As we see that playing out,
the, the context was this debate,
this New York Times report that said a a
Parkinson's specialist had visited the White House repeatedly over a
period of time.
But, but what's the dynamic right now in the briefing
room with with the media and with the with the
White House?
I think it's very tense,
honestly, because obviously the White House is on defense after
that disastrous debate performance.
They want to strengthen the
president's position to shore him up.
The media has the sent in its nostrils of real
trouble for the president and there's this issue now about
the Parkinson's specialist that you alluded to.
He's been there several times over eight months.
Is was he there to see the president?
That's really what we want the answer to.
We haven't got that yet.
There. There were certainly many things,
many questions the the public has about what's happening at
the White House,
what what is known, what is not known.
Are there are there medical issues at play here?
And I think, you know,
it's one thing for for the media to say,
hey, we're not getting these answers.
You're not answering our questions.
But these are questions and conversations being had throughout the
country right now.
Yeah. And I think that's really important.
I also think really, that's one of the reasons why
the age issue is honestly so damaging for President Biden.
It's not all about partisanship or saying one person would
be better than the other politically.
It's that the behaviour that he exhibits is familiar to
very,
very many of us who have been had older relatives,
you know, struggle some of these issues.
No, I'm not diagonal. What I'm saying is there are,
it's a familiarity for a lot of people.
Well, we had this discussion too during the Trump era,
which came down to that,
that person, woman, man, camera discussion.
Were you having urological exams too?
So these these are things that we have seen
before. It's just becoming more pronounced,
especially with, as you said,
the debate performance, this against the backdrop of what's happening
right now within the Democratic Party with more lawmakers today
saying the president should step aside.
And, and does it seem at the White House,
it doesn't seem like there's a cohesive message right now
coming out?
No, I think that is a criticism.
Now they have tried to get on offense a little
more today.
President Biden wrote this open letter to Democratic members.
He called in virtually to a meeting of members.
But really, there has been a long period that has
just enabled this democratic panic to spread.
And I don't think that has been stemmed successfully.
You mentioned the letter he called into Morning Joe today,
a letter and a phone call.
Why? Aside from George Stephanopoulos,
what, what has stopped this White House from putting the
president on camera in front of a a live audience
or in front of a live interviewer?
Well, there's no definitive answer to that.
That has been delivered. Now,
they do allude to the fact that in this week's
NATO summit,
the president is expected to give a news conference on
Thursday.
But everyone suspects that the real answer to your question,
Jim, is they're worried about another gaffe that would be
catastrophic given the flimsiness of his overall position.
Just one little misstep too is going to be magnified
eons beyond that exactly because people are now looking for
that all the time.
I have mixed up names my time,
but people aren't looking for it.
And I'm not trying to be president of the United
States either.
But there is this real scrutiny all over everything he
says now,
you know, looking at on the world stage right now,
you mentioned about the NATO summit and clearly you would
imagine the White House wants to present this unified front
through it.
So I know we're not talking with you through the
through the politics of it all,
but clearly this is something that you want to at
least project some sort of stability when you have dozens
of world leaders
in the president's backyard, right?
And there is, to be fair,
an opportunity of a kind there for the president position
himself on the world stage as a global leader,
underlining America's prestige still in multilateral organizations like NATO.
The problem comes back to what we said a moment
ago.
If there's a mistake, if there's a verbal stumble,
then the whole calculus changes.
I, I, I want to get your take on where
things stand politically though,
in the US against the batch of what we're seeing
playing out around the world right now.
We saw in the UK,
we saw the Labour Party take over.
We saw a, a centre left coalition when in,
in France. And a lot of people were saying,
well, are there are there signs,
are there indications that we can take away from what's
happening in Europe
as to what might coming down the Pike in the
US?
Is, is there a, a parallel there or this is
this just grasping at straws?
I, I think the parallel there is possibly sort of
an anti incumbent or anti establishment thing.
In the UK, for example,
the Conservatives had been in power for 14 years.
That fact alone was maybe the main reason why they
were thrown out In France.
There's this issue about like the far left has done
slightly better than the far right,
but the middle, the president's party hasn't done very well
at all.
And by the way, we have not heard
much from Donald Trump over the last week or so.
I think they're just the the Napoleon statement.
Let your let your opponent make the mistakes and sit
back and take advantage of that
100%. Stay quiet and watch the Democrats in trouble.
There it is Nile standard.
Good to see you again,
my friend. Thank you coming in.
And the final five is back right for this.