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right now on "andrea mitchell reports," two more months, judge juan merchan pushing off donald trump's sentencing in new york city until september, and then adding, quote, if such is still necessary. could the entire hush money verdict be tossed out between now and then? plus, right around now the biden campaign's full staff is expected on a conference call as democratic elected officials' concerns grow about whether or not the president can handle the rigors of a campaign as well as four more years in the oval office. can they turn things around and restore confidence in his candidacy? and it's a huge day in arizona as advocates move closer to getting an abortion rights measure added to the november ballot. the group spearheading the effort says they've not only

exceeded the number of signatures needed, they've doubled it and set a new record in the process. and good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. big fallout from the supreme court's controversial presidential immunity decision. the judge in donald trump's sentencing in the new york hush money trial has pushed back next week's scheduling sentencing of the former president until september at the height of the campaign, as the former president fights to get the whole case tossed out as a result of that high court ruling. one of the key witnesses in the case, adult film star stormy daniels telling my colleague rachel maddow in a new exclusive interview about the repercussions of this case as well as a separate legal action between her and mr. trump. >> they're trying to take his house. they're demanding personal information about my 13-year-old daughter. i refused to fill out that form. >> identifying information about her? >> yes. where she lives, her legal name,

her date of birth, like why do you need that about a child? so i didn't fill out that part of the form. i left it blank, and they rejected it and sent it back and are demanding that i be held in contempt, with sanctions, and that i have to pay this money. this is the one thing, this is my line in the sand. this is my little girl. >> joining us now is msnbc's legal correspondent lisa rubin who watched that trial unfold from inside the manhattan courthouse. also with us, former assistant manhattan district attorney and msnbc legal analyst catherine christian and brendan buck, the former aide to then speakers john boehner and paul ryan. he's also an msnbc political analyst. so lisa, what happens between now and september 18th? is there a possibility of the whole case could eventually be thrown out? >> andrea, there's a possibility that the verdict can be set aside but is it likely? no. between now and september 18th, each party will submit briefs and really what the issue is is

whether or not judge juan merchan improperly admitted evidence of actions that donald trump took while he was president that would qualify as official acts under the supreme court's decision earlier this week. in that ruling, the supreme court saying not only is a former president immune for official acts that he took from prosecution, i mean, immune from prosecution, but he is also immune in the sense that evidence of his official conduct can't be used in other cases against him, ones that go at solely his private conduct. so each side will submit briefs about the evidence that was submitted at trial and donald trump's lawyers will have to prove not only was that evidence improperly admitted, but it would have changed the jury's verdict because they wouldn't have had enough evidence to sustain all of the charges in each element thereof. i think between now and september 6th, we will find out how that all goes down.

>> and catherine, we're talking about evidence, particularly the hope hicks' testimony. michael cohen in the oval office, that key meeting. so was there enough documentary evidence, other kinds of confirming evidence, do you think, that the case stands, or does it have to be retried? >> to quote prosecutor josh steinglass, there was a mountain of evidence of guilt. so if you take out hope hicks' testimony, you take out the tweets, there's a mountain of evidence that points to guilt. and under new york law, prejudicial evidence that is admitted doesn't necessarily cause a conviction reverse. only if it's so prejudicial it denies the defendant a fair trial. that's what the new york state court of appeals, that's why they reversed harvey weinstein. i agree with lisa that judge merchan should have said what he said about he can't say of course the sentencing will occur because that means he's already made up his mind, so he has not made up his mind. he's going to read the briefs,

and then we will find out. but i think the defense who should have filed this motion, that would have been incompetent not to, but i think the motion will fail. >> brendan, let's talk about the calendar and the political impact. would it have been better for donald trump to have the sentencing next week as originally scheduled or in september that close to the campaign or the election when the campaign is absolutely red hot? >> yeah, you know, i don't think i would want to do anything right now that's going to change the subject from what's been going on with the president's debate performance, but you're absolutely right. moving it closer to the election is not actually an ideal sna r scenario. in june fewer people are going to be paying attention, and if he is sentenced to any short amount of jail time, that would be an enormous story before the election to remind people of what polling shows is their biggest concern about him, which is his conduct. all of that is overshadowed right now, and who knows what the world looks like or this

race looks like in september. right now i don't think they would like anything to get in the way of the story we've been talking about for days and days now. >> and catherine, stormy daniels, so she weighed in with rachel last night and she said that she hopes that judge merchan gives donald trump jail time. let's watch that. >> fining him is not going to do any good. i think, you know, taking away his control/ -- which is freedom, a jail sentence, if that's what fits it. he's so used to being in control. >> yeah. >> it's not about locking him up, you're gnat taking away his control would be more helpful in this case, i think. >> so what options are really on the table for the judge? that seems extremely unlikely, especially given everything that's happened with the high court and the fact that judge merchan does not want to, you

know, fuel an appeal more so than the appeal is obviously going to take place. >> i watched that interview last night. she has every right to believe that because her life has basically been destroyed by what happened, so she should believe that. i think it's highly unlikely that judge merchan in september is going to put the leading candidate for one party for president in jail, but his options are a jail sentence, and a jail sentence is really defined as a misdemeanor -- not a misdemeanor, one year or less. so in new york that would be rikers island. a prison sentence would be a year or more. he can give a maximum of four. people who keep talking about 20 years and 100, this is not a consecutive case under new york law. he can get probation. he can give additional discharge, he can give a fine. he has a number of options he can do, i do not think one of them will be incarceration. >> lisa, you also were inside the courtroom and watching

stormy daniels, very powerful testimony, and so she says that taking the stand, and she did that reluctantly under subpoena. she cooperated with the prosecution, but she says it has really added gasoline to the fire of the harassment, the threats that she was already facing. let's watch that. >> my mailbox was destroyed. my animals have been injured. my daughter can't go outside. there's press and looky-loos out there. i'm afraid to go outside. the death threats are so much more graphic and detailed and brazen, like people don't care. most importantly, like trump is trying to make -- i believe, trying to make an example out of me of anybody who dare stand up to him. >> so the judge did alter the gag order last week, so it's

still -- it doesn't protect witnesses any longer, right? like stormy daniels. >> it does not protect witnesses like stormy daniels, and andrea, as sympathetic of a figure as stormy daniels is, and i believe what she's saying about the harassment. you also have to remember that she and michael cohen, the lead witness in this trial have been highly critical of former president trump on their social media platforms and in other places and essentially what judge merchan decided is that it wasn't fair to allow stormy daniels and michael cohen to come on this network and other places and talk ad nauseam about former president trump and their criticisms of him but not allow him to do the same. grant it they don't have the same sized mega phone. i don't think former president trump, for example, is facing the same sort of threats as stormy daniels and michael cohen on account of the things they are saying about him. on the other hand, if one party

gets to speak, judge merchan decided the other one does too. since the trial is behind us, the danger of it impacting the fairness and integrity of the proceeding is no longer something he's worried about. >> lisa rubin, catherine christian, and brendan buck, thanks to you all. in 90 seconds, what my next guest calls the kamala harris vibe shift. democrats debating whether the vice president is stronger than joe biden at this point in november. his point in november -we're done. -what about these? looks right. nooo... nooo... quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty absorbs spills like a sponge. and is 2x more absorbent so you can use less. bounty, the quicker picker upper. the itch and rash of moderate to severe eczema disrupts my skin, night and day. despite treatment, it's still not under control. but now i have rinvoq. a once-daily pill that reduces the itch and helps clear the rash of eczema —fast. some taking rinvoq felt significant itch relief

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we have new reporting just now about how the white house is trying to tamp down internal concerns about president biden's debate performance urging staff to keep their heads down and tune out the noise. nbc's monica alba has a lot more on that. monica, you've been checking on that staff call, the campaign staff for the last hour. >> reporter: that's right, andrea, there are these two calls they're tracking. there was a call with the white house chief of staff, jeff zients who spoke with everybody across the building. he wanted to reiterate a message he delivered to senior staff on friday, which was really an emphasis on weathering the storm and trying to urge people to keep their heads down and focus on the work, i'm told, despite what he referred to as these challenging days, acknowledging, of course, how difficult it has been for some of these staffers to really deal with the external

commentary about the president's very poor debate performance. but according to sources who were on this call, i'm told that the chief of staff really did try to go through some of the accomplishments of the last three and a half years and tried to stress that this administration and this team would only succeed if they stayed together as a team and they did try to tune out some of that intense noise. he did acknowledge that these times are tough and that of course this might be personally very difficult for people as well, and that it's hard to ask somebody to focus on their day job when there is this swirl going around them as well. but he reiterated and cited the president's own concession that thursday night was a bad night, that it wasn't good, and that there is no sugar coating that, but that also the president afterwards has really indicated that he does still want to continue in this fight for his re-election bid and that he has stressed something of a family mantra, which we saw in north carolina on friday, which is this idea of when you get

knocked down, you get back up, and you keep going. and the message from chief of staff jeff zients i'm told to staffers today was we need to follow the president's lead, even if we feel like we've gotten knocked down over the last five or six days, we need to keep up, and we need to keep going, and we need to make sure that we're still executing on the agenda and on the mission and not losing sight of that. so that's just a window, andrea, into the real white house staffing perspective on all of this because some of the senior staffers, of course, have been in some of these key discussions and had heard that message. but some of the younger, lower level aides had wanted to hear that reassurance as well, and then i'm also told that the chief of staff said if you want to come talk to me in person, if you want to follow up and find some time, if you want to email me directly, he made all of those options available, even though he didn't take questions directly during the course of this brief call. andrea. >> monica alba, fascinating reporting there. thank you. in just the last ten

minutes, we've learned that two more high profile democrats in congress have received calls from president biden as the future of his campaign has been called into question. the president has called both speaker emerita nancy pelosi and congressman jim clyburn, i talked to yesterday. both of them told me they had not heard from him since last week's debate. chuck schumer said he received a call from the president too. it all comes after the first democratic member of congress, lloyd doggett of texas urged the president to step down, to step aside before it's too late in that interview with hallie jackson. >> i thought it was time for me to speak up, not for any self-gain but because i think the risks to our country is so great. we need the reality of the discontent that's out there among those of us who fear a republican house and senate and who fear for the future of our country and just a look at the cold, hard numbers from the polls.

>> joining me here in washington, nbc's ali vitali, also jennifer palmieri, former white house communications director under president obama, co-host of msnbc's how to win 2024 podcast and an msnbc political analyst. adam, former chief of staff for senator fetterman, former deputy chief of star for harry reid, and eugene daniels, play book co-author and an msnbc political contributor. welcome all, so ali, we've learned that the president now has spoken to senate majority leader chuck schumer to speaker emerita pelosi, to congressman jim clyburn, what else are you hearing from your democratic sources? >> andrea, at this point i think publicly the posture is such that only a few democrats have come out and said that biden should be leaving the white house or dropping his bid, but i think what's so notable is the fact that more of them privately are talking to many of us on our hill team saying that they have big concerns about the president's performance at the debate, the polling numbers that

they've seen, and frankly, the lack of reassurances that they've gotten directly from the white house. the fact that these outreach calls are only happening today to senior democrats, although, yes, yesterday biden did connect with the top house democrat, hakeem jeffries. still, it feels to the sources like i'm talking to like it's all happening too late and it presumes that they are just going to stay in line when the reality is there is a lot of chatter behind the scenes about if it's the time to break rapgs, if they want to give him the weekend to see how he does. a lot of things are fluid. most of my sources are going hour-by-hour to hour. there's a lot of mistrust and a lot of consternation on capitol hill now. >> jen a as communications manager at the white house, they're pushing back against the latest "new york times" reporting that president biden told an ally that he's weighing whether he should continue in the race. we should note it is from one anonymous source that nbc has not independently verified.

the biden camp has an all staff call, you know, they had that today. is it another sign that they're catching up, that they're responding too late and as debbie dingell was telling me earlier, he's got to show consistently that he can be off the teleprompter and responding to questions and, you know, doing live moments, that he's up to it. >> right, right, and so i think the campaign staff has done what they can do to make room for him to perform, and now he needs to perform. and so the problem is that abc interview airs on friday and that will be eight days after the debate, and what i fear is, you know, say he does a great job on that -- in that interview. and people are left to wonder what was the one-off, the debate or the interview. there needs to be a lot more interviews, a lot more one-on-one interactions with reporters, possibly a press conference to prove he can

continue to meet the bar. what i worry about is the amount of time that has gone by and the damage that has been done to people's confidence in him, right? so that is a tough thing. i do want to caution people. i really think everyone is moving way too fast to want to -- some sort of conclusion because the most likely thing is joe biden remains the nominee. we do not know how people are absorbing this yet. we need to see him perform, and i think people think it's easier to turn over a campaign to someone even if it is somebody in -- even if it is the ticket, right? even if it is the vice president. they spent $2 billion, or there's $2 billion of money invested, in joe biden ads, research, messaging about him being the nominee. right? if it's not going to be president biden, the next person needs to be set up for success. how important is that? no one's even talking about that. so it's just an indication of like how moving quickly in a

situation like that, like this is not a good idea. we need to be really thoughtful about, you know -- we as if we have any control -- the president and you know, if there's a successor about how that person is set up to succeed. >> and i just got a note from mike memoli, our white house correspondent that actually that -- there was that all staff campaign meeting was with the president and the vice president, and we just were -- we just flashed a picture, i want to show you that picture again. this is something that memoli also sent, which is a picture of a man outside the white house. he's a past donor, apparently, and saying leave, it says. that this is a man who donated to biden in this cycle and the sign reads, we love you, joe, but it's time to end your candidacy. that's one man's thought outside. we have to put all of this into context, adam.

you worked with john fetterman after his stroke, and you were facing mounting, you know, calls for him to drop out of the race. you weathered that storm. talk to me about that crisis and whether you think it's analogous. >> that's right, and you know, look, i think what senator fetterman's example proves is that having medical issues are something that human beings have. it happens to people in life, and it is possible to perform the job as he's shown, even though you've had some serious medical issues. you know, in that campaign, part of what he did was to flood the zone and to do several interviews unscripted, appearances that demonstrated to the people of pennsylvania that he was capable, despite these medical issues of doing the job, and it worked. the people of pennsylvania saw him out there, and they decided that he was okay. and i think to jen's point, that is what it would be really great

to see the president doing here. i'm optimistic that he'll do well in this interview that's coming up, but i think one interview in eight days is not enough. he's got to get out there more and do more and show people that he really is capable of doing this job and that the medical issues aren't going to stop him from being able to perform the duties of the presidency. >> and eugene, in this morning's playbook, you wrote about the vibe shift toward vice president kamala harris. the report, of course, was meeting for lunch. that's on the schedule today. tim ryan, the former member of the house named her as the person who should replace joe biden. how do democrats overall view her? has she come up in the polls at all? her own polling was also not strong, it was comparable to the president's before this. >> i mean, tim ryan is probably not the biggest -- you've seen -- house something similar,

right? what you're seeing -- >> eugene, we are having problems with your audio. we're going to fix that, so let me just jump to jen palmieri, and then get right back to you. jen, "the washington post" is reporting that former president obama with whom you worked, of course, spoke with president biden by phone to offer his support. he also issued that very strong statement in the immediate 24 hours after the debate. we also know that there is reporting that he has privately voiced his concerns about donald trump's political strengths and where the democrats stand. what do you think about the advice he's giving? >> well, i don't know -- i can't know exactly what advice that he's giving except that i think he, you know, like everyone, i just think -- i mean, i know this is a difficult situation. i know that the president has taken on a lot of water, but

honestly that is because everybody has been freaking out and i think that we could be concerned, want him to address this situation but what's happening now is we are -- we are putting him in a weaker position by continuing to be hair on fire. that does not mean i am in denial about how difficult the situation is, but it is why would you not have this man back at this point. and until -- you know, certainly until we're able to see, you know, more of how he's doing, and you know, they've made their problem worse by having the -- such a big delay before he's done doing an interview, but there's so much at stake for this country. i think people should have his back. that's what president obama's doing. >> and eugene, back to you on kamala harris, because this would be her job. this is the moment.

that's why vice presidents have their office, to be partners but also to be able to stand in, but what about the way she's viewed nationally as a political candidate, as the head of the ticket? >> yeah, i think what has changed over the last -- kind of the struggles at the very beginning, but what you're starting to see is democrats looking at her in a different light. after dobbs when she -- as she became the kind of leading voice for not just the administration and campaign, but democrats on abortion. they've seen her out there on an issue that's very good for them at the center point. so they are more pleased than they've been with her in a very long time. but they also are thinking about the politics of this. she is a black woman. she is the vp. as you said, she was the person chosen by joe biden to take over if anything were to happen to him. i don't know that he or anyone else was thinking about this moment, but in general, and so the idea that you're going to go to david pritzker or whitmer or

any of these other governors, white governors and jump over the first black woman to be vp in this country's history is something that black voters i'm talking to are not okay with and especially black women. you have the ease of, you know, as difficult as jen was talking about the changing of the -- all of the campaign resources, it 's a little easier than someone random. she could run on the ticket -- or run on an agenda that is very popular, even though president biden wasn't. we look at her popularity. it's obviously tied to president biden, but she does better with young voters, black voters, and brown voters, which are groups that he was struggling with. you look at a cnn poll yesterday that showed her still losing to donald trump but doing two points better than president biden. you saw her doing better with independents and better with voters of color, and so there are things that people are seeing in these polls and in these conversations as they're kind of thinking about a pull

the emergency plan b that vice president harris is in a much better position. i think she even was on friday morning when folks started having these conversations. i will say her team has been very explicit, and she has been very explicit to her team that they are not to be spreading this, that she is on his side. we also had in playbook this morning that the chief of staff for her office and all hands on monday relayed that to everyone, that continued to be relayed throughout the week so far. that is not changing at this point. however, she's in a different place with democrats than she was weeks ago and definitely at the beginning of their term. >> and partly already because of the strong position she's been taking on abortion, which was one of the key flaws in the debate performance where the president did not have good answers on the abortion question. ali vitali, in a somewhat awkward bit of scheduling but perhaps it's necessary the president's going to be speaking to a number of democratic

governors around 6:30 tonight eastern time, and among them are people who had been mentioned as possible replacements if it ever got to that, and if it were kamala harris. >> a lot of people in that room, governor wes moore, gavin newsom, jamie pritzker, all of those people are people we often talk about. >> josh shapiro is calling in. >> all in the alternatives conversation. i think the point eugene makes is a really interesting one about women and the presidency. kamala harris being there is important but it also means that democrats now can't overlook her, and the press on her and again, we can get into whether or not it's been fair. some people say she's been unfairly maligned for her time as vice president. police say about the complaints about her not being visible enough or making news would mean she was being a bad vice president if she were stepping in front of the president all the time. she is doing exactly what she needs to do is being a supporter. remember what was strong about

kamala harris's otherwise terrible presidential campaign, she was really good at raising money and assuaing donors, and that could be a real help to democrats if they are in a position of having to make this change. >> and of course the democratic leaders are saying and trying to push off any suggestion about a wide open convention that it would -- the money would come to her automatically but not to the others. adam, why is president biden waiting until friday to do a sit-down interview, and it won't be live? >> yeah, you know, i think jen said before it was -- it would have been better if it had gone earlier. i think that's true. there's been a lot of concern that's built over the course of the week that i think could have been assuaged if he had done this earlier. however, ultimately what matters is how he performs in that interview. if he does a great job, it will not matter as much that he waited. the worst-case scenario is to have waited and then have the

interview not go well. hopefully he'll be able to avoid that outcome. >> ali vitali, thanks to all of you. still ahead, did a critical battleground state get a step closer to putting abortion on the ballot. that's next. on the ballot that's next. i told him... at verizon, everyone can get the best deals, like that iphone 15 on them. (man) switching all the time... it wasn't easy. (lady) 35. (store customer) you're gonna be here forever. (man) i know. (employee) here is your wireless contract. (man) do i need a lawyer for this? those were hard days. representative. switch! now that i got a huge storage and battery upgrade... i'm officially done switching. (vo) new and existing customers get iphone 15 on us when they trade in any iphone, any condition. guaranteed. (man) i really wished you told me sooner. (roommate) i did.

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in arizona today, abortion rights advocates are delivering petition boxes with more than 800,000 signatures in the hopes of getting abortion on the

ballot in november. it is a critical issue for democratic campaigns in one of the most closely watched swing states this november. nbc's alex davin is live in phoenix. also with us is nbc's vaughn hillyard, a native arizonian. alex, how likely is it that they're going to get this on the ballot? they seem to have more than enough signatures. >> reporter: that's right, andrea. the arizona secretary of state requires about 383,000 ballot signatures for any ballot initiative to go before voters in november. arizona for abortion access, the coalition of reproductive rights organizations that are organizing this ballot initiative handed in about 823,000 signatures, more than double the number of required ballot signatures. i actually just spoke with arizona secretary of state who confirmed with me that this is the biggest number of signatures ever handed in in arizona state history. so while opponents of abortion rights have told nbc news they

have lawyers on retainer waiting to scrutinize each and every signature hoping to invalidate them, the sheer number makes it a tall order to stop this ballot initiative from going before voters in november. andrea. >> and vaughn, take a step back, the bigger picture, how could this issue impact that closely watched senate race there as well as the top of the ticket? >> right, number one exit polling from the 2022 midterm elections in arizona found that 60% of arizona voters supported reproductive rights, abortion access. and so for kari lake, i think that she is the republican senate candidate, and she is a pretty good place to jump off of because back in those 2022 midterms when she lost her race for governor, she had a position that she was going to be fined with whatever abortion law ultimately was on the books, and that included that 1864 abortion ban, which would have essentially barred all abortions in the state of arizona, but after that law momentarily went

on the books in the state, she quickly reversed course here this year, after, again, that 2022 loss, and she has now stood by that 15-week abortion ban that is on the books here. and so this is the reality that is sinking in for a lot of republicans is that a majority of voters, not just in arizona but around the country, are in favor of reproductive rights, and so this in the senate race, ruben gallego is somebody who has been a long-time progressive there, and just a couple of years ago pretty much anybody that you talked to, even in the democratic side of the aisle, if they tell you if they had been told that ruben gallego would potentially be a u.s. senator in such short order in the state of arizona, they would have questioned how did the political lines change in arizona. and what are the answers if he does win this race against kari lake in november could very well be abortion, and having this proposition on the ballot at the same time as this critical senate race, this could very

much be a major voter turnout effort on behalf of abortion rights, but also directly impact a democrat like ruben gallego who's running for the u.s. senate to maintain that seat. >> alex tabet and vaughn hillyard, thanks to both of you. coming up, in the voters' words, we'll take a look at msnbc's symone sanders townsend's wide ranging conversation in a battleground state, pennsylvania, with voters who are key to president biden's re-election chances. you're watching "msnbc reports." "ms"

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president biden appears to be losing some support in the all important battleground state of pennsylvania, from non-white and young voters compared to his win in 2020. after last week's debate, symone sanders townsend and melissa mary sat down with seven black women in pennsylvania where president biden launched his re-election campaign. while some wanted to change course from mr. biden, others said it wasn't realistic. >> it feels impractical to change course, and i think at this point strategically to rally around our guy, who was elected through the process and he's got the best shot at beating the alternative. >> joining me now is symone sanders townsend, co-host of "the weekend" here on msnbc.

talk to us about what those seven women told you and acknowledging that it is very complicated to change forces midstream. >> thank you so much, andrea. melissa murray and i went to blue bell, pennsylvania, in montgomery county as you noted, a county that was actually critical for joe biden's win in 2020. the philadelphia inquirer noted a marginal dropoff inmont dpom ri county with non-white and younger voters would be the difference in joe biden winning or losing pennsylvania, which i thought was an amazing statement. so we took ourselves to blue bell, and what they said particularly about the debate was very interesting. we talked about other topics obviously. the supreme court, abortion rights, gun violence, how black women are perceived by democrats and republicans, but their initial reaction to the debate was very telling, and i think indicative of where a lot of the voters are.

we heard about elected officials and the donors over the past couple of days, but not the voters. here's what they had to say about the initial reactions from that debate, that first presidential debate, and i asked them about the calls for president biden to bow out of the race. take a listen. >> anybody here think that joe biden after seeing that first debate that joe biden should drop out of the race? >> i hope that both candidates would drop out of the race. both. i didn't like either one of them. i didn't think they represented the united states well. i traveled outside the country a while ago to visit joy, and i get it. people are looking at the united states like what are you all doing? what are you all collectively smoking? it's embarrassing. so i wanted them both to drop out. >> same here. absolutely. wish they would both drop out. i'm a bit worried about biden's ability to be able to run a country. i don't know if he'll be able to do it if he is elected for the next four years, and i do think

he does have other options within the party who could step up and carry out similar things that he wants to be carried out. it just doesn't -- i don't think it should be him. >> trump is only a few years younger than biden. do you worry about his ability to run the country? >> not just age but like mentally. that man is -- >> cognitively. >> that man is unhinged, absolutely, yeah, no. i don't trust trump at all. >> the last young woman there speaking, her name was clark, a recent masters graduate who works in marketing. and andrea, i think what was so -- what stuck out to melissa and i about our conversation with these women, particularly on the topic of, you know, should president biden continue getting a different candidate, you heard a range of sentiments there amongst black women. i think we often hear that -- and talk about black women as though they are a monolith, but as you see, there's a diversity of sentiments there. one thing that we also gleaned from this conversation is, in fact, that while, you know,

clark who you saw there last speaking, izetta, they both noted the debate performance made them say all of the candidates should drop out. when pressed and asked who would they support in this race, clark said she's still making her decision, but she knows she's not going to vote for trump. and izetta noted b obviously she is not voting for trump, so there you have it, andrea, from the voters directly. >> oh, it's fascinating, symone sanders-townsend, thank you so much for bringing that to us. be sure to tune in to symone's show "the weekend" airing saturdays and sundays at 8:00 eastern right here on msnbc for a lot more of her insights. and still ahead, plains, trains and automobiles, what to expect if you're among the millions headed out to celebrate the fourth. the millions headed out to celebrate the fourth ( ♪♪ ) asthma. it can make you miss out on those epic hikes with friends. step back out there with fasenra. fasenra is an add-on treatment for eosinophilic asthma

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briefing, the first briefing since that debate is about to start, karine jean-pierre, let's go to the briefing. >> this announcement is the seventh security assistant package that president biden has authorized to help ukraine since he signed the national security supplemental in april. it includes missiles for ukraine's air defense systems, ammunition for high mobility artillery, rocket systems, artillery rounds and other critical capabilities that are being drawn down from u.s. stocks using presidential draw down authorities. it also includes new funding that the department of defense will use to purchase interceptors for patriot and air defense systems to help ukraine defend troops and cities against russia's aerial attacks. the united states support over the last few months has been critical in helping ukraine defend their territory against russia's advances. thanks to the bravery of the ukrainian forces and weapons

deliveries from the united states and our allies and partners, it is increasingly clear the russian offensive iran kharkiv has been a failure. and as president biden has been clear, we are committed to continuing to stand with ukraine until they prevail against russian aggression. so i want to share a bit of additional updates before -- for all of you before we start. i know some of you have been trying to confirm some of this information that i'm about to share. i'll do it right now. the president has connected with leader jeffries, senator majority leader schumer, and today president biden taped two black radio interviews that will air tomorrow morning. one is with earl ingram on civic media network which airs across wisconsin and one with andrea laufel sanders, on the source in

philadelphia, and as governor waltz of minnesota announced today, the president will meet with 20 democratic governors. as you know, these governors are some of our closest partners when it comes to creating jobs, building new roads and building bridges, and so much more. and so the president certainly looks forward to meeting with them and with that, i am happy to take your questions. >> thank you. last night at the fundraiser, the president blamed jet lag for his debate performance. but he was back state side for well over a week, so does he really need more than a week and a half to recover from traveling in europe and is that really what he thinks caused his poor performance? >> just a couple of things. i appreciate the question. the president has spoken to this many times about the debate and so he had an opportunity to do that in front of supporters, and as you just stated, he did that.

he talked about, he owned that the debate was not his best night. and he said himself it's not an excuse but it's an explanation. i was standing here yesterday, and many people were asking why, and what's the explanation, and that's what you heard from him. look, the two, i think, in addition to the two major trips, he was also doing -- continuing to do his presidential duties. he worked late in doing that, and he also prepared for the debate. and on top of that, there was obviously the jet lag, as you just asked about, and also he had a cold, and you all heard directly from him. during the debate he had a hoarse voice. many of you reached out to me and my team and other members of the white house, asking what was going on. we confirmed that he had a cold. i think those two things, continuing, obviously to do his duties as commander in chief as the president, so i think some of you here in this room can certainly relate to, you know, what could happen when you're having an important moment and

you're not feeling well, and, also you wish you could have done better, and so he took ownership. i think that's important. and he's going to continue to make a strong case for his agenda and that's what you're going to see. and he was given an explanation, and that's what he wanted to do. he wanted to get that out there and for people to hear directly from him as he has been doing since friday of last week. >> i know you're calling it explanation, but it seems like there are new excuses from the debate of what went wrong. >> i don't think it's a new excuse. i think some of your colleagues reached out to us about the schedule. some of your colleagues asked if the schedule was too strenuous or was it because of the jet lag, and so we are laying out and explaining exactly what happened. you heard from the president. you've heard from me, and it was, you know, indeed a schedule where, you know, the president traveled six time zones forward

to g7 in italy, nine time zones back to l.a. and three time zones for it again to d.c. that's something that the print pooler on that day laid out for all of you and those who read the pool notes. and on top of that, he did have a cold. it's an explanation. i don't think it's in addition. i don't think it's -- we certainly don't want to explain this away, but you all asked me for an explanation yesterday. the president gave that directly yesterday to his supporters. he wanted to make sure, knowing that all of you would get that information as he's speaking to his supporters last night. >> you mentioned, why wasn't he doing that on friday, damage control, why was he waiting to do that until the middle of this week? >> look, i was asked a similar question by one of your colleagues yesterday. and, look, you know, the president obviously right after the debate, he visited four

states in two and a half days, gave a couple of remarks. he met with supporters whether at the waffle house or in atlanta at a watch party or north carolina where there were hundreds of supporters there, and in raleigh, and so he was busy dealing with, you know, dealing with his schedule and also speaking directly and engaging with his supporters and spend time with his family. i think what's important is he has done this outreach, having these conversations. it is important to him to do so, and the folks that i laid out that he spoke to, some of them have been his colleagues. some of them have been elected officials that he has known for some time. obviously, you know, leader jeffries is a new relationship that he has. someone that he obviously respects and so, you know, it is -- i think it's important to note that they were strong conversations. that's something that the president told me and my team directly moments ago.

he was walking around, and we happened to see the president, and he said they were strong conversations, and by the way, he looks great. the vice president is great, and they are ready to continue working on behalf of the american people. >> thank you. hi is president biden considering stepping down? >> absolutely not. and you heard, i believe, directly from the campaign as well. >> given the ground swell of concern from fellow democrats, from donors, from supporters, doesn't he owe it to the american public to reflect on whether he should step down? >> i mean, look, in my answer to her question, he had an opportunity to talk to supporters. he's done it a couple of times at this point and laid out what happened on that night, talked about how he understands and it was not his best night. he understands that it is fair for people to ask that question. but we cannot forget his record.

and what he's been able to do. we cannot forget how he's been able to deliver for the american people for almost four years. that matters, too, and he has the most historic record, administration, the most in modern politics, and that should matter. he wants to continue to do that work. you know, a lot of his -- what's on his agenda is very much popular with majority of the american people, whether it's continuing to build a strong economic kind of economic policies. he's done that. creating new jobs. he's done that. 15 million jobs. he wants to work on that and continue to do that. and so he wants to continue to deliver, expanding health care, all of these things he believes is important, the majority of americans believe it's important, and his record, he wants to make sure people do not forget about the record he's been able to lay out on behalf of the