Biden Parkinson's Question, Trump's VP Decision, Beryl Blasts Texas
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Voters 50 and over have the power to decide elections. So candidates who want to win need to talk about the issues they care about. Learn more from our latest polling in Pennsylvania at aarp.org slash PA polling. It's Tuesday, July 9th right now on CNN This Morning. President Biden refusing to exit the race as the administration struggles to explain why a Parkinson's expert visited the White House eight times in eight months.

It doesn't matter how angry you get with me, I'm not going to confirm a name. Plus, why Donald Trump is keeping a close eye on Joe Biden before making an announcement on his VP pick. And nearly 3 million homes and businesses without power in Texas after Hurricane Beryl comes barreling through. And the judge in Alec Baldwin's manslaughter trial handing the defense a significant victory as they are on the eve of jury selection.

All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington, a live look at the White House on this Tuesday morning. Morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. The president, defiant with his party, divided. In just a few hours, House Democrats will meet for the first time in person since Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance. So far, six of them have publicly called for Biden to withdraw from the race, with some implying that many other Democrats privately share their position.

There's quite a few. They have to come to terms with that on their own. I know it's a tough choice. I suspect you'll be hearing from quite a few this week. On Monday, President Biden went on the offensive, making it clear in public remarks and private meetings that he intends to stay in the race and expressing anger at those opposing him.

Late last night, Biden held a virtual meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus, a source telling CNN Biden asked them for their support and received no pushback from members on the call.

Later today, Democratic senators expected to spend their regular lunch discussing the president's future. Ahead of today's meetings, Democrats are far from united. This president is fit and prepared to continue to serve. I think he should step aside. I support President Joe Biden and the Democratic ticket. He already won the nomination, so if there were to be any change, it would have to come from him. If he believes fully that he can do this, I will respect that judgment.

A lot of folks are raising some questions and they need to get asked. At the end of the day, we've got to be done trying. But you could be replaced. Joe Biden is the nominee. And he's made his intentions play. All right, our panel's here. Let's bring in Molly Ball, senior political correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, former White House communications director Kate Bedingfield, and Jonah Goldberg. He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of

The Dispatch, welcome to all of you. Molly Ball, it seems like the president yesterday did, he had a better day than some of his other days in that he had this letter. We played a little bit of that interview that he did on Morning Joe. He had this call with the CBC. There seems to be some shoring up of support there, but he still has high profile tests looming this week. I'm just wondering what your latest reporting is on where this stands and the level of pressure the president is facing right now.

Well, I think that intro summed it up well, actually, which is that the party is divided. And that, for a lot of people, a lot of Democrats, is the worst-case scenario. People were hoping to get through this one way or another without having the party at odds. But now you do have these warring camps emerging where there is a group that is saying, you

let's stop arguing about this. He said he wants to stay in and it's his decision. Another group still hoping that they can get to him still feels, and I think it's concentrated in the Senate in particular. We heard a lot of senators yesterday as they trickled back into town saying that they have serious questions that they want answered before they are ready to reaffirm their support for the president. And I don't think it was lost on anybody that all of this work he did to shore up support yesterday was without leaving the House.

So people want to see more of him, want to hear more from him. People want answers, particularly in that camp that is still not sure if they can support him going forward. So I think that this is still a very fluid situation and people will be very much watching the president take part in NATO, the NATO meetings this week and see how he does there.

Yeah, so speaking of senators, we also had, we heard a little bit from Senator Joe Manchin, who had seemed to be one of those people that was eager to get out on this and then was convinced to pull back. But here's a little bit of what he said on Monday. I think that, you know, if you just wait until this weekend, there'll be more comes out. I believe that we'll be able to have a better, clearer view of what's happening. His health and well-being, I think, should be everyone's first and foremost concern, his and his family's and all of us.

And he's fine. Doctors are saying he's fine. So I'm going to take that for its word.

Saying doctors are saying he's fine. Jonah, we can also put up a list of some of the other things that we have heard from Democratic senators that were not on camera. Of course, reporters were talking to them as they came back on Capitol Hill. If you guys pop up. So that's John Tester. He's in a tough race. Biden's got to prove he's up to the job. Patty Murray, Biden must do more. That that one sticks out to me. Merkley, serious issues have been raised. Tina Smith, I have a lot of concerns. Dick Durbin has a lot of questions.

These are, I mean, Biden spent so much of his career in the Senate. I think Molly may be right that this could matter more. What are you watching for? Yeah, look, I mean, I,

What I'm watching for is Joe Biden. I mean, I think Molly put her finger on it, is that the White House wants to treat the debate performance as if it was like Bill Clinton and an intern, an event in the past that will shrink in the rearview mirror as you move on. The problem is the event is Joe Biden. Joe Biden is not going to get better. And the assumption is that somehow he will not have another president

distressing event in public or around enough people in private that they can't keep it secret. I've watched two parents go at that age or younger. I have lots of friends who are in similar situations. I have two in-laws who went in similar situations. The idea that Joe Biden can run for president and reassure everybody, everyone says go out more, do it, go out more, do more stuff, do more live interviews.

Every good interview doesn't mean a thing if you know there's one really bad one coming. And the idea that you're going to bet that there's not a really bad one coming from a guy who says when he has a good interview, he needs to get more sleep and do fewer things after eight o'clock is a wildly irresponsible bet for the country and for the Democratic Party. Kate, I kind of wanted to just let you kind of button here because I know you're obviously talking to a lot of Democrats. There is so much debate

concern right now that there is this division. How do you feel like things are solidifying or not for the president in this moment? And again, I mean, I think Joan is right. Everyone, supporters of the president were watching that debate with bated breath, dreading something happening, and now every single appearance is going to be like that.

Well, look, yes. Is he going to have to perform and reassure people and go out and be with voters and show that he has the energy? Yeah, he absolutely is. That is the task, going to be a big task for him over the next, what, almost four months, a little under four months. But,

But look, I think if you look at what's going on on the Hill, you see the stalwart support that has been both the bedrock of the Democratic Party, but has also been the bedrock of Joe Biden's political support. You see the CBC standing strong. You see leaders of the CHC have come out in support of him. If you look back to times in 2019 when his candidacy was imperiled, it was black

leadership in the party and then black voters who stood behind him. And so I think he has a strong case to make that he is rallying the base of the party. And that's important as we move into an election where Trump's base is going to be motivated for him. You need somebody who's going to be able to turn their base out. I think he's trying to make the case this week he can do that. You're seeing some evidence that that's true. We'll see how it plays out this week. I agree with Molly that things are fluid.

But I think you're seeing that support solidify. And, you know, for him, the challenge now is to go out, take the narrative back to Trump. We're about to roll into the Republican convention next week, get the spotlight back on Trump and wage an aggressive campaign. And I think that President Biden can do that. But that's the task ahead of him. Look, I think it's just it's a wildly irresponsible bet. And the idea that

It's a, you know, I get the whole argument. It's the base, whatever. But like the idea that Joe Biden, who's a total creature of Washington, D.C. political elites, he was a, you know, he's been in Washington for over 50 years as a politician, is saying that somehow it's him versus the elites. It's gaslighting on a Trumpian level.

has been derided by the elites. I mean, look at 2019. He was told he was out of touch with the base of the party. He could never be the nominee. He was told that by people running against him. He spent a lot of his career with it. I'm just saying, he spent a lot of his career with a chip on his shoulder about the way that the intellectual thinkers in Washington view him, and he is channeling that right now. You can argue whether that's fair or not.

- He also spends his career saying that whenever he's knocked down, he gets back up and he never counted Joe Biden out. He lost running for president twice. There were unique circumstances why he won in 2020 that he cannot recreate. - But he's the president of the United States right now. So he got back up and became president of the United States. - Barely. - And he has been president for the last

Yeah, barely. What does that mean? I don't think he's up to the job. I'm questioning his fitness right now to serve as president, flat out. If you're saying barely president, you're suggesting that he's not capable of doing the things that we've seen him accomplish in these first four years? Last three and a half years would be nothing to me. Nothing to me. And I think it's a crazy argument. Financial markets, financial firms are required by law to say past performance is not predictive of future results. That same principle applies to politics.

If you watch that George Stephanopoulos interview and were reassured that he's up to the job, then I think you're kind of in a bubble because that was not reassuring. And when he says, and when Democrats say this election is about democracy and the future of the country,

And then he says, well, if I lose, I gave it my best shot. Who cares? That is a terrible answer. He was clearly prepped and he still gave a terrible answer. Saying the last three years mean nothing to you when you have a president who has gotten more done in a bipartisan way than anybody thought was possible, has gotten meaningful gun legislation done, has gotten an infrastructure bill done. If he had a heart attack, you wouldn't say, well, look what he did the last three and a half years. That's like.

saying it doesn't, so it doesn't matter who's president because it doesn't matter what happens when this person's in office. That's saying that only, the campaign is the only thing that matters? I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true. That's, then it, then it, Campaigns are about the future. And that's fine. I'm just saying, saying the last three and a half years don't matter at all.

It don't matter at all about whether or not he can do the job the next four months or next four and a half years. No, do you honestly think he can serve four and a half more years? I do. I do. I think that's lunatic. I really do. I think it's lunatic. Do you think he can actually serve four and a half more years? You are entitled to your

title to your opinion. I have to say this is a sharp version of the conversation that I know members of my family are having around dinner tables. I think a lot of Americans are having this play out right now as we speak. We're going to keep talking about it this morning, but we do want to get to some other news. So up next here, Hurricane Beryl turning deadly, leaving millions without power in Texas. Plus, the Biden administration reacting to reports of a Parkinson's specialist visiting the White House. Plus, a wildfire threatening the former Neverland Ranch in California. That's part of your morning roundup ahead.

All right, welcome back. Is the infighting at the top of the Democratic ticket impacting choices that are being made on the Republican side? During an interview on Fox News Monday night, Donald Trump hinted that he was close to making a choice for his running mate ahead of the Republican convention, but that he wants to see how things play out with his opponent first.

I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. What are some of the social service agencies that have supported you and your family growing up? That's Dr. Robert Waldinger. He's a psychiatrist, a professor, and a Zen master. What kind of relationships actually help us maintain happiness? And what should we do in those moments where we have setbacks and things that don't work out? Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts.

And I haven't made final decision, but I have some ideas as to where we're going and a little bit. You know, we wanted to see what they're doing, to be honest, because, you know, it might make a difference. I don't know. I'm not sure that it would. But there are those that say Trump's waiting until he finds out what's going to happen with crooked Joe Biden. And we'll see what happens with Biden. But, you know, I think probably within the next week, week and a half.

And of course there are a handful of VP hopefuls vying for Trump's favor. One of them, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who's scheduled to appear at a rally with Trump at his golf club near Miami tonight. In a recent appearance on CNN's State of the Union, Rubio supported efforts to change the party platform in favor of Trump's positions. Do you support changing the official party platform to Trump's position that it should be a state issue?

Well, I think our platform has to reflect our nominee. And our nominee's position actually happens to be one grounded in reality. The reality of it is the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. And what that basically means is that now it's not states, it's voters at individual states who will get to decide how and to what level they want to restrict abortion, if at all. Some states will have restrictions. Some states will not. All right. And, of course, they're talking about abortion there, as Rubio noted. Jonah Goldberg, it

The Trump sort of of it all is very, I mean, obviously he's holding off because he's been letting Democrats kind of eat their own in the wake of the debate performance, but he also is very uncomfortable out of the spotlight. And now we're starting to hear this conversation about how he's trying to grab it back. How, if at all, do you think what's going on with Biden has affected Trump's decision on VP or other kind of major ways they're looking at the race? Yeah, I mean, I do think it's important to remember that

He's also dragging out the VP selection process because there's more self-humiliation he can impose on the potential VPs, right? He wants to see them beclown themselves even more. That said, look, I think they think it is not dumb to wait and see how the Biden situation plays out. The more convinced, I think, I think the more convinced Trump is that he's going to win, the more likely he picks Vance.

the more he thinks it's going to be a real race, it's either Burgum or Rubio or person X. I still think a total surprise, not on this short list that everyone keeps talking about, is still possible. I don't know exactly who that would be, but Trump thinks about this like a reality show. What's the big reveal? Who's going to be holding the rose kind of thing? Right.

Right, well, and I think none of us should actually report what the VP of SIL comes out of Donald Trump's mouth because God knows it could change at any moment. All right, up next here, millions of Texans in the dark, hurricane barrel delivering a deadly and destructive blow, plus how President Biden's inner circle tried to keep signs of his aging under wraps.

All right, welcome back. Hurricane Beryl, now a tropical depression, but still a dangerous storm and heading north this morning. At least eight people are dead after rain, flooding and powerful winds slammed Texas and Louisiana.

Pieces of my porch, roof are in the front of my house all over. I've got some in the street and front yard. Neighbors are pitching in and coming together and got equipment. It's like a disaster zone, you know, but it's kind of confined right here. There's no thunder with this. There was no lightning with this. It's strictly just rain and then the wind. In hard-hit Galveston Roads, Carr's entire community is submerged.

In Houston, floodwaters rose quickly, catching people off guard, like this man who was rescued from his truck. He was one of the many saved on Monday. More than 2 million people, meanwhile, remain without power in Texas as sweltering heat settles over the state. CNN's Lee Waldman joins us live now from Houston with the latest. Lee, good morning.

Casey, good morning. Even though Beryl has downgraded in its strength, it is still packing a punch along its route. There is still a threat of flooding and the threat of tornadoes for eastern Texas, western Louisiana and all of Arkansas. This morning, we're anticipating to hear from the lieutenant governor as well as the emergency management here in Texas for updates on that storm, but hopefully updates on restoration for power. You mentioned that

millions of people are without power. The local power supplier here in the Houston area, Centerpoint, is mentioning they hope to restore power for over a million people by early as Wednesday. Galveston, they said it's going to be days until power is restored to that area. You mentioned the heat happening here in Texas is sweltering already this morning, and people will be affected as they attempt to clean up the debris around their homes. We'll send things back to you, Casey.

Alright, Lee Waldman for us this morning. Lee, thank you very much. Alright, up next, frustration on full display as reporters clash with the White House. Guys, hold on a second. There's no reason to go back and forth and be in this aggressive way. More from those tense scenes in the briefing room coming up next. Plus, a legal win for actor Alec Baldwin as he goes on trial for manslaughter. We have, I mean, I guess, anyway...

I don't want to take too much credit. I have a great staff. By the way, I'm proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first black woman to serve with a black president. How can you assure you're going to be on, you know, faith that can intervene on your way to go to, you know, work tomorrow? Age, age wasn't, you know, the idea, I'm too old. Created over 15 million jobs.

in the days since cnn's presidential debate joe biden has said his performance was an exception one bad night for an otherwise healthy if elderly man interviews that he's done since then have not always buttressed that argument but cnn has now learned the top parkinson's disease specialist held a meeting earlier this year with president biden's physician at the white house according to visitor logs that same specialist has visited the white house at least eight times over the past year

On Monday, the press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, was asked repeatedly about these meetings, and she struggled to answer the questions. Has the president been treated for Parkinson's? No. Is he being treated for Parkinson's? No, he's not. Is he taking medication for Parkinson's? No. I'm not going to confirm a specialist, any specialist that comes to the White House. I am not sharing confirming names from here.

It is the security reasons. I am not going to do that, Ed. It doesn't matter how hard you push me. It doesn't matter how angry you get with me. I'm not going to confirm a name. It doesn't matter if it's even in the log. I am not going to do that from here. I am telling you that he has seen a neurologist three times while he has been in this presidency. That's what I'm saying.

Yikes. Kate Bedingfield, I mean, look, I think this is the central issue at hand on display, which is that there are a lot of American voters out there who don't feel like they understand what's really going on with the president's health.

And it was very clear that the press secretary didn't have good answers for reporters yesterday. Yeah. I mean, look, this wasn't a great exchange. In talking about it last night, I was saying, you know, the job of the press secretary is incredibly hard. And there are often times when you aren't able to put forward information that you as a communications staffer would argue, and probably they were arguing internally, should be put forward. And you're constrained by, you know, different

you know, other factors that prevent you from being able to say something that seems pretty straightforward. However, after we were discussing this last night, the White House then put out the letter that very clearly... Right, which says, quote, President Biden has not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physical. Many military personnel experience neurological issues related to their service. The doctor regularly visits the White House as part of this general neurology practice. Right, so I'm not sure why she couldn't say that.

at the briefing or why they weren't prepared or hadn't anticipated that they would get this question and did not arm her or she did not arm herself with that very simple explanation. So why this sort of bubbled up into a big combative back and forth, I don't really understand. Why, Jonah, do you think? I have no clue. I really don't get it. I do think, just sort of getting to my point, is that

This is going to be replayed over and over and over and over and over again for the next four months because while Joe Biden wants to put, as he put it, a bullseye on Donald Trump,

As long as there are any of these lingering questions, and a lot of the White House press corps feels burned by all of this, they're going to make the issue Joe Biden's health, whether he's up to the job, whether he's been honest with people, whether people around him have been honest. And that's going to make it very, very difficult to make this campaign a referendum on Donald Trump, which is the only way even Biden people concede they can win.

It seems clear that they're so used to being able to obfuscate this issue that they are not prepared for the calls for more transparency. And I think on the one hand you have the transparency issue of what do they know that they're not telling us, right? Such as

this letter that they belatedly put out after refusing to answer the question and thinking that they could get away with it. And now they are acknowledging that more information is needed, that people do want to know what the nature of these visits was. But there's also the question of whether Joe Biden is being honest with himself. When he said to George Stephanopoulos that he hasn't had any of these types of cognitive tests, I think that raised a lot of questions with people of, well, why isn't he, given what we have seen, given the questions that so many people have,

why not have further testing, why not have more disclosure to put people's worries to rest? And that is also something that doesn't seem to be happening.

Well, and one thing too, you know, that Biden has sort of asserted, President Biden has asserted in the wake of this debate is that he is the only person that can beat Donald Trump is kind of how he's framing it. But back in December when he was under pressure about his running for reelection, he didn't say that. Let's just flashback to that for a second. Any Democrat who could defeat Donald Trump other than you? Probably 50 of them. You do believe that there are? I'm not the only one who could beat him, but I will defeat him.

uh you know and i just kind of play that as you know we've we've shown uh that this has all played out the way it has and molly you're reporting in the journal too that the inner circle did work to keep these signs of his aging under wraps some donors said they wanted to keep their concerns quiet because they didn't want to risk their access or influence no one wanted to jeopardize a chance to become an ambassador or host a fundraiser said one uh

L.A.-based donor. Some who have spent time with the president after not seeing him for a while said they were surprised by how much he had slowed. Last summer, a former top Biden advisor who has met with the president told an associate the meeting was not good and that Biden had noticeably aged

since they had last seen each other. And of course, you're seeing reflections of the way this was reported in the press and the way that the Biden team interacted with the press on questions. I mean, it was the journal that wrote this big story about Biden's age a couple of months ago or a month or so ago. And it was met with derision, quite frankly. They fired back very aggressively to the point of actually

monitoring the interviews our reporters were doing and then forcing some of those Democrats to call us back and revise what they had said. So it was a very aggressive effort to control the narrative and control the storyline around this issue. And some of it also was, as our story today says, just people not wanting to grapple with what they had seen and things looking different in retrospect after the debate. So a lot of people who had

interactions with the president that maybe at the time they found a little bit troubling but weren't sure what to think of or thought might have been a one-off or an anomaly, in light of the debate, have gone back and thought about those interactions and now have further questions.

Kate, I guess I just keep coming back to this. You know, we saw Biden there say, oh, 50 Democrats could beat Donald Trump. We've also heard Biden repeatedly say that beating Trump is an existential challenge for Democrats. And he seems dug in now that he's the only one that can do it. How is he going to reflect if he loses to Donald Trump?

I think in his mind, you know, I know he gave that answer to Stephanopoulos where he said, I'll, you know, I'll feel OK. And I, you know, we've got to take him at his word, I guess. But I think for him, the way he needs to be thinking about this, if he's powering forward, which it seems like he is, is that's not an option. It isn't an option. This is a campaign that he has to win. He has to do everything in his power to win. And so I think for him, if he

view this as an existential fight, which, look,

Look, I believe he does. Obviously, you know, look, he gave that answer to George and people, you know, got to take it for what it is. But I think based on everything I know about him, I think that he does view this as an existential fight. Then his attitude has to be losing isn't an option. But we have to see that in the way that he campaigns. We have to see him out there with some of the vigor that we've seen over the last 48 hours directed at Trump, not directed at Hill Democrats. I mean, Jonah, you're no fan of Donald Trump's. Nope, nope.

How, I mean, what's it like to watch that? I mean, I think for a lot of people that I have spoken to who really, above all, they want to beat Trump. And there are a lot of Democrats out there who are way more motivated by beating Trump than they are by Joe Biden. No, none taken. But it does seem like those are the people that I'm talking to who are angry about what the president is doing.

Yeah, look, I'm one of these people who thinks that the cult of the presidency has become a form of idolatry in this country, where we imbue the presidency with, we so personalize it as essentially a monarch. Democracy in America historically is contests between parties, not necessarily personalities. And Joe Biden is not that important.

If the Democrats believe, and I think a lot of them sincerely do, that this is an existential threat to democracy and all that stuff, whether I think some of that is overblown or not doesn't matter. The only relevant question to ask is, what is our best shot at winning? And saying we owe it to Joe Biden, that he deserves this, deserves got nothing to do with it. And neither does the last three and a half years. What matters is what's happened, whether he can do the job next.

and whether he can do their job for the next four months as a campaigner and as a president, and whether he can serve his four more years as president. And I think that there are a lot of people who are getting caught up in emotion in all of this, including Joe Biden, who's digging in and sees it as a personal affront. And I think it is a slow-moving disaster for the Democratic Party. All right. Up next here, former Democratic Congressman Max Rose of New York joins us to discuss this divided Democratic Party and President Biden's candidacy, plus...

In our roundup, a plan to give new parents a cash bonus for having a baby. Alright, 47 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. Today, jury selection begins in the involuntary manslaughter trial of actor Alec Baldwin. The actor accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer on the set of the movie Rust. A judge ruled yesterday that Baldwin's role as a producer of the film will not be considered during the trial.

Closing arguments resumed this morning in the corruption trial of Senator Bob Menendez. On Monday, prosecutors called the New Jersey Democrat a quote, "bribed man," end quote, who sprang into action for cash and gold. California's Lake Fire is still only 8% contained after burning more than 21,000 acres since igniting a few days ago. The Neverland Ranch, made famous by Michael Jackson, is in the official evacuation zone.

And a new ballot measure spearheaded by a group of Baltimore teachers would give parents a $1,000 bonus for having a baby. If it passes, the bill is designed to combat child poverty. An estimated 31% of school-aged children are experiencing poverty in Baltimore. All right, turning back to this. Get on board or shut the f*** up is not a particularly compelling pro-democracy bumper sticker. Nor is, what are you going to do? $100?

19 days. There are contestants on The Bachelor who haven't even met yet that will get married and divorced between now and the election. We have nothing to complain about.

A little perspective there from Mr. Stewart. On Capitol Hill, President Biden is trying to stave off more defections among Democrats who are trying to determine whether 119 days is in fact enough time to replace him on the party's 2024 ticket. Democratic lawmakers remain divided, some continuing to back the president, while six publicly and even more in private are calling for the president to step aside as anxieties mount over changing voter sentiments about the president after that debate performance. We just need...

fresh leadership, new leadership. I like Joe Biden as a person. You know, I think he stands for good things, but I'm just not sure he's there anymore to lead the country. I think that last week hurt so much that he's really got to think of the party and the country before he thinks of himself. I mean, something's going to change. We need a logical party.

All right, joining me now is former Democratic Congressman Max Rose of New York. Congressman, thank you so much for joining us. And, you know, you are standing behind the president. You wrote an opinion piece about the president's Morning Joe interview yesterday. You called it, quote, exactly what everyone had been waiting and wanting to see from the president, and, quote, just great politics, and that that interview will be a market shift, the catalyst that the president's campaign needed.

So, you know, I'm tracking you thought that this was good. This clearly seemed aimed at your former colleagues on Capitol Hill. Do you think that the president has done enough at this point to put his age concerns to rest? And I guess I would put it this way. When he walks to a microphone or a podium, do you feel 100 percent confident? Will you feel 100 percent confident that he's not going to have another episode like the one he had on the debate stage?

- Yeah, look, I think that it's important to actually reconsider the way we're framing this campaign. These concerns will never go away. And guess what? The concerns were there before the debate.

And despite those concerns, there is a resounding belief in Joe Biden's capacity to lead and his extraordinary record. But I would definitely urge the campaign to really have this deep sense of vigilance and to stay hyper-autistic.

aggressive and to be old school. What you saw yesterday morning, Joe, was the president just calling in and doing a freewheeling interview. And I think that's what the people are looking for. Some of the anger on Capitol Hill right now is actually not associated with the

debate, but associated with the silence of the campaign in the days after the debate. So they certainly should not go back to that point or to any sense of complacency. They've got to keep pushing forward. So speaking of how they're handling things now, Karine Jean-Pierre was at the podium yesterday with reporters who were trying to get a pretty basic

Question answered about whether the president had been seen by a Parkinson's specialist who was on the visitor logs, is going to see his personal physician. Here was a little bit of what Karine Jean-Pierre said in response to those questions.

I am not sharing confirming names from here. It is a security reasons. I am not going to do that, Ed. It doesn't matter how hard you push me. It doesn't matter how angry you get with me. I'm not going to confirm a name. It doesn't matter if it's even in the log. I am not going to do that from here. Do you want an answer to those questions? They did put out a statement afterward, but she could not say when she was standing there.

Yeah, I'm sure everybody to include Kareem herself regrets that interview, right? There's really no issue here as it pertains to the president's health.

that doesn't require the ultimate form of transparency. By the way, though, that also applies to Donald Trump and his own health. We're not talking when it comes to him to a particularly young man or someone that would strike anybody as sane or consistent.

So I would certainly urge the White House to be transparent and not ever get back into that type of back and forth. And I think the fact that they put out a notice after that press conference shows that they agree with that sentiment. But look, this whole notion of.

that there's questions around whether or not Joe Biden is the nominee, that's gonna go away in the next couple of days. I think even the most vociferous opponents of the president in Congress right now on the Democratic side agree that when Joe Biden is the settled nominee, they're gonna get significantly behind him. And at that point, the attention has got to focus, refocus,

on the extraordinary liar, the fraud that is Donald Trump and all the ways in which he is a danger to the values that we hold dear. And I suspect that at the conclusion of this week, the Democrats will be able to unify and refocus their messaging on that exact issue. Briefly, sir, do you really think it's plausible that President Biden can now defeat Donald Trump in the fall?

Absolutely it's possible. And you know what's ironic in a way,

is because the president's campaign was by no means perfect. Well, I even think up to par in the run up to the debate. And I think there's a good chance that what we're gonna see in the coming months is a freewheeling Joe Biden who doesn't have the shackles of an overbearing campaign staff or White House staff, that's able to go direct to the people, say, "I don't need quote unquote elitist platforms of any type."

And you might see a campaign. I think you're likely to see a campaign that's even more successful. All right. Former Congressman Max Rose, thanks very much for your time this morning. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me.

All right. I want to talk to the panel now about this. Democratic strategist James Carville arguing that it is only a matter of time before President Biden drops his reelection bid. Carville wrote this in The New York Times, quote, Mark my words, Joe Biden is going to be out of the 2024 presidential race. Whether he is willing to ready to admit it or not, we need to move forward. But it can't be by anointing Vice President Kamala Harris or anyone else as the presumptive Democratic nominee. We've got to do it out in the open.

the exact opposite of what Donald Trump wants to do. Panel is back. Molly Ball, this does seem to be a little bit, you know, he says, well, the president's out, even if he doesn't know it. It's up to the president, and the president seems pretty damn dug in. Excuse my language. He does. He does. And this is, you know, I think as, you know, Democrats in the House and Senate meet today, there's going to be a lot of discussion about where to go from here because they had hoped that,

They could get to him subtly, send messages where you sort of read between the lines. They're not saying anything they might regret later, but they're offering him a gentle nudge. And it became clear over the past week that that was not going to work, that he is digging in. And frankly, some people feel that he's being irresponsible in the way he seems to be putting the party at risk here, whether it's by insisting on, not just insisting on staying on the ticket, but

the insults that he's lobbying at the people who are trying to get him to stay, the way that he's dividing the party potentially on class and racial lines by the arguments that he's making, these are potentially damaging whichever way this turns out, whether he is or is not the nominee come November. And so potentially this could be entering a very ugly phase because there are a lot of Democrats who are not ready to simply declare this episode over and get on board.

But you do have a faction in the party that is saying we do need to stop talking about this and I just don't think it's gonna Go away anytime soon I mean and honestly Jonah Democrats need anti-trump Republicans as well to join with them if they want to win in November and I I just really struggle to see how they get over this I do too I think it's a hot mess. I mean, I don't I don't you know, there's one of the reasons why

The Republican Party was taken over by Donald Trump and we're now seeing how the Republican platform is just basically becoming a long true social post. And one of the reasons why Joe Biden can be in there and stick it out, I think wildly irresponsibly, is because the parties are so unbelievably weak. We have strong partisanship in this country because we have weak parties that cannot police their own, that cannot think about their long-term

value of their brand, their fiduciary obligations to all of their candidates. They cannot invest in the sort of decision making and mechanisms that give them control over how to run a campaign and an election. And this is what you get, is you get things reduced to fits of pique from two very old men who should not be on the public stage anymore.

Kate Bedingfield, just to circle back to this Carville op-ed, Carville's obviously been on the stage quite a long time as well. Indeed. Which he's been out there willing to say. He's like, I have no business running an election, a campaign anymore. But, you know, you heard, I think the president laughed yesterday when he was asked about David Axelrod's criticism, for example. How does something like this land in the White House?

Look, the president is not going to be persuaded by that. We can argue about whether that's a good thing or not. We are arguing about whether that's a good thing or not. But, you know, no, he's not going to take a look at that and change his calculus. I think he believes he has a path to victory. I think based on the support that he has been able to

to generate in the Democratic Party and the success that he had with moderate swing voters in 2020 shows that there is a path for him. He's got to work to get there. I think if the election were tomorrow, he'd be in a lot of trouble. But I think he has a lot of work to do. I think he can do it. And I'm not sure that kind of a flight of fancy, a fantasy football notion about how we should run this would be practical in the real world. All right, fair enough.

All right, I want to leave you with this little palate cleanser. Taylor Swift and the Chiefs tight end Travis Kelsey marking an era for them. One year ago this week, Kelsey went to see her concert at the Chiefs home stadium in Kansas City with a friendship bracelet featuring his phone number. It's a story that he told on his brother on their popular podcast.

I was disappointed that she doesn't talk before or after her shows because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs that she sings. So I was a little butthurt I didn't get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her. The misconnection eventually made its way to Swift, the rest is history. She became a fixture at his games, including the Chiefs' Super Bowl victory in February. And of course, he's been a regular attendee at her Eros Tour shows, making an appearance as a backup dancer show in London just a few weeks ago.

Fanning himself. Kelsey's side gig may have to go on hiatus, though. Training camp for his main job with the Chiefs begins in just a few weeks while Swift's heiress tour rolls on in Europe. All right, thanks to our panel. Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Casey Hunt. CNN News Central starts right now.

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