david chalian, you're our political director. when we take a look at some of the top potential democratic vice presidential picks, and we'll put their pictures and names up on the screen. you can see it there. what is harris? weighing in terms of how these potential picks potentially could impact the election while it looks like she's weighing a white guy. if just looking at the pictures across there, in terms of her counterpart on the ticket, wolf listen, i think we spent a lot of time in the press talking about veepstakes and the vice presidents accusation. it's not entirely clear to me that it has that much impact on the final electoral outcome. she knows and she's in the role that nothing matters more than finding someone who if in the position could step immediately into the presidency, somebody who can be a governing partner for her, but the obviously there are political calculations looking at the arizona senator mark kelly and the north carolina governor roy cooper two states that are in that sunbelt tier of battleground

night's cnn chief national affairs correspondent, jeff zeleny, cnn political director david chalian, ashley etienne served as communications director for vice president harris, former republican congressman adam kinzinger cnn's manu raja with the capital and democratic strategist, paul begala, david chalian, let me start with you. did the president put concerns about his candidacy? to rest tonight enough will certainly not. >> i mean, you obviously was up there for nearly an hour and was able to speak on a variety of topics, but he spoke in the way we've come accustomed to hearing joe biden. certainly nothing that resembled what occurred on the debate stage, but obviously still at times rambling at times mixing up words. that last question you heard about at the very top of the presser, mixing up saying vice president trump instead of vice president harris. but i think anderson, what was most telling for me from this? you ask the question, did he did he assuage concerns he actually himself acknowledged that he is still on a mission of trying to allay concerns as he said, and i though

and david chalian, let me start with you. this news about this or rainy and plot to try to assassinate the former president of the united states. say, you and i are here in milwaukee. how this has been received here. >> well, we heard from donald trump, son, eric trump in the last hour, who used it precisely how i expect us to hear the campaign us and time again, which is well my father was tougher on iran than anyone ever could be. this is the reality that my father lives in, he said, and so i think that you will see when people do discuss it's this, i don't know that there'll be a dominant topic. well, but you will see a turned into this argument of strength of posture, of america versus around invites this kind behavior and so it plays into that larger theme of strength that trump is putting on display every day here, we also are already that very, very emotional entrance of donald trump with a bandage on his right ear last night as he walked into to this convention hall. that was a significant moment it was especially if

cnn's david chalian, cnn and bloomberg, nia-malika henderson, cnn's jeff zeleny cnn's manu raju, and cnn's kaitlan collins. all my friends and colleagues, i hit the jackpot today. not only do you have big brains, but you have big rolodexes you know, it's that payroll is here. david chalian, i'm going to start with you to help us put we're going to talk about obviously the horrific events of the weekend. but first, the events of an hour ago, put it in context of just that the way he framed that question is the story of this campaign will go to the massive story right after we deal with the massive story in payments, that's sort of been how this campaign has been unfolding. but we find ourselves at the opening of this convention where donald trump is going to, for the third consecutive presidential cycle, be named his party standard bearer. and in this moment of having job now survived an assassination attempt. and now being totally vindicated by, i understand the district level judge here in one of his key arguments, one of the two federal cases against him now thrown out, it'll go on

and one of the things that has been clear from the beginning, i think david chalian can speak to this is these economic issues that go to people's quality of life and their ability to get ahead and these are fundamental to the decision that people have going to make in november. and she took her experience and her accomplishments and the battles that she's thought to define who she was. she took the escapades that trump's been involved in and his governing philosophy. and she contrasted with that and she made it a race about what kind of fuel future do we want the future we're fighting for, for people are the future of the trump's fighting for for a small group of people and himself i mean, i really think that this is this was an incredibly effective sort of kickoff speech. and i just wanted to speak to her style of delivery. david sort of got at this but the comma, the corner, the question is about kamala harris, was she didn't run a great campaign four years ago. she didn't always seem comfortable. she didn't she didn't always know seem to know what her race was about this is entire

cnn political director david chalian is live in milwaukee for us. so david, how do we think that this may change the convention well, manu, there's no doubt that it is already changing what this event is designed to be, right? which is a joyous celebration donald trump coming and here to become the nominee of his party for the third consecutive cycle. and obviously it takes place in an entirely new context. now, with this assassination they even attempt speaking this morning with somebody familiar with convention planning also said it will have some impact on the program. there's a plan being created, of course, to have a moment of silence for the victims who lost their life in this event. and there may be other things inside the convention hall, other programmatic the changes. we will learn throughout the course of this day and the days ahead. but you heard former president trump's statement this morning where he said he is looking forward ford to addressing the nation, the delegates here at the convention, here in wisconsin this week, you heard fro

and i'll just add that david chalian would add young voters to that list. astead, they're trying to get. >> yeah, absolutely. i mean, you this is trying to expand the ten and donald trump has been a base first politician for his entire career. now again, it's this question of, as you can stage man, it's donald trump for only so long. i mean, they're making these projections. but what happens when two or three weeks from now in donald trump gets upset? i mean, we've been talking about the coming donald trump pivot for eight years. i mean, kaitlan has been covering it forever. that is just going to come next week. and just around the corner, kaitlan, you can have discipline for awhile, but the last can i also just say one thing about we've i'm on the floor starting when the speeches begin until they add one thing that i've noticed is a lot of the people who are the more slama speakers who were not really uniting around this unity message. they're erring earlier in the evening and they're not always necessarily taken live on tv. so i'm curious what people at h

david chalian talk about them well met we're in right now with regard to this speech, you know, when speaker johnson scheduled this speech for netanyahu to come here i think if i look at through politically, you like to say all the time this is inside politics. so i'll look through a political lens here, but i think it was to continue to drive a wedge between joe biden and many in his party who were dissatisfied with his administration's policies as it relates to the israel gaza issue. and i think we find ourselves in a different place right now. yes, there are the protests that we've seen in yes. we have members of the democratic party boycotting netanyahu's speech i'm not sure it is quite as debilitating a moment for the democrats as it had been previously around this issue, maybe due to the change of the ticket, kamala harris has sounded slightly different notes on this topic. what i find fascinating is netanyahu's ability over decades to inject himself into american politics and too big american political moments. i mean, he's about to meet with biden tomorrow after he addresses

scrutiny when he holds that news conference later this evening with us now cnn political director david chalian. david, it goes without saying the president is under enormous pressure. we heard from the house. democratic leader says these conversations are not over. there, still ongoing about whether he should it would be the nominee or not. we just heard kayla is reporting from some democrats that say there's nothing he can do tonight to change their mind. well, i think to some extent that is true. and what i'm hearing from democrats as well, just that he could have a flawless press conference. that's not going to erase the concerns that he is in a position to defeat donald trump, which many democrats believe he is not. believe what 50 million americans tuned in and thought that debate is not recoverable and that is the sentiment that is creating all this panic inside democratic circles with members, with donors, and the like i understand the biden operation is trying to shut that down. but as you noted, jessica, the fact that the democratic leader in the house, he's not saying shut this down.

. >> we have a brand new cnn poll and cnn's political director david chalian is here to break it all down for us. david abby, we have our brand new exclusive cnn poll conducted by ssrs that gives us our first snapshot of a harris-trump race. >> here's the top line. it did margin of error race. no clear leader, 49% for donald trump, 46% support for kamala harris. that's among registered voters. >> and that three-point differential. >> well, that's about half the margin. that joe biden was trailing trump with just in the spring, he was down six points in our spring poles. so how is harris narrowing that gap now into a margin of error race? well, among young voters, 18 to 34, harris has a four-point advantage over trump in this poll, trump had a 7.8 over biden with young voters. black voters, harris advantage, 63 percentage points over trump. biden had a 47 point advantage over trump hispanic voters, donald trump's advantage over biden was nine points. now, kamala harris has narrowed that t20 two point advantage for trump, still a warning sign, democrats won the hispanic vote in 2020 by

be the nominee if joe biden decides that, then this party will self-implode i want to bring in david chalian right now, our political director, david, this is the president's first major news conference of the year. very significant moment indeed, but this gaffe confusing president zelenskyy and president putin, that we just heard at this event just moments ago, how big of a problem potentially could that be? >> yeah, i think that if that if biden did that prior to the debate, i don't know if we would be scrutinizing it just quite as much. he he made the mistake, caught himself quickly and adjusted to it. zelenskyy got in on the joke there, but this is the point that level of scrutiny is going to be applied to every public utterance that joe biden has from now through november, if he remains the candidate on the ballot, that that is the that is the world of a changed campaign and context for joe biden's candidacy. and that's just the reality. so he and his team are never going to be able to sort of put that to bet. it is going to remain the central question voters have observers have fellow

well, cnn's political director, david chalian, is actually live for us now in milwaukee david tell us how this shooting and everything that happened over the last day. how will that change the convention plans? well, as you know, manu a national political convention like this one is usually one full of joy and celebration in front. i mean, donald trump rolling in here as the, you head of his party, being nominated for the third consecutive presidential cycle this was a place where delegates are convening you ready to celebrate, and that all turned on a dime last night. obviously, it has immediate impact into the context in which this convention will take place. now, but also into the tenor and the tone at the launch of this conviction tension. now you are hearing delegates and others arriving here talking much more about strength and resilience and fortitude and calls for unity. so we have learned according to somebody familiar with convention planning, that some of the program will be impacted, including a moment of silence that'll be built into the program now, for the one victim th

and i think he should get some credit for that. >> david chalian we see a lot of democrats rallying around kamala harris to a degree that i was not expecting because there are people who a year ago before president biden announced that he was going to run for reelection, we're ready. talk about governor newsome. i'm talking about pete buttigieg. i'm talking about amy klobuchar and on and on. gretchen whitmer and already knew some in buttigieg have endorsed vice president harris. to what degree do you think the party is just going to essentially coalesce around her even though senator manchin is talking about re registering as a democrat and running do you think there's actually going to be a competition as pelosi and obama want there to be an open competition. >> yeah, i think it's unclear how much like president obama really wants there to be a fully robust, open competition or wants there to be some ability for everyone to have the chance to buy into the outcome. i think those are two different things. to your question, jake, to a great extent, i think this is quickly coalescing around h

jersey democrat, announced today he is going to be gone next month, joining us now to discuss david chalian, who's cnn's political director. but let's go to capitol hill first with cnn's lauren fox and lauren, this comes after the entire democratic party pressured menendez to resign what led to him ultimately stepping down because he sounded defiant. initially. >> yeah. i mean, and it wasn't and just his democratic colleagues asking him to step aside. it was also many of them threatening to expel him from the united states senate if he did not make the decision on his own, jake. so i think that obviously had a major impact on menendez decision today. i just want to read part of his resignation letter from earlier today. and he said, quote, while i've fully intend to appeal the jury's verdict all the way and including to the supreme court. i do not want the senate to be involved in a lengthy process. that will detract from its important work. i do want to note that he is not leaving the senate until august 20. that obviously, about a month away at this point. now, lawmakers will leave from y

of this convention, including some former trump rivals here with me now, cnn political director david chalian and cnn national correspondent kristen holmes and david and nikki haley. and ron desantis, we actually had ron desantis doing a sound check just a few moments ago. what are you expecting to hear from them? i mean, both of them ran hard against donald trump, but it wasn't until just a couple of days ago that they were actually confirmed to even be here, which was a big change i'm sure ron desantis was hoping his soundtrack would be on thursday. they'd been at this convention and that's not how it worked out, but listen desantis got on board pretty quickly and understood that he wanted to figure out very quickly after he dropped from the race, his path into maintaining his stature in the party nikki haley obviously ran a more competitive race against trump and actually took quite some time here and we spent so much time, abby discussing the haley voters for months and months and months. and what you see now in like a totally unified republican party in this moment right now, is that i t

and i think he should get some credit for that. >> david chalian, we see a lot of democrats rallying around kamala harris to a degree that i was not expecting because there are people who, a year ago before president biden announced that he was going to run for reelection, we're ready i'm talking like governor newsome. i'm talking about pete buttigieg. i'm talking about amy klobuchar and on and on. gretchen whitmer and already knew some in buttigieg have endorsed vice president harris to what degree do you think the party is just going to essentially coalesce around her even though senator manchin is talking about re registering as a democrat and running do you think there's actually going to be a competition as pelosi and obama want there to be an open competition. >> yeah, i think it's unclear how much like president obama really wants there to be a fully robust open competition or wants there to be some ility for everyone? wanted have the chance to buy into the outcome. i think those are two different things and i to your question, jake, to a great extent, i think this is quickly

david chalian. thank you very much. all white man. doug dei hire i mean, what do you make of the options here? >> well, first as north carolina and as a tar heel, i like roy cooper, i know him a little bit, not super well, but i think he strikes the balance of what harris needs and she needs people who i think who had been elected twice statewide, especially in important states. so beshear, kentucky is not necessarily an important state for a democrat to win. it's not going to be flipped. but for somebody like roy cooper from north carolina, somebody like mark kelly has not been elected twice, but is from very important arizona. they have interesting resumes, i think compliment kamala harris they're not necessarily the most exciting people, even though ones an astronaut. he doesn't have international experiences, intergalactic experience. but these are the influences i think would benefit harris moving forward and notice they're all the more moderate kind of vein i asked him constantly jayapal about this. would you have a problem as t

let's get more on all of this with our political experts and david chalian. it's really interesting to watch how the different messaging strategies are taking shape right now, right? you're hearing vp kamala harris sort of test drive the weird phrase, right? and that messaging has been embraced by many of her potential running mates. let's watch these guys are just weird. >> that's it's the weirdest thing held. >> he'll go in like literally haugen american flag. now, i loved the flag, but i mean it's like weird what he does on the other side, they're just weird i mean, they really are running when you see it kind of massive talk i was interviewing david bog earlier today and he's younger voter, liberal. he's use ida and he said, no, i'm just picking it up because everyone else is saying it right. >> i got walz, governor of minnesota, i guess said and earlier last week, by the time we got to saturday, it made it out of the nominees or presumptive nominees mouth kamala harris at a fundraiser up in massachusetts and what i thought was interesting when tim walz w

understand score what david chalian stated earlier.ugh, which is the feeling is, are you kidding me? this is an absolute last thing that. they need and that there is definitely a feeling that president biden and the campaign around him just can't catch a break right now because this was the moment aumental especially as this as this convention comes to an end tomorrow, and the focus hasn't really been totally away from president biden but it's been away a little bit, but the focus is going to turn even more to president biden. and what is going on with him that they needed him to be out to be robust to be campaigning. and that's not going to happen, especially given erin, the fact that the clamoring from house democrats in particular, but also other elected officials, it's not going away and it is becoming even more intense as they get more and more polling and they are pressuring the campaign and the president's inner circle to really try to take seriously their concerns that it's not just about the president, but about there politica

debate. 67% of adults think biden should step down, but black voters are more evenly split as david chalian was noting earlier in the show, 47% say biden we continue to campaign 49% say he should step aside cnn's eva mckend is live for us in greensboro, north carolina, where the vice president, kamala harris, held a campaign event earlier today, eva, today, a group of african american faith leaders in atlanta spoke in support of president biden. i want to play a little bit of that we urge democrats in ms debate let's unite as army and support joe biden, not because he's a democrat but because between trump and biden by is the best candidate is that similar to what you're hearing from voters as you travel the u.s. it is jake, you know, i've been traveling with the vice president. i was with her at the alpha kappa alpha sorority convention. and the essence festival. and what i can tell you, this is not every black voter in america, but i do believe it is fairly instructive it's older black voters tell me they are sticking with biden. they are not ready to abandon him. younger voters, younger

david chalian, a lot of leading democrats, including schumer, pelosi, jeffries, even former president obama, all reportedly expressing concerns with biden. does this moment feel different to you right now? >> well, it's different because these are the voices that matter to joe biden political voices, the voices that will matter in the decision-making process is his family and some close, close advisers that have been with him for decades throughout his career. so yes, we're in a different moment because the leaders have allowed it to be known publicly that this is what they feel wolf, but that doesn't mean that we're in a different place for joe biden decision-making because we don't know that walls can be closing in. and he may just have to exist in this very tight cubicle walls that was his choice to it is not a fait accompli we have no indication that he has decided that he's going to step down from this race, though he's keenly aware of all of the pressure and all of the swirl around them there's no doubt about that. >> so that factors into his thinking, but i just we are in a ver

david chalian, what do you expect to hear from the various speakers? at this republican convention tonight? specifically the message that they will deliver and the tone well, i think the message is going to be very economic focus at they're doing a different slice each night of the convention so tonight is going to be make america wealthy once again. what the branding people put on this, but but you're going to hear the economic argument. quite frankly, which has been the argument that you've heard donald trump making on the campaign trail throughout the entirety of this campaign, that prices are too high. and again, prices have come down. i understand where the statistics are in that, but we also see in a lot of the research on in conversations with voters, you here people still >> caitlin college. you see here at the republican convention with a special guest yeah. >> well, thank you. i am here just above the convention floor. >> i'm sitting here with eric trump. >> of course, donald trump, son who was down there earlier as his father clenched the no

thanks so much here now, the political panel to discuss david chalian, the democratic national committee. despite having been proven not being honest about what's going on in ohio because there was questions about whether or not they had to do this virtual nomination because of some law in ohio, but that's now changed whether or not the dnc wants to acknowledge that they don't want to acknowledge it, right? they're not being honest about it what are you hearing about this plan to start with this virtual nomination against the wishes of chuck schumer, hakeem jeffries, and so many other elected democrats as early as august 1, right? >> so the plan had been and it was the ohio thing that triggered it before resolved to do a virtual or remote roll call and it would be happening prior to the invention, by the way, this is what happened four years ago because of covid, when we saw that roll call at the convention that was not he had already been they had done this before, so they were doing that again, but this is happening in an entirely new context right now because there's a massive questio

joining me to at this table to break this all down, are cnn's gloria borger, cnn's david chalian, and washington post's leigh ann caldwell. good to see you all so let me first, just on the news of this, another member are coming out today. tenth democrat in the house, hillary clinton saying that in to step aside as 11 now, in both the house and the senate, how long can the biden campaign sustain this day by day more and more members coming out, assuming it continues, which it's probably safe to assume unless he has an unbelievable job tonight, but they'll probably be some criticism after tonight. anyways, how long can you consistent stainless? yeah. i mean, i thank you can have a flawless press conference tonight and i still don't think that's going to all of a sudden assuage the concerns democrats have about the president's ability to defeat donald trump the answer to your question though, manu is first long as the president wants to, that's how long they can sustain it because it's up to the president if he is going to step down from this nurse he has made it clear and there's been

and david chalian, we take a look at some of these numbers, 1.1 million individual donors just the past couple of days or so, 62% of them that's about 680,000 individuals here in the united states were first-time contributors. so how does the harris campaign keep this momentum going? >> well, it's going to be tough to keep the momentum going to the level that you shoot out of the launch. with that, that is true for most campaigns, but they are going to have to find ways to bring, keep, resupplying more, more new donors, more grassroots activism, more volunteers sign-ups and they will aim to do so. the reality is as those metrics will are they're not just talking points. i mean, this is real, this is this is those contributions. the signups, those are real numbers that show a different kind of enthusiasm. biden's campaign was suffering from a pretty significant enthusiasm gap that has completely closed right now certainly has very impressive indeed, ashley allison, you heard kamala harris really dropped on her experience as a prosecutor. >> she was the attorney general in california dist

they got my number will say this political director, david chalian has more on possible vice vice-presidential candidates that harris is thought to be considering. take a look at some of the possible contenders for the number two slot. you see here a whole slew of governors, many from battleground states will get to that in a moment. but notice something else here. all white men on the list so let's zero in on some of the top contenders. josh shapiro, governor of pennsylvania, a critical battleground state democrats need to win if they're going to win the white house. he's 51-years-old, a little younger than vice president harris. he's a former state attorney general, the third jewish governor from the state or commonwealth of pennsylvania, roy cooper, 67-years-old. he's a bit older than the vice president of southern democrat, also a former state attorney general, and from a state democrats are eager to really put in play north carolina mark kelly, battleground, arizona us senator is 60-years-old, former astronaut, really compelling biography. and of course, the husband of gabby giffords and

want to break all of these dramatic developments down with our political experts who are here and david chalian, you're our cnn political director beyond the substance on nato. what we just heard from the president knighted states, what did you think of this? his delivery, the way he spoke and will that reassure some of these nervous democrats? i think it's going to be very hard to reassure from now through november because i think democrats are going to be nervous with each one of his outing. >> so yes. was that a typical president biden presentation? yes, it was. but the concern here is that biden has emerged from the debate in a weakened position in this race than he was prior to the debate. and that is the reality that he now faces as he pledges to go on with the nomination today. obviously, you this was rendered potentially a very big day for for the president as a test here, you're the house democratic caucus get together, get the senate democratic caucus together, get together. and the news here is what didn't happen, which is that there was no rush to the microphones on mass. all these

donald trump reacted when he actually lost an election in 2021 of the things i was going to say is david chalian and dana always bring up good points, but i think they brought up the central point of where we go from here, which is that this plane is being billed as you said in the here and we have that energy within the party and is something that acts talks to me about all the time just how to be a better elected official, how to see the world of politics how to be a better public servant is how do you go out there and pull more people into your orbit and one of the things i would say to kamala harris or whenever i have an opportunity to speak with her again, is this campaign has to throw all caution to the wind. this campaign has to be big. it has to be magnanimous that means that in one day, you have to go talk to white women in the suburbs of philadelphia. that same day, you have to have a town hall with black men in detroit you also have to go eat cheese curds in milwaukee, right? you you have to be able to do those scenes that some people were concerned about whether or not joe biden coul

donald trump reacted when he actually lost an election in 2021 of the things i was going to say is david chalian and dana always bring up good points, but i think they brought up the central point of where we go from here, which is that this plane is being billed, as you said, in the air and we have that energy within the party and it's something that acts talks to me about all the time, just how to be a better elected official, how to see the world of politics, how to be a better public servant is how do you go out there and pull more people into your orbit? and one of the things i would say to kamala harris or whenever i have an opportunity to speak with her again is this campaign has to throw all caution to the wind this campaign has to be big. it has to be magnanimous. that means that in one day, you have to go talk to white women in the suburbs of philadelphia that same day, you have to have a town hall with black men in detroit. you also have to go eat cheese curds in milwaukee, right? you have to be able to do those seems that some people were concerned about whether joe biden could actua

let's discuss with my panel, david chalian, let me start with another interesting part of this new cnn poll that shows harris actually fares better than biden some key voting groups tell us about that. >> yeah, i mean, we took a look at young voters, black voters, hispanic voters, female voters, just as four key demographic building blocks are democratic candidate. and we're biden had been showing significant erosion from his 2024. will you see here is whereas donald trump was seven percentage points ahead of biden in the spring with young voters kamala harris has now four points ahead. when joe biden had a 47 point advantage in the spring over trump with black voters kamalaharris now has a 63 point advantage. donald trump at a 9% point advantage among hispanics over i didn't now that's down to two points. and you see that kamala harris is a five point advantage over trump among female voters when it was tied back in the spring, i would just note here, this is a critical step for her to sort of bring in the democratic party together in this way. but as you could see here for the hispan

. >> david chalian, i want to play something else chris lacivita said, at the politico, cnn grill earlier today we grind every single day until it i mean, it's not over until he puts his hand on the on the on the on the bible and takes the oath it's not over till then. it's not over on election day. so wrong an operation day what's your what's your take on that will obviously that's something that brings back images of 2020 and potentially fighting over the results. i think what i do think what lacivita identifies here. so let's take the most charitable interpretation of that for a moment, which is that our politics have become so engaged that it doesn't end on election day. he is right about that. let's hope it doesn't result in violence or an attempted overturning of roe, that there were there were still counting votes through this saturday after the electric it takes a while to count on these votes, then they're going to be legal challenges, potentially totally legitimate legal challenges. or for a judge to decide if there are legitimate, but there could be challenges and so i think wh

david chalian, we just heard from eric trump. your reaction. >> yeah. i mean first of all, just from a human perspective, it's harrowing to listen to him talk about sitting with his kids and watching this are his kids encountering at camp, somebody saying, i heard your grandfather got yeah. i mean, it's like a whole different experience from everybody else, but it's really four and six. >> they're little. can you imagine watching that with your kids? >> that's just like unbelievably painful to hear that they went through he's is demand for accountability on this. and from the secret service is interesting to hear as was his pushback on some notion that the agents were doing their job in the protective detail. >> he was he was he defended the agents exactly. but there he said, obviously some larger issue was there and clearly president biden feels the same way. i mean, then you've heard the call for the independent review and to be separate and apart from the department so that we can get a thorough understanding. there's mayorkas said there were clearly

and david chalian, our political director, is here as of friday night, correct me if i'm wrong, the president was still insisting he was in this race. he was going to be running. he's in it to win it. but 24 hours later, we're learning that he was actually thinking of starting to draft a statement, withdrawing from the race. so what happened well, i he was being presented with all the information collection that went on. >> so while he was no doubt, you are correct both saying that he was going to remain in this, that he was the candidate you heard his staff always talking in the very present tense. he is the nominee but we know that they were doing an incredible amount of data collection, polling information from the field about targets for voters and the like. all of that was coming in. and what the assessment was being done was weather or not. there was going to be a viable path to victory, or if that had been now closed and it was a matter of joe biden with his closest closest confidantes, his family members, his wife, his top inner circle of advisers, assessing all that information that

david chalian, our political director. i want to get your reaction to what we just heard. david frum dean phillips, congressman phillips that he's not yet ready to endorse. he wants to see a series of townhalls with not only the vice president kamala harris, but other democrats who may be interested in getting the nomination, right? >> so there are two things going on in the party right now. there are some in the party who are arguing like dean phillips is for some kind of robust process to play out. all comers join and let the party sort through who the nominee is. on the other side, there is the clear movement and momentum to get behind harris candidate. harris is candidacy for all the structural reasons. we've discussed and all the demographic reasons inside the party and all of these things and yet, there are some people wolf who may end up in that camp of let's get behind harris, his candidacy, who were not coming out to endorse her right now because a they're saying they want to give joe biden a day of praise for making this statement. i'm sure that's true, but also b

it's polling, it's our political team led by david chalian to great group of people. you look at polling, you talked to both campaigns, you talked to people on the ground who know these states and you do smart reporting. and i can tell you from my travels, i think this is even this is an option domestic map for joe biden based on the travels over the past year, because like i said, again, let's just come back to where we are now. you have joe biden, the governor of maine, warned the president to his face. i'm worried about that democrats in new hampshire worried democrats in virginia worried the governor of minnesota is worried. he's among those saying, at least at the congressional and senate level in those races, they're worried dramatically but they also have polling in more states than this, that the president is in trouble that doesn't mean there's not time to turn it around. however, when you look at the swing state polling that has come in over the past week. again with trump leading here. and trump leading where we are in wisconsin and trump leading in pennsyl

our let's discuss with our political experts who are listening very closely from what the french david chalianst thing please come the question of the status of a candidate. lester holt asked him, do you believe you weathered this storm inside your own party i didn't hear an answer. hi heard was 14 million people voted for me to be the nominee i listened to them that that does not answer the question of whether or not he thinks he's weathered this moment democrats in his own party asking for him to step down as the nominee. and i thought that was telling i also thought just in the comparison to the interview with george stephanopoulos again, and we saw this a little bit at the nato press conference he clearly seems to have gotten some advice that he needs to not be as defiant this moment, but have a little bit more humility. and i think he was still trying to strike that tone though clearly indicating he plans to honor the problem primary process and he's the nominee and i'm sure his plan hasn't changed to remain the camera audio well, there was a sense that the seriousness of the attempted as

in our political experts are joining us right now for some very serious important discussion, david chalian, why do you think trump decided to name jd vance is vice presidential running? because i think in jd vance, he's ease not only somebody who he believes is a real convert to the maga movement i'm in but somebody who can take the trump party beyond donald trump 2028 and beyond, he sees somebody who could sort of solidify for the future the trump version of the republican party, whether it's a more nationalistic look in terms of economic approach or in terms of foreign policy? >> and i think that's what the thinking is here. i don't think it's to put ohio in play. i don't think any he needed to solve some piece of political problem for him on the ticket, what he's done here is take the reality of what we see in this convention hall that this is donald trump's party but he is making and doubled down on that i know some republicans will think, well vance has proven to be such a chameleon. he was anti-trump. how do you know where he is going to be? is he going to continue to move? around cl