On Politics: A fine Joe-mance
Good evening. Tonight, my colleague Michael Grynbaum takes us inside the safe space that President Biden turned to this week. We're also covering the family drama unfolding on Capitol Hill, as Democrats reckon with the path forward for Biden's embattled presidential campaign. — Jess Bidgood
A fine Joe-manceA few minutes before 10 a.m. on Monday, Mika Brzezinski, the co-host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," paused to listen to a producer's voice in her ear. "We have a special guest," she informed her viewers, before a familiar voice piped up. "Hey, Mika," President Biden said. There are very few journalists on a first-name basis with this president, and even fewer cable news hosts. But Brzezinski and her husband and co-host, Joe Scarborough, have carved out a strikingly intimate relationship with the man in the Oval Office — which is why Biden turned to their airwaves at a moment of political peril. Their on-air phone conversation hearkened back to the days when a different politician under pressure regularly called into "Morning Joe": Donald Trump, who as a Republican candidate in 2016 was a frequent guest. (Indeed, Trump made his own cable TV appearance hours after Biden's "Morning Joe" cameo, calling into "Hannity" on Fox News.) But Trump and the "Morning Joe" crew fell out, and Scarborough and Brzezinski have since emerged as two of Biden's most stalwart champions in the news media. Scarborough made headlines when he raised concerns after Biden's poor debate performance, but Brzezinski has refused to waver. "Morning Joe" has a fervent audience of Washington insiders, and it has long been a must-watch in the Biden White House. The president watches segments and has asked aides to follow up on what he sees. Biden also chats on the phone with Scarborough and Brzezinski on a semiregular basis. That familiarity was on display on Monday's show, when Brzezinski ticked off the names of journalists and political leaders who have called for Biden to withdraw from the race, and asked the president about his "plan of attack." Biden responded by declaring contempt for "the elites" — though he was quick to reassure the hosts, "I'm not talking about you guys." A long situationshipThe Joe-mance goes back a ways. The Bidens and Brzezinskis have been family friends for ages. Biden knew Mika's father, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as Jimmy Carter's national security adviser in the late 1970s; in 2017, Biden received an annual prize named in Brzezinski's honor. Biden is friendly with various members of the extended "Morning Joe" universe, including regular guests like the columnists Mike Barnicle and Eugene Robinson. And Joe S. has known Joe B. since the host was a Republican congressman in the 1990s. "I remember the first time he ever said something to me was at a reception," Scarborough told me today. "He said, 'Hey Scarborough! My father always told me, never trust a Democrat who gets rich and becomes a Republican.' And I said, 'Senator, I assure you, I am not rich.'" Hours after the Atlanta debate, a rattled Scarborough acknowledged that Biden had "missed one layup after another after another," adding, "This is a last chance for Democrats to decide whether this man we've known and loved for a very long time is up to the task of running for president of the United States." Scarborough's stance has softened since. "This is where Joe Biden was in 2020," he said on Tuesday's show, evoking the president's comeback victory in that year's Democratic primary. "How many times have we heard, 'Joe Biden can't win'?" 'I think it is a mystery'Biden's call to the show was not the first time he spoke with Scarborough after the debate. The two spoke privately on the phone one night last week, Scarborough told me. "He called at eight or nine o'clock at night," Scarborough said. "He was cogent. He was the same guy I'd talked to for several hours when I was in the White House back in March." So what happened on the debate stage in Atlanta? "I think it is a mystery, I really do," Scarborough said. "He's certainly slowed down a good bit as far as walking and moving and talking, but my communications with him have not been that different than what they've been through the years." At the close of Monday's interview, Brzezinski urged Biden to call in again, saying, "Let's make this a thing." "Well, I'm not going away," the president said. "If you're willing to hear from me, I'm willing to talk to you. Thank you very much." What to read today
A family dividedCongressional Democrats spent much of Tuesday privately discussing the state of President Biden's re-election campaign in what many lawmakers are delicately calling a "family conversation." For now, many are swallowing their fears and sticking with the president — but they are not exactly unified. I asked my colleague Catie Edmondson to take us behind the curtain. Our conversation was edited for length and clarity. Jess Bidgood: "Family conversation" is some kind of euphemism. What was the vibe as House and Senate Democrats met, separately, on Capitol Hill? Catie Edmondson: They had some really hard discussions about President Biden's ability to be a good messenger, not only for himself on the campaign trail but also for Democrats down the ballot. There were a fair number of Democrats who stood up in support of Biden. But it was very clear that there are still lingering concerns about how voters' perceptions of Biden affect the entire ticket, and I think those fears are going to be extremely hard to extinguish. JB: Families often like to deal with problems in private, rather than in public. What are the differences between what lawmakers are saying behind closed doors and what they're saying in front of the camera? CE: A lot of lawmakers have privately articulated concerns that Democrats will suffer because of voters' doubts about Biden's fitness but have not said so publicly. There is a lot of trepidation among Democrats who don't want to be among the first to say, four months before the election, that their nominee must step aside. So today, normally chatty lawmakers walked out of the meeting saying nothing. It was a fairly grim scene. JB: What's the family dynamic here, and what are the battle lines? CE: When there's a big decision that needs to be made, the rank-and-file members will usually look to their leadership for some sort of suggestion of what to do. And that hasn't happened here. The House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, hasn't really made a case one way or another of what the party should do. This situation has cleaved his party, with Black and Hispanic members of Congress who represent the Democratic base forcefully articulating support for Biden, while moderate members in swing districts and Senate Democrats running in tough states want more distance from the president. JB: So, the dam isn't breaking — but Democrats aren't happy, either. What are the potentially important moments to watch for moving forward? CE: If the status quo right now holds, it's hard for me to imagine a unified push to try to get the president to step aside. That being said, one of the fears that I've heard articulated from a number of Democratic lawmakers and aides — again, not on the record — is, what happens if there's another episode like the debate? Does that restart this whole cycle? Is that the last straw for people? There's a fair amount of time between now and the election. It seems like a perfectly valid concern that something like that could happen again. That's one of the things that makes this so fraught. Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you're enjoying what you're reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Have feedback? Ideas for coverage? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.
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