Warning in the dobbs decision, right, from the dissenters from the liberal justices. They said, look, this is a slippery slope. Republicans dispute this. Of course, we should note. But there are they do legislators here and there who have i mean, when you believe that fertilization that that life begins at conception, that there are some consequences there. And when you start to talk about the technologies, i mean, its entirely, you know, were seeing unintended consequences. Lets just put it that way. Just to note, i mean, how important this issue is, dozens of democrats have brought guests related to ivf and including The First Lady, including The First Lady. So thats another way that they show, you know, their priorities for this address. Thats from what weve gathered from the president s excerpts of his speech. Its going to be a big part of his remarks. Its also the most i mean, maybe second to democracy, if youre talking about base democratic voters, probably the most important issue for them is reproductive rights in this election. Kind of surprising, by the way, that none of the none of the democrats, as far as i know, brought anyone related to others. The first lady and President Biden. They have made it to the capitol. Lets listen in. Mr. President , how are you feeling . Great. Thats the second. How are you feeling . And great of the evening whoever Good To Great right. From Good To Great. Well he got to reinvigorate reinvigorated in the car with his grandchildren, but its kind of surprising that nobody brought a guest related at all to the prosecution of donald trump, because you could say i would not put it above any politician to bring, say, E Jean Carroll or anyone like that. Maybe they are in there, but thats something else. Thats a cloud over all of this is the fact that donald trump, who President Biden will be facing in november, has all these legal problems. Caitlin absolutely. And, you know, as mj lee reported earlier, that joe, joe biden, President Biden is not expected to say Donald Trumps name, but he wont have to. I mean, its going to loom over this entire situation. House republicans know that as well. And thats why, you know, when you talk to the white house, they say the headline from tonight, though, he will be talking about those other issues. Democracy is going to be the takeaway. And so when you see the Supreme Court justices and think about what a big role they are playing in this election that we are about to see in, when president , former President Trump is going to potentially face his trial for his attempts to overturn the election, its hard to ignore what a president s the Supreme Court is in this room and what dynamic and impact they are going to have on this election. And if you if you youve seen a couple familiar faces flashed in the last minute, one of them was jorge santos, another one in between. Right there in between john roberts, the chief justice, and sonia sotomayor, behind them. Thats Justice Kennedy, anthony kennedy, who resigned from the Supreme Court. I believe he was replaced by was it Brett Kavanaugh who took his place and so that that is its interesting, i suppose, as with jorge santos, he still enjoys privileges not to compare Justice Kennedy and congressman santos, but they are both formers. There we see, Lisa Murkowski and susan collins, both of whom in the last couple of weeks endorsed, nikki haley talking to, lindsey graham. Yes. Who did not endorse nikki haley. He is still with with donald trump. I just to go back to something that john king was mentioning earlier about the debate and things that are important. A number of centrist, democratic sources and frankly, moderate republican sources who want biden to win over trump said to me this afternoon, he better talk about crime. He better talk about immigration and the border. They see these as just along with reproductive rights, a critical message. And again, this is where you get this debate among democrats, because overall Violent Crime statistics are down nationally. They are down. So democrats bristle. They say, no, youre playing into the fox news argument. No, youre playing into the republican argument. But in major cities, the democratic governor of new york just mobilized the National Guard to deal with subway crime in new york city. And so this is, again, a debate in the party about, you know, do you if you talk about it, are you playing their game . But youre absolutely right. If you talk to democratic pollsters and the people who run the numbers among swing voters, suburban voters, the people who decide close president ial elections, they are very disappointed in the president S Performance on crime and immigration. Well, hes clearly going to try to flip the script on immigration, as hes been doing for the last several weeks. And to abbys point about reproductive rights earlier, it does totally energize and mobilize the base. But the reason its been so successful for democrats is because it goes far beyond the base. It actually we the that issue when it is on the Ballot Abortion Rights and a Post Dobbs World performs better than the generic democrat because its bringing in independents and some republicans to that issue as well. So its a double whammy. Its a base mobilizer, and it actually adds to the coalition. And if you talk to democrats about the bad polling for President Biden, the thing they will say is you can look at polls all you want. Were looking at elections and theyre talking about the fact that since the dobbs decision, since roe v wade was overturned in the Special Elections and referenda in states, whether red states like kansas and ohio and montana or the Special Election in new york, democrats have won. And the prochoice or proabortion rights side has won. Theres Congressman Matt Gaetz, and theyre hopeful that that will help joe biden, it will. And can we just talk for a second . Weve seen a lot of the Supreme Court justices who are down on the floor tonight and how what a what a unique, position they occupy this time. I mean, yes, they always theres always a cadre of them at these speeches. It has become increasingly political over the years. I mean, i was sitting in the gallery when samuel alito mouthed at President Obama that what he was saying about a Supreme Court decision about Election Funding was not true. And that was seen at the time as something that was, you know, very remarkably, a remarkably political statement from one of these justices. But they literally sit at the very heart of the election that joe biden, President Biden is up there tonight fighting for in a way that they have not been certainly since 2000, in Bush Versus Gore and possibly ever in terms of having to decide whether or not President Bidens opponent is going to be able to be charged in the, you know, for basically sending a mob to this very building on january 6th of 2020. So its important to point that out. But one thing i will say about the view from the Biden Campaign and from the white house is that they are not looking to these criminal cases against trump to play the role in this election. They do not think that that is going to be what this is going to turn on. And there are a lot of people out there talking about how it is obviously important for democracy, for the country, but they understand the prospects of these cases being concluded before the election, not great. The prospect of them being definitive and going in any particular way and moving voters in any particular way is, is too uncertain. And what they do know, though, and i think to jakes earlier point, theyre not wrong when they say that voters have been voting in a way that sometimes differs from what they say to pollsters about how happy or unhappy they are about joe biden or or even the direction of the country. The reason for that is abortion. But the reason for that is also because of choices that they have at the ballot box. And when republicans put up candidates who are on the far right and they dont choose their candidates properly, that has made a huge difference in these races. And they think thats how they see november at the top of the ticket. As well. Let me bring in evan osnos right now, who is who has been President Bidens biographer, just did an interview with him for the new yorker magazine. Evan, do you think this is the most important speech of President Bidens career . You know, hes had a very long career, jake, as you know. But i think it is a credible case to make. Look, this is an unusual moment because it is both a chance for him to try to talk about what hes done, and then he is also making his biggest pitch to the largest audience hes going to have before november. You know, i was talking to somebody whos very close to him and i said, how do you think he handles the pressure of a moment like this . And they said, look, to be honest, hes been dealing with pressure like this his entire adult life. The weirdest moment for him was when he wasnt under pressure, when he was in that period after his first, after the. Evan, let me just interrupt for one second. Im sorry. Ill come right back to you. But there we see the second gentleman, doug emhoff, the husband of the Vice President , kamala harris, who you see there on stage doing doug emhoff, who has become one of the administrations leading voices on the rise of antisemitism in the United States. Doug is jewish there. He just waved at his wife, and she seems to be smiling at her, at her goofy husband, in an affectionate way. Evan, back to you. Well, you know, i was just saying that i think in some ways, a lot of us look at what a president is going through at a moment like this, the pressures theyre under. Weve been talking tonight all about the many issues he has to cover. And in some ways, you saw him get into that car and he is projecting the spirit of a guy who is relishing this moment. I dont think that is fake. I will tell you, my impression from being in the oval office with him recently was, this guy doesnt have a whole lot of doubts about what hes doing. You know, were having a big National Conversation about this, and theres a lot of people who wonder whether he should have done this. Hes not wondering that you dont come away from a conversation with him saying, is he you know, staring at the ceiling at night . Hes thats not the moment hes in, jake. And it can be hard to capture that, i think, from far away there is The First Lady of the United States, doctor jill biden, taking her seat, next to the second gentleman or near the second gentleman, surrounded by by what are called skutniks, that is, special guests of the president of the United States there to illustrate various Policy Points and ways that what the administration has been doing has affected them. Theres a former house speaker, nancy pelosi. President biden is running late. We should note, he is in a holding room right now, and he is there is the Speaker Gaveling in the session, should we listen in . Lets listen in the president s cabinet. The president s cabinet. Walking in right now, obviously, there is the secretary of state, antony blinken, who has been rather busy these days, what with all sorts of crises in ukraine and The Middle East followed by the secretary of the treasury, janet yellen, Secretary Of Defense lloyd austin, whos Health Issues became something of a problem for the administration when he failed to disclose them, even though he had been hospitalized. Thankfully, his health is good. Evan osnos, it is quite a balancing act for President Biden. And as we David Chalian outlined all the things, all the things he needs to achieve with this speech, you see other members of the president s cabinet there, the secretary of agriculture, tom vilsack, the secretary of commerce, gina raimondo, and on and on. Is it deb haaland, who is the designee, voted no or we do not know yet. We just saw a picture of her. Oh, so its not her picture of deb haaland. She just posted a picture with the many members of the cabinet. So its not one we dont see is gina raimondo. Im not saying its her. No, we just saw her on the floor. We just saw gina raimondo. We are sorry, folks at home. Were trying to figure out a nerdy d. C. Parlor game, which is, theres the secretary of the interior, deb haaland. So not her. Who is the designated survivor . Kind of a dark, thing. A dark tradition in this, in this country about who will maintain the continuity of government should the worst possible thing in the history of the known universe happen to this building that were looking at right now, there is always somebody from the cabinet who does not attend. Theres the secretary of the department of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, who was a, impeached, by the House Of Representatives for, in their view, the republicans in the house not carrying out his duties at the border. The border, obviously a huge issue there. Secretary of transportation, i believe its the education secretary, miguel cardona. Miguel cardona is the secretary of education, we believe is his designated survivor waiting for. But but john king, the issue of the border, you see Alejandro Mayorkas right there, the secretary of the department of homeland security, who was impeached, although the senate is not going to take up that that issue. So he will not be, removed from office. And even if they were to take it up, the votes would not be there, how like what . Whats a say if you are President Biden and this is such a huge issue, immigration and the and the problems at the border, and obviously republicans have been talking about the border problems for quite some time. Republicans gave him the perfect framing by walking away from the bipartisan deal, a deal that had Many Border Security pieces in it that the president personally does not favor, and that many in his party dont like even more than him. The progressives in the party dont like even more, so hes going to say, tonight i was about to do something big, something you republicans have been asking for, for two decades or more. And donald trump told you to walk away. And so youre putting donald trump ahead of the urgent needs of the country. Its a Strong Political argument because it happens to be true. You know, that could have been passed and it could have been done. And trump called Speaker Johnson and other republicans and said, do not do this. Dont help joe biden. It might help him in the campaign. Do not do this. Its a powerful argument. The flip side of republicans is going to be youve been president for 142 days. So you were president for about, you know, more than 1000 days before you started these negotiations. Where were you for the first three years . And thats a perfectly valid argument, too, because the terms of the illegal crossings and the apprehensions at the border and other issues, theyre way, way up. So this is a its a giant policy divide about what biden was unwilling to do in his first three years. But trump has given him potentially, if they can craft it and play it right, a gift in essentially telling republicans, you know, dont do what you have tried to do for years because it might hurt my campaign. And if youre wondering who gets those great seats in the by the aisle so that they can shake hands with, for instance, the United Nations ambassador, the those seats are coveted quite a bit. People come early, manu raju, who is in congress right now, and manu, how did joe manchin get that sweet spot . He probably had someone saving it for him. Jake in fact, a lot of these members this is thats actually kind of unusual. In the past, people had been here for hours and hours and hours holding the seats. This time they had people saving them. But i want you to key in on when joe biden enters the room. Hell be greeted by some of his fiercest critics in the house gop, some republican hardliners who are sitting right as he enters Congresswoman Lauren Boebert sitting near the entrance next to Congressman Matt Gaetz and his congressman, Marjorie Taylor greene, also sitting very close to the aisle. Both boebert and Marjorie Taylor greene told me earlier today that they would not be afraid to yell back at joe biden if they feel like that. You know, in their view, he is saying something untruthful or something that they dont like. And Marjorie Taylor greene, of course, was s