Joining us right now. It's pretty good when your first book out with Bob Woodward Peril launches at number one in the New York Times Bestseller Robert Costa, of course, legendary at the Washington Post, has wandered over to any number of jobs, and of course joins us now this morning with CBS and Face the Nation. Robert Costa, within the frenzy in your world right now, you are a calm voice. Who are you listening to into the weekend? Which kind of source are you listening to?
I'm listening to people who really know President Biden, not just top Democrats, not just House Democrats and Senate Democrats who are on the outer perimeter of Biden's circle. People who really know this guy who was elected to the Senate in nineteen seventy two, who has been through public humiliation and public loss for a long time, And they're telling me behind the scenes that he wants to stay
in this race. He's telling people close to him and family members he's adamant he should be the nominee and he's best positioned to be Trump. But that doesn't mean it's quieting Democrats.
You're the only one I could say this to I mean when he was in high school, prep school, Costa was booking the beautiful people of Hollywood, Oh to play as prep school. I mean, he's on a first thing basis. It's sixteen with Maroon five. What is that about, Robert Costa on the Democratic Party donor class? Who are these guys? To take it from?
Butch Cassidy, Well, you have people like Jeffrey Katzenberg around President Biden, Hollywood moguls. They just had the big Hollywood fundraiser for Biden a few weeks ago, and they're so motivated not by putting Biden in the presidency again, but by stopping Trump. And that dynamic has to be noted as this all plows ahead in the days to come, because it's really about stopping Trump for a lot of these donors and Democrats not giving Biden a second term.
And that's so then past presidential cycles.
And so Robert, how do you guys set this up for a Face Nation this Sunday morning on a CBS television network.
So I'm lucky enough to be guest anchor this weekend, and we're going to talk to Jim Clyburn, And I think he's really important because he actually has political capital. A lot of people claim to have political capital. He actually has it. He made Biden the nominee in twenty with his endorsement. Where is he going to stand harce his words carefully and listen to what he has to say. What's notable is that Clyiber's been talking publicly about maybe
backing Vice President Harris if Biden steps away. Does Cliburgs start to really escalate that talk or not? Senator Bernie Sanders, what's he going to do if Biden steps away? He's always one of the presidency, he's eighty two. Does he run? Does he back Harris? Where does the progressive the left wing do they stick with the Biden pick or the new the Harris pick or not? Right, we're in a very fluid, in fragile moments.
Way, Robert Costa, I can see you doing a Dan Rather imitation on the floor in Chicago like nineteen sixty eight. I mean, how close are we? Robert Costa within CBS reporting to not the certitude of a migration from the president to the vice president, but an actual cohesive debate or sets of dialogue to get to a selection choice for president and vice president in Chicago.
What's stunning to me is how this kind of corporate culture has fallen over the Democratic Party that so few people want to take any kind of risk publicly. And politics used to be about risk. As you noted, you had conventions that were rough and tumble. People wanted power, you had to fight for it. Democrats are averse, it seems to political war, and at this point it seems like Harris would be the logical choice for a lot
of them to avoid it. They would think, maybe she loses, maybe she wins, but they would look ahead to twenty twenty eight. But look, in presidential politics, I've only covered it for fifteen years. You only have one shot most of the time. And this is a rare, rare opening for somebody maybe to step into the vacuum. So I expect somebody to maybe give Harris.
Interesting rob This is great, Robert Costa, thank you so much. And for Margaret Brennan Face the Nation Sunday on radio at two on Bloomberg. We now turned to someone constans, a young buck, you know, fifteen years in flip the numbers. Joe Matthew's been doing this for fifty one years. It joins us with balance of power as well. Joe. I'm sure you remember a given election in the cold and slush. Maybe it was a primary. I think it was William Well Ted Kennedy in Boston. I can't remember, but it
was rough in tumble politics. People were swearing at Durgan Park trying to get a dinner, and I mean it was the way it used to be. A lot of idiots like me want the Romance of nineteen sixty eight or a rough and tumble tip on neopolitics of Boston. Am I delusional to look forward to that?
We all do every four years.
What a contested convention is like Christmas morning a political reporter, and then it never happens. I will remind you they've now auctioned off all of the restaurant equipment from Durgan Park. It doesn't exist anymore, and I don't know if there's a high Brent condo there or something now. But much like the politics you describe, I'm not sure they're going
to recreate it. And there's a real worry that if that's where we're going here, that this will be so disruptive that it's exactly what Donald Trump is hoping for. But I don't know They've set up a week long obstacle course for Joe Biden, and let's see if he can clear it.
I mean, what's important to understand. I gave you good just surveillance correction here, Joe Matthew never darkened the door at Durgen Park. He was over at Lockover having the oyster soup under a portrait that made you blush when you were ten years old.
A Hi, Jill, you can't get cornbefitt Locko.
That would be true.
Joe.
What's the what's the realistic time frame here for President Biden to make a decision here? How do we think about that?
It's a great question, they seem, Paul. They seem to have carved out a week. It starts today with the interview being deemed as the most important interview of his political life.
And boy, that's gonna be interesting.
I'm really curious to see how much time he commits to this. If it's fifteen minutes or if it's forty five minutes, that's gonna tell us a lot. But he's gonna be speaking in Wisconsin, albeit with a teleprompter. He's got NATO next week, He's got a trip to Philadelphia as well, but NATO, I want to just go ahead pass the interview today. Think about the stakes of that solo news conference he's going to hold to conclude NATO. That's not a bilateral He's not gonna have Voladimir Zelenski
sitting next to him. It's not going to be two and two for the reporters. This is the big one, This is the big slog. He's never done this East room primetime news conference thing, but his predecessors were pretty good at and so is he going to be able to take the skip gates question forty five minutes into that exercise because they're going to be throwing curveballs at
him in real time. He's going to be tired after all the meetings, and I'm thinking next week that news conference is the most important thing on his schedule.
Are the Democrats to the extent that he does decide to step back here, is there an accepted process from where the party would go from there?
Or is it we haven't gotten to that point yet.
No, we haven't gotten to that point.
But I do find it interesting that over the past couple of days, the narrative has really turned us back to Kamala Harris and away from this idea of wretching Whitmer or Gavin Newsom or somebody popping in. Look, there's a reason why she's there. There's a reason why he picked her. And I don't think you're going to find a lot of people who want to run against, frankly, somebody who could make history as the first black female president.
If you're teeing up yourself for twenty eight, you're not running against her.
Now the show quickly here, do you observe any polls? I mean, you know, let's be clearer, folks, Matthews encyclopedic on this. Are there a pole that support Vice President Harris becoming president? Yes?
Well, Look, her favorability rating in our own Bloomberg Swing State pole with Morning Consult was on the rise, and in fact higher than Joe Biden's in the last turn. But CNN ran numbers and found her in a statistical tie with Donald Trump. We all say that Joe Biden might be the only person who can beat him. This challenge is that and she's stronger than Biden with women
and with independence. Imagine a ticket where she's got maybe a Democratic governor like a Shapiro or a Roy Cooper, with her, and she's got the mantle of abortion, the moral clarity on that issue, and potentially could make history as the first black female president. That's a story that Democrats can get their heads around. Throwing all the pieces up in the air and doing a mini primary like they're talking about a series of five debates with people who have no name recognition.
Sounds dangerous.
Joe Matthew, thank you so much, Bounce, That's what this is about, folks, Robert Costa, Joe Matthew, back to Beck. Terry Haines joins us now to pick up the pieces and piece together. I guess the second week of July in Washington. I don't know if he's capable of doing that. Terry Hayes with pangea, joins us, Terry right now after the bizarreness of this weekend, the uniqueness in American history. What is Terry Haynes unknown? Unknown?
Well, very very simply, it's Uh, it's it's whether Biden's up to the job or not, and whether he can prove it or not. I mean, we've been his citizens have been misinformed about the president's condition.
To put it.
Kindly, Uh, and much of the news media not this network, but much of the news media has has willfully ignored it. Now they're over compensating. The question is whether he's up to it or not. I mean, I wouldn't put a lot of I wouldn't put a lot of money on it in Vegas. But at the same time, you know, you've had situations where he's he's gone out in public a few times and just shown fire and shown the
ability to talk. And he's got Stephanopolis coming up tonight and it may be a huge moment for the campaign and we'll have to see that.
Bloomberg, of course, will be synthesizing the questions edited and edited at ABC. Terry, excuse me choking on a fifth hot dog? I didn't do Nathan's budding. I got up to five hot dogs. What can I say, Terry Haynes? What is the probability, the likelihood the ability of the Democratic Party to squeeze into X number of weeks a diverse campaign process of four, five, six, seven candidates to get to a smoke filled convention. Oh, by what you mean?
Replaced Biden? Is that where we're going? Yeah, well, replaced Biden. But to go beyond just the idea of the vice president will take over.
Yeah, well, you know, it depends on whether we're talking about him leaving the presidency or leaving his candidacy or both. And you know, that's a little more finally judged than I think the company wanted. But the answer is, you know, yeah, they can absolutely get a situation where this virtual nomination process they're going to try to pull in a couple of weeks, you know, might get short circuited by a number of the delegates themselves, who will who may well
insist on our rewriting of the rules. You know, there's an awful lot of dissatisfaction out there, but there's not a lot of ability by those who are most dissatisfied with being able to do something about it. This is still pretty tightly controlled, and I think certainly, I think Biden's trying to brazen it out right now.
So Terry, obviously it's it's really up to President Biden where this whole thing goes here. What's your sense of timing when do you think that president really has to make a decision of whether he is in it or not?
Probably between now, almost certainly, Paul, between now and the convention in mid August. But uh, you know, but then there's this trip wire where where the virtual convention happens and sometime in mid July late July. So uh, you know what they're what they're trying to do right now is you know, we're going to wrap up the party regulars make it all but impossible for the convention itself to remove him, which makes it even more in his judgment about whether he wants to continue or not.
And Terry X, I guess the question for a lot of folks within the Democratic Party is if he were to say I'm going to step aside for this next election, is there any sense of what the process might be. Would there be a series of debates among party leaders, would it just be handed to vice president?
How how would it work out? Do you think?
Well, I think that you know, there's a there's a group that wants it handed to Harris. Uh. You know, but Biden of course is using is using Harris. I think is Uh as a backstop for his own ambitions
to stay Uh. I think what ends up happening is you have a you have a change to the party rules that releases delegates from their releases delegates from their first ballot commitment to Biden and you actually have, as we had before nineteen seventy two, actually have an open convention where the delegates actually get to decide who they want. And in that situation, you'd have nominations by different people, you'd have speeches, you'd have unruliness galore, just like you used to have.
Aware this is I mean, obviously you know the media that's exciting. I mean, we're talking our book, which is we want a crazy convention. But Terrians, I want you to take us right now to four thirty South Capitol Streets, Southeast Washington, d C. To the headquarters of the Democratic National Party. I guess Jamie Harrison, Chris Cork, Jason Ray,
and others. Does the president, routinely any Democratic president, do they just control the DNC or does the DNC have a vote to get to that convention we all want.
They control the DNC, particularly in the months and year leading up to the election. That's been standard in both parties for quite a while. And when you combine that with the fact that the parties as party organizations have been have been a trophying over the past several decades, you know, it's it's interesting to talk about it today because I'm sitting in London. You've just had conversations about
the UK elections. The party organizations are very strong in the UK, whereas they're very weak in the United States, and nowhere weaker or no when weaker than the year of a presidential election. So Jamie Harrison's taking orders from the White.
House to sum this up to Paul's good question, the President of the United States really is going to decide the process of his future and his party's future in the coming days and weeks, maybe to get to a Donnie Brook that gets us to Chicago. Is that right?
Yeah?
I think so.
You know, they've exercised huge control over this process from day one, you know, basically making it a primary free process, you know, exercising a grip on the on the party controls, exercising a grip on the money. As people are now starting to figure out, you know, the money gets the Biden Harris money gets dispersed away unless it's anybody but
Biden or Harris at the top of the ticket. So there's a lot of considerations mechanical for Democrats to go through, much less the fundamental question of whether Biden ought to be their nominee and whether we ought to remain as president.
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