Biden’s ABC interview doesn’t help president, Democrats toss Kamala Harris’ name around to take on the Oval Office, and conservatives suffer setbacks in elections in France and the UK. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.
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Joe Biden's presidency is in crisis after a prime time interview with a friendly network fails to shore up Democrat support. "Did you ever watch the debate afterwards?" "I don't think I did, no." I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley, it's Monday, July 8th, and this is Morning Wire. As Democrats look for alternatives to Biden, Kamala Harris comes under the spotlight. And conservatives in the UK and France get outmaneuvered in snap elections. "You campaigned for it, you fought for it, you voted for it, and now it has arrived. Change begins now." Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Much is expensive, but being a man shouldn't be. Score 60% off Jeremy's Razor's one-year bundle and dominate campus life. While others can form, you'll stand out, clean-shaven and unapologetic. Major in masculinity at jeremysraisers.com today. President Biden is struggling to maintain his grip on the Democratic nomination as a growing number of Democrats question his ability to lead. Here to break down the latest is Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips. Hey, Cabot, so really a tumultuous weekend in Washington. Get us up to speed here. Yeah, we've really never seen anything like this in modern political history. All weekend, almost hourly, there were damning new reports on Biden's diminished mental state. For example, one report in New York Magazine cited close friends of President Biden, who have known him for decades. They said in recent months he did not remember their names and seemed like a shell of his former self. Then the New York Times reported that in the week before his debate, not only did prep sessions never start before 11 a.m., but his staff scheduled time for daily afternoon naps. That comes on the heels of a separate report from White House officials who said anonymously, the Biden is only fully alert from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and becomes notably more prone to mental lapses outside of those hours. And on top of all of that, we saw dozens upon dozens of stories featuring quotes from donors, lawmakers, and even senior administration officials themselves saying the Biden they see now is no longer the man he once was and that he must step aside. Just a flood of damaging headlines. Yeah. Now, as for the president's response, he and his team have scrambled to attempt to regain some control. He's held a few meetings. He's made some public appearances, including one prime time interview. How is he responding to all this pressure? Well, in many ways, he's done little to assuage concerns about his age. Biden hosted more than 20 Democratic governors at the White House and by all accounts did little to convince them that he's still the man for the job. At one point, he told them that part of his plan moving forward was to get more sleep and that he would no longer schedule official events after 8 p.m. He then made an apparent joke that did not go over well saying, quote, I'm fine. I don't know about my brain though. Then later at a Virginia fundraiser, he blamed his debate performance again on a lack of sleep saying, quote, I decided to travel around the world a couple of times shortly before the debate. I did not listen to my staff, and then I almost fell asleep on stage. It is worth pointing out, though, Biden had been back from his international trip for nearly two weeks before the debate and took nearly a week-long vacation before starting prep. But despite that mountain of negative reports, Biden is vowing to push on. Here he is speaking in Wisconsin over the weekend to supporters. Now you've probably heard he had a little debate last week. Can't say he's my best performance. But ever since then, there's been a lot of speculation, but you're going to do. Well, here's my answer. I am running and going to win again. Look, the Biden campaign is now desperately trying to make the conversation about anything other than his age. At that point, they recently launched a seven-figure ad spend in battleground states going after the recent Supreme Court rulings in Donald Trump's favor and had President Biden appear on a number of TV and radio shows in a clear attempt to go on the offensive, which brings us to his big prime-time interview on ABC. Tell us about that highly publicized and scrutinized appearance. Yeah, Biden sat down with George Stephanopoulos, where he talked extensively about the state of the race and reiterated his intention to remain on the ticket. During one exchange that got a lot of attention, he had this to say when asked how he would feel if he stayed on the ticket and lost. I feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest jobs, I know I can do. That's what this is about. That response really angered a lot of Democrats who say that it undermines his entire argument that the campaign is a battle for democracy itself. Later on, he said that he does not believe the polls showing him trailing Trump. Mr. President, I've never seen a president 36% approval get reelected. Well, I don't believe that's my approval, and that's not what our polls show. Biden also made a pair of high-profile radio appearances, at one point, giving a stumbling answer where he claimed to be the, quote, "first black woman to serve with a black president." I'm glad to learn proud to be as fast as I said, the first vice president, first black woman served with a black president. And while none of those interviews featured any meltdown moments, like we saw on the debate stage, by all accounts, they have done little to alleviate concerns from leaders within his own party. In fact, we've since learned that those radio interviews featured pre-scripted questions that the White House fed to the interviewers, which just added more fuel to the fire over Biden's inability to think on his feet. Yeah. Meanwhile, Congress is back in Washington today where Democratic lawmakers are going to be asked on the record whether they support him or not. We've already seen a dozen or so elected publicly called for his removal. We're likely going to see even more as the week progresses. Like you said, never seen anything like this. It's going to be a wild week. Yes, it will. Cabot. Thanks for reporting. Anytime. A growing number of Democrats are coming around to the possibility of Kamala Harris replacing Biden at the top of the ticket. The Wall Street Journal did a deep dive into the efforts to make Harris, who's polling is as weak or weaker than Biden's, more palatable to the party leadership and to Democrat voters. Senator discussed the push in favor of the Veep is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus. Hey, Dave. So what was uncovered here and what are the arguments that are being made in support of this Harris 2024 campaign? Morning, John. The Wall Street Journal was given access to a document created by anonymous Democratic party officials who claimed they have no connection to Harris or skin in this game. It lays out why they think she's the best possible choice if Biden declines to run. As has been mentioned on the show, there are real difficulties, especially on the left in bypassing the first black woman to be vice president, but there's also a more positive case carved out. They argue she's better suited to carry the fight on the key abortion issue, both because she's a woman and she isn't a practicing Catholic. Then there's the age issue, unlike Biden and Trump, she's younger than color television. And finally, Joe Biden already has a considerable haul of donor cash in his war chest and for complicated legal reasons we don't have time to get into, it's far simpler to hand that money over to a candidate already on the ticket than a wholly new face. Right. Things get messy if Harris isn't the nominee. Now, it wasn't all good news for Harris in the journal reporting or elsewhere. What are some of the concerns that Democrats skeptical of her candidacy bring up? The biggest one remains her lackluster polling numbers, but it's not the only one. Harris is arguably best known as VP for being the borders are with approximately the same success that Zard and Nicholas had in handling the Bolsheviks. So that's a problem. She also has arguably been very complicit in keeping Biden's actual condition from the American people, which is how we got here in the first place. And look, there are still many Democrats saying Biden should stick it out. So that is, of course, an option that's still in play. Although pollster Nate Silver now says that the trajectory for Biden has been so bad that while today we're talking about if he should stay in the race by next week, we could be debating whether he should remain in office until November at all. Yeah. Now, finally, Gavin Newsom of all people, one of the most common names suggested to replace Biden on the ticket. He defended Harris against the New York Post on X in a statement that really caused a stir. What happened there? Yes. So the New York Post ran a story on X with the headline America may soon be subjected to the first DEI president, Kamala Harris, to which Newsom quote posted one that Biden will be the nominee, but also that two quote, this is straight up racist end quote. It was pointed out by many, including the Post's Charlie Gasparino that Biden very explicitly said he was going to choose a woman as running mate when he secured the nomination four years ago for the explicit reason of increasing diversity, part of diversity, equity, and inclusion or DEI. In fact, Biden boasts regularly about having the most diverse administration in history. So if DEI is good, good for institutions and for the country, why would it be racist to point out that it was used by Biden to choose his successor should he become incapacitated? Look, if Harris emerges as the nominee, this is a point that we will hear more about. And also, yeah, as you noted, even though Newsom is on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania for Biden over the weekend, it's not lost on anybody that he is coming to the defense of Kamala Harris. Hard not to notice that, Dave, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. The left appears to be on its way to victory in both the UK and France and parliamentary elections in the past week. While the outcome in the UK was expected, the results out of France came as a surprise after conservatives showed strong support in the first round of voting. Here to talk about what happened on the other side of the Atlantic is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. Hey, Tim. So let's start with France. What happened there? Yeah, to understand what happened in France, first some context. French politics at the moment is controlled essentially by three main parties, Marine Le Pen's National Rally on the Right, French President Emmanuel Macron's centrist coalition called Together, and then the new popular front coalition made up of socialists and communists on the left. Le Pen's National Rally was expected to finish with a big victory here because all the electoral momentum seemed to point that way, but in the end, it appears Le Pen's party was out maneuvered in the final tally after Macron's centrist partnered with the left wing coalition to keep National Rally back across hundreds of races, centrist and left wing candidates dropped out to pull voters against the National Rally candidate. Here's some numbers for you out of 577 constituencies, 410 of them only featured two candidates in the latest round of voting, only 89 featured three candidates. Official results for the election are still being tallied, but according to one projection, the new popular front is expected to hold between 175 and 205 seats. Macron's party is expected to get between 150 and 175 seats, and the National Rally will have somewhere between 115 and 150 seats. It's worth pointing out here that while the center-left partnership paid off, the only issue that unites the two coalitions is opposition to the right. Now, I'll be up to Macron, whose term is up in 2027, to figure out how to work with a left-wing bloc that campaigned against him, but his party helped to bring to power anyway. What about in the UK? Is this a major victory for the left? Yes and no, the UK's labor party managed to win a large majority of seats in the parliament, 412 out of 650 possible, and its leader, Keir Starmer, will take over his next prime minister. Here's Starmer after the victory. To mandate like this comes with a great responsibility, whoever you are, wherever you started in life, if you work hard, if you play by the rules, this country should give you a fair chance to get on, it should always respect your contribution and we have to restore that. Now that mandate that Starmer mentioned comes with some pretty significant caveats. This was an exceptionally low turnout election, with just under 60% of the electorate voting, that ranks as the second lowest turnout for an election since 1885. Now, it seems like a lot of people were just unhappy with conservative leadership, not necessarily excited for Labor's platform, correct? Right. Now, what happened with Farage? Yeah, the other event that undermined conservatives here, and again, suggest that this was about dissatisfaction with conservative leadership, is that Nigel Farage led an insurgent right-wing party that captured millions of votes from conservatives. Farage, of course, is perhaps best known for his leadership during Brexit and as a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump. Critical of conservative leadership, Farage reformed the Reform Party and managed to win a handful of seats. But more significant than the seats Reform won was the share of vote, nearly 15%, which is about half the share of vote earned by the majority Labor Party. And virtually all of those Reform votes came from people who otherwise would have cast a ballot for a conservative. Here's Farage declaring victory for his movement after the election. The results show us very interesting things. If we had proposed a representation, we'd be looking at nearly 100 seats. It is very much my view that our outdated first-past-the-post electoral system is not fit for purpose and we were campaigned with anyone and everyone to change this electoral system. The results show there is absolutely no enthusiasm for Starmer's Labor what so ever. So this election was more about holding conservative leadership. By countable for drifting away from conservative principles than about a victory for the left. So really a complex political situation in both England and France, Tim, thanks for reporting. Good to be on. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know. (upbeat music) (bell dings)
Biden’s ABC interview doesn’t help president, Democrats toss Kamala Harris’ name around to take on the Oval Office, and conservatives suffer setbacks in elections in France and the UK. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.
Birch Gold: Text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit.
