'If Joe Biden Is Still On The Ticket,' By The Next Debate This Is What He Needs To: Dem Strategist

6/30/2024

On "Forbes Newsroom," Democratic strategist Melissa DeRosa responded to former President Donald Trump's claims during Thursday's presidential debate, the impact this debate will have on US standing abroad, and what's next for President Biden's candidacy.

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Transcript

00:00saw a debate last night where Donald Trump did plow through many falsehoods a lot of them going

00:06undetected not rebutted by President Biden. President Biden came across as someone who

00:11was incoherent who couldn't finish his sentence and that went on for 90 minutes. So what do you

00:17think this is signaling to both our friends and enemies abroad? Well and I'm glad you brought up

00:23that point because while Biden clearly lost the debate I'm not sure that Trump won the debate.

00:28I think Biden lost the debate and I think the American people lost overall given that these

00:33are our options at this particular stage. There were no heroes last night but if you are a world

00:39leader and I was saying this last night to friends while we were watching the debate like if you are

00:44a world leader who wants to go after America I would be looking and be like now's our chance

00:49you know let's take our shot because it doesn't appear that anybody at the top is home and that

00:54is a scary scary thing internationally. So I think that that's another consideration Americans are

01:01gonna you know have to grapple with as they make the decision and again I'm going to go back to

01:05the anger I think that Democrats are feeling that they were lied to by people very high up in the

01:11White House by senators by cabinet members all because those people wanted to retain their own

01:16power and their proximity to power and what are the repercussions as a result of this. Losing an

01:21election is one thing. Opening ourselves up on the world stage to potential threats is another.

01:26The anger is palpable in that respect and this was already an election that there were

01:31going to be fears of low voter turnout. Do you think that if Biden is the nominee there is this

01:37feeling of anger not enthusiasm surrounding him. Do you think this is going to impact House and

01:43Senate races too? It could. I mean look you you always see a trickle-down effect and if you see

01:50Democratic voters traditional Democratic voters stay home then I think the odds of us picking up

01:54the House drop dramatically and the Senate because of the the calendar year that we're in you know

02:01not every Senate seat is up every two years because it's a six-year term. We already weren't

02:06favored to hold the Senate so I think that Senate is probably gone and I think that if you've got

02:11traditional Democratic voters who are not enthused to sit home you are going to see a down ballot

02:17impact that's going to cost us the House again. And aside from what how they were saying it let's

02:23talk a little bit about what was said last night. Do you think either Trump or Biden laid out a

02:29really good cohesive plan a vision for how they're going to run the country should either of them win

02:35a second term? No I mean that was the worst part. There was a moment at the end that was almost

02:40comical where they were arguing over golf and you know Trump turns to Biden and says let's not act

02:45like children Joe and I'm like this is you know these are our options and so I mean to the extent

02:51that they engaged in any conversation it was mostly about things in the past and it was bickering and

02:57I really didn't hear a vision from either of them but the truth of the matter is given the split

03:02screen and given how Biden looked I don't even think people could have focused on the dialogue

03:07because everyone was so struck by the image and you know someone told me once you know you know

03:12you can tell if someone's good on TV if you mute the television and how they look and how they come

03:17off and last night it was it's almost like the sound didn't matter. So what are you looking for

03:24next when it comes to the DNC's in less than eight weeks the RNC's a little sooner what are you

03:31looking for between now and then and looking out the debate in September? Well again I'm not even

03:38sure there's going to be a debate in September but if there is a debate if Joe Biden is lucky

03:44enough if Joe Biden is still on the ticket in September and Joe Biden is lucky enough to get

03:48another shot then he is going to have to be the Joe Biden that we saw at the State of the Union

03:52and not the Joe Biden that we saw last night and between now and then this is not something that

03:57can be accomplished through surrogates this is not something that can be accomplished through ads

04:00it's going to have to be him out taking questions on the trail and we're going to have to cross our

04:06fingers and say a prayer that Trump does what Trump does goes out says things that are alienating

04:12that are crazy that make him come off unhinged that remind people that it wasn't you know as

04:17much as we tell ourselves we were better off four years ago putting COVID aside than we are today

04:23and you see that reflected in all the polls when you get asked that question that it was unsettling

04:27to have a president who was you know tweeting at dictators and that it was unsettling to have a

04:32president who was such a loose cannon and that you there is some good in predictability and

04:37stability and so I think that we're going to need to see both of those two things happen

04:42and as a democrat let's say Biden is off the ticket who would you want to see as the nominee

04:50you know it's it's I can't even engage in that like fantasy football the problem is

04:55the democratic party is a big tent party and Kamala Harris being vice president sort of puts

05:02everybody in a little bit of a box because if you pass her over and she would be the heir apparent

05:07if you pass her over you could see a real rift within the party and if black women or women in

05:15general sit home they are the backbone of the democratic party then you are going to ensure a

05:20loss and so again I think that this would have to be some sort of move by the party elders who get

05:26behind somebody who can we poll we know can win who will go in and say I'll just serve one term

05:31but you know listening to people banty about Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom these people

05:37it's like okay well if it's Gavin Newsom do we want to have a referendum on San Francisco in the

05:41current state of what's going on in San Francisco on the national stage and make that the face of

05:46the democratic party like these things haven't been thought through and they're so complicated

05:50and we're so late in the calendar and so look I would love it if Barack Obama could run again

05:55he can't I don't know what the answer is but hopefully between now and the next few weeks

06:00unless Joe Biden goes out and proves that last night was an aberration we're going to need an answer

'If Joe Biden Is Still On The Ticket,' By The Next Debate This Is What He Needs To: Dem Strategist

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