Biden the ‘Only Democrat Who Can Beat Donald Trump’

Kuhn: As we’ve seen over the years, betting on Joe Biden is always a bad bet. I was with him when he announced his candidacy in Philadelphia in 2019, and most of my colleagues said he was too centrist, too white, too moderate. I was with him when people didn’t count on him in the New Hampshire primary. And I was with him when he was sworn in as president. And he gave an inspiring speech, trying to unite us after the three crises he inherited from Donald Trump: a mishandled pandemic crisis, a soon-to-be-down economy, and the January 6th storming of the Capitol, which frankly led to a crisis in our democracy.

And I was with him as he delivered on the big bipartisan initiatives that he said he would get done – signing infrastructure legislation, signing manufacturing investment legislation, cutting prescription drug costs and signing climate change legislation. Joe Biden has a great track record, and I know, just like the American people, that when he gets knocked down, he gets back up and fights even harder. And that’s what he plans to do.

KARL: But, Senator, as you clearly see, there are many who agree with much of what you just said and are very alarmed by Biden’s debate performance and who say he should drop out of the race.

I would like to read just three pages from the editorial page of The New York Times. Tom Friedman said, “For America to have the best chance of thwarting the Trump threat in November, the president must voluntarily declare that he will not run for reelection and will send all of his delegates to the Democratic National Convention.” A New York Times editorialist said, “Calling for a new Democratic candidate in the final days of the campaign is not a decision to be made lightly, but it reflects the scale and seriousness of Trump’s challenge to our values ​​and institutions, and Biden’s inability to stand up to them.” Another columnist, Maureen Dowd, said, “Biden is endangering the democracy he says he wants to protect.”

Now, these are all people who want to stop Donald Trump. They’re not people who want to stop Joe Biden. Is the president listening at all to these people who have supported him?

KUHN: John, the most important battleground state is Pennsylvania. I campaigned there all day yesterday. And the most important newspaper in Pennsylvania is the Philadelphia Inquirer. And they said that after the debate, Republican leaders should have said the candidate was “unfit to run for president,” and that after the torrent of lies and revenge and anger that Donald Trump unleashed on the debate stage, the Republican Party should have told Trump to drop out of the race.

I think the Philadelphia Inquirer was right and the New York Times was wrong.

Karl: But I’m not asking who was right or who was wrong. What I’m asking is, given what these people are writing, is President Biden listening? Again, in the past, President Biden’s allies have begged him to drop out of the race. Is he listening? How is he responding to that?

Coons: Well, Jonathan, what you’re quoting here is an editorial from the New York Times.

Carl: Well, you know that’s not just the New York Times.

KUHN: There is not a single senior Democrat who supports or endorses him. Not a single governor. Not a single senator. Certainly not the vice president.

Remember, the biggest difference between Donald Trump and Joe Biden is the mindset of the people closest to him. Don’t just take my word for it. Donald Trump’s own Vice President, Chief of Staff, Secretary of Defense, and National Security Advisor have all refused to endorse him and have said he is unfit to serve as President again.

The stakes in this race couldn’t be higher, and Joe Biden is the only Democrat to beat Donald Trump.

Carl: Well, just…

Kuhn: He’s a candidate for president in November, and he has the best chance of winning.

Carl: So let me ask you, you don’t think Joe Biden is the only Democrat who can beat Donald Trump, do you?

Kuhn: I think he’s the only Democrat who can beat Donald Trump.

Carl: Really?

KUHN: And, quite frankly, after the debate, he had his best day yet at grassroots fundraising. The first polls after the debate showed Joe Biden catching up with Donald Trump.

I understand the concern, anxiety and surprise among critics, and that’s great and, frankly, expected.

I remember the 2022 midterm elections, and all the editorial pages were saying there was going to be a Republican wave, that it was going to be a bloody battle, that we were going to lose four or five seats in the Senate.

I went to see Joe Biden and expressed my concerns that he was too focused on democracy, too focused on the threats to democracy from Republicans running for Senate and Secretary of State, and he said, ‘Chris, trust the American people. They see this clearly.’

He was right. I was wrong.

Carl: Well, they

Coons: We won overwhelming victories in the midterm elections and increased our majority in the Senate.

KARL: Do the president’s advisers — his political advisers and his campaign — bear any responsibility for what happened on Thursday? They obviously had six days to prepare the president. They wrote these rules. These rules were asked for by the campaign and accepted without change by the Trump campaign. Do these advisers bear any responsibility?

I think you’d agree this was a bad night for Biden. Are they to blame?

Kuhn: I thought President Biden’s performance in the debate was weak. He had a raspy, rough voice. Sorry, raspy, rough voice. He didn’t answer some of the questions very forcefully.

But at the same time, I thought Donald Trump’s debate performance was horrible. Yes, he spoke candidly, but what he said was lie after lie, and it left most people who watched it either convinced to vote for Joe Biden or wary of the prospect of Donald Trump.

The polls I saw after the debate were actually moving in Joe Biden’s favor.

So I think that decisions about the campaign, about preparing for the debates, about the path forward, are going to be made by Joe Biden, but I was reassured that the next day, we would see the Joe Biden that we see every day on the world stage, the Joe Biden that gave compelling, powerful speeches on the beaches of Normandy, that dominated the room at the G7 in Italy.

Carl: Okay.

KUHN: And on the campaign trail in North Carolina, I saw a strong, engaged, capable Joe Biden.