Erin Burnett Outfront Aired July 11, 2024 - 19:00 ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. [19:00:37] ANNOUNCER: This is breaking news. ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett. And OUTFRONT tonight, we begin with the breaking news. We are moments away, seconds away from President Biden's high stakes news conference, a solo news conference. And what is the reality of the situation we are in a highly consequential moment that could be a turning point for his campaign. Members of Congress, donors, voters, strategists, world leaders, all of them are watching this moment, as the president of the United States tries to extinguish growing calls for him to step aside from his reelection campaign. Kayla Tausche is live from the news conference, which as I said, is just a moment here or two away from beginning. So, Kayla, you are in that room watching these final preparations for the president of the United States to come out for this press conference. What are you learning right now? KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Erin, the room is just starting to fill up as we await the president of the United States. Against this backdrop, we expect him to hail some of the achievements of this particular summit, marking the 75th anniversary of the alliance. But the president is going to have to engage in a high wire act to try to shore up confidence among members of his own party that he is the candidate that they should unify behind for reelection, and to beat Donald Trump. Earlier today, his top advisers held their daily call that they hold at 9:00 a.m. where they discuss the president's prospects in the race. I'm told as of this morning, there had been no change of heart, according to a senior administration official. They now do that call twice a day since the debate, adding a 9:00 p.m. call as well, to just sift through what's happened during the day and figure out what it means for the next. As of today, we do not expect the president to make any announcement about dropping out. That was at least the word from a senior administration official earlier today. The president has been toggling between the various official events here at this summit. But his aides who briefed him on Capitol Hill, some of them joined him here and you have to imagine that in those conversations, he got a little bit of a taste of what some Senate Democrats were saying, giving them an earful earlier today, many of those members telling CNN that it didn't matter what the president said on this stage tonight, because what they saw on the debate stage had caused them to make up their mind. Of course, many of those aides, many in the president's inner circle, the very members of his administration and campaign that have son so much frustration among top Democrats who tell CNN they believed that they were shielded from signs of the president's aging over the last year. Otherwise, they would have been in a position to reconsider or make a different decision on their candidate for 2024 sooner. Now, they're in a position where they're having to make this decision in crunch time with just days before the Democratic National Convention. Of course, all eyes are on the president here tonight. We don't know the exact parameters of what we will hear from him. How many questions he plans to take, how long we expect this press conference to go to. Certainly, we will wait and see and deliver that news to you live, Erin. BURNETT: All right. Well, Kayla, stay with me as we await here. Kayla talks about that room, filling up the president going to come out. There's going to be reporters from around the world in that room because this is on the heels of the NATO summit. So, obviously, as you can see, a woman there as they're getting ready, that will be the podium with the president, will approach in just a few moments. So, Kayla staying with me. I want to just briefly go to Capitol Hill, though because Kayla mentioned all those members of Congress who've been talking to CNN, many of whom are saying their minds are made up regardless of what they see tonight or at any other point from the president and Manu Raju is there on Capitol Hill. Manu, you've been speaking to many of these members, getting some new members speaking out to you. What are they saying? MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, look, there are a lot of private concerns about the president that have not come public yet. And we do expect in the aftermath of this press conference, more members to come out and call for Joe Biden to step aside. How many? Unclear. How quickly also unclear? Could it be a slow drip as we have seen so far? It certainly could be, but allowed but members who have been speaking to have said that they're going to wait until after this press conference that has to go forward with their concerns. They are all -- even though there are 14 members of Congress so far who have been public, you know, have said that they -- Joe Biden to step aside at his 14 Democrats in the House and the Senate, one Senate Democrat, there's a fraction of the overall number of House Democrats and Senate Democrats. There are many more who harbor deep concerns about the state of the Biden campaign. [19:05:05] Some of them hope he makes a decision that ultimately step aside if he does not do that or does anything in the way of a shaky performance tonight expect more of them to make voice public and trying to pressure the president to make that decision. But there's also some concern by doing that. It got essentially force the president to dig in. Already the president has plans to campaign next week, and that is the message that they sent behind closed doors to Senate Democrats today when top campaign officials brief Senate Democrats, they said to the president was going to hit the battleground states. He's going to do a major television interview on Monday and made no indication I'm told that he plans to step aside here. So this tension is only going to build after tonight. Erin, especially if he stumbles in this high-profile moment that could define his presidency and the rest of this campaign Erin. RAJU: All right. Manu, thank you very much. Manu with me, Kayla with me as we are standing by waiting for the president to approach that podium. We also have our panel with me. And I want to start with you, Kate Bedingfield, because, you know, the president and you've worked with him and you've spent a lot of time with him? And I'm wondering what you think is going through his mind right now, given the high stakes of this moment. And he knows it, and the pressures -- pressure and stress that he is under as he walks out to that podium, knowing that every single word he says or any single word he says could be used to end his campaign? KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, certainly, I think he has every understanding that this is a significant high-stakes moment. I imagine as he's preparing, he's working through, what are the key things that he wants to show people that he wants, people who are watching this press conference to come away with. And, you know, I think the things he needs to do are -- you know, he needs to convey that he shares the belief that this race and the potential threat of a second Donald Trump presidency is an existential threat, that he has the energy and the vigor and the fire to fight that fight, I think that's more than anything. I think what anxious Democrats are going to be looking for tonight as they're watching this, you know, they're certainly going to be -- the press is going to be listening to every word and parsing every word. You know, some viewers will do that, too. But I think most viewers will probably just be watching to see if he can bring that level of energy that's necessary to wage the kind of intense campaign that's going to have to happen over the next four months. So I -- you know, he should be focused on and making sure that he's conveying that. He certainly knows this is a high-stakes moment. I have no doubt that he's preparing for it and well see. But there are a lot of eyes on this press conference tonight, and I think, you know, there is a lot of concern -- we've heard a lot of reporting about concern on the Hill, and I think they'll see tonight -- I hope what they'll see is a really vigorous Joe Biden but that's the task ahead of him tonight. BURNETT: Van, you know, Kate references those on Capitol Hill watching. Kayla mentioned the number 14 Democrats thus far in Congress have called on Biden to get out. That includes one senator. "Politico" now says at least six more House Republicans are watching tonight and that this press conference that were about to see, they have said would be the determinant for them of whether they jumped on board that train to push him out. I know, Van, where you stand, that you've said that he needs to step aside. Is there anything that he could do tonight? Or performance that you would see that would at this point change your mind? VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Sure, I mean, look, first of all, its not just elected officials that are watching. He's got to walk out there, frankly, on a carpet of prayers. There's a lot of grassroots people who see this very differently than the political professionals like myself. There are a lot of African Americans in particular who feel that Donald Trump is getting a free pass. He can say anything, and it's expected that he's going to say crazy stuff, that Joe Biden is being held to a different standard and it's not fair. And so, there's a lot of prayer out there for Biden that you don't see. There's a lot of people who feel, you know, in the Black community were used to seeing leaders stumble and be attacked. And so there's a grassroots fundraising is going up for him, phone calls into a Black radio stations are going up for him. And so, he's walking out there with some support that may people may be surprised exist for him and if he can find himself, if he can find that center, if he can speak from who he really is, I think that might allay some fears. I think the challenge is that we are now in a dynamic where any mistake he makes is a headline and Donald Trump continues to say crazy stuff and nobody even notices. And that's a tough situation for him to be in tonight. BURNETT: Yeah. Well, it's a fair point because after this moment, if he gets past it, then there's the next one. I mean, no doubt that's how he feels. Astead, you know, when Van talks about the carpet of prayer -- I believe that's the phrase you used, Van -- that accompanies Biden tonight with some of his supporters and grassroots supporters, you have spent a lot of time talking to those supporters, to voters. [19:10:04] What are they telling you? ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, I think that tonight is going to be a test of whether Biden can do what he hasn't done over the last year-and-a-half, which does speak to the fundamental concern most Americans have about his presidency. It did not take the debate for a lot of Americans to think Biden was too old for a second term. And frankly, the campaign and the candidate have not spoken to those concerns, have ignored the evidence of those concerns consistently over the last year-and-a-half. And so, I think that this moment is one where he is speaking not only to elected officials, we're having a crisis of confidence about his candidacy, but also to a lot of Democrats who are doing that as well. And that does not mean it's universal because the numbers and I think the reporting would tell us to Van's point that it's not a clear kind of universal belief among Democrats that he should be replaced. But there is a universal belief that, that debate in though candidate who was in that debate is not suitable for what is going forward and the campaign set that up as a test for his fitness. And so, we should not think of this conference as step one, on that front. He has already flunked the first test and the terms of the debate, and I would also say we saw an interview with ABC that did not massage all those concerns anyway. So he is running out of rope here and I think that's why you feel the increased pressure coming from the Hill is because people want to see a different candidate and they want to see it fast. BURNETT: Scott, you know, a new poll came out this morning showing the race largely unchanged in that, that we'll see -- a poll is a poll, it's a data point. But from that data point, the debate did not impact the numbers as much as certainly the conversations that, you know, we've all been having, what indicate and certainly not as much as Republicans hoped. So does that surprise you, Scott? SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENATOR: One poll? No. I mean, if you want to know what the polls say, listen to the Democrats who are desperate for Joe Biden to drop out of the race. I mean, regardless of what public data you see, when elected officials with access so they are private polling, when high ranking Democrats are out begging for Joe Biden to do the right thing and step aside, you know what the polls say. The fact it's a tied race nationally means Donald Trump is going to win the Electoral College. I don't think this press conference, by the way, is going to change anything, whether he does well, whether he does poorly, or whether he does somewhere in the middle. First of all, he's already committed the gaffe of the day and he was trying to introduce President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, he called him President Putin. In terms of what the average American sees over the next 24 hours, they're going to see that clip of him messing up on the world stage over and over and over. And this press conference is not going to change it. But one press conference doesn't change what we know. This is a man in decline. It's not going to get better tomorrow. It's not going to get better in two weeks. And I'm with Van. I do think he's coming out on a carpet of prayer, and one of them. I'm praying for him and his family to think hard about whether he's the right person to lead this country right now. And certainly whether he can look into a camera with a straight face and tell the American people, I'm capable of leading it for the next four years. BURNETT: All right. Of course, he has done that repeatedly since the debate, but, you know, we'll see what he does tonight. All of you please stay with me because we are now just a minute or two away. I believe from this beginning. MJ Lee is outside the White House right now. And, MJ, as the president prepares to have this press conference prince live in primetime in front of the country in the world, you're reporting that some top Democrats are furious with Biden's inner circle. How come? MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, there is a lot of anger that is being directed at the president's inner circle of advisers and also his family members from so many Democrats across the party who believe that these people have created this operation and a system that is in place to have the president be highly choreographed, really stage-managed at every point of the day, and they believe that that is exactly why that's so many Democrats, even the people who interact with him on a regular basis, not to mention members of the public did not have a full picture of how much the president had declined, which so many Democrats felt like they saw on full display for the first time on debate night. Whether it is these cabinet meetings that are were described to us as being so meticulously scripted ahead of time, whether it is these advisers being incredibly sensitive to and controlling of the way that the president appears in front of cameras, one top Democrat that I was talking to who is in close touch with the president's inner circle, put it this way. They said there's this general sense of just unbelievable holding your breath every time he does that event. Every time he's with people. And they said these advisers had privately acknowledged that this situation is only going to get worse. And I was thinking, Erin, waiting for this press conference, watching the president deliver remarks at this NATO summit when he had that moment of mixing up the President Zelenskyy and President Putin -- I mean, you could very easily imagine so many Democrats that are tuning in to see how he'll do -- yeah, holding their breaths and wondering, is he going to bumble something? Is he going to make a mistake? [19:15:03] And, Erin, I think that is just one of the biggest reasons why, even if the president were to stay in the race and our reporting is that he has not changed his mind on that. Why the road ahead is going to be so difficult for him because there are so many Democrats in his party, people that are close to him that basically believe at this point that it is politically untenable for him to move forward with this kind of scrutiny, and this kind of microscope on him when he already has his work cut out for him trying to do if beat Donald Trump. BURNETT: Right. Right. And as you point out, you know, when you mistake a name, you mistake a name, in his case now it's different, right? Donald Trump confused Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi, Erdogan and Orban, but we don't keep hearing about that. Right now when it's Biden, it takes on such importance, which just shows the stakes here. I want to go straight to our chief national security analyst, Jim Sciutto, who is there tonight. And of course, has been there at NATO throughout. And, Jim, you have been talking and this is a crucial thing too, when you talk about all of this coverage about the United States president, what does this do to American standing in the world and the way other world leaders perceive him. And this country, you've been talking to some of those leaders and NATO officials today. And what are they telling you? What are they looking for here? JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yeah. I would say, Erin, the dynamic is not dissimilar for what you hear from Democratic Party leaders, right? That what you hear publicly from many NATO officials, Ive spoken to several of them is an expression of confidence in President Biden's leadership today and going forward. Privately, they say something quite different, which is they are watching him very closely. They see the challenges that he's facing domestically, and they have their own questions frankly about his decline over time. They don't want to say that publicly. It's quite understandable. They are in the midst of the largest war in Europe, of course, since World War II, they want to show unity and in many ways they have shown unity here. But those questions about his leadership and also this is crucial, Erin, the effect of this election on the alliance going forward because they know that on the ballot are two American leaders Trump and Biden with two very different views of Americas role in the world at Americas role in NATO. And they see a potential American, if not withdrawal from NATO, at least retreat from its positions in the past. It's a very real question going forward and very real fears for many you speak with here. BURNETT: Yeah, unmoored and unsettling feeling. I am sure for them as it is for so many who are watching this all unfold. All right. Jim is staying with us. Of course, we've got Kayla, MJ, at the White House in the room, as well, as we await the president. I just want to just bring in briefly longtime Democratic strategist, James Carville as we await the president. Obviously, James, you've been vocal. You've said that Biden cant beat Trump in your view. You also believe he will ultimately be replaced with another Democratic nominee. So when you look at this stage tonight and you look at the president, the United States about to come out and just said originally been planned for around 6:30. Now, we expect him any moment, so he is running a bit late. What are you looking for? JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: (INAUDIBLE) BURNETT: Yeah. All right. You know what, James? We're going to work on your audio. I thought it was me, but we are having a little bit of a challenge with it. So, we're going to fix it. I'll come right back to you. In the meantime, Van, let me just go back to you on the back of the MJ Lee's reporting when she saying you that that deep frustration and anger at Biden's inner circle. I'm just curious about your view on this because these, many of these people who seem to be angry, are people who themselves have spent time with Biden. And there are people who have told others that when they have conversations with him about foreign policy or some sort of a policy issue, that he's sharp and on and to the point and follows up and asks questions and does all of that, and they themselves were shot. And now, they're angry that the inner circle was sort of keeping some thing from them. And I'm just wondering if all that adds up to you. JONES: Look, I think that people may have had some sense of disquiet having met with him. I've not met with them in the past several months. [19:20:01] So -- but there may have been people that have some disquiet, some concern, but it may have been easily brushed aside. And listen, Anderson Cooper did a beautiful interview with him a few months ago about grief. It was -- it was beautiful. So, you know, it's not like every day he was like the guy we saw. So I think what happened is there was a sense of disquiet. He's obviously was losing a step or two. You saw a little bit of the mumbling and the stumbling, but there was a floor there that I think people were used to and were expecting. And that floor just fell away at the debate. And I think that there's -- I think what the suspicion is because it there may have been other times when the floor had fallen away and that that was not being reported out and that was why there was so much control. But I don't think -- I think that people are wrong, that they think, there are Democ -- a lot of Democratic officials are members of the press who had access to a Biden who looked like that, and a Biden who acted like that and just kept their mouth shut. That is not true. People were uniformly -- I know these people personally, uniformly stunned by what they saw and they are angry that this may have been a recurring feature that was not revealed. BURNETT: You know, Kate, I interviewed the president a few weeks ago -- a month ago, and it was in the middle of the afternoon. It was at a factory in Wisconsin. He traveled there. We talked for just under 20 minutes. He gave details. He had a strong message for Prime Minister Netanyahu about his red line in Rafah. He knew what he wanted to say. He was in control of it. That being said, he was old, he seems physically frail as we have all seen, but nothing like we saw at that debate. I mean, have you heard, Kate, from anybody in the inner circle that you are so close to after the debate, did it suddenly come out that they had seen moments like we all witnessed on that debate stage? BEDINGFIELD: No, absolutely not. I didn't hear that from anybody around the president. I didn't hear that from anybody in the inner circle. I think Van's point is exactly right that most people who interact with him come away feeling like he is in charge. He's confident. He's making decisions. It's not -- there's not a universe of people who are somehow hiding the fact that Joe Biden regularly looks like he looked on that debate stage on the night of the 27th. So, you know, I think the other thing to remember too about this suggestion that somehow his inner circle is, you know, hiding him. I mean, these are people who care tremendously about him. They advocated to put him on the debate stage. They believed it was going to be a good political moment for him that he was sharp next to Donald Trump. They would not have done that had they thought that this was going to happen. So I think this was a really difficult night. It's -- it doesn't reflect what I've heard from others who are close to him. I -- you know, I haven't been there since March of '23. That's when I left. But every person I talked to you to a person and has said they haven't seen the person that we saw on the debate stage. So I think, you know, I certainly take them at their word. It was one bad night and now his task is to go out and do what he's doing, which is to show that it was in fact one bad night. BURNETT: Yeah. And I want to let everyone watching know as we await the president, his national security team is now in the room, along with his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, but John Kirby is there. Jake Sullivan is there. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is there, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is there. They are all in that room right now. Astead, the voters that you're speaking to, is there anything that he can do that puts this to rest, in other words, that makes them go back to the way they were before the debate? Where they knew he was what I witnessed, he could be frail, he is old, but that he was in command of what he wanted to do? Or is this going to be every single time he comes out now, it's Groundhog Day? HERNDON: I do think that the nature of the debate was such that every single time he comes out, there will be a standard of folks are looking at to make sure it does not slip into the so-called one bad night. But I also think even if we think before the debate, voters were already at the point where they thought that there were questions about Joe Biden's physical and kind of mental capabilities for the next four years. So going back to the pre-debate levels of voter confidence is not enough for the Biden campaign. They have to turn that around if they want the chance to win this race. And that was their tasks before the debate even started. I would suggest that the question of cover up is not the real right one to ask their reporting doesn't bear that out as folks have said, but there was always enough evidence to look ahead to the next four years and say that a lot of members of the American public were uncomfortable with the idea of an 86-year-old second term president. That has been true consistently, and that was not the question that the Democrats were willing to engage in. And so, that's what I think is at the core of people's upset in this year is why was that not happening? BURNETT: So, Scott, in the inner circles on the Republican side that you talked to -- of the -- you know, the power players in the Republican Party? What do they expect to happen here? JENNINGS: Well, nobody knows. I mean, I started this week thinking Biden was going to survive and then I saw Nancy Pelosi on TV yesterday, reopen the door and it seems like more people are coming out today. [19:25:06] So, nobody really knows what's going to happen. There's a huge amount of uncertainty, not just about Joe Biden, the candidate, but about Joe Biden, the president. So, there's a lot of confusion on the Republican side. Obviously running against Biden is preferred because he's so wounded right now, the American people have lost confidence in the job that he's done, and in his fitness for office for the next four years. But honestly, Erin, there is a tremendous amount of we don't have any idea. By the way, one comment on all these people who have been coming out with their concerns in the last few days that have apparently known about it for weeks or months, or years. They are not doing this out of concern for Biden the man. They are not doing an out of concern for Biden the president. They're doing it out of concern of the polls that they've seen. To me, it's kind of craven honestly to see these Democrats, all of a sudden, come public with these concerns when they've known at all along just because the polls turn south. BURNETT: All right, so on that, I want to bring James Carville back and James, I'm sorry about your audio. I think we've I think we fixed it now. But I want to give you a chance to respond to what Scott just said that this perception that because all the polls are bad, that you got more, more Democrats jumping on the bandwagon of Biden has to go you. He used the word "craven" to describe that. How do you feel? And I want to make it clear. You've been saying this for quite some time, so you're not in that category, but do you feel that way about those who are now suddenly jumping on board? CARVILLE: Well, maybe Scott shocked that someone is reading polls. I'm not. I think the polls are good. Polling drives of what happens in politics, but people for a long time, they don't like his choice. Seventy-three percent of the country doesn't like this choice and Republican Party is hopeless band of mostly -- with a criminal nominee, they can all say what they want that he's not a criminal, he cannot tell the truth. He stole 34,000 lives and the Democrats offer the country some kind of challenge, and were going to win. If we insist on sticking with the status quo, we're at risk of losing. It's quite that simple. The country does not want criminality, and that's Republican Party is offering, plain and simple. BURNETT: And so, James, just in these in these final moments, may I just ask you briefly -- what are you most focused on here as this press conference begins? We don't know how long it'll go. CARVILLE: Well, I think that step is it's inevitable that President Biden will choose not to run for reelection and we're going to have a really tight, messy procedure to pick our nominee and we have to focus on that, and it is a very difficult time in American politics. But the choice, I don't think the country wants to go down the path of criminality and habitual lying. I really don't. I just want my party to hear them talking differently. BURNETT: And every -- you can see everyone in the room standing. The president United States is walking out to begin his press conference. He approaches the podium -- and let's listen. JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you. Please be seated. Well, good evening. We just concluded this year's NATO Summit. And the consensus among members was, it was a great success. It was especially momentous because it represented the 75th year of the most important military defense alliance in the world's -- history of the world. We should never forget that NATO grew out of the wreckage of World War II, the most destructive war in history. The idea was to create an alliance of free and democratic nations that would commit themselves to a compact of collective defense. Standing together, they knew we'd all be safer. An attack on one would be treated as an attack on all. And it's worked, because a would-be aggressor knows, they attack one of us, they will be attacked by all of us. Sending that message is the best way to deter aggression and prevent wars in the first place. For those who thought NATO's time had passed, they got a rude awakening when Putin invaded Ukraine. Some of the oldest and deepest fears in Europe roared back to life, because, once again, a murderous madman was on the march. But, this time, no one cowered in appeasement, especially the United States. We collected intelligence that Russia was planning to invade Ukraine months before the invasion. I -- I directed the intelligence community to be de -- a significant amount of intelligence to be declassified, so I could start building an international coalition to oppose the invasion. Then, in February, some of you remember, I warned the world that the invasion was imminent. I rallied the coalition of 50 nations from Europe to Asia to help Ukraine defend itself. My foreign policy -- many foreign policy experts thought, as Putin amassed Russian forces just 100 miles north of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, but he thought -- he -- Putin thought it was a mother -- home of Russia, the capital would fall in less than a week. [19:30:18] But Ukrainian people, backed by a coalition I helped build, stopped them. Today, Kyiv still stands, and NATO stands, stronger than it has ever been. During the week in this summit, several heads of states made it a point, their statements, to thank the United States, and to thank me personally for all that NATO has achieved. NATO is not only stronger, NATO is bigger because we led the charge to bring in Finland and Sweden into the alliance, and it makes a gigantic difference. Excuse me. Meanwhile, my predecessor has made it clear he has no commitment to NATO. He's made it clear that he would feel no obligation to honor Article Five. He's already told Putin -- and I quote -- do whatever the hell you want. In fact, the day after Putin invaded Ukraine, here's what he said: It was genius. It was wonderful. Somebody forgot that, but that's exactly what he said. But I made it clear, a strong NATO is essential to American security, and I believe the obligation of Article Five is sacred. I remind all Americans, Article Five is revoked only once in NATO's long history and that was to defend America after 9/11. I made it clear that I will not bow down to Putin. I will not walk away from Ukraine. I will keep NATO strong. That's exactly what we did and exactly what we'll continue to do. Now, the future of American policy is up to the American people. This is much more than the political question. It's more than that. It's a national security issue. Don't reduce this to the usual testament that people talk about, issues being (ph) a political campaign. It's far too important. It's about the world we live in for decades to come. Every American must ask herself or himself, is a world safer with NATO? Are you safer? Is your family safer? I believe the American people know the answer to all those questions is yes. And I believe the American people understand that America is stronger, stronger because of our alliances. I believe the American consensus from Truman to Reagan to me still holds today. America cannot retreat from the world, but most lead the world. We're an indispensable nation as Madeleine Albright wrote. Now, let me turn to three other key issues. Just this morning, we had a great economic report showing inflation is down. Overall prices fell last month. Core inflation is the lowest it's been in three years. Prices are falling for cars, appliances, and airfare -- airfares. Grocery prices have fallen since the start of the year. We're going to keep working to take down corporate greed to bring those prices down further. Meanwhile, Trump's calling for a 10 percent tariff on everything Americans buy, including foods from overseas, vegetables and other necessities. And economists tell us that that would cost the average American working family another $2,500 a year, as a tax of $2,500 a year. Second, our efforts to secure the border, the southern border is working. After Trump killed the bipartisan effort to secure the border, that Republicans and Democrats had worked on, because he thought it would benefit me and make him a loser, Republicans walked away. So I took executive action last month. As a consequence, working with Mexico, border encounters have gone down over 50 percent. The current level is lower today than when Trump left office. Third, for months, United States is working to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, to bring the hostages home, to create a path for peace and stability in the Middle East. Six weeks ago, I laid out a detailed plan, in writing. It was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, the G7. That framework has now agreed on by both Israel and Hamas. So I sent my team to the region to hammer out the details. These are difficult, complex issues. [19:35:11] There are still gaps to close. We're making progress. The trend is positive, and I'm determined to get this deal done and bring an end to this war, which should end now. Let me conclude where I began. We're the United States of America. We are the indispensable nation. Our leadership matters. Our partnerships matter. This moment matters. We must rise to meet it. With that, I'll take your questions. I've been given a list of people to call on here. Reuters, Jeff Mason. JEFF MASON, REUTERS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Mr. President, your political future has hung over the NATO summit a little bit this week. Speaker Pelosi made a point of suggesting that your decision on whether to stay in the race was still open. George Clooney and a handful of lawmakers have called on you to step aside. Reuters is reporting tonight that UAW leadership is concerned about your ability to win. BIDEN: UAW just endorsed me, but go ahead. MASON: Thank you. My question for you is, how are you incorporating these developments into your decision to stay? And separately, what concerns do you have about Vice President Harris's ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket? BIDEN: Look, I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president until I think she was not qualified to be president. So let's start there. Number one, the fact is that the consideration is that I think I'm the most qualified person to run for president. I beat him once, and I will beat him again. And secondly, the idea -- I served in the Senate a long time. The idea that senators and congressmen running for office worry about the ticket is not unusual. And I might add, there were at least five presidents running or incumbent presidents who had lower numbers than I have now, later in the campaign. So there's a long way to go in this campaign. And so I'm just going to keep moving, keep moving. And because, look, I got more work to do. We've got more work to finish. There's so much -- we've made so much progress. Think about it. Think about where we are economically relative to the rest of the world. Name me a world leader who wouldn't want to trade places with our economy. We've created over 800,000 manufacturing jobs. 1.5 million to -- I mean, so things are moving. We've got more to go. Working-class people still have -- need help. Corporate greed is still at large. Their prices and corporate profits have doubled since the pandemic. They're coming down. And so I'm optimistic about where things are going. Danny Kemp, AFP. DANNY KEMP, AFP WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Thanks. Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to ask you about your -- you mixed up Presidents Zelenskyy and Putin earlier today. And you now have, sort of, your key allies, including the British Prime Minister, the President of France, and the German Chancellor having to step in and make excuses for you on that. Officials here are saying off the record that your decline has become noticeable. Hasn't this now, frankly, become damaging for America's standing in the world? Thank you. BIDEN: Did you see any damage to our standing in my leading this conference? Have you seen a more successful conference? What do you think? And the move -- the Putin piece -- I was talking about Putin, and I said, and now, at the very end, I said, here -- I mean, Putin, I said, no, I'm sorry, Zelenskyy. And then I added five other names. Look, guys, the idea -- anybody suggests that -- that we haven't had an incredibly successful conference -- how many times did you hear, in that conference -- I know it sounds too self-serving, but other leaders, heads of state, in thanking me, saying the reason we're together is because of Biden, because Biden did the following. Look, folks, this is a -- well, anyway, I thought it was the most successful conference I've attended in a long time. And find me a world leader who didn't think it was. Next one. I'm sorry, Nancy Cordes, CBS. [19:40:01] NANCY CORDES, CBS NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Mr. President. You mentioned other instances in history where presidents have faced a challenge. But what makes this moment in history so unique is that it is not your enemies who are calling on you to reconsider your decision to stay in the race, it's your friends, supporters, people who think you've done a great job over the past four years. Have you spent time thinking about what it would mean for your legacy, which you've worked decades to build, if you stay in the race despite the concerns that voters say they have, and you lose to someone who you yourself have argued is unfit to return to the Oval Office? BIDEN: Well, look, I'm not in this for my legacy. I'm in this to complete the job I started. As you'll recall, understandably, many of you and many economists thought my initial initiatives that I put forward can't do that, it's going to cause inflation, things are going to skyrocket, the debt's going to go up. What do you hear now from mainstream economists? Sixteen economic Nobel laureates said I've done a hell of a job. That under my plan so far and whats going to happen in the future if I -- if I'm re-elected, that things are going to get much better. Our economy is growing. I was determined when I got elected to stop the trickle-down economic theory that as the wealthy did very well, everybody else would do well. My dad was a well-read decent guy. I don't remember much trickling down on his kitchen table. Middle class people and working class people need help. And so what happened is I decided to implement, was able to implement as president what I believed when I was a senator. And that is that the way to build this economy is from the middle out and the bottom up. That way we grow the economy and the wealthy still do very well. They do fine. And guess what? Find me the economy -- mainstream economists who have said we haven't done well. What have we not done that isn't working right now? And so we've got more to do, though. We've got to finish the job. And by the way, I come from the corporate state of the world. Delaware has more corporations in -- you know, registered in Delaware than every other state in the nation combined. I'm not anti- corporate. But the corporate -- corporate profits have doubled since the pandemic, doubled. It's time things get back in order little bit. It's time, for example, if I'm reelected, we're going to make sure that rents are kept at 5 percent increase -- corporate rents for apartments and the like, and homes are limited to 5 percent. We're going to make a lot of changes that I've been talking about. Because were going to continue to grow this economy. And by the way, I know -- remember how I got so roundly criticized for being so pro-union? Not labor, union, union. Well, guess what? I've been the most pro-union labor president in history, not a joke. And guess what? We had the Treasury Department do a study. When unions do better, everybody does better. Everybody does better. And we talked about how, for example, when I went -- remember when we talked about getting the computer chip industry back in the United States? It used to be 40 percent of the industry. We invented chip, 40 percent of the industry was in the United States. And former presidents decided that the best way to do it was find the cheapest labor in the world, send the product over there, and import what the product was. And so what'd I do? I was told not to go over to Europe -- I mean, to Asia, including Europe, but Asia. And I remember going to South Korea, convincing them invest $20 billion in the United States to build can chip -- computer chip factories. And I asked why when they finally decided to do it. And the answer was because you have the safest economy in the world and you have the best workers in the world. So the whole idea here is we've -- we've invested -- there's over $50 billion in investment in computer chip manufacturing just coming into being. And none of you thought that would happen. None of you thought that would happen. But it's happening. And it's going to go economies all through -- and by the way, red states and blue states. Matter of fact, there is as much in red states as blue states. I've made no distinction. So my generic point is that the idea that we can't continue to build and grow the economy, make it fair, and like I said, from my standpoint, when the middle class does well, that's when the whole economy grows. The poor have a shot. The wealthy do well. But the wealthy got to start paying their taxes. [19:45:04] CORDES: Vice president, Kamala Harris, would be ready to serve on day one. Can you elaborate on that? What is it about her attributes and her accomplishments over the last four years that make her ready to serve on day one, if necessary? BIDEN: First of all, the way she's handled the issue of freedom, of women's bodies, kept control over their bodies. Secondly, her ability to handle almost any issue on the board. This was a hell of a prosecutor. She was a first rate person, and in the Senate she was really good. I wouldn't have picked her unless I thought she was qualified to be president from the very beginning. I made no bones about that. She is qualified to be president. That's why I picked her. Felicia Schwartz, Financial Times. REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. The presidency is the most straining job in the world, and it's 24/7. How can you say you'll be up for that next year, in two years, in four years, given the limits you've acknowledged that you have today? BIDEN: The limits I have acknowledged? REPORTER: There's been reporting that you've acknowledged that you need to go to bed earlier, end your evening around 8:00. BIDEN: That's not true. Look. What I said was instead of my every day starting at 7:00 and going to bet a midnight, it'd be smarter for me to pace myself a little more. And I said, for example, the 8:00, 7:00 -- instead of starting the fundraiser at 9:00, let's start at 8:00. People get to go home by 10:00. That's what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about -- and if you look at my schedule since I've -- since I made that stupid mistake of -- in the campaign, in the debate, I mean, my schedule has been full bore. I've done -- where's Trump been? Riding around in his golf cart, filling out his scorecard before he hits the ball? I mean, look, he's done virtually nothing. And I have I don't know how many. Don't hold me to it. Roughly 20 major events. Some with thousands of people showing up. And so I just think it's better. I always have an inclination, whether I was playing sports or doing politics, just to keep going, nonstop. I just got to just pace myself a little more. Pace myself. In the next debate I'm not going to be traveling in 15 time zones a week before. Anyway, that's what it was about. That's what it's about. And by the way, even with that, I love my staff. But they add things. They add things all the time. Very -- I'm catching hell from my wife for that. Anyway. I'm sorry, Zeke Miller, Associated Press. ZEKE MILLER, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Thank you, Mr. President. I have two questions for you. First, on the NATO summit, President Zelenskyy in your meeting with him, he pressed you to lift your limitations on the Ukrainian use of American weapons, saying that, in his public remarks afterwards, saying that Ukraine cannot win the war unless those limitations are lifted. Are you reconsidering your position on that? And then secondly, following up on Felicia's question there, leaders of your own party have said that they're not worried about that debate. They're worried about the next bad night and the bad night after that. How can you reassure the American people that you are up to the task and that there won't be more bad nights at the debate stage or somewhere else? BIDEN: First thing about Zelenskyy asking for the ability to strike deep into Russia. We've allowed Zelenskyy to use American weapons in the near term, in the near abroad into Russian. Whether or not he has we should -- he should be tagged, for example, should Zelenskyy, he's not. If he had the capacity to strike Moscow, strike the Kremlin, would that make sense? It wouldn't. Question is, what's the best use of the weaponry he has, the weapon we were getting to him? I've gotten a more -- I've got a more long-range capacity as well as defensive capacity, and so our military is -- I'm following the advice of my commander-in-chief, my -- my chief of staff of the military, as well as the secretary of Defense and our intelligence people. And we're making a day-to-day basis on what they should and shouldn't -- how far they should win. That's a logical thing to do. Second question related to -- MILLER: Bad nights. Bad nights. Sir, have can you reassure the American people that you won't have more bad nights, whether they'd be on a debate stage or it's a matter of foreign policy? [19:50:05] BIDEN: Well, I tell you what. The best way to assure them is the way I assure myself. And that is, am I getting the job done? Any I getting the job done? Can you name me somebody who's gotten more major pieces of legislation passed in three and a half years? I created 2,000 jobs just last week. So if I slow down, I can't get the job done. That's a sign that I shouldn't be doing it. But there's no indication of that yet -- none. What have we got here? Marek (ph), Polaski (ph) Radio? REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. How are you? BIDEN: I'm well. REPORTER: The elections in the U.S. have consequences around the world. You have pretty high standing in Europe. I just asked President Macron about you, and he said, "We are happy to have him as the president of the United States." But there is a concern, many people in Poland and across Europe are worried that the former president may win the election. And there's a lot of concern that Donald Trump may weaken NATO, stop supporting Ukraine or push Ukraine to give up territories to Russia. BIDEN: They're correct. REPORTER: And your -- yourself was warning, just two minutes ago, about it. So my question is, do you think that Europe will be left on its own if Donald Trump wins the election? And what's your advice to European leaders to prepare for possible U.S. disengagement? BIDEN: Well, look, I think -- how can I say this without sounding too self-serving? I'm not having any of my European allies come up to me and say, "Joe, don't run." What I hear them say is, "You've got to win. You can't let this guy come aboard. He'd be a disaster. He'd be a disaster." I mean, I think he said at one of his rallies -- don't hold me to this -- recently, where NATO, "I just learned about NATO," or something to that effect. Foreign policy has never been his strong point. And he seems to have an affinity to people who are authoritarian. That worries, as I tell you, from Poland, that worries Europe. That worries Poland. And nobody, including the people of Poland, think that, if he wins in Ukraine, he's going to stop in Ukraine, that that's going to be the end of it. And so what I can say is I think I'm the best qualified person to do the job, to make sure that Ukraine does not fall, that Ukraine succeeds, that the European alliance stays strong. You may recall, no one was talking about Finland joining NATO. I remember talking to Putin in -- when, right after he got elected, in Geneva. And he was talking about what we should do; he -- we couldn't be in Eastern Europe, et cetera. And I said, "You're looking for the Findalization (ph) of Ukraine. But you're going to get the NATO-ization of Finland." And about four weeks later, I got a call -- that's not true -- probably five months later, from the president of Finland, could he come and see me in my office. And I had -- I invited him to the Oval Office. We sat down and talked. He said he wanted to join NATO, could I help? And I did. It wasn't automatic. And then I got a call from the Swedes. REPORTER: (inaudible) BIDEN: I beg your pardon? And so Finland joined NATO; 800-mile border is a significant -- and they're already allies, but they weren't part of NATO. And you heard -- I think you maybe -- I can't recall whether he said it publicly or in our -- in our closed meeting, but he wouldn't mind it being repeated. He said, "We decided in Finland, the people of Finland decided they had to be part of NATO. It was in our interests because of the joint ability to be together, to dissuade any attack on Finland, and the same thing with -- with Sweden. It took a lot of selling to some folks, particularly in Turkey and other places, to agree to the expansion, but it expanded. And we're a hell of a lot stronger because of it, and more secure because of it. [19:55:13] And, by the way, I was able to get 50 other nations, 50, 5-0, to support Ukraine. Fifty. We're able to bring about a coalition between in -- of Europe and Asia, Japan and South Korea. I just met with -- we've talked about AUKUS, and we talked about the relationship between Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, the United States. We're making the world safer and stronger because we have to deal with a new arrangement that exists in the world. The Cold War is over. The post-war era is over. What is going to replace it? And I respectfully suggest I have a pretty good idea what that should be. I could miss (ph) a lot of people will follow it, and we're just going to get stronger. David Sanger? Where is he? DAVID SANGER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you, Mr. President. BIDEN: Be nice, David. SANGER: Mr. President, I -- the NATO declaration that was issued yesterday, it was very notable because it described China as a decisive enabler of the war in Ukraine -- for its provision of critical goods to the Russians. That's part of a broader partnership that seems to have cemented in place in the past two or three years, I think one that you were a little bit doubtful of when we asked you about it some time ago. So I'd be interested to know whether you have a strategy now of trying to interrupt the partnership between China and Russia, and whether or not in a second term, you would pursue that -- if you could describe that strategy to us. And along the way, could you also tell us whether you think -- just to follow up on Felicia's (ph) question -- that if you were in a room with Vladimir Putin, again, the way you were three years ago or with President Xi, that a few years from now, you will be able to go negotiate with them, handle them one-on-one? BIDEN: Well, the first part of your question is, we discussed and I raised in the NATO Summit, and others raised, the future of China's involvement, what they're going to do. What they're doing with Russia in terms of accommodating, facilitating -- they're getting access to additional -- they're not supplying -- they're not supplying weapons themselves. They're supplying mechanisms, and then well be able to get weapons. And China's position is basically -- and I've spent more time with Xi Jinping than any world leader has, over 90 hours since being vice president, all the way through, for real, and by the way, I handed all my notes. But my point is that Xi believes that China is a large enough market that they can entice any country, including European countries, to invest there and return for commitments from Europe to do A, B, C, or D, or not to do certain things. What's happened is we had a long discussion about what we cannot -- you have to make clear, China has to understand that if they are supplying Russia with information and capacity, along with -- working with North Korea and others to help Russia in armament, that they're not going to benefit economically as a consequence of that by getting the kind of investment they're looking for. And so, for example, we're in a situation where when -- and we've re- established direct contact with China after that -- remember of the balloon, quote/unquote, going down, all of a sudden, the thing (ph) came to an end? Well, we set up a new mechanism, there's a direct line between Xi and me and our military has direct access to one another. They contact one another when we have problems. The issue is that we have to make sure that Xi understands there's a price to pay for undercutting both the Pacific basin, as well as Europe, and as it relates to Russia and dealing with Ukraine. And so, we -- for example, if you want to invest in China, as you know, you know this area really well, trying to invest in China, you have to get a 51 percent Chinese owner, … Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees Aired July 11, 2024 - 20:00 ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. [20:00:00] JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: …You have to make sure that you do by their rules and you can't - you don't have the authority - and you have to provide all access to all the data and information you have. There was a while there, as you recall, in the last administration and other administrations, where the access to that market was enticing enough to get companies to come in because they had access to over a billion people in the - a market. Not a billion, but a lot of people in the market. And so they were doing it. But that got curtailed when we started saying, we're going to play by the same rules. For example, the idea they don't abide by the international rules related to subsidizing products by the government funding. So, guess what, they're not going to be able to export their electric vehicles to the United States without a significant tariff. Others are doing the same thing around the world. But it is a concern. It is a concern that you have both China, South Korea - I mean, North Korea, Russia, Iran, countries that are not necessarily coordinated in the past looking to figure out how they can have impact. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) that impact? BIDEN: Yes, I do, but I'm not prepared to talk about the detail of it in public. And I think you'll see that some of our European friends are going to be curtailing their investment in Russia - I mean, excuse me, in China. As long as China continues to have this indirect help to Russia in terms of being able to help their economy as well as - as well as help them in - as a consequence of that, their ability to fight in Ukraine. The other thing that we talked a lot about is that - and I raised it, and I didn't hear any - I can't swear that everyone agreed because not everybody got to talk about it - but we haven't - we need a new industrial policy in the West. For example, we talked about how both the EU as well as NATO has to be able to begin to build their own munition capacity, has to be able to generate their own capacity to provide for weapons and the ability to - it came as a surprise to some of us how we had fallen behind in the West in terms of the ability to construct new material, new weaponry, new - everything from vehicles to weapon systems. And so, one of the things that came out of this was - we're going to be meeting again with a number of my colleagues, my European colleagues - is what do we do to increase the capacity of the West, particularly in Europe and Japan, to be able to generate the kind of ability to produce their own weapon systems. Not just for themselves, but to be able to generate that. It's the same - that's what Russia is trying to figure out, that they went to China and they didn't get the weapons, but then they went to North Korea. But we're going to be in a position where the West is going to become the industrial base for being able to build - the ability to have all the defensive weapons that we need. That was a discussion as well. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, I'm not sure you answered on whether you would be ready to go deal with Putin and Xi two or three years from now. BIDEN: I'm ready to deal with them now and three years from now. Look, the - like I said, I'm dealing with Xi right now. I'm in direct contact with him. I have no good reason to talk to Putin right now. There's not much that he is prepared to do in terms of accommodating any change in his behavior. And - but there isn't any world leader I'm not prepared to deal with. But I understand the generic point is, is Putin ready to talk. I'm not ready to talk to Putin unless Putin is ready to change his behavior. And the idea - look, Putin's got a problem. [20:05:00] First of all, in this war that he is supposedly have won - and by the way, I think - don't hold me to the exact number, but I think that Russia had 17.3 percent of Ukraine that they've conquered. Now it's 17.4. I mean, in terms of percentage of territory. They've not been very successful. They've caused horrible damage and loss of life, but they've also lost over 350,000 troops, military, killed or wounded. They have over a million people, particularly young people with technical capability, leaving Russia because they see no future there. They've got a problem. But what they do have control of is they are very good at controlling and running the public outcry that relates to how they use mechanisms to communicate with people. They lie like hell to their constituencies. They lie like hell about what's going on. And so the idea that we're going to be able to fundamentally change Russia in the near term is not likely. But one thing for certain, if we allow Russia to succeed in Ukraine, they're not stopping in Ukraine. I recommend - I know you know this because you've written about it - read Putin's speech after they moved in, what it was all about, in Kyiv. It wasn't about just - anyway, read what his objective is. And anyway, but - so I think that I'm prepared to talk to any leader who wants to talk, including if Putin called me and wanted to talk. Last time I talked to Putin was trying to get him to work on an arms control agreement related to nuclear weapons in space. That didn't go very far. So my point is, I'm prepared to talk to anybody, but I don't see any inclination. There is an inclination on the part of the Chinese to keep in contact with me because they're not sure where this all goes. And look what's happened in Asia. We have strengthened the Asian Pacific area more than anyone else has. We - you know, we just put together with - today, we had - I brought on - I asked our NATO allies that we bring on a group from the South Pacific - Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Australia. I already mentioned Australia. And I met twice now, I think, with the 14 leaders of the Pacific Island nations. And we've slowed down what's going on there. We've slowed down China's reach. But there's a lot of work to do. This is a moving target, and I don't take it lightly. Sam, from NPR. ASMA KHALID, NPR: Thank you, Mr. President. Asma Khalid with NPR. I have two questions. Earlier, you spoke about the ceasefire plan between Israel and Hamas. We're now looking at 10 months of war. And I'm curious if there's anything that you feel, personally, you wish you would have done differently over the course of the war. And then, secondly, if I may, I wanted to ask you about your presidential campaign. I remember covering your campaign in 2020. And there was a moment where you referred to yourself as a, quote, "bridge candidacy," a transition to a younger generation of leaders. I want to understand what changed. BIDEN: Two things. Let's go back to when you talked about would I change anything that's happening with Israel and the Palestinians and the Palestinian movement. The answer is, as you recall, from the very beginning, I immediately - I went to Israel, but I also got immediate contact with el-Sisi in Egypt. I met with the king of Jordan. I met with the most of the Arab leaders to try to get a consensus going as to what had to be done to deal with getting more aid and food and medicine into the Gaza Strip. And we pushed it really hard. And Israel occasionally was less than cooperative, number one. The Israeli war cabinet - I've been dealing with Israel since Golda Meir. I've - some of the reporters around here come here all the time heard me say this. The last - first time I met with Golda Meir, I sat across from her at her desk, and her assistant was Rabin, sitting next to me. That's how far back I go. I know Israel well and I support Israel. But this war cabinet is one of the most conservative war cabinets in the history of Israel. And there's no ultimate answer other than a two-state solution here. [20:10:00] And so what was able to be done, in terms of the plan I put together, was it would be a process for a two-state solution. And we get the Arab nations to, particularly from Egypt to all the way to Saudi Arabia, to be in a position where they would cooperate in the transition so that they could keep the peace in Gaza without Israeli forces staying in Gaza. The question has been, from the beginning, what's the day after in Gaza. And the day after in Gaza has to be - the end of the day after has to be no occupation by Israel on the Gaza Strip, as well as the ability for us to access - get in and out as rapidly as we can all that's needed there. I've been disappointed that some of the things that I've put forward have not succeeded as well, like the port we attached from Cyprus - I was hopeful that would be more successful. But that's why I - when I went to Israel immediately after the massacres that occurred at the hands of Hamas, that I - the one thing I said to the Israelis - and I met with the war cabinet and with Bibi - don't make the same mistake America made after bin Laden. There's no need to occupy anywhere. Go after the people who did the job. You may recall - I get - still get criticized for it, but I was totally opposed to the occupation and trying to unite Afghanistan. Once we got - once we got bin Laden, we should have moved on because it was not in our - no one's ever going to unite that country. I've been over every inch of that - not every inch - the entirety, from the poppy fields all the way to the north. I said, don't make the same mistake we made. Don't think that's what you should be doing, is doubling down. We'll help you find the bad guys, Sinwar and company. And I - and all this criticism about I wouldn't provide when - the weapons they needed. I'm not providing 2,000-pound bombs. They cannot be used in Gaza or any populated area without causing great human tragedy and damage. But we're - remember what happened when you had the attack on Israel from - with rockets and ballistic missiles. I was able to unite the Arab nations as well as Europe and nothing happened. Nothing got hurt. It sent - it sent an incredible lesson to what was going on from the Middle East. So there's a lot of things, in retrospect, I wish I had been able to convince the Israelis to do. But the bottom line is, we have a chance now. It's time to end this war. It doesn't mean walk away from going after Sinwar and Hamas. And if you notice, you know better than most, there is a growing dissatisfaction in - on the West Bank from the Palestinians about Hamas. Hamas is not popular now. And so there's a lot of moving parts. I just have to keep moving to make sure that we get as much done as we can toward a ceasefire - a ceasefire - and get those - and, by the way, look at the numbers in Israel. I mean, I - my numbers are better in Israel than they are here. But then again, they're better than a lot of other people here too, but anyway. KHALID: If I may, this was a question of the bridge candidacy in 2020. You referred to yourself as being a bridge candidate for a younger, fresher generation of Democratic leaders, and I wanted to know what changed. BIDEN: What changed was the gravity of the situation I inherited in terms of the economy, our foreign policy, and domestic division. And I think - I won't put words in anybody's mouth - most presidential historians give me credit for having accomplished more than most any president since Johnson and maybe before that, to get major pieces of legislation passed. And what I realized was my long time in the Senate had equipped me to have the wisdom of how to deal with the Congress to get things done. We got more major legislation passed that no one thought would happen, and I want to finish it - to get that finished. If tomorrow - if we had a circumstance where there was a lineup and I didn't - hadn't inherited what I did and we just moved things along - anyway, it's going to change. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Last question. Haley Bull, Scripps. Or, no - Josh Wingrove, I'm sorry, was the next one. [20:15:04] I'll do two more questions. JOSH WINGROVE: Thank you, Mr. President. Many of your colleagues, Democrats on the Hill, are watching tonight as they assess what they want to say about your candidacy. I'm wondering how you're thinking of this right now. It seems like your answer is clear, but they're watching how things go tonight, tomorrow in Michigan, next week in Texas and Nevada. Are you thinking that way about whether - how the next week or two goes would inform your ... BIDEN: Am I using that is what you say? WINGROVE: ... are you thinking that way about how the next two weeks go? Will that affect your decision or are you fully determined on running in November as the party's nominee? BIDEN: I'm determined on running, but I think it's important that I realize allay fears by seeing - let them see me out there. Let them see me out. You know, for the longest time, it was, you know, Biden's not prepared to sit with us unscripted. Biden's not prepared to - you know, anyway. And so what I'm doing is what I've been doing. I think we've done over 20 major events, from Wisconsin to North Carolina to - anyway - to demonstrate that I'm going out in the areas where we think we can win, where we can persuade people to move our way, where people are already there. And, look, the other thing is, we have the most extensive campaign organization that anybody's had in a long, long time. We have well over a thousand volunteers knocking on doors, making phone calls, making tens of thousands of phone calls. We have headquarters - I forget exactly how many - I want to cite a number and then find out I'm off. But we have scores of headquarters in all the toss-up states. We're organized, we're moving and I - that's awful hard to replace in the near term. And so - and here's the other thing, I was in the Senate a long time. I'm very proud of what I've done in the Senate. I was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee for a long time, and I was chairman of - or ranking member and chairman of the Judiciary Committee. I'm going to be going down to the Johnson Library on - anyway, I'm going to be going around making the case of the things that I think we have to finish and how we can't afford to lose what we've done or backslide on civil rights, civil liberties, women's rights, that little button we have. Control the guns, not girls. I mean, the idea we're sitting around - this is where Kamala was so good as well. We're sitting around, more children are killed by a bullet than any other cause of death. The United States of America, what the hell are we doing? What are we doing? We got a candidate sent - promised the NRA, don't worry, I'm not going to do anything. I'm not going to do anything. We got a Supreme Court that is, what you might call the most conservative court in American history. This is ridiculous. There's so much we can do still and I'm determined to get it done. It's about freedom. And by the way, I'll end this - well, I'm not going to do that - Haley has to come up too. But the - I remember I made a speech on democracy in Philadelphia at Independence Hall. And I'm not being critical, just observing. The bulk of the press - what the hell is he talking about that for? Democracy - yeah, you did. Democracy is not an issue. Democracy is not an issue. Except the polling data showed 60 percent of the people knew I was right, thought I was right. I'm not asking you a question, you don't have to answer, obviously. But do you think our democracy is under siege based on this court? Do you think democracy is under siege based on Project 2025? Do you think he means what he says when he says he's going to do away with civil service, eliminate the Department of Education, make sure - I mean, we've never been here before. And that's the other reason why I didn't - you say hand off to another generation. I've got to finish this job. I've got to finish this job, because there's so much at stake. WINGROVE: You've had some discussions over the past few days with your press secretary about the question of health exams. And you said you take a cognitive test every day in this job. Are you open to taking another physical or test before the election? Gov. Whitmer of Michigan, for instance, said it wouldn't hurt to take a test. BIDEN: Well, look, two things. One, I've taken three significant and intense neurological exams by a neurologist. [20:20:03] In each case is as recently as February. And they say I'm in good shape. Okay? Although I do have a little problem with my left foot because it's not as sensitive because I broke my foot and didn't wear the boot, but I'm good. I'm tested every single day about my neurological capacity and the decisions I make every day. You talk to my staff - all of you talk to my staff. Sometimes my staff talks a lot. But the fact of the matter is, I don't think you have them telling you that all the major ideas we've undertaken haven't been, in part, initiated by me. I remember when the staff - I said, I'm going to go to South Korea. We're going to get the chip - what are you doing? I'm going to get Japan and Korea back together again after, you know, essentially having hostilities toward one another since the end of World War II. I'm going to move and see if we can expand it. You know, the only thing age does is help you with - creates a little bit of wisdom if you pay attention. And so the point I'm making is, I think it's important that I - if my - if the neurologist tells me he thinks I need another exam. And by the way, I've laid every bit of the record out. Haven't hidden a thing. You ought to ask Trump for his, okay? I've had - I've laid it all out. Every single day I am surrounded by good docs. If they think there is a problem, I promise you - or even if they don't think it is a problem, if they want me to have a neurological exam again, I will do it. No one is suggesting that to me now. I will ask another question: No matter what I did, no one is going to be satisfied. Did you have seven docs? Did you have two? Who did you have? Did you do this? How many times? So, I am not opposed if my doctors tell me I should have another neurological exam. I'll do it. But that's where I am. Haley Bull, Scripps. HALEY BULL, REPORTER, SCRIPPS: Thank you, Mr. President. You said you're making decisions on a day-to-day basis when it comes to support for Ukraine. Does that mean you have not closed the door on further considering lifting restrictions for U.S.-made weapons inside Russia? And if I may, your convention is coming up where your delegates are pledged to make you the official nominee. If they have second thoughts, are they free to vote their conscience? BIDEN: Obviously, they're free to do whatever they want, but I get overwhelming support. Overwhelming support. I won - I forget how many votes I won in the primary, overwhelming. And so, tomorrow, if all of a sudden I show up at the convention and everybody says, we want somebody else, that's the democratic process. It's not going to happen. BULL: Even if that means they vote for someone else? BIDEN: Sure. Look, I'll end this with this - I've served in the Senate a long time. I understand the impetus of candidates running for local office and whether they think at the top of the ticket's going to help them or not. In my state of Delaware, which was a very - at least a purple - it was a red state when I started, in terms of what you now talk red and blue. I don't recall most of the Democratic presidents winning my state when I was a candidate. The truth of the matter is I understand the self-interest of every candidate. If they think that, you know, running Biden at the top of the ticket's going to hurt them, then they're going to run away. I get it. But so far - go and look at the polling data in their states. Look at the in-depth - and by the way, I think you'd all acknowledge and you're all experts. I'm not being solicitous about the presidency. You're experts on this stuff. How accurate does anybody think the polls are these days? I can give you a series of polls where you have likely voters, me versus Trump, where I win all the time. When the unlikely voters vote, he wins sometimes. So bottom line is all the polling data right now - which I think is premature because the campaign really hasn't started in earnest yet. I mean, it hasn't started in earnest yet. Most of the time, it doesn't start until after September, after Labor Day. So a lot can happen. But I believe I'm the best - I know, I believe I'm the best qualified to govern. [20:25:01] And I think I'm the best qualified to win. But there are other people who could beat Trump too, but it's awful hard to start from scratch. And, you know, we talk about, you know, money raised. We're not doing bad. We got about $220 million in the bank, and we're doing well. So, with that, do you have any - want to follow up on any of that, you just asked me. BULL: Yes. You earlier explained confidence in your vice president. BIDEN: Yes. BULL: If your team came back and showed you data that she would fare better against former President Donald Trump, would you reconsider your decision to stay in the race? BIDEN: No, unless they came back and said, 'There's no way you could win." Me - no one's saying that. No poll says that. (CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This ends tonight's press conference. (CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks, everybody. (CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This concludes ... UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, respectfully, earlier you misspoke in your opening answer and you referred to Vice President Harris as Vice President Trump. Right now, Donald Trump is using that to mock your age and your memory. How do you combat that criticism from tonight? BIDEN: Listen to him. Thank you. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This concludes tonight's press conference. Thank you, everybody. Thanks, everyone. ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Good evening. Thanks for joining us. Saying, I've got overwhelming support and I've got to finish the job, President Biden has just wrapped up a press conference, which began with eight minutes of prepared remarks, followed by more than 50 minutes of unscripted Q&A until just now. Starting us off tonight, CNN Chief National Affairs Correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, CNN Political Director David Chalian, Ashley Etienne, who served as communications director for Vice President Harris, former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, CNN's Manu Raju at the Capitol and Democratic strategist Paul Begala. David Chalian, let me start with you. Did the president put concerns about his candidacy to rest tonight enough? DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, certainly not. I mean, he obviously was up there for nearly an hour and was able to speak on a variety of topics, but he spoke in sort of the way we've come accustomed to hearing Joe Biden. Certainly nothing that resembled what occurred on the debate stage, but obviously still at times rambling, at times mixing up words. That last question you heard about at the very top of the presser, mixing up saying Vice President Trump instead of Vice President Harris. But I think, Anderson, what was most telling for me from this, you asked the question, did he assuage concerns. He actually himself acknowledged that he is still on a mission of trying to allay concerns, as he said. And I thought that was very telling because a week ago in that George Stephanopoulos interview, we heard a defiant President Biden. We heard somebody who said this conversation about whether I'm going to be the nominee or not is over. I have decided. He said that at the Wisconsin rally last Friday. That was not - I - my observation was he was in a bit of a different headspace tonight. He certainly said, I am keeping on. We are going to keep on moving through this. He said he is going to continue to run this race. But there - it was a different tone on that stuff that seemed to open the idea. He said he doesn't think he's the only one that can beat Donald Trump. He said nobody yet has presented him with evidence that he doesn't have a viable winning path to the presidency. Well, that still may come. That seems to me that he was sort of opening up some metrics that he's willing to consider, perhaps. This was not a president who was shutting down the notion and the conversation or a president that seemed unaware that his party is still looking for him to grapple with this decision and they don't consider it closed. And I think tonight we saw him in a different headspace about this. COOPER: Paul Begala, what did you see? PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I saw substantive mastery. I mean, my goodness, it was a tour de force and a tour of the world. He talked a lot, of course, about NATO and Ukraine, but about China, about Israel-Gaza. He seemed to have the substance really at his command. Stylistically, though, he still had the soft voice. He didn't have the kind of catastrophic failure he had at the debate, but he also didn't have the same sort of command that he had at his inaugural. So he - the substance was great, the style not. He is already getting static for slipping and saying Vice President Trump, which, you know, anybody could do that, Tucker. You know, you just get a name wrong. COOPER: Thanks. Thanks, James Carville. So Ashley, what did you make of the news conference? [20:30:02] ASHLEY ETIENNE, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR VP HARRIS: You know, I think David's a bit of a Debbie Downer. So far, what I've heard is like a little Debbie Downer. I thought the president was incredibly strong. He was very forceful, deep on the substance in terms of foreign policy and domestic policy. I think he definitely bought himself some more time tonight, but I'm not sure that the bleeding will stop. What I'm hearing from members on the Hill is that there's deep frustration with how the president and his team have handled this situation. You know, I maintain that it was a mistake for the president not to go up to the caucus meeting this week or not at the very least to call into the caucus. This is a family matter. He should have addressed it in that way. But today's performance was incredibly strong. It bolsters his point that he had a bad debate night. We've now seen him in a press conference and interview and at rallies, and he seems a bit incredibly strong. But here's the outstanding thing. Anderson, the president now has to prove that he can unite this party and not just unite the party, but to inspire the party to get behind him and refocus our efforts on Donald Trump. And that's the challenge before the president now. COOPER: Jeff, you've been reporting all day on this. How does the president's performance tonight square with the reporting you've been doing? JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, there's no doubt that he has a command of these issues, something that he has dealt with really for decades, but that really wasn't the overall purpose of the press conference. Just talking to a senior Democratic adviser who is in close touch with many Hill Democrats tells me this. I don't think anyone from the Hill is going to stand down after this. So the big question here tonight is, did this stop the bleeding -- COOPER: Meaning, anyone on the Hill who wants him to -- ZELENY: Right. COOPER: Meaning anyone on the Hill who wants him to go is going to stand down. ZELENY: Right. Exactly. We've heard so many Democrats who've been saying like, wait and see, let's wait and see how he does. They have concerns on the campaign. This is unlikely to change the trajectory of that. David Chalian is correct in terms of us reading the tone, not as combative, not as defiant. I actually asked one of his advisers about that. They chalked it up to the setting of NATO that he was at this press conference. We will see, but he definitely was even open to, at the very end there, a reporter asked if he was open to letting his delegates to do whatever they choose, and he said he was. So we will see going forward here if he returns that combativeness. But we are in a very different place than we were at the beginning of the week when he was very defiant on Morning Joe. And he has learned a lot this week, including from former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Those words and the fact that they are likely to speak in the coming days, if not tomorrow, that is going to determine the support among Democrats for him going forward here. So, yes, the press conference, I've covered a lot of his press conferences. It was fine. But tonight, fine is likely not good enough to change this trajectory, Anderson. COOPER: Manu, what are you hearing tonight from lawmakers? MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's signs that those calls for him to step aside are not going to go away despite what Democrats say was a better performance, of course, than the debate from two weeks ago. In fact, just moments ago, right after this press conference ended, Jim Himes, who is a top Democrat, on the House Intelligence Committee just put out a statement calling on Joe Biden to step aside from this race. He writes in a statement, Anderson, he says that he praises Joe Biden's legacy, his record. He says, "It's because of those traits and in consideration of that legacy that I hope President Biden will step away from the presidential campaign." He goes on to say that the 2024 election will define the future of American democracy, and they must put forth the strongest candidate possible to confront the threat posed by Trump's promised MAGA authoritarianism. So that is in line with what I've been hearing going in to this press conference. But Jim Himes becomes the 15th member of Congress to call for Joe Biden to step aside. 14 before this press conference, but there was an expectation that would be more afterwards. They were going to give Joe Biden at least the opportunity to make the argument, even if they had made their mind up already privately. And the discussion privately has been much more intense than what we have seen publicly in the public discussion, of course, has been intense, but there's been so much concern about Biden that -- Biden's not just his poll -- not just his debate performance, but how that has been baked in to the electorate and that it's something that they believe he can't overcome ahead of a critical election. So expect more names, significant names. Jim Himes is someone who has swayed within the Democratic Party, has a lot of influence among the House Democrats. Expect many more to come forward either to go close to the line of saying you should consider stepping aside or saying -- sort of saying you should step aside altogether. [20:35:05] But as Joe Biden indicated at that press conference, he has no plans to at the moment. He says that watch me on the campaign trail. So it could take another couple of weeks for this all to play out, Anderson. But as they move closer and closer to the convention, it's going to get harder and harder to find any new candidate to replace Joe Biden. COOPER: So Manu, I just wanted to confirm Jim Himes' statement, Congressman Himes' statement that was released after the press conference. Like seconds after the press conference. RAJU: Yes. Seconds after, there's a post at 8:29 p.m. Eastern, Anderson. So this was ready to come out pretty much when this is done. And he made it very clear. He says, his accomplishments are immense. His legacy is a great one. President is secure. He must not risk that legacy, urging him to step aside, Anderson. COOPER: Congressman Kinzinger, what did you see tonight? What do you think happens now? ADAM KINZINGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, look, I think it was fine. But, you know, we wouldn't even -- I mean, we'd be looking at the next, you know, cat video on the internet if it wasn't for what happened at the debate. And so I think everybody was kind of looking at this press conference saying, this is going to be the magical thing that changes the discussion. It's not. It's going to have to be, if Biden decides to stay in this race, it's going to have to be a number of things like this. It's going to have to be a lot of traveling, a lot of activity for people to slowly kind of regain that trust that, OK, that debate was a simple fluke. I think here's an important point. Joe Biden said his delegates were free to do whatever they want. Now, obviously, they're not going to, they're going to stay with Joe Biden. But I want to point out a huge difference between him and and Donald Trump, between the Democrats and the Republican Party. I hear so many Democrats complaining about this discussion that's going on. And oh, we have to show the kind of unity Republicans show and we're showing this division. It's bull crap. The Republicans are not showing unity. It's a cult and everybody that used to speak out against the dear leader in the Republican Party has been excommunicated or kicked out. So nobody has the ability to even speak out or there'll be excommunicated. This discussion going on in the Democratic Party is healthy for a party in America. Now, if it went on until November, it would be damaging. But in the short term, this is what an American political party is supposed to be like. COOPER: Paul Begala, just in terms of, you know, the clock, which is ticking, and as Nancy Pelosi pointed out the other day, you know, what happens tomorrow? What happens this weekend? Where does this -- how does it resolve one way or another? BEGALA: Well, you just used the two most powerful, hopeful words in every Democrat's vocabulary -- Nancy Pelosi. You know, there's that great Carrie Underwood song, "Jesus Take the Wheel." I'm for Nancy take the wheel, OK. She's even older than President Biden. She handed off her gavel to a younger generation of leadership and the world still turned on its axis. The party didn't fall apart. In fact, Hakeem Jeffries, her successor, wasn't even opposed in his bid for Democratic leadership in the House. She sets an example here. At the same time, I do know that President Biden has enormous respect for her. And she said something very important this week. She said, essentially, I'm reading between the lines. Let's get through this NATO summit. It's terribly important. President Biden does a great job astride the global stage. Let's get through that and then assess. Well, that begins tomorrow morning, and the President pointed the way to his speech Monday in Austin, my hometown, at the LBJ Library. Lloyd Doggett, the Congressman from Austin, is the first one to call for President Biden to give up the nomination, and he has suggested, maybe the President goes to LBJ's library, commemorates he's going to receive an award, and commemorate the 1964 Civil Rights Bill, and then maybe he does what Johnson did, and hand off the gavel. So that's already what some Democrats are starting to say. COOPER: Ashley Etienne, I'm wondering, you know, just in the time since we last talked, what else you are hearing from supporters of the President, or those who want him gone? Because, I mean, there was such anticipation about these remarks and people can kind of interpret them, I guess, with whatever opinion they have and see it through that lens. Some will say, look, he was very fluent on a number of foreign policy issues. You know, you can also point to, you know, him calling Zelenskyy, Putin and his Vice President Trump and, you know, the slowness with which he spoke. What -- I mean, it doesn't seem like this press conference, which many people said was going to resolve things one way or another. Do you think it did resolve it for anybody? ETIENNE: No, I think you're absolutely right. I think those that are dug in are dug in the -- on both sides. You know, there's -- I'm hearing that there's two main -- obviously two main factions within the Democratic caucus on both ends of the chamber. And that is, you know, there's obviously those who believe that, you know, if the Democratic Party is going to be fighting for the viability of our democracy, we have to maintain that democratic process within our own party. [20:40:00] We can't disenfranchise voters. They've already -- primary voters have already voted for Joe Biden. So we should stick with Joe Biden. But then on the other side, the flip side of that is obviously those who want Joe Biden to step down. But the question that they can't answer at this point -- and I've heard that this has been the biggest fights on Capitol Hill as of late in those private meetings is who is the alternative? What is the alternative to Joe Biden? You can't ask the President to go step down and you don't have a plan B. You don't have a plan to replace him. And there's no consensus even around that plan. And that's what I'm actually hearing from the members within the caucus. And that's creating a lot of frustration, you know, animosity within the caucus and really uncertainty. COOPER: Jeff Zeleny, I understand you have some breaking news on the efforts behind the scene to convince President Biden to end his campaign. What are you hearing? ZELENY: Anderson, we are learning tonight that throughout the course of this week, as we've seen the public words from former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, we're learning that she has had a private conversation earlier this week with former President Barack Obama. They have talked about this matter. We do not know exactly the contents of that private conversation. But we do know, talking to a variety of Democrats in a news story just posted moments ago. Isaac Dovere and I talked to many Democrats who are looking to Pelosi and Obama to sort of find a way out of this infighting and crisis that has dominated the Democratic Party. Now they have intentionally given the President his space and his time on this, but we have seen Speaker Pelosi's very carefully calibrated words. But the new information we are learning that she has had a conversation, perhaps more than one of them with Barack Obama. Of course, this is very fraught for former president to Barack Obama. He has a friendly and loyal relationship with President Biden, but it's also a searing one. Dating back to 2015 when he urged him not to run for president then against Hillary Clinton. That still hangs over all of this. I'm told he does not want to be too assertive. He does not want to push too much. But it is clear that many Democrats are looking to them to sort of find a way out here. But one Democrat who we're quoting in this story this evening, Anderson, a very senior Democrat, tells us this. They are waiting and watching for President Biden to reach a decision on his own. And we heard Speaker Pelosi say earlier this week, she wanted people to wait until after the NATO summit. Well, that NATO summit is now over. So the question is on Friday going into the weekend. Are there any more conversations, private conversations, perhaps with Chuck Schumer and others directly to the White House? Of course, this decision is still President Biden's and his alone, along with his family. But the fact that there are others sort of in this orbit talking about this is certainly significant, as many believe time is running short. Anderson? COOPER: I mean, so that's really fascinating reporting, and I think a lot of people maybe not know the reference that you made to 2015 and then President Obama and Joe Biden and his desire to run back then. Do you think that the echoes of that are still felt in the relationship between former President Obama and President Biden? ZELENY: No question about it. It has hung over their relationship really for much of the last decade. And if you'll remember what happened back in the summer -- COOPER: This was -- can you explain -- right. ZELENY: Sure. COOPER: Go ahead, I'm sorry. ZELENY: And if you'll remember what happened back in the summer of 2015, Beau Biden died of brain cancer. It was a searing tragedy for the family. He was a -- the attorney general of Delaware, the bright light, at least politically speaking, of the family. But Joe Biden was still considering, then vice president, was still considering whether he would enter the Democratic presidential nomination. Of course, Hillary Clinton was already running. Bernie Sanders would later run, but for weeks and weeks and weeks, the Bidens agonized over this decision. Well, President Obama, at the time, sort of counseled his vice president to not run for president. He saw how hurt he was, how wounded emotionally he was. So they came to that decision in the fall of 2015, but there's always been some sentiment hanging over the Biden family and First Lady Jill Biden I'm told that they believe President Obama was too heavy handed in his guidance there. So that I'm told is infusing this moment right now. President Obama does not want to try and force his hand on this. This is not his decision. This is President Biden's decision. He is the president. He's no longer the vice president. We should be clear about that. But that is one reason I'm told that former President Obama is taking a lighter touch on this, trying to hear from a lot of Democrats this week. He's been to fielding phone calls and things, but he and Nancy Pelosi have a unique relationship with President Biden. So many Democrats hope they can help him find an off ramp here and sort of reset this democratic race. [20:45:07] But again, this is President Biden's decision and his alone to make. COOPER: David Chalian, what do you make of the reporting by Jeff Zeleny and others? CHALIAN: Well, the recounting of 2015 is fascinating. In fact, I just went back recently and watched President Biden and Jill Biden in the days following the announcement that he wasn't going to get in that race sit down in a 60 minutes interview where he says he'll never seek public office again. Obviously, we know that change. But what you saw in that interview was Jill Biden, now the first lady, talking about how disappointed she was that Joe Biden made the decision not to run, that there was all this work that she believed he could single handedly still accomplish if he were to go and and be successful. And that gets back to what Jeff was saying about where this decision rests right now, Anderson. This -- and again, I can't stress enough. When you have Nancy Pelosi saying that President Biden still has a decision to make and you had President Biden send a letter on Monday to all the Senate House and House Democrats saying the decision is made, this is over, that's clearly at odds with each other. And I think we see now that President Biden understands that there is going to be more conversation here, especially learning now that Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama have had a conversation about President Biden's status as the nominee specifically. Now, as conversations and NATO week is behind us go directly to President Biden from Nancy Pelosi, from others, not just staff talking to staff, but actually now having direct conversations in this moment where senior Democratic Party leaders are going to express to the president, not just the views of their caucuses, but this moment of decision making for him and he and his family and his closest advisers, many of whom have been with him for decades, are going to enter a new period of assessment. And I think that that is what we need to watch for in the next 72 hours as we go into this weekend. COOPER: CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner joins us now. Dr. Reiner, you heard the president say that he would take another neurological test if his doctors suggested it. I mean, first of all, do you think his doctors would suggest it? But also any patient can request a test if there is -- if they want to. I mean, if he wanted to take a test, he could very easily take a test and wouldn't take very long. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Right. And this is not up to his doctors, it's up to the patient. Look, I think he -- you know, he looked like a different person compared to the debate two weeks ago. But the bar was set, you know, pretty low and he did seem to, you know, easily, you know, surpass that. And I was happy to see that the fluidity of the speech was better. And he was able to -- he had seemed to have a great grasp of details. But we don't have a plausible explanation for what happened to the president two weeks ago. You know, the notion that he had had, you know, jet lag a couple of weeks before, maybe had a cold doesn't really ring true. And I think we're not just looking at whether he can continue on as a candidate for president, we're also really need to assess whether there is any physical or cognitive problem that would prevent him from finishing another four years in office. And I think the public really does need that to be reassured about that. And he should undergo a cognitive test to put this issue to rest. The president should simply say, of course, I'm going to do it. I'll do it for you this week. We'll release all the results. And then there's nothing else to talk about. COOPER: All right, thanks, Dr. Reiner. And to our panel, we'll be joined by Democratic Congressman -- oh, actually, we'll continue talking. Paul Begala, just in terms of -- I'm wondering what you think of Jeff Zeleny's reporting, the efforts behind the scenes, the conversation with -- by Nancy Pelosi with former President Obama. BEGALA: Yes, I did not know that Nancy Pelosi and President Obama have spoken, but I did check in with someone very close to President Obama today who said that President Obama views his role as a confidant and sounding board for President Biden as a very important one. The source told me, look, they're -- President Obama and President Biden are in regular touch and that their relationship is intensely personal and private. And neither talks about it much. There is -- Jeff's right, there is this overhang about 2015, but there's also an ongoing relationship. And it is close, and that's all I -- they didn't tell me what they've talked about, but the source did say that they are in -- that President Obama and President Biden have been in touch throughout his presidency, and it's a warmer relationship perhaps than you might have thought based on the 2015 issue. [20:50:04] Manu Raju, you know, you talk to people on Capitol Hill all the time, on the record, off the record, how many today were saying that they were going to be watching this press conference and that that would be a determining factor? And how many were just saying they were -- you know, that would be one data point in -- among the many others? Because again to, you know, to -- points that have already been made tonight, there is still no explanation about what happened. I mean, it's Dr. Reiner's point about what happened at that debate. I mean, a bad night is, you know, the line that they've been using and the jet lag, even though he had returned, you know, more than a week before that. RAJU: Well, look, I have been getting texts from members of Congress to the course of this press conference and the aftermath. And virtually, everyone that I've heard from said that really nothing is going to change here. And the fact that many members of Congress, perhaps, it's hard to quantify because people are saying different things behind the scenes and they're saying publicly some of them are a little bit more nuanced and the likes. But there are still a significant number of Democrats who do want to change at the top of the ticket and have already made their minds up regardless of what happened at this press conference tonight, and a lot of them will be looking at what Nancy Pelosi says and what Barack Obama says and what Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. The Democratic leaders have been pretty neutral on all of this. They have not really not forcefully embraced Joe Biden, although they have come out in support of him, but they have also left themselves some room. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader earlier today, indicated that he was still having conversations with his 213 Democratic colleagues to try to figure out the next step in the process, even though the president made very clear tonight and before that he is still running. That is not a given fact among the minds of many Democrats who will plan to put their names out publicly soon, I'm told, either tonight, into tomorrow, into the weekend to try to make the case that Joe Biden should step aside. So this press conference while it might have done a -- we done a better job than the debate, it's not going to go far enough to quell those concerns of Democrats who are looking at what they consider very scary polling in their states, in their districts. The president discounted that polling tonight, but I can tell you, Anderson, a lot of Democrats here are not discounting polling that they are seeing that could send them home and not back here in Washington next year. Anderson? COOPER: Yes. I want to thank everybody on the panel and all the reporting behind it. I want to bring in Tennessee Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen. Congressman, did the president do enough to convince the American people, to convince Democrats that he should stay in the race? REP. STEVE COHEN (D-TN): I think he convinced a lot of people he should stay in the race. I haven't heard anybody speak so much and so well and so knowledgeably about foreign policy since maybe I don't know, back in the world (ph), Dean Rusk. I mean, he knew -- he knows his stuff. And he's on the -- that's one of the main jobs of the president is foreign policy, and there's nobody could be better. And while we're seeing President Biden talk about foreign policy and all these leaders and these issues, Trump is down at Mar-a-Lago with Orban, an authoritarian, egotistical, sycophant of Putin, the mirror image of Trump, and they're down there, God knows what they're plotting. But they're plotting something that's not good for America. And that should be part of the news, is what is Joe Biden know, and what does Donald Trump know? Donald Trump doesn't know anything, except he respects power, and he respects authoritarianism. He likes Putin, he likes Orban, he likes people with power, he likes the fat boy up in North Korea. That's who he likes. And we need a president who knows foreign policy and is for America. COOPER: Congressman, your Democratic colleague Jim Himes, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, waited until just after the press conference and released a statement after the press conference that said President Biden should step aside. Do you think that will carry weight within among other members of Congress? COHEN: I don't know that it will. I mean, we all have our own constituencies. I think the Connecticut constituency is a lot more. His is a lot more white and a lot more liberal and a lot more elitist. My district is black and its people who are at the grassroots who have gotten, their children have gotten child tax credits because of President Biden. Women know that he's got their back on choice. And they're giving opportunities for people in the middle class, as it comes from the middle down to get a chance to have the American dream and to be in the middle class. And that's the bulk of the Democratic Party, is people in the middle class who've been overlooked for years, who Trump doesn't care about at all. All he cares about is the richest who he gave the big tax break to, and he's going to do it again. But Joe Biden cares about regular working folks, and they're not being heard. They're for Joe Biden. COOPER: Congressman, CNN's Jeff Zeleny has reported tonight just moments ago, that former President Barack Obama and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi have talked about President Biden's candidacy. Neither is reportedly sure what to do. Do you think they have any influence over the president? [20:55:19] COHEN: I'm sure he respects Nancy Pelosi, and I'm sure he respects President Obama, but as you all discussed, President Obama did not choose him to be the candidate in 2016. And if he had, possibly Joe Biden would have won. I don't know. He has beaten Trump once, and nobody else has done that. I think Joe Biden's going to run. And Joe Biden knows he can win. He knows he can be president. He knows he's got a great record. And it's been said this is the finest presidency success since Johnson, and he did it in a bipartisan fashion. Everybody wants people to be bipartisan. Well, Joe Biden was bipartisan. He got enough Democrats to pass the infrastructure bill. He passed the CHIPS Act. He passed the rescue bill. He's done so many bills. The PACT Act for veterans, burn pits. He's had a success even on a gun bill. What a great bill, but it was something. And he's shown he can master the -- he's a master of the legislative process. And he's liked on Capitol Hill. And he's going to run, he's going to be the nominee, he's got the votes, and we all need to get off of our fantasy games, and understand we need to get behind Joe Biden. And all this dissidence is only helping Donald Trump, and he's the last person in the world you want anywhere. You know, he made a mistake, he said vice president. I'd rather Trump be vice president any day than him ever having been president. COOPER: Congressman Cohen, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it. COHEN: Anderson, good to see you again. It's been a while. COOPER: Now, having spoken -- yes. It is. It's always good to have you on the program. I appreciate it. Having spoken to a lawmaker, we want to get a sense from voters of how tonight went in their eyes. Tonight, our Gary Tuchman has been talking to a group of seniors in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Gary, what have you been hearing? GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, we are in the battleground state of Michigan in the western part of the state. This is the Portage Senior Center where seniors between the ages of 50 and 150 could come for exercise and fun. These ladies, we have seven ladies here, all of them like Joe Biden. None of them are voting for Donald Trump, but we want to see how they feel about the problems that Biden has been having. And how he thought his -- how they thought his news conference just went. Now, out of all seven of you, how many of you think it was better than you expected this news conference? How many of you think it was better than you expected it would be? One, two, three, four, five. How many of you think it was worse than you expected it would be? How many of you think it was the same? So overall, it's a fairly positive review. I know I was -- we were watching it together. They all just got out of exercise class, so that's where they're dressed like that. I told you I would tell everybody that we're watching out together. And when he confused the names of Trump and Harris and talking about vice president, you all kind of gaps, but it got better, right? Is that what you think? Now, four of you, one, two, three, four, all of you think that Biden should be staying in the race. You told me you think that he should pass the torch. The two of you weren't decided. My question for you, you weren't decided before this happened, if he should stay in the race. How do you feel now after watching this news conference? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Relieved and I think he should stay in. TUCHMAN: So your opinion has changed, from not sure to he should stay in? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. TUCHMAN: OK. And how about you? How do you feel? You weren't sure. How do you feel now? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Same. I think he's the logical choice. Yes. TUCHMAN: OK. Now you thought he should pass the torch. How do you feel right now? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I still believe he should pass the torch. TUCHMAN: And why do you say that? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he conveyed more defensiveness versus confidence. And I think we're really craving to be able to be confident about the candidate that we carry into the November election. TUCHMAN: How did you feel about this news conference just now? Did it give you more confidence in Joe Biden? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have all the confidence that I did yesterday. So I just -- TUCHMAN: Were you confident yesterday? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, because everybody has a bad day and I could see that he was sick, but for some reason, they decided to do what they were going to do, even though he was sick. And I think that might have been a bad choice. And you just saw him when he's sick and when he's tired and those sorts of things. But at the heart of it, he's a strong guy. TUCHMAN: What do you think? Do you agree with that? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I would agree with that. I think what came across was that of what he is. Joe Biden is very caring about people. He's very knowledgeable and experienced and he's not just out for himself that he really cares about the country. TUCHMAN: And there's no chance that you would be more confident with the Kamala Harris or your governor here, Whitmer, here in the state of Michigan. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. Yes. I think Joe Biden did an excellent job. TUCHMAN: During this news. But was there any part of you before this that said, I'm not so sure that I can still support him and I want another Democrat. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've always been confident. TUCHMAN: Any of you going to be watching the Republican National Convention? It starts Monday. No hands going up. Democratic National Convention, five weeks after that? OK. Not all these people are Democrats, some are Independents, but they all like Joe Biden, and it's fair to say that none of you are going to be switching to Donald Trump. Thank you all for joining us. Anderson, back to you. COOPER: Gary Tuchman, thanks so much. I'm glad they got their workout in. I did not, so, they're ahead. The news continues. That's it for us. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now. See you tomorrow.