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Democrats React to Joe Biden's Performance at the CNN Presidential Debate. Aired 3:40-4a ET

Aired June 28, 2024 - 03:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[03:40:00]

(CNN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Hello and welcome. You have been watching the CNN Presidential Debate. I'm Max Foster, in London. We're getting reaction to the debate from people across the political spectrum.

Democrats telling CNN they are concerned after Biden's performance. Some using the word panicked after the debate. The president met with patrons at the nearby Waffle House restaurant telling them, I think we did well. More now from our panel of analysts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right now as we speak, there is a deep, a wide and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party. It started minutes into the debate and it continues right now. It involves party strategists, it involves elected officials, it involves fundraisers. And they're having conversations about the president's performance, which they think was dismal, which they think will hurt other people down the party in the ticket.

And they're having conversations about what they should do about it. Some of those conversations include, should we go to the White House and ask the president to step aside? Others are, other of the conversations are about, should prominent Democrats go public with that call? Because they feel this debate was so terrible.

They do say in moments in the debate later, the president got better and got his footing. But then at the end, even his closing statement was a little halting. The contrast between the two candidates. Let me be clear. None of them and a lot of Republicans don't think Donald Trump had a great night.

Donald Trump broke the fact check machine more than I can count tonight. That will be on the record as we go forward. He refused to answer some very specific and direct questions about his conduct about January 6th and what all. So that will be dealt with out there. And sometimes there's a parallel universe between the political elites and the American people. Be nice to see what the voters say.

But I can tell you, it started minutes in. It started with the first couple of answers and it has continued throughout the night from, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, to what do we do about this? And it involves very senior people in the Democratic Party, including elected officials saying we have a problem.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN NEWSNIGHT ANCHOR: And just to co-sign what John is saying, I mean, the panic that I am hearing from Democrats is not like anything that I have heard in this campaign so far. And a lot of it has to do with, first of all, there was a deep frustration about Trump's lies. I mean, he lied a lot tonight. But the problem for Biden was that Trump was able to take some -- sometimes incredible falsehoods and turn them into some kind of argument, whereas Biden's answers were in a lot of cases not coherent.

Deeply problematic that he was not able to take pretty straightforward answers and answer them to the American public. And then also at some points bringing things up that teed up Trump attacks. So there's a real concern here tonight that there's been some real damage done that cannot be undone.

Biden solidified the perception among voters, but especially among his base. They were hoping that tonight would be a game changer. They are now seeing a president who is in the White House who they do not necessarily believe can do this for another four years.

ANDERSON COOPER, AC360 ANCHOR: David Axelrod?

DAVID AXELROD, FORMER SR. ADVISER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA AND HOST OF "THE AXE FILES" PODCAST: Look, I can't argue with either of them about how Democrat leaders, Democratic leaders are reacting to this poll. We said at the beginning that each person had a fundamental goal. And for Biden, that goal was to appear energetic, engaged, and look like someone who is capable of serving for another four years for president. That was job number one.

I actually think he scored a bunch of points. I think if you just judge this on policy stuff, he did score a bunch of points on issues like abortion, for example, on some of the economic issues.

But there is a feeling, I think there was a sense of shock, actually, at how he came out at the beginning of this debate, how his voice sounded. He seemed a little disoriented. He did get stronger as the debate went on. But by that time, I think the panic had set in. And I think you're going to hear discussions that I don't know will lead to anything, but there is going to be discussion about whether he should continue. And I think part of it is Donald Trump did not meet his mission either.

[03:44:54]

He could not resist the temptation to be nasty, to prevaricate about a whole bunch of things, about his own record, about Biden's record, and to seem petty and small at times. So what you saw was a candidate who's deeply vulnerable and a president who may not be able to take advantage of it.

DAVID URBAN, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Listen, if anybody in America thinks that that was even close to being an okay debate by Joe Biden, I'm living in a parallel universe. That was an unmitigated disaster for President Biden from the second he walked out to the closing statement. The biggest issue for Democrats is abortion. And he couldn't give an answer. He gave an answer, he couldn't even give a coherent answer on the biggest issue for Democrats tonight.

I've heard from leading Democrats across the United States, elected governors, congressmen, who are texting me and saying, I'm worried I'm going to lose if Joe Biden's at the top of the ticket.

Bob Casey, I promise you tonight in the state of Pennsylvania, is thrown up in his mouth because he knows that if he's got to stand next to Joe Biden, he's going down in Pennsylvania. If he's on the ticket, I don't know how it's going to work.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Yeah, look, it was a really disappointing debate performance from Joe Biden. I don't think there's any way, any other way to slice it. His biggest issue that he had to prove to the American people was that he had the energy and the stamina. And he didn't do that.

And so I think that is of concern. And I think for a lot of Democrats, that's very, that's very disappointing. I will say Donald Trump also had some really rough moments in this debate. And talking to the Biden campaign, they say, you know, their dials started really moving away from Trump as he was increasing his personal attacks on Biden. So I think there was a lot about his kind of character and the kind of personal nastiness that he was putting on display, you know, that doesn't help him with the swing voters that he needs.

You know, and I also think you saw him continue to get sort of more and more animated across the course of the debate and, you know, give some really problematic answers about January 6th, some really problematic answers about Putin. So, you know, Donald Trump did not get off scot-free tonight by any stretch. But look, there is no two ways about it. That was not a good debate for Joe Biden.

COOPER: Van?

VAN JONES, FORMER SPECIAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: That was painful. I love Joe Biden. I work for Joe Biden. He didn't do well at all. He did not do well at all. And he looked, you know, I'll give you the analysis. You kind of have the old man versus the con man. I can walk you through how I'm supposed to see it and say it. But I just want to speak from my heart.

I love that guy. That's a good man. He loves his country. He's doing the best that he can. But he had a test to meet tonight to restore confidence of the country and of the base. And he failed to do that.

And I think there's a lot of people who are going to want to see him consider taking a different course now. We're still far from our convention. And there is time for this party to figure out a different way forward if he will allow us to do that.

But that was not what we needed from Joe Biden. And it's personally painful for a lot of people. It's not just panic. It's pain for what we saw tonight.

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: And if I may just add to that, I think Joe Biden lost in the first three minutes. I think a lot of voters probably tuned out and millions of people are having conversations with their families, with their friends, of if the president is up to the task and if he should step aside. And I'm someone who believes the former president is a threat to democracy. I think he is a threat to the America as we know it. He wants to fundamentally change our institutions.

He has laid out what his plan is. I am not confident that that is the man to take him on. You cannot tell me democracy is on the line and then give that performance tonight. If based on that, in 18 weeks, Donald Trump will be the president-elect.

AXELROD: It's a one night that helped confirm people's fears. It's the one night that everybody was watching. It was -- that was essentially, you know, Trump said, you ought to take a test. That was his test. And people are going to feel that he came up wanting not on the substance. I think he actually won on the substance. I don't think Trump did well. I think what it says to a lot of people, a lot of active Democrats is, man, we can beat this guy, but I don't know if we can beat him with the press guy.

COOPER: Scott, we haven't heard from you.

SCOTT JENNINGS, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH AND CNN SR. POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: When we came on before this debate, I said I thought this candidacy was teetering. And everybody jumped on me. Every single person out here. And I just I just the candidacy has fallen. OK.

Man, I know you're speaking from your heart. I'm worried about the president. We should pray for the president.

I think his advisers, I think the White House and I think his family have a lot of explaining to do to their party and to the American people. This night, this one night was caused by and asked for by the Biden team. They wanted this night.

[03:50:00]

And this is what we got. We have been told for weeks, weeks by Democrats who say, oh, in private meetings, I've seen Joe Biden do cartwheels and handstands while doing trigonometry, while solving all the nation's problems.

We now know that every single person who said that has been lying to the American people.

PHILLIP: On Donald Trump's lies, I mean, I spent a lot of time thinking about this throughout the debate because, you know, we -- we in the media, I sit in the chair and I fact check Trump all the time. So I know these lies by heart at this point. But people watching from home do not. And Biden's job as the other person on the other side of the stage is

to be the one to very quickly dispense with the lies and to shut them down. And I don't think that happened enough times in a coherent way to blunt the fact that Trump was taking a universe that was built on a house of lies and building a building a whole world for the millions of people watching.

COOPER: Particularly on some of the most basic subject matters that President Biden should have been able to just.

PHILLIP: That world that he was able to build, it was not knocked down by the president. That is really at the heart of the problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Biden's V.P., Kamala Harris, defended the president's performance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: CNN's John King has described a panic inside the Democratic Party right now because of President Biden's performance in tonight's debate. He's been hearing from Democratic lawmakers and others around the country. Some within your own party are wondering if President Biden should even step aside. What do you say to that?

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Listen, first of all, what we saw tonight is the president making a very clear contrast with Donald Trump on all of the issues that matter to the American people. Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish. And what became very clear through the course of the night is that Joe Biden is fighting on behalf of the American people, on substance, on policy, on performance. Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong. And that cannot be debated.

COOPER: But I'm sorry, on substance and policy and performance tonight, I mean, the president's performance tonight clearly was disappointing for his supporters. CNN is reporting Democratic lawmakers watching the debate were worried about the president's performance. One said it was a disaster. Another called it a train wreck. Those are Democrats especially worried that Biden did not punch back on Trump's lies.

HARRIS: Listen, people can debate on style points, but ultimately this election and who is the president of the United States has to be about substance. And the contrast is clear. Look at what happened during the course of the debate. Donald Trump lied over and over and over again, as he is want to do.

He would not disavow what happened on January 6th. He would not give a clear answer on whether he would stand by the election results this November.

He went back-and-forth about where he stands on one of the most critical issues of freedom in America, which is the right of women to make decisions about their own body. He has been completely ambiguous and all over the place about where he stands on that issue, despite the fact that he hand selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade. And that's exactly what they did.

And just three years ago, we commemorated the two year anniversary of Dobbs, wherein women across our country have been denied emergency health care.

COOPER: All that may be true. All that may be true. But the president of the United States was not able to -- to put make that case to Donald Trump on the stage tonight. I mean, you debated against then Vice President Trump, excuse me, Vice President Biden four years ago, and he was a very different person on the stage four years ago when -- when you debated him. You must. I mean, that that's certainly true, is it not?

HARRIS: Anderson, the point has to be performance in terms of what a president does. A president who incites an insurrection against the capitol.

COOPER: But that is what is scary for people watching the --

HARRIS: No, but I got the point that you're making about a one and a half hour debate tonight. I'm talking about three and a half years of performance in work that has been historic.

COOPER: But is that the man who we saw on the stage tonight? Is that the other guy on the debate?

HARRIS: The person that you saw on the debate stage that has for the last three and a half years up until today performed in a way that has been about whether it be in the Oval Office negotiating bipartisan deals so that we have an infrastructure, a real infrastructure plan, where we're putting trillions of dollars on the streets of America to upgrade our infrastructure.

[03:55:04]

Whether it be the person I see in the Oval Office who is meeting with heads of the military and the intelligence community and in the situation room, ensuring the safety of America, the person I see Joe Biden on the world stage convening world leaders who often ask for his advice, most recently just during the G7 conference.

So I'm not going to spend all night with you talking about the last 90 minutes when I've been watching the last three and a half years of performance.

COOPER: But this was a debate that your campaign wanted. You pushed for this debate at this moment. Obviously, I mean, you can't honestly say, I mean, can you say that you are not concerned at all having watched the president's performance tonight?

HARRIS: It was a slow start. That's obvious to everyone. I'm not going to debate that point. I'm talking about the choice in November. I'm talking about one of the most important elections in our collective lifetime.

And do we want to look at what November will bring and go on a course for America that is about a destruction of democracy, electing a man who has said he'll be a dictator on day one? Or do we want to continue on a course that's about strengthening America's economy, building and creating 15 million American jobs, over 800,000 manufacturing jobs? I got that this is the afterplay for the debate, this conversation that I'm in.

And I understand why everyone wants to talk about it. But I think it's also important to recognize that the choice in November between these two people that were on the debate stage involves extraordinary stakes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Joe Biden's V.P., Kamala Harris, speaking to us a little earlier on. I'm Max Foster. Much more on the debate coming up.

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