in decades whether or not biden still should be at the time top of the ticket, whether or not he can continue to lead the nation. a question illuminated at lead last week, cnn presidential debate for years, biden his push back on that question consensus distantly answering in two words, he would say, quote, watch me. here he is in september 2022 ask whether you who are fit for the job. and when you hear that i wonder what you think let's take that and it's all my watch me. if you think i don't have the energy level mental acuity then then, you know, that's one thing another thing watching and keep my schedule just one month after that. i asked the president to respond to american voters who frankly admin watching whenever anyone raises concerns about your age you oldest president in the history of the united states, you always say, watch me. voters happened, watching you democratic voters approve of the job you're doing. democratic voters overwhelmingly like you but one poll shows that almost two two-thirds of democratic voters want a new nominee. in 2024. and the top reason they gave was your age. so what's your message to democrats who like you, who like what you've done, but are concerned about your age and the demands of the job. well, they're concerned about whether or not i get anything done. look what i've gotten done. name me a president, recent history has gotten as much time as i have in the first two years. not a joke. you may not like what i got done, but the vast majority of american people do like what i got done and so i just, it's a matter of can you do the job? and i believe i can do the job i've been able to do the job. i've gotten more done. i got the inflation reduction, i get all these up piece of legislation passed and i ran on that. i've said this is what i was going to do. i'm still getting it done in february of this year, cnn's mj lee asked president biden to directly respond to continued criticisms about his age and aging. >> this is how he responds. then for month when you were asked about your age, you would respond with the words, watch me. well, danny, american people have been watching and they haven't expressed concerns about your at your judgment. that is your judgment and public is not the judging the press i think he meant that is not the judgment of the public. >> mj is with us now. so that was then this is now take us inside this weekend's concert conversations and that big building behind you. >> yeah. well, jake, as you just reminded us, the president has long been dismissive of polling showing that many voters have a lot of serious questions about his age and his mental acuity. but as you want them to tell me, in that february press conference is main argument has really been i need to be the democrat chronic nominee because i am the most qualified. i think after thursday night's debate, it has become infinitely more difficult for the president and his advisers to the outright reject those concerns about his mental acuity and his age. and i think it's also fair to describe the last three-and-a-half days or so as the campaign having in an in full crisis mode, we know that they have been on the phone nonstop fielding questions messages, and worried concerns about exactly what happened spent on thursday night and also just asking the question of what is plan b and for right now, the campaign is basically saying there is no plan b. the president is going to remain on the ticket. we know that he spent and the weekend at camp david with members of his family and the family has very much been encouraging him to stay in the race and to continue fighting. the campaign is saying it is not even a remote possibility that the president is going to drop out of the race. but it is clear that the family is frustrated with how some members of his team handled the debate. we know that there were private discussions about about whether some senior advisers should be fired, though i think a lot of people would argue that maybe it isn't the advisers that should be blamed. it was simply the president's bad performance i think even more though than the inner circle that is around the president that is famous for being insular. it is going to be the president's family that is going to be all the more influential on any decisions that do come about his political future. >> so mj, very, very few elected democratic officials are willing to talk about their concern with president biden on the record are white house officials expecting that they're going to be able to keep them from doing from being candid about this from now until november well you know, plenty of democrats have gone on the record to express concerns about the debate itself, but you're right. that we've not heard a lot of elected officials saying that they have concerns friends about whether or not the president should stay in the race. that's not where we are right now. but i think the caveat is that that is now and we don't know what's coming in the next several days particularly as both the campaign and just democrats overall are waiting on data, they're waiting on research and pulling to come in to actually get a full picture of the post-debate damage from the president and as lawmakers, some of them have told us they think that the down-ballot impact will be more determinative then perhaps anything else that if data shows that he is going to risk that house remaining and democrats hands and that could lead to the dam breaking and some lawmakers starting to say publicly that they do need a plan b. >> alright, cnn's mj lee at the white house. thank you so much. appreciate it today, president biden's campaign chair, jen o'malley, dillon, was working the phones with party heads and campaign staff. one of those democratic leaders telling cnn the message was, this will pass, but we have to do our work joining us now from biden campaign headquarters in wilmington, delaware, senator chris coons he is a biden campaign co-chair. senator coons, thanks so much. after coming on, i want to start by just playing some of the moments to be on with you, jake, thanks for the chance to talk today. yeah. no, i appreciate it. i want to start by playing some moments from the debate the ability of medicare to for the ability to, for the the the covid excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with if the the total initiative relative to what we're going to do with more border patrol and more asylum officers. >> president trump. >> i really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. i don't think he knows what he said either how do you explain the performance at the debate and moments like that? >> well, jake, you just took what was probably the most difficult moment to watch the entire 90 minute debate. but you didn't share what i found the hardest moments to watch, which was when donald trump was unleashing a torrent of leinz of invective of vengeance. and we have to look at these two moments in khan contrast the philadelphia inquirer, the most important newspaper in the swing state where i spent the weekend campaigning, watched that debate and concluded that the political party whose leadership should be going to their candidate and saying in the interest of our nation and in the interests of our party, you should be stepping aside, sir, is the republican party because donald trump gave no reasons for folks to vote for him. and a lot of reasons for folks to vote against him. the next day, joe biden are president gave a forceful and clear and engaging speech on a campaign stage at a rally in north carolina and he's had strong days ever since. everybody has a bad night and i think that was a week debate performance. i don't think anyone in the campaign is disagreeing with that point, but i've been urging and i expect this will be moving forward for the president to reassure folks in the media, the general republic, the many editorialist and others who've expressed concern by doing unscripted. a casual engagements with journalists, with small groups of voters, a town hall. so you can see what i've seen with our president in the last few months. and of course, the last few years, he is engaging. he has capet bubble. he has an incredible record as president. i don't think you would dispute that jake but the core question is whether what you saw in those few moments of the debate. and over much of the ark of that 90 minute debate was someone having a difficult night or someone who is no longer up to the job? on the stage in north carolina, he wouldn't be running if he weren't confidence hizon for the job. so with all due respect it is not it is not honest to say that this is just one night. there have been moments like this that people have seen in front of the cameras and other moments. but without, with cameras not there. just two weeks ago. let me just show this clip there was another moment like this, not just a senior losing a train of thought, but something else going on here. he is an event about immigration. he tries to interview, introduce dhs secretary mayorkas and there's some sort of glitch. i don't know what is. let's roll that tape all the members of congress from homeless security secretary i'm not sure going to undo show why all can decide. >> secretary mayorkas i don't know what that was at. that doesn't trouble me at all. jake, frankly, you can put up a dozen clips of me of you of anybody who's on tv who speaks publicly all the time? losing their train of thought. ms stating who they're about to introduce, not having a fluid moment. and if we're honest with each other, jake, every time donald trump speaks in front of a rally, there's long stretches where he is saying nonsense, where he's talking about whether he'd rather be electrocuted or for eaten by a shark where he's saying nonsensical things about forests bursting into flame or windmills causing cancer. so to take that little clip and say, aha, senator coons, be honest, you know that our president is somehow mentally and firm. and yet to not put up dozens and dozens of much more alarming examples of the former president let me cut to the chase with what i think is as simple, but important moment of testimony here, jake only former president trump has a vice president, secretary of defense, chief of staff national security adviser, who say he is not morally fit to be president and refused to support him the whole cabinet of our current president, the entire senate in the democratic caucus every governor i know who already supports joe biden still supports joe biden and we interact with them and work with him regularly. so do all of us who are in public life and speaking regularly have slips and moments where we don't finish our sentence properly or misidentify exactly who were introducing absolutely. but i have been saying to the campaign senior leadership are president needs to reassure folks by doing some unscripted, engaging public events soon. otherwise, we're going to keep having this exact exchange until the cows come home and maybe until november, which i frankly think is a disservice to our countries so first of all, i don't think it's accurate to suggest that the news media hasn't provided are showing the american people clips of former president trump saying odd or potentially distressing things. i think that we've been doing that since 2015. and obviously, we have also been covering the many people who worked in the trump administration who have not endorsed donald trump, if you want to talk about a candidate to candidate match up, i understand that's not really what i'm talking about and i don't think it's fair to compare you or me losing our train of thought with whatever we saw in the debate stage on thursday and that little clip from two weeks ago. but let me move on to one other question. question because there is this question of what if, what if the democratic party decides to do something that you obviously don't think it's wise. the biden campaign wrote in an email this weekend that if president biden were to drop out of the race, quote, we'd switch to candidates who would, according to polls, be less likely to win than joe biden, the only person ever to defeat donald trump quote, then the email goes on to show polling from, to be honest part is pollsters. the chose vice president harris, governor gavin newsom, pete buttigieg, and how they match up. now to be frank, there only one percentage point behind joe biden in those head-to-head matchups with donald trump. so it does not actually look as though there would be that much the difference between the guy who has been president for three plus years and it's been spending tens, hundreds of millions of dollars running as the democratic nominee. and the people who haven't even been running what's your question, jake how does that make how does that make your point if you have newsome buttigieg inherits are only one point worse than biden in the head-to-head matchup. >> how does that how is that how is that like showing some sort of strength of president biden? >> jake i may be missing something. you're asking me to explain and defend an email that i'm not that i didn't author or send out. is your core question. let me see if i can get a question but let me try again. let me try again. i'll try again how would other candidates know the court lesson imperative because you reject the null? notion that there's actually anything going on beyond just a bad night or a bad moment here or there. let me just ask you, do you do you truly think? that president biden is the strongest candidate to take on donald trump in november i think joe biden two things is the strongest, most accomplished president we've had in my lifetime, not the question he's been counted out over and over and over. >> and he can go to the stage and say, here's my record. i in my speech at the inauguration said i would bring congress together and we would address infrastructure and manufacturing, and we would reduce prescription drug prices and we would invest in restoring our competitiveness as a country. and i would bring us out of the pandemic and i would address the challenges that i inherited from donald trump and he's done a magnificent job. he can say that the other candidates, governors have different states and so forth, can't say that his vice president can say she was a central part of that. and i do think that makes for an important argument and this is the core thing. i think you're trying to raise here, jake he needs to reassure folks with repeat performances in public that he is up to this task and address the question you're asking me. i have not seen evidence that are president is not up to the task of running four and continuing to serve as president. so that's something that is up to our president to prove to the public in the coming weeks. and i'm accepting that as an open question and a challenge. but i do think he has the strongest record in his first three years that any of us could imagine, just last month, our economy created more jobs in no small part because of president biden's leadership than it did in the whole four years that donald trump was president joe biden has the strongest record we have the all-time high in the stock market, all-time low and unemployment, we have crime going down. we have investments in manufacturing going. we are headed in a strong direction and he's got a great platform to run for reelection. he is not the only democrat who can run for president. that's not what i'm saying. thanks. yeah, but he is the strongest record to run this i mean, he has given fewer press conferences, fewer interviews, and any president in modern history including the previous one, who's now running for reelection. and this can all be in this previous one, told more lives per sentence than any candidate has ever sold is debates this. is not the discussion that we're having. we could certainly have that conversation. i certainly didn't particularly care for it when president biden said, no us service members had been killed in the previous four years, but moving on from things that were said that were not true i think it is easy to settle this right now by president biden going to the brady press center. the file in the white house and doing and doing a two-hour press conference everybody would run, cover it live networks probably would cover it live. he'd be able to answer all these questions. it's not a crazy thing to expect the president to do. and the fact that is, you know, that the campaign knows that the white house knows that that's how you settle this. you just put them in front of reporters and he handles himself with acuity aplomb. we all see it was just a fluke. oh my god. i can't believe it happened. and we move on. the fact that you haven't done that says quite a bit to me jake, what i've just said maybe three times in this interview is that is what i am urging and recommending. >> i think that the biden family had a long scheduled family retreat at camp david where they had a family photograph taken and they were discussing both this debate and the summer and their plans and i'm encouraging them to add something like that to the schedule, whether it's a 60 minutes interview or something at the podium, at the white house or town hall. that's not up to me to decide. but that's what i've been encouraging. our president to do. democratic senator chris coons from the small wonder state, delaware. thank you, sir. appreciate it thank you, jade, to wall street journal reporters who took a lot of flack last month when they're headline read behind closed doors, biden shows signs of slipping. their article was based on interviews with more more than 45 people what they say now, after last week's debate those reporters will join us next you could call them caramels or caramels, whatever you call them, kara metals 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