Chris Matthews: Biden is not quitting; he is not built to quit - Excellent - Chris on Morning Joe to discuss why Joe not

[Amaryllis]

Chris Matthews joins Morning Joe to discuss the calls for Biden to bow out of the 2024 race and why he says Biden isn't built to quit.

[LakeArenal]

1. Morning Joe has become one of Biden's most supportive anchor.

Mika too!

[Goodheart]

2. Let's hope the polls don't tank.

[emulatorloo]

3. See also The Last Word w Lawrence O'Donnell.

[LakeArenal]

6. Oh yes. Lawrence. ❣️

[allegorical oracle]

4. My beef is that one moment the news reports that both candidates are TIED in the polls.

The next minute the latest Dem defectors are introduced. People I had respected. Pelosi's waffling has been especially puzzling.

I'm no conspiracy nut, but something beyond Biden's "cognition" is going on. I worked on the Hill. Regardless of their public persona and squabbles, the members of both parties talk to each other all the time. So what is it that we (and the media) don't know?

If Kamala were to end up as POTUS, she will be roadkill within weeks, no matter how well we regard her. Seems at least one goal is to get Mike Johnson in the WH at least temporarily. He's inexperienced and malleable. Could explain why McCarthy was so summarily ousted. He couldn't be trusted.

Any thoughts?

[democrattotheend]

5. Tied in the national polls isn't good enough

Republicans have such a big electoral college advantage that Biden or any other Democrat probably needs to win the national popular vote by at least 2 points to have a shot at winning the electoral college. Combine that with the fact that polls have underestimated Trump in 2016 and 2020, and I won't feel good about our odds of winning unless we go into election day with at least a 5-point advantage in the national polls. This is true regardless of whether Biden stays in or not.

That said, if your point is that the polls haven't moved as much as we feared since the debate, thus the defections don't make sense, I can see your point. But for the reasons I stated above, Biden already wasn't in great shape before the debate, his approval rating was lower than Trump's at that point in 2020 (which is insane to me, since I think he's done a great job, but when people are hurting economically they blame the guy in charge, fair or not), and he needed the debate to remind people of the stark contrast between him and Trump. I believe he is still up to the job of being president and that he really did just have a bad night, but I understand why people are freaking out about whether he can win in light of the perception the debate set and the fact that he wasn't in great shape politically before the debate. It's not fair, he has been a great president, and based on his performance governing he absolutely deserves a second term. But I don't blame people for being anxious about his chances of winning.

[Elessar Zappa]

10. The polls didn't underestimate Trump in 2020.

They underestimated Biden’s support. And they predicted a red wave which didn’t happen. Oh and they didn’t predict the overwhelming blue wave of 2018. So I’m not worried about the polls.

[democrattotheend]

13. Yes they did

The national polls in 2020 got Biden's support almost exactly right (51.2% final polling avg. versus 51.4% share of the national popular vote), but they underestimated Trump by 3 points, 44% final polling average versus 46.9% of the national popular vote. Which means either undecideds broke heavily for Trump or, more likely, the polls underestimated him because either his supporters were less likely to respond to polls and/or people were embarrassed to admit they were voting for him.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. Thank you for posting this

[democrattotheend]

8. What did Matthews mean about Obama "never inviting him upstairs"?

It's no secret that Obama wanted to avoid a messy primary between Biden and Hillary in 2016 (which in hindsight was probably a mistake), but I thought they were good friends and had a good working relationship when Obama was president.

[LisaL]

11. I'd say it was a mistake, considering Trump got elected.

NT

[ARandomPerson]

12. The Obamas never invited the Bidens to the private residence in the White House ...

... even over eight years. Not for dinner, not for drinks.

I've heard this story before and have never heard it disputed. Usually it's taken as an example of Obama being cool and cerebral (and rather cold), whereas Biden is all emotion.

[Iggo]

9. Irony alert.