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Good evening, everyone. I'm Lindsay Davis. We are beginning with breaking news, the nation's eyes and ears hanging on to President Biden's every word during a freewheeling press conference that concluded just a short time ago. It was a critical test and potentially pivotal moment, but wasn't enough to change the minds of those in his own party who would like to see him step aside. I'm not in this for my legacy.

I'm in this to complete the job I started. The president did not say anything about stepping aside in the race for president. He took the stage tonight after he wrapped NATO's 75th anniversary summit, which he also hosted. And he took the opportunity to warn the country what President Trump said a few months ago about not defending NATO allies in the face of russian aggression. Meanwhile, my predecessor has made it clear he has no commitment to NATO.

He's made it clear that he would feel no obligation to honor article five. He's already told Putin, and I quote, do whatever the hell you want. In fact, the day after Putin invaded Ukraine, here's what he said. It was genius. It was wonderful.

Some of you forgot that. But that's exactly what he said. It was the president's first press conference in nearly eight months. He had not directly addressed the media since before Thanksgiving. He answered questions for nearly an hour.

But the chorus of democratic lawmakers saying Biden should step aside only continues to grow louder as more politicians have shared that sentiment publicly in just the past 24 hours. At least 15 House Democrats and one senator, Peter Welch from Vermont, have now said publicly the president should bow out of the race. But largely, most lawmakers have not publicly said either way if they support the president as the nominee or not. Joining us now for more is ABC's Mary Alice parks from the White House. And Mary Alice, what are your sources telling you about how he fared tonight?

Yeah. Well, Lindsey, I can tell you that the campaign feels really good about this press conference. They are pointing especially to his answers on pretty complicated questions around foreign policy. One joked with me, for such a doddering old man, he's doing an incredible job about talking about complicated foreign policy questions. Look, I think that Democrats are going to read into this what they want.

I think some are definitely going to see a president who was sort of in command of a lot of those details, who did answer many questions, like you said, spoke at length, did a long, unscripted, off the cuff press conference, like many Democrats had been saying he needed to do to help restore confidence in his candidacy and his presidency. But look, there's other Democrats that are telling me it was just not enough. That fair or unfair, the expectation, the need from him today was to be pitch perfect. And right off the bat, we saw him stumble, you know, a gaffe, maybe unfair, but that there were moments where he did seem to still sort of trail off and that the expectation was just so high going into tonight that other Democrats telling me they just didn't think it was enough to calm the fears from constituents and from voters that they have been hearing. So, look, I think we're going to see in the next few days, obviously, like we've been saying, whether more elected Democrats come forward and tell the president that he needs to step aside.

But my big takeaway from that, Lindsey, was that I'm still not sure that even that would be enough. I mean, you heard the president there say repeatedly that he is committed to staying in this race, that he believes he is the one that is most qualified to be president, to run again, and that he still thinks he has work to do and an important job to do. Robert, and you mentioned that gaffe right off the top. So I do want to play that moment where Biden was asked if Vice President Kamala Harris would have the ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket. And let's listen, listen to what he had to say.

Look, I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, but I think she was not qualified to be president. So let's start there. Number one, the fact is that the consideration is that I think I'm the most qualified person to run for president. I beat him once and I will beat him again. So obviously, another name mix up there.

But do you think that the president is at all thinking about the possibility of a matchup of Kamala Harris versus Donald Trump? Well, first on the mix up there, the Biden campaign is already trying to make light of it. They sent out a tweet saying, of course they know the difference, that one Kamala Harris is a prosecutor and the other is a convicted felon. They're obviously, like I said, trying to downplay this as just a moment. People do confuse names, but this has been such a high stakes moment, a moment where we knew every word from the president was going to be looked at under such a microscope, I mean, as to whether he is considering really passing the torch in that way.

I mean, he did say there at the end that if his staff told him that there was no path forward, no way that the polling and sort of data would show that he could beat the president, he sort of left open the possibility. I think there was more movement there than we have seen in the past. But he was asked several times about the vice president. He talked about how much faith and trust he has in her, how much confidence he has in her to do the job. But he came back to this idea that he still believes he is the one for this job, for this moment, and that right now he's not going anywhere.

All right. Mary Alice parks from the White House, we thank you so much for your time. And now I want to bring in ABC News analyst and politico senior Washington correspondent Rachel Bate. Rachel, thank you for joining us. So during the president's news conference, you got word from another member of Congress planning to ask Biden to leave the race.

Tell us about that, Lindsey. That's right, Lindsey. Jim Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut and a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Not just a member, actually the most senior Democrat on that panel that takes care and oversees national security issues. He put out a statement saying that Joe Biden has been a remarkable leader of unparalleled public service.

He applauded him for a number of policy issues that he sort of championed through Congress. But he said, we must put, put forth the strongest candidate possible to defeat Trump. And I no longer believe that is Joe Biden. Now, the significance of this statement, Lindsey, is that, you know, he had actually written this and was getting ready to sort of distribute it before the press conference had really even started and got off the ground. And so this sort of underscores the notion that while everybody was watching this press conference, there were some people who, regardless, we're going to be calling him to step aside.

And you are on the phone, in contact with your sources on Capitol Hill throughout that news conference. What are the initial reactions that you're hearing? Yeah, Lindsay, look, people were obviously shocked by the initial beginning of the press conference when Biden sort of called Kamala Harris, Vice President Trump, on accident. People said that was obviously bad, but the longer he went on, the better he actually got. And people recognized that.

I did hear from someone who said this is actually the worst of all worlds for us. They said it's damaging for his prospects, but not so bad as to provide enough fodder to use this to immediately dump him from the ticket. Another person said to me that it wasn't a disaster, but all the public will take away is his miss up between President Putin and Zelensky and Vice President Harris and President Trump. All right, Rachel Bade, our thanks to you. I want to bring in Jay O'Brien, who joins us now to get wider reaction from lawmakers.

Jay, curious, because when we talked to Rachel Scott earlier, she said that she had heard from a lawmaker in particular who said that this is enough to ease concerns but not erase them. Yeah, and that's about what I'm getting as well. I mean, there are some lawmakers who have reacted positively to this, even some who were skeptical of Biden's viability as a candidate. Before we get into that, just a little bit of breaking news that we just got. According to Politico, which obtained a statement from him, we do have one more House Democrat now, which I believe adds our list to 16 House Democrats who have called on Biden to step aside.

He is Scott Peters, Democrat of California. He represents the San Diego area. That is, again, according to a statement that Politico obtained. You see the rest of the House Democrats and that one senator there on your screen. But back to the reaction so largely positive from lawmakers.

I heard from one democratic source who said that Biden, quote, has the same problem coming out of this press conference as he did going in. That's because he did a good enough job, as you just heard Rachel Bay describe for some to not necessarily put entirely their concerns at ease. But it wasn't bad enough to have this groundswell of Democrats come out, the floodgates open, if you will, to try to push him off of the ticket. But it's interesting because I also talked to some skeptical Democrats tonight who have not made their concerns public, but instead are just privately holding concerns about Biden as a candidate. The point that they made to me is that in this press conference, in the view of many of them, President Biden was able to allay their concerns, concerns about his ability to be president.

A lot of them pointed to his lengthy answers on foreign policy and his quick command of the issues that he demonstrated there as something that allayed their concerns about his ability to sit in the Oval Office and do the job. But it didn't necessarily quell their concerns about his ability to win. And as one Democrat put it to me, Lindsay, those are, quote, two separate things. Lindsay it is indeed, and could tonight coax more lawmakers to come out publicly in support of President Biden's reelection campaign. We've been talking about those detractors.

But maybe this was a good enough job to do the opposite. Well, it's interesting because I've talked to some lawmakers who do vocally support Biden and have said so on the record, and they're not necessarily as vocal as the ones who want him to step off the ticket, certainly, but they are calling on their colleagues to do a version of that to demonstrate a public display of support. It's unclear how that's going to materialize, if that's something that actually comes about or not. Certainly with the president saying that he's not going to step aside, they are going to be looking to lawmakers who do believe that he should be the nominee to rally to his side between now and the convention. That's obvious.

The other thing I will tell you is that there were Democrats who had statements ready tonight, ready to go prior to this press conference that they almost had to essentially hit send on. And those statements were statements that said they didn't want Biden to be the nominee. We haven't seen a lot of lawmakers hit send on those statements yet, but those could be coming in the next few days or hours even. Yeah, we'll check on that tomorrow morning to be sure. Jay O'Brien, our thanks to you, as always.

Do you want to bring in Representative Lloyd Doggett of Austin, Texas? He was the first sitting member of the House to publicly say President Biden should step aside. Congressman, I thank you so much for your time tonight. Did you see anything at all tonight during that press conference to make you potentially reconsider your position? Not really.

I thought the president did a good job. I think he clearly is the most qualified person to handle our international relations. But the question before us, is he the most qualified person to turn around the undecided and the independents who have refused to join him over the past year, and now complicated by the setback when we needed a surge that he had during the debate. Every time there's a slip, a vice president, Trump instead of Harris, a Putin instead of Zelensky, people will focus on something that might not have even been noticed at past times. And to the extent over the coming months that all the attention is on whether he is fit and able to do this job instead of on Trump's lies, we will be set back.

And I think that's why distinguished members of our caucus, the person who would head the intelligence committee, who would head the armed services committee, a range of people that have no ideological conflict about the president, who are scattered across the country, are saying we see the numbers. And, mister president, just as you deal with the reality of conflict around the world, deal with the reality of the numbers here. And when you look at those numbers, we don't see a path forward for a democratic Congress and a White House that is occupied by someone of President Biden's skill, but is instead occupied by a criminal and his gang. Interestingly, though, tonight, he said that he's not seeing that. That he said that basically the thing that would get him out is if his staff came to me and said, look, there's no way for you to win.

And then he kind of whispered into the mic, and no one's saying that because that isn't out there. And so do you think that there is contrary evidence to suggest otherwise? Absolutely. And I must say, this is progress with the president. You remember the last time it was, he had to have the Lord Almighty come down and tell him.

Now we're down to dealing with the basics of the numbers. And if his staff is telling him he's winning, they're not telling him. Right. If he looks at the numbers in districts all over this country, he will see the challenge we face. I'm not saying it's impossible for him to win, but I am saying it's improbable.

And in the course of this, with a tremendous threat that is posed by Donald Trump and the wreckage that he would make of our democracy, we simply cannot afford that risk. And there are many other better choices out there that I think would be more effective in taking on Donald Trump. You know, he would throw the republican convention into total disarray if on Monday, when he is at the LBJ library in my hometown of Austin, he declared that he was stepping aside, as President Johnson did, under different circumstances, but a very painful and difficult decision. That's what we're asking the president to do. Not trying to force him out of a job, but to call on him, on his better nature, to look at what is best for the country and not for himself, perhaps devote his energies over these coming months to bringing peace to the Middle east and dealing with some of the other international issues he's so skilled at.

But let us have the strongest possible candidate to protect american families from moving from democracy to autocracy under Donald Trump and his gang. And who do you think would be that strongest possible candidate? I think we have a number of candidates that could be. That could be effective here. I've not chosen a candidate because what I have chosen is favoring a fair, open, democratic process.

I think it would excite all those disaffected people who have been saying they don't like either candidate, certainly, Vice President Harris would probably be a leader in that, would lead the array. But we have governors, we have senators, we have cabinet members who could be effective candidates. Let them go around the country in these weeks ahead and present themselves as well at the convention. Let an open democratic process that people across America can see that the Democratic Party believes in democracy with a small d. We're not going to have a smoke filled room decide this.

We'll let the delegates from around the country decide it. That will be a candidate Donald Trump can't deal with because he's focused his whole campaign on lies about Joe Biden and his administration, a new approach, a younger generation, that's a winning ticket for us. And what are you hearing from your, what are you hearing from your constituents about Biden staying in the race overwhelmingly favoring replacement. And the same as I talk to some of the candidates around the country today who are out there in tough districts, tougher than mine, to try to be the votes that we need to have a Democratic Congress again. There's certainly some people that are out there that don't agree with me on this.

They're a little like the fellow who wrote me one time and said after a vote, you're my horse and I'm with you if you never win another race, well, I'm glad Joe Biden has some supporters like that, but we just can't afford to lose this race after our candidate's gone a little lame. Representative Lloyd Doggett, we thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it. Thank you. And take a look now we're just getting images in of President Biden.

There you see him making a return to the White House tonight, joined now by president of NextGen, american democratic strategist Christina Sinsoon Ramirez, who joins us. Christina, you represent young voters. Any indication about their reaction to tonight's presser? Well, we know that ahead of not just today's press conference, but even before the debate, young people, while they really approved of the policies and did help Joe Biden in 2020 in overwhelming numbers, they have not been favorable to either candidate. There are a lot of double haters amongst young voters.

And so I think one of their big concerns was Joe Biden's age. I think a lot of them probably are not watching tonight's press conferences. They will watch clips on the Daily show and on social media, and they're really critical to his base. I think ultimately, young people, and not just young voters there is we're seeing this core base of democratic support, especially young people that we polled just a few months ago, that said, while they were very concerned about Joe Biden's age, they were more concerned than anything about the threat that Donald Trump posed to democracy. We don't know quite yet host the debate how young people are feeling, but we know that core democratic base of support will continue to support Joe Biden because they see the threat of Donald Trump.

But they're like Congressman Doggett said, there are independents and others that haven't made up their mind that are concerned about his age and concerned about what they saw in the debate. And we're not sure exactly where they're going to fall, if it will be enough to win the election. So you are a democratic strategist. What is the strategy for the Democratic Party going forward? Look, I think what makes the Democratic Party different than the Republican Party today is that one, it looks more like America in its diversity and also in its process.

Right. The Republican Party has become a party of a cult of personality that is dangerous for democracy, that is dangerous for the american public. And so I think the Democratic Party and Joe Biden have to really show that they are listening to voters, that they are listening to the concerns that they have, because we do see from polling that the super majority of democratic voters are concerned about his age. And so I think the Biden administration has done better. In the beginning, they were saying, you know, I think the differences you saw and his approach today was saying he did have to answer voters concerns.

Just a few days ago, he was saying that we needed to move on and just talk about Donald Trump. And I get why he's saying that. However, voters have the right to ask this kinds of questions of their candidate, and that is what makes the Democratic Party different. So if he's going to stay in the race, Democrats, I think, will support him. However, if there's going to be a primary or an open process, that there actually has to be an open process, because I think that's really important to democrats to see that they are being able to pick their nominee and that that actually also builds the base and builds support and builds excitement for the general election election.

Quite a pickle, as many have described it. Similarly, Christina Sinson Ramirez, our thanks to you tonight. Members of the Democratic Party are also coming forward concerns about President Joe Biden dating back to almost a month ago, concerns they say arose after they saw him just weeks before his debate with Donald Trump at the White House Juneteenth celebration. Olivia Rubin reports.

It was an evening of big name performers to commemorate Juneteenth President Biden in attendance. As celebrations lit up the White House lawn, there was a sense of joy and pride. It was a great, great atmosphere. But now that event is raising new questions about Biden. As multiple attendees tell ABC News, the president's behavior sounded their alarm bells that evening.

Almost like removed, somber, like very, almost aloof. He was physically there, but mentally, his mind was somewhere else. One former Obama official in attendance telling ABC News that Biden's speech at the White House was concerning, at times garbled. Folks, that's what Juneteenth is all about. That's why.

That's why I awarded the Medal of Freedom to miss Oprah Lee as well, her grandmother of Juneteenth.

She no longer, she knew, so long as she was denied, our freedom can never be secured. 17 days after the concert, the debate between Biden and Trump, the president and his supporters continuing to insist it was just a bad night. But one state lawmaker who has since called for Biden to step aside told us he feels the opposite, having seen him on the debate stage. It was characteristic of what I witnessed that evening at the White House. And unfortunately, it reminded me that it wasn't maybe not a, you know, a one off or just a bad night.

Even as I sat there, I said to someone, this will be the headline before the night is over, because Gladys night petted a veil which blew the roof off the house. And you don't move or sway. Even if you are a white person who cannot dance in that setting, you're gonna make some type of movement. And he didn't. State Representative Wanda Lynn Gavon says she's seen a noticeable change in Biden's behavior over the last handful of times she's been with him in person.

Even last August, I expressed my concern to some staffers and I just said, hey, we gotta make sure that the president, we can keep him stitched together until November. Other attendees pushing back, saying the president was fine. Look, we don't hire a president to dance on the beat with Charlie Wilson and Patti Labelle. You know, there are days where I'm tired and I'm not dancing so great either. So we hire president to get the job done for the american people.

And, you know, I think that's what Biden is doing. The White House did not respond to ABC News request for comment. Our thanks to Olivia Rubin. Now to the other major story this Thursday night of the severe storms and dangerous heat now moving east, major flooding in Vermont after Hurricane barrel. One man dying after car was swept away.

In Texas, more than a million customers are still without power in the searing heat. The medical system struggling to keep up. The record heat in the west has taken at least 28 lives as Haim storm system is on the way to the northeast. ABC's faith abube reports from Houston tonight. Nearly four full days since Hurricane barrel made landfall, frustration and misery setting in across southeast Texas.

You would have thought that by now they would have had a better plan than what is happening now. Suzy Cisneros and her husband Tony have already lost all the food in their refrigerator. Their only reprieve is when they go to the hospital for Suzy's treatments for breast cancer. I kind of just hang out there at the hospital hospital just to cool off a little bit. Barrel knocked out power to nearly 3 million customers.

Houston's main utility company, Centerpoint, admitting they should have done more to improve their infrastructure ahead of the storm. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick speaking for Governor Greg Abbott, who's currently on an economic trade mission in Asia, calling for an investigation into Centerpoint. If Centerpoint meets their goals by Sunday, they will have reduced it from about 2.2 million people without power down to still about 500,000 for next week. Folks, that is not acceptable. And Lindsey, the power outages here in Texas are straining hospital resources.

So many patients unable to be discharged because their homes are just too hot. And now this arena behind me being used as a transitional facility until those patients can go home. Lindsey. Yeah. People dealing in that sweltering heat without any air or thanks to faith, still much more to get to here on prime.

It's a diagnosis that's often given to children, but now it's calming later in life for many women, how it's changing their lives.

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Welcome back, everyone. ADHD is most often diagnosed in children, but in recent years, a growing number of women in particular have been getting diagnosed as adults. It's a life changing diagnosis that comes at a time when there's a new understanding of how ADHD appears differently in girls and women. Diane Macedo looked into this trend of women receiving this later in life news and opens up about her own recent diagnosis as part of a new ABC News live series, Inside ADHD. I believed the lies that I was lazy, dumb, unmotivated for decades, Jessica Covington said.

She struggled with things like organization, staying on task, remembering details, the results. She thought of a moral failure. I always felt a sense of not being good enough. But that all changed in 2014 when Jessica says she got a diagnosis that changed her life. For me, it explains so much that it was a huge relief.

Jessica's part of a growing trend of women being diagnosed with ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a condition that originates in childhood with often lifelong symptoms. You say brains are different for people with ADHD. So what do those differences cause in everyday life? Persistent struggles with things like time management, things like planning, things like organization, focusing attention, hyperactivity ADHD diagnoses among women have been on the rise for decades, but a recent study shows a dramatic spike from 2020 to 2022, with diagnoses among women 23 to 49 years old nearly doubling. Experts say the rise is due in part to a shift in understanding how ADHD affects girls and women.

So there's this inherent bias within our culture. Boys are the ones that have ADHD. It looks like a busy body boy who's rambunctious. But studies show that girls present with inattention. They may not be jumping them down, but they'll be twirling their hair, clicking the pencil, shaking their legs, and they get overlooked.

And it's really, really devastating because they don't get a supports. Now, as grown women, many are unexpectedly getting that diagnosis later in life, often after learning about their children's ADHD. So what was it for you as you were trying to find answers for your son that then prompted you to get evaluated? It was a book by doctor Edward Hallowell called Super Parenting for ADD. I was reading it from the perspective of a parent, but also from the perspective of that misunderstood kid.

So Jessica says she asked her therapist if she might have ADHD and got a surprising answer. She kind of looked at me and said, huh, it's interesting that you got to be this age and didn't know. So she knew already. She kind of had it pegged since we met, many more women are being tipped off by social media. When I started seeing videos about women, particularly, were struggling to keep their houses clean or organized or tidy or they start one task and then they do another.

Parenting influencer Libby Ward says it was those types of videos that made her realize she might have ADHD and eventually get diagnosed by a healthcare provider. It was kind of a relief to consider that there might be a reason why I struggled with so many different things. But it was also very confusing because I had been shaming myself for so long for all the ways that I struggled to adult. Essentially the same thing happened to me. As a former honors student, bestselling author, and successful news anchor, ADHD wasn't even on my radar.

I didn't realize that this was actually an ADHD thing until recently, until I started seeing more and more videos about it on Instagram and TikTok, including Libby's. One of the ways that having ADHD affects you is that you forget how it affects you. At first, I thought everyone's brains worked that way, but I finally booked a formal evaluation and sure enough, I was diagnosed with ADHD. The experience was eye opening. Is there anything in particular from, you know, relationships, financial stuff, hygiene stuff, living arrangements that feels particularly tricky.

This might sound silly, but packing is something that's really hard for me. I do not cry easily, but just four minutes into the intake, while talking about packing, of all things, I was suddenly in tears. I just find sorry, I'm getting a little emotional, but I think all my coping mechanisms worked really well for me until I became a mom. And now I have two kids and I love them dearly and I really value my role despite, I think most people associate me with my career. You know, I really value being a wife and being a mother, and I take those roles really seriously and I just find it really hard sometimes to manage all of that and the expectations that I put on myself when I feel like I have to battle my brain in doing it all the time.

As I'm talking, I have a small example of that battle right on my own feet. I put things down and I have no recollection of where I put them. I have sneakers on right now because I forgot my shoes even though I had them in my hand as I was about to walk out of my office door. That happens to me all the time. But people with ADHD can also be extremely bright and often excel in areas like creativity, problem solving, and an ability to laser focus in certain situations.

A lot of people can benefit from this if they're in creative fields. They get ideas quicker, their minds are busier, but it's full of more ideas at once. Hi, I'm Diana Macedo. We have breaking news. We have breaking news.

Breaking news. So things like breaking news coverage, which most people find incredibly difficult, feels like second nature to me. But managing email and expenses is another story. And having kids often exacerbates those executive function issues. How did motherhood impact all of that?

It multiplied at times ten. Not only was I facing challenges with executive function in my own life, in my own career, now I had to be the executive function for someone else. But I couldn't remember from moment to moment. Had the baby eaten? Had I given the medicine?

What time? Libby even wrote a blog ten ways thought I sucked at motherhood when it really was the ADHD. I would write lists and not be able to find the list. Or I would make a system for how we would organize the shoes and I would forget the system the next week. The shame really came from not understanding that it was a part of how my brain functioned and not just a personality flaw.

Then many of us become perfectionist overachievers, desperately trying to prove we are good mothers, good adults, good people. What I see when these girls grow up is that they spend so much energy trying to compensate for the fact that it takes them longer to plan, it takes them longer to execute, that they become depressed and they become anxious. So I would make really detailed lists and schedules. That feeling of needing to be overprepared for things that may or may not ever come to pass. I'm listening to you thinking, check.

Check. Now, ten years later, Jessica has not only learned how to manage her ADHD symptoms, intrinsic motivation is the name of the game. She even coaches others with ADHD. While Libby's writing her first book and sharing about ADHD and parenting with her nearly 2 million social media followers, I have been stopped on the street countless times by women who have said I just got my diagnosis and I never would have gone to my doctor if you hadn't shared your story. I'm one of them.

Like, here we are, full circle. Honestly, it gives me goosebumps. Creating awareness is so important because there's just so much power in knowing it, what ADHD is and how it's impacting you. Because then you can actually set up your life to be successful living with ADHD. So helpful to know more about it.

Our thanks to Diane for those stories and sharing her own. And Diane's journey with ADHD is just beginning. So be sure to check out the new series inside ADHD on ABC News Live, which will feature expert interviews and a firsthand look at Diane's challenges and triumphs navigating her own ADHD. Still much more to get to tonight. Coming up, my conversation with two chart topping, award winning artists joining forces to make hip hop gold.

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Reporting from the Normandy coast for the 80th anniversary of D Day, I'm David Muhr. Wherever the story is, we'll take you there. You're streaming ABC News live. Welcome back, everyone. The Treasury Department and IR's report that their efforts to crack down on wealthy tax dodgers are paying off.

We have the details on who the IR's is going after and how much they're collecting. By the numbers, the IR's says it's collected more than a billion dollars in past due taxes from delinquent millionaires over the past year. The agency targeted 1600 taxpayers with more than a million dollars in income who owed more than $250,000 in undisputed tax bills. The tax collectors are also going after more than 125,000 high income households that have not submitted any tax returns at all in years. These and other tax enforcement measures targeting the wealthiest individuals and corporations could bring $851 billion in additional revenue over the next decade, according to IR's analysis.

The IR's is using $60 billion in new funds from the Inflation Reduction act for these and other efforts targeting the wealthiest americans. The IR's says that more than a decade of budget cuts had left them without the manpower or technology to ensure that wealthy taxpayers, large corporations and complex partnerships paid what they owed. And we sell much more ahead here on prime tonight, our correspondents and analysts are standing by with the latest reactions to President Biden's press conference from Capitol Hill to Main street. But next, they were victorious on the football field. Now they're taking on a much bigger foe and for a very worthy cause.

Whenever, wherever news breaks, it's so important to always remember that lives are changed here in London, in Buffalo, Uvalde, Texas, Edinburgh, Scotland. From Poland, once again tonight, thank you so thank you so much for streaming with us. Ukrainian refugees here in Warsaw. Do you think you'll ever be able to go back home? We're heading to a small community outside of Mexico City splintered houses and splintered lives, the magnitude of the devastation.

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The powerful new impact by nightline secrets of the two by two church. There's nothing pretty about hearing this. Now streaming on Hulu. Our next guests are legends who paved their way through hip hop, one through production that propelled chart topping, award winning hits from artists like Nas, the Notorious b I G, Kanye West, Mick Jagger, Madonna. The other is a multi hyphenate rapper, actor, producer, author, activist with a primetime Emmy, three Grammys and an Oscar.

Now they have joined forces on a new album. Let's take a look. Listen, we both trying to get to it ain't coincidental. His is on the streets. Mine is over.

Instrumentals the Lord sent my mental to be more than sentimental. The ventricles that I've been through with temples of what I've been through.

Common and Pete Rock join us in studio today to discuss their new album, the auditorium, volume one. Welcome, gentlemen. Peace, peace. How are you? Pleasure to be here.

Good, good, good. I'm so glad to have you all here. You all are each icons, legends in your own right. How did this collaboration come about? Well, Pete is, as you said, an icon and somebody who I personally just love as a creator and producer, and I've known him for a lot of years, but I think it was just the timing of me really wanting to be a part of something that felt like pure and soulful and new and fresh.

Like, I just knew that this would be a really beautiful combination and it would, like, stretch me to be better. And at the same token, allow me to put out the music that I would love to put out at this time. And Pete, let me reminisce over you for a moment. You just said common. Just said fresh.

Yes. And that's the thing in particular with the song wise up, I had the same feeling. One of the producers here, we both had the same vibe that it was still kind of had an old school taste, but with a fresh, new energy and sound. How are you able to get that? You know, I'm from the nineties, of course.

And I brought the aura of it, of what we did in the nineties and just mixed it in with today's society and to reteach the youth and the younger guys, that's in this how it's done, having the new school and the old school come together like this. And literally, so that's how I kind of meshed it together. And you said kind of to let the young guys know how it's done. A lot of people talk about lately the state of hip hop, especially after celebrating the 50 years and everything. What do you all think about how things are right now?

I think I actually feel really inspired and hopeful about it right now. I feel like with all that's been going on. Of course, the battle helped. Helped to be honest. Cause people are paying attention to lyrics.

I think hip hop, like any relationship, any person goes through its stages. And I think right now we're in a rebirth stage of it. And it's like, young and people who've experienced, like Pete and I are putting out music that has the love in the music. I think people, when they hear your music, they hear the love in it. For decades, that has been the case.

And I'm curious, Pete, just to get your take on the Kendrick Lamar Drake we've been doing, we did a story on it recently. Just talking about how this is not new. No, this battle rap goes back to the beginning. Yep. And the beginnings where we learned it all and did it our way in the nineties.

But this Kendrick and Drake thing really opened up hip hop a little more, you know what I'm saying, to how battling is really supposed to go, you know, and, well, you know, it was a little harsh, but I loved it. I like that stuff, you know what I mean? So, you know, that's all a part of hip hop and common to tell you. And that's one of the things, is that one thing about hip hop. I was just thinking about this, like, it's one of the purest, like, art forms where you hear people's real thoughts.

It's like it's not really politically correct. And I love that because we need to hear truth sometimes in people's true feelings about things. But the beautiful thing is what happened with this battle and many other battles that have happened in here. It stayed on record. It stayed on wax.

That's what we say, keep it on wax. It doesn't turn into anything else but the battle of the art form and the true skill. And we've been talking about, for the younger generation, everything. What is the secret sauce to staying power? Both of you all know a little bit about that.

Oh, man. Just keeping your ear to the street, you know, you gotta really listen to what's going on around you, you know? And that helps you stay relevant. Well, for me, it helps me stay relevant. I just say, stay for me.

God first, stay humble and stay seeking and learning. And I'm making sure I operate from that gut feeling where something really resonates with me to operate in that and not chase money and notoriety like that. And I know that's staying relevant. It's working. Cause you guys have already announced that you're gonna have a volume two.

Yeah, volume two. Volume one. We got another volume two coming as well. Pete Rockham and thank you so much for joining us. Their album, the auditorium, volume one is out tomorrow and available wherever you stream your music.

Or it will also, you can add it to the crate. It's going to be on vinyl soon. As a team, they were successful on the football field with the New York Giants. Now Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning are working together in an even tougher battle off the field, joining the fight against pediatric cancer and curbing the strain it puts on the families of children who are diagnosed. The pair recently hosted an event providing much needed grocery help for some of these families.

ABC's Trevor all takes us there and shows us just how much this moment means.

It's grocery day at this New Jersey supermarket. And for ten families, along with their shopping lists, they have two famous faces. Hi, good morning. Nice to see you. Ready to assist?

This will be a good day for all the families. Okay, let's load up. Let's get those grocery carts. Fill them all up. Get a second one if you have to.

You might recognize them for their work they used to do on Sundays. Leading the New York Giants. For twelve seasons together as head coach and quarterback, the Giants have won the Super Bowl. Tom Coughlin and Elijah led the Giants to two Super bowl wins. We gotta get going here, huh?

Their partnership has continued off the field, this time taking shape in the form of helping families. Give me a little pound. Boom. Wow, that hurt. Affected by childhood cancer.

It's incredible what these people go through with a child with cancer. They need lots of help and that's why we're here. We'd like to take two weeks away from their grocery shopping, maybe let them get a little bit ahead on their grocery budget. It's a good looking shopping cart you got there. Childhood cancer has been an important cause for both men.

Coughlin founded the J Fund to help families with monetary and emotional support. And Manning worked with tackle kids cancer, which is dedicated to research. I've met some of these families at the hospital. I'd seen, you know, what they're going through on that side of it and just going through chemo, the parents and the other kids trying to come in and managing those schedules of everything going on, but then also know, hey, there's a whole nother world once they leave the hospital. In life, it takes a team to get through the tough stuff.

We met with them last year as they teamed up for pediatric cancer awareness month in September. Smile, coach. We're working towards the same thing. It's trying to help these families out. That thing's pretty sweet.

I think you're having too much fun riding that. You're not even shocking. For families of the J fund, food is a major area of need. What are you most excited to get today? Anything specific?

The organization says it provided more than $333,000 in food assistance in 2023. That's $889 per family on average. And with prices soaring because of inflation, that support is more crucial than ever. These families are in difficult straits. It tears your heart out to think about what they're going through.

The J fund says over the past year, they've seen a 63% increase in requests for help with groceries. Among those shopping today is Jabari Whitaker, right tackle coach. Right tackle. The 17 year old has been battling brain cancer. All right, what we got?

While still preparing for his high school graduation party. Graduation party. What's that mean to you? To be able to come out here and grab whatever you want? Feels good, Mandy.

And just get whatever you want to get. Jabari's mom, Jessica, is on disability. Her son's diagnosis, of course, adding new challenges. When he got diagnosed, I had to stop working because of my health issues also. Excuse me.

That's okay. And it's just a big impact with, you know, being on disability, nurses working. But thank God, the J fund helping us out and the benefits go beyond finances. They actually have a lot of stuff for, like, the moms or the dads, so we can speak to each other and meet each other and spend time and just relieve a little stress. Oh, yeah.

Now he's excited. The family of five year old Hunter Sanchez is also here. The Jay foundation paid six months of our rent, which was super helpful because we went from having two incomes to one. I had to take a step back from working and focus more on, like he has every week, sometimes four different appointments of therapy, physical, occupational, speech. Hunter has been battling stage three cancer since last year, having already gone through radiation, chemotherapy, and biweekly infusion.

Anytime we walk into the hospital, like, do you need anything? And I'm like, maybe we need groceries this week? And they're like, great. And they'll just hand us a bag. No questions.

What'd you get today? Shopping. Way too much. And the inspiration for this outreach is still top of mind today. The J fund was created and named in honor of Jay McGillis, a former player of Coughlin's at Boston College who died of leukemia in 1992.

I knew right there if I ever had a chance to give back, it would be in the name and image of this young man who played for me. That commitment inspired Manning to get involved as well. When he was our head coach, he would always tell us and encourage us to get out in the community, even during the season on a Tuesday and off day, go out, give back to the people that are rooting for us, that are supporting us.

They may not be head coaching quarters back anymore, but they're still teammates on this day, wearing the same uniform. That's it. That's what I'm being accused of. Special giants jerseys with the number 100 marking the team's upcoming 100th season. And it turns out they had a third.

You gotta wear the jersey, buddy. Is that right? I want to grab one, too. Is it okay if I hold this up? Both Coughlin and Manning champion.

The spirit of team knowing these families are in an ongoing battle. I've seen the great stories of some of these kids when they were eight years old, and now they're in high school and back and they're healthy and they're doing great. Unfortunately, there's always some that don't make it. And that's what inspires you to just say, more work's got to be done. We got to get better, you know, better research.

We got to get better trials. You don't fight cancer alone. And we're going to be there to help. Someone is there for. There you go.

You guys are doing a great job.

Such heart there. Our thanks to Trevor for that. And that is our show for this hour. I'm Lindsey Davis. Be sure to stay tuned to ABC News live for more context and analysis of the day's top stories.

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David?

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Wherever the story is, we'll take you there. You're streaming ABC News live. Good evening, everyone. I'm Lindsey Davis. We are coming to you with breaking news tonight.

The nation's eyes and ears hanging on to President Biden's every word during a freewheeling press conference that concluded a short time ago. It was a critical test and potentially pivotal moment, but wasn't enough to change the minds of those as his own party who would like to see him step aside.

I'm not in this for my legacy. I'm in this to complete the job I started.

The president did not say anything about stepping aside in the race for president. He took the stage tonight after he wrapped NATO's 75th anniversary summit, which he also hosted. And he took the opportunity to warn the country what President Trump said a few months ago about not defending NATO allies in the face of russian aggression. Meanwhile, my predecessor has made it clear he has no commitment to NATO. He's made it clear that he would feel no obligation to honor article five.

He's already told Putin, and I quote, do whatever the hell you want. In fact, the day after Putin invaded Ukraine, here's what he said. It was genius. It was wonderful. Some of you forgot that, but that's exactly what he said.

It was the president's first press conference in nearly eight months. He had not directly addressed the media since before thanksgiving. He answered questions for nearly an hour. But the chorus of democratic lawmakers saying Biden should step aside continues to grow louder as more politicians have shared that sentiment publicly in the past 24 hours. At least 14 House Democrats and one senator, Peter Welch from Vermont, have now said publicly the president should bow out of the race.

But largely, most lawmakers have not publicly stated either way if they support the president as the nominee or not. Joining us now for more is ABC's Mary Alice parks from the White House. Mary Alice, let's just start by saying as a result of hearing tonight's press conference, what are your sources telling you about how he fared? I mean, really mixed reaction, Lindsey. I will tell you that I talked to some top democratic strategist who did feel like he warmed up as the night went on, that he definitely was able to talk about foreign policy, showed a lot of strength there, was able to defend his record.

But look, one senior party official told me it just isn't the perfect presidential presentation that he needed. The reality is people are going to look at this press conference through the lens that I think they wanted. There are plenty, there's plenty of moments in there for someone who was already convinced that he was perhaps not up for the job to point to. There are other moments, I think, where people who are looking for a reason, Democrats who are looking for a reason to rally behind the president will be able to point to. I think that the big takeaway for me is that we already know from our poll 85% of Americans believe that he is too old to do this job.

And it is hard for me to see at this point with a press conference like that him being able to change the minds of majority of Americans. But when you listen to him talk, he says he knows that he has a challenge in front of him, but he needs to do more events like this, more interviews, more time on the campaign trail to help allay those fears. He says there's still a lot of time left early in the game there. Mary Alice from the White House. Thanks so much.

Want to bring back in our ABC News analysts and politico senior Washington correspondent Rachel Bate. Rachel, thanks so much for coming back on just minutes after the president's news conference concluded, you're already hearing at least one more member of Congress is prepared to ask him to step aside. That's right, Lindsey. Jim Himes. He's a Democrat from Connecticut.

And the significance of him is coming out is that he is the ranking Democrat of the House Intelligence Committee. This is a very powerful panel that oversees national security. And he says it's time for Biden to go. Just to sort of summarize, summarized from the statement he put out, he praised Joe Biden as a remarkable leader of unparalleled public service. He applauded him on a number of policy issues.

But he said we must put forth the strongest candidate possible to defeat Trump. And I no longer believe that is Joe Biden. Look, the significance again of himes coming out. A lot of other Democrats are going to see this, and this could potentially inspire them to come out as well because he is a member of the leadership. And Rachel baid would like to come back to you in a moment.

But I do want to bring in Representative Lloyd Doggett of Austin, Texas. He was the first sitting member of the House to publicly say President Biden should step aside. Congressman, I thank you so much for your time tonight. Did you see anything at all tonight during that press conference to make you potentially reconsider your position? Not really.

I thought the president did a good job. I think he clearly is the most qualified person to handle our international relations. But the question before us, is he the most qualified person to turn around the undecided and the independents who have refused to join him over the past year. And now complicated by the setback when we needed a surge that he had during the debate. Every time there's a slip, a vice President Trump instead of Harris, a Putin instead of Zelensky, people will focus on something that might not have even been noticed at past times.

And to the extent over the coming months that all the attention is on whether he is fit and able to do this job instead of on Trump's lies, we will be set back. And I think that's why distinguished members of our caucus, the person who would head the intelligence committee, who would head the armed services committee, a range of people that have no ideological conflict about the president, who are scattered across the country are saying we see the numbers. And, Mister president, just as you deal with the reality of conflict around the world, deal with the reality of the numbers here. And when you look at those numbers, we don't see a path forward for a democratic Congress and a White House that is occupied by someone of President Biden's skill, but is instead occupied by a criminal and his gang. Interestingly, though, tonight, he said that he's not seeing that.

That he said that basically the thing that would get him out is if his staff came to me and said, look, there's no way for you to win. And then he kind of whispered into the mic, and no one's saying that because that isn't out there. And so do you think that there is contrary evidence to suggest otherwise? Absolutely. And I must say, this is progress with the president.

You remember the last time it was, he had to have the Lord Almighty come down and tell him. Now we're down to dealing with the basics of the numbers. And if his staff is telling him he's winning, they're not telling him. Right. If he looks at the numbers in districts all over this country, he will see the challenge we face.

I'm not saying it's impossible for him to win, but I am saying it's improbable. And in the course of this, with the tremendous threat that is posed by Donald Trump and the wreckage that he would make of our democracy, we simply cannot afford that risk. And there are many other better choices out there that I think would be more effective in taking on Donald Trump. You know, he would throw the republican convention into total disarray if on Monday, when he is at the LBJ library and hometown of Austin, he declared that he was stepping aside, as President Johnson did, under different circumstances, but a very painful and difficult decision. That's what we're asking the president to do.

Not trying to force him out of a job, but to call on him, on his better nature, to look at what is best for the country and not for himself, perhaps devote his energies over these coming months to bringing peace to the Middle east and dealing with some of the other international issues he's so skilled at. But let us have the strongest possible candidate to protect american families from moving from democracy to autocracy under Donald Trump and his gang. And who do you think would be that strongest possible candidate? I think we have a number of candidates that could be. That could be effective here.

I've not chosen a candidate because what I have chosen is favoring a fair, open, democratic process. I think it would excite all those disaffected people who have been saying they don't like either candidate. Certainly Vice President Harris would probably be a leader in that, would lead the array. But we have governors, we have senators, we have cabinet members who could be effective candidates. Let them go around the country in these weeks ahead and present themselves as well at the convention.

Let an open democratic process that people across America can see that the Democratic Party believes in democracy with a small d. We're not going to have a smoke filled room decide this. We'll let the delegates from around the country decide it. That will be a candidate Donald Trump can't deal with because he's focused his whole campaign on lies about Joe Biden and his administration, a new approach, a younger generation that's a winning ticket for. And what are you hearing from your, what are you hearing from your constituents about Biden staying in the race overwhelmingly favoring replacement?

And the same as I talk to some of the candidates around the country today who are out there in tough districts, tougher than mine, to try to be the votes that we need to have a democratic Congress again. There's certainly some people that are out there that don't agree with me on this. They're a little like the fellow who wrote me one time and said after a vote, you're my horse and I'm with you if you never win another race. Well, I'm glad Joe Biden has some supporters like that, but we just can't afford to lose this race after our candidate's gone a little lame. Representative Lloyd Doggett, we thank you so much for your time.

Really appreciate it. Thank you. Want to bring in our chief Washington correspondent, Jonathan Karl. Now, John, what did you make of tonight's performance? Well, I thought the most interesting part of the press conference was at the very end when he was asked that if he could be convinced that Kamala Harris would have a better chance of beating Trump if he would step aside.

And he responded with a flat no, but then added, only if they could show him that he had no chance of winning, that Biden had no chance of winning. So I thought what Representative Doggett told you was quite on point. The bar has moved. Now, before he suggested it was the Lord Almighty. Now it would be convincingly bad poll numbers.

And the bottom line, Lindsey, is that significant numbers of Democrats, Democrats at least in Congress, far greater numbers than what weve seen, have come out publicly do believe that at this point, there is no way that Joe Biden can beat Donald Trump. And I dont think they saw anything tonight. The change is that now that said, they had been challenging him for now, two weeks now, since that debate to do something that would be unscripted to get out there and show that he has the command, many of them specifically saying he should do a lengthy press conference. And, look, he did it tonight. I mean, he had a press conference, went about an hour, took a lot of questions and was off the cuff.

It was unscripted. Unfortunately for President Biden, a lot of what people will take away from it is the one place where he misspoke. And he called Kamala Harris Vice President Trump. But he did show a command of the issues and spoke at length and in a contemporaneous fashion. And I want to show that moment where Biden was asked if Vice President Kamala Harris would have the ability to beat Donald Trump if she was on the ticket.

And let's take a listen to what he had to say. Look, I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, not qualified to be president. So let's start there. Number one, the fact is that the consideration is that I think I'm the most qualified person to run for president. I beat him once and I will beat him again.

Obviously, he misspoke there, but he didn't correct himself as he did earlier when he had called President Zelensky Putin. Do you feel like people are going to be making a mountain out of a molehill, that this is otherwise something that, you know, people make misstatements all the time and it's not a big deal, but it feels like this moment is different. And I'm curious how your sources are responding. Well, you know, look, I mean, I've misspoken. I've mixed names up.

You may, you probably haven't. But, but, but I've certainly done that. It's just at this moment and coming on the heels of him introducing President Zelensky as President Putin, its really tough for him to have anything where hes messing up like that. And those were two pretty significant examples of misspeaking. Again, he showed, he spoke at length about the situation in the Middle east, made a forceful, long, detailed defense of his policy since the Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel, talked at length about his policy in, you know, towards Ukraine and the China factor.

So, look, he has a command of the facts. But, again, I think that people will focus perhaps on Fairlie, but will focus on those two glaring examples of misspeaking. Amy and John, before I let you go, just take us inside as much as you can. Trump world. We saw former President Trump was watching posting to true social in real time.

He said today, you know, he wants Joe Biden, he said hes the guy that weve prepared for. Look, theres no question that Donald Trump and the people around him are hoping and praying that Joe Biden stays in the race. I mean, this is not just the race that theyve prepared for, but its a race they believe that they are winning and that they can win quite decisively again, unfortunately, for President Biden and his team, thats an opinion that is shared by a lot of Democrats as well. Amy all right, John, Carl, our thanks to you. Appreciate your time.

Want to bring in our catalog, Capitol Hill correspondent where concern continues to grow over whether the president is fit for a second term. ABC senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott. She's been tracking down all the members of Congress, getting their takes on the president and tonight's press conference performance. She joins us now. Rachel, what's the reaction that you're hearing from democratic lawmakers tonight?

Lindsey, you know that Democrats on Capitol Hill are watching this closely when they are live texting reporters like myself for a play by play sort of reaction. I will tell you right out of the gate, as you talked about there with John, Carl, when you heard the president mistake his own vice president calling her vice President Trump instead of Vice President Harris, I got a slew of reaction from a number of Democrats who said that they were cringing, that they were groaning, that they hoped this wasn't indicative of what was to come. Ultimately, a lot of Democrats thought that the president did perform well on the world stage tonight. They thought that he was strong, particularly on foreign policy, on national security issues. But, of course, every Democrat that I talked to sort of said that this is not where they want to be at this point.

They are less than four months out until the election. Tonight, the president was getting questions about his age, about his mental fitness, whether or not his vice president can do this job. This is not where the Democratic Party wants to be with just four months to go until this critical election. And also, more than anything, they want to see the president also be passionate about the issues, not necessarily saying that he needs to pace himself just as the campaign is ramping up. So the bottom line here, from what I'm hearing, yes, this certainly ease concerns, but it has not erased them, as we know yet another congressman has come out.

Congressman Jim Hines is a senior member here in the Democratic Party over in the House now also calling for the president to step aside just minutes after that press conference ended. Lindsey, so clearly not enough to stem the tide of those who are coming forward to ask for the president to step aside. Yeah, absolutely. And it remains to be seen whether or not any more senators go there. We know that they had this closed door meeting that played out.

We were outside talking to senators as they were coming out. It was described to me as tense in a lot of ways, where several democratic senators actually asked the Biden campaign advisors why they shielded the president, that they said that they had a hard time explaining this when they went back home to their constituents who were asking questions about the president's mental fitness, saying that it put them in an untenable situation. But they know that only the president can prove himself here. And for days now, we have been hearing from Democrats who have been calling on the president to have what we saw tonight sort of this unscripted moment, no teleprompters in front of the american people taking questions. Of course, they wish that they were not in this predicament.

But tonight, the president determined to stay in this race either way, Lindsey, so ease his concerns does not erase them. All right, Rachel Scott, our thanks to you, as always. Thanks. Now let's bring in former House representative from California Jane Harmon, who served 16 years in the House until 2011. Jane, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

You would know how representatives behave, behave better than most, and most have not actually staked a position as to whether the president should stay in the race or not. What factors do you think they might be weighing? Well, first, let me say I respect their views. They have a right to decide for themselves. I would also point out, however, that three months between now or 100 days between now and the election is 1000 days or, you know, a long period of time and views change.

I thought Biden's performance tonight was solid. Yes, there was one gaffe, and there was a gaffe earlier today. I don't think it's been a secret for 40 years that he is gaffe prone, so I wouldn't judge him that way. I thought his answers on China and on Ukraine were nuanced and thoughtful and proved what experience he has and what a nuanced mind he has. Having said that, I'm not going to pretend that the poll numbers are great and I'm not going to pretend that some of the concerns are invalid.

But I think we have to be pretty practical here. He wants to stay in the race. His record is excellent. And what happens next? If he should decide to leave?

What is the plan? Not just some speculative ideas I heard my friend Lloyd Doggett talk about? Well, we'll have an open situation and people can run. How long can they run? How is the selection made of how will the Democratic Party unite around the next person, or will it unite around the next person.

Chaos plays right into Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump's playbooks. And let's not forget, there could be malign influence going on here, and a lot of the information out there could be domestically driven or it could be foreign malign influence. I just saw that Avril Haynes, our director of national intelligence, said that there is a iranian proof of iranian malign influence going on. So I hope we don't have a stampede. I hope we have a real sensible conversation, which lawmakers are entitled to have.

But let's not compare him, as he used to say, to the almighty. Let's compare him to a practical, sensible alternative that is achievable in a near period of time that will beat Donald Trump. That is the end game. Based on where we are tonight, what you saw tonight, do you expect that that's enough to ease the concerns, or do you think potentially more lawmakers are going to step forward and ask the president to step aside more may step forward. I think there will be a private conversation soon.

I'm guessing Nancy Pelosi will be in the room, and she's a highly respected vote count her. I give her a lot of credit. I served with her for a long time, and we're still in active touch. And we'll see. I mean, he said if he can't win, he will leave the race.

If he can't win, he has to be persuaded of that. But if he can't win, who can win? This is not a conversation about Biden leaving, it's a conversation about the democratic ticket winning. But I would imagine the timing is important, too. Right?

Because even if he has to be persuaded, he needs to be, if he's going to leave, he'd have to be persuaded quickly. Well, I agree. You'd have to be persuaded quickly. I mean, I think the numbers are coming in. I think there will be some kind of conversation fairly soon.

But what I wanted to say was it's easy to knock people off. We saw it in the so called Arab Spring. We knocked off Mubarak, the leader of Egypt. Where is Egypt now? We ended up electing, they ended up electing the Muslim Brotherhood, which was a very toxic, unpalatable group.

And then that led to a military leader, al Sisi, and a lot of journalists are in jail. And I don't think people would say Egypt has better leadership now than it did under Mubarak. I'm not totally defending him either, but knocking someone down is easier than building someone up. Trump where is the team that will succeed Biden? And how do we know they can, how do we know they can beat Trump?

A lot of unanswered questions tonight. Representative Jane Harmon, we so thank you for your time and insight. Thank you. Now I want to bring in Rick Klein, vice president and Washington bureau chief here at ABC News. Rick, the president certainly had a lot to prove tonight.

Do you think that this moves the needle at all? I think, look, if Democrats wanted to hear some words or some command of the facts, that gives them a ramp back to supporting him. I think they found a lot in this. But I was focused, Lindsay, on some, what I view as kind of concessions to the realities of this moment and the realities of even what he's hearing. He talked a little bit about how he has to pace himself at this moment.

He talked about how his staff is over scheduling him at this moment, how he has to go out there and allay fears. And as John Carl pointed out, kind of shifting things a little bit to suggest, suggest that if he is shown polling numbers or data that suggests that he can't win, that he might reconsider, there's some little cracks in all of that that I think are potentially, potentially quite significant. Even more than the gaffes and the mistakes that he made are those little items. And I think him talking about how no one has shown him data to suggest that there's a political predicament here that's quite dire. I wonder what his pollsters are really telling him.

And I think a lot of Democrats, even something I'm talking to tonight, are wondering what exactly he is seeing, what exactly he is hearing. Because the groundswell over the last couple of weeks, the real concerns that members of the Democratic Party, his friends, his allies, people that want him to win, have voiced are based on data. They're based on polling, including polling that we had out just today with ABC, the Washington Post and Ipsos, that suggests that he has not made up any ground in the last couple of weeks. 85% of people, this poll think he's too old for another term. Two thirds want him to step aside.

More than half of his own supporters want him to step aside. So are those kind of numbers reaching him otherwise than a lot of Democrats who have been waiting for that realization? I think we'll be waiting in vain after this, this news conference. And we know that the White House is also looking at potential head to head matchups of Vice President Kamala Harris against former President Trump. And in ABC News, Washington Post Hypso's polls shows her with a three point lead over Trump.

Is this normal commonplace for campaigns to look into these kinds of potentials, or is this a sign of something else? Well, I think it might be a sign of a couple of different things. I think the easy explanation is, well, maybe they're looking for a backup plan. I think maybe just as likely is that they're trying to look for the data to either back up the president's view on this or maybe to show him that Kamala Harris, that his own vice president wouldn't be a better option. Think the view that of people that want to believe that Biden's loyalties to Harris have their limits might be that he actually, they're fishing for data that would suggest that Harris is no better suited than anyone else.

Look, it's prudent for a campaign to check on match ups, especially the way that Trump has amped up his attacks on Joe Biden. To look at what, I'm sorry that Trump is, Trump has looked at his attacks on Harris. The question of how you message against it depends on polling data. But it is a rather unusual development, development at this stage to learn now that it is something that is added to the polling inventory of this campaign. And we heard from Representative Doggett, who was saying, look, there needs to be some kind of alternative, perhaps at the convention we heard Representative Harmon saying there are just too many unknowns about that.

I think just really the point to underscore to our viewers is just how uncharted this moment is potentially. Yeah. Ian, here's the problem, how Congressman Doggett lays it out. He says he doesn't want it to be smoke filled rooms. Well, there are 4000 delegates that are selected to the convention.

That's the voting poll. That's the only people that matter here. If there's going to be any effort to replace Joe Biden on the ticket, whether, whether forcefully or not, it's going to be them. That does smell of a smoke filled room. Recline.

Our thanks to you, as always. And that is our show for this hour. I'm Lindsey Davis. Be sure to stay tuned. ABC News live for more context and analysis of the day's top stories.

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