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18th Congressional Democrat Says Biden Should Drop Out; Source: Jeffries Did Not Offer Biden His Endorsement; Biden Heads To Michigan As He Tries To Allay Democratic Fears; NYT: Dem Donors Freeze $90M In Donations As Long As Biden In Race; Biden: Wouldn't Drop Out Unless I'm Told "There's No Way" To Win; Trump Mocks Biden's NATO News Conference On Truth Social; Sources: Trump Team Wants Biden To Stay In Race; Burgum: "Zero Daylight" Between Trump's Abortion Position And His. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 12, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

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MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Inside Politics, Joe Biden tries to stop the bleeding. But did he? He says a stupid mistake on a debate stage should not require him to leave the race. But since last night's news conference, four more Democrats in Congress have come out to say he should. Now entry, turns to a secret meeting between the House Democratic leader and the president.

Plus, great job Joe. Donald Trump box the president's performance. But it's clear his campaign views Biden staying in the race is an in-kind donation to Trump's chances in reclaiming the White House. And writing for Biden. And up close, look at a group of black voters who say, they're not dismayed at all by his debate debacle.

I'm Manu Raju, in for Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

Up first, a meeting between the top Democrat in the House and the president of the United States. They talked at the White House last night after Biden's NATO news conference. Now we know little about that conversation right now. And Jeffries in a vague letter offers scant details about the face to face. He said, he relayed quote, heartfelt perspectives, and conclusions about the path forward. He said that Democrats have shared with him the leader.

I want to go straight to Capitol Hill and there where we find Lauren Fox. And Lauren, an 18th Democrat just came out against Joe Biden. What do we know about that call for him to step aside and this meeting between the leader and the president?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Manu. A continue dripping of Democrats coming out against the president, arguing that it is time for him to hand the torch over to a new generation of leaders. But obviously, all eyes are on getting more details about this meeting that happened yesterday. After this press conference between President Joe Biden and the Democratic leader on Capitol Hill Hakeem Jeffries.

Now Jeffries has been keeping his views pretty close to the vest, offering very little insight into his position. But we are learning this morning that he did meet with the president. And in his letter to colleagues, he wrote, quote. On behalf of the House Democratic Caucus, I requested and was graciously granted a private meeting with President Joe Biden. That meeting occurred yesterday evening. In my conversation with President Biden, I directly expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspective and conclusions about the path forward that the caucus has shared in our recent time together.

Now the caucus had a full meeting on Tuesday morning. They've also had separate meetings, breaking out in smaller groups to discuss what to do about the president's future. Our colleague, Jeff Zeleny, getting some fresh reporting about that meeting between Jeffries and Biden. Where Jeffries did not explicitly offer his endorsement of the president.

Again, we are still trying to get additional details about this meeting, but very watched here on Capitol Hill as a lot of Democrats have been waiting to see what their leadership would do and say to President Biden. Manu?

RAJU: Lauren Fox, there was a key piece of reporting from our colleague, Jeff Zeleny. Jeffries did not offer the president his endorsement in that meeting today. Thanks for that report. And later today, President Biden will head to that battleground state of Michigan, where he'll keep making the point that he's up for the job of beating Donald Trump in November. The question remains, is it too late?

Arlette Saenz is in Detroit. Arlette, tell us a little bit more about what we expect later today? And then, anything else we know about this -- this meeting that happened between Jeffries and the president? In the fact that the Democratic leader did not endorse the president.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Manu, President Biden has said that he will just keep moving this campaign despite the pressure within his own party from some, for the president to step aside in this moment. Now, the president's advisers are well aware of the concerns within some parts of the Democratic Party.

A top adviser to Biden, Steve Ricchetti, told lawmakers just yesterday that he promised he would relay the concerns, relay the insight and input that they were receiving from a meeting with the president directly. But for President Biden's part, he is really trying to push forward with his campaign.

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The campaign scheduling a several travel stops over the course of the past of the next week. That's includes spending time here in Michigan, then Texas on Monday, Nevada on Tuesday and Wednesday. All as he's trying to show voters that he is up for a second term in office.

The president I'm told here in Michigan plans to really try to draw a contrast with former President Donald Trump when it pertains to policy. The president is eager to try to turn the attention back to Trump, while he is trying to also save his own candidacy at this moment.

Now the president will be here in Michigan joined by some elected officials in the state. People like Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, he also has Congresswoman Haley Stevens and Debbie Dingell at this event with Biden. But it is notable that at least one Michigan Democrat has called for President Biden to step aside in this race, that is Congresswoman Hillary Scholten, signaling some of the pressure that he might be facing here in the state.

Now the Biden campaign has argued in a memo just yesterday that they believe the so-called blue wall of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are the clearest path for President Biden to get the 270 electoral votes in November.

So, it really speaks to how critical the state of Michigan will be for President Biden as he continues to try to make his case, not just to American voters that he's up for a second term, but also, he's trying to prevent any further Democratic defections coming from within his own party.

RAJU: All right, Arlette Saenz in Detroit. Thanks for that. And while President Biden continues to lose congressional Democratic support, one of his closest allies in the House is still sticking with him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRAIG MELVIN, NBC NEWS, ANCHOR: Should the conversation about the president getting out of this race? Should that conversation continue?

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): No, it shouldn't. I am all in. I'm riding with Biden, no matter which direction he goes, no matter what method he takes. I'm with Joe Biden. And if he were to change his mind, I'll just answer the question, that I would be all in for the vice president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right, lots to break down with my great group of reporters this afternoon, Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report, CNN's Phil Mattingly, The New York Times' Zolan Kanno-Youngs, CNN's Eva McKend. Nice to see you all.

All right. So, he says -- he says he's running, no matter what. We have an additional Democrats coming out saying, no way. We have to Hakeem Jeffries saying, not offerings endorsement. What exactly does that mean? We're still trying to learn but seems significant. And how will the New York Times reporting $90 million of monies -- we're going to be on hold that were big donors going to give $90 million to this Biden Super PAC, that they pledged to give to him to that Super PAC, no longer going to do that. Does that have any impact now on Joe Biden? That's not an insignificant sum of money.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES & CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, look, for just that amount of money, it's going to have an impact, you know, when it comes to the momentum, sort of behind the campaign. But I don't think when you talk to campaign officials, administration officials that they ever thought that this press conference would sort of quell immediately all that dissent among Democrats.

Just the fact that we're at this point in time right now, I think does show just sort of the amount of anxiety that Democrats are feeling across the country when it comes to Joe Biden's candidacy. I mean, this is a party where any criticism against the White House, and you're one and two was a pretty big deal if you came and win against the White House.

And now we have a situation where donors, members of Congress, you know, Democrats across the country are expressing these concerns. So, I don't think that it's a surprise that it's continued. In the wake of that press conference, there were some flubs. You still had a president that still struggled to make a -- to articulate sort of a coherent case for why he is the best person to be at the top of the ticket to beat Donald Trump.

When he was asked about that. He pointed to his record in the first term, rather than providing assurance for the future at this point, which is where the concern is. And I think you're probably going to see that continue in the days ahead here.

RAJU: Yeah. And look, we heard Jim Clyburn there say that he was with Biden. We don't really know where Barack Obama is, or Nancy Pelosi is. We do know from our colleges reporting that they talked recently about their concerns about the campaign. How much is riding on what they ultimately decide here? And forcing Joe Biden to make a decision about whether to stay in this race?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: I mean, everything is riding on whether they decide to do something like that, on some level, right? And I think, our colleagues (inaudible) and Jeff Zeleny had such a great kind of contextual breakdown of the news that they broke last night about the former speaker and the former president, being in content -- in contact over this. There's history here.

And the idea that President Obama could go to President Biden and say, you need to leave. My sense of things having covered this White House very closely, is Biden would probably say, remember when he told me that in 2016, and then we lost -- Democrats lost to Donald Trump, so I don't know how it's going to work.

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I think Democrats have been waiting for those leaders of their party. Clyburn being among them. There's like a core group of four or five, whether it's Pelosi, it's Obama, it's Schumer, it's Clyburn and it's Jeffries too kind of get together and go down to the White House and deliver that message. And I don't know that that's how it works, and also, I don't know that that has an effect on President Biden, which is something that everybody's factoring in. And that brings me to the question that I've been asking throughout the course of the last 24 hours. To any Democrat I talked to who wants Biden to step aside, tell me how the sense. Tell me what is going to get you from this point to that point? Because no one can fill in that blank right now. And if they can't, and they never do, then he's the candidate.

RAJU: And that basically benefits Biden and all the concerns are. If you get rid of him, then maybe your ballot access issues, or some of that -- the new candidate, it's a mess, and which is why a lot of other members are not coming out and calling Biden to step aside. Would you listen to what Biden said yesterday about what would actually cause him to step aside is about whether he has a path to the presidency again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If your team came back and showed you data that she would fare better against former President Donald Trump, would you reconsider your decision to stay in the race?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: No, unless they came back and said, there's no way you can win. Me. No one is saying that. No poll says that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: OK. There's no polls say that. You guys had -- are you guys looked at the map and looked at number of states that are moving in the wrong direction for Biden? There's not a path, according to that map at this moment. Is no poll saying that he can win it.

AMY WALTER, PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE COOK POLITICAL REPORT: No. I mean, it is -- it's more than the map. And that this has been clear, even before the debate. Let's be honest that those sunbelt states were going to be tough for him. And the debate, this is the whole thing, the debate was his opportunity to put those back on the map.

And it's hard now to argue that, oh, boy, I've done so -- I've laid out my case so clearly and confidently to the public, and to the voters that are undecided that we can put those back in. And the fact that that the campaign basically agreed with that assessment, saying we just got to go and get the blue wall. Tells you what you need to know.

So, I think what we're looking at is a map that now is narrower. For Biden, though it's been pretty narrow, I think, for the last couple of months. And to Phil's point about tell me where we go from here. What is the case that Biden makes? And how effective is he at turning the election back on to Donald Trump?

Now, theoretically, we have a convention next week. That's all about Republicans. And Donald Trump will be in the spotlight on Thursday, making a case theoretically to those swing voters who right now have parked and undecided, don't know what they're going to do. Maybe they're feeling worse about Biden after the debate.

Does he have a message that appeals to them? Or are we back where we have been really for the entirety of this race, which is voters coming away from the debate, and the convention saying, this is a lesser of two evils election? And I just -- nobody else is saying.

RAJU: And maybe that's what the Biden team wants, right? And maybe the Republican convention, while it's -- usually it gives a little bit of a bounce to the candidate because again, you know, tons of media coverage, they get to give their primetime speech, et cetera, et cetera. But the Biden team wants to focus to be on Trump, maybe a bit of a reprieve for Biden in the next week.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: They sure do. The RNC can't come soon enough. But I think they're also leaning on voters themselves. You know, I've been traveling the country for the past week. I was joking with Amy in the makeup room. I told her, find me these black voters in the polling that want to run away from Biden because I'm just not finding them out in the wild.

And I think that this is what they're relying on, so many reliable, loyal, Democratic voters and key coalitions saying this is not a good idea. This is a conversation happening in Washington, but we're not ready to abandon our nominee and really taking a pragmatic approach. They view it as supporting an entire Democratic ticket and all the associated policies. Some -- one woman told me that people are too caught up with the aesthetics of politics and not the practicalities involved.

RAJU: And I want to dig deeper into that dynamic among black voters. It's apparently still sticking with Biden later in the show. So, thanks for teasing that, Eva. But I do want to talk about this Marist Poll that was out today, which is really interesting. In what do we make up this? Because right now, it says, essentially, no clear leader -- has Biden up two points. But yes, that's within the margin of error. So essentially, it's a dead heat, according to this poll.

So, suggesting there's really been no movement, despite everything that we have seen in the debate and Trump being convicted and all the rest. And then the question about whether they believe someone who doesn't tell the truth versus someone who might be too old. What is the bigger concerning issue to voters? More concerning is that someone who doesn't tell the truth, 68 to 32. OK. Can you explain this?

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WALTER: No, I can't.

(CROSSTALK)

WALTER: If you look at polling that has come out -- national polling that's come out since the debate. What you're seeing is either a tiny bit of movement toward Trump, no movement at all. And in this case, maybe a point to Biden, which shows you everything you need to know about what our politics is. We are a country that is ossified in our political sort of culture, is the best way of saying this. And so, even events that theoretically would move people, just only move people on the edges or -- and so a status quo race still is not great for Biden. That is -- I think that is more of the conversation we should be having, rather than, oh, my gosh, this race has totally gotten away from Biden, and he's collapsed. It's that, the status quo isn't good enough. He needs this race to be less about him, more about Trump. He needs to make a clear case for the future and that he can do the job.

RAJU: But more than Biden sees these polls that has --

(CROSSTALK)

MATTINGLY: Last night to make clear, doesn't really believe any polls. So, I think, probably believes this one on some level. Manu, as you know, as well as anybody, I think everybody at this table does. What Democrats and their frontline Democrats in the House, we're seeing in their internal tracking polls over the course of the last several days was a large reason why you saw -- after it seemed like everything froze.

I think when the CBC members came out, coming out of the Essence Festival, the Biden campaign thought like, OK, like we might be able to get through this week. When people started getting numbers back in their districts, in those swing states and those frontline areas. What they were seeing internals or internals (inaudible) however you want. People were freaked out and that matters.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Polls like this two are only going to reinforce sort of the defiant posture that you've seen from this White House, President Biden and his inner circle. And remember, you also have, you know, a Clyburn interview as well, where he's still supportive of him.

Next week, you're going to have an NAACP conference to where President Biden is speaking. I think that will -- you'll find a lot of support there. And that's going to reinforce the defiant posture. So, you're going to see that moving forward. Each and every one of these little polling says, even though he casts doubt on polling yesterday during the press conference. I have a feeling they'll be picking these out and sort of spotlighting them.

RAJU: And in selective polling that we then -- politicians tend to like. It's a trend on both sides of the aisle. All right. Next, the view from Mar-a-Lago. What Donald Trump is saying about Joe Biden and what his inner circle is thinking about who they want to run against in November.

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RAJU: Even before President Biden wrapped up his NATO press conference last night, Donald Trump was trying to capitalize on missteps. He posted on Truth Social about Biden's mistake at the top of questioning for reporters, referring to Trump as the vice president. Trump commenting, great job, Joe.

CNN's Alayna Treene is with us now. Alayna, what is the Trump campaign taking away from the Biden press conference?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, there are a few things, Manu. You did see several of Donald Trump's top advisers, many of his surrogates are really responding in real time during -- throughout the press conference posting on social media, doing the same thing we saw Donald Trump do, which was highlight his slip ups as missteps.

They mocked him for what he introduced Ukrainian President Zelenskyy where he at first referred to him as Putin. They highlighted that misstep with calling Harris, Vice President Trump. All of that and really trying to seize on this moment.

I can tell you from my conversations with the Trump campaign, they are relishing this. They are loving that the attention has been on the criticism surrounding Joe Biden. And the questions coming from within his own party over whether they think he is fit to serve for another four years.

But just to take a step back and kind of pull the curtain back on what's actually happening within the Trump campaign. They still want Joe Biden to be the nominee. They want him to be the one that Donald Trump faces off with in November. It's been very clear to me throughout my conversations with all of the people in Donald Trump's inner circle and outside. Everyone in his orbit want it to be Joe Biden.

And that's because part of it is their campaign has spent several months, spending millions of dollars on modeling, on data, on ads, focused solely on going after Joe Biden. They also just think that given the current state of his campaign, that he will be the easiest to beat. However, they are already starting to prepare in the event that someone like Vice President Kamala Harris, ultimately becomes the one to succeed him.

They've been ramping up their attacks on her. We saw Donald Trump himself attacker in his rally on Tuesday. And they're also working in some of those criticisms and critiques of Harris into some of the conversation in his speeches next week. And so, all of this kind of happening while the Trump campaign continues to watch how this unfolds like the rest of America. Manu?

RAJU: All right, Alayna Treene. thank you for that reporting. And back with me at the table are these great reporters. And to that point that Alayna was making about the Trump campaign wanting Biden to stay in the race. This all Tim Alberta who is reported for The Atlantic, wrote about this after interviewing top Trump campaign officials Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita.

It says, Wiles and LaCivita told me that any Democratic replacement would inherent the president's deficiencies, when he wrote goes on. But they know that's not true. 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 are all but praying that he remains their opponent. Fair assessment

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MATTINGLY: And I don't necessarily think that that's just exclusive to the Trump campaign, like any presidential campaign at this -- whether it was Mitt Romney's or Barack Obama's or Jimmy Carter's at this point in the race. Would be looking at their opponent and saying, like, wait, no, we've been doing everything to attack that guy or that woman. We don't want to switch it out.

So, I understand it from a -- from an infrastructure perspective, from an ad buy perspective, from a message perspective. I think the other thing, too, is that they have a historically incumbent president with historically low approval ratings that has no shortage of deficiencies in terms of what the public sees and views of him on a day-to-day basis. Switching that up with anybody, even if you think the vice president is easily attacked, or what have her own flaws, or vulnerabilities.

You couldn't ask for running against an incumbent better than Joe Biden, based purely on numbers, whether you think that's true or not, based on how Americans view it in the race. Historically, he's probably the weakest incumbent you could have.

RAJU: I mean, what do you think about the idea? Look, there's a lot of polls that have said that the replacement of Biden, whether it's Kamala Harris, or, you know, Gavin Newsom, and Linda, like, wouldn't fare much better than Joe Biden. Is that a fair assessment? Because you think it is -- because there are a lot of people don't know who Gavin Newsom is, for instance, right? So, like, does that -- really is that the reality of the situation?

WALTER: Well, first of all, I think this idea that it's going to be somebody besides Harris is fanciful beyond parody, right? Like, we are -- what is it a month away from the Democratic --

MATTINGLY: You are breaking --

(CROSSTALK)

WALTER: So, you know, what we have in real life, we have these things called primaries. And that's when you do the whole, like, let's vet all of our options. Those people decided not to run. And Joe Biden did, and he is the nominee. So, if you're going to switch now, he has to say, he's stepping down, obviously, and then the only realistic option is the vice president.

And then you ask the question, OK, well, would she be a better choice? There is no guarantee that she would be the better choice. But I think she starts -- we can argue she starts kind of where we were on June 27, which is the focus -- if the focus of the Trump campaign stays the same, which is, if you -- when you get Kamala, what you get is an administration that screwed up the economy, that screwed up the border, elect me because I will do a better job on those things. It's hard for her to make a case against that. RAJU: Yeah. I want to turn to the what's going to be the big issue going into the weekend and early next week. The veepstakes. We finally are reaching the point where Joe -- not Joe Biden, Donald Trump will pick who his candidate is going to be. They say they're going to do it by Monday when the Republican convention starts.

Well, we are within that window. So, it can really happen at any moment. Trump has talked a little bit about, you know, he's spent a lot of time with all these potential candidates. He talked a little bit about Doug Burgum, earlier this week about the issue of abortion and about the near abortion ban that has enacted in North Dakota, the state that he's governor of.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (voiceover): It's a little bit of an issue. It's a pretty strong ban. You know, I think Doug is great, but it is a strong - - he's taken a very strong stance, or the state has.

GOV. DOUG BURGUM (R-ND): President Trump and I are zero daylight between his position and mine. I'm absolutely totally opposed to a federal abortion ban.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So, even Burgum signed that North Dakota abortion ban into laws. It's going to be a total abortion ban. Do you think that this is going to weigh -- how much this is weighed to Trump?

MCKEND: Well, it's definitely part of the calculation despite what the former president says that he's the only person that's important on the ticket. And he's really tried to downplay the significance of his running mate. I would argue that who he selects is actually very important.

There are a lot of Republicans, you know, who profess to be Never Trump errs, that now are kind of waddle wavering a bit and are sort of sticking their toe in the water again, considering supporting the Republican ticket. And I think it is really going to be based on in part on who he selects. And if that person is able to moderate his message, make him seem like a normal person, despite his many, many vulnerabilities.

KANNO-YOUNGS: The stance on abortion rights is also a really interesting one, because it's such a focus for Biden campaign and sort of their attempt to rally voters too. I think we were talking earlier as well about sort of how the Biden ministration look like portrays this way forward -- future. And also, how they are going to contrast the position with Trump, including when he selects a VP?

And we saw a little bit of that blueprint with Vice President Harris this week, trying to tie Trump to Project 2025 and sort of the blueprint developed by various conservative groups, including some former staffers of former President Trump, who are likely to work with him in a second term. If he was to pick somebody who, you know, is tied to a national abortion ban. Suddenly you now have that talking point, and you know, has some more steam behind it too. So, you can expect that counter messaging as well I think going into this week with the RNC convention as well.