Alabama's Morning News with JT
White House Correspondent Jon Decker gives us a preview of President Biden's address to the nation tonight
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. John Decker joins us, our White House correspondent. A little preview of what to be expecting tonight is, Joe Biden will address the country from the Oval Office, I'm assuming, John, right? That's right. This will be a speech from the Oval Office, some history. The last time a speech like this, JT took place, you'd have to go back decades. This spring of 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not be seeking another term as president. This is different, this comes much later in the election cycle. What we're going to hear from President Biden today tonight is a lot of what we heard and saw in that statement that he released on Sunday while he was still dealing with COVID. Now, fully recovered, we're going to hear him say that this is not a health-related decision. This is for the good of the party, for the good of the country. He'll also talk about what he hopes to accomplish during his final six months in office, his final day in the White House will be January the 20th, 2025. Yeah, I was wondering where you thought he might go as far as will he even address the cognitive skills and why he decided? Well, what will his reason be for pulling out of the race at this point? Will he give us details as to why he thinks he should do that? And if that's the case, why he thinks he should still stay in his president? Because there are a lot of Republicans screaming, "Well, if he's not fit to run again, he shouldn't be fit to continue for the next six months." But the reason that he's giving has nothing to do with health, so that his fitness doesn't really factor into the equation here. It's all political, JT. It's the belief that he did not believe other Democrats didn't believe that he could have beaten Donald Trump in the November election, and he would hurt Democrats down ballot who are running for the House for the Senate. So that's the reason why you stepped aside, pretty remarkable decision that he made given that he had earned the nomination. And then, of course, the statement that he put out later on Sunday that he endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to be the standard bearer for Democrats in November. So that is the idea of him leaving the White House entirely, stepping down from his position as president. We're hearing a lot of that since Sunday, maybe we'll hear more of that over the course of this week. But ultimately, Republicans will move on to whatever's next in the news cycle. Because that argument really is an holding sway with the people that matter as it relates to Democrats. Democrats are very happy that Joe Biden is no longer the standard bearer for them in November. Do you think he'll address Kimberly Cheadle, the Secret Service Director, that resigned will any of that come up tonight? No, I doubt it. I doubt it very much. You know, the decision was made clearly, you know, the silence of Joe Biden in terms of supporting the person that he chose to lead the Secret Service was pretty telling to the Secret Service Director. And that's ultimately why she submitted her resignation. Now, this is going to focus exclusively on the decision that he made on Sunday and also looking ahead, but it will not focus at all on the events that happened a few Saturdays ago with the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. How long do you think he goes with this tonight? Oh, you know, I wouldn't imagine longer than 10 minutes. You know, I mean, this is not a half hour long speech. This is short, sweet, and he's not one to give long speeches anyway. So, yeah, that's what I'm expecting. It'll be on all the broadcast networks. It'll be on all the cable networks because of the historic nature of this kind of announcement. Yeah. And we will carry it here as well. Well, John, certainly no shortage of news I think every day now until we get to November. I know it. And we'll have you back. 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. You 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.