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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Soon: Biden's High-Stakes News Conference; Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), Is Interviewed About Black Voters Support On Biden; Now: Pres. Biden Speaks At NATO Event On Ukraine Ahead Of Closely Watched News Conference Later.. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired July 11, 2024 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[17:01:02]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. Ahead, one of the most closely watched events of President Biden's entire five decade plus career. He is moments away from a news conference wrapping the NATO Summit. No script, no teleprompter, live, maybe he'll have some notes, but for sure, he will face a barrage of questions from a roomful of journalists, many of whom feel lied to.

The big question this hour, can this moment actually change any minds? What about for members of the Congressional Black Caucus? Many have been staunchly loyal to President Biden. I'll speak with a senior member coming up.

Plus, what Republicans will be looking for when President Biden speaks tonight. Could it change plans for their convention now just four days away? We're in touch with sources in the Republican Party. We'll get to all of it this hour. But let's start with CNN is MJ Lee at the White House.

MJ, bring us inside Biden's preparations for this news conference, which -- do I have this right? This is the first solo news conference of 2024?

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. He hasn't had a solo press conference since November. And you know, Jake, the president can say over and over again that his age is not an issue. But this really is, is such a big opportunity for him to really show that and prove his critics wrong. Certainly, we can't predict how many questions the President is going to take or what exactly the questions are going to be.

But I certainly expect that the age of his issue and his fitness to serve another four years is going to be a key theme. And sort of regardless of what exactly the questions are, that are asked to the President, this is his opportunity to really prove to everyone that is watching his theory of the case, and particularly why he believes that it needs to be him that is at the top of the Democratic ticket.

Now, one thing I do want to just note about the backdrop for this press conference being at the NATO summit, is that the President has said after the debate that he really blames his foreign travels leading up to the debate for why he performed so poorly. I had reported last week that he had privately told an ally, I have done way too much foreign policy. Well, here we are at a moment of real political peril for the president. And he has spent a lot of this week having to engage precisely on foreign policy.

TAPPER: MJ, you also have some new reporting on how frustrated and angry so many senior Democrats are about what they say was a coordinated effort among Biden's closest aides to hide his decline from the public and from Democrats, from elected officials. How is the White House responding to your reporting?

LEE: Yes, Jake, there's been a lot of shock, a lot of anger and really a lot of sadness since the President's debate performance. You know, we've heard from a lot of people who have basically said, look, we knew that the President is 81, we know that he has, of course, aged, he's not the same person that he was even a year ago and we've seen some of the signs. But what has been so striking is that so many people that we talked to said that they just did not recognize the President Biden that they had seen on the debate. And a lot of this anger is being directed at his inner circle of advisers and family. And a part of that anger is driven by the fact that so many of these Democrats say that the advisors are just so unwilling to accept and hear whenever they hear any of these concerns and criticism about his age.

This is what one top Democrat told me. They said, "Everyone who expresses any level of suspicion or contrary views? They call everyone and they beat the shit out of them and they say, "Stay on message." Now, obviously, that is a really heated quote, but we're highlighting it because it does just get at the level of anger that we have heard from so many Democrats across the party.

TAPPER: All right, MJ Lee, thanks so much.

Let's bring in our panel. And on that note, I want to share something with you all that a longtime Biden adviser just texted me, OK. It's a -- he's -- he or she said, quote, "I just think there's an unfortunate inevitability to all this. I am sad because I've known him a long time and he's a good man. I'm angry at his inner circle who have not served him well and at times committed malpractice in their service.

[17:05:00]

And I am frustrated at the family, the Biden family, for not expanding the circle so there would be at least a truth teller or two. In their midst, they created a perfect storm of an echo chamber, and it is biting them all in the ass." Again, as with MJ, apologies for the salty language, but this is the extent of the frustration.

Gloria, your reaction?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: My reaction is that that sounds like somebody who knows the family very well, and understands the situation very well, and cares for Biden very deeply, and believes that he has been cocooned in a detrimental way, and that it's hurting him.

TAPPER: Yes. Karen --

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

TAPPER: -- in just over an hour President Biden is going to address this -- the nation, the world, allies, but also an increasingly frustrated press corps --

FINNEY: Yes.

TAPPER: -- many of whom feel like the White House has been lying to them for at least months. They show them a video and they say, oh, that's a cheap fake. That's not even a real video. Turns out, some of them were real.

FINNEY: Yes. Look, it's going to be a tough press conference. No doubt. I hope they've prepared him for some of these really tough questions. Certainly the difference will be you won't have an opponent who is lies -- spewing lies that you're trying to track and figure out how you're going to fact check.

But no question, these are going to be tough questions for him. And he's going to have to have answers that are not defensive. From what I hear talking to the White House, he's going to try to make some news coming out of the NATO summit at the top. Unfortunately, that's not going to matter. And it will matter on the world stage, but unfortunately it will not matter in terms of our American news, because people are really interested in what does he say, how does he say it, how many questions, how long, and what's the tone.

And the unfortunate reality is, even if he does a great job, it may not matter.

TAPPER: Do you agree with that? Even if he comes out and he's the, you know, reincarnation of John F. Kennedy at his prime, like, it still ultimately doesn't matter, those 90 minutes exist the from the debate?

MARC LOTTER, FORMER TRUMP COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, and I also think too, just like the State of the Union address, he came out he delivered his speech, no major stumbles or gaps. And then a couple of days later, there's a stumble or a gap and the whole narrative kicks back up again. I'm just struck by the fact that it was two weeks ago tonight we were in Atlanta, you were preparing, we were all doing our thing, and here we are still talking about the exact same event. Two weeks is a lifetime in politics to not be on your message.

TAPPER: And Audie Cornish, the "New York Times" is reporting that a small group of Biden advisors are discussing how to convince him to step aside. They're testing Vice President Harris in polls, she, of course, was campaigning alongside North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper today. Big governor's race in North Carolina and a lot of Democrats in North Carolina are terrified that Biden is going to be a drag on the ticket and a rather extreme antisemitic candidate and a Mark Robinson is going to win of Lieutenant Governor because of Biden being a drag. Do you think that Harris, this right now what we're watching here is a tryout of sorts? She -- maybe she's been doing this the whole time, we just haven't been paying as much attention?

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean, vice presidency is a tryout by definition. So I don't think this particular moment is meaningful. But I do want to come back to something you said at the start of that question about this group that's coming together. We seem to know a lot about each and every one of these groups that come together or might come together or thinking about it. And it's almost like we're watching the permission, the permission structure being erected in real time.

And it went from being kind of a ramshackle house with a few people in it to now being like a pretty big building and everybody talking about it. And you had a congressperson on earlier, I believe was at Michigan or --

TAPPER: Michigan, from Western Michigan, which Democrats need to win.

CORNISH: It was a fantastic conversation, because she just said, look, I'm hearing from constituents.

TAPPER: Yes.

CORNISH: It's now a dereliction of my duty to not take their message and say it out loud. And I think that has changed so rapidly, like in the two weeks that you're talking about.

TAPPER: And Jeff, the quote that I read earlier from a longtime Biden adviser angry at the inner circle for committing malpractice, frustrated to the family, for not making sure that there was a truth teller in the midst of the circle, creating what he called a perfect storm of an echo chamber.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, I mean, that is something that a lot of Biden longtime loyalists wonder, how did it get to this. And in the story that MJ was talking about that we worked on together with our team, a person who also really thinks a lot of Biden told me this, there's a marked difference in the President from spring to summer. He's just not the same. So that is a question here. A, how long has this been going on inside the White House.

And B, why did they either, A, agree to an early debate, but also sort of put in this position. But now I mean, the reality here is that today felt different. Talking to a variety of people on the Hill, the Michigan, the congresswoman as you talk to, she's from Kent County, Grand Rapids. Trump won that in 16, Biden won in 20. That is the place we're all going to be looking at on election night.

[17:10:03]

But even if he has a great press conference, he hits it out of the park that does not quiet the concerns of former Speaker Pelosi and others who have really, you know, been saying let's wait until after NATO to make some decisions here. So tomorrow could be an even more important day than tonight. TAPPER: Yes, fascinating stuff. Everyone stick around. We're going to come back to this conversation as we get closer to the start of President Biden's news conference. We could see President Biden before that in a NATO event on Ukraine. Any minute we'll monitor that.

Bring it to you when it happens. I want to talk about this larger moment with a former spokesman for the Obama White House who now has a very big megaphone. Plus, what the Republican Party might be looking for as President Biden takes the stage tonight. We're back in a moment.

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TAPPER: 2024 lead, it is difficult to imagine a more critical press conference in the 54 years that Joe Biden has been in public service. The question of course might be is it even -- does it even matter? Is it too little too late to ease concern among diehard Democrats. Tommy Vietor joins us now. He's a former spokesperson for the Obama White House and National Security Council, also co-host of the popular podcast "Pod Save America."

Tommy, good to see you. What are you watching for tonight, when the President comes and takes questions from the press?

[17:15:00]

TOMMY VIETOR, HOST, "POD SAVE AMERICA": I mean I think you're right, Jake, like it's frustrating for anyone who had my job or works in the White House but I think a lot of this is going to be performance based. They're going to look for him to be sharp and have crisp answers and, you know, speak in depth on tough issues, and I'm sure it's going to be pretty combative. I mean, I have to imagine the press corps is going to come at him hard about, you know, questions about his fitness, his health, et cetera. So it should be tough.

TAPPER: People know what they saw at the debate two weeks ago. I mean, we all just witnessed it for 90 minutes. And I guess one of the questions -- I talked to a member of Congress who said that they thought it was an anomaly. They dealt with the President many times, and they thought that that performance was an anomaly. But it didn't matter because it's not like episodes like that are going to happen less frequently, less often.

And everybody saw it. Is it possible for the President to erase those impressions in any way?

VIETOR: I think it's very hard. And listen, I just want to say I think that Joe Biden has been a great president. And I think the NATO summit today is an example of exactly why. I mean, in 2019, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said NATO was brain dead. He was questioning the value of the organization.

And then Joe Biden, and his team did a masterful job of reenergizing NATO, pulling them together around the Russian invasion, and backing Ukraine. So like, he's been an incredible president. But I think the challenge now is that, you know, time comes for all of us, you know, at some point, you're just not capable of doing the things you did. And I think what he's asking voters to do, is to give him four more years in the most difficult job in the world. And my concern is that 70 to 80 percent of voters in this country don't believe that that is doable at this point.

And I think it's going to be very hard to convince people otherwise, once they've made that determination.

TAPPER: What would you like to see happen?

VIETOR: I would like to see President Biden sort of lead an effort to have something like a mini primary, where a number of candidates get to compete for the 4000 or so delicate at the Democratic Convention. I think it would be exciting and energizing. It would showcase the party, its youth, its diversity, its talent. And then we could figure it out in Chicago. I realized there's a lot of risk there.

Some people might call it Pollyannaish or Sorkin-esque. But you know, this is a, you know, this is a new situation that we're all in. And I think competition benefits to the party.

TAPPER: CNN has some new reporting that some high ranking Democrats are angry and stunned and blaming President Biden's closest advisors, saying that they've shielded from them, not to mention the public evidence and, you know, hiding efforts, hiding evidence of President Biden's decline. Your co-host, Jon Favreau was at a key fundraiser in Los Angeles, June 15, that sparked concerns among loyalists one cited by George Clooney in his op-ed yesterday. He said -- Clooney said, the Joe Biden that I saw at the fundraiser is the same one we all saw the debate. Here's what Jon Favreau had to say on your podcast, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON FAVREAU, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND FORMER OBAMA SPEECHWRITER: It was not surprising to any of us who were at the fundraiser, I was there, Clooney was exactly right. And every single person I talked to at the fundraiser thought the same thing except for, you know, the people working for Joe Biden, or at least I didn't say that. But I remember my wife, Emily, turned to me after the fundraiser and said, what are we going to do?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Were you there and how worried are you about the fact that the Democratic Party astoundingly right now seems like it's gaslighting a lot of people in the Democratic Party, seem like they're gaslighting the American people.

VIETOR: Yes, so I was at that fundraiser. I mean, I think what we all assumed -- I mean, President Biden had flown from, I think, the G7 in Italy directly to Los Angeles for this fundraiser. And he just -- he seemed exhausted. And I think we all walked out worried, you know, because we know how grueling a presidential campaign is and wondered about his ability to kind of run the kind of race he needs to run. Now, I would really need to see evidence of some sort of cover up before I'm willing to believe it. I think there's a lot of people around Joe Biden who are doing the best they can for him and just like trying to do their jobs. I think the decision to run again was Joe Biden's and Joe Biden's alone. I mean, I'm sure Joe Biden had some input, some family members had input, some advisors offered advice, but you know, Joe Biden made this call. And I think, you know, on a human level, I can understand why this man who wanted this job for decades and is objectively done a great job wanted another four years, but it's just the time catches up to you.

And like, as hard as that is for all of us as, you know, Democrats to talk about, admitting that to yourself is going to be even harder. So on a human level, I have a lot of sympathy for Joe Biden. On a political level, I'm just terrified about winning in the stakes of this election and the need to beat Donald Trump. And that's really all I care about.

[17:20:05]

TAPPER: Tommy Vietor, always good to see you. Thanks so much for your time today.

We're monitoring President Biden's next two appearances coming up at NATO, this event on Ukraine before his solo news conference a little later. We're also looking ahead to the Republican National Convention, which starts next week, Monday, and how all this attention on Biden could impact plans for Mr. Trump and his party.

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TAPPER: We continue counting down to President Biden's very significant news conference. The whole world will be watching, allies of the United States, enemies of the United States, and President Biden's Republican opponents. CNN's Phil Mattingly has been working his sources.

[17:25:05]

Thanks so much for joining us, Philip. What's the Trump campaign looking for in Biden's news conference? I assume mistakes, flubs.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sort of. It's interesting. I was calling it a prominent -- or talking to a prominent Trump surrogate just a couple of hours ago and kind of asked this exact question, and the first thing I got back via text was popcorn emoji. I think there's certainly some significant interest in watching it. But keep in mind, it's not necessarily something that campaign would want that just four months before an election they may have to totally change their strategy about who their opponent is going to be.

I think the best case scenario as it was laid out from the Trump campaign perspective, or from Republicans perspective, in terms of what would happen tonight, is nothing that is so dramatic to replicate what we saw during the debate, which they feel would speed up Democrats trying to get the President not to run, but nothing that totally turns the tide in terms of impression of who he is or how he is. Basically, they want everything in the Democratic Party to keep muddling along in the kind of intra party fratricide we've seen over the course of the last 12 or 13 days for as long as it possibly can.

TAPPER: Well, they're running against the right party. There -- what you're reporting squares exactly with what our friend Tim Alberta, writes in the Atlantic, he's been covering the Trump campaign for the last few months, he writes, "They know their campaign has been engineered in every way from the voters they target to the viral memes they create to defeat Biden. And privately, they're all but praying that he remains their opponent." So it's interesting, they -- I mean, I see them they're already attacking Kamala Harris, the Vice President and the rest. But the way Alberta describes it, they're not really ready to switch and go after anyone other than Biden, at least not on a dime.

MATTINGLY: Which I don't think would be is necessarily isolated to the Trump campaign in this specific scenario. Think about any campaign you've covered --

TAPPER: Right.

MATTINGLY: -- over every single cycle and what they would have to be dealing with if they thought midstream, four months before an election, they were about to get a new opponent. It would be a dramatic, unprecedented shift for an opposing campaign to actually deal with. Now, as you noted, the attacks on the vice president have significantly ramped up over the course of the last several days from Trump's advisors from surrogates around him and they believe on a messaging front, they will be able to attack similar messages that can tie her not just to the Biden policies that they feel like they can run against, but also her knowledge about anything that was going on behind the scenes that people hadn't seen until the debate beforehand. But there is a reality, they are running against an opponent who is historically lacking in approval inside the country who has had a really terrible last 14, 15 days. I mean they have crafted messages tailoring and targeting to defeat and to have that swapped out at the last minute would certainly be a shift that they weren't expecting.

TAPPER: So, looking ahead to the convention, Republican convention in Milwaukee starts on Monday, how is the schedule for the convention actually keeping up with events? Have they been rewriting the program to keep up with Biden's struggles?

MATTINGLY: You know, it's interesting, and you're a veteran of this process and you know any candidate going into an intervention. They want to keep a lot of stuff under wraps, they want a lot of surprises, they want to go for the drama, and the surprise, no one more so than the former president of the United States.

TAPPER: Sure.

MATTINGLY: There will certainly be shifts and references, I think in talking to people that are going to speak that we know up to this point. But I think what they want to focus on more than anything else, and whether or not their speakers will actually fall into line on this front, I think it's an open question. But they believe there's a contrast argument of are you better off now than you were four years ago? It sounds simple. It sounds kind of very normal politics that maybe you don't necessarily always attach to Trump and his team, but they know that that's the most effective thing at least in primetime when they know millions of people are watching.

Whether or not that will be delivered given people like Marjorie Taylor Greene will be speaking very much an open question. But what I've been told is real people with real stories that can kind of highlight things that they feel like are wrong on the policy front will actually be a focus whether or not their headliners can match that focus or distract from it. I think it's an open question.

TAPPER: Four years ago, not five years ago, because four years ago I was broadcasting from my garage because we were in the middle of a once in a century deadly pandemic.

MATTINGLY: Right. And I think the fact that I just somehow skipped over that underscores what has been a very real problem for the Biden campaign over the course of the last --

TAPPER: Right.

MATTINGLY: -- several years. Everybody seems to have blacked out that period of time. And before they could remind everybody, Joe Biden had a rather poor debate.

TAPPER: Yeah. He did. I saw it.

MATTINGLY: I've heard, yes.

TAPPER: Phil Mattingly, thanks so much.

Since the start of The Lead today, two more House Democrats, two additional ones are now calling on Biden to step aside in the 2024 race publicly. That makes the count on Capitol Hill 14 in total. I think when we started the day, it was 10, maybe. There is a large swath of the Democratic Party who do want Biden to stay the course, stay on the ticket. What a CNN correspondent who's been traveling across the country has been hearing from voters. That's next.

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[17:33:28]

TAPPER: Continuing our 2024 Lead, the presidential race is a state by state battle at the end of the day. And at this point polls from Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada are much more important than any national poll. But there is interesting content in those national polls. And if you dig deeper into the new ABC News/Washington Post Ipsos poll, which finds Biden and Trump statistically tied after their first debate, 67 percent of adults think Biden should step down. But black voters are more evenly split as David Chalian was noting earlier in the show, 47 percent say Biden should continue to campaign, 49 percent say he should step aside. CNN's Eva McKend is live for us in Greensboro, North Carolina, where the Vice President Kamala Harris, held a campaign event earlier today. Eva, today a group of African American faith leaders in Atlanta spoke in support of President Biden. I want to play a little bit of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BISHOP REGINALD JACKSON, AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH: We urge Democrats in this debate, let's unite as an army and support Joe Biden not because he's a Democrat but because between Trump and Biden, Biden is the best candidate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Is that similar to what you're hearing from voters as you travel the U.S.?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: It is, Jake. You know, I've been traveling with the Vice President. I was with her at the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Convention and the essence festival and what I can tell you this is not every black voter in America. But I do believe it is fairly instructive, is older black voters tell me they are sticking with Biden they are not ready to abandon him.

[17:35:11]

Younger voters, younger black voters show more of an openness for Vice President Harris to ascend to the top of the ticket. But that doesn't necessarily mean they think that Biden should be pushed or cast aside. Most consequentially, though, they tell me no matter if it is Biden or Harris come November, they will support either of them because they are most concerned about former President Donald Trump not getting reelected. Here's a little bit of what we heard today here in Greensboro.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACKIE WHITTAKER, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: I support what the President whatever decision he chooses to make. I support the ticket.

MCKEND: Tell me what do you make of these calls for President Biden to step aside, and for the Vice President to lead the ticket?

LOVE LEMON, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: I believe it'd be a good thing to do. I think that Kamala Harris is more than ready for that work. And I believe in the power that she has to take this country to this nation, to a level where it can be powerful in a way for minority people, structurally, systemically and institutionally.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCKEND: So Jake, that young woman there, she's an entrepreneur. And ultimately, she said, she would be more excited to vote for Harris come November. But if Biden stays on until the fall, she'll support him as well. And she cites this administration's policy on gun violence. So what you're hearing from these black voters is that they are really pragmatic. They see voting for a Democrat in the fall as a choice about policy more so than supporting President Biden in particular, Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Eva McKend, thank you so much.

Let's bring in Congressman Emanuel Cleaver. He's a Democrat from the great state of Missouri, and he's a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. We're moments away from President Biden's press conference, rather high stakes. What are you going to be looking for?

REP. EMANUEL CLEAVER (D-MO): Well, I think the President is obviously going to have to demonstrate rather clearly and cleanly, that he is able to prosecute the case against Donald Trump. Look, this thing is about winning. And we believe that it is one of the most dangerous moments in the history of the United States, maybe since the Civil War. And so the President's got to come in and let people know I'm ready to do this. And he's got he's got to be clear.

And I'm pulling for him, because I love Joe Biden. He has been perhaps the most significant President in terms of accomplishments during my lifetime. And maybe LBJ would be close and FDR for my parents, but this man has to win if he's going to go ahead in this campaign.

TAPPER: Are you convinced that he's the best candidate to beat Donald Trump? I mean, I've seen polling and there was a CNN poll, a week ago, the The Washington Post/ABC News Ipsos poll today, both of these polls, and I'm referring to, show Vice President Harris actually doing better in a head to head matchup against Donald Trump.

CLEAVER: Well, you just hit it on the head. Here's the deal, the President said he is already made the decision on what he wants to do. But the President has to come to the conclusion, I believe that he is the best person to be on the ticket, and that his presence on the ticket moves it toward winning, and his absence would cause the ticket to go down. Someone used the term pragmatic a few minutes ago, that's where we are.

More and more people, unfortunately, because I really respect the President are coming out against him continuing my colleagues. And I think that we ought to give the President all of the chance that we -- that is practical for him to win over the public, win over my constituents. I had a meeting earlier today with the labor leaders in Kansas and Missouri, my district, and they were saying, we're ready to go, we want to go.

But they said we want to win. You know, either out of fear or love, fear of Donald Trump or love of Joe Biden. A victory has to take place in November.

TAPPER: The Congressional Black Caucus has come out in support of President Biden, but I wonder, is every single member of the CBC 100 percent behind President Biden, I have to say, what I'm hearing from you, sir, is along the lines of if he's the best one to win, great, but I -- you're still waiting for evidence that he is. CLEAVER: Well, what I'm saying is that I would love for Joe Biden to be at the head of this ticket. I want him. I think all of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus would want that to take place. But I know experientially that's what we are looking for right now is the Joe Biden that we all know and love that we've worked with over the years, who's been on our side over the years in terms of civil rights issues.

[17:40:18]

And if that's the Biden shows up tonight, in a news conference, and that's the Joe Biden that continues to walk out and campaign, like he's, you know, he has not to be a 32-year-old campaign, but he's got to have some energy and strength to convince, not just us in the Congressional Black Caucus, but our children.

And I can tell you, we're struggling out here with the younger people, that's not just African Americans, it's all across the board. And so that's the herculean task for the President. I hate to put that on his back. But I love him. I would love to be at his inauguration. But I tell you what, that the likelihood that some other person would stand there is chilling, and that and that alone would cause me and others to probably be a little flexible.

TAPPER: All right, flexibility, perhaps from Congressman Emanuel Cleaver from Missouri, thank you so much, sir.

Coming up next, a must see moment with a Democratic governor when she was asked about Biden's situation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Coming up right now, ahead of the President's news conference. He's speaking at a NATO event on Ukraine. Let's listen in.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- Ukraine with the weapons and munitions and training they need to repel Russian forces.

In the medium term, we'll help build a future force that has the strength and the capabilities both to defend Ukraine and deter further aggression.

In the long term, after this war is over, if Putin ever tries it again, all the countries that endorsed the compact have pledged to have Ukraine's back just like we have it now.

You heard me say it before, we're building a bridge to NATO for Ukraine, a pathway leading to an eventual membership as they continue to implement important domestic reforms.

This compact, which is on the stage here, is a central piece of that bridge. What happens to Ukraine matters. It matters to all of Europe. It matters to NATO. Quite frankly, it matters to the whole world.

We're united against Putin's senseless and brutal war. We are united behind Ukraine as it fights to defend its freedom and its future. We're united behind a vision of the world where free countries like Ukraine do not have to fear aggression from a brutal tyrant next door.

I want to commend Ukrainian armed forces, as their defense secretary and leaders are here as well, and the Ukrainian people. You're incredible. And through all of your country, you're incredible, their courage, the determination, the sacrifices they've made.

And I commend all the nations that stepped up when it counted to stand with Ukraine. As I've said before, Russia will not prevail in this war. Ukraine will prevail in this war. And we will stand with them every single step of the way.

That's what the compact says loudly and clearly. And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination.

[17:45:07]

Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin -- President Putin -- he's going to beat President Putin, President Zelenskyy. I'm so focused on beating Putin, we got to worry about it. Anyway, Mr. President.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I'm better.

BIDEN: You are a hell of a lot better.

ZELENSKYY: Thank you so much, Mr. President. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Mr. President. Dear our friends, friends of Ukraine, last year at the NATO Summit in Vilnius, we took a very strong step with a G7 declaration on security for Ukraine, for Ukrainian people. And we did not waste time, and now we have a solid architecture of security guarantees.

I thank President Biden for his leadership and all the efforts to make our security cooperation full of strong actions. There are 23 strong agreements, and there will be agreements with other countries. And we have a historically significant security agreement with the United States.

All of these helped us obtain the necessary air defense systems. Thanks to America and to all the partners, to all the leaders and your societies, your people, of course. And thanks to all partners for the Patriots and other air defense systems, provision of F-16s, and assistance so that our people and our country could withstand Russian attacks on our energy sector as well as training, cybersecurity, intelligence cooperation, and the development of the defense industry.

This --

TAPPER: All right, that's Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking at the NATO Summit, President Biden's next public event will be the closely watched news conference, just -- that's just moments away. And let's bring the panel along -- panel back along with CNN's Kaitlan Collins. And Kaitlan, we have to acknowledge that at this high stakes moment, President Biden, first of all, introduced President Zelenskyy as President Putin, A, but then B, did catch himself and quickly recover but still not a wonderful time to make a gaffe like that.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it took him two seconds to correct it. And obviously President Zelenskyy also made a joke about it. But I mean, people can see the sensitivity of that. But this is what I've been hearing from the President's allies and advisers all day long, which is that this press conference coming up is going to be just as scrutinized is that moment was just there where essentially, every single thing he says is going to be under so much more scrutiny than any press conference, any statement he's ever given before.

It reminds me of when he came back to the White House late after the Robert Hur special counsel's report came out where it described Biden as this old man with an ailing memory and was talking about that -- what that was like, Biden came out to defend himself against that and ended up mixing up the names of two other world leaders. And that was kind of a headline coming out of that because it spoke to that moment.

And so this is what they are bracing for. And what this press conference and the unknown of what this is going to look like is for anyone to mix up names. I mean, obviously we've seen former President Donald Trump do the exact same thing on multiple occasions. I was personally witnessing it when he was inside the White House. They know that that is going to be a dynamic of this press conference tonight.

TAPPER: Yes. And Gloria, the White House says they're done. They're done talking about calls on President Biden to dropout.

BORGER: They're not done. Yes.

TAPPER: but the calls keep coming. There have been several House Democrats that have come forward. Today, we booked a Congresswoman Scholten earlier, when we booked her she was the latest by the time she showed up here. She was not the latest, Congressman Schneider had and she was barely off the set when another house Democrat called on President Biden to step down. Where do we go from here?

BORGER: Well, there's nothing they can do first of all, to stop that, particularly since I think Nancy Pelosi gave everyone a permission slip to continue to talk about it. Biden said he's done. And Nancy Pelosi said given more time even though Biden said, I'm running and so she gave everyone that permission slip and they're and they're using it. And I think that obviously everything tonight is going to be scrutinized.

But the Democrats that I've been talking to who are skeptical, are saying what do we expect? Do we expect a different Joe Biden tonight than we've seen recently? I mean, you know, he's not aging backwards like Benjamin Button. He is who he is.

[17:50:08]

TAPPER: Right.

BORGER: And --

TAPPER: That would be something. BORGER: That would be something. But to see -- but so what do we expect this evening?

FINNEY: You know, I wonder if that is part of why we are seeing these stories this afternoon of, you know, the rats off the sinking ship. You pick your metaphor, right? Because there's so much pressure on President Biden, there's no way he's going to be putting it all on his shoulders. And so what you're seeing is people kind of pointing the fingers at each other so that if it doesn't go well, which there's no way it's going to meet expectations, they can say not that I wasn't the one, I wasn't the person. And that's really shameful. And that's a disservice to him.

TAPPER: Mark, I want to get your reaction. Democrats are trying to deal with this in a way that is not insulting to President Biden, but also not dishonest. Here's a moment from last night Stephen Colbert had on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer often talked about a possible presidential contender. And he asked how she viewed the debate. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, TELEVISION HOST: What was your reaction? Did you -- were you just like, you know what, stay the course, it doesn't matter. Full speed ahead, Joe, or did it give you pause at all?

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): I like your tie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: But it was not a particularly subtle attempt to change the subject.

LOTTER: No. Right. I mean, look, I think with all the Democrats right now, they just want to move the chains. If we can get to Monday, if we can get you past the Sunday shows, when the focus should shift to the RNC and Donald Trump and maybe taking the spotlight off of us for a few days. We can regroup and figure out what to do.

TAPPER: So Audie, the CBC, the Congressional Black Caucus, has been very much behind President Biden, but we just had on Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, from Missouri, and even he was saying, you know, he wants to work for Biden, but he mentioned here that he could see, quote, flexibility.

CORNISH: Well, he also got the same permission slip right that Nancy Pelosi put out Hakeem Jeffries coming out. And basically saying --

TAPPER: But he doesn't need it. He's in a safe seat.

CORNISH: No, I think it's a little different. They have a long running relationship with the Biden White House, right? And I don't think there's any conversation that happens with Biden, that isn't actually going to have something to do with some of the members there, but they're also quite senior. So saying that they necessarily reflect like the black population as a whole is probably not correct. But what they do reflect is a like, sort of die hard Democrat leadership constituency that has always been supportive of the White House, and if he loses that it will be notable.

TAPPER: All right, everyone, stick around, we're going to squeeze in a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:56:26]

TAPPER: Back with more in our 2024 Lead. And we're standing by of course for President Biden's high stakes news conference just moments away. My panel is back with me. And Jeff, you and MJ Lee and some other excellent CNN reporters wrote a great story about how angry senior Democrats are with Biden's inner circle. They think that he has -- they have hidden from them, not just the American people, but from them, how much President Biden has deteriorated. MJ Lee earlier in the show noted this is President but we're in July, and it's this is his first solo news conference this year. And I learned from your story. How the last time that there was a full cabinet meeting.

ZELENY: The full cabinet meeting, the last one was last October about nine months ago, which is --

TAPPER: That's stunning.

ZELENY: It is stunning. Look, and we looked back at previous the President's Cabinet meetings often our first show, but that's the point. Bring your cabinet together. That has not happened. And we learned that I was talking with a cabinet secretary who I asked how is the President doing and this cabinet secretary said I don't know. We never see him.

TAPPER: Yes.

ZELENY: And then so then I checked and asked when the last cabinet meeting was, I've been on the road for the last several months. I don't cover the White House day to day anymore. And that was striking. But even more striking talking to you a variety of people who are very senior jobs in the West Wing, they haven't seen him as much either. He's not a President who walks the hallways like Donald Trump used to do, Barack Obama used to do having meetings and things. He has a very tight circle around him, but talking to people as well.

They're all -- everyone is trying to figure out sort of when did things change with him? And it was 112 days between his State of the Union and the debate in Atlanta. And during that 112 days did something changed and his condition change? It's an answer, we don't know. But it's something people are talking about a lot. And then something sort of accelerated to look him.

COLLINS: And what people are going to be looking for tonight is making the case to stay in this race. And they -- what we've heard overwhelmingly from Democrats is they don't feel like they've done that. And when his campaign aides were dispatched to go talk to Senate Democrats today, they didn't come out of that room overwhelmingly feeling like they did either.

I talked to a Senator who was in the room who said, a lot of us were voicing concern that he has the energy to stay in the race. They were talking about cognitive ability, but just the energy and the stamina to be in a presidential race, which obviously, Jeff, you've been on the road. It's incredibly grueling for anyone, much less, someone who's 81 years old. And so that was their concern. They did not get the numbers or the, you know, precise information, making them feel reassured in that --

TAPPER: We keep hearing, Gloria, from Democrats who are allied with him, Senator Chris Coons and others. Well, we just need to see him. I've been telling the campaign that he needs to go out there and demonstrate an ability to take an hour and a half worth of questions. Forget reporters, you don't like reporters fine. And when I suggest this, I get nasty, nasty tweets, fine, an hour and a half of a town hall with voters, right?

BORGER: He used to do regularly.

TAPPER: Which he used to do. And let him do that. I'm going to demonstrate that. But I almost feel like when they say this, they know he won't do it. I don't -- do you know what I mean? Like, I almost feel like they're saying it knowing that he can't meet that. And that in itself is kind of just telling.

BORGER: I think they're trying to suggest it to let people know what we could do, we could do that if we wanted to. And you'll recall in previous campaigns, even in the last one, before the pandemic in 20, you know, you saw Biden out there doing town halls because his staff thought he was great at town halls.

TAPPER: Yes. So --

BORGER: Not any more.

[18:00:00]

TAPPER: -- that was then. Everyone thanks so much. Join Kaitlan Collins for coverage after the news conference on The Source. That's tonight at 9 o'clock Eastern here on CNN. That show was one year and one day old as of right now. Happy Birthday Kaitlan.

This major programming note, tomorrow my one on one with the brand new U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, look out for that right here on The Lead starting at 4 o'clock Eastern. If you ever miss an episode of The Lead, you can listen to the show all two hours once you get your podcasts. The news continues now on CNN.