BREAKING: Biden DROPS OUT of Presidential Race, with Emily Jashinsky, Rich Lowry, and Mark Halperin | Ep. 843

This episode discusses President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race following a significant debate debacle and ensuing political fallout.

1. President Biden's debate performance catalyzed his decision to withdraw, revealing significant cognitive challenges.
2. Democratic leaders, especially Nancy Pelosi, played pivotal roles in persuading Biden to step down to avoid electoral disaster.
3. Kamala Harris is posited to receive Biden’s endorsement, despite internal party conflicts about her candidacy.
4. The episode underscores a profound shift in Democratic strategies, possibly leading to a "contested convention."
5. Media and party dynamics are explored, highlighting potential biases and strategic endorsements impacting future elections.

1. Opening Remarks

Megyn Kelly opens the discussion by recounting Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race, citing his poor debate performance and subsequent political fallout. Megyn Kelly: "President Joe Biden officially dropping out of the 2024 race for the White House this afternoon, ending his bid for reelection after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump."

2. Analysis by Mark Halperin

Halperin discusses the strategic leaks and political maneuvers within the Democratic Party that precipitated Biden's withdrawal. Mark Halperin: "I believe what happened was after I reported he wasn't going to endorse that. He was besieged with calls and his team was besieged with calls, with folks to say, if you get out, you must endorse your vice president."

3. Discussion with Rich Lowry and Emily Jashinsky

Lowry and Jashinsky analyze the potential repercussions on the Democratic Party and the upcoming election. Emily Jashinsky: "And we're so lucky that that debate happened when it did because it was a crack in that facade."

1. Evaluate media sources critically to discern between political maneuvering and factual reporting.
2. Recognize the significance of leadership decisions in shaping electoral strategies.
3. Stay informed on political endorsements and their implications for party dynamics.
4. Consider the impact of media coverage on public perception during significant political events.
5. Engage in discussions about political accountability and leadership qualities in candidates.

Megyn Kelly delivers a breaking news bonus episode on the massive development with President Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race in a statement posted to X on Sunday afternoon. She's joined by Mark Halperin, founder of the Wide World of News Substack, to discuss his correct reporting that Biden would drop out this weekend despite indications he was going to try to stick around, how key former Speaker Nancy Pelosi was to the process, and more. Then Emily Jashinsky and Rich Lowry join to discuss how the Democratic elite and establishment media colluding to lie for months and years about the true state of Biden's cognitive decline, the dishonest spin that led to this moment, what might happen next in the 2024 election, the insane reaction to "hero" Biden after he agreed to step aside, VP Kamala Harris' most embarrassing moments of the past few years, the immediate push to make Harris the definitive candidate, how Republicans will work to tie Harris to the Biden presidency, her major flaws as a candidate, whether Biden should resign as president now that he won't be the 2024 nominee, the open questions about how he can't do the job, the danger to keeping him as the president, and more.

People

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump

Companies

None

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

Mark Halperin, Rich Lowry, Emily Jashinsky

Content Warnings:

None

Megyn Kelly
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Hey, everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to the Megyn Kelly show. It is Sunday afternoon at 03:30 p.m. eastern. And we knew it was coming. We told you it was. But what a moment in us history. President Joe Biden officially dropping out of the 2024 race for the White House this afternoon, ending his bid for reelection after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump, one that revealed his infirmity.

Yes, mental, also physical, something he, his team, and a compliant, dishonest media have been denying and telling us not to believe for years now. Okay, that's how we got to this point.

He lied.

So did his vice president. So did his staff. And a compliant, complicit lapdog media ran to help them in this cover up. Only when we saw it with our own eyes what a mess he was that night of the debate did their game plan fall apart.

And american citizens from coast to coast said, I can't vote for that.

That man can't be president.

Those of you who may have been focused on other things, like the attempted assassination of our former President Donald Trump, may have memory holed a bit. What happened during that debate about a month ago?

It was moments like these when President Biden could not follow his own train of thought. The man remains the commander in chief right now. He's not stepping down as president. He is infirm enough that he admits he can't do a second term, but he will hold onto the reins of power for some half a year. Still, moments like this one where he could not follow his own train of thought that raised a five alarm fire for all normies. Coast to coast all those things we.

Joe Biden
Need to do, childcare, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our healthcare system, making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the COVID excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with, look, if we finally beat Medicare.

Donald Trump
Thank you, President Biden.

Megyn Kelly
President Trump.

And then there was probably the most eye popping destroying Medicare when President Biden turned a conversation about abortion into one about Lakin Riley, a nursing student who was murdered down in Georgia, a debate about illegal immigration, which has nothing to do whatsoever with abortion.

Joe Biden
I am a person that believes, and frankly, I think it's important to believe in the exceptions. Some people, you have to follow your heart. Some people don't believe in that. But I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. I think it's very important. Some people don't follow your heart, but.

Megyn Kelly
You have to get elected also. And because that has to do with other things.

Joe Biden
It's been a terrible thing what you've done. The idea that states are able to do this is a little like saying we're going to turn civil rights back to the states, let each state have a different rule. Look, there's so many young women who have been, including a young woman who just was murdered. And he went to the funeral. And the idea that she was murdered by, by an immigrant coming in, they talk about that. But here's the deal. There's a lot of young women are being raped by their in laws, by their spouses, brothers and sisters, by.

It's just ridiculous.

Megyn Kelly
What a nightmare. Just seeing it again, it was alarming.

It was repeated.

You can remember the moment in which he incredibly claimed that zero us service members died during his administration, military, you.

Joe Biden
Know, when he was president, they were still killing people in Afghanistan. He didn't do anything about that when he was president. We still find ourselves in a position where you had a notion that we were this safe country. The truth is, I'm the only president this century that doesn't have any, this decade that doesn't have any troops dying anywhere in the world like he did. I was getting out of Afghanistan, but.

Donald Trump
We were getting out with dignity, with strength, with power.

Megyn Kelly
He got out.

Donald Trump
It was the most embarrassing day in.

Megyn Kelly
The history of our country's life.

It was a debacle and not, as the left would put it thereafter, because he wasn't able to make his great points against Donald Trump. Because what we saw was that our sitting president and commander in chief, the man with the nuclear football is non compass mentis.

He should be 25th amendmented right out of office. But they wouldn't go that far.

They understood what that would mean and probably were calculating that it would also mean the immediate elevation of Kamala Harris to the presidency, which was not popular amongst Democrats because they don't much like her. It's not just Republicans.

After that debate that night, I came on this show in a special live broadcast and told you point Blanken, his race for the White House, whether he knew it or not, was over.

In my view, it is over for Joe Biden.

His presidential campaign came to an end tonight, whether he knows it or not. There will be meetings tonight, first thing tomorrow amidst democratic party leaders about how to get him off the ticket, how to change in somebody else.

Have to be.

Already we're seeing some reaction come in from top Democrats who rarely criticize the president, suggesting he needs to have a serious look at this performance tonight and assess for himself whether he can go forward.

That number will mount.

There will be more and more. It was an unmitigated disaster.

And indeed, here we are about a month later, and he's done exactly that, withdrawn not from the presidency, but from his candidacy for a second term. Joining me now, Mark Halperin, founder of the wide world of news substack, longtime political journalist, and the man who's been breaking a lot of this about President Biden's plans this weekend to step down with considerable pushback and mocking even from the White House spokespeople, saying he was dead wrong. And yet, Mark, what you reported late last week would happen today, Sunday is almost exactly what happened, with the exception of, I don't know. He did endorse Kamala in his letter saying he's stepping down.

I think not in the letter, but in a tweet that followed it up.

And so it seems like he's getting behind Kamala, though. Are we sure?

Mark Halperin
Well, I think that his, I'm pretty sure his intention was not to endorse her. And some people close to her didn't want an endorsement. They want to separate themselves from the Biden Harris agenda, don't want to be seen as a tool of kind of the establishment.

Megyn Kelly
Stand by, stand by. Because you're really echoing. Is he echoing just for me? Is he echoing the broadcast, you guys?

It's just for me. All right, so keep going, Mark. Never mind. It's just me. I can deal with it. I just don't want my audience to have to.

Mark Halperin
Okay, sure. So I believe what happened was after I reported he wasn't going to endorse that. He was besieged with calls and his team was besieged with calls, with folks to say, if you get out, you must endorse your vice president. You've said she's the most qualified person to be the president. You have to endorse her. So I think I was right at the time what his intentions were, but it changed because of the pressure that he got in the interim. A lot's happened behind the scenes since my initial reporting. But the basic thrust of it is I think this will be what I call a contested convention. That's not contested. I've talked to people close to all the other people who are named as potential candidates, and I don't at this point foresee anyone challenging her, although, again, the desire in her camp is to make this seem as open a process as possible. The delegates will be the one who pick, and they're Biden Harris delegates. They're aligned with her personally and ideologically. So I suspect even if town, she'll be the nominee, and I don't right now see any major challenge to her.

Megyn Kelly
How did this come about? Because for weeks now, all we've heard from the White House is he's not going anywhere. Only if God Almighty comes down and tells him to drop out, will he go. He teetered a little bit on it this past week, saying, well, if there were, if there are medical condition and then there was the announcement of COVID But what, what did it, Mark?

Mark Halperin
Well, I'm still reporting that out. I think the money was a big issue. I think Nancy Pelosi made it clear there'd be no money for this campaign.

And you can't run a presidential campaign with no money. You can run with less than the other side, but not with no money. That was part of it. And part of it was the data. Although his campaign liked to downplay how badly his position had deteriorated, it had deteriorated in their own polling quite a bit, I'm told. And then the Democrats, he was going to potentially drag down an electoral college wipeout.

And remember, it's important to remember, Megan, as I know you know, before the debate, he had one path to 270 electoral votes. It was exactly 270. And it involved no margin of error, winning Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Nebraska's Omaha congressional district.

No one's ever won the White House with one path to 270. So he had a weak, weak position, which deteriorated dramatically. And the Democrats who were telling him to get out were looking at an electoral college landslide and with implications for down ballot. Everyone can talk at length about the risks of this change, about the electoral questions, about Kamala Harris. But the alternative was doom. They'll take chaos and risk over doom.

Megyn Kelly
You tweeted out earlier today as follows, as he was digging in his heels publicly, if an angry and defiant Joe Biden tries to hold on by running out the clock, Speaker Pelosi will have to raise the pain quotient to unimaginable levels. Veteran Pelosi watchers believe that is what she will do, starting as early as today. What was behind that?

Mark Halperin
Well, I don't know exactly what happened. I hope to be able to report it out and see exactly what was communicated. But as we saw on Friday, there were many more democrats who came out. But still a tiny percentage of Democrats who thought Joe Biden should step aside had publicly said that. And you started to see, for instance, in op ed piece in the Boston Globe by Congressman who's very close to Joe Biden, to talking about the loss of mental acuity. You started to see what I think would have been a campaign to turn up the pressure on the president, to make it so painful for him to stay that he would have no choice but to turn. And I think Nancy Pelosi and others masterfully orchestrated this to turn up the pain just enough as a preview of coming attractions, to say to Joe Biden, do it your way or we can do it the hard way. And he didn't want to go through it the hard way, particularly when his donors, much of his staff, many of his congressional allies, already made it clear to him, directly or indirectly, you should not go forward because you cannot win and you'll bring down the Democratic Party.

Megyn Kelly
What turned the tide mark, as far as we know, because, you know, in the days after the debate, they were 100% dug in and they had almost seemed to tamp down the Fuhrer over him. And then Pelosi opened the dam back up on morning Joe that Thursday after the debate, saying, well, we need to let him decide, after he had said repeatedly, I've decided. So what? What turned do we know?

Mark Halperin
Fundraising, polling and political support, all of those went very far south, further south than is publicly known. And it wasn't sustainable.

Megyn Kelly
And so do you think that ultimately it was Nancy Pelosi who was behind this?

Mark Halperin
Yes.

Not alone, but she, no one else. She was the person who had to be behind it. She's the only one with the political skill, the freedom, because she's no longer leading a divided caucus, because there were people in the caucus, the House and the Senate who wanted to keep him in or at least said so. And because she's a Joe Biden's friend and therefore had to have the authority to basically threaten him.

Megyn Kelly
And there doesn't seem to be much pushback from Obama, Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer or others. I mean, it doesn't seem like, at least behind the closed doors, they disagreed with her.

Mark Halperin
No, they all agreed wholeheartedly. And again, you got to go back three weeks. They thought this was a nightmare three weeks ago before the debate. And so this is an extraordinary story. It truly is. And again, no one has told the full story of what exactly happened, but you didn't have any leader who was for him.

What you had, though, were people like Bernie Sanders and Christian Gillibrand and, and others who were still for Joe Biden publicly. And that made it complicated because as long as he could cherry pick a poll that looked good for him, as long as he could say, hey, this person's still for me, he could go forward until Nancy Pelosi made it clear he could not.

Megyn Kelly
She's the most powerful person in Democrat politics. That seems clear. She just released a statement that reads in part, his legacy of vision, values and leadership make him one of the most consequential presidents in american history. She made no mention of Kamala Harris.

What does that mean?

Mark Halperin
Well, the speaker, I think, would rather have a different nominee, but it's just not plausible for a variety of reasons to think about a different nominee. And again, there's a school of thought that says, even if you love Kamala Harris, even if you think she'd be a great person to beat Trump, and even if you think she'd be a great president, and there's plenty of doubts across the board in portions of the Democratic Party about those things. Even if you think all those things, better to not have her be the establishment candidate, better to make it appear, even though I don't think she'll be challenged, that she's doing this on her own. And that's why, if you want to make a charitable read of other speakers not mentioning her, that would be it. The other reason is part of the way they got Joe Biden by now to this, I believe, was to make it clear that he would be celebrated as a great president and historically generous figure like George Washington stepping away from power. And I think, you know, they want this to be his day. It's possible she'll endorse him tomorrow. Endorse Kamala Harris tomorrow.

Megyn Kelly
Mark Halperin, thank you. And, you know, for the record, Halperin was right and the White House attacks on him were ill founded. What a shocker. Great to see you. Thank you.

Okay, I want to bring you up to speed on exactly how the president announced this before I bring in my next guests. He posted it on X. Pretty extraordinary. He says he's going to be making a longer statement later this week, but he posted it on X. And this is how it reads. Over the past three and a half years, we've made great progress as a nation today. Yada, yada, yada. It's all the reasons he's great.

None of this could have been done without you. It's been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president. Here we go. And while it's been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term. I will speak to the nation later this week in more detail about my decision. So here again, there's not much detail other than I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down. For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all of those. I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all of this. Let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the american people. I believe today what I always have, there's nothing America can't do, and so on. Right? You get it. And then there was a follow up tweet in which he wrote, my fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all of my energies on my duties as president for the remainder of my term. Reiterating the letter, my very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my vp. And it's been the best decision I've made today. I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats, it's time to come together and beat Trump. Let's do this. Pretty interesting that she seems to have been an afterthought, or at least that's how it seems.

Joining me now with more, Rich Lowry, editor in chief of National Review, and Emily Jasinski, DC correspondent for Unherd. So, guys, we were together the night of the disastrous debate, and here we are, what, one month later and he's gone. And I don't think anybody on this panel is surprised, but what a seismic moment in american politics. Rich.

Donald Trump
Yeah, huge you called it. I was skeptical that he would get out, at least initially. I just thought there's no mechanism to get him out. He's really motivated to stay in. He's wanted this his whole adult life. A lot of things are very important to him. You know, the stature of it, the prestige, the, you know, what it does for his family, all that. But it became unsustainable. And it just turns out, Nancy Pelosi, this isn't the first time we've learned this has more cojones than all the rest of them. It looked like Biden was just going to bulldoze him two weeks ago, before that morning Joe appearance, where she said, you know, you haven't decided, even though he had decided. And she basically said, you haven't decided until I've decided. You've decided. And that kept the door open, kept the pressure going, and it ultimately became unsustainable. But the most shocking such moves since LBJ pulls out without much notice after underperforming very early on in the democratic primary's biggest political story since the rise of Donald Trump in 2016.

Megyn Kelly
The, the other story, which is infuriating and even more so at the moment, Emily, is the massive cover up that was engaged in, by the White House and the media. And right now, as predicted, they're falling in to praise Joe Biden. Oh, he's such a hero. He's such a patriot. All of the ones who enabled this fraud to begin with.

Emily Jasinski
And, you know, that's something Kamala Harris is also going to have to answer for because Kamala Harris, clearly, as the vice president, was completely, and not being honest with the american people about the day to day lapses in the president's cognitive abilities. I mean, there's just no question about it. And, you know, the veep caricature that Selena Meyer, Julia Louis Dreyfus caricature of the vice president being out of the loop on important issues, et cetera, et cetera, isn't, obviously, isn't entirely true. The vice president is interacting with the president even if they're just at a bill signing. She was seeing this. She is going to have to answer for it over and over again. But I will say, to see everyone fall in line so quickly is fascinating. It's not surprising, but it's fascinating because if Kamala Harris is the nominee, if a bunch of people consolidate behind her, donors, actors, media figures consolidate behind Kamala Harris, the snowball starts rolling down the hill. She is going to have that same machine that was so powerful that they covered up Joe Biden's cognitive issues for years.

And we're so lucky that that debate happened when it did because it was a crack in that facade. That facade stood because these people are lying and they're lying with very powerful platforms. That's now going to be behind Kamala Harris, who is objectively a bad candidate. Her unfavorability rating is up there with Donald Trump's. Her favorability is actually lower than Donald Trump's according to real clear politics.

But that machine is really, really powerful and it is desperate to keep Donald Trump out of office.

Megyn Kelly
This is going to be a stomach turning couple of months rich as all of these media enablers pretend. They're just honest brokers who were really shocked by what they saw in President Biden that debate night. And now he's just done the right thing as he's recognized his deterioration and is going to save democracy. He'll get his big library. He may be sainted, right. And it will be completely memory hold. What he did, his staff did, his vice president did, and they did.

Donald Trump
Totally, totally, you know, and it wasn't because they, they all suddenly became conscious stricken and said, we can't have this man continue to serve for another four years. It's preposterous and wrong. They got caught. They got caught by the debate. And I keep going back to that fundraiser in Hollywood, George Clooney, co host in a race, whatever, it's $30 million. And we saw Joe Biden state. You didn't have to listen to anything he said. Just that seven second freeze up on stage where Barack Obama has to lead him off by his hand. That's normal. That's not normal. That doesn't happen with anyone who's in good shape. And we all saw it with their own eyes. But the AP did a fact check saying we were wrong and we were cheap faking it to make a big deal, this video.

And then we learn George Clooney was freaked out and disturbed by Biden's state. And according to John Favreau, you know, on CNN, after Clooney's op ed came out, he and his wife and everyone they talked to after the fundraiser was freaked out and disturbed. Did they say one peep, one peep to indicate that there was some level of concern? No. You know, so, so their lie didn't really work with the public because about two thirds, three quarters of people didn't think he was fit to serve another three quarters. But they diluted themselves and got themselves in to this fix where they have to do this quick switch out of, of the president of the United States, which is, you know, she'll be better than him, I guess, just because she doesn't have the age thing. But this is not, this is not a great process. It's going to smell rotten to a lot of people. But they did it. They did it to themselves because they believed, as Emily was saying, they believe in the power of their own lies. And thank God, at least there's some limit to what they can get away with.

Megyn Kelly
Now we're getting reaction pouring in. Bill and Hillary Clinton, per the New York Times, endorsed Kamala Harris, writing in a statement that they would do, quote, whatever we can to support her. President Obama not going that far, that far.

Praising Biden, his former vp, in a statement but does not endorse. Harris appears to endorse, quote, a process for picking someone, quote, I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges. But here's the question, rich, one more for you.

Is that window dressing as Halperin was suggesting, because realistically, they can't get another nominee and so they just have to make it look to the voters they assume are dumb, that they're doing the process, but the fix is in for her, for Kamala.

Donald Trump
Yeah, probably. I bet, you know. Cause Barack Obama is pretty good political analyst. He wants someone else. Nancy Pelosi wants someone else. But if you don't know what the process is going to be and the process is going to, whatever it is, is going to be three weeks long and you have the vice president who's the natural person to fill in for the president when he's debilitated in this way and he just got endorsed by the president, by the former president. If you're Josh Shapiro or Gretchen Whitmer, are you going to get in and potentially hurt yourself in your own state? I think that would be the best ticket, by the way, if you could wave a wand and you're a Democrat, do two blue state governors, one of whom at least has a relatively moderate image and yet just go for broke and try to hold on to those three states and win by two electoral votes instead, I think it's likely that they're stuck with Kamala and maybe, probably likelier than not that there's not a challenger.

Megyn Kelly
Emily, what we've seen so far in these polls is that Trump is crushing Biden when it comes to the male vote and that Biden's female advantage was limited down to the latest poll showed, I think, three points now it's possible some women will come to the ticket once this infirm Mandeh is off of it. But my own gut instincts tell me there is no way enough will come, because Kamala Harris is an inherently unlikable person to. To diminish, to dwarf, to blunt the advantage Trump has with men, which I think is only about to grow again because of Kamala. So what do you make of my male female analysis?

Emily Jasinski
I could not agree with that more. I think that's a really important point. It reminds me, actually, of what James Carville said when he was talking about, um, why, like, working men, for example, look at the democratic party, and it's kind of coded as feminine. This is about to go into hyperdrive. And he had some specific things that are kind of funny about why that is, like, down to, you know, making people wear prophylactics. But in all seriousness, like, that's about to go into hyperdrive, because we are now in the post 2020 Dei backlash. Like, companies have been reacting to it. And you can bethe that Kamala Harris is going to be, whether the media does it or her campaign does it, I would guess both. This is a candidacy that would be the first female presidency ever, the first black female president ever. It is going to have that air of history crammed down people's throats, and with a lot of voters, especially male voters, that are already in the Trump camp by huge margins, it's going to be irritating and it's going to backfire. There may be some people that it works with. It didn't work for Hillary Clinton, I think. And that was before 2020 and before things sort of came to that fever pitch, which turned so many people off that now even companies are reacting to the market in ways that they're trying to hide their DEi initiatives. So, I mean, I think that's a very, very real part of the dynamic. If it's a Trump versus Harris campaign, the gender divide is going to be even starker than it already was.

Megyn Kelly
The anti woke backlash is real to the point where I was listening to a podcast with Jonathan Swan and Ezra Klein the other day, rich, and they were both saying, like, yeah, Americans have had enough of the woke Dei stuff. That's really fallen apart. And so even they, the New York Times, two New York Times reporters and columnists, are admitting it. And let's not forget, not only is she the product of that DeI system, he openly said, I need to find a black woman. Here's a black woman. I'm gonna. I'm gonna promote her, but she's been one of its biggest promoters. And let's not forget this is a woman who called Jacob Blake, who pulled a knife on cops after digitally raping his ex partner and kidnapping the children. Between the two of them, a hero. She called him a hero. She fundraised, she sent out a link to a fundraiser for the BLM arrestees, people who had been arrested for causing massive damage, engaging in arson's violence against cops, and worse, she was their number one fan.

There is just maybe Americans have forgotten that because she was number two. But the team, Trump's not dumb, and in fact, he's running a much more disciplined campaign this time around. That stuff's going to be stuck down her craw by Monday.

Donald Trump
Yeah. So as a matter of substance and affect, she was really a post George Floyd type candidate that in that two year period when the country went crazy, like, okay, maybe this is plausible, maybe it's not anymore. And one of the advantages of Biden of his age, he pushed it too far, 81 years old and saying he's going to be in there for another four or five years. But he just seemed like a doddering, harmless old man. Even though, as Mark was pointing out, it was AOC and Elizabeth Warren that were backing him here because they'd gotten so much from him.

You couldn't really make the case that he was a radical and have it stick. You can make the case he was incompetent, he'd done a bad job as president. He was too old. Kamala, I think that the radicalism charge will hit home. And then also, if you just look at the democratic establishment has done last several years, 16, they insist on Hillary Clinton, maybe the one Democrat who could have lost to Donald Trump that year, 20, they get Biden right? But by the time they get Biden right, the only alternative was Bernie Sanders. So that wasn't that difficult a choice. Then before the debate, they're insisting on Joe Biden, who, again, was obviously not up to the job and very likely to lose to Donald Trump. And now the establishment is telling us Kamala Harris. So maybe she'll be different, maybe they'll be batting 500 because she'll turn out to be a great candidate. But the likelihood is that this will work out as well as the other candidates. They basically jam down people's throats without a legitimate process. And if Biden had one debate with Dean Phillips, who was not a serious candidate, just one in prime time, 09:00 p.m. eastern standard Time, with Joe Biden having to stand there for 90 minutes, they might have known what was going to happen or had a better idea what was going to happen against Trump, but they didn't do it because they, they kept all serious candidates out and then they wouldn't even go through the motions with a couple other serious. With a couple other candidates who were in.

Megyn Kelly
Yeah, or RFK J. You know, he's been in it as well and polling, you know, in the double digits for months now. And they, they also didn't debate him. Here is, let's see the Trump. Okay, do we have the ad? Hold on. There's a Trump pack ad that's going up in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. All right, so Pennsylvania is part of that blue wall. Georgia, Nevada, Arizona. He lost all those states last time around, but is polling very well in them right now. As soon as possible. According to the super PAC backing Trump. This is part of magaz $5 million per week ad blitz. Let's see it.

Kamala Harris
Kamala was in on it.

Megyn Kelly
She covered up Joe's obvious mental decline.

Kamala Harris
Our president is in good shape, in good health, tireless, vibrant. And I have no doubt about the strength of the work that we have done.

Donald Trump
But Kamala knew Joe couldn't do the.

Kamala Harris
Job, so she did it.

Megyn Kelly
Look what she got done. A border invasion, runaway inflation, the american dream, dead. They created this mess. They know Kamala owns this failed record.

That's the thing, Emily, because she may have his assets in terms of his, you know, nearly $200 million in donations since she was actually on the ticket when they became the nominee and vice presidential nominee. She also has his liabilities.

Emily Jasinski
Yeah, there are a couple of really big things the Trump campaign has going forward in a Kamala Harris candidacy. One is that it's really easy to, you know, at the RNC last week, there's just so much talk of Biden migrant crime, bidenflation. That's actually really easy to swap out with Harris migrant crime, especially because she was the immigration czar and harrisplation. So those parts are actually pretty transferable. But also this coup argument that we've heard more and more from the Trump campaign, that democratic donors fomented a coup and ousted Joe Biden against the will of the voters. I mean, we could get into the merits of the argument, but it's actually a pretty powerful argument, one that suggests that a narrative a lot of people already buy into, which is that elites are rigging these processes against them, that they're putting people who are bought, paid for by corporate interests up there that will go right into something a lot of people believe in a populist sense. So those Obama Trump voters in places like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and Ohio will have a lot to think about. In addition to this super powerful cover up argument, if you have clips of Kamala Harris talk about how vibrant Joe Biden is, that you can run over and over again in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, places like that, Michigan for the next couple of months. It's a huge problem for her to deal with. There's no question about it.

Megyn Kelly
Here's a little bit more of that. The Trump campaign found some, we found some more. Watch.

Kamala Harris
I think that if there is any question about the president, Joe Biden's ability to do the job and do it well and do it with vigor and passion, last night dispelled any of that in terms of any notion of that.

Mark Halperin
You know, I ask with all due respect, but, you know, would you, are.

Donald Trump
You capable, are you ready to step into the role and do whatever the country would need?

Kamala Harris
Absolutely ready. But thank God our president is in good shape and good health and is ready to lead in our second term. So the way that the president's demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated, gratuitous.

I spend a lot of time with Joe Biden, be it in the Oval Office or the situation around. So this whole issue that they are raising about his age is, again, because they've got nothing to run on because Joe Biden is very much alive and running for re elections. We have a very bold and vibrant president in Joe Biden.

Megyn Kelly
Wow.

Emily Jasinski
Those are worse than the ones part of it. Pain ran. Those are way worse than the ones in the ad.

Megyn Kelly
We could have kept going. There's so much out there. She, of course, has been covering for him. And I do wonder, though, because if you look at Emily, the Democrat party, there was this large faction that did not want Joe Biden to go, that actually didn't really like her, preferred him, said, you know what? He can do it. He's got a team around him. I'm not really too keen on her. She's annoying with her weird laugh. I was just like all of it. Her unburdened by what has been stupid attempts at rhetorical flair, which never land, never. She's never inspired anyone.

Those people may be ticked off or just kind of assuming over on the democratic side that they're going to be relieved. Like we're hearing sort of the establishment dems, they sound relieved. He's a hero. He saved democracy. He's like JFK. He said, ask what not what you, your country can do for you.

But there may be a significant backlash yet to come by those Dems who said, hell no, don't go, Zachary.

Emily Jasinski
I think so. I mean, AOC just put her neck on the line and did what? Like a very long instagram live just a couple of days ago about how this was an elite coup against Biden that her voters didn't have the luxury to afford being thrust into this chaotic process and potentially democrats losing the next election, that's a pretty hard line in the sand to stake out. And so now asking people like her, and there were other people like that, I think a lot of them were sort of in the justice Democrat arena. Those types of people now are going to be asked to defend a process that to the point rich was making about Obama not endorsing Kamala Harris yet. I mean, if it's a sham process where you have a bunch of democratic establishment leaders, Bill, Hillary Clinton come out backing Kamala Harris, and everyone else is intimidated from jumping into it because you can transfer the war chest over to her and she's got all these endorsements, she's a sitting vice president.

If that happens, then you're asking AOC to go along with it. I mean, Democrats have had a good time. I think I've had a good run of getting AOC to take her marching orders. But this is asking a lot.

Megyn Kelly
It's a fraud.

Emily Jasinski
Is Kamala Harris 100% and voters will see that.

Megyn Kelly
I mean, I personally am all for the Democrats decision to bounce him from his second term. As I've said repeatedly, I agree he's very easy for Trump to beat. I mean, not very easy because the Democrats have a very powerful get out the vote machine. But he would be easier, I think, than anyone else given his infirmity. But I just love the country too much to root for it. I mean, he needs to go. He needs to go as president. That's the page I've been on since that debate and before.

But the Democrat voters deserve to make this decision.

Not Nancy Pelosi, not Bill and Hillary, not Obama, even though he's smart enough to protect his own skin to outward facing say, oh, no, we're going to have a process. But if it's a rigged process in which it's already Kamala's, I do think a lot of Democrats could be pissed off enough to say, you know what, screw you, Democrat elites. I was close enough to team Trump Vance, who are kind of flirting with some of my democratic ideals anyway, that I'm jumping ship. That's one of the. That's one of the dynamics we have to see to watch over the next coming days. I want to tell you a couple of things that are just in.

Vice President Harris has issued a statement. I'm honored to have the president's endorsement, and my intention is to earn a. And win this nomination.

Representative Lloyd Doggett. Right. Okay. The Texas Democrat who was the first to publicly call for Biden to withdraw, says that while Vice President Harris is clearly the leading candidate, we should be open to all talented individuals who wish to be considered. He commended the president for his painful and difficult decision.

And then there's this. Do we have this coons? Sound bite, guys.

Okay, look at this.

Chris Coons. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, who is the Biden Harris campaign co chair, and he'd been one of Biden's staunchest defenders, is on tv in tears. Look at this.

Donald Trump
Joe Biden is grounded. He's grounded in his faith, in his family, and in our state.

Excuse me.

Megyn Kelly
Oh, God.

Donald Trump
I'm sorry. This was a very difficult decision.

Megyn Kelly
You should cry. You lied and you got caught. Now you've been publicly humiliated. You cause all this chaos in your own party, rich. It's an outrage. The media is gonna let them get away with this. They're gonna let them get away with. Oh, and you and I talked about it the debate night.

Joe Scarborough, liar in chief, is going to take to the airwaves tomorrow morning and say, God bless him.

Donald Trump
He's a Jesus, like, great statesman. Yeah. Yeah.

Megyn Kelly
And for the one who got them into this mess.

Donald Trump
Yeah. Four months ago, Joe Scarbo, the best Joe Biden we've. We've ever seen. Nicole walls.

Megyn Kelly
We have it. Watch it. And then you pick up on the back end. We got it. Let's watch it.

Donald Trump
He might misplace a word here and there, but you talk to him for hours at a time.

Is he slower? Does he move slower? Yeah, he's moved slower.

Megyn Kelly
Stiffer.

Donald Trump
Yeah, he's moved stiffer. Have trouble walking?

Megyn Kelly
Sometimes.

Donald Trump
Yeah. So did FDE. I've said it for years now. He's cogent.

But I undersold him when I said he was cogent. He's far beyond cogent. In fact, I think he's better than he's ever been. Start your tape right now, because I'm about to tell you the truth. And f you, if you can't handle the truth.

Megyn Kelly
Okay.

Donald Trump
I was afraid you're gonna leave that part out of Biden.

Intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second and I've known him for years. The brzezinskis have known him for 50 years. If it weren't the truth, I wouldn't say it.

No.

Megyn Kelly
F up fucking Joe Scarborough. F you and your smarmy, dishonest boot licking need to be close to power. Go ahead, Rich.

Donald Trump
Yeah. It had nothing to do with the fact that morning Joe is Joe Biden's favorite program, that he was saying that. Right.

And, you know, that's the worst example, but there are many, many others. But I just fear that a lot of Democrats, they were not going to like this process. The way to do it, right. Would have had a real primary challenge last year. They forestalled that. But I don't think Biden really has loyalists. You know, he has his family and this inner circle that's been with them for 30 or 40 years. But I think other than that, everyone else, it was totally transactional relationship with Joe Biden. So this isn't going to be like Democrats dumped Barack Obama in 2012 and a third of the party or getting rid of Trump. No way. With this. A messianic figure for us. Yeah. So in the media coverage, all this will be forgotten. All the lies will be forgotten. Their complicity will be forgotten, and they'll go ahead with puffing up, assuming it's Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris. She'll be on the COVID of vogue every month until the election and all the rest of it. So it wouldn't surprise me. She gets a little bounce. She's been polling about even with Joe Biden. It's not obvious from the polling that she's better, but she might, might get a bounce here, and it will look more like a race than it has. You know, Trump is ahead in Michigan by seven points and winning in metro Detroit. Right. That's a debacle. I assume she'll do a lot of little better than that.

Megyn Kelly
Here's where, look, I am a woman. I have a daughter. I hate the fact that there's been no female presidents. I really do. I hate the fact that you take out your little place matte when your kids are learning the presidents. There's no female face on there. And then you have to explain why. It's just, it's effed up.

I would love to see a female president like a Margaret Thatcher type, somebody who's strong and serious and sober and respected.

This ain't it.

I am telling you, America is not going to elect this nimrod as its first female president.

I trust in them too much for that. They're just. They're nothing that dumb and they're not that open to a female president to where they'd be like, anybody will do. Anybody. Anybody. Like, we have so many, so many montages of hers. Let's just play eleven just to remind the audience who she is.

Kamala Harris
I can imagine what can be and be unburdened by what has been, you know, what can be unburdened by what has been. What can be unburdened by what has been. What can be unburdened by what has been. What can be unburdened by what has been. What we can see, what we believe can be unburdened by what has been, what can be unburdened by what has been, what can be unburdened by what has been.

Megyn Kelly
And by the way, here's another one for you. 18. When she speaks to us like we're all about four, I have a particular.

Kamala Harris
Fondness, I must tell you, for electric school buses. I love electric school buses.

I was proud to introduce the first piece of legislation to electrify our nation's fleet of school buses. I'm excited about electric school buses.

I love electric school buses.

I love them for so many reasons. Maybe because I went to school on a school bus.

Megyn Kelly
Raise your hand if you went to.

Kamala Harris
School on a school bus. Right?

Megyn Kelly
No. It's a no. I'm telling you, not doing it.

Emily Jasinski
She had to be drunk.

Megyn Kelly
I mean, if you were drunk, I'd like her more.

That would work for me. If she came out and said I was hammered, I'd be like, oh, everybody's kind of dumb when they're. No, it's too repeated. It happens all the time. Remember when she was trying to explain Ukraine? I think it was on Charlemagne, the gods program. And she was like, there's a big country named Russia, and there's a big country. We'll pull it in any event. You tell me, Emily, maybe I'm just a sexist pig, but I'm not. It's not happening with her.

Emily Jasinski
So I would say that was all. I would agree fully with that. If Donald Trump wasn't still so unpopular. And I don't know, like, I actually don't know how this is going to shake out. But I do think there's something to be said about how the media worked with the Democratic Party to cover up Joe Biden for years and years until he was actually in a debate. You know, he would do interviews, whatever. They would chop him up. They would make him the most favorable possible version of Joe Biden.

And maybe they start cutting out the bad gaffes of Kamala. Maybe they start downplaying all of that. She's on the COVID of Bogue. I know that it's going to backfire with a big chunk of the public, but I also know that there's a big chunk of the public that just wants a sentient Democrat to be able to vote for.

That said, she does have just this unlikable nature about her, to the point where after all the media hype surrounding Kamala Harris's candidacy for the nomination back in 2020, she didn't even make it to Iowa. She had lots of money. She had lots of hype. She had amazing media coverage, and people just don't like her. So it comes down to whether or not there are enough people who want to vote against Trump and are willing to sort of go over that, to ignore, to get over the unlikable of Kamala Harris. Because one thing we know for sure is a lot of people aren't suddenly going to be like, oh, Kamala Harris. Very inspiring. Very inspiring. Need her to be the first woman president. Just love her so much. Put her on socks, make her the next RBG. That's not going to happen.

Megyn Kelly
We are 2 seconds. They probably already have it from making our superhero doll out of her. My old neighborhood on the Upper west side, they had Fauci, they had AOC, they had Michelle Obama. She's probably already up there. Um, rich, the, we're just learning a little bit more on how Biden's staff found out of his decision, according to Politico.

I take it with a grain of salt because, I mean, I agree. I, I believe he didn't leak it to his staff first because he knew they'd leak it to somebody else. But all their denials, no ways is happening. Those are dishonest. Those are dishonest. They knew better than any of us that he was inching closer to making this decision because they read what we read. Plus, I, in any event, political reports as follows, that the staff found out on X at the same time we did. They were stunned. Up until this afternoon, they were insisting he would stay in the race. Many of them, including some senior aides, first found out that he, that he was no longer going to stay in the race by reading the letter he posted on X. Quote, we're all finding out by tweet, said one, none of us understand what's happening. In a sign of the abruptness of Biden's decision, the campaign blasted out a fundraising email for, quote, Joe and Kamala at 01:54 p.m. eight minutes after Biden announced that he was stepping aside.

I mean, I'm sure that it ultimately did come down to Jill, maybe some hunter, but mostly Jill.

And I am persuaded by the Halperin reporting on Nancy Pelosi.

I mean, just really having him. Having him. Yeah, you know, by the, by the, you know, you know, by the, by the what? And saying, it's only going to get more painful unless you get out.

Mark Halperin
Yeah.

Donald Trump
Yeah. Well, this was a game of chicken between him and his party ever since the debate. And Biden's play is say, I don't care what you say, I'm staying in. So if you criticize me, if you say I should go out, leave the race, if you cut off my fundraising, you're just hurting your inevitable nominee and making it more likely this guy you hate and fear beyond words. Donald Trump's gonna be president United States. So stop. Forget it. I'm in. That. That was his part in the game of chicken. Then there was the party saying, and I think Pelosi, it sounds right to me that Pelosi was the leader in this. No, we are going to make, we're going to say, you got to go. We're going to do it privately. We're going to leak, but then we'll go public with it. We'll cut off your fundraising. There won't be any activism. There won't be any energy to this campaign. So your campaign is a wasting asset. So you can say, sure, you're still running, but you're not going to win. It's going to be inevitable failure. So that was the game of chicken. And at times it seemed Pelosi was going to win. Times it seemed Biden was going to win. But by the time late last week where he had the leaks of the conversations between Biden and Pelosi, Schumer and Jeffries, it seemed, one, they told him in private, two, they leaked that they told him in private, and the next stage is going public. So it wouldn't shock me if either he figured that out or it was made clear to him, and that's why he finally stood down and lost the game of chicken.

Megyn Kelly
And now you've got reactions like this. Keith Olbermann, a hero, Joe Biden, Norm Eisen, one of the most stunning acts of patriotism of my lifetime. Lawrence tribe. Like JFK, Biden asked not what his country could do for him, but what he could do for his country. He will go down in history as a truly great president. And a great human being. Jon Favreau, former Obama guy. A courageous, selfless decision, the exact opposite of Donald Trump. Axelrod. The selfless decision he made. He understands what Trump does not. Our country's bigger than any one person, even the president, George Conway of the never Trumper Lincoln projects. He's a patriot. He selflessly served the nation with distinction. Blah, blah, blah. Thank you. Recline. An actual hero.

I mean, would you stop? An actual hero. This is like when we called, like, people who showed up to be grocery clerks during COVID Actual heroes. With all due respect to the clerks, a hero is what we saw in Normandy. Okay, just stop. If we overuse that ridiculous word, this is not heroic. This is a man who got caught committing a fraud. Did you see the movie Dave? He's the movie Dave with Kevin Klein, where he had a stroke in office, and instead of revealing it, they kept him hooked up to life support in the basement of the White House. And his ambitious chief of staff became sort of a fake president and found a lookalike to play the part. That's what he's been doing, thanks to his wife, thanks to his family, thanks to the greedy pariahs around him. There's no heroic behavior here by anybody.

Okay, hold on. Here's one more on Kamala that I promised you. This might be my favorite. This woman is now running to be president of the United States.

Kamala Harris
So Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So basically, that's wrong. This issue of transportation is fundamentally about just making sure that people have the ability to get where they need to go.

Space is exciting.

It spurs our imaginations, and it forces us to ask big questions.

Space, it affects us all.

It gives us a sense of the magnitude of it all. Earth is kind of small, right?

Emily Jasinski
The earth is like a speck.

The Trump campaign is going to have so much fun with her. They're going to have so much fun with her.

Endless possibilities.

Megyn Kelly
It's impossible. I realize we've had dumb people elected president before. She wouldn't be the first. But, I mean, she's not only is she a woman, she's a black woman. We asked, we've elected a black person before, mixed race President Obama. But that alone, let's just be honest, that would be a challenge for her as the first black woman.

But on top of all that, she's an idiot.

That's the real problem. The first black woman president is going to be somebody who is sharpen sharp and inspirational and unquestionably qualified. And while we might not like her politics on one side or the other, we will begrudgingly respect her intellect and her strength because that's the only way we're going to put a woman in this office. Our history proves it. In any event, here is another one of the worst offenders in the lies that were told to build up this man. They told us they were cheap fakes. They were cheap fakes. They were the ones who were doing the cheap faking. As Emily just points out. They were the ones who are editing the videos to try to protect him. We weren't the ones editing the videos to try to make him look extra bad, unfavorably. We know all that from the Obama fundraiser out in California where everybody said he got lost on stage. The media said, no, that's a cheap fake. Then Obama or Clooney, who was there himself, said, no, it was all really was terrible there.

Nicole Wallace, who for some reason barely opens her mouth when she speaks, is a very tiny little.

I don't know why.

Here she is.

Kamala Harris
There's a growing and insidious trend in right wing media broadcasts, print and social media. It is to take highly misleading and selectively edited videos of President Biden directly from Republican National Committee social media accounts and then use those videos to spread messages orally to cast doubt on President Biden's fitness for office. Here is this headline from the New York Post. Quote, Biden appears to freeze up, has to be led off stage by Obama at megabucks, LA fundraiser. The full video posted by Biden, finance chair on Twitter shows something entirely different. Biden reacting to applause and then walking offstage with former President Obama.

Megyn Kelly
It's stomach turning. But the thing is, you know as well as I do, Emily, there will be no accountability for these people because the Democrats wanted to believe those lies and now they'll want to believe the new lies about Kamala Harris and how perfect she is.

Emily Jasinski
There'll be no accountability. Also, because they were so complicit that it would damn them, you know, if there's to be accountability for Kamala Harris. They were going, I mean, with the cheap fakes thing, sometimes they were actually just taking a cheap fakes talking point. It was the argument that was coming out of the White House and you could trace it straight to the stories. White House would put out a statement saying it was a cheap fake. Then you'd start to see journalists amplifying this argument that it was a cheap fake. So they can't turn around and now be critical of Kamala Harris. They were Kamala Harris up until that debate when they got caught, as rich just said, and couldn't keep up the facade anymore. And that's why to say that Joe Biden is a hero in the mold of answering JFK's call to the country is so disgusting because a real hero would step down. A real hero would say, if I can't be president for the next four years, I sure as I can't be president now. So that would be heroic. That would be the tough choice. But Kamala Harris isn't going to say that. Kamala Harris is going to keep pretending that he can be president.

It's just, you know, the next four years that are the problem. They're all complicit in it.

Donald Trump
Yeah, everything you needed to know.

Megyn Kelly
I would be a distraction. I would be a distraction to the run against Trump. They're not owning up. I mean, that's the thing, Rich. I continue to say the man should be 25th amendmented. If he's not fit to serve a second term, how is he fit to stay in the office as president through January 20?

Donald Trump
Right now, you can imagine some sort of physical ailment that would make it impossible for someone to run for the presidency but still be mentally sharp and have the mental acuity and endurance to do the job. This is basically FDR in 1944. He was at death's door. Anyone who was around him witnessed that. But he's still entirely with it. The problem with Biden is he's confused. Right? We've seen it with our own eyes. All you needed to do was look at the RNC research Twitter feed, and they did occasionally, you know, flip stuff to make Biden look worse. But you got a truer picture from that feed than anything any democrat was saying, certainly on MSNBC. So if he's not recognizing friends in private and he's not up for the job of doing interviews and reading teleprompter in public, he's not up for this job in private. The country needs the assurance that whoever's president, United States, has the capability to do the job crisis at any time. And it's just wrong for him to stay in this office one day longer.

Megyn Kelly
That's the problem is like the world is on fire right now, right? We have conflicts still going on in Ukraine. We have the Middle east growing in terms of its seriousness and just how bad it's looking there. I mean, new conflicts potentially opening up. And we have a man who can't put two sentences together literally, that cannot put two, cannot hold his train of thought, cannot work more than a few hours a day, cannot stay up past eight.

Emily. These Democrats, they're just going to lionize him and not admit reality, which is we're in danger right now.

Emily Jasinski
And even actually, just as we're thinking this through in real time, having this conversation, I'm realizing what a disadvantage that's going to be for Kamala Harris politically on the campaign trail because she is going to be dogged just over and over again by questions from the Trump campaign.

Any debate that happens, this is just going to be constant. Why is Joe Biden president right now? Why aren't you supporting the 25th amendment? Did he get up at eight this morning or did he get up at 10:00 this morning? When did he get up? When did he go to bed last night? This is going to be a constant drumbeat, as it should be. And that's going to be a really, I don't know how they're going to handle answering those questions other than saying Joe Biden made his decision, doesn't want to be a distraction.

So that is, the Trump campaign is going to have the ability to force that issue over and over again because it's one that's resonant with the american people. So the media will do its best, just as it did up until the debate.

Because they're so desperately opposed to Donald Trump. They will do their best. They're running like this is the existential crisis of their generation. So that won't change. But she is never going to have a good answer to that question.

There's nothing you could say that's going to be persuasive to the public.

Megyn Kelly
The latest polls show Kamala Harris is not doing well in a hypothetical matchup against Donald Trump, though the polls, in fairness, have been erratic and she's not yet in the race when they're taking these polls. So, you know, take them with a grain of salt. We'll get better polling now that she's officially getting in. But just a sampling here.

This is July 16 to 18th. YouGov Harris 48, Trump 51 July 17 soCal research. Harris 44, Trump 52 July 15 the 16th Ipsos. Harris 44, Trump 44, tied 15th 16th, keeping going, 13th to 16th. YouGov Harris 39 Trump up 44 and so on. If you could keep going. But he beats her in all, all of them. This is, this is just from real care politics. This latest, you can see all the red and all the blue.

He beats her in all of them.

So that's now before she's officially in the race. And I'll show you some battleground numbers.

Pennsylvania. This New York Times versus Sienna. The latest Pennsylvania puts Trump up one in a hypothetical matchup against, against Kamala Harris.

Right now, his real clear average lead over Biden in Pennsylvania is 4.5. It puts Trump down five.

In Virginia, the latest polling there had shown Trump up maybe half or a quarter of a point over Joe Biden. So that's an improvement for Kamala Harris. But Virginia is probably Fool's golden in any event, for Republicans. We'll see.

Pennsylvania insider advantage shows Trump up seven over Kamala Harris. Again, the real clear politics, politics average right now has him up 4.5 over Biden. So that could be a decrease in benefits for the Democrats if Kamala is the nominee.

Nevada showing Trump over Kamala by ten points, 50 to 40.

The real clear politics average between Biden and Trump right now has Nevada Trump up 5.6. So again, this would show a hemorrhaging if Harris is the nominee out there.

And then there's Arizona, where the latest inside advantage advantage poll showed 48 to 42. Trump advantage of six points.

And the real clear politics average has Trump up in Arizona five.

So it'd be about the same.

I don't know that she is the savior, rich, that they are looking for. And you and I both know, even though they may think they have to have her, there are probably hysterical meetings going on right now, and they have been for weeks on how not to have it be her.

Donald Trump
Yeah. And so she is not bold. Better than, than Biden. The reason why I would expect it still to be a race at some point is Trump. We're beginning to see a little bit of the post assassination attempt, post convention bout. The CB's poll had him at 52 nationally, but prior to that, he was at 47%, basically in the RCP average nationally, which suggests there's a ceiling or at least a level that's hard for him to get beyond. And Kamala, I don't see her being a good match. Woke progressive from California for Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, that Democrats absolutely need to win. But I think part of the democratic calculation be that even if she's not a better national candidate than Joe Biden, she's certainly a better candidate in California and New York. And sort of against expectations. The swing districts in the House, they aren't in places necessarily like Pennsylvania or traditional swing states. They are in California and New York. And all the polling indications since the debate has been that Democrats are cratering in those places. So I think they're figuring, well, maybe she'll do better nationally, but if she doesn't, and at least there's some cushion against an utter debacle up and down the ticket.

Megyn Kelly
You know, it's interesting, Emily, there you've got, this is just one example, but Ed Luce, associate editor, Financial Times, tweets out the following.

Trump is too old to be president.

This is going to be talking point, right? Yeah, it is going to be a new talking point.

Our nominee is, you know, much younger. How old is she? How old is Kamala Harris? She's in her late 59, I believe.

Donald Trump
69.

Megyn Kelly
Yeah, she's 59.

Spring chicken compared to 78 year old Trump.

And this is an interesting turn, right, Emily, because all the narrative of, like, too old, too old, even though the Republicans have really been saying it's not about age, it's about his infirmity, I personally always say Alan Dershowitz, who's 85 and could crush any of us in a debate.

In any event, they'll say that it was all about age and that Trump's old, and they'll use some of Trump's forgetting names, you know, normal stuff that happens when you're 78, which doesn't compare to Biden, but is on the record against the GOP. So how do you like that tactic?

Emily Jasinski
Well, I mean, I actually think that's pretty powerful because they now have this argument in their hands of this media machine that was able to, to some degree, cover up Biden's age for a really long time. You know, the, the media is nowhere near as powerful as it used to be. In fact, the legacy media has never been less powerful. Thank goodness for that. It is, though, still powerful. And so when you combine this idea of Biden being an american hero who is passing the baton to a new generation of democratic party leadership, if they have any sort of facsimile of a democratic process, low d democratic process, to nominate Kamala Harris formally, the media is going to laud that. They're going to say this is the Democratic Party's leap into the future.

Donald Trump, again, like, not popular, although he will be helped enormously against those attacks from Ed Luce by the fact that he was literally shot in the head and got right back up and made that gesture to the crowd. I mean, that I think basically will neutralize the argument, but I do think it could send some Democrats to RFK junior.

If Kamala Harris is forced on voters through a sham nomination process, then you just are going to infuriate so many people who say the Democratic Party is exactly what I thought it was. They're nominating a California elite and they're not letting me have a say in it. They covered up the, they covered up Biden's problems for years. Go back to 2016. There wasn't a real primary. Everybody was intimidated out of running by Hillary Clinton. 2020, everyone rallied around Biden because they were terrified of Bernie. And the Democrat establishments put their finger on the scale for Biden this time around. Many people said that. Many Democrats said they wanted an open process. There wasn't an open process. And now you're going to have a sham process that forces this California elite down the throats of people in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania. You could send a whole lot of people to RFK junior in that case. Even if, you know, you have this massive media Hollywood elite machine pumping us through, pumping the discourse through of these arguments day after day about the next generation of Democratic Party leadership.

Megyn Kelly
He's having a press conference at 05:00 p.m. eastern time. RFKJ, and I'm sure is going to have a lot to say about this decision. Donald Trump reacting in part, Biden was not fit to run for president and is certainly not fit to serve and never was. Sarah Huckabee Sanders not fit to run for president? Not fit to serve as president. Biden should resign immediately. Dan Bongino 81 million votes and he's dropping out. Speaker Mike Johnson called for Biden to resign from office if he's not capable of running for reelection. If Joe Biden's not fit to run for office, he's not fit to serve as president, Johnson wrote. And that's the thing. He's saying he can't do it. He's admitting, yes, he says I'd be a distraction. And when he makes his public remarks this week, no way is he going to say I'm unfit. But we all know that that's what caused this to happen. This wasn't happening without that debate. And yet we're supposed to deny the obvious reality, which is he should not be sitting in this office and even he knows it well. Oh, it's only six months. Six months is leader of the free world. Six months as commander in chief of the military, six months as the man who's got the access to the nuclear codes. No, that can't be.

I do want to ask you this rich heritage foundation conservative think tank has been making some rumblings over the past few weeks since that debate about we're not going to make it easy on them if they want to sub him out.

And they've been saying there are at least three swing states, Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin, that could restrict Biden's removal from the ballot. Ballot. Now, I think George is out, although I could be wrong, but I think George is not going to be a problem because that would have allowed Biden to withdraw up to 60 days before the election.

So I think he'll be okay there. But I don't know if they include early voting. So heritage will undoubtedly know the answer to all that. But here's what the executive director said in a statement. This is before today. We're monitoring the calls for him to stop, to drop out. We've concluded that the process for substitution and withdrawal is very complicated. We will remain vigilant that appropriate election integrity procedures are followed.

The mechanisms for replacing him on ballots vary state by state.

There is potential for pre election litigation in some states that would make the process difficult and perhaps unsuccessful.

They point out that in many states, many states, including swing states like Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin, they might not allow a replacement on the ballot and agree. Agreed. She's already on the ballot, but she's on for a different role.

They say Wisconsin does not allow a candidate's name to be withdrawn from the ballot except due to death. Nevada allows changes to its ballot up to 05:00 p.m. on the fourth Friday of June in the election year. We're past that. It also allows special consideration if nominees die or are determined to be mentally unable to proceed, which, again, it makes it interesting what he's going to say officially, for his reasons, they can't not be on the ballot in Nevada. So there's going to be litigation, rich, undoubtedly, yeah.

Donald Trump
So this was part of AOC's case. And that long instagram that Emily was mentioning earlier was, was there legal difficulties that no one's thought about. Now, it doesn't seem commonsensical to me that prior to someone being the formal nominee, you can't switch him or her. But one of the problems is this Democrat democratic convention is really late, which is why they're thinking of doing a roll call by August 7 to get Biden the official nomination. Now, can they do that with Kamala? Now if they're supposedly having an open process? Right. That'd be extremely, extremely difficult. So none of this is ideal. But by the way, on the resignation thing, I do think that would help Kamala. You know, you should do it on the merits. But also you get some sort of mini inauguration, you get some sort of honeymoon. She's actually an incumbent, you know, presiding over administration, that's not very popular. So maybe that vitiates the effect somewhat. But I think it would be a boost to her politically on top of everything else if Biden stepped aside.

Megyn Kelly
The reaction continues to pour in. Rachel Maddow.

I'm just blown away by the sacrifice and patriotism this moment embodies as she applauds his withdrawal, the insincerity of these dishonest people. Emily, it is stomach turning. And we are going to have to go through this now for weeks. I mean, they really might submit him for sainthood.

They're going to start the library right now.

This was all, you know, it was the carrot or the stick. And he ultimately did respond to the stick. Maybe some carrot. I mean, carrot didn't seem to do it, but they basically took that stick out and they said, we're gonna beat you. We're gonna beat you hard, and it's going to be painful for your whole family. And as soon as he put his ears back and his tail between his legs and said, okay, I'm gone, they were like, good little Joe Biden. Good boy. You're a good boy. You're a national hero. And we're gonna have to pretend this is real, that they don't. This is ridiculous, this act.

Emily Jasinski
He didn't go to a g seven meeting so that he could go to bed. There's nothing sacrificial or selfless about this. He has been ruling, he has been presiding over the country as the president of the United States in a way where he's completely unfit to do it. So to act like it's selfless sacrifice for him after the process, the primary already closed. To do this is insane. And I will say it is also very premature because who knows if this is the baggage that loses Democrats, whether it's Kamala Harris or somebody else, the election, because they have to answer to the Trump campaign day after day saying Joe Biden should step down. Why isn't he stepping down if he can't run? Why is he the president? Should we 25th amendment him? And they're not going to have any answer to that. So Joe Biden, by not stepping down, could actually prove to be the baggage that loses the election, whether or not he was on the ten it. So it's just completely premature. And I'm surprised, actually, that so many people are coming. I mean, I shouldn't say I'm surprised, but it's even just like, stupid from their own perspective, strategically, politically, to go out there and make this case right now, because not only is it obviously objectively not selfless or sacrificial, it also could prove to be the thing that is exactly what they said would have been selfish, exactly what they would have said was immoral, which was to cling to power because you were going to lose Democrats the election. So it could just turn out to be completely different than they thought.

But they're all reacting in real time.

Donald Trump
Yeah, but this clearly was part of the implicit deal, right? I mean, they told him you had an anonymous donor saying, you get no presidential library, dude, just forget it. If you stay in and lose one of the Obama bros, I think it was Favreau said, you have the choice now to be remembered as this great statesman who saved democracy in 2020 or to go down as a disgrace who lost the. This presidential race is a hugely consequential presidential race for your country. So they're basically telling them, get out. And this is what you'll get. You'll get phrase prime time at the convention. Your library will now be lavishly funded and all the rest of it.

And he took that dealer will get a pardon.

Yeah, sure.

But part of there's democratic polling privately, apparently, that showed that if democratic candidates vouch for Biden and said he should stay on the ticket, it just shot their credibility. Right. So it was going to hurt every Democrat in every single race. What I think Emily is hitting on, which is a very shrewd point, that effect still could be there. And Republicans are just trying to change the question and make it not staying on the ticket, but staying in office at all, and make Democrats answer for that and say, yes, he's totally. Everything you've seen indicates, no, he's not. But still, you believe your lying eyes even now? It should stay in office and try to undermine their credibility that way. Most importantly, obviously targeting Kamala, if she's the nominee.

Megyn Kelly
You know this.

All I can think of is the godfather, which, of course, has the answers to everything. Frank Pentangeley was called. He was going to speak before the Senate. He was going to testify as Michael Corleone was being cross examined. And they had him, that he was a. He had turned states evidence he was going to testify against. Against him. And then what happened? He didn't do it, even though he'd already given it all up to the feds because they had his brother. They dragged in his brother from Italy. He was sitting there in the audience and they knew exactly was going to happen to the brother. I think it was the brother or the aunt or the uncle. If he spoke and said those things under oath. And so suddenly, Frank Pentangeley is like, they came to me. They started putting all kinds of words in my mouth. Michael Corleone did this. Michael Corleone did that. So I said, yeah, yeah, he did it. And he totally reversed himself. That's what they really had.

They had Joe Biden's library. That was the uncle. Yeah, the library gets it. You know, you leave. The library gets it. Your legacy gets it. And so he did what Frank Pentangeli did. He said, all right, fine, I'll do it. And he's out. And, you know, it really is. There's something almost shakespearean about it where that that party stabbed him. I mean, they stuck that knife in and turned it and didn't care at all about this man they're now telling us is a patriot. And, you know, this legacy that, you know, that we need to respect.

They stuck the knife in every single way they could. There was a quote from one of the staffers on Friday saying, they're Julius caesaring him right now in the front, the back. That's exactly right. They didn't actually respect his decision. That's what's crazy. Like, he. He should be gone. I agree with. He's gone with him being gone, but it was his decision. And they blackmailed this guy right out of the presidency. These people fight dirty and disgustingly. And this is why Republicans are so worried. Can I tell you? We'll close with this, the RNC. I spoke with a bunch of delegates there, rich. I'm sure you did, too. And I don't know if you went.

But to a man and woman, what I was asked about was, what about cheating?

And I know, you know, there are many of us, and I think, I know, at least you and I are two of them, Rich, who don't think that this last election was cheated. There wasn't cheating in a way that would have stolen it from Trump. There was massive, massive, you know, unfairness in it. And I know my audience disagrees with that. But my point is simply Democrats who are capable of it does kind of look like a coup, right, of doing this to the sitting president. Why are we not to believe that they're capable of cheating in an election, of forging ballots? Like they're capable of anything?

Donald Trump
Yeah. You look at it, you like, okay, is this on the upper? Was it in the up and up when he was. Was still totally with it. And the best Biden ever is it up and up? The way he's being dumped is on the up and up the way, Kamala Harris is probably going to ascend to st status herself here in the next several days and weeks. No. And I would just add also, if you want to undermine faith in our institutions, do what Kimberly Cheadle has done at this secret service. Right, preside over a catastrophe failure and then refuse to resign, get chased by republican senators. I think this is the best thing any group of republican senators has done in recent years. By the way, chased her at the RNC convention site, saying, you're not answering our questions, you're disgraced and you should resign. And she's doing the typical Washington thing. I take responsibility. Just mouthing those words, but not actually doing it. She shouldn't get credit for that centimeter. Right. That kept Donald Trump alive. She was responsible for a failure that would have created one of the worst events in american history. And she's going to try to skate on it. And I hope she gets a clobbered tomorrow in that, that hearing on Capitol Hill.

Megyn Kelly
Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, government. I heard, I was listening, as you know, I always do, Rich, to Annie McCarthy's podcast on today. I just listened to it where Jeff was subbing in, I think, right for you.

They were talking about how these institutions have so many layers. All they worry about is covering their own butts. They don't actually worry about doing the right thing. And so everybody's just worried about, like, who they can, you know, point the finger at and not actually protecting the president, not actually getting to the right results. And it's just so dysfunctional. They're dysfunctional within the secret Service. They're dysfunctional within the State Department. They're dysfunctional within the intelligence community. We know that. And the, the presidency right now is no, no exception. And the vice presidency as well. So, look, the media is no better. We're worse, and we're about to watch fraud part two take place, where the original fraudsters try to pretend they never defrauded us and commit a new fraud, which is Kamala Harris's hands are clean. And she's also the second coming. You know, maybe she's the third coming. Joe's the second. And to save democracy, we all have to go along with it. Oh, and by the way, they really, really care about old age. They really, really care about old age and infirmity and missed words in sentences. It's going to be a mind meld like we've never seen before. Buckle up, hold on to reality, and continue touching base with people who, you know, tell you the truth. Guys, thank you both so much.

Mark Halperin
Thank you.

Megyn Kelly
What a crazy arc. What a crazy arc for my audience. You know, like they were both on that night that we did with Biden after the debate. Like everything started then as the fraud was becoming undeniable. And now here we are less than a month later. That was debate. Was, was it the 27 June? Pretty sure it was 27th. Yeah. Which was a Thursday night. And here we are July 21. It took less than a month for them to shove this guy right out of office. He has no business being in office. But man, oh man, these democrats know how to fight. Do the Republicans? Are they ready?

Time will tell. Thank you for tuning in. We'll do it all over again tomorrow right here live on SiriusXM triumph Channel 111 via podcast and@YouTube.com Megyn Kelly thanks for listening to the Megyn Kelly show, no B's, no agenda and no fear.

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