What I'm going to do is fix the tax system.
For example, we have 1000 trillionaires in America.
I mean billionaires in America,
and what's happening? They're in a situation where they in
fact pay
8.2% in taxes. If they just paid
24%, 25%, either one of those numbers,
they've raised $500 million billion dollars,
I should say in a 10 year period.
We'd be able to write wipe out his debt.
We'd be able to help make sure that all those
things we need to do,
childcare, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen
our healthcare system, making sure that we're able to make
every single solitary person
eligible for what I've been able to do with the,
with the COVID, excuse me,
with
dealing with everything we have to do with.
Look,
if
we finally beat Medicare
after you rallied your supporters that day,
some of them stormed the Capitol to stop the constitutionally
mandated counting of electoral votes.
As president, you swore an oath to quote,
preserve, protect and defend UN quote the Constitution.
What do you say to voters who believe that you
violated that oath through your actions and inaction on January
6th and worry that you'll do it again?
Well, I don't think too many believe that.
And let me tell you about January 6th.
On January 6th, we had a great border,
nobody coming through, very few.
On January 6, we were energy independent.
On January 6, we had the lowest taxes ever.
You have 80 seconds left.
My question was, what do you say to those voters
who believe that you vital it violated your constitutional oath
through your actions in action on January
6/20/21 and worried that you'll do it again?
Well, I didn't say that to anybody.
I said peacefully and patriotically.
And Nancy Pelosi, if you just watched the news from
two days ago on tape to her daughter who's a
documentary filmmaker,
they say, but she's saying,
oh, no, it's my responsibility.
I was responsible for this because I offered her 10,000
soldiers or National Guard
and she turned them down.
I had virtually nothing to do.
They asked me to go make a speech.
Look, he encouraged those folks up at Capitol Hill,
what they've done to some people that are so innocent,
you ought to be ashamed of yourself,
what you have done, how you've destroyed the lives of
so many people.
All right, Two moments that in many ways defined last
night's debate.
Donald Trump's performance included his usual stream of grievances,
along with many false and misleading claims.
However, as you saw in that first clip,
the debate was particularly rough for President Biden.
Concerns about his age, perhaps his biggest weakness according to
polls were on full display as he struggled through many
of his responses,
speaking with a soft, hoarse voice which has campaigned blamed
on a cold.
Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe.
It is Friday, June 28th.
Along with Joe, Willie and me,
we have the host of way too early White House
Bureau chief at Politico,
Jonathan Lemire, NBC News national affairs analyst John Heilman.
He's also a partner and chief political columnist at POC.
They are both at the debate side in Atlanta.
MSNBC contributor Mike Barnacle joins us and Pulitzer Prize winning
columnist and associate editor of The Washington Post and MSNBC
political analyst Eugene Robinson.
It's good to have you all on board.
I think we should begin with Joe,
Willie and me and get your reflections on the debate
last night.
Well,
I think I should start by saying
without any apologies that I love Joe Biden.
And
Jill and I will gladly debate
anybody, anytime, anyplace, anywhere
over the issue of whether Joe Biden has been the
most effective president
in passing bipartisan legislation
and expanding NATO and responding
to the rising check threat coming from China.
By flexing America's strength around China.
By having the strongest economy in the world,
bar none. The strongest economy actually relative to the rest
of the world
in 50-60, seventy years, the strongest dollar
in half a century,
the strongest military relative to the rest of the world.
I would argue, and many others would argue,
since 1945, I think
his presidency has been an unqualified success.
If, however, you
believe, as do I and as do so many people
who watch this program
and who
fear
just how dark of a place
a second Donald Trump term
will take America,
then I think it's critical
that we ask the same questions
about this man. I love,
respect and,
and who's who's public service and saving this country from
Donald Trump over the last 3 1/2 years.
I honor and always will.
I think we have to ask the same questions of
him
that we have asked of
Donald Trump since 2016. And that is
if he were CEO
and he turned in a performance like that,
would any corporation in America,
any Fortune 500 corporation in America,
keep him on as CEO
if
this were Donald Trump? Time and time again we talked
about the Goldwater.
Where is the Barry Goldwater
to walk over and tell Richard Nixon it was over?
To tell Donald Trump it was over?
And now the question is,
do Democrats need to do the same thing of Joe
Biden?
These are hard questions, but the fact is,
friends, failure is just not an option
in 2024. Failure is not an option.
So who I love, who I respect,
who I Revere for their work and their duty to
service over their lifetime really is not relevant.
It's not relevant for any of us.
It's not relevant for Democratic leaders.
It's not relevant for anyone.
The question is,
can we know Joe Biden can govern?
And again, I'll debate that issue with anyone and I
will win.
It will destroy anybody that wants to debate Joe Biden's
record
over the past 3 1/2 years.
He can run the White House.
He can run the country effectively
despite the barrage of lies that constantly come at him,
like Donald Trump's lies last night.
But can he run for president in
2024?
Donald Trump lied over and over and over and over
again,
and Joe Biden couldn't respond to any of those lies.
In fact, as the New York Times said,
he spent much of the night
with his mouth agape and his eyes darting back and
forth.
He couldn't Fact Check anything Donald Trump said,
and not only that,
he missed one layup after another after another.
He couldn't respond effectively to Donald Trump trying to overthrow
American democracy on January 6th.
He couldn't respond effectively to Donald Trump's continued stream of
lies about his own record.
And he couldn't even respond effectively on the issue of
abortion,
where for some reason he darted wildly to the issue
of immigration.
And on immigration, as I said yesterday morning,
any Democrat that can't turn to their Republican opponent
and blast them for killing the strongest,
toughest border bill in the history of America
drafted by a right wing senator
from Oklahoma
may not be up to the job.
And so
that's the question. I know people are waiting and say,
oh, and, and David Plouffe,
I have such great respect for David Plouffe.
He said we need to wait three or four days
because Donald Trump really turned off swing voters
in, in, in, in a lot of focus groups once
they saw him again.
And that makes a lot of sense.
But the door was opened so many times.
This race should not be close.
We've been asking why is this race close?
We have no idea why this race is close.
We saw last night why this race has been close
and why I fear Donald Trump will be the next
president of the United States
unless things change. And I will say,
Mika, the one thing that
I know that you believe it may have been because
he was sick.
And, and I'm, I'm open to that fact because I'll
just say I,
as I've said on the show,
I spent three hours with this man
maybe back in March, 3 hours
cogent on top of the issues,
on top of every issue around the world.
And last night he simply was not
on the biggest debate stage.
Evan, I think what surprised me and what surprised a
lot of people very close to Joe Biden is the
fact that this man always rises to the occasion.
And last night was, was sadly for him and I
believe for Democrats in this country.
And and again, if you believe
what's at stake at this election is what we believe
is at stake,
I'll even use the word tragically,
tragically did not rise to the occasion last night.
OK, so as you can see,
you won't see us spinning here on Morning Joe
at all. But let me tell you what I believe
and then we'll go to Willie.
Biden had a terrible night.
He could not land a thought,
not even in the closing statement,
which is something that's the easiest part.
Write down a few words,
go through them. Go through the thoughts.
And while I validate the chaos
and hysteria Democrats might be feeling,
anybody who cares about democracy might be feeling anybody who
cares about women's rights and our safety and our lives
might be feeling.
Totally understand that.
And at the same time as the night was over
and I was hearing you on the phone and all
our phones were exploding,
I just had this gut feeling that I'm not ready
to give up on Joe Biden.
Not even close. Joe Biden has lost more in his
life than he has won in every way,
especially politically. This man has lost and lost.
And the only time that he wins is when it
matters.
And that is, we have proof of that.
He has lost in personal ways.
He has lost and hit rock bottom in every way
possible.
And every time he comes back fighting.
So for me, watching what happened last night again,
it was terrible. It was terrible.
There's no way to spin it.
I still wonder what he's going to look like in
a week.
I wonder if he was sick.
He came out on the stage and I thought something
was wrong.
I still believe he's the best choice for this country,
even with that performance last night,
because he was standing next to a man
who represents fascism, who doesn't believe in this country and
would not even agree to the results of this election
if they were free and fair to him.
A man who was incited a riot,
A man who tried to overturn the election.
A man who's liable of sexual abuse.
A man who is a fraudster,
A man who is a convicted felon.
So many times Joe Biden has hit rock bottom.
Last night was one of them.
And I'm I'm just not going to jump to conclusions
here and jump on the hysteria train.
I am rocked a little bit by it.
Didn't like it, was really worried.
But I really, truly believe in him as a president
and as a human being.