2:02

Alask Israel's former prime minister

2:04

Ehud Omert. And

2:07

I'll talk to Rabbi Sharon Brous about

2:10

American Jews' sentiments towards Israel

2:12

and a growing generational divide.

2:20

Later in the show I'll bring you

2:22

my take, a case for optimism despite

2:24

all the worries people have these days.

2:27

But first to the fallout from

2:29

Thursday's presidential debate. It

2:32

was a moment for President Biden to

2:34

calm concerns about his age and to

2:36

present former President Donald Trump as a

2:38

dangerous and divisive figure. Instead,

2:41

the nation saw a sitting president

2:43

with a weak voice,

2:45

often stumbling through answers, sometimes

2:48

incoherent. So

2:50

rather than revive Biden's re-election campaign,

2:53

his performance has prompted panic among

2:55

many Democrats and calls for him

2:57

to drop out of the race. I want

2:59

to bring in today's panel. David Fromm

3:01

is a staff writer at The Atlantic

3:04

who was a speechwriter for President George

3:06

W. Bush. And Edward Loose

3:08

works for the Financial Times where he

3:10

is a columnist and U.S. national editor.

3:13

Gentlemen, thank you for joining me. I

3:16

want to ask, Ed, let me start with

3:18

you. It feels

3:20

to me that the defense so far

3:22

being presented by Barack

3:25

Obama, that Biden had a bad

3:27

night, sort

3:29

of misses the point. The problem was

3:32

that people were already worried as to

3:34

whether or not he was competent to

3:36

do the job. I wrote

3:38

a piece I think three months

3:40

ago pointing out that in 2020

3:42

Biden led Trump by nine points

3:44

on the question of who

3:48

is more competent to govern. Trump

3:50

now leads by 16 points. This

3:53

was going into the debate. There was a

3:55

25-point gap between who they thought

3:58

was more competent. competent.

4:01

In a CNN poll right after the

4:03

debate, 57 percent of viewers said they

4:05

had no confidence in Biden's ability to

4:08

lead compared to Trump who was at

4:10

44. So the

4:13

problem feels to me like putting

4:15

the president out again in scripted

4:18

staged events with teleprompters

4:21

is not going to solve the problem

4:23

of what people saw on

4:27

that debate night. I

4:30

don't think it's going to solve the

4:32

problem at all. I mean remember that

4:34

Biden on Thursday night was Biden after

4:36

several days of prep and rehearsing with

4:39

aides at Camp David. That

4:41

was the result of really intensive preparation

4:43

and it was obviously an embarrassingly

4:46

bad performance. He

4:49

is going to have another debate if

4:51

he remains the nominee and doesn't stand

4:53

down in September which

4:55

most probably will not be radically different to what

4:58

we saw on Thursday night but by then it

5:00

would be too late. By

5:02

then there will be no opportunity and no

5:05

window to replace him to have an open

5:07

convention. The convention would have been and gone

5:10

and if you look at the numbers since

5:12

Thursday night it's still a bit early to

5:14

get the really baked response from the from

5:16

the electorate but if you look at the

5:18

CBS News poll that came out this morning,

5:22

those who thought Biden had the cognitive ability to

5:24

be president for another four years went down from

5:26

35% to 27%. 27% and almost

5:33

half of Democratic voters don't think he's fit

5:35

to be president for another term. These are

5:38

numbers that suggest he's going to lose in November

5:40

and there is time to do something about it

5:43

so the circling of

5:45

the wagons I understand probably President

5:47

Obama spoke to people around

5:49

Biden, realized Biden is not going to stand

5:51

down and therefore he's making the best

5:53

of a bad job but we know what people are

5:56

saying in public is very

5:58

different to what they think in private.

6:00

And I say that with confidence because

6:02

that's been the parallel universe I've

6:04

been living in in Washington. Everybody says one

6:06

thing in private and

6:08

then follows the script in public. And

6:10

I think now that's just impossible to

6:13

hold after

6:15

Thursday night. And let me

6:17

press you on that issue, which is, do you know much about

6:20

what is going on right now in the

6:22

Biden inner circle? There are reports that there

6:24

is a kind of family meeting taking place.

6:27

Is that real? Consequential? Well,

6:31

I believe they're all there. Most of

6:33

the family, the children, the grandchildren, his

6:35

sister, his brother, they're all there at

6:37

Camp David with him today. And this

6:39

is the key circle. This is the

6:42

inner cabinet. This is the

6:44

moment for family intervention if that is

6:46

what is going to happen. I

6:49

think from watching the first lady and listening to

6:51

her, understandable desire to

6:53

stoke up her husband's bruised

6:57

confidence after Thursday night, judging by

6:59

her four more years, you're the only

7:01

person for the job. That

7:03

family intervention probably isn't going to happen.

7:05

And I think that Obama's post

7:09

on X reflected that too because

7:11

I can't believe that wasn't the

7:13

product of conversations. So I'm worried

7:15

that this is going to get more

7:18

and more intense and it's going to take weeks for

7:20

Biden to realize what

7:23

is staring him in the face. And that

7:25

will waste precious time in

7:27

which candidates can put their

7:29

names forward. He can release his delegates

7:31

for an open convention that will choose a new

7:34

ticket. David

7:36

Frum, tell me what you think

7:38

the path forward is before. I

7:40

know you have concerns

7:43

about Trump and the way

7:45

he performed. But first, tell me, what

7:47

do you think happens that might put

7:49

pressure on Biden? One of the

7:51

things I wonder is there are going to be Democrats

7:55

who are running for governor, for Senate,

7:57

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