7/18/24 BREAKING: Biden Out THIS WEEKEND Per Report
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Hey y'all, Dr. Joy here. I invite you to join me every Wednesday on the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, a weekly chat about mental health and personal development, where my expert guests and I discuss the unique challenges and triumphs faced by Black women through the lens of self-care, pop culture, and building the best version of you. So if you're looking for more ways to incorporate wellness into your life, listen to the Therapy for Black Girls podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Katie Lowes. And I'm Guillermo Diaz. And we're the hosts of Unpacking the Toolbox, the Scandal Rewatch podcast where we're talking about all the best moments of the show. Mesmerizing. But also, we get to hang out with all of our old Scandal friends like Bellamy Young, Scott Foley, Tony Goldwyn, Debbie Allen, Kerry Washington. Well, suit up, gladiators. Grab your big old glass of wine and prepare yourselves for an even more behind-the-scenes Scandal.

stories with Unpacking the Toolbox. Listen to Unpacking the Toolbox on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Meet the real woman behind the tabloid headlines in a personal podcast that delves into the life of the notorious Tori Spelling as she takes us through the ups and downs of her sometimes glamorous, sometimes chaotic life in marriage. I just filed for divorce. Whoa. I said the words that I've said like in my head for like 16 years.

Listen to Misspelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, guys, have a whole lot of breaking news for you with regards to the Biden campaign death watch. Things seem to be moving very quickly, which is why I wanted to get this video out for you this evening. I'm just going to go through for you all of the latest reporting that we have. But the TLDR is...

Bunch of sources, bunch of networks saying that he could be dropping out of the race as early as the next few days. Cautionary note, none of this is final. None of this is saying it's completely determinative. But you add this to some of the things we reported in the show today about Schumer, Pelosi, Jeffries. Now we have new reporting about Obama all making aggressive moves against Biden, fundraising all but drying up. And he himself,

opening the door to a potential exit. And it sure is starting to look like the writing is on the wall. So let me go ahead and put this first report. This really broke things open earlier today from Axios. The headline here, behind the curtain, top Dems now believe Biden will exit. Let me read you a decent bit of this report so you can hear everything they're saying here, the way they're phrasing it and all of that.

They say several top Democrats privately tell us the rising pressure of party congressional leaders and close friends will persuade President Biden to decide to drop out of the presidential race as soon as this weekend.

So they go on to talk about how the 81-year-old president is now self-isolating privately. He has resigned to mounting pressure, bad polls, and untenable scrutiny, making it impossible to continue his campaign. The Democrats tell us the private message distilled to its bluntest form. The top leaders of his party, his friends, and key donors believe he cannot win, can't change public perceptions of his age and acuity.

and can't deliver congressional majorities. The president is being told that if he stays in, former President Trump could win in a landslide and wipe away Biden's legacy and Democrats' hopes in November. They go on to say the pressure to step aside has been rising to intolerable levels, especially over the past few days. Democrats fully expect polls after the RNC to show a possible blowout that could bring down Democrats in Congress too. And the way that it is being framed as his choice is to be one of history's heroes. Hmm.

Wouldn't really say that myself when you are committing a genocide, but we'll put that aside. Or to be sure of the fact that there will never be a Biden presidential library. One of the president's close friends told us, I pray he does the right thing. He is headed that way. They go on to recount some of the reporting we brought you earlier about Pelosi, Schumer, Jeffries, Obama, apparently Bill and Hillary Clinton also making moves behind the scenes and keeping quiet, not throwing him any sort of a lifeline publicly, which is also very notable.

They go on to give some reality check here at the end. Biden can't be forced out. He has the delegates. No one can physically pry them away. He needs to do it by choice and on his terms. But when you have this level of pressure,

Every Democratic power broker remaining in the party moving against you publicly now leaking to the press and coming out against you when you have. And let me go ahead and put this next piece up on the screen because this says from NBC News and contains this reporting when you have fundraising all but drying up.

How in the world are you going to try to persist? So NBC News sort of similar reporting this from the perspective of those who are surrounding Biden, who are realizing it's not an if but a when. The headline here, we're close to the end. Biden world braces for the possibility that the president will step aside.

This recounts, you know, the sense from within Biden world. They say there's a palpable sense the ground has shifted underneath him, according to five people with knowledge of the situation, even among some of the president's most defiant internal backers who now believe the writing is on the wall. We are close to the end.

Close to the end, a person close to Biden said that person who previously doubted Biden would ever step aside, acknowledge that it's still the president's decision, but joined in the array of Biden allies who say he is nearing a point of no return. If you read on in this article, they say that the fundraising drop has been more precipitous than anyone could have imagined. A person with knowledge said the Biden campaign now expects it will raise only 25 percent

of the big donor money it had originally projected to raise in July. That's a further downgrade. Originally, they were expecting it would be down by 50%, which is still horrific. Now they're saying they will only raise, it'll be down 75%. So they'll only raise 25% of the big donor money that they had planned on and grassroots donations have all but dried up as well.

So you've got the money gone. You've got Bill, Hillary, Obama, Schumer, Jeffries, Pelosi all moving against him. You have him seemingly somewhat receptive now and increasing reporting now.

that a decision could come this weekend. Or I have even seen suggestions even possibly before, but the sourcing on those were a little flimsy. Let me go ahead and put the next. I'm just going to go through everything that we've seen today so you can get a sense of what we know and where we're at. This is, again, Democrats expect Biden to at least indicate this weekend that he's dropping out. And if he doesn't indicate it soon, expect more leaks.

and calls for him to step aside from members of Congress. In short, the beatings will continue until morale improves.

So this is noteworthy because, first of all, it once again lays out that timeline of by this weekend, there's at least going to be some indication that he is dropping out and that if we don't get that indication, then it's not like the movement against him is going to end. It's going to ramp up. It's going to escalate. It's going to continue until he makes the decision that they all want him to make. You know, that's always been the subtext when Pelosi in particular goes on TV and says, we want to give him time to make decisions.

the decision. And the hosts say, well, he said he's already made his decision. We want to give him time to make the decision they want him to make. So they're going to continue pushing until he decides to drop out of the race. So that's what's really significant about that reporting in particular. Let's see the next one because we do have more reporting about Barack Obama.

which is also significant. This is from the Washington Post. Barack Obama has told allies in recent days that Biden's path to victory is greatly diminished, and he thinks the president needs to seriously consider the viability of his candidacy. Now,

This isn't a surprise. We talked to you before about how the Clooney op-ed, the George Clooney op-ed that had been run by Obama. Clearly, Obama's fingerprints were all over that one. George Clooney being a close ally. The fact that from the beginning you've had David Axelrod and the Pod Save Bros. These are all Obama people who were forcefully making the case against Joe Biden have always been an indication of where Barack Obama actually stands.

What is noteworthy about these new reports that have been coming out, you know, the floodgates have really opened up, is this very clear coordination between all of these individuals who appear to have attempted to make the case behind the scenes so that it could appear that Biden came to this decision on his own.

When that didn't work, there appears to be this coordinated now campaign to pressure him from Obama and Pelosi et al. to leave the race. And that's the pressure campaign that you've seen. It was put on freeze for a couple of days, really not very long, in the wake of the President Trump assassination attempt. Now it is back.

back on, knives around, all out war to try to get him out. And they clearly have passed like a point of no return. You know, there's no...

There's no tiptoeing around it at this point. They're leaking and it's only expected to get more aggressive until he ultimately relents. They've clearly come to the determination that it is unsustainable for him to be in the race and an utter disaster for the Democratic Party, not just at the presidential level, but at every level. I'll give you CNN did some reporting here earlier in the day with what their sources are saying. Let me go ahead and play a bit of this for you.

Well, Dana, what we know is that some of the most important conversations about President Biden's future are still happening behind closed doors. We are learning about a conversation between former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Biden that took place as recently as in the last week or so, where Nancy Pelosi told the president that polling

polling shows that he cannot defeat Donald Trump in November and that he could take down the House with him if he continues seeking a second term. And what our sources have told us is that the president responded with defensiveness and essentially saying to Pelosi, I have seen polls that show that I can, in fact, win and really just push back. And at one point in the conversation, we were told Pelosi asked that Mike Donilon, the president's senior advisor, get on the phone so that they can all have a discussion about the data. None of our sources, Dan, importantly, said whether Pelosi in this conversation

private conversation, told the president explicitly that she believes that he needs to drop out of the race. And I will also say this marks the second known conversation between the president and Pelosi since the debate. We know that they also spoke in early July. And as for how the two camps are responding officially, the White House wouldn't comment on this conversation, but they did put out a statement saying President Biden is the nominee of the party and he plans to win. A Pelosi spokesperson, interestingly, said Pelosi has been in California for

since Friday, and she has not spoken to Biden since. Now, one thing that is really clear from this reporting, Dana, that I think is worth highlighting is how the president has appeared really dug in when it comes to the polling and the data. You know, we've heard him saying in public, look, I think I'm doing OK still in the polls. And it's clear that he genuinely does believe this in private settings as well. And, you know, you know better than anyone, Dana, how important of a force Nancy Pelosi is inside the party. She has such incredible sway. She understands exactly where the caucus is on any political issue. And she did sort of leave open the door recently when she said in an interview, it's up

to the president to decide if he's going to run. And I think a huge question right now is, will she get to the point at some point where she says in public that, yes, it's up to him, but she believes that he needs to step aside. OK, MJ, thank you so much for that important reporting. And Jeff Zeleny, I want to turn now to you. You obtained a memo sent to Democratic officials that down-ballot Democrats can't afford politically to defend Biden's fitness for office. Jeff, tell us more about that.

Then as these calls for President Biden to reconsider his candidacy really intensify both behind the scenes and in public, we're getting a better sense of why that is and why these leaders are making the argument. In that memo that you talked about there from Blue Research and Democratic Research Forum really shared widely throughout the party, it talks about the damage this is having for Democrats down ballot. I'm told that the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reads this polling very carefully, as of course do many other leaders. And as we've looked through this, yes, it talks about the expanding presidential battleground, but it also talks about the potential damage that's been inflicted on individual Democratic candidates. And take a look at this really brief

poignant sentence here inside the memo. It says defending Biden's fitness for office is an untenable position for down ballot Democrats. It goes on to say that the honesty and the trustworthiness of these Democratic candidates in the House will be questioned. Voters will start to have second thoughts about them if they keep defending President Biden. Of course, this is reflective also.

So there you go. Both reporting on, you know, it's a really interesting nugget from the Pelosi meeting that when Biden starts talking about, no, I don't think the poll numbers, I don't think they show that, Jack, I think it's fine. I'm doing great. And Pelosi says, let's get Mike Donilon on the phone to talk this through because he

She feels that Biden is being effectively lied to about the state of the race, that his old and addled mind is buying the lies because he wants to believe them. And she wanted to get to the source of the person who was providing him with this bad information. And that is his very longtime political advisor, Mike Donilon, possibly among others. But she says, let's get Donilon on the phone and let's talk about these poll numbers.

The information there from Jeff Zeleny also really interesting about, OK, well, why did they decide to take what is extraordinary action against the incumbent president action that they have themselves completely blocked? Remember, these are people who very easily could have created the conditions to have a real primary so that we could have done this through some democratic process. But instead, they completely blocked a democratic primary, held no debates, canceled elections.

literally canceled the primary in multiple states across the country and just came out and said, Simone Sanders came out and said on MSNBC, we have an incumbent president. We are not going to have a primary process. So these are the same people who could have facilitated that process. They blocked that.

leaving it outside of a possible real democratic means and creating these conditions now where the writing is on the wall, they realize how completely screwed they are, not only in terms of blocking Trump, but in terms of every single Democratic candidate being tied to this sinking ship. The point there, I think, is a really critical one. And I think it's one that, you know, AOC and Bernie and other lefties who are out there defending Biden should think about, which is,

How can voters trust you when you're not being straight with them about the health condition of this man and his ability to leave the ticket at the top? How can they have trust in you for anything else? So I do think there is a real sense that the more closely you're tied to the Biden administration,

the poorer the political position you're going to be in. So would there be some ticket splitting in the fall? Sure. Would some of the Senate candidates potentially who appear to be running ahead of Biden in the polls right now, would some of them survive? Maybe. But are you going to hold the Senate? No.

Not a chance. I mean, it's already the longest of long shots for Democrats to be able to hold the Senate and the House where they actually do have a decent chance if they have a decent presidential candidate at the top of the ticket. That is also gone. Bye bye. Forget about it. Based on the numbers they're seeing and how Biden drags down absolutely every Democrat in the entire race.

We had a tweet here from Ezra Klein sort of summing up the state of play from how he sees it and based on his sourcing. And so it's it's interesting how he lays this out here. He says where things stand, top Dems who believed even a week ago Biden would stay now believe he'll go home.

Note on that. I just saw the predicted markets. They're betting like 90% now that Biden is going to get out of the race. Number two, House and Senate Dems have lost faith in his ability to win. There is no way to win them back. His calls and interviews have hurt him badly, confirmed that the debate was not a

a one-off. So in spite of all that, oh my God, the NATO big boy press conference was so amazing. In reality, they were looking there like you introduced Zelensky as Putin. You called Harris vice president Trump.

The press conference was not, in fact, masterful in spite of the spin that was put on it by the media after the fact. And by the way, by the time they got to that point, they were already convinced that he was unfit and incapable of steering this ship. Number three, donors are also gone. Biden may well not have the money to run a real campaign against Trump. If he stays in, money will go down ballot. Imagine that. Imagine he stays in and he has no money in order to run ads right now. Part of what's keeping him afloat at all.

is dramatically outspending Trump in the battleground states and, you know, these punishing ads about abortion in particular. Imagine there's no money to do that. How badly that's going to go for him. Number four,

Biden is thinking things over in a way he wasn't before. And the view is he needs time to process and consider. He's at home self-isolating in Rehoboth right now as we speak. So they're hoping that is the time he needs to process and consider. Number five, if Biden digs in after the weekend, public pressure from Dems will increase ugly in a way no one wants, but a lot of grim determination. Also growing sensitive, Biden stays in. This will come to be seen as the kind of political catastrophe you do not want to later be seen as silent in.

It's a point I've been making, you know, these people who think that they're being clever politically by standing by Biden and that's a smart political move and we'll set them up for their 2028 ambitions or whatever. What a bunch of fools. What a bunch of fools. Everyone is going to look at this in the future and say, where were you on this question? And what did you do? Because to stand by Biden in this moment is just an act of complete, you know, political malpractice. And if you are Democratic and

Mind it if you really believe Trump is a threat, which I do. Then it's also just an incredible betrayal of the rhetoric and what Democrats have been saying for years and years about this guy that when it came down to it, they weren't willing to do what it takes to put forward a candidate.

that actually had a shot at winning. Number six, the moment Biden bows out, he'll be treated as a hero among Democrats, a statesman who made the kind of country and party first decision that Trump never would. People get that this is hard. He's being asked to do something very few leaders do. Okay, well, I really am sick of hearing what a hero Joe Biden who's doing a genocide is, but I have no doubt he is correct that that is exactly how we will be treated and discussed among Democrats.

Number seven, uniting around Kamala Harris feels a lot likelier than an open convention, much as I've supported the latter. This grueling enough. You Democrats have the stomach for another hard thing, and time is very short now. There is some other reporting I'm going to bring you that is a little less grueling.

grounded perhaps, but I just want to put it out there so you know what I'm looking at and you can make of it what you will, that actually Biden isn't planning to endorse Kamala Harris, that he does want an open convention. And I just saw some also not thoroughly rock solid reporting that Gretchen Robertson

Whitmer and one other of the likely candidates has said to Kamala Harris, I don't want to be your potential VP because they're eyeing that crown themselves. I'll look that up in just a moment to bring you what that other name is. Number eight, many thought RNC would help Biden by changing the subject and

Instead, seeing a united Republican Party has focused Dems. They've realized they cannot rely on Trump just to lose this. Imagine they do the whole RNC running against the wrong candidate. That would be really funny. And Trump is, I'm sure, already really irritated that his moment is being stepped on by this news. And if Biden does drop, you know, in the coming days, the RNC and everything that happened there is going to be...

back burner, back burner. Everyone's going to forget about it instantly. And it's going to be the story of the day, which he will absolutely hate. Not to mention, you know, they get that Biden is the weakest possible candidate that they could run against. They even find Kamala Harris. They don't, they're not intimidated by her, but they find her to be more of a credible threat than Biden at this point, which is just borne out by reality in the polls. And the fact that she can, her sentences are, can be a little loopy, but they are in fact,

and she seems to be capable of holding a coherent thought from sentence one to sentence two. Number nine, Democratic Party is acting like an actual party? Quite a thing to watch. Let me look up this message I got about, oh, it's Gavin Newsom.

is the other one, and Gretchen Whitmer, who have communicated to senior party leaders that they would not be interested in serving as Harris's running mate, according to a person familiar with the candidates in the mix to join Harris atop the ticket. This is from a Decision Desk HQ contributor who I'm not familiar with. That's why this is no, like, knock on Nick Field is the name of this reporter. No knock on him. I'm just not familiar with him or the extent of his sourcing. That's why I put a little caveat on that one. All right, I got one more for you here.

This one's a, this one's really fun from Mark Halperin.

Don't know if it's true. He doesn't cite his sourcing. He just puts out there some pretty wild plans of what may unfold. So let's take a look at this. And if this is in fact how it all goes down, then Mark Halperin deserves a lot of credit for being ahead of the game with all of these details. He says, Breaking news. Multiple sources outline the apparent state of play on Biden at this time. Plans to announce withdrawal from nomination as early as this weekend with Sunday most likely. Disappointment.

John Meacham, historian, friend of mine, whatever, Morning Joe dude, polishing up remarks. Biden will not resign the presidency. Biden will not endorse Harris. Imagine that. Open convention with Harris and about three others. Who would those others be?

Superdelegates will not be allowed to vote on the first ballot. Harris is vetting at least four possible running mates, including Andy Beshear. He's the very popular Democratic governor of Kentucky and possibly Josh Shapiro. He's the also very popular governor of Pennsylvania. Um,

So obviously those would be, you know, interesting picks and along the lines of people who have been floated. Roy Cooper in North Carolina is another one that has been frequently floated in connection with Kamala Harris. I don't know if any of this is true with regards to this tweet. Like I said, he doesn't cite his sources, but...

I don't know. But it's exciting to think that there could be an open convention instead of just anointing Kamala Harris. You know, as much as the coconut pill people out there have something else to say about that. But listen, personally, I would rather have Harris than than Biden at this point.

Even though, you know, for me, it's a little complex because the bottom line is the man can't string two sentences together. He shouldn't be running the country today. He should certainly not be running the country four years from now. They completely lied to the American people. They tried to deny what was in front of all of our eyes and ears all along. It's disgusting. It's an utter betrayal. And for that alone, he deserves to go. I will say his domestic agenda, I think, is bizarre.

better than what Kamala Harris is likely to do. You know, he has been good at antitrust. He has been better than Obama on things like labor. There have been real populist turns. And now in his sort of death throes of the campaign, he has been making an even harder populist pivot because he perceives all of it being this elite class that's against him. Of course, 67 percent of rank and file Democrats also want him out.

But, you know, as I said, the status of his health is it's unforgivable the way this has been hidden. The narcissism, the ego here, the utter anti-democratic rejection of any sort of an open primary process. And then this is a person who has been the most immoral person.

genocidal maniac you can imagine and is ideologically committed to it. It's possible that a just sort of normie Democrat who would view that conflict through a more partisan lens because Bibi Netanyahu has made himself a very partisan figure would

may be better. And Kamala Harris in particular, there is some reporting to suggest that she has been a bit of a dissident on the issue. So that's how I think about these things. I was sort of resigned to, okay, well, it's probably just going to be Kamala. And I think it's still probably most likely that it's just Kamala, even if there's an open convention process, because it's not like that's a real democratic process. These are all still democratic diehards.

But even if you have that open process, I still think she'd be probably the favorite because she comes from California. There's a huge delegation. She's the sitting vice president. A lot of people feel, you know, care about her.

the historic nature of her position, her identity, and don't want to pass over her. She's well and all those things give her a real leg up, even in that process. But it is, in my opinion, vastly superior to have some options on the table outside of just Kamala Harris, who even if you're just, you don't care about any of the policy, you're just looking at

purely who is most electable, she is like the second worst candidate after Joe Biden himself. So you're improving your position if you're the Democratic Party by putting her at the top of the ticket, but not by that much. So if you're going to do this wild and wacky thing and push Joe Biden out of the race, and it is unprecedented and it is wild, why not go all the way and actually try to get behind, you know,

Gretchen Whitmer, who is a lock on winning Michigan and probably is very popular and has proven to have some ability to win voters over. Why not get behind a potentially Josh Shapiro coming out of Pennsylvania? Another state he's very popular there. Or an Andy Beshear or Roy Cooper out of North Carolina. J.B. Pritzker, who's got this larger than life sort of persona, the...

He's kind of, you know, framed as the everyman billionaire kind of a guy. Why not open things up so that there are more choices than just the second least electable Democrat in the entire country who is way too tied in to what has been a historic cover-up of Biden's actual health conditions? And the fact that she was involved in that, that's going to be a problem for her with voters coming into November. So...

So in any case, that is what I know about the lay of the land. It really does feel like things are moving quite quickly now. It does feel like the sort of death rattle of the Biden campaign. He is a very stubborn man, though. So you wouldn't want to say 100%, but it is looking increasingly likely based on this reporting that he may be out and he may be out very soon. So we will keep you updated.

Hey, y'all. Dr. Joy here. I invite you to join me every Wednesday on the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, a weekly chat about mental health and personal development, where my expert guests and I discuss the unique challenges and triumphs faced by Black women through the lens of self-care, pop culture, and building the best version of you. So if you're looking for more ways to incorporate wellness into your life, listen to the Therapy for Black Girls podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Katie Lowes. And I'm Guillermo Diaz. And we're the hosts of Unpacking the Toolbox, the Scandal Rewatch podcast where we're talking about all the best moments of the show. Mesmerizing. But also, we get to hang out with all of our old Scandal friends like Bellamy Young, Scott Foley, Tony Goldwyn, Debbie Allen, Kerry Washington. Well, suit up, gladiators. Grab your big old glass of wine and prepare yourselves for even more behind-the-scenes Scandal.

stories with Unpacking the Toolbox. Listen to Unpacking the Toolbox on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Meet the real woman behind the tabloid headlines in a personal podcast that delves into the life of the notorious Tori Spelling as she takes us through the ups and downs of her sometimes glamorous, sometimes chaotic life in marriage. I just filed for divorce. Whoa. I said the words that I've said like in my head for like 16 years.

wild. Listen to Miss Spelling on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.