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Fox News Radio's Jared Halpern joins us to discuss Biden's first remarks to the nation in primetime address since stepping out of the race
An official message from Medicare. A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. You may be able to save, too. With Medicare's Extra Help program, my premium is zero, and my out-of-pocket costs are low. Who should apply? Single people making less than $23,000 a year, or married couples who make less than $31,000 a year. Even if you don't think you qualify, it pays to find out. Go to ssa.gov/extrahelp, paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Joining us now, Jared Hopper and our Fox correspondent in D.C., Jared, welcome, and thanks for being here. Good morning. I don't think we expected much more than 10 or 15 minutes, and that's what he gave us 11 minutes in all last night. But the general- The attention spans are shorter than they were when we heard a similar speech from LBJ in 1968. Right. I think that went on 40 minutes, but I don't know if attention spans are quite what they were in the 1960s. You know, and obviously he's been struggling. There's been a lot of discussion, and Chris Jump here, and Kamala Harris are all still standing by. Well, look, you know, we were behind him as long as we could be behind him. We didn't know anything more than you knew about his cognitive skills, which I think is horse manure. They all knew it before that. But last night's speech, you know, the reaction I thought from some doctors was interesting, basically lack of emotion, stumbling a little bit, not major, a little heavy on the orange makeup. I'll give you that. But, you know, he read from the prompter, but anything new and exciting coming from this guy, less than I don't think so. No, I mean, it was what I think we expected. Listen, it's hard to kind of separate what he said last night with the history. I mean, it's the first time since 1968 that the president who had the option to run for reelection chose not to. I think it is always an extraordinary moment when politicians kind of concede that it is time to let another generation take leadership. You hear that a lot from politicians. You don't always see it in practice. And so I thought it was notable that you saw that last night from President Biden. What I was struck by is that, you know, when the president talked about what it would take for him to change course and kind of drop out of the race, it is more and more Democrats were asking him to do it. He kind of said, "Listen, if somebody came to me and said, 'Mr. President, there's no way you can win,' that might change his thinking." But he said, "No one is saying that." Clearly, that changed at some point. We are told that the president had a meeting at his home in Rojas Beach, Delaware. A Saturday night with very close confidants, a longtime campaign and strategist, friends of his colleagues and members of his family. It was after that meeting that he on Sunday changed course and decided that he was not going to run. So we don't know what the details of that conversation were, but clearly the president, I think, acknowledged to a certain extent yesterday that there was maybe dwindling confidence in his ability to beat Donald Trump, right? He talked about how he was going to put the preserving democracy, protecting democracy, which has kind of been his crux of running for reelection above personal ambition and above any title. That was a conception we had not really heard yet from President Biden, that he did not think he maybe was the best Democrat to take on the former president. Of course, democracy. Interesting word he's chose to use, that they're not actually using democracy in appointing or coordinating Kamala Harris. No voters got the vote. There'll be a vote among delegates as voters. That's the nominee for the American people. That's what Republicans did as well. Yeah, we don't get to go through a primary, if you will, and let the voters once again pick because early on, let's just call it. Kamala was not really favored by the American voters, but she is going to get it. And I know it's a point that's moot at this point because it is going to just happen. But your thoughts on, as the family was there last night, and you mentioned the meeting that they had with officials and also the family, the private meeting that finally ultimately led to this decision to pull out, who led that charge? Was it Jill Biden or was it somebody else, maybe in the administration, advisors, people in the White House? Who do you think guided the Obama maybe? I mean, who do you think directed the final? Okay, it's time. I'm not sure we know. Listen, I think at the end of the day, this was a decision that the president made. Clearly, there had been discussions happening with some top flight Democrats, right? Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Keem Jeffries had all kind of spoken with the president in the day's proceeding, kind of sharing perspectives and concerns that other Democrats had. You know, he has always relied on his family when he makes major political decisions. He talked with his family before opting not to run in 2015, talked with his family before deciding to run in 2019. And so I don't know if it was any one person, but it's clear that the president spoke to enough people to maybe reconsider kind of the stance that he had had for the last several weeks. Yeah. Well, I mean, the decision has been made. The honeymoon is on for Kamala Harris, and just like anybody's 15 minutes of fame and honeymoon, you know, we saw the energy with the Republican convention, you know, the news cycles change, and we still have a lot of time between now and November 5th. But there's one thing for sure. It will be nothing less than exciting and, you know, very interesting every day leading up to the election. Jared Halpern, NDC, thank you, Jared. I appreciate you, buddy. An official message from Medicare. A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. Maybe you can save too. With Medicare's extra help program, my premium is zero, and my out-of-pocket costs are low. Who should apply? Single people making less than $23,000 a year, or married couples who make less than $31,000 a year. Even if you don't think you qualify, it pays to find out. Go to ssa.gov/extrahelp. Paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.