I just had a moment to go back over the
statement from Barack and Michelle Obama.
And they are supportive of President Joe Biden's decision not
to seek re election and they praise his outstanding track
record as president.
And yet in in the paragraph sort of buried in
this long statement, the Obamas say we will be navigating
uncharted waters in the days ahead.
But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our
party will be able to create a process from which
an outstanding nominee emerges.
Why aren't the Obamas backing Vice President Kamala Harris?
A good question.
Well, it's a good question.
There is some tension between the Obama and Biden camp
right now.
And as Senator Welch just told you here on CBS,
there is a bit of hesitation among some Democrats to
get ahead what they believe will be a truncated process
to formally make Vice President Harris the nominee.
As we detailed earlier in our conversation, Vice President Harris
has known President Obama since he was a state senator
going to San Francisco for fundraisers.
She helped him in Iowa in 2008 when he ran
for president.
There is a relationship there and I would be surprised
that if in the coming days President Obama did not
formally get behind Vice President Harris.
But there is a sense among some people close to
President Obama and President Biden that they can't be rushing
out statements because of the sensitivity Biden has about how
this has played out.
President Biden, especially as close as advisers and family members,
are unhappy that they feel he was put in a
corner to make this decision.
Often they feel his hand was forced by those close
to President Obama and for President Obama to let President
Biden have his moment with this decision.
Think about this.
President Biden knows President Obama knows that.
President Biden is now in Rehoboth Beach, DE, making the
biggest decision of his career with a statement because he's
coughing as he looks at the shore with his family,
because he's recovering from COVID.
To then start making this about Vice President Harris and
the annals of presidential history would be perhaps a step
too far because of this for sensitivity in the wake
of that debate, which so many Democrats say was disastrous.
I have been told that President Obama and President Biden
have only spoken once, maybe once more, but likely only
once, that there's a real belief that in the Biden
camp that Obama didn't play this as they would have
had hoped.
They want him to be on the trail to help
the Democrats.
But I'm not surprised that President Obama is just trying
to leave it be with President Biden, knowing he's recovering
from COVID, coughing as he makes this decision.
It's still notable.
And let me bring in John Dickerson because I'm looking
at the contract statements between the Clintons, who said there
is no greater threat than Donald Trump.
And so they wholeheartedly have put their support behind the
vice president, Kamala Harris.
The Obamas are saying that they have confidence that the
leaders of our party will create a process from which
an outstanding nominee emerges.
Is there time for the Democratic Party to go through
a process?
You know, there is time, but but every little detail
of a process that you create, even if it's a
truncated one or mini primary or whatever, every little detail
becomes something to fight over.
So, so there is an advantage to a process in
the sense that you get the rank and file to
feel like they weren't just being forced into a decision.
There are some people who wanted Joe Biden to stay.
So they already feel like the kind of a cabal.
Plus the media has forced a Goodman out of a
job that they think he should be reelected to.
And So what do you do with the people with
those bruised feelings, forcing them into a into a new
nominee right away might not soothe those feelings.
I think Bob is exactly right in the sense of
you got to also create the conditions for the party
and everyone to celebrate Joe Biden, who has just done
something that the more they celebrate what he's done, the
more of a contrast they draw to Donald Trump.
As Liz Cheney said, here's somebody giving up power, OK?
Somebody who their whole career was counted out.
So it's giving up power and moving against personal instinct,
which is I'm going to show them when they count
me out.
And, and, and it's worked for him.
And that's quite a contrast to Donald Trump, who was
so desirous to hang on to power that according to
the leaders in his own party, he inspired an attack
on the Capitol.
So to the extent that you celebrate this decision by
Joe Biden in this period of time and don't immediately
get on to Harris, it actually works to the Democratic
Party's benefit.
That's an excellent point, John Dickerson, thank you.
Want to bring in Margaret Brennan, who also has some
new reporting.
Margaret.
Well, Nora, I know we're all looking at the timeline
saying they don't have a lot of time in their
favor.
And really typically it takes about two months to vet
a vice presidential candidate is what I was told.
Some of that already underway.
It's now underway in an expedited basis.
And Democrats are all buzzing about who that could be.
And when we look at the thinking here of what
Vice President Kamala Harris has to weigh when she makes
her decision, there's the chatter about does she go all
female ticket with Governor Whitmer or does she also take
into consideration the idea that perhaps she should pick a
lawmaker?
And if she picks a lawmaker, she can't pick one
from a state with a Republican governor because they would
lose that very, you know, narrow majority they have.
So there are all these little factors that are being
weighed by the vice president at this time.
And certainly we know some of the names.
There are no surprises on this list.
But when you hear, for example, Mark Kelly, the congressman
or the, excuse me, the senator from Arizona, does that
speak to Kamala Harris, the vice president, in a way
that says we can put gun violence at the top
of the ticket as an issue?
We can put someone who has, you know, a competitive,
there's a competitive Senate race in that state and Democratic
governor who would likely appoint another Democrat to that spot.
Or do you go with the two governors I've heard
the most about in recent days?
Governor Shapiro at Pennsylvania, who just had a powerful speech
last Saturday and Sunday, Nora, in the wake of the
rally with the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Someone who has been vocal about the scourge of anti-Semitism
in this country also hear about Governor Beshear quite a
lot as well.
Remember the other night when we were at the convention
and Jon Tester issued his statement, being one of the
first Democratic senators to say he's got to go, but
we've got to open up this nomination process to others?
And that was the signal that there is an element
of the party that needs to know that there's a
more moderate or maybe even Western Midwestern character involved at
the top of the ticket for them going forward, that
it's harder.
He was signaling, I can't run with Kamala Harris alone
on the ticket or someone like her.
There needs to be somebody else that speaks to my
more moderate politics, my brand of politics.
And that's why you look at some of those governors
and some of those lawmakers, like Mark Kelly from Arizona,
a battleground state, you know, has a moderate bipartisan record
as an astronaut, is married to Gabby Giffords.
And you think that's the kind of person that a
Jon Tester or Sherrod Brown or Jackie Rosen in Nevada,
all facing difficult reelections this year, are going to be
comfortable campaigning within those closing three months and comfortable having
them come to their state to to campaign in ways
that perhaps she couldn't as the running mate and that
Joe Biden now couldn't.
And will the Democratic Party say we need a moderating
force, right.
Vice president has a liberal voting record.
She is from San Francisco.
Well, they look to to join the ticket, someone who
is perhaps more of a conservative Democrat like a Governor
Beshear.
Well, that is certainly what someone like Joe Manchin, the
senator from West Virginia who left the Democratic Party saying
that it no longer represents that, you know, sort of
the flavor of Democrat he once was.
He became an independent.
He had been advocating for exactly that just hours before
Joe Biden made this decision public.
But but to Ed's point, in terms of going West
to Arizona, to a border state, another way to change
that conversation perhaps a bit if they go in in
that direction.
But one of the reasons, if we remember 4 years,
if we remember back to when Joe Biden was the
nominee and, and how hard that race was, how divided
the Democratic Party was.
He was a selection of a candidate that was meant
to try to bring the very progressive part of the
party together with the centrist Democrat.
That almost doesn't exist anymore if you believe someone like
Joe Manchin.
So what flavor of Democrat are we going to end
up with?
Is definitely a very hot topic.
And the belief among men, many Democrats, is that you
cannot win with someone who is purely progressive.
And so you do need to have someone, particularly a
man, on that ticket.