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--:-- John Bickley: Joe Biden's presidency is in crisis after a primetime interview with a friendly network fails to shore up Democrat support. Did you ever watch the debate afterwards? I don't think I did, no. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Monday, July 8th, and this is Morning Wire. As Democrats look for alternatives to Biden, Kamala Harris comes under the spotlight. And conservatives in the UK and France get outmaneuvered in snap elections. You campaigned for it. You fought for it. You voted for it. And now it has arrived. Change begins now. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned.
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--:-- John Bickley: President Biden is struggling to maintain his grip on the Democratic nomination as a growing number of Democrats question his ability to lead. Here to break down the latest is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Hey, thanks for having me on.
--:-- John Bickley: So really a tumultuous weekend in Washington. Get us up to speed here.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, we've really never seen anything like this in modern political history. All weekend, almost hourly, there were damning new reports on Biden's diminished mental state. For example, one report in New York Magazine cited close friends of President Biden who've known him for decades. They said in recent months he did not remember their names and seemed like a shell of his former self.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Then the New York Times reported that in the week before his debate, not only did prep sessions never start before 11 a.m., but his staff scheduled time for daily afternoon naps. That comes on the heels of a separate report from White House officials who said anonymously that Biden is only fully alert from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and becomes notably more prone to mental lapses outside of those hours.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And on top of all of that, we saw dozens upon dozens of stories featuring quotes from donors, lawmakers, and even senior administration officials themselves saying the Biden they see now is no longer the man he once was and that he must step aside. Just a flood of damaging headlines.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah. Now, as for the president's response, he and his team have scrambled to attempt to regain some control. He's held a few meetings. He's made some public appearances, including one primetime interview.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, in many ways, he's done little to assuage concerns about his age. Biden hosted more than 20 Democratic governors at the White House and by all accounts did little to convince them that he's still the man for the job.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: At one point, he told them that part of his plan moving forward was to get more sleep and that he would no longer schedule official events after 8 p.m.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: He then made an apparent joke that did not go over well saying quote I fine I don know about my brain though
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Then later at a Virginia fundraiser he blamed his debate performance again on a lack of sleep saying, quote, I decided to travel around the world a couple of times shortly before the debate. I did not listen to my staff, and then I almost fell asleep on stage.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It is worth pointing out, though, Biden had been back from his international trip for nearly two weeks before the debate and took nearly a week-long vacation before starting prep.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But despite that mountain of negative reports, Biden is vowing to push on. Here he is speaking in Wisconsin over the weekend to supporters.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, you probably heard we had a little debate last week. Can't say it was my best performance. But ever since then, there's been a lot of speculation. What's Joe going to do? Well, here's my answer. I am running and going to win again.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Look, the Biden campaign is now desperately trying to make the conversation about anything other than his age. At that point, they recently launched a seven-figure ad spend in battleground states going after the recent Supreme Court rulings in Donald Trump's favor.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And had President Biden appear on a number of TV and radio shows in a clear attempt to go on the offensive.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Which brings us to his big primetime interview on ABC.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, Biden sat down with George Stephanopoulos, where he talked extensively about the state of the race and reiterated his intention to remain on the ticket.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: During one exchange that got a lot of attention, he had this to say when asked how he would feel if he stayed on the ticket and lost. I feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do. That's what this is about.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That response really angered a lot of Democrats who say that it undermines his entire argument that the campaign is a battle for democracy itself.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Later on, he said that he does not believe the polls showing him trailing Trump. Mr. President, I've never seen a president's 36 percent approval get reelected. I don't believe that's my approval. That's not what our polls show.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Biden also made a pair of high-profile radio appearances, at one point giving a stumbling answer where he claimed to be the, quote, first black woman to serve with a black president.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: By the way, I'm proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first black woman to serve with a black president.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And while none of those interviews featured any meltdown moments like we saw in the debate stage, by all accounts, they have done little to alleviate concerns from leaders within his own party.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: In fact, we've since learned that those radio interviews featured prescripted questions that the White House fed to the interviewers, which just added more fuel to the fire over Biden's inability to think on his feet.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Meanwhile, Congress is back in Washington today where Democratic lawmakers are going to be asked on the record whether they support him or not.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: We've already seen a dozen or so electeds publicly call for his removal. We're likely going to see even more as the week progresses.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Like you said, never seen anything like this. It's going to be a wild week.
--:-- John Bickley: Yes, it will. Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: A growing number of Democrats are coming around to the possibility of Kamala Harris replacing Biden at the top of the ticket. The Wall Street Journal did a deep dive into the efforts to make Harris, whose polling is as weak or weaker than Biden's, more palatable to the party leadership and to Democrat voters.
--:-- John Bickley: Here to discuss the push in favor of the Veep is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus.
--:-- David Marcus: Hey, Dave. So what was uncovered here and what are the arguments that are being made in support of this Harris 2024 campaign?
--:-- David Marcus: Morning, John. The Wall Street Journal was given access to a document created by anonymous Democratic Party officials who claim they have no connection to Harris or skin in this game It lays out why they think she the best possible choice if Biden declines to run As has been mentioned on the show there are real difficulties especially on the left, in bypassing the first black woman to be vice president.
--:-- David Marcus: But there's also a more positive case carved out. They argue she's better suited to carry the fight on the key abortion issue, both because she's a woman and she isn't a practicing Catholic.
--:-- David Marcus: Then there's the age issue. Unlike Biden and Trump, she's younger than color television. And finally, Joe Biden already has a considerable haul of donor cash in his war chest.
--:-- David Marcus: And for complicated legal reasons we don't have time to get into, it's far simpler to hand that money over to a candidate already on the ticket than a wholly new face. Right. Things get messy if Harris isn't the nominee.
--:-- David Marcus: Now, it wasn't all good news for Harris in the journal reporting or elsewhere. What are some of the concerns that Democrats skeptical of her candidacy bring up?
--:-- David Marcus: Well, the biggest one remains her lackluster polling numbers, but it's not the only one. Harris is arguably best known as VP for being the border czar with approximately the same success that czar Nicholas had in handling the Bolsheviks. So that's a problem.
--:-- David Marcus: She also has arguably been very complicit in keeping Biden's actual condition from the American people, which is how we got here in the first place.
--:-- David Marcus: And look, there are still many Democrats saying Biden should stick it out. So that is, of course, an option that's still in play.
--:-- David Marcus: Although pollster Nate Silver now says that the trajectory for Biden has been so bad that while today we're talking about if he should stay in the race, by next week, we could be debating whether he should remain in office until November at all.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah. Now, finally, Gavin Newsom, of all people, one of the most common names suggested to replace Biden on the ticket, he defended Harris against the New York Post on X in a statement that really caused a stir.
--:-- David Marcus: What happened there?
--:-- David Marcus: Yes. So the New York Post ran a story on X with the headline, America may soon be subjected to the first DEI president, Kamala Harris, to which Newsom, quote, posted, one, that Biden will be the nominee, but also that, two, quote, this is straight up racist, end quote.
--:-- David Marcus: It was pointed out by many, including the post's Charlie Gasparino, that Biden very explicitly said he was going to choose a woman as running mate when he secured the nomination four years ago for the explicit reason of increasing diversity, part of diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI.
--:-- David Marcus: In fact, Biden boasts regularly about having the most diverse administration in history. So if DEI is good, good for institutions and for the country, why would it be racist to point out that it was used by Biden to choose his successor should he become incapacitated?
--:-- David Marcus: Look, if Harris emerges as the nominee, this is a point that we will hear more about.
--:-- David Marcus: And also, yeah, as you noted, even though Newsom was on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania for Biden over the weekend, it's not lost on anybody that he is coming to the defense of Kamala Harris.
--:-- David Marcus: Hard not to notice that.
--:-- John Bickley: The left appears to be on its way to victory in both the U.K. and France in parliamentary elections in the past week. While the outcome in the UK was expected, the results out of France came as a surprise after conservatives showed strong support in the first round of voting.
--:-- John Bickley: Here to talk about what happened on the other side of the Atlantic is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pearce.
--:-- Tim Pearce: Hey, Tim. So let's start with France. What happened there?
--:-- Tim Pearce: Yeah, to understand what happened in France, first, some context. French politics at the moment is controlled essentially by three main parties. Marine Le Pen's national rally on the right, French President Emmanuel Macron's centrist coalition called together, and then the new popular front coalition made up of socialists and communists on the left
--:-- Tim Pearce: Le Pen national rally was expected to finish with a big victory here because all the electoral momentum seemed to point that way But in the end it appears Le Pen party was outmaneuvered in the final tally after Macron's centrists partnered with the left-wing coalition to keep national rally back.
--:-- Tim Pearce: Across hundreds of races, centrists and left-wing candidates dropped out to pull voters against the national rally candidate.
--:-- Tim Pearce: Here's some numbers for you. out of 577 constituencies, 410 of them only featured two candidates in the latest round of voting. Only 89 featured three candidates.
--:-- Tim Pearce: Official results for the election are still being tallied, but according to one projection, the new popular front is expected to hold between 175 and 205 seats.
--:-- Tim Pearce: Macron's party is expected to get between 150 and 175 seats, and the national rally will have somewhere between 115 and 150 seats.
--:-- Tim Pearce: It's worth pointing out here that while the center-left partnership paid off, the only issue that unites the two coalitions is opposition to the right.
--:-- Tim Pearce: Now it'll be up to Macron, whose term is up in 2027, to figure out how to work with a left-wing bloc that campaigned against him, but his party helped to bring to power anyway.
--:-- Tim Pearce: What about in the UK? Is this a major victory for the left?
--:-- Tim Pearce: Yes and no. The UK's Labour Party managed to win a large majority of seats in the parliament, 412 out of 650 possible.
--:-- Tim Pearce: And its leader, Keir Starmer, will take over as next prime minister.
--:-- Tim Pearce: Here's Starmer after the victory.
--:-- Tim Pearce: A mandate like this comes with a great responsibility. Whoever you are, wherever you started in life, if you work hard, if you play by the rules, This country should give you a fair chance to get on.
--:-- Tim Pearce: It should always respect your contribution, and we have to restore that.
--:-- Tim Pearce: Now, that mandate that Starmer mentioned comes with some pretty significant caveats. This was an exceptionally low turnout election, with just under 60 percent of the electorate voting that ranks as the second lowest turnout for an election since 1885.
--:-- Tim Pearce: Now, it seems like a lot of people were just unhappy with conservative leadership, not necessarily excited for labor's platform, correct?
--:-- Tim Pearce: Now, what happened with Farage?
--:-- Tim Pearce: Yeah, the other event that undermined conservatives here and again suggest that this was about dissatisfaction with conservative leadership is that Nigel Farage led an insurgent right-wing party that captured millions of votes from conservatives.
--:-- Tim Pearce: Farage, of course, is perhaps best known for his leadership during Brexit and as a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump.
--:-- Tim Pearce: Critical of conservative leadership, Farage reformed the Reform Party and managed to win a handful of seats.
--:-- Tim Pearce: But more significant than the seats reform one was the share of vote, nearly 15%, which is about half the share of vote earned by the majority labor party.
--:-- Tim Pearce: And virtually all of those reform votes came from people who otherwise would have cast a ballot for a conservative.
--:-- Tim Pearce: Here's Farage declaring victory for his movement after the election.
--:-- Tim Pearce: The results show us some very interesting things. If we had proportional representation, we'd be looking at nearly 100 seats.
--:-- Tim Pearce: It is very much my view that our outdated, first-past-the-post electoral system is not fit for purpose, and we will campaign with anyone and everyone to change this electoral system.
--:-- Tim Pearce: The results show there is absolutely no enthusiasm for Starmer's labor whatsoever.
--:-- Tim Pearce: So this election was more about holding conservative leadership accountable for drifting away from conservative principles than about a victory for the left.
--:-- John Bickley: All right, so really a complex political situation in both England and France.
--:-- Tim Pearce: Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Tim Pearce: Good to be on.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.
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