President biden felt the nation needed a wakeup call when it came to democracy. And on one man he thinks s his biggest threat. The lead starts right now. Put partisanship aside and put country first. I say we must, and we will. Joe bidens message today using the storied political legacy of john mccain to make his case against threats to democracy and donald trump. In a state where team trump pulled out all the stops and some cyber ninjas to steel the vote. And one House Republican aide described the first Impeachment Hearing, one witness saying Current Evidence does not support articles of impeachment. Was anything achieved for the House Republican cause today. And americas Mental Health crisis. Some of the best minds coming together today to figure out why so many especially Young Americans are so unhappy and what we can do to fix it. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. Starting with breaking news. Moments ago President Biden wrapped up a speech in arizona about a red state with a warning to country one the very center of his 2024 reelection pitch. And ive always been clear. Democracy is not a partisan issue. Its an american issue. And theres something dangerous happening in america now. Theres an Extremist Movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our democracy. The maga movement. Ext extremist exercising carried out. The late nst in a series of Steak Attacks on donald trump and sources say many senior democrats calling for the president to spend more time directly attacks trump in an effort to energize both voters and donors. The party means republicaning free and fair elections. Accepting the outcome win or lose. It means you cant love your country only when you win. [ applause ] democracy means rejecting repudiated Political Violence regardless of party. Such violence is never, never, Never Acceptable in america. Its undemocratic. [ applause ] it must never be normalized to advance political power. Also notable, both time and the location of todays address. President biden delivered his remarks just hours after the republican president ial candidate and while republicans on capitol hill hold their first hearing in their Impeachment Inquiry into President Biden and the location, arizona, one of the five Battleground States at the center of trumps efforts to overturn the election in 2020. Also the home of the late republican senator john mccain, and by honoring mccain today officials tell cnn President Biden was hoping to remind voters of an earlier era of bipartisanship and loyalty to the u. S. Constitution. Ive come to honor Mccain Institute and library because they are a home of a proud republican who put his country first. Our commitment should be no less, democracy should unite americans regardless of political affiliation. Bring in kristen holmes. An important reason for the speech. Trump early as this week signaling he would challenge the 2024 Election Results if he doesnt win. He definitely describes him not winning as an indication that things are rigged or unfair. Thats right, jake. I want to be clear here. Donald trump, the things biden is saying hes done, hes saying them as well. Essentially said if reelected he wants to completely overhaul the government and upend the Democratic Institutions as we know them. That starts with these elections. Its not just 2020 as you mention ed fact election denial led to insurrection on capitol hill and its also 2024 and still not said he would accept those Election Results in 2024. Will you commit to accepting the results of the election regardless of the outcome . If i think its an honest election, i would be honored to. They rigged the president ial election of 2020, and were not going allow them to rig the president s election of 2024. We will win bigger and better than ever before. [ applause ] they rigged the president ial election in 2020, and were not going to allow them to rig the president ial election in 2024. And what was striking to me about what biden was talking about is that, again, these are things donald trump has said on the record. He has said them on his social page and said them in speeches, but biden was amplifying that. Look where we are now versus when trump was running for president the first time or in office. Has a much smaller platform. Not on twitter. Not all speeches are covered. Essentially theres a chance that theres a section of americans who dont actually know what donald trump has been saying since he left office. I want to go through some of these. Called for chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff mark milley to be executed. Wants to bring the Department Of Justice underneath the Executive Rig getting rid of the deep state allowing him to weaponize the Department Of Justice against his enemies. Making it political. He also said recently that if reelecteds the media would be covered, would be scrutinized. Why should people get airwaves for no reason and pay a big price for coverage and talked openly reinstate schedule f essentially allowing him to easily fire government employees, replace them with lo loyalists. Something donald trump wants to do, really a platform of the Republican Party. Preparing for a Republican Administration in 2025 and one of their key components. Try to get rid of these, bureaucratic employees with governmental job protections. Replace them with loyalists essentially going along with whatever the president wanted. Thanks so much. Discuss. R ron brownstein. Battle for democracy successful message in 2020 for joe biden. Talking about the soul of america. Didnt particularly know the extent donald trump would try to subvert actual democracy at the time. In the 2022 midterms a lot of people thought there was going to be a red wave. Didnt happen. In part because of what happened in 2020. Do you think its still a winning message for democrats, at least in the margins where it were make a difference . In places such as arizona . First thing has to be said all reasons kristen said and many others dealing with an unprecedented situation at least since the civil war. Dominant figure in one of our major parties is not committed to democracy in the way that we have understood it as a country. Probably could go back to john calhoun and the Democratic Party in the south before the civil war to the last time you could say that. Democracy was a surprise, surprised people extent to which is was a valuable issue for democrats in 22. Whats changed since trump anded by werent last on the ballot today. More concerns about age and inflation hurting biden. And you have abortion and insurrection hurting trump. When all of those combine, likely outcome is that bidens coalition will probably tilt further upscale. Talking about before. Inflation and the as you saw in trumps meg this week will make it harder for him to match his 2020 numbers among voters around the middle income feeling squeezed. Motor concerned about these institutions, democracy, abortion rights, hope to do even better than he did in 2020. And yet polls show that joe biden is really under water when it comes to approval on the economy, approval on immigration and the border. When it comes to approval in almost every realm. Hes facing really i think some of the worst polling for an incumbent president since jimmy carter. Do you think this will be enough . Absolutely. The other group really hears about this is young voters actually. They care deeply. People are still concerned about democracy. They understand that a weak democracy is bad for the economy. It is bad for their own pocketbooks. I think the other thing, though, i want to point out that the president was trying to do. Again, he was talking about that maga theme. Right . Sort of, again, we saw in 2022 kind of separating out theres an extremist part of the Republican Party and there are moderate republicans, which in places like arizona. Independents who did vote for him last time and are still very concerned about our democracy. I would argue obviously polling, been a little all over the place. Statebystate polls show slightly different picture than national polls, but also part of the speech is to get democratic voters, start to get us revved up. Debates. The debates. Quite frankly, most democrats arent paying close attention because we dont have to. Dont have a contested primary. Before its really a headtohead polls will be all over the place. Scott jennings here a second ago, david. A point he made was, this influences just 1 or 20 p of republicans in pennsylvania or arizona or michigan, wisconsin, where look at 2022 results, really did have a in those places, those states and commonwealths, election liars lost. Right. Interestingly, ron points out. Going to be Low Er Merion and montgomery county, pennsylvania. How much are excited about the biden message and ticket . How many show up and turn out versus come back in scranton, wilkesbarre, suburbs, blare county, altoona, trump outperformed in pennsylvania wildly. Right . Thats the question. Both things may happen. Likely both things happen. Biden overwhelming likelihood i think is that biden is going to need people in 24 who feel hes not delivering for their interest, vote for him anyway thinking he better represents their values than trump. All states, five key states, democrats won seven of the nine senate and governor races. In all of those states at least 75 of the people said, the economy in negative terms. Able to get people to make that leap. Could be harder in a president ial race, but a precedent here. Argue one other thing happening. Seeing it among some members in my own family conservative military folks, voted for trump first time. Get them back. Wont worry. Actually not going to vote. Therapy not going to vote for biden but if its trump just not going to vote. Thats the other challenge republicans may have this time. People may not vote for biden. May just not vote at all. John king talked about this. 50,000 to 75,000 people in all of these states. A huge universe a small thing. Four, five states. Also say 2016. I know. Listen, i was there. There on the ground. 45,000. I was saying. Lets not count out cornel west, impact on the party. Running a green party ticket. Jill stein, 3 of the vote. An articulate and smart, savvy guy on fox news. Out there. Had him on. Yeah. Saying hes going interesting to see if that peels off any. Not great for democrats and in the Current Administration as well. Very interesting. Ton turn off the tv and go home . Very tough race. A point made a lot of stuff President Biden is talking about is just facts in terms of what donald trump is saying. Like maybe describe them differently. But basically donald trump is not making any bones about what he wants to do in another term. As i said. We are in a situation we have not been in before as a country. We have the dominant figure in one of our major parties is running, has not only behaved in a way in the past but promising more of the same in the future of challenges in the basic pillars of american democracy. Accepting Election Results. Peaceful transfer of power . Yeah. Hanging former chairman of joint chief of staff. Revoking licences of networks of networks that criticize you. Not every voter is going to say, this is the decisive people worried about understandably affording necessities of life and may be people think donald trump was better for the economy than joe biden. 22 showed up reduction is few that says, who is better for my interests . Winning hand in america politics, its no longer true. One other point. In arizona i think a lot of democrats maybe you maybe not. Not sure. Worried that katie hobbs, the then, attorney general. Secretary of state. Secretary of state. Was not running the most aggressive Kacharismatic Campai and still won. Run against a more charismatic less hinged candidate more election denying candidate in kari lake because of enough republicans like, i dont want this nonsense. Right. Exhaustion. It is. Something you teased top of the show. Americans are depressed. In their own lives. Americans are feeling this a lot. If donald trump were to stop looking in the Rearview Mirror and start independence, the economy. People that are affecting folks saying we can do better. A different race. Well, if my aunt were my uncle everyone stay with me. Back to the panel. Going to the capitol next republicans rolled out witnesses after witnesses in their first Impeachment Inquiry trying to tie President Biden to the sleaze and corruption allege are there with biden Family Members and associates. Were they successful . Plus, another f bomb thrown in a testy exchange. That does nothing to solve the bigger problem. The government headed for a shutdown in less than three days. Stay with us. In just overtwo days. Look at that 2 days 7 hours 38 seconds, u. S. Government could shut down, if the house and senate are unable to come to agreement how to und the u. S. Government. What happens in wholly functional societies meaning millions of americans lose paychecks after tomorrow. Members of congress dont worry about them, though. They still continue to receive theirs. Of course. Much of the current stalemate lies at the feet of House Republicans, because they are divided. They cant even pass a shortterm bill. One that includes Border Security or pass the Senate Approved bipartisan bill, which doesnt have border funding but keeps the government open to midnovember. Despite the financial emergency it puts the country into House Republicans found time, do not worry, folks to hold the first hearing of their Impeachment Hearing for President Biden, which just ended after about six hour with announcement of the chairman House Oversight plans to subpoena bank records of hunter biden, the president s son and james biden, the president s brother later today. Republicans raisingble of the same as yet unproven allegations that President Biden himself personally financially benefited from hunters business dealings, but but and cnn reports republicans own Witnesses Today undercut the premise of this Impeachment Inquiry. Reporter House Republicans putting forth plenty of bombast. Would have reached to the ceiling. Reporter democrats noted, no new evidence. Whats missing despite years of investigation is the smoking gun that connecting joe biden to his never do well sons corruption. Reporter as the gop convened its first hearing in impeachment into president joe biden. Whether lunches, phone calls, white house meetings or official foreign trips, hunter biden cashed in by arranging access to joe biden, the family brand. Reporter republicans kicking off an Impeachment Inquiry set to explore whether joe biden performed any official acts, traded access or offered the perception of ax in exchange for money from foreign interests to either him or his family. Also on the gop agenda, whether Joe Biden Meddled In Investigations Into hunter biden. But the gop has not uncovered any proof joe biden benefited from his son Hunter BidensOverseas Business deals or intervened in Hunter Bidens criminal prosecution. In your testimony today are you presenting any firsthand witness account of crimes committed by the president of the United States . No, im not. Reporter even as republicans tried to drive home claims of biden family corruption. Hunter biden referred to access to his father as keys to his family asset. Those words will hunt hunter biden and his family forever. Reporter their own witnesses failed to back them up noted operating on allegation rather than hard facts. I do not believe the Current Evidence to support an impeachment. Some an inquiry has to establish. Not here to suggest there was corruption, fodder or wrongdoing. My opinion, more information needs to be gathered before i would make such an assessment. Reporter a hearing grew testy. Speaking about no evidence. Trying to introduce evidence. Youve already had your share of evidence. Reporter democrats ultimately slammed colleagues for pressing ahead with an Impeachment Inquiry amid a looming Government Shutdown. Incredible Holding A Sham Hearing two days before the government will shut down. Reporter these republican Witnesses Today, clearly they thought there were questions to be asked, jake, by these members of congress, but the members walk into this as if they already have the answers already the facts. That wasnt the case. Republican lawmakers watching this play out, other republican aides did not think it went particularly well. One senior gop aid