:15.360 And that's why to say that Joe Biden is a hero in the mold of, you know, answering JFK's call to the country is so disgusting because a real hero would step down.

00:54:26.300 A real hero would say, if I can't be president for the next four years, I sure as I can't be president now, that would be heroic.

00:54:32.560 That would be the tough choice.

00:54:34.340 But Kamala Harris isn't going to say that.

00:54:36.160 Kamala Harris is going to keep pretending that he can be president.

00:54:39.100 It's just, you know, the next four years that are the problem.

00:54:41.680 They're all complicit in it.

00:54:43.320 Yeah.

00:54:43.760 Everything you need to know.

00:54:45.040 I would be a distraction.

00:54:46.420 I would be a distraction to the run against Trump.

00:54:49.400 They're not owning up.

00:54:50.280 I mean, that's the thing, Rich.

00:54:51.160 I continue to say the man should be 25th Amendmented.

00:54:54.740 If he's not fit to serve a second term, how is he fit to stay in the office as president through January 20th?

00:55:02.460 Right.

00:55:03.060 Now, you can imagine some sort of physical ailment that would make it impossible for someone to run for the presidency, but still be mentally sharp and have the mental acuity and endurance to do the job.

00:55:14.480 This is basically FDR in 1944.

00:55:17.160 He was at death's door.

00:55:18.580 Anyone who was around him witnessed that.

00:55:20.840 But he's still entirely with it.

00:55:22.680 The problem with Biden is he's confused, right?

00:55:25.300 We've seen it with our own eyes.

00:55:27.040 All you needed to do was look at the RNC research Twitter feed.

00:55:30.560 And they did occasionally, you know, flip stuff to make Biden look worse.

00:55:33.940 But you got a truer picture from that feed than anything any Democrat was saying, certainly on MSNBC.

00:55:40.740 So if he's not recognizing friends in private and he's not up for the job of doing interviews and reading teleprompter in public, he's not up for this job in private.

00:55:49.780 The country needs the assurance that whoever's president of the United States has the capability to do the job.

00:55:55.800 There could be a major crisis at any time.

00:55:58.080 And it's just wrong for him to stay in this office one day longer.

00:56:01.220 That's the problem is like the world is on fire right now, right?

00:56:05.820 We have conflicts still going on in Ukraine.

00:56:07.820 We have the Middle East growing in terms of its seriousness and just how bad it's looking there.

00:56:14.340 I mean, new conflicts potentially opening up.

00:56:16.760 And we have a man who can't put two sentences together.

00:56:21.720 Literally, cannot put two, cannot hold his train of thought, cannot work more than a few hours a day, cannot stay up past eight.

00:56:28.620 But, Emily, these Democrats, they're just going to lionize him and not admit reality, which is we're in danger right now.

00:56:38.240 And even actually just as we're thinking this through in real time, having this conversation, I'm realizing what a disadvantage that's going to be for Kamala Harris politically on the campaign trail, because she is going to be dogged just over and over again by questions from the Trump campaign.

00:56:54.080 Any debate that happens, this is just going to be constant.

00:56:57.460 Why is Joe Biden president right now?

00:56:58.920 Why aren't you supporting the 25th Amendment?

00:57:00.540 Did he get up at, you know, eight this morning or did he get up at 10 this morning?

00:57:04.440 When did he get up?

00:57:05.200 When did he go to bed last night?

00:57:06.540 This is going to be a constant drumbeat, as it should be.

00:57:09.520 And that's going to be really, I don't know how they're going to handle answering those questions other than saying, you know, Joe Biden made his decision, doesn't want to be a distraction.

00:57:17.440 So that is, you know, the Trump campaign is going to have the ability to force that issue over and over again because it's one that's resonant with the American people.

00:57:25.380 So the media will do its best, just as it did up until the debate, because they're so desperately opposed to Donald Trump.

00:57:32.940 They will do their best.

00:57:34.100 They're running like this is the existential crisis of their generation.

00:57:38.080 So that won't change.

00:57:39.980 But she is never going to have a good answer to that question.

00:57:44.040 There's no there's nothing you could say that's going to be persuasive to the public.

00:57:47.440 The latest polls show Kamala Harris is not doing well in a hypothetical matchup against Donald Trump, though the polls, in fairness, have been erratic and she's not yet in the race when they're taking these polls.

00:58:01.500 So, you know, take them with a grain of salt.

00:58:03.180 We'll get better polling now that she's officially getting in.

00:58:05.000 But just a sampling here, this is July 16th to 18th.

00:58:09.920 You go, Harris, 48, Trump, 51, July 17th.

00:58:13.840 SoCal Research, Harris, 44, Trump, 52, July 15th and 16th.

00:58:18.420 Ipsos, Harris, 44, Trump, 44, tied 15th and 16th.

00:58:23.380 Keep me going.

00:58:24.980 13th to 16th, Yuga, Harris, 39, Trump, 44 and so on.

00:58:28.760 If you could keep going.

00:58:30.080 But he beats her in all of them.

00:58:31.920 This is this is just from RealClearPolitics.

00:58:33.680 This is the latest.

00:58:34.280 You can see all the red and all the blue.

00:58:36.240 He beats her in all of them.

00:58:38.280 So that's now before she's officially in the race.

00:58:43.080 And I'll show you some battleground numbers.

00:58:45.480 Pennsylvania, this is New York Times versus Siena, the latest.

00:58:48.840 Pennsylvania puts Trump up one in a hypothetical matchup against Kamala Harris.

00:58:55.780 Right now, his RealClear average lead over Biden in Pennsylvania is 4.5.

00:59:03.280 It puts Trump down five in Virginia.

00:59:08.220 The latest polling there had shown Trump up maybe half or a quarter of a point over Joe Biden.

00:59:16.060 So that's an improvement for Kamala Harris.

00:59:17.940 But Virginia is probably fool's gold in any event for Republicans.

00:59:20.900 We'll see.

00:59:22.080 Pennsylvania insider advantage shows Trump up seven over Kamala Harris.

00:59:28.080 Again, the RealClearPolitics average right now has him up 4.5 over Biden.

00:59:32.100 So that could be a decrease in benefits for the Democrats if Kamala is the nominee.

00:59:38.940 Nevada showing Trump over Kamala by 10 points, 50 to 40.

00:59:46.500 The RealClearPolitics average between Biden and Trump right now has Nevada Trump up 5.6.

00:59:52.740 So again, this would show a hemorrhaging if Harris is the nominee out there.

00:59:57.060 And then there's Arizona, where the latest inside advantage poll showed 48 to 42 Trump advantage of six points.

01:00:07.680 And the RealClearPolitics average has Trump up in Arizona 5.8.

01:00:13.640 So it'd be about the same.

01:00:15.840 I don't know that she is the savior, Rich, that they are looking for.

01:00:20.500 And you and I both know, even though they may think they have to have her, there are probably hysterical meetings going on right now.

01:00:28.840 And they have been for weeks on how not to have it be her.

01:00:33.420 Yeah.

01:00:34.260 So she has not polled better than Biden.

01:00:36.720 The reason why I would expect it still to be a race at some point is Trump, you know, we're beginning to see a little bit of the post-assassination attempt,

01:00:45.460 post-convention bounce.

01:00:46.880 The CBS poll had him at 52 nationally.

01:00:49.560 But prior to that, he was at 47 percent basically in the RCP average nationally, which suggests there is a ceiling or at least a level that's hard for him to get beyond.

01:01:01.820 And Kamala, I don't see her being a good match, you know, woke progressive from California for Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin that Democrats absolutely need to win.

01:01:10.800 But I think part of the Democratic calculation may be that even if she's not a better national candidate than Joe Biden, she's certainly a better candidate in California and New York and sort of against expectations.

01:01:21.700 The swing districts, you know, in the House, they aren't in places necessarily like Pennsylvania or traditional swing states.

01:01:27.680 They are in California and New York and all the polling indications since the debate has been that Democrats are cratering in those places.

01:01:35.640 So I think they're figuring, well, maybe she'll do better nationally.

01:01:39.040 But if she doesn't, at least there's some cushion against an utter debacle up and down the ticket.

01:01:45.320 You know, it's interesting, Emily, there you've got this is just one example, but Ed Luce, associate editor of Financial Times, tweets out the following.

01:01:56.340 Trump is too old to be president.

01:01:59.380 This is going to be the talking point, right?

01:02:02.720 Yeah, this is going to be the talking point.

01:02:04.380 Our nominee is, you know, much younger.

01:02:08.840 How old is she?

01:02:09.800 How old is Kamala Harris?

01:02:10.800 She's in her late 50s.

01:02:11.580 59, I believe.

01:02:12.600 59.

01:02:13.360 Yeah, she's 59.

01:02:14.220 59.

01:02:15.700 Spring chicken compared to 78 year old Trump.

01:02:19.320 And this is an interesting turn, right, Emily?

01:02:22.060 Because all the narrative of like too old, too old, even though the Republicans have really been saying it's not about age, it's about his infirmity.

01:02:29.740 I personally always say Alan Dershowitz, who's 85 and could crush any of us in a debate.

01:02:34.860 In any event, they'll say that it was all about age and that Trump's old and they'll use some of Trump's forgetting names, you know, normal stuff that happens when you're 78,

01:02:42.720 which doesn't compare to Biden but is on the record against the GOP.

01:02:47.580 So how do you like that tactic?

01:02:49.280 Well, I mean, I actually think that's pretty powerful because they now have this argument in their hands of this media machine that was able to, to some degree, cover up Biden's age for a really long time.

01:03:03.140 You know, the media is nowhere near as powerful as it used to be.

01:03:07.140 In fact, the legacy media has never been less powerful.

01:03:09.640 Thank goodness for that.

01:03:10.940 It is, though, still powerful.

01:03:12.480 And so when you combine this idea of Biden being an American hero who is passing the baton to a new generation of Democratic Party leadership,

01:03:21.740 if they have any sort of facsimile of a Democratic process, low-D Democratic process, to nominate Kamala Harris formally, the media is going to laud that.

01:03:32.500 They're going to say this is the Democratic Party's leap into the future.

01:03:36.440 And, you know, Donald Trump, again, like not popular, although he will be helped enormously against those attacks from Ed Luce by the fact that he was literally shot in the head and got right back up and made that gesture to the crowd.

01:03:51.060 I mean, that I think basically will neutralize the argument.

01:03:53.960 But I do think it could send some Democrats to RFK Jr.

01:03:58.720 If Kamala Harris is forced on voters through a sham nomination process, then you just are going to infuriate so many people who say the Democratic Party is exactly what I thought it was.

01:04:12.020 They're nominating a California elite, and they're not letting me have a say in it.

01:04:17.200 They covered up Biden's problems for years.

01:04:20.500 Go back to 2016.

01:04:21.580 There wasn't a real primary.

01:04:22.540 Everybody was intimidated out of running by Hillary Clinton.

01:04:25.560 2020, everyone rallied around Biden because they were terrified of Bernie and the Democrat establishments put their finger on the scale for Biden.

01:04:33.160 This time around, many people said that they, many Democrats said they wanted an open process.

01:04:37.740 There wasn't an open process.

01:04:39.240 And now you're going to have a sham process that forces this California elite down the throats of people in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania.

01:04:46.920 You could send a whole lot of people to RFK Jr.

01:04:50.200 In that case, you know, you have this massive media Hollywood elite machine pumping us through pumping the discourse through of these arguments day after day about the next generation of Democratic Party leadership.

01:05:02.840 He's having a press conference at 5 p.m.

01:05:06.760 Eastern Time, RFK Jr., and I'm sure he's going to have a lot to say about this decision.

01:05:11.000 Donald Trump reacting in part, Biden was not fit to run for president and is certainly not fit to serve and never was.

01:05:18.180 Sarah Huckabee Sanders, not fit to run for president, not fit to serve as president.

01:05:21.500 Biden should resign immediately.

01:05:23.460 Dan Bongino, 81 million votes and he's dropping out.

01:05:26.220 Speaker Mike Johnson called for Biden to resign from office if he's not capable of running for reelection.

01:05:31.200 If Joe Biden's not fit to run for office, he's not fit to serve as president, Johnson wrote.

01:05:36.460 I mean, that's the thing.

01:05:37.020 He's saying he can't do it.

01:05:38.540 He's admitting, yes, he says, I'd be a distraction.

01:05:41.780 And when he makes his public remarks this week, no way is he going to say I'm unfit.

01:05:46.240 But we all know that that's what caused this to happen.

01:05:49.120 This wasn't happening without that debate.

01:05:51.420 And yet we're supposed to deny the obvious reality, which is he should not be sitting in this office and even he knows it.

01:05:59.140 But, oh, it's only six months, six months is leader of the free world, six months is commander in chief of the military, six months as the man who's got the access to the nuclear codes.

01:06:08.180 No, that can't be.

01:06:10.940 I do want to ask you this, Rich.

01:06:13.640 Heritage Foundation, conservative think tank, has been making some rumblings over the past few weeks since that debate about we're not going to make it easy on them.

01:06:23.040 Right.

01:06:23.540 If they want to sub him out.

01:06:25.180 And they've been saying there are at least three swing states, Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin, that could restrict Biden's removal from the ballot.

01:06:34.320 Now, I think George is out.

01:06:36.300 Although I could be wrong, but I think George is not going to be a problem because that would have allowed Biden to withdraw up to 60 days before the election.

01:06:43.040 So I think he'll be OK there.

01:06:45.100 But I don't know if they include early voting.

01:06:47.500 So Heritage will undoubtedly know the answer to all that.

01:06:50.660 But here's what the executive director said in a statement.

01:06:53.920 This is before today.

01:06:55.580 We're monitoring the calls for him to stop to drop out.

01:06:58.420 We've concluded that the process for substitution and withdrawal is very complicated.

01:07:02.380 We will remain vigilant that appropriate election integrity procedures are followed.

01:07:06.960 The mechanisms for replacing him on ballots vary state by state.

01:07:10.880 There is potential for pre-election litigation in some states that would make the process difficult and perhaps unsuccessful.

01:07:15.780 They point out that in many states, many states, including swing states like Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin, they might not allow a replacement on the ballot.

01:07:26.420 And agreed, agreed.

01:07:27.260 She's already on the ballot, but she's on for a different role.

01:07:31.420 They say Wisconsin does not allow a candidate's name to be withdrawn from the ballot except due to death.

01:07:36.880 Nevada allows changes to its ballot up to 5 p.m. on the fourth Friday of June in the election year.

01:07:41.960 We're past that.

01:07:42.720 It also allows special consideration if nominees die or are determined to be mentally unable to proceed, which, again, it makes it interesting what he's going to say officially for his reasons.

01:07:58.300 They can't not be on the ballot in Nevada.

01:08:01.140 So there's going to be litigation, Rich, undoubtedly.

01:08:03.460 Yeah, so this was part of AOC's case and that long Instagram that Emily was mentioning earlier was their legal difficulties that no one's thought about.

01:08:12.520 Now, it doesn't seem commonsensical to me that prior to someone being the formal nominee, you can't switch him or her.

01:08:19.980 But one of the problems is this Democratic convention is really late, which is why they're thinking of doing a roll call by August 7th to get Biden the official nomination.

01:08:30.380 Now, can they do that with Kamala now if they're supposedly having an open process, right?

01:08:34.420 That would be extremely, extremely difficult.

01:08:37.760 So none of this is ideal.

01:08:39.860 But, by the way, on the resignation thing, I do think that would help Kamala.

01:08:43.520 You know, you should do it on the merits.

01:08:45.140 But also you get some sort of mini inauguration.

01:08:47.800 You get some sort of honeymoon.

01:08:49.400 She's actually an incumbent, you know, providing over an administration that's not very popular.

01:08:53.660 So maybe that vitiates the effect somewhat, but I think it would be a boost to her politically on top of everything else if Biden stepped aside.

01:09:02.480 The reaction continues to pour in.

01:09:06.260 Rachel Maddow.

01:09:07.080 I'm just blown away by the sacrifice and patriotism this moment embodies as she applauds his withdrawal.

01:09:17.860 The insincerity of these dishonest people, Emily.

01:09:23.340 It is stomach turning.

01:09:25.060 And we are going to have to go through this now for weeks.

01:09:29.700 I mean, they really might submit him for sainthood.

01:09:32.680 They they they're going to start the library right now.

01:09:37.280 This was all you know, he it was the carrot or the stick.

01:09:40.480 And he ultimately did respond to the stick.

01:09:44.900 Maybe some carrot.

01:09:45.740 I mean, carrot didn't seem to do it, but they basically took that stick out.

01:09:48.220 They said, we're going to beat you.

01:09:49.240 We're going to beat you hard.

01:09:50.380 And it's going to be painful for your whole family.

01:09:52.780 And as soon as he put his ears back and his tail between his legs and said, OK, I'm gone.

01:09:56.780 They were like, good little Joe Biden.

01:09:59.300 Good boy.

01:09:59.980 You're a good boy.

01:10:00.960 You're a national hero.

01:10:02.340 And we're going to have to pretend this is real, that, you know, this is ridiculous.

01:10:06.780 This act.

01:10:08.860 He didn't go to a G7 meeting so that he could go to bed.

01:10:12.060 There's nothing sacrificial or selfless about this.

01:10:15.420 He has been ruling.

01:10:17.120 He has been presiding over the country as the president of the United States in a way where

01:10:22.600 he's completely unfit to do it.

01:10:24.780 So to act like it's selfless sacrifice for him, you know, after the process, the primary

01:10:32.040 already closed to do this is insane.

01:10:34.800 And I will say it is also very premature because who knows if this is the baggage that loses

01:10:40.060 Democrats, whether it's Kamala Harris or somebody else, the election, because they have to answer

01:10:44.660 to the Trump campaign day after day saying Joe Biden should step down.

01:10:48.120 Why isn't he stepping down?

01:10:49.100 If he can't run, why is he the president?

01:10:51.220 Should we 25th Amendment him?

01:10:52.600 And they're not going to have any answer to that.

01:10:54.480 So Joe Biden, by not stepping down, could actually prove to be the baggage that loses the election,

01:11:00.660 whether or not he was on the ticket.

01:11:02.620 So it's just completely premature.

01:11:04.480 And I'm surprised, actually, that so many people are coming.

01:11:08.840 I mean, I shouldn't say I'm surprised, but it's even just like stupid from their own

01:11:12.800 perspective, strategically, politically, to go out there and make this case right now,

01:11:18.020 because not only is it obviously objectively not selfless or sacrificial, it also could prove

01:11:24.340 to be the thing that is exactly what they said would have been selfish, exactly what they

01:11:28.400 would have said, was immoral, which was to cling to power because you were going to lose

01:11:33.500 Democrats the election.

01:11:34.680 So it could just turn out to be completely different than they thought.

01:11:38.040 But they're all reacting in real time.

01:11:40.460 Yeah, but this clearly was part of the implicit deal, right?

01:11:42.420 I mean, they told him you had an anonymous donor saying you get no presidential library,

01:11:46.480 dude, just forget it.

01:11:47.660 If you stay in and lose.

01:11:49.640 One of the Obama bros, I think it was Favaro, said you have the choice now to be remembered

01:11:53.600 as this great statesman who saved democracy in 2020 or to go down as,

01:11:58.400 as a disgrace, who lost this presidential race, hugely consequential presidential race

01:12:05.820 for your country.

01:12:06.520 So they're basically telling him, get out, and this is what you'll get.

01:12:09.720 You'll get praise, prime time at the convention.

01:12:12.420 Your library will now be lavishly funded and all the rest of it.

01:12:16.660 And he took that deal.

01:12:19.200 Hunter will get a pardon.

01:12:20.880 Yeah, sure.

01:12:21.400 Sure.

01:12:22.720 But part of the, you know, there's Democratic polling privately.

01:12:26.380 Apparently, this showed that if Democratic candidates vouched for Biden and said he should

01:12:30.960 stay on the ticket, it just shot their credibility, right?

01:12:34.320 So it was going to hurt every Democrat in every single race.

01:12:37.780 What I think Emily is hitting on, which is a very shrewd point, that effect still could

01:12:41.880 be there.

01:12:42.980 And Republicans are just trying to change the question and make it not staying on the

01:12:46.820 ticket, but staying in office at all and make Democrats answer for that and say, yes,

01:12:51.240 he's totally, everything you've seen indicates no, he's not.

01:12:53.840 But still, you can't believe your lying eyes even now.

01:12:56.840 It should stay in office and try to undermine their credibility that way.

01:13:00.180 Most importantly, obviously, targeting Kamala if she's the nominee.

01:13:03.160 You know, this, all I can think of is the godfather, which of course has the answers to everything.

01:13:11.620 Frank Pantangeli was called.

01:13:14.540 He was going to speak before the Senate.

01:13:16.100 He was going to testify as Michael Corleone was being cross-examined.

01:13:19.460 And they had him.

01:13:20.480 He had turned state's evidence.

01:13:22.100 He was going to testify against him.

01:13:23.780 And then what happened?

01:13:26.080 He didn't do it, even though he'd already given it all up to the feds because they had

01:13:30.960 his brother.

01:13:31.520 They dragged in his brother from Italy.

01:13:34.020 He was sitting there in the audience and they knew exactly what was going to happen

01:13:37.780 to the brother.

01:13:38.460 I think it was the brother or the uncle.

01:13:40.080 If he spoke and said those things under oath.

01:13:42.400 And so suddenly Frank Pantangeli is like, they came to me.

01:13:46.420 They started putting all kinds of words in my mouth.

01:13:48.720 Michael Corleone did this.

01:13:50.600 Michael Corleone did that.

01:13:52.080 So I said, yeah, yeah, he did it.

01:13:54.820 And he totally reversed himself.

01:13:57.400 That's what they just did to Joe Biden.

01:13:58.500 Um, they had Joe Biden's library.

01:14:02.620 That was the uncle.

01:14:03.560 Yeah.

01:14:03.800 The library gets it.

01:14:05.120 You know, you leave the library gets it.

01:14:06.860 Your legacy gets it.

01:14:08.060 And so he did what Frank Pantangeli did.

01:14:10.200 He said, all right, fine.

01:14:11.980 I'll do it.

01:14:12.780 And he's out.

01:14:13.320 And, you know, it really is.

01:14:14.600 There's something almost Shakespearean about it where that, that party stabbed him.

01:14:21.700 I mean, they stuck that knife in and turned it and didn't care at all about this man.

01:14:27.940 They're now telling us is a patriot.

01:14:29.540 And, uh, you know, this legacy that, you know, who, that we need to respect.

01:14:34.400 They stuck the knife in every single way they could.

01:14:37.680 There was a quote from one of the staffers on Friday saying they're Julius Caesaring him

01:14:40.760 right now in the front and the back.

01:14:42.040 That's exactly right.

01:14:43.620 They didn't actually respect his decision.

01:14:46.020 That's what's crazy.

01:14:46.820 Like he, he should be gone.

01:14:49.100 I agree with, he's gone with him being gone, but it was his decision.

01:14:53.000 And they blackmailed this guy right out of the presidency.

01:14:58.520 These people fight dirty and disgustingly.

01:15:02.980 And this is why Republicans are so worried.

01:15:06.040 Can I tell you, we'll, we'll close with this at the RNC.

01:15:08.800 I spoke with a bunch of delegates there, Rich.

01:15:10.380 I'm sure you did too.

01:15:11.260 And I don't know if you went, um, but to a man and woman, what I was asked about was

01:15:16.800 what about cheating?

01:15:19.880 And I know, you know, there are many of us, and I think I know at least you and I are two

01:15:25.060 of them, Rich, who don't think that this last election was cheated.

01:15:29.060 There wasn't cheating to the, in a way that would have stolen it from Trump.

01:15:32.320 There was massive, you know, unfairness in it.

01:15:36.200 And I know my audience disagrees with that, but my point is simply Democrats who are capable

01:15:42.100 of, it does kind of look like a coup, right?

01:15:44.540 Of doing this to the sitting president.

01:15:46.920 Why are we not to believe that they're capable of cheating in an election of forfeiting or

01:15:52.220 forging ballots of like they're capable of anything.

01:15:56.440 Yeah.

01:15:56.900 You look at it, you'd like, okay, is it, is this on the up and up?

01:15:59.820 Was it in the up and up when he was, was, was still totally with it and the best Biden

01:16:03.540 ever?

01:16:04.120 Is it up and up the way he's being dumped?

01:16:06.500 Is on the up and up the way Kamala Harris is probably going to ascend to a saint, saint

01:16:11.760 status or herself here in the next several days and weeks?

01:16:15.380 No.

01:16:15.860 And I'll just add also, if you want to undermine faith in our institutions, do what Kimberly

01:16:20.940 Cheadle has done at this secret service, right?

01:16:23.560 Preside over a catastrophic failure and then refuse to resign.

01:16:28.300 Get chased by Republican senators.

01:16:30.460 I think this is the best thing any group of Republican senators has done in recent years,

01:16:33.740 by the way, chased her at the RNC convention site saying, you're, you're not answering our

01:16:38.620 questions.

01:16:39.080 You're a disgrace and you should resign.

01:16:40.900 And she's doing the typical Washington thing.

01:16:42.740 I take responsibility, just mouthing those words, but not actually doing it.

01:16:46.980 She shouldn't get credit for that centimeter, right?

01:16:49.120 That kept Donald Trump alive.

01:16:50.740 She was responsible for a failure that would have created one of the worst events in American

01:16:54.740 history.

01:16:55.100 And she's going to try to skate on it.

01:16:57.220 And I hope she gets a clobber tomorrow in that, that hearing on Capitol Hill.

01:17:03.660 Yeah, that's exactly right.

01:17:05.040 I mean, government, I heard, I was listening, as you know, I always do rich to Annie McCarthy's

01:17:09.080 podcast on, um, today, I just listened to it where, uh, Jeff was subbing in, I think,

01:17:13.980 right.

01:17:14.200 Um, for you.

01:17:15.440 And, uh, they were talking about how these institutions have so many layers.

01:17:20.860 All they worry about is covering their own butts.

01:17:22.920 They don't actually worry about doing the right thing.

01:17:25.120 And so everybody's just worried about like who they can, you know, point the finger at

01:17:28.700 and not actually protecting the president, not actually getting to the right results.

01:17:32.800 And it's just so dysfunctional.

01:17:34.540 They're dysfunctional within the secret service.

01:17:36.160 They're dysfunctional within the state department.

01:17:37.920 They're dysfunctional within the intelligence community.

01:17:40.160 We know that.

01:17:40.980 And the, the presidency right now is no, no exception.

01:17:44.720 And the vice presidency as well.

01:17:46.380 So look, the media is no better.

01:17:48.880 We're worse.

01:17:49.820 And we're about to watch fraud part two take place where the original fraudsters try to

01:17:54.580 pretend they never defrauded us and commit a new fraud, which is Kamala Harris's hands

01:17:58.700 are clean.

01:17:59.580 And she's also the second coming, you know, maybe she's the third coming Joe's the second

01:18:03.680 And to save democracy, we all have to go around along with it.

01:18:07.940 Oh, and by the way, they really, really care about old age.

01:18:10.200 They really, really care about old age and infirmity and missed words in sentences.

01:18:15.020 It's going to be a mind meld like we've never seen before.

01:18:19.620 Buckle up, hold on to reality and continue touching base with people who, you know, tell

01:18:24.320 you the truth.

01:18:25.600 Guys, thank you both so much.

01:18:27.340 Thank you.

01:18:27.820 Thanks, man.

01:18:28.140 What a crazy arc.

01:18:30.820 What a crazy arc for my audience.

01:18:32.080 You know, like they were both on that night that we did with Biden after the debate and

01:18:36.240 like everything started then as the fraud was becoming undeniable.

01:18:40.300 And now here we are less than a month later.

01:18:42.400 That was debate was, was it the 27th of June?

01:18:46.140 Pretty sure it was 27th.

01:18:47.320 Yeah.

01:18:48.120 Which was a Thursday night.

01:18:50.300 And here we are July 21st.

01:18:52.260 It took less than a month for them to shiv this guy right out of office.

01:18:55.860 He has no business being in office, but man, oh man, these Democrats know how to fight.

01:19:02.840 Do the Republicans, are they ready?

01:19:06.160 Time will tell.

01:19:07.220 Thank you for tuning in.

01:19:08.500 We'll do it all over again tomorrow, uh, right here, live on Sirius XM Triumph channel

01:19:13.220 111, be a podcast and at youtube.com slash Megan Kelly.

01:19:18.500 Thanks for listening to the Megan Kelly show.

01:19:20.700 No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

01:19:25.860 Thanks for listening to the Megan Kelly show.

The Megyn Kelly Show - July 21, 2024

BREAKING： Biden DROPS OUT of Presidential Race, with Emily Jashinsky, Rich Lowry, and Mark Halperin ｜ Ep. 843

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