After 48 hours, it appeared that Joe Biden had successfully fought off the intense pressure on him to withdraw as a candidate for re-election. But then a New York Times poll showed Mr. Biden hemorrhaging voters as a result of the debate. And then Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful woman in the House, appeared on Morning Joe, refusing to accept reality because she's a woman who can usually change it. And now, a new report says that Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-D.C., is also behind the scenes, about as committed to Joe Biden as his girlfriend is to him.
00:00:00.500Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at noon east.
00:00:11.700Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.
00:00:15.400Well, 48 hours ago, the reporting was that President Biden had appeared to have successfully fought off the intense pressure on him to withdraw as a candidate for re-election.
00:00:25.080The uprising in the House had all but been quelled by a Capitol Hill meeting at which Congressional Black Caucus members, including James Clyburn, stuck firmly by Mr. Biden.
00:00:43.340What if he pulls it out? What if he wins? Do you want to be the one who turned on him?
00:00:46.780Over in the Senate, no greater courage emerged, despite ubiquitous reporting that the overwhelming number of Democrats in both chambers want Mr. Biden gone, do not believe he can win, and are starting to believe he'll take them down with him.
00:01:03.660Then, Cook Political Report came out with a devastating look at the polls, essentially predicting a Donald Trump landslide.
00:01:12.540This, as CNN projected, the Republicans will win both houses of Congress if Joe Biden stays on as the presidential nominee.
00:01:21.140All after a New York Times poll showed Mr. Biden hemorrhaging voters as a result of the debate.
00:01:27.740Enter Nancy Pelosi yesterday morning on the president's favorite TV show, Morning Joe, refusing to accept reality because she's a woman who can usually change it.
00:01:42.280Namely, Mr. Biden's very clear message that he has firmly decided to stay in this race, something she was asked about on the air and after the fact, after her appearance in the hallway yesterday.
00:01:55.180We conveyed to President Biden what you said this morning.
00:01:58.440I'm not having any comments with you or anybody else about what I talked to President Biden about.
00:03:39.540Now, this morning, we get news via Politico that Ms. Pelosi is privately saying behind the scenes that Joe Biden should step aside, that he cannot win this November.
00:03:52.980Political citing, quote, about a half dozen lawmakers and others, end quote, for this reporting, which means she's not even trying now to keep it a secret.
00:04:02.000On the heels of all that, Axios is out this morning with reporting that Senator Chuck Schumer, too, who earlier this week repeated the phrase when asked about this whole thing over and over, I'm with Joe, I'm with Joe, I'm with Joe, is also behind the scenes, about as committed to Joe as Leonardo DiCaprio is to his about-to-turn-25-year-old girlfriend.
00:04:25.040Mr. Schumer, now privately signaling to donors that he is, in fact, open to a ticket without Joe Biden at the top, following a barrage of phone calls from deep-pocketed Democrats, the ones who keep him in office, as well as his fellow senators, who are all melting down about the fact that the Republicans are going to win the Senate, never mind hold on to the House.
00:04:50.580But what about Hakeem Jeffries? We've heard less from him, Congress's other most powerful Democrat. He's the minority leader in the House. Moments before we came to air, Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News reported that he caught up with Mr. Jeffries and asked him directly about Mr. Biden staying on as the nominee.
00:05:10.200Was the response, I'm with Joe or James Clyburn's, I'm riding with Biden, I'm riding with Biden. Not exactly. He told Sherman that he's looking forward to concluding his talks with every single House Democrat, adding, quote,
00:05:25.160quote, we'll convene as a leadership team and figure out the next step, end quote.
00:05:31.800What does that mean? What's to decide? The president has made clear he's decided he's all in. What step are you deciding? What are you talking to every single House Democrat about? Clearly, it's not over.
00:05:46.540News today, as well, about the man at the very top of the Democratic leadership ranks, and that is former President Barack Obama.
00:05:53.640Remember yesterday that scathing op-ed in The New York Times by Democratic fundraiser actor George Clooney?
00:05:59.580Well, it appears he gave Mr. Obama, his close friend, the heads up about this piece, and surprise, surprise, reportedly received no objection,
00:06:08.280which was obvious to anyone who knew anything about the two men's close friendship. There was no way George Clooney would have done this without Barack Obama's blessing, or, many believe, at Barack Obama's urging.
00:06:22.100Clooney claimed that the fundraiser he sponsored for Joe Biden three weeks ago, that the president, that that president who was there, was the debate Joe Biden, the Atlanta Joe Biden, not the Joe Biden of 2010.
00:06:35.620Man, this is a big effing deal, or even of 2020. Conveniently left out of the op-ed is any explanation for why George Clooney said nothing of the president's diminished state after the event,
00:06:49.480particularly when the news world exploded with a debate about whether the videos from that fundraiser accurately portrayed Joe Biden as a frail, lost, elderly man who needed help getting off the stage,
00:07:03.680or whether those videos were cheap fakes, as the White House and others claimed. Where was Mr. Clooney then?
00:07:11.440The Biden camp now says George Clooney was only there for a few minutes for a photo op before he peaced out. Maybe that's true. But what about Barack Obama? He was there much longer. He was actually with President Biden on stage.
00:07:30.340We all saw it with our own eyes. And part of the cheap fake moment. Where's his account? Why won't he tell us now what he saw? After all, the country's facing an existential threat with the possible reelection of Donald Trump.
00:07:44.220Why would Mr. Obama leave it to others to deliver some direly needed straight talk to the nation? What did you see, sir? There's a fight, an important one now, between George Clooney, one of the largest Democratic fundraisers, and Joe Biden, and Barack Obama can settle it. He can settle it all.
00:08:05.820Okay. He's a former president. Maybe he doesn't want to get directly involved in these squabbles that could determine the presidency, and in Democrats' eyes, the future of our very country. But what about Barbara Streisand, Jimmy Kimmel? They were there, too. What did they see? They've been remarkably silent. She tweets every two seconds. Where's her tweet about this? Why won't they tell us what they saw? Democracy dies in darkness, people. Don't forget.
00:08:35.820They're terrified. They're terrified. You all know what they saw. They saw what we saw. They saw the frail, elderly man who needed help getting off the stage. They're just too chicken shit to tell us about it. Because they accurately deduced that he could still be the Democratic nominee, and they don't want to ding him up. Maybe you give Barbara a pass. Who gives a damn what this singer saw or says? But you know what? Jimmy Kimmel happens to be employed by ABC, which happens to have a rather large
00:09:05.480news organization. He's a large news organization. He's a large news organization. And he has been one of President Trump's most vocal critics. Where are you, Jimmy? On vacation? Not good enough. You can still use your thumbs to send out a tweet. You could set the record straight right now, but you won't.
00:09:22.560John Favreau, he was also at the fundraiser. Former Obama staffer and Pod Save America co-host. Now he's out there saying everyone at the event saw what George Clooney saw.
00:09:36.100I mean, it was not surprising to any of us who were at the fundraiser. I was there. Clooney was exactly right. And every single person I talked to at the fundraiser thought the same thing, except for the people working for Joe Biden, or at least they didn't say that. But I remember my wife Emily turned to me after the fundraiser and said, what are we going to do? I mean, and I said, well, there's a debate in a week. Either he'll do well in the debate, and we'll think, well, he was just tired because he flew all the way back from Europe, and that'll be that.
00:10:04.700Or he'll be like this at the debate, and then the whole country will be talking about it. And so here we are.
00:10:11.100I see. So he saw it too. And he's got a very big platform. Did he use it the next day to tell us all, hello, five alarm fire people, Joe Biden is infirm and no longer there. He did a show the next day. Let's listen to what he said.
00:10:27.820If I took a poll and someone said, does the conviction make you less likely to vote for Donald Trump? I would say no.
00:10:34.220I was never going to vote for him ever. Trump visited a black church in Detroit, and then spoke at the Turning Points USA conference.
00:10:40.140And TPUSA is known for its ties to white supremacists.
00:10:43.160Trump got the name of the doctor wrong when he was demanding that Joe Biden take a cognitive test and then talk about how he is. It's Ron Jackson.
00:10:50.380When you're going to accuse someone of cognitive decline, you want to get the doctor's name right.
00:10:54.500Oh, my God. So the very issue of Biden's cognitive decline, at least as Trump was criticizing it, came up and he said nothing but to criticize Trump for misstating a name.
00:11:10.380Nothing. Just like virtually every other Democratic talking head over the last three years.
00:11:17.780Zero courage, zero capacity or desire for truth telling if it would harm anyone on Team Blue.
00:11:24.260Which leads me to Corrine Jean-Pierre.
00:11:28.020Tough to say whether she's the biggest liar among the president's defenders, but she's definitely in the running.
00:11:32.740Here is her pre-debate spin on the so-called cheap fakes that were falsely portraying Mr. Biden as diminishing.
00:11:41.900Do you have any concerns right now that this is the leading edge of any part of a Russian effort to interfere in the election?
00:11:50.880Has the president been briefed on this?
00:11:53.620And have you seen any evidence that the Russians or other foreign powers have tried to seize on the debate performance to repeat some of the president's most embarrassing moments?
00:12:26.900Maybe the Department of Justice will figure out whether these are cheap fakes.
00:12:30.280Maybe you should just call like your biggest fundraisers, George Clooney and your biggest supporters in the Democrat Party, like the Pod Save America guys.
00:13:07.500He's the president of the United States.
00:13:09.460You know, he I can't even keep up with him.
00:13:12.480I'll quote a little bit of what the first lady said.
00:13:15.380I think incredibly well just a couple of days ago.
00:13:19.000President Biden does more in one hour than most people do in a day.
00:13:22.100And then came the debate and the reporting about the neurologist visiting the White House nine times, at least in the past year, and then genuine anger from the press corps, which behind the scenes we now know has been getting pummeled by this White House for even asking about Mr. Biden's cognitive well-being.
00:13:42.820James Rosen banned from press conferences for eight months after he went there with the president, others with their hands slapped and shamed for daring to bring up the topic.
00:15:28.360There could be congressional investigations of this disgusting cover-up, which is exactly like your dog's dump in the living room, by the way.
00:15:35.060It stinks to high heaven, and it is nearly impossible to clean up.
00:15:37.940But she was finding that out real time.
00:15:41.220This was the first stage of coming to grips with the fact that the American people, not just Republicans, but all of us, are on to her.
00:15:54.280Yes, I know if you watch this show, you knew that long ago.
00:15:57.980But her side is finding it out, so she's panicked.
00:16:02.880As she sought to shore up her relationships with people who buy ink by the barrel, she lied more.
00:16:10.260The press exposed the fact that a neurologist had been visiting the White House residence clinic.
00:16:15.460Okay, now, according to Dr. Ronnie Jackson, who was the White House doctor for both Obama and for Trump, he says that's right below the president's bedroom, and it is dedicated only to members of the first family.
00:17:39.340And she had to, again, dog with the tail between the legs, come back to the lectern and admit it when the press caught her.
00:17:46.780She also tried to tell the press that the president had not seen a doctor post-debate.
00:17:52.560But when that was exposed as a lie, too, by the president himself, he was meeting with those Democratic governors and he told them he'd been seen by a doctor.
00:18:02.860She then tried to say, well, what she meant was he hadn't gotten a full physical since the debate, which nobody was even asking about.
00:18:10.740But, of course, Mr. Biden sees doctors every day.
00:45:07.620And I have to tell you, you know, as much as I can't stand George Clooney's politics, he's touching on something that every progressive, every far lefty in Los Angeles is saying there's chaos in L.A.
00:45:36.340You can't really switch it without opening it up.
00:45:39.100Then they're like, oh, no, this is terrible.
00:45:41.900The nonpolitical people are the ones that say, oh, well, let's just put in Michelle Obama or let's put in somebody that we think can beat Trump.
00:46:03.840So I'm telling you, it's going to be a bloodbath, if we can use that term, in an election.
00:46:11.180And not only is Joe Biden going to lose, but I think a lot of Democrats aren't going to get the support because people aren't going to come out to the polls.
00:46:20.800Clooney's going to win either way because he's partners with Randy Gerber, Cindy Crawford's husband, and he's an entrepreneur on that liquor.
00:46:30.800And I think they sold part of it, but they must still have some of it because Cindy Crawford was just out there pushing the Casamigos version of it.
00:46:37.920So as the liquor sales go up, along with the despondency, Clooney wins either way.
00:46:45.820The crew over at Morning Joe, which, you know, depending on the day they're with or for against, you know, Joe Biden, they were 100 percent in his pocket.
00:48:34.780They admit constantly, I'm getting texts challenging me what I'm saying.
00:48:40.300They're not used to having dissenting views, Megan.
00:48:43.140They're not used to having media that ask tough questions.
00:48:46.620This is a party that has literally pushed propaganda and discipline amongst everyone, and they don't like dissenting views.
00:48:56.900And that's why they've been so easily convinced that they can crush conservative views on social media and cancel people because they do it all the time in their own party and nobody pushes back.
00:49:08.940So I love to watch what's happening right now.
00:49:47.700This alternate universe, this sliding door, and it will slide back closed again just as soon as they decide who the Democratic nominee will be.
00:49:58.240Up next, wait until we hear what Ezra Klein admitted to on a podcast yesterday.
00:50:06.200As we mentioned, President Biden is preparing for his so-called big boy press conference.
00:50:10.780I'm telling you, this reminds me, I have a dentist, and I like my dentist.
00:50:14.140But every time I went in, I did Invisalign not long ago, and every time I went in for a checkup, I'd say, how much longer?
00:50:22.180And he'd go, just another month if you're a good girl.
00:50:25.000And then I'd go back and he'd be like, you've been a good girl, so you're going to get him up.
00:50:28.860And I went home to Doug, and I'm like, Doug, I don't know what to say to him.
00:50:32.280And he said, you just got to look at him, and you've got to say, you're going to have to find a different way of speaking to me.
00:50:37.340So I'm like, I'm doing it the next time I'm doing it.
00:50:39.740So I went in, and I was all set to say this line to the dentist.
00:50:42.240But then he was so full of effusive praise of how well I'd been wearing the Invisalign and how I got it over and done with in four months, I didn't have the guts to say it.
00:50:50.900And then Doug went into the dentist, same dentist, and said, gee, she loved the Invisalign so much, maybe I should get the Invisalign.
00:50:57.680And, you know, she just was such a big fan.
00:51:00.940And the dentist said, that's because she was a good girl.
00:52:51.840And so says a watchful and very worried nation now.
00:52:57.060OK, well, while Scarborough waxes poetic about the grave threats of Donald Trump, who he supported his entire campaign for the White House was only when he found out reportedly that he wasn't going to be the vice presidential nominee or in the president's cabinet that he turned on him.
00:53:17.200OK, it seems that many people in the media have failed to recognize one of the most troubling aspects of the whole story, and that is his hypocrisy, his ongoing lying.
00:53:30.140People like Scarborough and that of the press and the Democrats, the American people continue to be lied to daily over and over again.
00:53:38.820We are seeing examples of the politicians, these are Democrats, the media and the president's backers saying one thing in private and something very, very different in public from the people who attended the president's fundraisers and didn't say a word about how feeble he was.
00:53:53.340We went over that to the so-called leaders of this country.
00:53:56.140As we reported in our first hour, Politico reporting, that Speaker Emerita, as Nancy Pelosi calls herself, has privately suggested to some half a dozen lawmakers that President Biden's not going to win and he should step aside.
00:54:14.400The New York Times' Ezra Klein dropped this bombshell.
00:54:18.640The New York Times, that's the one who just did the unfit, scary, all caps.
00:54:23.700All right, there, Ezra Klein just dropped this bombshell on the Bulwark podcast that top Democrats tell him, off the record, of course, they don't actually see Donald Trump as an existential threat.
00:54:38.320I think it is clear, like people are like weighing this set of things.
00:54:41.220Like it's, you know, it would be quite unpleasant for me personally to come out against the president as an elected official in the Democratic Party and weighing what will happen if Donald Trump wins.
00:54:50.580And saying, you know, in a revealed preference way, I can live with Donald Trump winning.
00:54:57.100And I've had people say that to me off the record, to be fair.
00:55:00.420I've had top Democrats say to me basically something like, I don't know why all these Democrats who think Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy are acting the way they are.
00:55:12.160But the reason I'm acting the way I am is because I don't – who the fuck is this?
00:55:17.280Who the fuck thinks about out of your sources, Ezra?
00:55:19.480I'm about to be in leaking text mode over here myself.
00:55:28.320I find it maddening, but I do find it consistent, right?
00:55:33.500I do find it to be a – look, you can say this is true in a lot of things, right?
00:55:39.180It's a charge Republicans always throw at liberals, which is that if they really believe climate change is such a problem, they wouldn't fly on planes.
00:55:52.080So they lifted the dress up, Rick, and under there they found a bunch of Democrats who are ready to vote Trump or at least don't really find him that big a problem.
00:56:01.680Yeah, they're undermining their message.
00:56:03.400They're saying their message is not working.
00:56:05.280Look, what you're missing through all of this conversation, Morning Joe and all the others, they're not talking policies.
00:56:33.220We knew that Joe Biden was absolutely declining, and yet they decided to tell us that we were all cheapfakes and they were going to have their primary anyway.
00:56:44.720And anyone who challenged him got silenced.
00:56:48.520I had a Wall Street Journal reporter yesterday tell me when I was pushing back on this whole narrative that she suddenly now sees what's going on.
00:56:59.600And I said, oh, please, you have been watching this train wreck for years.
00:57:04.420This is about you and the media as much as it's about Joe Biden.
00:57:49.280I believe, one, you wouldn't have Joe Biden at the top of the ticket because he would have been, you know, gone through some sort of scrutiny in the beginning.
00:57:58.000We wouldn't even have Kamala Harris because if you're a California politician, you're never scrutinized.
00:58:34.840There's a whole bunch that needs to change.
00:58:37.220I think the older journalists know this, but we've got a generation of young journalists who are absolutely terrible at doing real journalism.
01:00:23.620And it has made me want to rethink a lot of the Biden biography.
01:00:29.780I still can't believe he ran for president in the first place, given that his family was in crisis in 2018.
01:00:35.340That I look, you look at what has happened.
01:00:37.660I can't believe he put his family through this.
01:00:39.480And and now looking at his behavior now in clinging to this, I, you know, I think the entire narrative on Joe Biden is going to change and that he was he's always been everything has been about his ambition and his ambition comes first.
01:01:27.200They are big mad that they are losing.
01:01:30.640They thought they they could, you know, do a covid style, you know, shakedown of the American people once again by pretending like Joe Biden is there.
01:01:41.400And then they handed to Kamala, they were caught.
01:15:08.540And you may not remember this, but you said something self-deprecating like, you know, I haven't really covered any national, you know, international stuff.
01:16:31.000I mean, all of the scenarios in front of us are crazy.
01:16:34.360And, I mean, even the least, you know, even the most likely scenarios are going to be extraordinary.
01:16:41.600So, yeah, this is a great time to be in the business, no matter what your politics are or preferences are.
01:16:47.580Just covering these big stories is a blast.
01:16:51.000Because the Dems aren't done with their lawfare against Trump.
01:16:53.920It's been gutted, but they're not done.
01:16:56.060And I still, I haven't counted Jack Smith out of taking just the things Trump's lawyer admitted at the Supreme Court argument are not official acts and filing a new indictment just based on those, something Trump can't now go back on.
01:17:11.720He's got to admit that those were not official acts, so there's no immunity, and try to indict him and go forward with a jiffy quick trial with a very friendly judge to the prosecution before, it's not going to happen before November, but before inauguration.
01:17:25.240That's, before J6, that's what they're looking to do.
01:17:28.600So, all the action won't be on the Dems side.
01:17:30.760There's still going to be some action over on the GOP side, because the Dems are going to go down swinging.
01:17:36.160I want to tell you, this just hit from NBC News and reporter Amanda Turkle, who reports as follows.
01:17:42.620Several of Biden's closest allies, including three people directly involved in the re-election efforts, tell, and then she named three reporters,
01:17:51.500they now see his chances of winning as zero.
01:17:56.780These are several of his closest allies.
01:19:13.460I mean, look, is there a tiny chance that he just against all the advice, against all the urgings, he puts his head down and grinds it out to the convention?
01:19:41.400The language which says in good conscience, we delegates have pledged to vote for Joe Biden.
01:19:46.580And, well, that's a pretty big loophole, because in good conscience, if you think that the guy's not up to the job and your conscience doesn't allow you to vote for him, you know, that's a pretty big out.
01:19:59.500But I think if necessary, the Democrats are prepared to to go there because they have a very strong survival instinct.
01:20:08.580The Democratic Party, like any political party, you saw this in 2020 when they almost inexplicably nominated Bernie Sanders.
01:20:16.160To be the nominee, which was I thought would have been political suicide heading into that election.
01:20:21.920Just given the realities of the politics, I thought Trump would have, you know, would easily beaten him.
01:20:29.520But they came to their senses and belatedly, you know, kind of rallied around Joe Biden, who was viewed as, well, he's not, you know, that far left.
01:20:55.680And you as a lawyer and a former Supreme Court watcher and a current Supreme Court watcher.
01:21:00.940You know, this doesn't get enough attention.
01:21:02.320It is terrifying to Democrats that this man, Donald John Trump, who has already appointed a third of the Supreme Court justices, may well, by the end of this drama, have appointed two thirds of the Supreme Court justices.
01:21:18.960I don't know if he's going to get three picks, but he'll get several.
01:21:22.020And that alone is terrifying when you think about from the Democratic perspective, when you think about how they view the Dobbs decision and all these other decisions and lots of, you know, lots of developments, not to mention the other judiciary further down on the bench on the court.
01:21:37.680So, yeah, this is this is really a bad time for Democrats.
01:21:42.320And I think they are determined to get them off the ticket.
01:21:46.060That's a good point about the Supreme Court.
01:21:47.640We're going to hear the din in the wake of this disaster for Sotomayor to leave the bench at what is she, 70, grow even louder than it's been right there.
01:21:56.200She's relatively young, but she's not in the best health.
01:21:58.660But I mean, it would be this is a young age for somebody to go.
01:22:02.880We heard somebody say Kagan should go.
01:22:04.780Now, Kagan is young and has a long future ahead of her, but they they just want to make sure nothing happens to their you know, they want somebody who's basically 33 to be appointed to the bench by whoever's running the show over there in the Biden White House.
01:22:20.220And right now they control the Senate.
01:22:21.620And thanks to the Republicans getting rid of the filibuster, which was in response to the Democrats getting rid of it for younger for lower court judges.
01:22:31.440The NATO leaders are speaking out now.
01:22:35.040This is via Politico behind the smiling handshakes.
01:22:37.860NATO leaders are unnerved by a weakened Biden quote.
01:22:41.000You're worried if he knows which direction he's going or whether he's going to fall or what he's going to forget, said one senior European diplomat.
01:22:49.800Just what's interesting about it is that they're talking and that the press is reporting it.
01:22:54.740And then secondly, there's this by Ed O'Keefe with CBS, who says as follows, he's gotten he's gotten his hands on the memo that's going to be shared with Democratic senators later today.
01:23:09.340The top members of the Joe Biden campaign are going over to try to show up support with them.
01:23:13.540Quote, there is no there's no indication that anyone else would outperform the president against Trump.
01:23:21.120Hypothetical polling of alternative alternative nominees will always be unreliable.
01:23:25.620And surveys do not take into account the negative media environment that any Democratic nominee will encounter.
01:23:31.400The only Democratic candidate for whom this is already baked in is President Biden.
01:23:36.820That's an interesting argument, because I do think, Bill, the press.
01:23:41.600Yes, Republican commentators will probably take shots at whoever steps in.
01:24:19.220So this even in Clooney's, you know, op ed yesterday where he said, you know, you could be the hero.
01:24:24.300So there will be this sort of gross hero worship and they'll carry him, hoist him up on their shoulders and march him around like we're winning this for Joe.
01:24:34.620And I'll tell you, the relief, the relief of just succeeding and getting Biden off the top of the ticket will translate into a an enthusiasm among Democrats, especially if it's obviously it's going to be a younger, more vigorous candidate, no matter who it is.
01:24:53.260That will translate into, yes, you know, these polls that show that, you know, that Biden's too old.
01:25:54.340On the one hand, they're embarrassed by the fact that they don't, they didn't, they didn't cover this story sufficiently.
01:26:01.540That is, you know, Biden's cognitive decline.
01:26:04.640They're angry at the, at the white house and the campaign for allegedly, uh, hiding this from the press.
01:26:12.700When I think it was pretty clear to the press and all of us that what was going on, if you look at the polls, um, they're, they're alarmed that Trump will win now.
01:26:22.120I mean, that's a big impulse in the press, but at the same time, you know, in their dark little hearts, you know, most of these folks are, or are reporters and journalists.
01:26:32.020And so they're also excited like you and I are about the prospect of covering this, but, uh, so there's, there's a real witch's brew of, of impulses that are mixing around in their heads.
01:26:43.180But yeah, they, they're, they are not happy about how they are looking and how this came out because again, and I know you've made this point on your show before you look at, you know, you talked about the foreign leaders and they're sort of saying, Hey, you know, what are we going to do with this guy?
01:27:00.140Uh, you know, you look at his recent trips to Europe when he's wandering away from the Italian prime minister, when he's, you know, doing all these things.
01:27:07.480And, and we were told you haters, you terrible haters.
01:27:12.440He was obviously looking at the guy parachuting or George Clooney, George Clooney, the host of the biggest democratic fundraiser in American history, gave this guy $30 million.
01:27:26.340George Clooney now says, yeah, he was every bit as bad at the fundraiser as he was at the debate.
01:27:34.240Well, then why didn't George Clooney tell us that?
01:27:37.240Didn't he have an obligation to tell us that until, you know, he waited until after it became manifestly obvious to all of us by watching that debate.
01:27:45.620Now he comes out after, you know, by the way, two or two weeks plus after that debate and says, yeah, actually guys, he was like that.
01:27:53.740What were we told when we saw the footage of that fundraiser when Biden was led off the stage by Barack Obama?
01:28:00.000Obama, you haters, you terrible biased haters.
01:28:03.500He was simply basking in the applause for a few moments and Biden, you know, and Obama kind of, you know, put his arm around him.
01:28:24.640No, it was an extraordinary thing to say, but he saw how extraordinary the situation was and he had to cover his own rear end by making sure I'm putting this in the report.
01:28:40.660The way I see it is they, we all knew he was at an eight.
01:28:44.120The only thing we learned that night was he he's at a 10 on this, you know, infirmity scale.
01:28:49.300So, okay, I'll give the media some outrage over the last two points, but those who didn't report this story when he was at an eight have no right.
01:28:58.520They've lost their standing to complain.
01:29:07.840They know whatever happens at the presser, but day after day, he's what he's always been, but especially over the past three years, a gaffe machine.
01:29:15.780Here he is last night at the White House NATO dinner.
01:30:44.880I know I have empathy for his condition and position as a human.
01:30:49.040And I do, I do put most of the blame on his wife, I have to be honest, his family, because I've had family members deteriorate.
01:30:58.500And once they've, they've deteriorated, it's hard to say the decision making should be on them.
01:31:04.580There comes a point in time, and I believe he's there, where the decision making has to be made by those around the person who truly love them and want to see what's best for them.
01:31:13.180Um, and Jill, Jill Biden wasn't elected to do first what's best for the country.
01:31:18.220She's elected to do what's best for him, you know, in, in, in their marriage vows that she elected that for that.
01:31:24.280It's just deeply wrong that she's not doing it.
01:31:27.040Um, I'll say this bill, this just broke from the times.
01:31:33.800Biden's advisors in the administration and the campaign, at least two of whom have told allies, they do not believe he should keep trying to run for a second term,
01:31:41.840have said they'd have to convince the president of several things to get him to drop out one.
01:31:48.720Uh, they would have to make the case to the president who remains convinced of the strength of his campaign that he cannot win against Trump.
01:31:56.340They would have to persuade him to believe that another candidate like Harris could beat Trump.
01:32:04.260Biden that should he step aside, the process to choose another candidate would be orderly and not devolve into chaos in the democratic party.
01:32:12.620And on the subject of number two, I mean, it is pretty interesting.
01:32:16.420Like could Kamala Harris beat Trump and will Joe Biden lose?
01:32:22.880You know, there was, um, there was a Washington times, uh, poll, sorry, Washington post poll that just came out today that had just a sliver of good news for Joe Biden.
01:32:35.060But the post admits that its own poll is an outlier.
01:32:42.120And it said that, um, put this race at a dead heat, 46, 46 doesn't have the battlegrounds, uh, but it does say it points out that across eight other post-debate national polls tracked by the post, Trump is leading by 3.5 percentage points.
01:33:00.420So that's the kind of thing that's the Democrats who want him gone.
01:33:13.380And, you know, I think the, the, the, you're right.
01:33:15.580The post was, uh, and they acknowledged they were a bit of an outlier when it came to the just top line, you know, who's, who's ahead.
01:33:23.120I think it was 46, 46, uh, in the poll Trump and Biden, but you're right about the Harris thing.
01:33:29.340And, and here's the, here's the move for Harris because look, it is very likely that Joe Biden,
01:33:35.720like we've discussed, is going to probably end up getting off the top of the ticket.
01:33:39.360So then the question becomes who's going to be the standard bearer.
01:33:42.440And I agree that with a conventional wisdom that the default position or certainly the, the, the, the favorite you'd have to give her that status, uh, would be Harris.
01:33:54.280She has the institutional, uh, you know, uh, legitimacy to, to an extent, uh, that the others don't.
01:34:02.420She has the war chest and on and on and on, but I think Harris is also aware of what everyone else is aware of and what everyone else is talking about, which is to say her weak points.
01:34:16.820Uh, she wasn't considered a very particularly good vice president.
01:34:20.720And so I think to compensate for those or to mitigate those coming out of the gate, um, I think it would behoove her to very quickly, if not immediately select a vice presidential running mate for herself.
01:34:37.200Now, from among the top tier of people who are otherwise being considered as possibly the next, uh, top of the ticket, like Andy Beshears, the governor of, uh, Kentucky, or if you want to go with an all woman ticket, you know, Gretchen Whitmer or governor of Michigan or whomever it is.
01:34:54.620If you, if you, if you co-opt one of those, uh, other sort of top tier people that are being considered, you take some of the wind out of the sails of the camp that says, well, let's not do a coronation with Harris.
01:35:09.280Let's, you know, let's make it an open convention.
01:35:13.540Uh, and I think even Harris from her perspective has to sort of go along with that thinking to, uh, to an extent she has to, in other words, she'd love a coronation, but she also knows the optics of a coronation probably aren't going to fly.
01:35:26.280So she'll have to at least play along with some sort of a, a, a, a token comp, uh, a, a, a token competition.
01:35:34.260And I think she would go a long way if she would again, co-opt somebody that's more likable than herself.
01:35:40.000And by the way, from that person's perspective, whether it's Bashir, whether it's Whitmer or whomever, I think a lot of these people whose names are being talked about as possible, uh, you know, presidential candidates at this late stage are loath to be the person that elbows aside the African American woman within the democratic party.
01:36:03.360So I think they might look at this and say, you know, it might be the path to the presidency, which is where I want to get to might be better through the vice presidency.
01:36:14.140If I get on the ticket, I don't have to be seen as the heavy and knocking, you know, the, the, the, the black woman aside.
01:36:20.840And, you know, I'm poised after she's done with her presidency, assuming she wins, that's a big if, uh, that, that, that, you know, I'd be, you know, next in line to run for the thing.
01:36:31.520So I think that for the calculations, it's going through everybody's head.
01:36:34.800Um, the, on the subject we're discussing for the New York times is just breaking the Biden campaign is quietly testing Kamala's chances to beat Trump.
01:36:42.740If Biden were to set a step aside, that's the Biden campaign doing that.
01:36:46.880Now I'm sure they're doing it for two reasons.
01:36:48.420Number one, they need it pursuant to the times reporting to convince Joe Biden to step aside.
01:36:53.440They need something to show him she's polling better than you are against him.
01:36:57.620And number two, they want to know themselves whether she can do it.
01:37:01.880Uh, this breaking as Axios is now reporting that president Biden is poised to face a sudden flood of new statements from house Democrats, urging him to exit the race, regardless of what happens at his NATO big boy presser tonight, according to more than half a dozen lawmakers.
01:37:20.140This isn't, this didn't go the way the white house wanted it to go this week.
01:37:23.920They had a period where things were looking a little better and it was all downhill from there.
01:37:28.380Bill, I'll give you the last word on where you think we'll be 72 hours from now.
01:37:32.940Well, I think, uh, he may be out in 72 hours and I think the democratic party, you know, looking at the trauma that is ahead of them, they may, if they're going to go through all that trouble and all that pain, they may be willing to go the extra yard and say, yeah, we're not going to coronate Kamala Harris because we're not going to go through all this trouble to end up with someone that we think is also going to lose.
01:37:54.000So if they conclude that she's not electable either, they'll, you know, take their chances with offending black voters and skip over her, maybe put a Westmore or some other African-American at the top of the ticket, but they don't want to go through all this trouble and trauma just to lose anyway.
01:38:08.980That's exactly right. I mean, they, they, they need to win. That's what they want more than anything. And not just the white house. They need to hold on to the Senate, which as you point out is extremely unlikely and possibly take the house. And they, they're just, I don't see their, them going down without swinging just because they don't want to offend the, the Kamala Harris fans.
01:38:30.040There are ways of appeasing those people without elevating an equally unelectable person. Bill Salmon. What a time. Please come back soon.
01:38:41.540All right. We're going to be watching the big boy press conference tonight. We'll bring you your big boy news tomorrow with Michael Knowles, plus a deep dive on what the polls are actually showing. See you then.
01:38:54.360Thanks for listening to the Megan Kelly show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.
01:39:00.040Thanks for listening to the Megan Kelly.