The fact that this Washington Post Ipsos poll shows
a dead heat,
46% to 46%. Polls have been all over the place.
A lot of the media polls have been bad,
but this poll today will be one that Joe Biden
will be holding up.
So I'm tied.
Show me. I've heard there's one poll that shows Kamala
is.
I'll tell you, I've seen a ton of polls
and neither Kamala nor Gavin Newsom nor any of the
other Democrats
are doing as well against Joe Biden,
are doing against Donald Trump as Joe Biden is.
I am not making the argument that he stays in
the race or goes.
I'm just saying here's an example why there's a great
divide.
Democrats who want him out will say two out of
three Americans,
Mr. President, say you are too old to serve.
You cannot win. And then Joe Biden will come back
with the same poll saying,
yeah, and I'm tied with Donald Trump.
Tied with Donald Trump even after the worst performance of
my life.
Explain that, Mike. Well, yeah,
I'll try.
Joe and Mika, you both know Joe Biden very well.
And, you know, in Joe
Biden's mind, there's a huge difference between someone trying to
push him out
and people seeking to give him the option of leaving
on his own.
That's why what you mentioned at the top of the
hour,
the possibility of a group of people who he respects,
knows, admires and even loves Nancy Pelosi,
Jim Clyburn, John Kerry, Chris Dodd,
others like that, gathering with him and talking this out
because it has to be talked out.
Because right now he's being cannibalized by his own party,
by different rumors and by different various senators and Congress
people saying,
you know, it's time for him to leave.
His problem is now one of reality and one of
perception,
both married together. The perception is among a lot of
people since the debate is that he's just too old
to serve another term.
And the problem politically is he has a strong base
of support,
oddly enough, among senior citizens,
always had had that support among senior citizens.
Anybody 7075 years old or older
is going to look at Joe Biden and think,
knowing their own lives, saying,
geez, it's possible he could die in office.
That's a reality. And that's a reality that everyone has
to deal with.
He had a tough debate.
He he's talked about it.
And Jonathan is correct this afternoon at 5:30.
That press conference is going to be vital to his
survival as a candidate for the presidency.
But before that, it's got to come down to a
group of people who know and admire him,
who he knows, knows and admire him,
people he trusts sitting down in the White House and
talking this through rather than have this political death by
cannibalization every single day.
You know, Willie,
we learned many things from the debate.
We learned that Joe Biden
obviously had had something go terribly wrong with him that
night.
And we still don't know what it was.
And as I've said before,
for those, those carnival barkers that are screaming about a
media cover up,
you find the person that saw Joe Biden like that
and,
and, and, and bring him on our show.
We'll be glad to interview him because I never saw
anything that looked like that.
But it was horrifying that night.
I say that to also say
that in even the the New York Times Siena poll,
even after that horrific display,
Joe Biden picked up independent voters even after a divided
and desolate Democratic Party torn at the seams.
While the Trump campaign is talking about a landslide,
now they are planning for a landslide.
We have a Washington Post Ipsos poll coming out this
morning that says
2/3 of Americans consider Joe Biden too old to be
president
and yet he is tied
with Donald Trump, which of course is an argument for
both sides.
Biden can say I'm tied with Donald Trump.
The other side can say,
yes, you're tied with Donald Trump despite the fact you
couldn't complete a sentence throughout an entire 90 minute debate.
So let's get somebody in there who can and just
think how badly we will beat him.
Again, that debate will go on.
But one thing that can't be debated is
a majority of Americans despise Donald Trump and find the
thought of him being in the White House
absolutely impossible to square with with their vision of what
a president should be.
That's exactly right. And that's what I mean when I
say these are two sides of good faith within the
Democratic Party who want one thing to make sure that
Donald Trump does not return to the White House.
And they have two different views about the best ways
to prevent that from happening.
Some believe it's to stay with Joe Biden.
Others believe in the unknown and they'd like to see
a plan,
I think is part of the problem.
OK, If Joe Biden steps aside,
what's your plan? And we haven't heard a definitive plan
other than handing it off to Vice President Kamala Harris,
which, of course, makes the most sense.
Others say open it up at the convention.
But still no signs, Jackie Alemany that the president is
stepping aside.
He sent that letter could not have been more clear
on Monday to congressional Democrats.
I'm not going anywhere. He actually made many of the
same points that Joe is saying this morning,
which is the longer sure this goes on,
the longer we fight this out in public,
the more it helps Donald Trump.
Let's get together, let's fight this guy.
Let's beat this guy. So what are you hearing on
Capitol Hill right now?
What we've heard is privately,
people are worried about Joe Biden.
They're worried about his age.
They may even think he needs to step aside,
but they hesitate to say it publicly.
Nancy Pelosi on this very show yesterday morning,
of course, with some innuendo,
saying he needs to make a decision soon,
talking about President Biden, to which the Biden campaign says
he did make a decision.
He sent that letter on Monday.
He's staying in. So where is that Democratic caucus this
morning?
Yeah, Willie, with that letter clearly wasn't clear enough for
people
like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
who made big news, subtle news,
but big news and a significant reframing of the conversation
on on the show yesterday.
And and her interview really sent shockwaves through the halls
of Congress,
especially,
you know, amongst Democratic aides and staffers who were all
are already on edge.
You know, there was this feeling last week when when
members were at home and were really frustrated
and felt like there was going to be some momentum
coming back into Washington,
DC to maybe have some influence and,
and try to convince Biden to potentially at least be
open to the discussion of stepping aside that that that
conversation
quieted early in the week.
Then yesterday, Pelosi sort of reopened the door there and
it looks like she's kind of paving the way for
a potential exit ramp or at least providing cover for
members for these frontliners, these vulnerable Democrats who are seeing
the polling that we're all talking about.
And perhaps, you know, polling that we're we're not seeing
internal polling that is showing some,
some really damning results for them.
As one House aide put it to me yesterday as
senior House aide,
we have no path to take back the House if
Biden remains at the top of the ticket.
And I think that's why you're now seeing
the former speaker speak out the way that that she
did again,
to to try to reframe
this conversation. She's an institutionalist.
She's someone who lives and dies by the House.
At the end of the day,
that is her priority. Democrats need four seats to recapture
the majority.
There is a lot of,
you know, happy talk publicly about getting behind
Biden's and and ultimately having Hakeem Jeffries be the speaker
of the House in a Democratic majority next year.
But I think the writing's on the wall for an
increasing amount of members that that's not going to happen
if if Biden stays at the top of the ticket.
That one of the big problems,
though, Willie, is exactly what you just referenced,
the lack of a contingency plan.
And I think that's why we're not seeing more members
come forward right now.
That is the sort of back half of this conversation
that that is troubling a lot of members.
The lack of logistical prowess,
a fear about some measures around ballot concerns in states.
If Biden were to come off the ticket and needed
to be replaced,
it could that actually logistically be done in a way
or would there have to be litigation,
legal fights like we've seen in Ohio?
And then the consensus around that candidate?
A lot of donors, these members are hearing from donors
that they want an open process and they're not necessarily
rallying behind Kamala Harris.