Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. The
Speaker 1: most profound moments of American history. Of American political history, Secession, Watergate,
Speaker 1: Tea pot Dome, the resignation of Nixon, the retirement of
Speaker 1: Lyndon Johnson, all the rest share one commonality. These stories
Speaker 1: have each taken on a momentum of their own. They
Speaker 1: have each reached a tipping point when, whether quickly or imperceptibly,
Speaker 1: the other option began to disappear. The momentum in the
Speaker 1: Biden reelection story changed yesterday, and the tipping point may
Speaker 1: have been reached. Internal Democratic Party polling in the swing
Speaker 1: states that you and I were never supposed to see
Speaker 1: has leaked, and suddenly there are not six swing states
Speaker 1: that will decide whether America lives or dies, but twelve,
Speaker 1: and the President is slipping in all twelve of them,
Speaker 1: in some catastrophically. The President himself made more confused remarks
Speaker 1: at a fundraiser last night in which it seemed as
Speaker 1: if his sense of time had been lost, and Nancy Pelosi,
Speaker 1: who is if Joe Biden is not the true leader
Speaker 1: of the Democratic Party, made comments about the president about
Speaker 1: the president's acuity, about whether or not the president should
Speaker 1: undergo some kind of examination of that acuity that were
Speaker 1: so unexpected that a spokesperson later tried to walk them
Speaker 1: back with little success. To quote my friend of more
Speaker 1: than half a century from when I was the editor
Speaker 1: in chief and he was my new ace news reporter
Speaker 1: on our high school newspaper, Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer,
Speaker 1: it does feel like an energy shift in the force.
Speaker 1: I am suggesting that the events of the last twenty
Speaker 1: four hours may have made Joe Biden's withdrawal from the
Speaker 1: ticket inevitable or virtually so, and that this in turn
Speaker 1: makes tangible the second half of what might happen next.
Speaker 1: I'll review these events presently, but I want briefly to
Speaker 1: jump to that speculative finish line about the second half
Speaker 1: of what happens next and ask you if this seemingly
Speaker 1: dire inconceivable outcome is actually, in fact far better than
Speaker 1: it seems. If the President were to resolve himself to
Speaker 1: the idea that he has to retire from the ticket,
Speaker 1: it is not a great leap from that point to
Speaker 1: believe he would also see the extraordinary value of attaching
Speaker 1: the title of incumbent to Kamala Harris's name of retiring
Speaker 1: from the presidency and letting her become. As Lincoln said,
Speaker 1: clothed in immense power well before the election, it is
Speaker 1: arguable that if you feel as others feel, as perhaps
Speaker 1: President Biden already feels or will feel, that he will
Speaker 1: not be up to discharging the office six months and
Speaker 1: eighteen days from now, at the beginning of the next term.
Speaker 1: If that's true, he's probably also not up to discharging
Speaker 1: the office right now. His retirement would not, I think,
Speaker 1: be seen as a defeat, nor as the result of
Speaker 1: unseemly desperate pressure. It would be an ennobling act that
Speaker 1: would resonate in this country among those of his supporters
Speaker 1: who are wavering, and especially among independents. He would become,
Speaker 1: and would remain for as long as the nation lasts,
Speaker 1: the man who gave up the most powerful position in
Speaker 1: the world, the man who beat Trump, doing exactly what
Speaker 1: Trump refused to do, voluntarily surrendering the presidency, and not
Speaker 1: even when the law and the weight of the nation's
Speaker 1: history said he had to, but much much earlier to
Speaker 1: be a president who leaves the office he has spent
Speaker 1: his life trying to reach solely to ensure that America
Speaker 1: beats Trump again. Would enshrine Joe Biden, I believe, among
Speaker 1: the immortal presidents, And it would instantaneously transform the Democratic
Speaker 1: campaign from these exhausting months of breath held and fingers
Speaker 1: crossed and even tears for what Joe Biden has become
Speaker 1: into something historic and selfless and admirable. It would be
Speaker 1: the true sacrifice of true public servants. And then there
Speaker 1: is the practical consideration. Suddenly, the only candidate left with
Speaker 1: an age problem would be Trump, The only candidate with
Speaker 1: an uncertain grip on reality would be Trump. The only
Speaker 1: candidate to be called feeble or gaff prone or lost
Speaker 1: would be Trump. In February of this year, an ABC
Speaker 1: News poll showed that sixty percent of voters thought they
Speaker 1: were both too old to be president. On Whom does
Speaker 1: that sentiment fully fall? On? Whom does that media coverage
Speaker 1: fully fall If it is not Trump versus Biden, but
Speaker 1: Trump versus Harris, Trump versus a Democratic opponent who is
Speaker 1: nineteen years younger than he is. If Kamala Harris became
Speaker 1: the Democratic nominee today, how much older would Donald Trump
Speaker 1: seem tomorrow? If as I am suggesting here the even
Speaker 1: fuller change is made and Biden retires not just from
Speaker 1: the ticket, but also from the office. Congratulations, Madam President,
Speaker 1: you are the first woman president of the United States,
Speaker 1: the first woman of color to hold the office, the
Speaker 1: incumbent first woman president of the United States, asking the
Speaker 1: voters to validate her with a full term of office,
Speaker 1: and doing so when a principal plank of the Democratic
Speaker 1: campaign has been the Republican's assault on the rights of
Speaker 1: every woman in this country, consider that. Well, I have
Speaker 1: not seen poling on this, but I would be fascinated
Speaker 1: to learn what voters believe. The top three issues in
Speaker 1: or about the Democratic campaign happened to be the protection
Speaker 1: of the democracy from Trump certainly, abortion and other women's
Speaker 1: rights certainly, but by now among the top three must
Speaker 1: be the age and health of Joe Biden. And however
Speaker 1: we got here, who's ever fault that is saying it
Speaker 1: is not true is not going to get anything done.
Speaker 1: It pains me to phrase this in this manner because
Speaker 1: it will be no secret to you you listen to
Speaker 1: these that I love this man. But to remove his age,
Speaker 1: to remove his debate performance, to remove his teleprompter from
Speaker 1: the campaign to remove the unspoken, unresolvable fear of what
Speaker 1: problem might befall him next is to create an extraordinary
Speaker 1: space in the minds of the voters. The evil, the
Speaker 1: threat that is Donald Trump is currently being paired with
Speaker 1: the risk that Joe Biden's age is or seems to
Speaker 1: be suddenly in the minds of the voters, there would
Speaker 1: be nothing to mitigate Trump's poison. And who could elevate
Speaker 1: women's rights more than the first woman president of the
Speaker 1: United States or even the first woman likely to be
Speaker 1: president of the United States. And what else from the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party agenda could rise to the front of the
Speaker 1: voter's minds healthcare, economic growth? What will be seen clearly
Speaker 1: when nothing overshadows the campaign. As I said, each watershed
Speaker 1: moment of our history has taken on a momentum of
Speaker 1: its own and had its final turning point. And I
Speaker 1: think yesterday we reached that space in this extraordinary story.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's what Nancy Pelosi intended. I do
Speaker 1: think it is what she accomplished. Both candidates owe whatever
Speaker 1: test you want to put them to in terms of
Speaker 1: their mental acuity and their health, both of them, she
Speaker 1: said yesterday on MSNBC. She has said this before about Trump,
Speaker 1: she has now said it about Joe Biden. That she
Speaker 1: has said it about Biden cannot be ignored. Its impact
Speaker 1: cannot be ignored. And she said this, I think it's
Speaker 1: a legitimate question to say, is this an episode or
Speaker 1: is this a condition? When people ask that question, it's
Speaker 1: completely legitimate of both candidates. Wait, I think it's a
Speaker 1: legitimate question to say, is this an episode or is
Speaker 1: this a condition? If there or anything Nancy Pelosi could
Speaker 1: have said about Joe Biden that would do less to
Speaker 1: contain the issue of his acuity, I am hard pressed
Speaker 1: to guess what it could have been. And there was
Speaker 1: a third quote Pelosi said, assessments of what, if anything,
Speaker 1: to do now have been conflicting. Quote. Some are like, well,
Speaker 1: how can we subject the process to what might be possible?
Speaker 1: Others are Joe is our guy, we love him, we
Speaker 1: trust him. He has vision, knowledge, judgment, integrity. I trust
Speaker 1: his judgment. Later in the day, the Pelosi spokesperson was
Speaker 1: asked to clarify her remarks. Quote Speaker Pelosi has full
Speaker 1: confidence in President Biden and looks forward to attending his
Speaker 1: inauguration on January twentieth twenty twenty five. That statement was
Speaker 1: widely described yesterday is the cleaning up of Pelosi's remarks. Really,
Speaker 1: that was the cleanup. She suggests the president take a
Speaker 1: mental test and says it is legitimate to ask if
Speaker 1: he's had an event or he has a condition. And
Speaker 1: by the way, neither of those is a good thing.
Speaker 1: She says, all of those things, and the cleanup is
Speaker 1: one generic sentence consisting of seventeen words and jumping all
Speaker 1: the way through all the crises of the next few
Speaker 1: months to the inaugural Forgive me. If you think you
Speaker 1: have harmed Joe Biden and you need to clean up
Speaker 1: your remarks, you at least reference what the hell you said.
Speaker 1: If you don't really want to clean up your remarks
Speaker 1: and you are somehow speaking in code to Joe Biden,
Speaker 1: you say what her spokesperson said. And there were remarks
Speaker 1: by the president last night that required immediate cleanup as well.
Speaker 1: I wasn't very smart. I decided to travel around the
Speaker 1: world shortly before the debate, he said at a fundraiser
Speaker 1: in Virginia. He then described his arduous travel through fifteen
Speaker 1: time zone changes for the G seven and D day
Speaker 1: and how it affected him at the debate, quoting I
Speaker 1: didn't listen to my staff, and then I came home
Speaker 1: and nearly fell asleep on stage. What the debate was
Speaker 1: June twenty seventh. He returned from his travels on June sixteenth,
Speaker 1: and there was the Texas Congressman Lloyd Dogget, who called
Speaker 1: in no uncertain terms for Biden to step aside. Dogget
Speaker 1: said his constituents were ten to one in favor of that.
Speaker 1: He said that in the debate, instead of reassuring voters,
Speaker 1: the president failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and
Speaker 1: exposed Trump's men lies. This is one of the underrated
Speaker 1: disasters of last Thursday night. Nearly a week later, I
Speaker 1: find myself with this one image. It looked as if
Speaker 1: Joe Biden could not defend himself, that Trump was hitting
Speaker 1: him again and again. And then there are the internal
Speaker 1: Progressive polls that were leaked to Puck News yesterday about
Speaker 1: the damage to Biden's support in the swing states after
Speaker 1: the debate, and more importantly, the reality that there are
Speaker 1: now as many as six new swing states that were
Speaker 1: solidly in Biden's camp a week ago. Today, the pollster
Speaker 1: is open Labs, the progressive nonprofit that does not survey
Speaker 1: for public consumption but instead for a variety of democratic organizations.
Speaker 1: Open Labs is linked directly to Future Forward, which is
Speaker 1: a Biden campaign superpaw. Their numbers are, to say, the
Speaker 1: least disturbing. New Hampshire is now Trump by three. Virginia
Speaker 1: in the wake of the debate is Trump by one
Speaker 1: and a half. Their poll shows that President now has
Speaker 1: leads of half a point or less in New Mexico,
Speaker 1: in Maine, in Minnesota, shose that Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona,
Speaker 1: North Carolina, Georgia, and the Nebraska second District are all
Speaker 1: Trump by four or more at its seven in Michigan
Speaker 1: and in Pennsylvania. The poll in the three days after
Speaker 1: the debate showing Biden's support dropping by roughly two percentage
Speaker 1: points in all twelve of these states in a moment,
Speaker 1: and dropping by two percentage points in Colorado in Minnesota,
Speaker 1: and that if he cannot recover all of that lost
Speaker 1: because of the debate, if this is the way it's
Speaker 1: going to be, and it doesn't get any worse or
Speaker 1: better from here on in, the Democrats are looking at
Speaker 1: a loss by at least one hundred votes in the
Speaker 1: electoral College, and they also had in Open Labs and
Speaker 1: equally disturbing deep interior number. In May, one quarter of
Speaker 1: Joe Biden's twenty twenty voters surveyed told Open Labs that
Speaker 1: he should drop out. Now the company reports the number
Speaker 1: has ballooned to forty percent. It also surveyed potential substitute
Speaker 1: candidates in those swing states, the vice president, Governors Newsom
Speaker 1: and Whitmer, secretary of boodhaj Jedge. They all pull better
Speaker 1: than Joe Biden does against Trump, and they pull better
Speaker 1: than Biden in all of the swing states. Buddha Jedge
Speaker 1: would be at fifty percent or better in Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: Nebraska too, and Pennsylvania. Fifty percent or better in Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: Nebraska to Pennsylvania and Michigan. Newsome fifty percent or better
Speaker 1: in Nebraska too. In Wisconsin, Harris at fifty in Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: Biden under fifty. Everywhere. There was a less important national
Speaker 1: poll Yesterday, You Go Yahoo, Eighty four percent of their
Speaker 1: respondents thought Biden's debate grade was only poor to fare.
Speaker 1: Sixty percent said Biden is not fit to serve a
Speaker 1: second term. A month ago, the President led the UGOV
Speaker 1: poll forty six to forty four. He now trails it
Speaker 1: forty five to forty three. That is a four point collapse.
Speaker 1: Since for all practical purposes, Thursday, there is also a
Speaker 1: CNN poll. It says of all voters of all parties,
Speaker 1: seventy five percent believe the Democrats would have a better
Speaker 1: shot of retaining the White House if somebody other than
Speaker 1: Joe Biden is the party nominee, and what might be
Speaker 1: the last thrust of the dagger of history. The experts
Speaker 1: at the Campaign Legal Center explained to the website The
Speaker 1: American Prospect that if Biden does withdraw, then there's only
Speaker 1: one way for the new nominee and the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: to get full and immediate access to all the money
Speaker 1: that has been raised by the Biden for President campaign committee,
Speaker 1: and as of May thirty one, that was two hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty million dollars another thirty eight million since the debate,
Speaker 1: there's probably much more than two hundred and fifty eight
Speaker 1: million available or already booked an advertising time. The only
Speaker 1: way it could seamlessly spend all that money on the
Speaker 1: new candidate without restrictions and labyrinths and creative bookkeeping. The
Speaker 1: only way the money could go to the new candidate
Speaker 1: is if the new candidate is Vice President Harris. I believe,
Speaker 1: for good or for ill, that this corner has been turned.
Speaker 1: I am not citing sources, nor even quoting them in
Speaker 1: my own mind. Off the record, I do not have
Speaker 1: access to behind the scenes information or data. I have
Speaker 1: only a lot of experience watching the stories of my
Speaker 1: own lifetime unfold and covering many of them, and extensive
Speaker 1: study of the timelines of American history going back to
Speaker 1: our beginnings. I am deeply emotionally saddened by what I
Speaker 1: think is now inevitable, and I find it remarkable. I
Speaker 1: would have said none of this twenty four hours ago,
Speaker 1: none of it, And yet now, because of the relatively
Speaker 1: small changes, but the release of the information in the polling,
Speaker 1: the things we did not know about, how bad the
Speaker 1: damage was, it all rings true now, inevitably, inescapably, and
Speaker 1: solemnly true. Now we know why the corrupt bastards on
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court put in that little time bomb that
Speaker 1: not only couldn't you prosecute a president for official acts,
Speaker 1: but you also could not prosecute him for unofficial acts
Speaker 1: if the unofficial acts involve testimony or details related to
Speaker 1: official acts. Trump's lawyers promptly used that argument to get
Speaker 1: Alvin Bragg to postpone the sentencing in Trump's Stormy Daniels
Speaker 1: election interference case from a week from tomorrow until September eighteenth.
Speaker 1: Brag insists the Scotis ruling doesn't have a damn thing
Speaker 1: to do with his case, but he has no problem
Speaker 1: with the delay. Before trials started, Trump used the same
Speaker 1: argument in hopes of moving the entire case to federal court.
Speaker 1: A federal judge, Alvin Hellerstein, ruled against him, quoting the
Speaker 1: evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely personal
Speaker 1: item of the president, a cover up of an embarrassing event.
Speaker 1: Hush money paid to an adult film star is not
Speaker 1: related to a president's official acts. It does not reflect
Speaker 1: in any way the color of the president's official duties.
Speaker 1: I don't know, fella. I mean, if banging a porn
Speaker 1: star isn't an official act, my name isn't Martha's Stormy Washington.
Speaker 1: It is galling to consider just how many things will
Speaker 1: change because the court didn't just put a thumb on
Speaker 1: the scales of justice. It put the entirety of Clarence
Speaker 1: Thomas's porn collection on them. On the other hand, there
Speaker 1: is a silver lining here in the application to the
Speaker 1: New York case. Trump could be sentenced to prison exactly
Speaker 1: forty nine days before the election. Oh, Judge Mershan, give
Speaker 1: him fifty days while Trump continues to evade justice and
Speaker 1: reality and God and whatever. Not. So for Rudy Giuliani,
Speaker 1: he has been formally disbarred, prohibited from practicing law in
Speaker 1: New York State? Wait, is that what he was doing
Speaker 1: practicing law? I'll be damn sure didn't look anything like that.
Speaker 1: And if you need a laugh, a silver lining something
Speaker 1: considered this back to the main story. If we really
Speaker 1: have hit the point where the president has to retire
Speaker 1: for health reasons, and Kamala Harris becomes the forty seventh
Speaker 1: president of the United States soon or not until January,
Speaker 1: think how much trump forty seven merchandise will have to
Speaker 1: be burned in a giant pire somewhere. There will be
Speaker 1: a July fourth Countdown podcast, and I am hoping there
Speaker 1: will be enough quiet, just for a couple of days
Speaker 1: that I can point to the take festival at both
Speaker 1: extremes of the Biden situation, and god knows, I've been
Speaker 1: at both extremes of the Biden situation in the last
Speaker 1: forty eight hours that I can point at them and
Speaker 1: bring you something for context, underscoring the efficiency with which
Speaker 1: the media manages to bury its awful takes for all
Speaker 1: time in baseball. July fourth is Lou Garrig Day, and
Speaker 1: he is now uniformly viewed as the definition of courage
Speaker 1: and tragedy. But when he got sick in nineteen thirty
Speaker 1: nine and in nineteen forty two, prominent sports writers penned
Speaker 1: articles in prominent venues claiming A lou gereg was faking
Speaker 1: his illness and b Lou Garrig had managed to infect
Speaker 1: all of his teammates. The story of those amazing articles
Speaker 1: in Why You've Never heard of Them? That's the plan
Speaker 1: for tomorrow. We'll see if that's the podcast for tomorrow, regardless,
Speaker 1: until the next one, I'm Keith Olderman. Good Morning, good afternoon,
Speaker 1: good night, and good Luck. Countdown with Keith Oldreman is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts,