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Democrats Panic Over Biden's Debate Performance, Doubt His Future; Trump Claims He Could End Ukraine War Before January If Re- Elected; Kamala Harris Reacts To President Biden's Debate Performance; Analysis of Presidential Debate; Democrats Concerned about Biden's Debate Performance; Biden's Problem with Pro-Palestinian Young Voters. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired June 28, 2024 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[01:00:24]
ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming on CNN Max. I'm Anna Coren.
Well, democratic sources are telling CNN they have major concerns about Joe Biden's performance in his first presidential debate of 2024 with Donald Trump. The candidates squared off at CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. The President appeared to stumble over his words and lose his train of thought on several occasions.
Well, CNN analysts point out that Donald Trump was often less than truthful and frequently avoided answering the moderator's questions.
Trump repeatedly hammered President Biden on immigration, which he says is ruining the country. And he said runaway inflation is killing people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: We had an economy that was in freefall, the pandemic was so badly handled, many people were dying, all he said was not that serious. Just inject a little bleach in your arm, you'll be alright. Economy collapsed, or no jobs. Unemployment rate rose to 50 percent. It was terrible.
And so what we had to do is try to put things back together again, that's exactly what we began to do. We created 15,000 new jobs. We brought out in a position where we have 800,000 new manufacturing jobs. But there's more to be done.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: We have the greatest economy in the history of our country. We have never done so well. Everybody was amazed by it. Other countries were copying us. We got hit with COVID. And when we did, we spent the money necessary. So we wouldn't end up in a Great Depression, the likes of which we had in 1929. We had given them back a country where the stock market actually was
higher than pre-COVID. And nobody thought that was even possible. The only jobs he created are for illegal immigrants and bounced back jobs have bounced back from the COVID. He has not done a good job. He's done a poor job and inflation is killing our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Let's get more now on the debate from CNN's Jen Sullivan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JENN SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): In an historic debate, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump going head to head in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle hosted by CNN in Atlanta Thursday, the candidates taking the stage without shaking hands.
For 90 minutes, the two leaders squaring off laying out their plans on key issues like the economy and job creation.
BIDEN: We created 15,000 new jobs. We brought out in a position where we have 800,000 new manufacturing jobs. But there's more to be done.
TRUMP: I gave you the largest tax cut in history. I also gave you the largest regulation cut in history. That's why we had all the jobs.
SULLIVAN (voice-over): Both candidates agreeing to certain rules like appearing at a uniform podium and muted mics, so only one candidate could be heard at a time. At some points, intense exchanges.
TRUMP: I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said either.
BIDEN: My son was not a loser was not a sucker. You're the sucker. You're the loser.
SULLIVAN (voice-over): Voters got a sense of where the candidates stand on important issues like immigration.
TRUMP: You open the borders, nobody's ever seen anything like and we have to get a lot of these people out. And we have to get them out fast, because they're going to destroy our country.
BIDEN: When he was president, he was taking separating babies from their mothers put him in cages, making sure that none of the families are separated. That's not the right way to go.
SULLIVAN (voice-over): In their vision for abortion access.
TRUMP: Right now the states control it. That's the vote of the people.
BIDEN: The idea that states are able to do this as a little like saying we're going to turn civil rights back to the states, let each state have a different rules. SULLIVAN (voice-over): If reelected, President Biden would end his
presidency 86 and Trump would be 82, age has been a central issue for voters.
BIDEN: This guy is three years younger and a lot less competent.
TRUMP: I took two tests, cognitive tests, I aced them.
SULLIVAN (voice-over): I'm Jenn Sullivan reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN: Well, joining me now from Atlanta, CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona and CNN, senior political commentator and conservative columnist Scott Jennings. Maria, Scott, great to have you both with us.
Maria, let's start with you. Did we just witness a train wreck for President Joe Biden?
MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it certainly wasn't a great night for the President. I think his supporters and certainly Democrats around the country would have hoped he would have had a stronger performance.
[01:05:00]
He started very weak. He did get better throughout. But, you know, I think that there's one thing that we need to point out. I was doing analysis for CNN Espanol tonight pre and post. And so our audience, along with the audience of Univision and Telemundo, which are the other big networks that transmit in Spanish, we had translators during the debate.
And so they didn't really hear all of the fits and starts at the very beginning that the president had was not very obvious when he lost his train of thought. The majority of the viewers who saw it on CNN Espanol thought President Biden had won.
And so I think that what that tells us is that from a substantive standpoint, the president did a great job in communicating his positive vision for the country, what he wants to continue to do to make sure that this economy is felt by everyone.
And Donald Trump, what he did was every single thing that came out of his mouth was a lie. And from the standpoint of especially immigrants and the immigrant community and Latinos in this country, it was incredibly offensive because the way that he would paint with a broad brush equating migrants with being violent criminals was just very offensive to so many people who saw that.
And so I think that in that sense, president or Donald Trump did not do himself any favors either. I think at the end of the day, it's going to be a wash.
COREN: Well, the polls, CNN polls straight after the debate would indicate that Donald Trump won the election by a significant margin.
CARDONA: The debate.
COREN: Scott, did Donald Trump, I beg you, the debate, Scott, did Donald Trump cover himself in, I'm getting ahead of myself. Did Donald Trump cover himself in glory?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He had some good moments on a few issues. I do think he was somewhat negative throughout the debate. I think at some point he probably should have realized that Joe Biden had lost the debate in terms of image and how people were sort of viewing them on the split screen. And he could have turned the page and been more optimistic about the future of the country. But that's really a secondary issue.
The main issue for this debate for now and for all time is going to be that most people who watched it are going to be in shock about what they saw from the commander in chief of the United States. Our president appeared to be somewhat unwell tonight. I mean, remember, he's not just a candidate. We're analyzing the politics of this. He's the current sitting president of the United States. We're the most important country in the world. He's our president.
And the performance he turned in tonight not only, in my opinion, calls into question what he's going to be able to do in this campaign, but it really calls into question what he's doing today. And really, I mean, if you were wondering can he serve another four years, most folks didn't think so before tonight. There's nobody out there that thinks he could serve four years after tonight. So it's really not a night for glee.
As a Republican, you know, commentator on the political side, I'm somewhat concerned about the president. And that's what I was hearing from people across the country, from both parties.
COREN: Maria, there was a lot of anxiety among Democrats leading up to the debate that appears to have turned into panic. Do you feel that everyone needs to take a beat, you know, let the dust settle, or does the Democratic Party have a serious problem?
CORDONA: No, I agree with you that I do think we need to take a beat. And look, there's no question that it was not a good night tonight for President Biden. And of course, Democrats are nervous. You know, it would be silly to try to deny that he had an off night.
And to Scott's point, I am told by the campaign that he was sick, he was coming off of a cold, and that was kind of obvious to, and so that was, you know, part of the reason why he coughed and he was speaking in such a low tone, and he sort of trailed off.
So again, not a good look, especially for what the president was trying to avoid, which is exactly the image that he was too old to take on another four years.
But I do think we need to take a beat. I do think we need to take a couple of days, maybe even a couple of weeks to see how this is going to sink in with voters, because like I said before, the substance of it really hasn't changed.
This is still a contrast between a president who has delivered massive accomplishments, that there's no question that more needs to be done so that everyone feels those accomplishments and the robust economy versus a former president who when he was in office, the only thing he delivered was chaos, confusion, criminality and corruption, and who is currently a 34 times convicted felon.
[01:10:05]
I don't think that you're going to have massive excitement among the American people, even after tonight to pull the lever for a convicted criminal to choose him as the next President of the United States. So this thing is not over by a longshot. It is June, it's not October.
COREN: Sure.
CARDONA: And so there is still a lot of time.
COREN: Yes. But I question whether the damage is done, you know, Biden needed to look energetic, he needed to prove that he had the stamina to do the job for the next four years. And sure, he might have been coming off a cold, but he is the leader of the free world.
And he clearly failed to achieve that objective of convincing voters that he is up for the job will tough conversations now be had with President Biden within the Democratic Party, within his closest advisors within his family.
JENNINGS: I don't know whether his advisors or other political people can have an impact on him. I mean, I think it's unlikely that he will personally decide to step aside after one debate performance, but it is quite obvious, just listening to the reaction of my Democratic friends in the United States tonight, that there is a panic in the party, because when you when you think about the way they've positioned this campaign, it's that Donald Trump, they say, is an existential threat to democracy, that he wants to be a dictator, that he'll in the Constitution, that he'll do all these terrible things.
And so if you believe that, if you believe all the things you're saying out loud, I think what Democrats are saying tonight is we may have a moral responsibility to try to get a different nominee. Again, I find this to be pretty unlikely. So let's look at the political situation.
Before we started tonight, Joe Biden had a 38 percent approval rating, you know, pretty close race nationally, but Donald Trump is winning in all the swing states. None of that got better for Joe Biden tonight. The thing that's weighing down his candidacy the most before tonight was people just don't think he could do the job. But he's too old. That obviously got worse tonight.
He was kind of up to here in the quicksand when we started. Now he's up to here. And when you get up to here, it's game over. I know, it's only June. But remember, the reason we had this debate is because Joe Biden wanted it. His campaign wanted it. And I think his advisors and his campaign have a lot of explaining to do to their party tonight for putting him on that stage in this condition. They did themselves no favors.
COREN: Maria, of course, there's supposed to be a second debate. But we don't know if Trump will turn up for that, considering he probably thinks he's got this in the bag. But will Biden get another shot at this to resurrect his image in the eyes of voters?
CARDONA: Well, we'll see. You know, I think you're right, that we don't really know, because this campaign has been unlike anything we have seen before. The normal rules do not apply for sure. And so I think that still remains to be seen.
I think what you're going to see from here on out from the Biden campaign and from President Biden is he's going to hit the ground running campaigning tomorrow. He's going to go out there, and he's going to talk to voters. And let's remember that is actually what matters, his one on one with voters, his conversations with the people that he has needs to continue to convince that he is up for the job that he has delivered for them and wants to continue to deliver for them.
And that, frankly, the contrast that you saw today, regardless of how badly Joe Biden looked, the contrast in terms of the visions and the policies, is still I think a contrast that is good for the Democrats and good for President Biden. And that is the only thing that Donald Trump proves day after day after day is that he is in this for himself. He only fights for himself. He wants more power for the sake of having power. He needs to be elected in order to stay out of prison. He has no interest whatsoever in fighting for the American people.
And fighting for the American people is what Joe Biden wakes up every day to do and what he wants to continue to do for another four years. We'll see if he can convince the American people that he is still the fighter that they want for them.
COREN: Scott got some analysts would argue that Trump was given 90 minutes to espouse lie after lie after lie. There was no fact checking. That was part of the debate rules agreed to by both teams, but by not being able to call Trump out on his lies. Was that a mistake?
JENNINGS: Well, I mean, the rules are the rules and both campaigns agreed to it. And I think both candidates actually did have some back and forth, you know, trying to fact check each other.
But look, you know, Joe Biden has a responsibility here.
[01:15:00]
He's a candidate. And the responsibility of either of them is to try to conduct themselves in the debate on the ground that's firmus for them. If you're unhappy that Donald Trump got away with something or that he appeared to do better than you wanted him to do or whatever any of that if you're somebody that was it and had that impulse. Don't be upset with CNN, don't be upset with anybody except for Joe Biden, it's Joe Biden's job to have a better debate than his opponent.
The one issue that to me just shocked me. The issue that is best ground for Democrats is abortion. It's the best issue Biden has. They're obviously going to run on it. They're running on it right now. And when given the chance to articulate the Democratic position on it, he totally whiffed on it tonight, and I think totally failed to articulate on the most important topic when it comes to keeping his base together.
So look, whatever Donald Trump did or didn't do, whatever honest statements or dishonest statements he made, the focus right now is on Biden, all the pressure was on him to have a good night and change the trajectory of his campaign.
At a minimum, he didn't change the trajectory and at a worse -- in a worse scenario, he may have made it impossible for him to come back against Donald Trump. I know it's only June, but these guys are well defined. And the opinions are pretty well set out there. And what little opinion that was left to change, I think is probably going to break against the president.
COREN: We're going to have to leave it there. But Maria Cardona, Scott Jennings, we appreciate your analysis and your time. Thank you so much.
CARDONA: Thanks so much.
JENNINGS: Thank you.
COREN: Well, foreign policy made up a significant portion of the debate, the conflict in Gaza was addressed, as well as Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If we had a real precedent, the President that knew that was respected by Putin, he would have never -- he would have never invaded Ukraine. A lot of people are dead right now, much more than people know. You know, they talk about numbers, you can double those numbers, maybe triple those numbers. He did nothing to stop it.
BIDEN: If you take a look at what Trump did in Ukraine, he's this guy told Ukraine, he told Trump, do whatever you want to do whatever you want. And that's exactly what Trump did to Putin, encourage it, do whatever you want. And he went in and listen to what he said when he went in. We're going to take Kyiv five days remember, because it's part of the old Soviet Union.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: We're now joined by CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger. He is also the New York Times White House national security correspondent. David, great to see you. We will discuss foreign policy a lot to unpack there. But firstly, your impressions of Biden and Trump's performance. DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So the foreign policy issues, you know, weren't a surprise. What was the surprise, of course, was the President's performance and even his ability to articulate his own foreign policy positions. He was meandering from the start. The raspy voice, the result of a cold, we're told by the White House didn't help.
But what really surprised me was that after six or so days in Camp David, with preparation, resting up for this and practicing some good, crisp answers to some relatively predictable questions, the President simply was unable to sort of stay focused, stay on it, and deliver that the way I think those who are preparing him for the debate, hoped he would deliver them.
COREN: Were you shocked?
SANGER: I was pretty surprised at the beginning of the in the first few minutes, and I thought, well, he's off to a rough start. And I think he did improve some as time went on. But this is one of those moments where I suspect the performance of the President will be remembered long after the substance of what they said, is forgotten. And that's in some ways unfair.
President Trump told a number of untruths, and he certainly told mischaracterized a range of issues, starting with the one that you showed where he said, you know, Putin went into Ukraine because he didn't have any respect for Biden. I don't I tried this had very much to do with who was in the Oval Office at all.
But I don't think people are going to reach that. They will remember this evening, for the comparison of how they performed and even if the former President Trump was telling lies, stories, misleading tales, things we've heard him say before. He sounded like he was holding on to a more coherent narrative that I think President Biden sounded as if he was holding on to.
[01:20:06]
COREN: David on the issue of Ukraine, Trump said that he could have this solved, you know, war over before he steps back into the White House. How do you think Ukrainian president Zelenskyy and NATO would be feeling, the leaders of NATO would be feeling right now?
SANGER: Well, first of all, Mr. Trump, once again, didn't say how he would solve this. He did say he would solve it as President Elect, which would raise the question of whether or not he would be violating a series of U.S. laws that basically protect -- it makes sure that we have one President at a time.
But let's set that aside for a moment. It sure sounded as if the only way he could solve this quickly, would be giving Putin the land he has already seized roughly 20 percent of the country. But he didn't quite say that. He simply made it sound like the respect that foreign leaders have for him will make it possible for him to negotiate a deal. Well, if that was the case, why couldn't he do it during the previous
four years when he was in office, and when certainly there was a low level war underway in Ukraine, one that he did very little to try to stop.
COREN: A lot certainly was said in that 90 minutes, which unfortunately was not live fact checks. But David Sanger, no doubt you will do some of that in your analysis in the coming days. David Sanger. Good to see you.
SANGER: We are indeed. Good to see you.
COREN: Good to see you. Well, after the break, Joe Biden's vice president defends his debate performance since leaving others reportedly panicked. More on that next.
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COREN: Donald Trump facing off in an historic debate. Well, afterwards Biden's vice president of Kamala Harris spoke with CNN's Anderson Cooper and defended the President's performance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's John King has described panic inside the Democratic Party right now because the President Biden's performance in tonight's debate. He's been hearing from Democratic lawmakers and others around the country. Some within your own party are wondering if President Biden should even step aside. What do you say to that?
KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Listen, first of all, what we saw tonight is the President making a very clear contrast with Donald Trump on all the issues that matter to the American people. Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish. And what became very clear through the course of the night is that Joe Biden is fighting on behalf of the American people on substance, on policy, on performance.
[01:25:07]
Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong. And as a fact --
COOPER: But I'm sorry, on substance and policy and performance, I mean his -- the President's performance tonight clearly was disappointing for his supporters. CNN is reporting Democratic lawmakers watching the debate. We're worried about the President's performance. One said it was a disaster and other called it a train wreck. Those are Democrats, especially worried that Biden did not punch back on Trump's lies.
HARRIS: Listen, people can debate on style points. But ultimately, this election and who is the president of the United States has to be about substance. And the contrast is clear. Look at what happened during the course of the debate. Donald Trump lied over and over and over again, as he has want to do.
He would not disavow what happened on January 6. He would not give a clear answer on whether he would stand by the election results this November. He went back and forth about where he stands on one of the most critical issues of freedom in America, which is the right of women to make decisions about their own body.
He has been completely ambiguous and all over the place about where he stands on that issue, despite the fact that he had selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade. And that's exactly what they did. And just three years ago, we commemorated the two year anniversary of dots, where in women across our country had been denied emergency health care.
COOPER: All that may be true. All that may be true. But the President is not unable to put make that case to Donald Trump on the stage tonight. I mean, you debated against then-Vice President Trump of, excuse me, Vice President Biden, four years ago, and he was a very different person on the stage four years ago, when you debated him, you must -- I mean, that that's certainly true, is it not?
HARRIS: Anderson, the point has to be performance in terms of what a president does.
COOOPER: But that would scary for people watching this.
HARRIS: A president would fight for insurrection against the Capitol. But I got the point that you're making about one and a half hour debate tonight, I'm talking about three and a half years of performance in work that has been historic.
COOPER: But is that man what we saw a guy from the stage tonight, is that the person you see in meetings everyday?
HARRIS: Whether it be infrastructure, the former guy, the other guy -- the other guy on the debate stage -- the person that you saw in the debate stage that has for the last three and a half years up until today, performed in a way that has been about whether it be in the Oval Office, negotiating bipartisan deals, so that we have an infrastructure, a real infrastructure plan, where we're putting trillions of dollars on the streets of America to upgrade our infrastructure, whether it be the person I see in the Oval Office, who is meeting with heads of the military and the intelligence community, and in the Situation Room, ensuring the safety of America.
The person I see in Joe Biden on the world stage convening world leaders who often ask for his advice, most recently, just during the G7 conference, so I'm not going to spend all night with you talking about the last 90 minutes when I've been watching the last three and a half years of performance.
COOPER: But this was a debate that your campaign wanted. You push for this debate at this moment, obviously, I mean, you can't honestly say, I mean, can you say that you are not concerned at all, having watched the President's performance tonight?
HARRIS: It was a small start. That's obvious to everyone. I'm not going to debate that point. I'm talking about the choice in November. I'm talking about one of the most important elections in our collective lifetime. And do we want to look at what November will bring and go on a course for America. That is about a destruction of democracy, electing a man who has said he'll be a dictator on day one. Or do we want to continue on a course that's about strengthening America's economy, building and creating 15 million American jobs over 800,000 manufacturing jobs.
I got that this is the after play for the debate, this conversation that I'm in, and I understand why everyone wants to talk about it. But I think it's also important to recognize that the choice in November between these two people that were on the debate stage involves extraordinary stakes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: That was Joe Biden's V.P. Kamala Harris with CNN's Anderson Cooper following the debate. After the break, we'll have even more analysis on this historical is essential debate. That's next.
[01:29:50]
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COREN: Welcome back.
Well, Joe Biden and Donald Trump returned to the stage a few hours ago for a CNN-hosted debate that marked the most pivotal moment yet in a neck and neck election.
The showdown was President Joe Biden's best chance to inject some vigor into the reelection bid that he's in deep danger of losing. But he was not able to do that. Advisors tell us that he's under the weather and battling a cold, which is why his voice sounded horse and raspy.
At times, he seemed shaky, and incoherent, and lost his train of thought.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a thousand trillionaires in America -- I mean billionaires in America and what's happening? They're in a situation where they've back pay 8.2 percent in taxes.
If they just paid 24 percent, 25 percent, either one of those numbers, they'd raise $500 million -- billion dollars, I should say, in a ten- year period. We'd be able to write wipe out this debt. We'd be able to help make sure that all those things we need to do -- childcare, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system, making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the with the COVID -- excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with a look if we finally beat Medicare.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Thank you, President Biden. President Trump. DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, he's right.
He did beat Medicaid -- beat it to death, and he's destroying Medicare to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: To be clear, despite his unsteady performance, President Biden was still able to land some blows, at one point accusing former President Trump, a convicted felon, of having, having the morals of an alley cat.
[01:34:44]
COREN: Trump, who communicated much more clearly, issued a staggering number of false claims or outright lies depending on how you see it while refusing to disavow the violent January 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol
Well, CNN political director David Chalian has the results of a flash poll of debate watchers. It asked who they thought would win the debate and then who did win the debate?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: This is a whole of debate watchers. So this is not necessarily representative of the elector overall, although I will say as a partisan makeup, these debate watchers do pretty much look like registered voters, maybe about four or five percentage points more Republican than the usual universe of registered voters.
So just keep that in mind, as you see these results. That little bit of shift won't make a difference here.
Look at the big question of the night. Who won the debate? We asked debate watchers in our instant poll.
And the answer is a resounding Donald Trump did. 67 percent of debate watchers in our poll say Donald Trump won the debate tonight. Joe Biden, 33 percent say he won the debate tonight.
Now, this group of debate watchers, they told us who they thought would win the debate going into it before the debate, and take a look at how that changed over time. 55 percent thought before the debate that Donald Trump would win the debate; 45 percent thought Joe Biden would win the debate.
Look at what the debate did to those expectations. That's you know, Donald Trump did much better than expected. Joe Biden did worse than expected among this group.
And compare this to these two men debating four years ago, that's not always a comparison we have obviously. The rematch is pretty unique.
And so take a look at the complete reversal. Again, that top line there is the debate tonight, 67 percent say Trump won, 33 percent said by them. The next line is the second debate in 2020, where Biden won there by about 14 percentage points, 53 -- 39 in our instant poll that night.
This looks a little bit more like the first debate Chris Wallace moderated 60 percent Joe Biden won that debate that night, 28 percent said Donald Trump won the debate that night.
You can see how this night, where there's a complete reversal of that one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: David Chalian reporting there.
Well, CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein joins us now from Los Angeles. He's also a senior editor at "The Atlantic".
Ron, great to have you with us.
The Biden camp wanted this debate. President Biden, he needed to look energetic, engaged, prove that he had the stamina to do the job for the next four years. He clearly failed in that objective.
Did we witness a train wreck?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes it was I think the weakest performance I've ever seen in a presidential debate. And I think I've watched all of them except for Kennedy, Nixon and saw that subsequently.
Yes. I mean, this went about as badly as it could have gone. And for the democrats who have been uneasy about nominating Biden, you know, for months, in some ways, it was so bad that it may have been good in the sense that the White House had pushed off the table any serious discussion of replacing Biden. And I think that conversation is now unavoidable and no one can look at that and say that this is a candidate, you know, firing on all cylinders or one who see him (INAUDIBLE) on track to overcome what has been a narrow but very durable advantage for Donald Trump.
COREN: There is clearly now panic among Democrats and I'm sure you're picking up on that and the conversations you are having.
BROWNSTEIN: I'm writing -- I'm still writing it right now.
(CROSSTALKING)
COREN: You're writing -- I look forward to reading about it. The tough conversations who -- who will have those with the president. Is it his closest advisers, is it his wife, Jill Biden?
I mean, we saw her after the debate with Biden onstage and, you know, they were cheering. The crowd is cheering. And she was saying four more years, four more years. So who's going to have that tough conversation with the president? BROWNSTEIN: Yes, it's, you know, it's a first mover problem as they say. I mean, who is going to be the person to step forward. I mean I talked to a number of Democrats tonight who believed that someone is going to challenge it.
It's still really difficult, you know, no incumbent president who has chosen to run for reelection has been denied his party's nomination, although there's an asterisk in 1968 when Lyndon Johnson was sort of pressured not to run and chose not to once the opposition developed.
You know, the rules and convention are pretty straightforward. Back in the early 1980s, Democrats eliminated what was called the robot rule.
[01:39:49]
BROWNSTEIN: The robot rule said that whoever you were chosen as a delegate to represent, you had a vote for on the first ballot. That's gone.
You know, if someone wanted to run against Biden, they could in effect run a campaign aimed at the fourth thousand or so Democratic convention delegates.
And so it doesn't only have to be him stepping aside. It could be someone choosing to challenge him, generating a certain level of support and then in effect pressuring him step aside.
All of these conversations I think are going to happen. As I said, they had been kind of pushed off the table. I think they're very much back on the table, whether he could really be beaten if he insists on going forward. It's still an uphill climb. But I don't think you can rule anything out after that performance, particularly because you know, the most dangerous thing in politics, I think we've talked about this before is validating a pre-existing supposition in the electorate.
When Dan Quayle misspelled potato in 1992, it was a bigger deal than if Al Gore did, because no one questioned Al Gore's acumen and intelligence.
This performance validated the biggest concern that voters have about Biden whether he is mentally and physically up to the job. And it seems simply impossible for Democrats to simply -- to go forward as if nothing had happened tonight.
COREN: So if we project into the future the conversation is had, Biden comes round to the fact that maybe he is not up to the job. He's 81- years-old. Tonight, we saw a frail old man onstage.
Who are the likely contenders? Who could take on Donald Trump at the elections?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well, don't forget that one reason that Biden not the only reason, certainly, but one reason that Biden is running in the first place is because people around him feel that the party has a conundrum in that they, you know, the Democrats are dubious that Biden can beat Trump, are also dubious that Kamala Harris can be Trump.
But they also recognize that if she wants the nomination, denying the first woman of color who has been on the national ticket who's been serving as vice president, the prize would potentially tear apart the party and you could lose that way.
So it's an extremely complicated situation if he steps -- even if he does step aside. But I think most people, you know, most attention focuses really on two names above all. I mean, there are -- there's Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren, but I think the two figures that most Democrats talk about the most are Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, and Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, and maybe Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania.
I think there would be a lot of enthusiasm in the party, as I said, for the democrats who are dubious at nominating Biden in a way this was so bad, it might be good in that it opens this conversation in a way that a kind of middling performance would not have.
But it's still, you know, as I think you were suggesting this -- it's going to be very difficult to remove him if he doesn't want to be removed, that doesn't mean that somebody won't challenge him and put some pressure on him but it's still going to be hard if he wants to go forward.
There is a pathway though, the rules do allow it in a way they didn't in an earlier generation. So well see if all of the intense grumbling that you're hearing and that I'm hearing and that everyone is hearing actually translates into action because there are a lot of Democrats who feel that after tonight, Joe Biden almost certainly -- almost, almost certainly cannot win.
COREN: It is truly extraordinary what we witnessed.
Great to break it down with you, always appreciate your analysis. Senior political analyst, Run Brownstein. Thank you as always.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.
COREN: Iranians are voting for their next president right now. We'll look at the remaining candidates out after two dropped out the previous day. That story and more when we return.
[01:43:43]
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COREN: Well, voters in Iran are heading to the polls right now for the country's presidential election. They are choosing from a tightly controlled group of four remaining candidates. Three conservative hardliners and one comparative moderate. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei cast his ballot in the capital Tehran, about an hour ago.
Two hardline candidates dropped out the day before the election hoping to unify conservative support. If no candidate wins at least 50 percent plus one vote, a runoff will be held.
the election was called after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi and other officials in a helicopter crash last month.
Voters in France go to the polls on Sunday for a snap parliamentary election. They'll decide whether they want to keep President Emmanuel Macron and his centrist government in power, or choose the far-right National Rally Party and its longtime leader, Marine Le Pen.
If no one gets a majority on Sunday, a second round of voting will be held a week later.
More now from CNN's Melissa Bell.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was for France's National Rally a historic win.
The European elections marked the first time the hard-right had won a poll nationally. Now it's the parties campaigning for seats in France's parliament and a shot at government.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The party was long demonized. That's the work that Marine Le Pen and her team have managed to do to show that we are a party capable of governing and a party that is democratic.
BELL: No mean feat for a woman who inherited the party from her father, the Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the National Rally or National Front as it was known, with former French members of Hitler's SS.
A history steeped in fascism that was credited with long keeping the party from power, even when it got close.
France is a country after all heavily-marked by the horrors of Nazi Germany.
Amongst those atrocities, what happened here at Oradour-Sur-Glane 80 years ago when an entire village was rounded up by the SS and killed in cold blood.
The village frozen in time, left exactly as it was on that fateful day 80 years ago in order for the world to remember.
But in the new village rebuilt after the war, the European elections saw the National Rally comes first here too.
PHILIPPE LACROIX, MAYOR OF ORADOUR-SUR-GLANE, FRANCE: Here the National Rally did a big score like in other rural communities. Times have changed, the means of communication are no longer the same. Societal issues have evolved too.
And there's been a detoxification of the extremes of the far-right.
BELL: The key also for the National Rally, the young who voted massively in favor of a party that few in the past would have admitted voting for. But that has now gained something that (INAUDIBLE) didn't.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Legitimacy, that's it. We're no longer ostracized. We're taken seriously. They said up to 30 percent of French voted for us. French people who love their country, who don't want to see change and get eaten by globalization.
BELL: A message that looks set to resonate in a parliamentary poll that could see the National Rally gain not just legitimacy, but power itself.
Melissa Bell, CNN -- Oradour-Sur-Glane.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Well turning now to Kenya, where renewed anti-government protests led to clashes between demonstrators and police on Thursday. Police could be seen firing tear gas canisters at protesters who once again took to the streets of Nairobi demanding justice for demonstrators killed in earlier protests, and calling for the resignation of President Ruto.
These protests come after a controversial tax bill spark clashes that killed at least 23 people, a local organization reports.
[01:49:53]
COREN: Well, Kenya's president scrapped the legislation after the deadly demonstrations.
Support among young voters is slipping for U.S. President Joe Biden, partly because of his handling of the war in Gaza.
Still ahead, we'll check how his debate with Donald Trump may have affected that.
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COREN: Welcome back.
The debate was also an opportunity for Joe Biden to bring some young voters back into the fold. They usually lean Democrats, but many are furious at Mr. Biden over his handling of the war in Gaza, which led to protests at U.S. college campuses.
Biden and Trump had a heated exchange over the war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Everyone from the United Nations Secretary Council, straight to the G7, to the Israelis and Netanyahu himself have endorsed the plan I put forward. Endorsed the plan I put forward which has three stages to it.
The first stages, trade the hostages for a ceasefire. Second phase is a ceasefire with additional conditions. The third phase is no, the end of the war. The only one who wants the war to continue is Hamas. TRUMP: He said, the only one who wants to keep going is Hamas.
Actually Israel is the one and you should let him go and let him finish the job. He doesn't want to do it. He's become like a Palestinian, but they don't like him because he's a very bad Palestinian. He's a weak one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Were now joined by Elijah Kahlenberg, the president and founder of Atidna International, a non-profits, promoting dialogue between Jews and Arabs on college campuses. He's in San Antonio, Texas.
Thank you for joining us.
Many young voters and pro-Palestinian voters obviously critical of President Joe Biden and his response to what is happening in Gaza and his support for Israel.
They have said they will boycott the election. Do you think they will continue to do so after tonight's debate?
ELIJAH KAHLENBERG, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, ATIDNA INTERNATIONAL: Yes. I think there will be two screens in the progressive base in how people approach this upcoming election.
The first frame (ph), like you said, will pursue the path of boycotting the election or voting for someone like Jill Stein or Cornell West.
The reason for that is, first of all, they believe they cannot vote for someone who promotes genocide in good conscience.
Others in this camp might have more nefarious reasons for why this -- why they're doing this. they might want to see a Trump presidency because when Trump's policies are connotated with Gaza, it allows the Democrats to inherently move farther in the progressive direction.
If Trump is the face of the Gaza genocide, then Democrats will oppose it flat out. There'll be no discrepancies within the party.
Now, there will be another stream within the Democratic Party, in my opinion, that will vote for Gaza within that progressive base. It's not necessarily because of anything Biden said, but it's more so because they believe, of course, in the notion that Trump is the greater evil.
And he made that known tonight. In the statement you just said, he said that Biden was not going far enough. He said that Biden needs to be promoting policies that have no red lines to allow Israel to finish the job.
There will also be the notion within the progressive base that Biden can be pushed in a progressive direction. He can be pushed in a better direction in his party. I think in the next debate, what Netanyahu or sorry, what Biden needs to be championing is the notion that he (AUDIO GAP) right. [01:54:50]
KAHLENBERG: That's something he tried to do tonight. He said that Hamas is the only impediment to a ceasefire. That's something he cannot do in the next debate in my opinion.
COREN: Well, that's Elijah -- that's if there is an next debate. I think there's some commentators who feel that Trump will not attend a second debate, that he feels he's got it in the bag. No need to turn up for the next appointment.
But a President Trump I mean, surely there's are realization that if he is returned to office the situation in Gaza could potentially be worse for Palestinians. And as you said, you know, we heard from him tonight, he said let them finish the job.
KAHLENBERG: Yes. And you're 100 percent right. When he says let them finish the job, what does he mean? To me that means supporting Netanyahu's impossible mission to quote-unquote, "eradicate Hamas".
Hamas is a political ideology. It cannot be eradicated except if you completely destroyed the vast majority of civilian population in Gaza. It's a call for eradication or the annexation of Gaza and the resettlement of Gaza.
And that should not be the only worrying notion. Trump throughout this entire debate promoted anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian, and Islamophobic sentiments. He even said the Islamophobia conspiracy theory that Islamic terrorists or flooding through the border.
He used Palestinians as a pejorative term against Biden. He called the civilian protesters on college campuses Palestinian rioters. He engaged in overt racism that we hadn't seen since the early 2000s. And that is a very scary reality that we might be facing come November.
COREN: Elijah very quickly, what do you want to hear from President Biden to change the minds of these young voters.
KAHLENBERG: I would like to hear Biden take a more progressive stance in regards to Netanyahu. He clearly shielded Netanyahu in this debate by saying Hamas was the only impediment to a ceasefire. Now that alone is not enough to sway (AUDIO GAP).
What that does indicate is that Biden is susceptible to pressure within his own party. Biden has progressive components like AOC, like Bernie Sanders who are trying to get him in a more progressive direction.
Trump does not face those same pressures. So by Biden giving that indication against Netanyahu, it shows that he's willing to go on the more progressive direction. Compare that to Trump, who is facing the likes of Lindsey Graham in his own party, or Tom Cotton, who's outwardly saying, turn Gaza --
(CROSSTALKING)
COREN: Elijah, I'm sorry, we're going to have to jump in there Elijah -- I'm going to have to apologize.
KAHLENBERG: Yes.
COREN: We have to wrap up the show. We've got a hard break.
But thank you for joining us.
And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Anna Coren.
Coming up a replay of tonight's entire debate. That's after a short break.
Stay with CNN.
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