Conviction Overturn Effort, Overcoming Debate Debacle, Beryl Wreaks Havoc
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It's Tuesday, July 2nd, right now on CNN This Morning. Donald Trump trying to overturn his conviction in the New York hush money trial after the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity. Plus, the Biden campaign scrambling to find a way to move past the president's shocking debate performance. And an air travel nightmare. Dozens injured. A severe turbulence strikes a transatlantic flight. Wear your seatbelts, people. And...

Hurricane Beryl, a powerful category five storm leaving destruction across the Caribbean as it approaches Jamaica. All right, 6 a.m. in Washington. Look at that beautiful sunrise over the White House and hitting the Washington Monument on this Tuesday morning. Gorgeous. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. We may have just lived through the week that wins Donald Trump the election. On Thursday, President Biden faltered on the debate stage, sparking calls for him to be replaced as the Democratic nominee.

He waited for the moderators to bring up the events at the Capitol on January 6th, even though President Biden has made what happened that day a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. Then on Monday, the Supreme Court declared that President Trump has absolute immunity for his official acts as president, although he does not have immunity for unofficial acts.

The immediate effect of the ruling: voters will not have the opportunity to see Donald Trump tried and a jury render a verdict on his actions on and around January 6th. We, the public, may see more evidence about Donald Trump's actions that day, but a verdict? No. The decision was 6-3 along partisan lines. In the main dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing this, quote:

The relationship between the president and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law. Orders the Navy's SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold on to power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.

Let the president violate the law. Let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain. Let him use the official power for evil ends, because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority's message today, Sonia Sotomayor wrote. With fear for our democracy, I dissent. Here was President Biden yesterday. This nation was founded on the principle that there are no kings in America. Each, each of us is equal before the law.

No one, no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States. Today's Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, that fundamentally changed for all, for all practical purposes. Today's decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what a president can do. Our panel is here. Let's bring in CNN senior reporter Isaac DeVere, former federal prosecutor Elliott Williams, CNN political commentator Karen Finney, and former RNC communications correspondent

Director Doug High. Welcome all. Elliot Williams, big picture here. This has really upended all of the prosecutions of Donald Trump in a variety of arenas. And as I was thinking through what happened as we were covering this together on this set yesterday,

that this really does seem like when we look back, when the history books are written, if Donald Trump wins in November, this is the week that he won. - I think it is the week that if that's the case, certainly it was such a profound week for Donald Trump as a candidate and also as a former president. I also think it is a profound week for the Supreme Court and going back to Bush versus Gore. I mean, there's been significant cases throughout American history, but going back to Bush versus Gore,

The two most, I guess, profound political cases in American history have been decided on pretty strict partisan breakdowns, right? Whether that's good or bad, I'm not weighing in on it. That's just where the Supreme Court is and it ought not be a surprise to anybody that this institution's public standing is failing. And this is why people tend to not have a tremendous amount of faith in institutions in America, but the Supreme Court in particular.

It's a perfectly plausible reading of this decision that the Supreme Court put its thumb on the scale for a candidate. Now, they can argue, as the Chief Justice has throughout his career, that while we were staying out of the political process, we were taking pains to protect the presidency and not...

not weigh in on one side or another, but just look at the outcome. This was a stunning win for Donald Trump. Yeah. You know, it's interesting because I was reading part of the decision, right? And, you know, so yes, it means that the cases get pushed off, right? It also means, I mean, the Supreme Court had in front of it, not just a theoretical, what would, gee, what would happen, but a very specific instance. And Justice Roberts wrote a

essentially that the exclusive authority over the investigative prosecutorial functions of the Justice Department and its officials, that the president has that exclusive authority, and that he may discuss potential investigations and prosecutions with his attorney general and other Justice Department officials. What has Donald Trump told us over and over again? Retribution. That he is going to seek to use the Department of Justice to exact retribution. So

Just right in this portion of the decision, Chief Justice Roberts is essentially saying Donald Trump has the power to go ahead and exact that retribution using the Justice Department. Well, speaking of retribution, let's put up the repost that Donald Trump shared on his Truth Social platform.

Elizabeth Lynn Cheney, she of course the chair of the January 6th Select Committee, guilty of treason. And this is of course referring to a potentially televised military tribunal. And we've cut off the bottom of that, that tweet cut off the bottom of the graphic. It says, "Retruth if you want televised military tribunals."

And what we just showed there was Liz Cheney's response. She says, Donald, this is the type of thing that demonstrates yet again that you are not a stable adult and are not fit for office. Doug High, as the Republican at this table, is this, do you think, a serious threat? Because there are some who are, you know, will dismiss this kind of thing as like, well, we shouldn't take this.

So serious, I'm curious what you think. And to Elliott's broader point also on the Supreme Court, I mean, there are other places where Republicans, conservatives generally view the court as legitimate and taking actions that are helpful for the country. Do you see this immunity decision that way?

Well, look, Donald Trump tweets and says a lot of things that we sort of get worried about and simultaneously dismisses Donald being Donald. But what we know is there are Trump supporters out there, not all of them, not most of them, but Trump supporters out there who view these as marching orders. This is what we saw on January 6th, obviously. And this is what we've seen happen in our political lives even before Donald Trump. Obviously, Steve Scalise...

dealt with that personally, Gabby Giffords. So the level of danger that our political figures fear and feel is significant. And by the way, that's poll workers now. That's not just secretaries of state, but board of elections, local county board of elections officials. Everybody now is at a higher risk. And that comes from a lot of the rhetoric that we see from Donald Trump. But we move to the political on this, and I understand the whistles and bells and the warnings that

Democrats are making on this. But if this is the week that has won Donald Trump the presidency, then Democrats, what are you gonna do about it?

We have a candidate who still, most Americans feel, is an incumbent president who's not going to be vertical in four years, to be really blunt about it. And we saw that last Thursday. Not because Joe Biden had a bad night. When you're 81 years old, you have bad nights. We know that. The problem is this confirmed what so many Americans were looking for. And that's not going away. Yeah, Isaac, that's to you. I mean, what are Democrats going to do about it?

They are struggling with what to do about it. They don't know what the right path forward is here, which is the more

likely scenario that will get them to be able to beat Donald Trump that is the priority for them. That's the priority for them because of a lot of things here, right? Because to Doug's point, this is not... In 2016, when Ted Cruz and Donald Trump were the finalists, there was a private event where Barack Obama was asked which one he would fear more as the Republican president. And he said...

That he would be more concerned about Ted Cruz because Cruz knew what he would do right and he thought Trump wouldn't know now if you look at the Trump presidency a lot of it was them figuring out what to do all the things now what you see is people associated with project 2025 others who are going to come in if there is a Trump presidency and have a very efficient carrying out of these sorts of things that sort of Justice Sotomayor was warning about and Democrats are

petrified of that. What I hear from people is that this court decision has both made some people who were ready to throw Biden over even more eager to throw him over, and also those who say, like, he is still our safest bet. We need to keep him there. Very briefly. As the Democrat here, a couple things. Number one, this Supreme Court decision in part is actually starting to galvanize Democrats who are saying, maybe we do need to stick with Joe Biden because maybe he is our best chance. And so, you know,

it may not be the week that Donald Trump won the election. It may be the week that he lost it because again, the fear... That seems like a stretch. The fear of what... I can just tell you what I'm seeing in the internals. The fear of what he specifically would do. Project 2025, the retribution. People are very nervous about that. They already were nervous about that because here's the thing, when he says things, it's not theoretical anymore. We know he actually will make good on the things that he says he's going to do.

Now, Deb, we're also taking a step back, I think, and looking at how people, I mean, I think people are sort of feeling their emotions about last week with Joe Biden. Look, members of Congress are going to go home over the holiday. I think when they come back,

they will have a lot more information about what they've heard from their constituents. And that, I think, will be part of the equation. But keep in mind, Democrats must be the most galvanized party in our history at this point. Every answer is Democrats are more enthusiastic, more galvanized than ever. If that were true, this would be the week that Joe Biden wins the presidency. And last week and the week before, he would be up 25 points in the polls because you guys are

So galvanized Dobbs decision, this Donald Trump, this Donald Trump, that you should be killing this and down ballot too. And the reality is voters are still looking at Joe Biden and being like, I don't think he has it anymore. All right, let's push pause on this. We're going to pick up this conversation right after this next break as team Biden reaches out to hundreds of donors to try to keep his campaign going. Plus the people who didn't have seatbelts went up in the air and hit the ceiling and they got hurt.

Dozens of passengers injured by severe turbulence, their flight forced to make an emergency landing. Again, wear your seat belts, people! And Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley here to talk about the party's next move after the president's disastrous debate.

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.

All right, welcome back. The Biden campaign is scrambling to get the party fully behind the president after last week's debate disaster. There does seem to be a bright spot this morning. The campaign releasing new fundraising totals for the month of June, an impressive $127 million. They claim a quarter of that was raised since Thursday. Campaign co-chair Jen O'Malley Dillon also holding multiple calls yesterday trying to reassure top Democrats and staff that Biden is still fit to run.

Two participants telling CNN she claimed, quote, he's probably in better health than most of us, end quote. Okay. Other Democrats defending the president and pushing for a new strategy. Stay the course.

He has a record to run on. He's always had trouble getting out certain words. So yes, some of that took place, but nothing is wrong with his brain. President Biden needs to reassure those who were paying attention by giving more and more of the sorts of interviews and impromptu events and engagements that put him in America's living room in the first place. We do need to see more unscripted and off-the-record moments.

All right, panels back. I mean, is this the answer? Because I feel like people are pushing this more Joe Biden, more Joe Biden. We've been hearing it over and over again. They wouldn't put him out for the Super Bowl interview. Like every single appearance seems to be a big risk now.

And that's the way staff of the White House has approached this for years, which arguably is part of what happened here in itself, just having him be rusty. But you could not have someone... And having people not be used to seeing him, too. Yes, right. But you could not have someone who is a closer ally to Joe Biden than Chris Coons.

That he is saying this publicly, that we need more, is a real sign to the Biden team that they have to do something big here to change the way that people are perceiving him. And the question that they are facing is a realistic one of how much is Joe Biden up to. But in fairness, a lot of us have been saying for several years now,

let's do more, let Joe Biden be Joe Biden, less of the trying to remember the facts and figures and just letting him be. I mean, I thought he did one of the moments of the debate that I thought was very powerful was when he was talking about Hunter, right? Because that broke through because that was Joe Biden being authentic Joe Biden, not trying to remember whatever talking points they told her or facts and figures. So I think that's what Chris Coons is talking about is more

Let him be in those situations that we saw in 2020, even though they were limited because of COVID, where he was able to just connect and talk with voters more directly about what's going on in their lives. Right. Nobody has ever supported Joe Biden in a big way because he gave a great speech. That's not who he is. They've supported him because he connects with people and you see those moments. I've been there up close to see them. A lot of people have seen them on video, whatever it may be. And it is so much different from what you get out of most politicians.

Yes. But it is also so much different from what we have seen out of Joe Biden as president for almost the entire presidency. Which is what makes the argument that we saw just there, well, he's in better health than most, I guess it was most people. Corrine, at one point, some months ago, Corrine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, had said, you know, 40 is the new, or 80 is the new 40, which, okay, fine. He's a spry 81-year-old or 82-year-old, but the simple fact is it's just impossible

- It's just implausible on its face. - On every level. - If just Ronny Jackson or any other Trump doctor says Donald Trump is in better health than most of us, we laugh at it. The reality is this is also laughable. And what we've seen is if we go back over the past five, six years, how many times do we see a, let's say Eric Swalwell,

come on TV and say, "When is Paul Ryan or when is Mike Johnson or Kevin McCarthy, when are they gonna stand up and say the truth about Trump?" No elected Democrat, not one, there are about 250 or so on Capitol Hill, has said the obvious truth that most of them are saying behind closed doors. This is a very real problem and they have very real concerns about whether or not he can stand for office for another four years. None of them will say that. When will they stand up and say this?

you lose credibility when you start trying to make arguments that a 40 year old is as spry as an 80 year old like karen was saying double down on the things that the individual is good at get into the vfw hall or whatever else yes and by the way okay he's 81 but the amount of experience that he has had is part of the reason he was able to get a bipartisan infrastructure deal i've long been in the camp that says you're not going to make 80 seem younger

But you can talk about what the experience, the expertise, what does that mean? Why is that valuable right now? I think the issue too is that the guy that got the infrastructure bill done was three years younger and seems markedly different than he is now. Yeah, one of the things that was a real problem for Biden in the debate was the split screen of him versus Trump and his facial expressions and so forth. He looked lost and confused.

The split screen of Joe Biden compared to four years ago and certainly his debate against Paul Ryan, these are different people. And you're going to have more bad days than good days when you're 81. That's just a reality. All right, coming up next here, Hurricane Beryl crushing the Caribbean and now heading toward Jamaica. Plus, a member of Congress gets a crash course in airport security. We'll bring you that in the morning roundup.

All right, welcome back. Jamaica bracing for impact as a historic hurricane marches across the Caribbean. Hurricane Beryl is breaking records for the earliest Category 5 in recorded history in the Atlantic. Grenada and Barbados have already taken the brunt of the storm, which is being blamed for at least one death.

while knocking out power across 95% of Grenada. Now, hurricane barrel back over open water and bearing down on Jamaica, where local officials are rolling out emergency plans ahead of the storm's expected arrival on Wednesday. Let's get to meteorologist Elisa Rafa with the latest on this hurricane. Elisa, good morning.

Good morning. Seeing some of the video of the damage that was left behind in parts of Barbados and Grenada, I mean, you're seeing some of the wind damage, marinas that have just been rocked, and we even had some storm surge flooding roll through as well, some of that storm surge rolling through parts of Barbados with some of that rain.

Again, as we went through the day yesterday, we had some of that storm surge running. If I could get to the next video there. But we're going to continue to find a barrel at this category five storm at least for the next day or so. And then it will start to weaken as we go through the day. And then we start to become still be a major storm as it gets towards Jamaica. We're looking at some of these winds in Jamaica today.

Arriving as we go into Wednesday, we'll find some tropical storm force and hurricane force winds as we go into Wednesday. Looking at some four to eight inches of rain and some three to five feet of storm surge. So something that we'll have to continue to watch and we'll be continuing to get updates from the National Hurricane Center as we go through the morning. Casey? All right, Elisa Rafa for us. Elisa, thank you very much for that.

are coming up next here, what the Supreme Court's immunity ruling means for Donald Trump's other criminal trials. Plus, Steve Bannon's last words before entering prison. That's ahead in your morning roundup.

All right, welcome back. What now? With the Supreme Court's ruling that presidents are broadly immune from prosecution for official acts taken while in office, big questions are lingering about what exactly it means for Donald Trump's remaining three criminal cases and his conviction. Already, Trump has moved to overturn his Manhattan conviction, citing the new immunity decision. Trump's lawyer in the case telling CNN last night that the judge should not only push back his sentencing, but also consider this.

What we have in New York is a situation where a substantial number of official acts of the presidency, things that we believe are official acts, were used as evidence to support the charges in that New York trial. We believe that that corrupts that trial, that that indicates that that jury verdict needs to be overturned, and at the very least we deserve a new trial where those immune acts will not come into evidence.

All right, the panel's back. Elliot, I mean, I kind of have to say it does seem to make a certain degree of sense that they might have to change things in New York based on this ruling. I think more than a certain degree of sense. Now, let's talk about what the Supreme Court decided. What they'd said was that evidence of official acts cannot even be used to help support a

prosecuting someone for unofficial acts of the presidency. So case in point, let's use Donald Trump's New York trial. Obviously, it's personal conduct, private behavior, sleeping with porn stars, cooking the books of your corporation, whatever else, right? However, it relied on the testimony of Hope Hicks, a former White House aide, and other evidence that is tied to his time in the White House. Now, Trump's team can plausibly claim some of these were official acts that

can't even be used as evidence. Now, to be clear, that provision in the opinion was one of the most remarkable few paragraphs in Supreme Court history. Even Justice Amy Coney Barrett, no liberal she, wrote

This is the part she dissented. Yeah, she does not agree with saying that it's a little bit bizarre that you're saying that even evidence of official acts can't be used to support unofficial acts. And so it's no surprise, we talked about it on air yesterday, that Trump's team would move to upend the New York case. Now, this whole idea of calling a new trial is sort of silly. I think what they can just do is let the appeal play out and have them raise that issue on appeal. But yes, it's going to change some aspect of the New York trial.

Yeah. OK, so big picture, Doug. Hi. I want to remind everyone of what, you know, as we grapple with the reality that the January 6th case is unlikely to move forward as well, of what Republicans in the Senate did when they were confronted with having to deal with President Trump's conduct around January 6th. He was then the president of the United States. And this is what Mitch McConnell had to say.

on the floor as he was basically explaining why he ultimately was going to vote to acquit the president in the second impeachment trial. Let's watch that. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation and former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one. So that was actually later. It was February. Yeah, it

He said, look, we have a criminal justice system. Do we anymore for what he's talking about? Well, let me first say, full disclosure, I worked for Senator Richard Burr, who voted to convict, which was the right vote at the time. I think history will prove that to be correct as well. With what the majority leader said, then majority leader said then, made sense at the time. Clearly facts have changed, and what we need to see is do Republicans change with that? My guess is they'll bend in the Donald Trump direction because that's what always happens. And as we see with the

current situation with Joe Biden, party officials don't like to cross the sitting president or the presumptive nominee. They fall in line regardless of what that then may mean down the line for policy or principle. Now, this is going to say, but to your question about do we have a justice system?

This may change sort of the legal case, but it does not change the fact of what we all saw on January 6th and how people may feel about that. Regardless of what ends up happening in the cases,

It doesn't change the fact we saw him on the Ellipse. We saw what the president said. We saw what happened to our Capitol. It was not just some tours. It was not just, you know, police sort of ushering people in. So those facts actually don't change. And they still are evidence and facts that are being used against Donald Trump very effectively in this election. But we also see polling that shows that a conviction would matter to people.

- You know, the part I was gonna make to both of your points, you know who can fix all of this with the stroke of a pen? The man we just saw, Mitch McConnell. And in a perfect world, which we live in a sadly imperfect world, and I hate to say that, but Congress could fix all of this. Congress can override a Supreme Court decision by simply legislating around it. Congress can make whatever tweaks to the criminal justice system that they want and can.

The problem is that Congress is hopelessly gridlocked right now. And it's sort of in a fantasy world, like in the textbooks, yes, that's what would happen. But McConnell, all of those idealistic visions he laid out there, Congress can do and could make happen. - And to Elliot's point, Congress has ceded power to the executive branch, regardless of who the president or who the Congress is.

basically since the end of World War II. So Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, all of them got more and more power, which impacts where we are today. That's process and it's not sexy, but that's reality. So you mentioned Richard Nixon, and I'm glad you did, because I just want to flash back to what Nixon said in 1977. I mean, if you're Richard Nixon, wouldn't you want your presidency back? Let's watch and see what he said. Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.

So he said, what the president does, that means it's not illegal. So here was the former Nixon White House counsel, John Dean, yesterday talking about what would have happened to Nixon under the rules that the Supreme Court just laid out yesterday. I think that Nixon would have survived. I think he would have walked under this ruling. Well, there are no more crimes for presidents in official conduct.

pretty remarkable state of affairs, Isaac. Yeah, look, this, and it's not theoretical. This ruling was written because of a case that Donald Trump brought.

It was written, the decision, with clearly Donald Trump in mind. And Donald Trump is seeking the presidency again. He will act based on this ruling and people around him will act based on this ruling. This is part of the choice that is in front of Americans in the fall.

But it is true that if the Democrats go forward with Joe Biden, a president who sometimes it seems people, is at least making people feel like he doesn't know what he's doing, he is now up against a president who seems to have been empowered to do whatever he wants to do. I'm not sure it's the stuff of the next Lin-Manuel Miranda musical, but that is what this election is coming down to, among other things.

All right. Coming up next here, the Democrats who might emerge if President Biden decides to drop out of the race. Unlikely, but we'll talk through it. Plus, Congressman Mike Quigley joins us live to discuss what's next for his party.

All right, 44 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. At least 30 passengers injured when a plane hit unexpected severe turbulence. Many on the Air Europa flight from Madrid to Uruguay were not wearing seat belts. And this terrifying video captured and shared by Mariella Jo Dahl, it shows a passenger's feet dangling from inside the overhead bins. One passenger describing that scary moment.

From one moment to the next, the plane destabilized and went into a dive. The people who didn't have seat belts went up in the air and hit the ceiling, and they got hurt. The pilot forced to make an emergency landing in Brazil. Congresswoman Victoria Sparks facing a weapons violation charge for carrying a gun into Dulles Airport. The Indiana Republican says she forgot about an empty handgun that she had tossed in her suitcase. That is a misdemeanor in Virginia.

All right. The sister of embattled Senator Bob Menendez testifying at his federal bribery and corruption trial, describing hidden cash as, quote, a Cuban thing, end quote. She says their father did it, too. Prosecutors found nearly half a million dollars and gold bars in the Democratic senator's home.

Hunter Biden taking Fox News and its parent company to court, accusing them of smearing him and unlawfully using pictures of him without permission in a miniseries. Fox News spokesperson calls the lawsuit meritless and politically motivated. Steve Bannon reporting to federal prison in Connecticut to serve a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress. Donald Trump's former White House strategist insisting he's proud to be incarcerated, even describing himself as a martyr.

I'm a political prisoner of Nancy Pelosi. I'm a political prisoner of Merrick Garland. I'm a political prisoner. I'm a political prisoner of Joe Biden and the corrupt Biden establishment.

Okay, there was a lot there guys. I want to we'd want to do guns in the airport the seatbelts on the planes Take your pick Tell me Doug, but the gun in the airports actually helps her politically I think yeah, remember I think her folks love that remember Madison Cawthorn You know from from previous Congress has gotten a lot of controversies about a lot of things one of the things they decided to do is hey, let's bring a gun to an airport and

and that arrest will help me in my district. Now, he still lost his primary, but he didn't lose the Trump endorsement. And I think that tells us a little bit. And I'm still mad they threw away, well, I'm just mad that they tossed this five ounce hand sanitizer from my bag. She gets to have a handgun in her bag. I was going to say, the number of times I've had to walk all the way around and go back through security because I accidentally left the water in my water bottle and they're insisting, no, actually, you just have to throw that away. Bring your peace. Anyway.

Firearms safety training, kids. Let's get on that. All right. Let's go now to this. The Biden campaign, we've been talking about it all morning, on defense, pushing back on calls from the president's own party to remove him from the race in 2024. CNN has learned that Biden's team is now looking to overhaul their strategy to ease voter apprehension over concerns about Biden's fitness for office. Because listen to this. This is what legendary journalist Carl Bernstein told CNN that his sources are telling him about the president.

These people who have supported him, loved him, campaigned for him, see him often, say that in the last six months particularly, there has been a marked incidence of cognitive decline and physical infirmity.

All right. Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley of Illinois. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us this morning. I want to start there with what we saw on the debate stage. You heard what Carl Bernstein reported there on CNN's airwaves. I think my question to you, you previously served for quite some time on the House Intelligence Committee. What do you think our adversaries saw on stage in President Biden last week? And does that concern you?

Look, the morning after when I looked at this, I said to myself, well, we had a really, really bad night and we'll move forward. Obviously, we have to be honest with ourselves and recognize that we have to take the voters where they are. And there is concern about this situation, given where we are. And the real tragedy besides that is,

The American people didn't get to see the contrast that existed between two dramatically different people acting as president for four years.

Sir, I want to play for you an ad that is now running in Pennsylvania, which is one of the critical Senate races that is going to decide control of that chamber. And this is Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate, going after Bob Casey, the sitting Democratic senator. Watch this. We'll talk about it. Everything we have to do with...

What would you have Joe Biden do to make the case that he's not an elderly, well-meaning gentleman? People are going to see it in the campaign. No question he's prepared to do this job today and would be where he reelected. I have a lot of confidence in his leadership. I have a lot of confidence in his leadership. No question he's prepared to do this job today.

Is President Biden's status as the person at the top of the ticket endangering Democratic hopes of keeping or regaining control of Congress, depending on the respective chamber?

Let me put it in this perspective. If I were to talk to the president today, I would advise him that the decision he has to make now is clearly only his. And as much as I greatly respect him and appreciate the extraordinary job, I think his four years are remarkable.

you know, one of the great presidencies of our lifetime. But I think he has to be honest with himself. This is a decision he's going to have to make. He clearly has to understand, I think what you're getting to here is that his decision not only impacts who's going to serve in the White House the next four years, but who's going to serve in the Senate, who's going to serve in the House, and it will have implications for decades to come.

It sounds like you're actually open to the idea that it might be the right decision for him to step aside.

I think what I'm stressing is it has to be his decision. But we have to be honest with ourselves that it wasn't just a horrible night. But I won't go beyond that out of my respect and understanding President Joe Biden, a very proud person who has served us extraordinarily well for 50 years. But it's his decision. I just want him to appreciate at this time just how much it impacts not just his race,

but all the other races coming in November. Do you think that if the polling starts to show it's clear Democrats will not gain control of the House because of the standing of the president, that the dam may break and he may face public pressure from people to step aside?

Well, it's clear that what took place last week doesn't seem to influence his decision. I don't know what will. I don't know if this polling is. It probably takes, what, three, four, five, up to a week to get decent polling. So I assess we'll probably get that starting today or tomorrow. The holiday will make polling more difficult. But I do think that's

probably the only thing out there right now that could change his mind or influence that critical decision that, again, only he can make. Congressman, let me ask you, you were a criminal defense attorney as well for many years. The Supreme Court just declared that presidents are immune from prosecution for their official acts. They are not for unofficial acts. What went through your mind when you saw that that ruling was coming down, and what do you think the implications are? Yeah, you know,

As a criminal defense attorney, I wish my clients would have had that kind of protection and never lose a case. I don't know if the majority, when they wrote this, understand just how tough it is, how tough it would be to prosecute someone who has that kind of protections. I think the second thing that struck me was when Lincoln said, if you want to analyze the Constitution, you've got to put the Declaration of Independence next to it.

The Declaration of Independence begins with grievances against the king. It's hard to imagine the founding fathers would have given the chief executive this kind of power, this kind of immunity, when they had just thrown off a tyrant. The last thing they wanted to do was to give an executive this kind of power, especially at this time.

Congressman, I know one thing that you wanted to come on to talk about today is the epidemic of gun violence across America. And I know it particularly impacts a major city in your state, Chicago, where, of course, we are going to see the Democratic National Convention. But we've heard recently from the Surgeon General on this matter. What are you seeing in your state and what are you wanting to do about it right now?

Look, I think the Surgeon General's remarks are long overdue. His report, it gives us critical opportunities to do the research necessary, the trauma that takes place throughout America. The statistics are horrifying. You know, 100 million, 100 Americans are dying a day from gun violence.

We hear of the mass shootings, but on an ongoing basis, this crisis continues. So it's an extraordinary first step. It's just unfortunate that gun issues have become so partisan. We didn't used to be here on this. And again, the majority of Americans do favor universal background checks, a ban on assault weapons. This all flies in the face of yet another crisis.

horrific Supreme Court decision changing a Trump era rule about bump stocks. So it's a difficult time. It's a welcome decision by the Surgeon General. I think it'll give us vital information to influence our policy decisions. All right. Congressman Mike Quigley, I'm very grateful for your time this morning. Thank you very much for being with us. Thank you.

All right. Let's talk more about this with our panel. More than a few Democrats believe it is time for Joe Biden to step aside. But as you heard, the congressman very carefully tried to thread there. No one has been willing to say it out loud. One of the former top strategists for President Clinton, Paul Begala, now a commentator here at CNN, explained it in fairly evocative terms. Watch the first Democratic politician to call on Biden to step down. It's going to end their career.

Right. They may be right in the eyes of a lot of Democrats. But if you're the first one through the door, you're going to get shot. And I think they all know that. I mean, that's every why won't Paul Ryan speak out conversation that we had five, six years ago. That's every single one. Yeah. And I will say, I think there's another piece to this, though, in this moment where people do feel he has earned the right to take, I would say, a bit. You know, we've got a holiday week a week.

Again, let's see the data, let's see what we're hearing from the field, and then decide if it's time to reassess. I think that's the other dynamic going on here. I don't disagree with Paul. And actually not the first one, the first probably- - Not Ryan. - I'm sorry. My Paul Begala, who I've known since I was 25 years old. But yeah, the first probably 10, 20 through the door, not just the first one. - I was going to say,

I would say that that was Mike Quigley going further than many Democrats have gone. I haven't heard anyone else go that far, really. And he is not someone that, you know, spend time on the Hill with a lot of reporters that we go and chase to find a, quote, knocking the Democratic Party. I think...

comments like that Sheldon Whitehouse Center for Rhode Island also not really much about it beat on the Democrats guy who yesterday told reporters in Rhode Island that he wants a full accounting the president's health these are real warning signals and look if the polling comes back and it says nothing changed whoever then that will be a sign to the buying campaign that they can keep going yes so this is a White House said quote I think people want to make sure that this is a campaign that's ready to go in when

that the president and he continues we can get the next part about up on the screen I I apparently it's stuck that's okay basically you get the idea right like he's saying look if you can't win we can run with them no absolutely I think I do your point care about

Congressman Quigley touched on this a little bit, that let's wait and see what the polling says. It's easy to forget that we're about 97 hours from the debate at this point. - That's right. - And a lot of the dust hasn't settled. Now certainly everybody saw the images, everybody knows the chatter and so on, but no one has really seen what the true impact of it has been. It'll be really interesting to see how the Mike Quigleys and Sheldon Whitehouses

change their tone if the polling dips a little bit. The other part of it though is that we're 97 hours from the debate. It is insane in a way to think we could change who the president is and who the nominee is based on one 90 minute performance. But we are 128 days from the election. If this is going to happen, if there's going to be change, it would be crazy and it was a process that would need to get underway. Yeah, well and it also is going to take two like

alternative that Democrats can coalesce around. I was really interested to listen to Steve Beshear. He is the governor of Kentucky, which is, of course, excuse me, Andy Beshear. It's a red state. But the way he talked about this was honestly, he kind of left the door farther open than some of the other Democrats. I think I've heard talk about this. Just listen to it. You can decide.

The debate performance was rough. It was a very bad night for the president. But he is still the candidate. Only he can make decisions about his future candidacy. And so as long as he continues to be in the race, I support him. It's flattering when people mention your name and something like that. But I think it's a reflection of all the good things going on in Kentucky.

We should remember that also what's rough isn't about a Supreme Court decision or Joe Biden's mental acuity or so forth. It's the people who are watching the show right now. When they turn off their TV, they're going to drive to work. And they're going to stop and get a biscuit or a donut and coffee. And they're going to be upset with what it costs. And if they didn't do that, they're going to go to a grocery store. Yes, they're going to go to a grocery store.

People's lives are rough right now because they're paying for more and they're not having this larger, the smaller Washington conversation. They're focused on what's going on in their lives and they're not happy with the direction of the country. Big problem for Joe Biden. But I think that goes to this point that the conversation that is happening in the country may be very different than the conversation we've been having since last Thursday here in Washington. And we ought to hear what people have to say. Yeah. I mean, it's and that's what, of course, we're going to wait.

Wait for those numbers because, as you heard, I might quickly say, it's probably the only thing out there that might change President Biden's mind. All right. Thanks to our panel. Thanks to all of you for joining us this morning. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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