>> from washington, "the original. for over three decades, the sharpest minds, best sources, hardest talk. john: issue one -- barack back biden? >> the vice president is somebody who has already run for president twice. hes been on a national ticket through two election cycles now. both in 2008 and in the re-election of 2012. so i think you could make the case that there is probably no one in american politics today who has a better understanding of exactly what is required to mount a successful national presidential campaign. john: thats white house press secretary josh earnest seemingly

endorsing a joe biden presidential candidacy. re-affirming president obamas belief that selecting joe biden as vice president was his best political decision, mr. earnest also appeared to offer an implicit rebuke of hillary clinton. after all, mrs. clinton also served in president obamas cabinet as secretary of state between 2009 and 2013. and get this. mr. earnest suggested mr. obama might endorse joe biden if he enters the 2016 presidential race. with hillary clinton struggling in the polls and allegations that she mishandled classified material on her private email server, some democrats believe the party needs another candidate. mr. biden has allowed these activists to build a buzz around his name as a possible alternate. indeed, just last weekend, the vice president returned to washington, d.c. from delaware to meet with liberal democratic senator elizabeth warren of

massachusetts. miss warren is seen as a potential biden running mate. question -- if joe biden runs for the presidency, will president obama support his candidacy? i ask you, eleanor. eleanor: i think president obama would love it if joe biden succeeded them. it would be a total vindication of eight years of obamaism transferred into bidenism but i strongly doubt that he will enter the primary race and vocally support either candidate before it becomes clear what's happening. i think joe biden wants to run. the only cure for once you get the presidential bug apparently is embalming fluid. this would be his third time. i think people who know and actually love joe biden. there's a great deal of affection for him in washington on both sides of the aisle. they don't want to see him humiliated. not sure there's support out there, not sure he can raise the money.

on the other hand what if there is a lot of support? then you have a bruising fight within the democratic party because hillary clinton is not going to go quietly. she's kind of sewed up the base hit. she's got a lot of money. so i think if biden does get into the race, i don't think anybody begrudges him. it's his right certainly as a democrat and as a sitting vice president but i'm not sure in the end that this would be good for him or for the democrats. john: without breaching democratic protocol, what he can do is publicly lavish praise on biden as a vice president. privately let it be known to key insiders he'd like to see biden win. couldn't he do it that way? sure he could. clarence: he could, yeah, but the question is does he wants to be very public about this? i think he wants to be even handed. my theory is that president obama cares about his legacy more than anything else and whether hillary clinton or joe biden wins, that helps his legacy.

whereas if the party is divided into the convention as a fractious democratic party that we used to know in the olden days -- eleanor: it doesn't matter so much if they're divided. they were divided in 2008 and they won decisively. david: then eventually it had to stop because he won decisively. the one thing president obama's legacy requires is for a democrat to win the next election. the single most poisonous split in the party in recent times was clinton world vs. o bill: world. if that happens, it only helps the republicans. john: what would it do for hillary clinton's campaign strategy if biden does get into the race? eleanor: i think they're already in panic mode if he gets into the race. in past attempts for the presidency, biden has not done well.

hillary clinton, not providing that amount give the he's just running as someone who was barack obama's vice president. very lop popular vice president with democratic voters. there's his advantage. attacks on the republicans and season >> she can't attack him too much. let's not forget, he tragically lost his son the other day to cancer. eleanor: they're friends and they actually don't -- i can't with. i think biden's rationale is that coming from his middle class background and his personal life that he is a better messenger on the populist issues, particularly on the economy, than hillary clinton ask. -- is. a lot of issues, particularly concerning women and girls, -- susan: but she's also created this opening for biden with her own ethical problems. the issue with her email server. the hearing in october is not going to help her. she's clearly left an opening for biden.

that is the problem too. clarence: this might be good for her, though, because she does need to get out more. she has a fortress mentality too much of the time and not been others. too much of a head start on biden, especially when it comes to fundraising? clarence: she's got a big head start but that doesn't mean -- eleanor: hillary lost in 2008 in part because she didn't organize in the caucus. she has people on the ground in but biden is the vice president. he has significant resources he can put to work and there's a lot of affection for him. john: there are 700 or so bundlers who are sitting on the sidelines and suppose they line up with biden, can they close gap with hillary? eleanor: i wonder if they'll do anything without a signal from the president. as you said at the beginning of

the segment, what role he might of making some type of endorsement, maybe not in front of the podium but in a way more hidden from public view? clarence: it's possible. one thing about biden is that he does have tremendous appeal with white, blue-collar males, which the democratic 1960's. that's something bill clinton did well in 1992 and not quite as well in 1996. but that's the kind of thing side. susan: he's better at the podium than hillary clinton is. she's often accused of being too remote or distanced herself from voters. eleanor: he's got a lot of gifts but he's got problems too. he's kind of a gas machine. let's remember that. susan: you have donald trump and a biden -- they'd cancel each other out, i guess. in some ways in terms of the way

they are at the podium. they're very spontaneous, very off the cuff. it could be an interesting challenge between them. john: protocol dictates that sitting presidents refrain from endorsing a candidate. but he can do a lot short of outright endorsement, can he not? and obama has signaled that a biden run con forms with his blessing. correct? clarence: sitting there with his decoder -- i see the signal but -- john: some of this and the war chest. the war chests are currently aligned for hillary, 52 but there's a that. hillary's campaign has raised 47 million. so there's still time for biden to narrow the gap. clarence: we're almost talking about real money here. john: we are. clarence: i still don't think it would help for obama to get on one side of the other.

certainly not right now. john: let's get out of this issue. we're going to be revisiting this a lot. i can feel that coming. on a political probability scale of one to 10, how likely is it that joe biden will run? zero to 10? david: four. john: four? eleanor: 5.2. john: 5.2? eleanor: yeah, ever so slightly leaning toward running simply because he loves it, can't help himself. susan: i'm at about a 6.2. clarence: i say four, which is about one point higher than last week. john: i will give him a seven. when we come back, chaos in the

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john: issue two -- chaos in the college. >> it's just certain words that set people off. this is what jerry seinfeld was complaining about last week when he said college audiences just want to use these words. that's racist, sexist, that's prejudiced. they don't even know what they're talking about. an opinion echoed by chris rock, who said he stopped playing colleges because of their unwillingness to offend anybody and larry the cable guy said it's a shame that nobody can

handle comedy anymore. john: once citadels of free expression and occasionally revolutionary ideas, today many american colleges have endorsed political correctness. terms such as microaggression, describing an inadvertent act of offense have entered the college lexicon, empowering an atmosphere of prior restraint on speech and many colleges are also disinviting speakers in fear of offending certain elements of their student community. in april 2014, for example, brandeis university disinvited a political theoryist after some muslim groups raised protests. in october 2014, scripps college disinvited conservative writer george will following a column he wrote on women's issues. also in 2014, comedian bill mare -- maher was disinvited from the university

of berkeley after some students raised objections for his views on religion. american collegeses are now inkressingly reflective in maintaining politically correct dialogue over controversy and some say universities have lost sight of education's ultimate purpose. how do colleges and universities rationalize stifling the views some students find offensive? how do they rationalize it? i ask you. as a matter of fact, you wrote a piece for the economist magazine june 13 titled "trigger unhappies." student safety has become a real threat to free speech on cam pass. show this related to the matter at hand? david: people will remember the going back decades. back in the 1980's and 1990's it the dead white man philosophy. teach more relevant things. there's a different row going on now, which is that students are

so hypersensitive they must be shielded from anything that upsets them or makes them feel threatened so descriptions of racism or descriptions of slavery in text are seen as you have to give trigger students are told be aware that this book describes slavery and therefore you might find it told that some students may not wish to attend their class. so this idea of safety is taking over and it's about making the most sensitive person in your class the arbiter of what may be taught. eleanor: i don't think it would be a lot of fun to attend a university that was so carefully monitoring what everybody said. to college is to be exposed to a variety of viewpoints. but i can see where this is coming from. the style of parenting has changed. we're now into helicopter parenting, overparenting.

parents who talk to their children every day while they're away in college. the colleges now feel like they have to provide a safe space for students or else they're going to hear from the parents. though i think a lot of people are complicit in this change of attitude. i don't think it's a positive one. john: well, this is the mechanic cal way in which this problem has been solved by the collegiate hierarchy and i guess professorial community. some colleges have designated specific areas on campus as the only places where controversial ideas can be expressed without sanction. clarence: a free speech zone. john: a free speech zone. if controversial ideas are discussed outside of these zones, the offending students can be sanctioned up to expulsion. what is this? clarence: you know how campus back in the 1960's? with the free speech movement in berkeley. ironically, that was students

wanting more free speech. nowadays we have various establishments, either a student body group or other interested parties who want to shield students from being exposed to too much in the world. which is the opposite of what universities are about. there's always some censorship on campus. when i first campaigned for a college at the student radio anything that sounded like rock 'n' roll. that's how old i am. [laughter] but that changes. so now you have a different set of -- john: it also says a lot about what these promoters of this idea think about the quality of college students. and they imagine them, i guess, as frail creatures and they have to be sheltered from disturbing thoughts lest they become afraid or insecure. david: when i went to a couple of colleges to report that

column, i came away with an impression that this is an old-fashioned power struggle. you've had students and professors since the days of socrates and aristotle, young people have tried to grab the power. this is really about students try to grab the power. eleanor: students rate professors so the professors live in constant fear they're going to get -- grade inflation and all that. to give the devil his due, students today grow up -- we know much more about bullying and the bad effects of that. students today have witnessed these massacres that go nonschool. there is kind of an impulse. you want your child to be safe and i think the colleges are responding to that but we're talking about a kind of elite group of students who are protected and coddled. there are a lot of young people out there who see some horrible things before they reach even the age of 10.

clarence: look at the censoring of "huckleberry finn" because it's got the n-word in it. this has filtered up from middle school all the way up to colleges. that's just one example. there are many others that get crinsored because they might upset somebody. whereas authors like mark twain might have wanted to upset in a casual way. there. but we need to encourage people to be more open to be more open minded. susan: they're also going to be out in the real world soon so what is going to happen when these coddled young adults transition into the work snow showers >> exactly. susan: if they bring that mindset with them what's that going to mean for society going forward? john: whatever happened to the child whose maxim -- sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me? what happened to that? susan: in come the lawyers and

the lawsuits. john: the lawyers and lawsuits. now there's an angle. ooh, there's money to be made here. herman, meet me down at sixth and 24th. let's get over to that college. eleanor: actually, words can be very cutting. but i think people have to learn to handle that. john: sure they do and these kids are up to it. they want it. they want controversy. they don't want to learn true controversy. a conflict of ideas. eleanor: they should all join the debate society. form their own "the mclaughlin group." john: issue three -- israels migrant crisis. between 43,000 and 50,000 african migrants and asylum seekers are in limbo in israel. they came seeking escape from war and poverty, but israel does not want them, fearing their presence undercuts israels existential nature as a jewish state.

until recently, many of these migrants were held in challenging conditions at detention facilities in remote areas of israel. but earlier this month, israels judiciary ruled that migrants who have been held for more than a year must be released. and now these migrants are desperately searching for work and housing. it is easier said than done. after all, under israeli law, these migrants are not entitled to public support in welfare or health care and are banned from working in major cities like tel aviv and eilat. question -- should israel do more to support african migrants? clarence, would you like to handle that? clarence: it's a very debatable subject. it's more complex than a lot of us americans know. for example, a lot of africans are jewish.

around somalia and ethiopia, there have been controversy going on for 35 years and they're for the most part accepted into mainstream society. they're having a problem with diversity in israel but ultimately they have to work it out in such a way so that people can be mainstream. that's not an easy thing to do. for the most part the israeli people are trying to have a metting pot. eleanor: i was in israel several years look and they were very proud of an ethiopian-jewish community. the difference is now they're being overwhelmed. refugees are coming from sudan and aratria, refugees trying to escape from wars. when we look at israel we kind of expect them to be more welcoming because they were created for people who were escaping horrible conditions but they're reacting like much of

the rest of the world. i don't think any offensive us, even americans, can be that proud of how we're handling migrants. john: what do donald trump and israel have in common regarding illegal immigration? susan: donald trump wants to stem the tide of illegal immigration coming over our borders. john: they both insist that the illegals must return home. susan: the problem is going back isn't a great option for these folks. in israel, parts of africa are so unstable and inhospitable right now -- we have this huge migrant crisis. david: you have to make a big political distinction from people like migrants coming over from mexico to better themselves and refugees. i think what we're really seeing here in europe, in israel and lots of places is the world made a series of promises to welcome refugees at the end of the second world war.

which were great promises but made at a time when the world was a lot less mobile, and now the numbers of people who can set up on your borders to cash that check are enormous. john: israelis insist the migrants have come for economic reasons and trump says the same thing and that they must return to their countries. sbrealy parliament will take up legislation to provide funds for repatriation or to send the migrants to a third country. eleanor: the israeli supreme court ruled that you cannot hold people in detention center that you picture in the middle of the desert for more than a year. so the wheels of justice there understand what the right thing is to do. john: we'll be right back with

predictions.

what's the most important thing your parents do for you? they buy me food. they make sure i'm never lost. well... they pay my allowance. encourage me. they sing us a lullaby at night... a lullaby at night. oh! now i remember...

why does it matter that cigna covers preventive care? because the next most important thing you can do for them is take care of yourself. cigna. together, all the way. john: we at "the mclaughlin group" offer our heartfelt sympathy to families of the two journalists brutally murdered in