Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: The fallout from Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance is still
Speaker 2: consuming Washington. It's all anyone can talk about from the
Speaker 2: White House Press briefing room as.
Speaker 3: The President being treated for Parkinson's No, is he being
Speaker 3: treated for Parkinson's No.
Speaker 2: To congressional hearings with the US treasure Secretary in chair
Speaker 2: of the Federal Reserve.
Speaker 3: I'm Secretary, Have there been any discussions among cabinet secretaries
Speaker 3: about invoking the twenty fifth Amendment?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: In your meetings with the president, have you noticed any
Speaker 3: mental or cognitive decline?
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: Despite all those no's, the party's support for Biden looks
Speaker 2: like it's starting to crumble. On Wednesday morning, on MSNBC,
Speaker 2: former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed to be threading the needle.
Speaker 2: She didn't directly support Biden's bid. She basically said he
Speaker 2: needs to make up his mind himself.
Speaker 1: It's up to the president suicide if he is going
Speaker 1: to run. We're all encouraging him to make that decision
Speaker 1: because time is running short.
Speaker 2: To the untrained ear this might not sound like a
Speaker 2: big deal, but reporters in Washington who have covered her
Speaker 2: for years say that Pelosi speaks carefully. If she had
Speaker 2: wanted to give a full throated endorsement to Biden, she
Speaker 2: would have. And while Pelosi said that Biden should quickly
Speaker 2: decide what he wants to do, she also had a
Speaker 2: word of caution for her Democratic colleagues. Keep the debate
Speaker 2: in the family. She asked folks to air their concerns privately,
Speaker 2: at least until this week's NATO summit in Washington ends
Speaker 2: and the thirty one world leaders visiting have left town.
Speaker 2: Not everyone is listening. A handful of House lawmakers have
Speaker 2: gone on the record to call for Biden to drop out,
Speaker 2: and on Wednesday night, Vermont's Peter Welch became the first
Speaker 2: sitting Senator to directly endorse replacing Biden. Where are the donors?
Speaker 2: And all of this? Reports suggest their concern earned and
Speaker 2: George Clooney, a lifelong Democrat and heavy hitting fundraiser for Biden,
Speaker 2: wrote a guest essay in The New York Times the headline,
Speaker 2: I love Joe Biden, but we need a new nominee.
Speaker 2: So the question remains, are we at a will he
Speaker 2: won't he? Moment? In terms of Biden dropping out of
Speaker 2: the race, or is the narrative about to become? When
Speaker 2: will he drop out? And how? Today on the show,
Speaker 2: can Biden and Democrats resolved the party's biggest public fight
Speaker 2: in decades and get back in the game to beat
Speaker 2: Donald Trump? I unpack what the President has done so
Speaker 2: far to prove himself to critics and supporters During another
Speaker 2: high stakes week in Washington, I sit down with Jordan Fabian,
Speaker 2: who covers the White House and national politics for Bloomberg
Speaker 2: and has been tracing the fallout from Bloomberg's Washington bureau.
Speaker 2: This is the Big Take DC Podcast. I'm Salaamosen.
Speaker 3: Look here you're walking into well can accurately be described
Speaker 3: as a make or break weekend for Joe Biden As
Speaker 3: we enter a new week with many questions about the
Speaker 3: direction of this campaign.
Speaker 2: President Biden started this week with a full court press
Speaker 2: on his viability to serve a second term. On Monday,
Speaker 2: he sent a two page letter to congressional Democrats saying
Speaker 2: it's time to stop talking of swapping in a different candidate.
Speaker 2: Moments after he released that letter, he called into MSNBC's
Speaker 2: Morning Joe. He expressed frustration that anyone dared to question
Speaker 2: him as the party's legitimate nominee.
Speaker 3: If anything's die, I don't think I should run against me.
Speaker 2: Announced for president, challenge man to convention. It's been another
Speaker 2: critical week for Biden, set to end with a high
Speaker 2: stakes press conference Thursday evening as the NATO summit wraps
Speaker 2: in DC. To peel back the curtain on all of this,
Speaker 2: I spoke with Bloomberg White House reporter Jordan Fabian. What's
Speaker 2: the narrative that you're seeing from the White House on
Speaker 2: Biden's position in the race.
Speaker 4: The White House is saying that President Biden is staying
Speaker 4: in the race. He said that himself on multiple occasions
Speaker 4: to lawmakers, to donors, on phone calls, and in television interviews.
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody's more qualified to be president or
Speaker 2: win this race than May.
Speaker 3: The bottom line here is that we're not going anywhere.
Speaker 4: He said that he's moving forward because he believes he
Speaker 4: is the one to defeat Donald Trump, and so they're
Speaker 4: digging in their heels. While this groundswell of opposition among
Speaker 4: Democrats is continuing to mount.
Speaker 2: Biden is making his case, and on Monday, he sent
Speaker 2: a two page letter addressed to congressional Democrats doubling down
Speaker 2: on his commitment to a second term. Can you tell me,
Speaker 2: Jordan if his attempts to reassure them worked.
Speaker 4: I would say, to an extent yes, and also to
Speaker 4: an extent no. It's a bit of a combat answer.
Speaker 4: But on the yes front, you've seen Democratic leaders like
Speaker 4: Chuck Schumer and other key Democrats like the chairman of
Speaker 4: the Congressional Black Caucus, the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus,
Speaker 4: Alexandria Cassio Cortez, the leader of the Progressive Squad in
Speaker 4: the House, all come out and support of Joe Biden.
Speaker 4: And so this damn of support has kind of stopped
Speaker 4: the flood of defections that we've seen in the first
Speaker 4: week after that debate. But that being said, there's still
Speaker 4: a lot of discontent among members on Capitol Hill, donors
Speaker 4: and party officials. There was a meeting on Tuesday of
Speaker 4: House Democrats, and the members that came out of that
Speaker 4: meeting were just very dour, very depressed about what's happening.
Speaker 4: It's almost as if they know that Joe Biden doesn't
Speaker 4: really stand a chance to win November, but they're powerless
Speaker 4: to do anything about it.
Speaker 2: Why is there still pushback. Considering what Biden has been
Speaker 2: trying to get across in the last two weeks.
Speaker 4: Democratic lawmakers in some ways are just like us. They're
Speaker 4: looking at the polls. They're seeing number both nationally and
Speaker 4: in battleground states showing President Biden trailing Donald Trump even
Speaker 4: more than he was before that debate, and so they're
Speaker 4: worried that he's going to lose the November election to
Speaker 4: Donald Trump, and that would represent Democrats' worst nightmare.
Speaker 2: So what I'm hearing is that there's a theme here
Speaker 2: of a lack of unity. What's its stake for the
Speaker 2: Democratic Party? If they're not able to unite behind Joe Biden.
Speaker 4: It could be their future as a governing party for
Speaker 4: the next decade or so. You have a Republican Party that,
Speaker 4: despite all of Donald Trump's laws, being a convicted felon,
Speaker 4: saying a lot of nasty things about minorities, immigrants, etc.
Speaker 4: They've united around Donald Trump and the Republican Party at
Speaker 4: this point, and so they're moving forward in lockstep. It's
Speaker 4: not like Trump's first term, and there were still a
Speaker 4: lot of anti Trump Republicans in the fold and key
Speaker 4: positions in the House of the Senate, now you have
Speaker 4: a much more consolidated Republican Party. Meanwhile, the Democratic side,
Speaker 4: you have all these divisions over whether Joe Biden should
Speaker 4: be the standard bearer. And that's why I think you've
Speaker 4: heard this angry reaction from Joe Biden. He's saying, Look,
Speaker 4: the mission should be to beat Donald Trump in November.
Speaker 4: If you're not going to pose a challenge to me,
Speaker 4: either at the convention or you know, drive down Pennsylvania
Speaker 4: Avenue and ask me to get out of the race,
Speaker 4: then you need to stop all the talk and focus
Speaker 4: your attention on beating Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: Jordan, you follow Biden around the country the world as
Speaker 2: a White House reporter, Can you explain what is behind
Speaker 2: him holding firm on running.
Speaker 4: It's a great question, Seleyah, And it's in some way
Speaker 4: it's tough to answer because Joe Biden doesn't talk a
Speaker 4: lot about his thinking with the press so much anymore.
Speaker 4: But what we know about Joe Biden is that he
Speaker 4: is a stubborn guy. He is someone who is hard
Speaker 4: to move off of his beliefs, and his belief is
Speaker 4: that he is the only one in the Democratic Party
Speaker 4: that can beat Donald Trump. And not to mention, he
Speaker 4: is a real personal distaste for Donald Trump, and so
Speaker 4: I think all of the reaction after the debate asking
Speaker 4: him to get out and then seeing Trump glowed about that,
Speaker 4: and there were some leaked videos online about Trump kind
Speaker 4: of dunking on Joe Biden that certainly rubbed him the
Speaker 4: wrong way. He also has family members and longtime aids
Speaker 4: who you know, surrounded him for decades, and they have
Speaker 4: tended in recent years to only present Joe Biden with
Speaker 4: a lot of good news versus bad news, and so
Speaker 4: he might not be getting the full picture either of
Speaker 4: the depth of the crisis surrounding his presidency, and so
Speaker 4: he's continuing to soldier on.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about those aids and family members who were
Speaker 2: close to Biden, the people who make up his inner circle,
Speaker 2: his wife Jill, his sister Valerie, a couple of lawmakers,
Speaker 2: and aids. What do we know about the conversations that
Speaker 2: are happening in that inner circle? Do we know anything
Speaker 2: about what they're doing and talking about.
Speaker 4: There's been a lot floating out there. I think in
Speaker 4: Biden's inner circle, there's been a lot of recriminations about
Speaker 4: how that debate went. You've heard about family members like
Speaker 4: Joe Biden's son Hunter and Joe Biden blaming some aids
Speaker 4: for how that debate performance went. Some of the aids
Speaker 4: that have come under fire are Anita Dunn, who is
Speaker 4: the president's communications guru, and her husband Bob Bauer, who
Speaker 4: was also the president's personal lawyer, who was involved in
Speaker 4: debate prep. And so there's been a lot of blame
Speaker 4: being cast about. But you haven't heard anyone really in
Speaker 4: Biden's in her circle really say Joe, You've had a
Speaker 4: great career. You helped kick Donald Trump out of the
Speaker 4: White House, but it's time to go. No one in
Speaker 4: the Biden family or the inner circle saying that the messages,
Speaker 4: let's put this past us and move on.
Speaker 2: There's one name we haven't mentioned, Kamala Harris. Where is
Speaker 2: she and all of this.
Speaker 4: She's been very close by the president's sign and all
Speaker 4: of this, even as there has been talk in the
Speaker 4: Democratic Party about how she could be a great replacement
Speaker 4: for Joe Biden if he were to step aside. But
Speaker 4: the party rank and file is really coalesced on Kamala Harris.
Speaker 4: That being said, she's not really saying, hey, pick me,
Speaker 4: She's being the loyal soldier up here. Alongside Biden at
Speaker 4: July fourth celebration and at some other events and telling
Speaker 4: media and donors, I'm at Joe Biden's side, I'm as
Speaker 4: running mate. We after lect Joe, so she's staying very
Speaker 4: close to the vest as all of this plays out.
Speaker 2: After the break, what all of this means for Biden
Speaker 2: as he steps onto the world stage At the NATO
Speaker 2: Summit on Tuesday night, President Biden took the podium in
Speaker 2: a room full of power, thirty one of America's allies
Speaker 2: that make up NATO, meeting in an era when Europe
Speaker 2: seems to be coming apart.
Speaker 3: The Secretary General, leaders of NATO countries.
Speaker 2: The eyes of world leaders from each of these member
Speaker 2: nations were glued to him as he kicked off three
Speaker 2: days of meetings, even as European officials privately expressed growing
Speaker 2: doubts that he can beat Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the twenty twenty four NATO Summit.
Speaker 2: The general consensus was that Biden did okay. He was
Speaker 2: direct enforce fall and he was reading from a teleprompter.
Speaker 2: The fact that we're talking about his performance rather than
Speaker 2: his words is revealing. There's a lot at stake for Biden.
Speaker 2: The Democratic Party and the country's allies who need a
Speaker 2: US president with a strong mandate to lead. I spoke
Speaker 2: about this and what comes after it with Jordan. So
Speaker 2: this week a major NATO summit started in DC, and
Speaker 2: there's a couple of things that we're watching out for.
Speaker 2: What were the goals before Biden's debate performance, Let's start there, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Great question going into the summit. Before the debate, the
Speaker 4: big goals were to display alliance wide unity about Ukraine
Speaker 4: and get more aid to Kiev, especially air defenses as
Speaker 4: they're continuing to suffer real big damage from Russian bombing campaigns,
Speaker 4: and so that's kind of the major goal. And also
Speaker 4: again to shore up the alliance given the leadership changes
Speaker 4: on the other side of the Atlantic, where you've had
Speaker 4: an election in France that saw the left wing Alliance
Speaker 4: come to power in the Assembly and also the new
Speaker 4: UK Prime Minister, Kier Starmer taking over a new government
Speaker 4: there as well. So it's really the first time that
Speaker 4: everyone's coming together since those elections.
Speaker 2: So those are the goals before the debate performance. What
Speaker 2: are the goals of this week in the NATO summit?
Speaker 4: Now, I mean, the US is really the center of
Speaker 4: the NATO alliance, And so with a leadership crisis like
Speaker 4: we're seeing the surrounding Joe Biden, a lot of foreign
Speaker 4: leaders are very nervous about the state of US leadership,
Speaker 4: not only in the short term. With Joe Biden's state,
Speaker 4: I'm sure they're looking to see can he still do
Speaker 4: the job? Is he still capable of leading the most
Speaker 4: powerful nation in the world, but also looking forward if
Speaker 4: you're to be reelected to do the job for another
Speaker 4: four years, or is Donald Trump coming in and going
Speaker 4: to completely disrupt the NATO alliance? And he threatened to
Speaker 4: withdraw when he was president. He harangued NATO members who
Speaker 4: weren't meeting the commitment to spend two percent of GDP
Speaker 4: on defense, and so a lot of leaders in NATO
Speaker 4: are dreading that possibility and also what it might mean
Speaker 4: for Ukraine. Donald Trump has talked about Zelenski and Putin
Speaker 4: should just sit down and get a deal. There were
Speaker 4: worried that Donald Trump could takeway leverage from Ukraine. So
Speaker 4: all these issues are on the minds of leaders this week.
Speaker 2: Last week everyone said that that was the crucial week
Speaker 2: for Biden. This week, everyone has been saying that this
Speaker 2: is the crucial week for Biden. Is this a goalpost
Speaker 2: that's just going to be moved every week again and
Speaker 2: again until we get to November.
Speaker 4: You very well could be. It seems like Biden has
Speaker 4: sort of somewhat passed the first key test, which was
Speaker 4: to get past these first few days where lawmakers were
Speaker 4: back in Washington. There hasn't been a concerted effort by
Speaker 4: leaders in the House and the Senate to push him out.
Speaker 4: It's been quite the opposite that they're still divided amongst
Speaker 4: themselves about whether to do that. Looking to the rest
Speaker 4: of the week, he has the press conference at NATO
Speaker 4: on Thursday. If there's a major blunder at that press conference,
Speaker 4: that's going to pour more gasoline on the fire about
Speaker 4: these concerns about his age, fitness, and acuity.
Speaker 2: So next week is the Republican National Convention. We're going
Speaker 2: to hear a lot from the Trump campaign and Trump
Speaker 2: himself these last few days, and this week, Trump has
Speaker 2: been pretty quiet. Do you think that next week we're
Speaker 2: going to see the focus shift away from Biden and
Speaker 2: this narrative.
Speaker 4: I think you'll see it shift a bit. Yes, I'm
Speaker 4: not sure it's going to completely wipe it off. The agenda,
Speaker 4: but the fact that Donald Trump is staging the Republican
Speaker 4: Convention in Milwaukee. That's usually a time when the nominee
Speaker 4: wants to take center stage and explain his policies to
Speaker 4: the nation and get his base riled up to vote
Speaker 4: for him in the fall. And so you'll have a
Speaker 4: full week to do that. There'll be a lot of
Speaker 4: media coverage of it. And look, Donald Trump has been
Speaker 4: disciplined for the most part of the last couple of weeks,
Speaker 4: but he's someone slayh as you know from covering that administration.
Speaker 4: He does not like to give up the spotlight and
Speaker 4: he is often gonna make mistakes and say crazy stuff.
Speaker 4: And I would not be surprised if that took place
Speaker 4: next week. And so that's what makes us race so volatile,
Speaker 4: is that you have both these candidates was major questions
Speaker 4: surrounding them.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to The Big Take DC podcast from
Speaker 2: Bloomberg News. I'm Salaijamosen. This episode was produced by Julia Press.
Speaker 2: It was mixed by Blake Maples. It was edited by
Speaker 2: Aaron Edwards and Wendy Benjaminson, who provides editorial direction, with
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Ponso, Naomi Shaven and Kim Gettleson are our senior producers.
Speaker 2: Nicole biamsterbor is our executive producer. Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's
Speaker 2: head of podcasts. Please follow and review The Big Take
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