Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: This is a.
Speaker 1: Special weekend bulletin edition of Countdown. I do not see
Speaker 1: how this is going to get any better, and I
Speaker 1: do not see how this story is going to go away.
Speaker 1: And I do not see how this answer suffices.
Speaker 2: If you stay in and Trump is elected and everything
Speaker 2: you're warning about comes to pass, how will you feel
Speaker 2: in January? I feel, as long as I gave it
Speaker 2: my all, I did to good a job as I
Speaker 2: know I can do. That's what this is about.
Speaker 1: I don't know what other answer there is to that question.
Speaker 1: How would you feel if you lose to Trump and
Speaker 1: America dies? Maybe the answer is no, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to lose. I guarantee you I am not going to lose.
Speaker 1: But that answer in the Friday interview with ABC News
Speaker 1: is harrowing at times. While President Biden spoke coherently and
Speaker 1: energetically and crisply on ABC and at a rally in Madison, Wisconsin, Friday,
Speaker 1: the early signs nevertheless became a parent of an organized
Speaker 1: effort among key elected Democrats to convince the President to
Speaker 1: retire from the ticket, and unlike previous overtures and feelers
Speaker 1: and whispered doubts. This one resonates like the crack of
Speaker 1: doom in the distance because it is on the record.
Speaker 1: The Washington Post now reports that on Monday, Senator Mark
Speaker 1: Warner Virginia, possibly the least controversial and most knows to
Speaker 1: the grindstone Democrat in the Senate since Biden himself left
Speaker 1: for the vice presidency, has told his colleagues that Biden
Speaker 1: has to go, and that he has organized a meeting
Speaker 1: with at least some of them on Monday, and ultimately
Speaker 1: wants a group of them to go to the White
Speaker 1: House to talk with the President directly and in person.
Speaker 1: Quoting Warner is telling Democratic senators that Biden can no
Speaker 1: longer remain in the election in the wake of his
Speaker 1: faltering debate performance. Warner has told that he is deeply
Speaker 1: concerned that Biden is not able to run a campaign
Speaker 1: that could beat Trump. No other names are mentioned. The
Speaker 1: Post sources say Warner would not limit the meeting to
Speaker 1: other Democratic senators who want Biden to go if there
Speaker 1: are others beyond the record. Statement to the Post by
Speaker 1: Senator Warner spokesman Rachel Cohen is ominous, to say the
Speaker 1: least quote like many other people in Washington and across
Speaker 1: the country, Senator Warner believes these are critical days for
Speaker 1: the president's campaign, and he has made that clear to
Speaker 1: the White House. Unquote. One of the other ripples in
Speaker 1: the water after what is to me, frankly a shocking story,
Speaker 1: is that behind the leak about Warner's doubts is what
Speaker 1: he wants to do next. This idea of going as
Speaker 1: a group of Democratic senators to the White House and
Speaker 1: again quoting the Post, use that for hum to air
Speaker 1: candid concerns in person. That line and similar lines in
Speaker 1: similar stories about Warner by NBC News, at in Politico,
Speaker 1: and at punch Bowl News. He immediately invokes the legendary
Speaker 1: march to the White House on August seventh, nineteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: when Senator Barry Goldwater, Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott House
Speaker 1: Minority Leader John Rhodes went there to tell Richard Nixon
Speaker 1: that he was certain to be impeached, convicted, and removed.
Speaker 1: He resigned the next night. If the analogy were not
Speaker 1: both solid and brutal enough, there's something else in the
Speaker 1: post piece that makes my blood run cold. Quoting there's
Speaker 1: a growing consensus among Senate Democrats that the situation with
Speaker 1: Biden at the top of the ticket is untenable, and
Speaker 1: senators are trying to determine the best way to relay
Speaker 1: that message to an insulated president. This is the operative part,
Speaker 1: the chilling part. Some senators don't believe Biden has people
Speaker 1: around him who are giving him an accurate picture of
Speaker 1: the fallout. According to one Democratic senator and a senior
Speaker 1: Democratic aide, unquote, if you saw the Stephanopolis interview, you
Speaker 1: might tend to agree that he is not getting an
Speaker 1: accurate picture of the fallout. Worth is not enough to
Speaker 1: indicate that the president's rally and interview may not encourage
Speaker 1: those of us who care deeply for him, or just
Speaker 1: those of us who care deeply for the nation. There
Speaker 1: is another meeting about the president's viability on Sunday, NBC
Speaker 1: News reporting the leader of the Democrats in the House,
Speaker 1: Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, we'll meet virtually with the ranking
Speaker 1: Democratic members of all the congressional committees. In that report,
Speaker 1: though there is less to indicate that Jeffries is doing
Speaker 1: more than just sounding out his colleagues, whereas Senator Warner
Speaker 1: is clearly advocating for change in presidential candidates. As he
Speaker 1: left Wisconsin Friday afternoon, President Biden was asked on the
Speaker 1: tarmac if he had completely ruled out dropping out.
Speaker 2: Fearing that out, and I've gotten more gun than any
Speaker 2: president has. Do you learn a Congress? But you've been
Speaker 2: wrong about everything so far. You're wrong about twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: You're wrong about twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get wiped out.
Speaker 2: Remember the red wave. You're wrong about twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: He said, all the tough face, we're gonna be one
Speaker 2: involved two. So look, we'll see. Have you spoke the
Speaker 2: members of Congress I have who have spoken to you
Speaker 2: at least twenty What are they telling you?
Speaker 1: What are they telling you?
Speaker 2: Sir? Telling me to stay in the race.
Speaker 1: They're gathering together to.
Speaker 2: Holloce, Well, what born of mind? Stand? Is the only
Speaker 2: one who considers you that no one else has called me?
Speaker 2: You got? Do you tell you than your president? Coming together?
Speaker 2: I hope they'll debate me. I'll reim the meeting one
Speaker 2: committee now absolutely, whether he's in or no.
Speaker 1: Do you call you the thoughts of the members of
Speaker 1: your own party when it comes to your decision to say.
Speaker 2: Sure, I do. That's why they've said. Read I saw
Speaker 2: the governors. Everyone I'm in that room. Lawla's governor said,
Speaker 2: stayed the race. I'm Mary war Haley. Didn't say anything
Speaker 2: when I was in a room.
Speaker 1: That was not a random reference there to Mara Healey,
Speaker 1: the governor of Massachusetts and a strong and loud Biden ally,
Speaker 1: who just six weeks ago headed a giant fundraiser there
Speaker 1: and urged donors to pull out all the stops for
Speaker 1: Joe Biden. Even before the Mark Warner news broke, Healey
Speaker 1: issued a remarkable on the record statement Friday afternoon in
Speaker 1: which she did not explicitly call for the president to
Speaker 1: drop out, but she came close, quoting, the best way
Speaker 1: forward right now is a decision for the President to
Speaker 1: make over the coming days. I urge him to listen
Speaker 1: to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains
Speaker 1: our best hope to defeat Donald Trump. Whatever President Biden decides,
Speaker 1: I am committed to doing everything in my power to
Speaker 1: Donald Trump unquote. According to The New York Times, on Monday,
Speaker 1: on a call with fellow Democratic governors, Healey called the
Speaker 1: president's political position quote irretrievable. CBS News reported that while
Speaker 1: the President continues to insist he will not withdraw, there
Speaker 1: is an unexpected phenomenon in the background that a consensus
Speaker 1: is forming that no other prominent Democrat would even privately
Speaker 1: begin to prepare to challenge Vice President Kamala Harris's natural
Speaker 1: position as the heir apparent if it comes to that that,
Speaker 1: as Robert Costa of CBS added, let the fight be
Speaker 1: over the running mate. That there is something to this
Speaker 1: was indicated by twenty eight stunningly glowing paragraphs at Axios
Speaker 1: on Friday titled Harris's Epic Edge all Glowing, including this quote.
Speaker 1: Polls show her running no worse than Biden in a
Speaker 1: hypothetical matchup with Trump, and in some cases better. A
Speaker 1: post debate CNN poll found Harris in a statistical tie
Speaker 1: with Trump and slightly stronger than Biden because of broader
Speaker 1: support from women. Fifty percent of female voters back Harris
Speaker 1: over Trump versus forty four percent for Biden, and independence
Speaker 1: forty three percent Harris versus thirty four percent Biden. That
Speaker 1: is the attempt to start, if one had not already
Speaker 1: begun a Kamala Harris boom. Meanwhile, the irony of the
Speaker 1: ABC interview with George Stephanoppolos was there was damn near
Speaker 1: no news in it. At his Wisconsin rally just before
Speaker 1: the interview, Biden said he would beat Trump in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Then after applause, he corrected the timeframe. He made about
Speaker 1: one thirtieth the average number of gaffes Trump makes per rally.
Speaker 1: That gaff did not come up in the ABC interview.
Speaker 1: It's not a big enough one to merit here. The
Speaker 1: only real news was when the president was asked if
Speaker 1: he had watched last week's debate and he said he
Speaker 1: didn't think he had. The only real news besides that
Speaker 1: disturbing sound by it at the beginning of this update.
Speaker 1: There is one more and one much more vague development
Speaker 1: to mention hints that if Biden does drop out and
Speaker 1: Harris does succeed him, that Republicans are poised to open
Speaker 1: a House investigation into the president's health, whether a correct
Speaker 1: assessment of it is being hidden or has been hidden
Speaker 1: from the public, and if so, by whom, and naturally enough,
Speaker 1: how much did Kamala Harris know about whatever conspiracy the
Speaker 1: GOP fabricates this time. It is harrowing stuff and something
Speaker 1: to consider. On the other hand, it seems, based on
Speaker 1: the ludicrous proposition that if Joe Biden were to fully
Speaker 1: swerve out of this skid tomorrow and by Tuesday, if
Speaker 1: all talk of replacing him on the ticket became part
Speaker 1: of a scenario in which we looked back with a
Speaker 1: shutter and said, remember that time we almost forced the
Speaker 1: president off the ticket just before he won reelection. If
Speaker 1: that rosiest of outcomes occurred, why on earth would anybody
Speaker 1: think that the Republicans wouldn't launch House committee to investigate
Speaker 1: the president's health anyway, only the target would change from
Speaker 1: Harris to Biden. Lastly, here is my assessment of where
Speaker 1: things are now after the rally in Wisconsin and the
Speaker 1: interview with George Stephanoppolis of ABC News. And again the
Speaker 1: differences in the Warner and Healey stories, their importance, their
Speaker 1: precedence over the Wisconsin rally and the ABC interview, those
Speaker 1: are about the on the record nature of these statements.
Speaker 1: Heeey literally on the record, and Warner, for all intents
Speaker 1: and purposes, essentially on the record. That story did not
Speaker 1: go out to multiple news organizations by accident. I love
Speaker 1: Congressman Raoul Grajalva but Raoul telling Biden to go is
Speaker 1: nothing close to as important as Mark Warner organizing disaffected
Speaker 1: Democratic senators who think it is so bad that now
Speaker 1: their reelections may be impossible, and who want to go
Speaker 1: to the White House and try to personally pierce they
Speaker 1: perceive as a bubble around the president. Secondly, we should
Speaker 1: not for a moment subtract the human equation here. For
Speaker 1: Joe Biden or the first Lady or members of the
Speaker 1: family to accept the idea that he should withdraw from
Speaker 1: the ticket to end his presidency now or in January
Speaker 1: is to jump a long way down the psychology spectrum
Speaker 1: to accept that their lives in public service are over.
Speaker 1: This would also be true of everybody working in his administration.
Speaker 1: I am not suggesting this is more important than the democracy.
Speaker 1: I'm just suggesting we need to remember it is a
Speaker 1: factor in these decisions. Thirdly, there is a reality in
Speaker 1: the wake of the ABC interview and the Wisconsin campaigns
Speaker 1: beach Friday that really only hit after both were concluded.
Speaker 1: The reality is this, no matter the absence of a
Speaker 1: real faux PA and the strength he summoned in many
Speaker 1: of his comments of these things, is going to answer
Speaker 1: the questions raised by the debate. He had a teleprompter
Speaker 1: in the speech, he had a pre recording in the
Speaker 1: ABC interview. He needs to be live, plus what he's
Speaker 1: going to do one of these every day. You and
Speaker 1: I may loathe this reality. We may curse the forces
Speaker 1: responsible for it, and rightly ask why Trump is not
Speaker 1: being subjected to this level of scrutiny by the media,
Speaker 1: when if it were to be applied to him, he
Speaker 1: would be out of the race before I finished this podcast.
Speaker 1: We may hate this, and I think rightly so, and
Speaker 1: damn the reporters to hell who have let it happen,
Speaker 1: but it is the reality. We cannot fix a fatally
Speaker 1: broken political system, and we cannot fix a perhaps even
Speaker 1: more fatally broken media system, led by places like CNN
Speaker 1: and The New York Times falling apart as we watch them.
Speaker 1: We certainly cannot do that in the next one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty odd days. They should be driving the head
Speaker 1: of the Federalist Society into the ground for threatening everybody
Speaker 1: who opposes his American Revolution, threatening them with violence. They
Speaker 1: should be joining me in a call to designate the
Speaker 1: Federalist Society as a terrorist organization. They should be hounding
Speaker 1: Trump off the Republican ticket for pretending to deny he
Speaker 1: has anything to do with Project twenty twenty five, which
Speaker 1: is run by all his former staffers and the Federalist
Speaker 1: Terrorist Society. Guess what they won't. These American reporters are
Speaker 1: the ones we have here. They are going to do this.
Speaker 1: They don't give a damn about fairness or balance. They
Speaker 1: have no idea of how fragile democracy is. They have
Speaker 1: always wanted to see all of them a president resign
Speaker 1: or bow out of a campaign because they have all
Speaker 1: at some point wanted to be Woodward and Bernstein, except
Speaker 1: for Woodward and Bernstein, and the two of them, guess
Speaker 1: what they would like to again be Woodward and Bernstein.
Speaker 1: A Joe Biden rehab tour is simply not going to
Speaker 1: work because it's not going to end because he already
Speaker 1: did a Joe Biden rehab tour in February and March.
Speaker 1: When this question last crested. This an incredibly large percentage
Speaker 1: of Democrats and Independents and voters and reporters and commentators
Speaker 1: thought had been settled by his robust performance at the
Speaker 1: State of the Union to need a second Joe Biden
Speaker 1: rehab tour is the problem, especially since the White House
Speaker 1: waited a week to even start it. How do we
Speaker 1: know this one's going to stick? The last one clearly
Speaker 1: did not, Which lastly raises the two questions I think
Speaker 1: we all need to ask ourselves, and I raised them
Speaker 1: in sorrow. Do you want President Biden at that debate
Speaker 1: two months from this coming Tuesday? And regardless whether you
Speaker 1: answer yes or no, there is also this in that
Speaker 1: span from now until two months from Tuesday, barring unforeseen developments?
Speaker 1: Do you want the lead news story, and often the
Speaker 1: only news story between now and then, to be how
Speaker 1: the President seemed today? Followed the day after that? Bye?
Speaker 1: How the President seemed today? Followed the day after that? Bye?
Speaker 1: How the President seemed Today? The next scheduled countdown podcast
Speaker 1: is Tuesday Bulletins, as developments warn't until the next one.
Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Howtown
Speaker 1: with Keith Alderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.