mode after joe biden appears confused and unfocused and last night's ■çpresidential debate. >> we finally beat medicare. >> we already did beat medicaid, we beat it to death. >> it was a slow start. there was no question about that but i thought it was a strong finish. >> what kind of party does that? >> it's hard to debate a liar. >> they talk about a relatively small number of people that went to the capitol and in many cases were ushered in by the police. >> mostly line, and without much fact check. >> as the debate aggressively got more and more and more manic. >> i just won two club championships. to be that you have to be quite smart. i didn't have sex with a star. >> you would think the candidate during the presidential debate said i didn't have sex with a tran 40 start was the loser of that debate. >> donald trump isn't just a convicted felon. donald trump is a ■çone-man cri wave. >> if that joe biden showed up last night there would be no questions today. there is a recovery cath. is just going to be very challenging and rocky for the campaign. >> choice in this election is simple. donald trump will restore democracy. i will defend it. >> good evening once again. i'm stephanie ruhle. we are now 130 days away from the election and the biden campaign is trying to reset and recover from the first debates. remember, bidens team wanted this debate to put trump's campaign on the defensive, but also to highlight his lies and dangerous policies, and those things were on display at last night but they were overshadowed by ■çbidens and performance, which even he admitted was far from his best. there was a lot of reporting about how democrats and donors are sounding the alarm today and some are even talking about the idea of a different nominee. but despite all of that, president biden made a defiant return to the campaign trail earlier today, missing voters that he will win this race. >> i know i'm not a young man, to state the obvious. well i know. folks, i don't walk as easy as i used to. i don't speak as smoothly as i used to. i don't debate as well as i used to but i know what i do know. i know how to tell the truth. i know ■ç-- i know right from wrong. i know how to do this job. i know how to get things done. i know, like millions of americans know, when you get knocked down you get back up. >> with that, let's bring in our friday night cap. former new york prosecutor and civil rights attorney charles coleman jr., molly john last, special correspondent for vanity fair and msnbc contributor, tim miller is your host of the bulwark podcast, the former communications director for republican jeb bush, and writer and comedian sarah cooper. you have definitely seen her videos lip-synching to the one and only donald trump. her memoir, foolish, tales of assimilatioo< determination and humiliation, is a must read. it is out now and perfect for the summer. we got a lot to cover. this feels like the longest week in the history of humanity. tim, i wanted to call you and text you last night but at the end of that debate and our coverage i needed to go to bed. joe biden had a very strong rally today. he looked better than he has looked in months. it was very different from last night. does today's performance in any way calm the panic that we've seen in the last 18 hours, come over the democratic party? >> non-. you want to call and text me or hug me last night? because i could've used a hug. it doesn't calm my panic. it might calm some other people panic. i'm sorry to report at the top of the show ■çhow i might be in the punch bowl a little bit tonight but here's the thing -- i think joe biden was good today on the campaign trail. i think that probably assuaged the concerns of some of the base voters, the very politically active democrats who are engaged in this stuff, who are on social media and get joe biden's videos and pay attention to his rallies. but there were tens of millions of people that saw the debate last night that aren't as engaged and joe biden was already struggling. that was his weakest group. part of the reason biden wanted to have that debate today was to focus the minds of people, to remind them why they hated donald trump and he demonstrated to them that he was up for the job. and on that count it was just a catastrophe, and from the people in my life that are casual observers of politics, i mean i'm sure like everybody else, the texts were just -- ■ç the texts were worse from people who don't pay attention to politics than it was today, my worst texts were from people who were like what is happening, is he this bad. can he recover from that? yeah, but as jen psaki said in the intro, it's going to be a big task and he's going to have to be much more vigorous and much more in everybody's face on the campaign trail than he has been, and if he's not up for that, that other conversation has to happen. >> donald trump's content, remember the actual content is important. as expected, it was chock full of lies. over 30 were counted. but is any of that going to break through given president biden's weak performance? >> it wasn't even lies. it ■ku(h insane stuff. we had h2o. the winner of this debate was donald trump because somehow no one noticed some of the stuff he was saying. it was crazy, crazy stuff, and i actually thought, as much as it was definitely a lot of questioning, handwringing, anxiety, it was also -- donald trump has this, he's so in this right-wing media bubble that he gives these little speeches that don't at all relate to the question, and because of the way this panel was set up, this debate was moderated, it really was an ability for him to just go into a right-wing talking point and not even really ever come out. it was just like malpractice. >> but malpractice on whose part? donald trump has been doing this from the moment he enteredç politics and president biden's team agreed to these terms. so for us to say oh my gosh, it's malpractice, what was cnn doing, they were doing what they said they would do and the onus was on president biden to counter donald trump's lies. and for the most part, he didn't. >> he was tongue-tied and i don't know, i was watching it as someone who sometimes gets tongue-tied. i definitely thought, but he has a stutter and i didn't think this was not the biden that any of us hoped to see last night, and i have seen him pull a rabbit out of the hat, and this was not that. >> sarah, what did you make of last night? >> stephanie, i got to be honest, i kind of checked out on the politics for a while, ■ç i hadn't seen biden speak in a long time and i have a lot of trolls on my social media saying how much he deteriorated, and i thought they were all exaggerating. but from the minute he stepped on the stage and he pointed to his podium as if to remind himself where he was going, i was really worried. and then when he started speaking i got -- i was shocked, and i'll be honest, i was shocked. i didn't expect that he -- i mean it's like the training, you're not sure where it's going and even if it was going to get there, and you're not sure when, i don't know. with trump you know he's going to like. you know what he's going to say. you know he's going to repeat himself. but with biden it was just my entire body felt like it was shaking because i just had no idea what was going to happen, and not in a good way. ■ç not in a like i'm watching a movie and i can't wait to see what's going to happen. it was kind of like watching a bit of a train wreck but the choice seems to be like in november either you're going to have a president who makes you feel dead you'll be alive for a president who makes you feel alive but you'll be dead. >> charles, joe biden has, by all accounts, had some incredibly big wins, big policy wins in his presidency over the last 3 1/2 years. none of us are going to deny that he had a rough night. not 24 hours later "the new york times" is out with an editorial titled, to serve his country, president biden should leave the race. is everyone including democrats giving up on him too quickly? it was a bad night but it was just one bad night. >> was in, stephanie, i am someone who believes you dance with the one who ■çbrought you but at the end of the day if this is the candidate that has brought the democratic party to this point, as the president, then i think you need to have a little faith. because truthfully, how do you position someone else to replace him as a candidate and say, we believe in you, we're going to give you our all, if after one poor debate they're ready to let this guy go? the thing about what democrats have been saying all along is that biden's strength, as you noted, is his record and are his accompaniments. well if you really believe that, then you've got to allow him to continue to push that and be the messenger. you find other ways to get your message out but what you don't do is abandon the person who you claimed, who you've been selling and pushing is responsible for this incredible upturn in terms of america's economy and everything else that the biden administration ■ç has said that it has done. so either you believe in your guy to be the one to push the agenda, or to move democrats where they need to be to keep the country in a good space, or you let him go, but you can't have it both. you can't let them go and then all of a sudden try to convince the voting public that you're behind another guy who you still think that the proper choice over donald trump. what i also think this says, stephanie, which is like weird to me, is that for everything democrats have said, there is a fear that we saw not just with joe biden but around donald trump in the fact that he in some weird way is not going away. whether it is the indictments, whether it's the convictions, whether it's the impeachments, whether it's the investigations, he's someone -- he's the bad villain from a horror movie that will not die. and i think that there are people in the democratic base, after watching the debate last night, really fear a sense of fear about that, that he continues to remain a viable opponent to joe biden. so i think it's a matter of confidence. you got to be confident in your guy and you cannot dump him after one poor debate performance. >> well could today's freak out by the democratic party, could that be a sign that democrats are actually the normal, healthy group, as opposed to what we've seen with trump and the gop, that no matter what he says, no matter what he does, he's their fearless leader and they get behind him no matter what? >> well absolutely. just like that, the republican party, it's a crazy cult. donald trump is insane. just grabbing onto what molly ■ç said, i'm substantively speaking, donald trump gave the worst debate performance in presidential history last night, defending rioters. he couldn't answer a question. just the substance, not the figure skating judging but the substance of what he said was the craziest and worst stuff that's ever been set on a presidential debate stage last night. that said, joe biden couldn't counter it. the worst performance in history, joe biden didn't have any coherent counter to donald trump's points, and charles, i'm sorry, it was not one bad night. people have been concerned about joe biden's age for months and months and months. people complain the media talks about it too much and i try not to talk about it every time i'm on but that doesn't mean i'm not concerned about it. like these concerns about joe biden's deterioration between how he presented in ■ç2020, whe he beat donald trump handily twice like a drum in two debates, and last night's dramatic. we can't pretend like it doesn't exist and so i think those conversations about joe biden is a sign that the party is healthy and it should not be waived away as like a one bad night thing. it isn't a one bad night thing. that's not true. >> molly, we're barely 8 weeks out from the democratic convention. is that enough time that if they wanted to change direction on candidates, they can pull that off, technically? >> yeah. i mean this is a math problem here and what it looks like is if joe biden decide he doesn't want to do this, which he has to be the driver here, he has to say because otherwise the party will never go along with it, and he can endorse and we ■ç can go to a brokered convention. and that will look like democrats delegates voting. delegates democrats don't have superdelegates anymore and that's a really important point so we really could have a convention where you just have these delegates, there are a couple hundred delegates. everyone is ranked the same, waited the same. they tend to be biden supporters so biden may have put some of these people in. they may have been loyal to him, which is really why you need biden to be the driver here, and he probably -- i mean in my mind, how this might go is that he would endorse his vice president, then she would go to a brokered convention and the delegates would vote. and while this is not necessarily an ideal scenario, it is happened before. it will likely happen again and ultimately it is a decision being made by the democrats during a brokered convention. there is historibql precedent. >> sarah, we are putting our candidates in a position that it is all about performance. so do we realize that performing, that's actually donald trump's superpower? it's the one thing he's actually really good at. >> yeah. i mean on the one hand i'm kind of excited that we're judging men on their tone for once. we usually just judge women on their tone but on the other hand, it makes me wish ai could figure out how to make a president because the fact of the matter is we know what the country wants. we know 70% of the country wants a woman to have a right to choose. why can't we just read that in to an ai robot president and the a irobot president makes the laws? i don't know, i'm very confused about why we are deciding on a president based on personality culture wars. but maybe i just don't really understand politics. i mean i understand it but i don't like it. >> tim, what's your biggest concern? >> your face looks distressed tonight so now as biden and the democrats are trying to regroup and team trump wants to capitalize on this, what is your biggest fear? >> my biggest fear is that the democrats circled the wagons around joe biden right now and joe biden doesn't have the capability to make a case against donald trump and to make a case to the undecided american voters out there that he's up for the job. if you look at the polls, people are like let's dismissedç the polls, well in the same polls in pennsylvania, bob casey the democrat is winning for senate. joe biden is losing. in wisconsin tammy baldwin is winning. joe biden is losing. in arizona ruben gallego is winning, joe biden is losing. why is that? i've been wondering that. why is that? it's weird that there are that many split ticket voters. we saw the answer last night. there's a certain percentage of voters that would be happy to go for a normal democrat, that are concerned about joe biden's age. there may be some other issues, maybe inflation, some weird stuff with trump being a celebrity. the main thrust of it, the main difference between joe biden and bob casey is their age, so we have to be honest about this and if joe biden is up for it, he's going to prove it and that's why they had this debate in june. i feel like i'm taking crazy pills, so don't be negative, it's just one night. don't be negative, ■çit's just one night. the whole point of why joe biden wanted to have this debate in june was to prove he was up for it because he knew that was his biggest hurdle, and it did the opposite. so we need to grapple with that and maybe that means rallying around joe biden because donald trump is such a threat. i'll be the first one to do it if that's necessary. but before we do that shouldn't we at least talk about it, you know? should we think about what the other alternatives might be or at least make sure that joe biden understands what he's going to do or his campaign team understands what is going to do? that's the part that's frustrating. >> while the audience grapples with what you just said, we're going to let them take a walk, take a breath and get a cocktail. >> i'm so sorry. >> a reminder of why elections matter. we are going to break down today's supreme court rulings in a big reveal coming in trump's immunity case on monday. and ■çlater, how women's ncaa basketball captured the nation's attention. i'll share some of my very special conversation from aspen with two legendary coaches when our nightcap on the 11th hour continues. continues. eight months pregnant.. that's a different story. i couldn't slow down. we were starting a business from the ground up. people were showing up left and right. and so did our business needs. the chase ink card made it easy. when you go for something big like this, your kids see that. and they believe they can do the same. earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase with the chase ink business unlimited card from chase for business. make more of what's yours. (tony hawk) skating for over 45 years has taken a toll on my body. from chase for business. i take qunol turmeric because it helps with healthy joints and inflammation support. why qunol? it has superior absorption compared to regular turmeric. qunol. the brand i trust. if you have chronic kidney disease you can reduce the risk of kidney failure with farxiga. because there are places you'd like to be. farxiga can cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, urinary tract, or genital yeast infections, and low blood sugar. a rare, life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, an allergic reaction, or ketoacidosis. ♪ far-xi-ga ♪ san francisco's been through tough times. london breed led us through the pandemic, declaring an emergency before anyone else, saving thousands of lives. from growing up in the western addition housing projects to becoming mayor, london has never given up on the city that raised her. london is getting people off the streets and into care. london never gave up on me. i found a home, and my life is on the right track. london made it super easy for me to open my small business, by cutting city fees. and she's reinventing downtown to make our city vibrant again. she's building 82,000 new homes and helping first time homebuyers, just like us. and london's hiring hundreds of police officers, and arresting drug dealers. san francisco has been through difficult times, but our hard work is paying off. working together, we're building a better future for the city we all love. ad paid for by re-elect mayor london breed 2024. financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org. i just hours just hours after the debate wrapped up, we got another reminder that elections have serious ■çconsequences. today the supreme court's conservative majority overturned a 40-year-old decision that helped federal agencies make rules, rules that protect clean air and water, that keep food safe and that keith let out of our toys. the court also undermined a key tool that prosecutors have been using in the january 6 cases, meaning that charges for some rioters could actually go away. monday is the courts last day and the justices still have to decide whether donald trump is immune from prosecution for his attempt to overturn the last election. but look at what this court has already been to impact americans in their everyday lives, and just member who is responsible for the conservative supermajority -- donald j trump, who could have more chances to appoint far right justices if he wins in november. our nigh