President Biden just delivered his first solo news conference in eight months, one that came at a critical moment as he's seeking to shore up his reelection bid and regain the confidence of his party. As more and more democrats have publicly called for him to drop out of the 2024 race, that includes another one, Jim Himes, who is the top Democrat on the House Intelligence committee. Minutes after Biden finished saying this.

I think I'm the most qualified person to run for president. I beat him once and I will beat him again. I'm not in this for my legacy. I'm in this to complete the job I started.

The president repeatedly argued that he does believe he is the most qualified to run, though, of course, it's not his resume that's under scrutiny tonight. It's his age and his ability to beat Donald Trump and also to finish a second term if elected, at the end of which he would be 86. President Biden called on ten reporters and answered 19 questions during those 59 minutes of that press conference. He was defiant at times, scoffed at the premise of some questions that were posed to him, and also gave no indication that he is reconsidering running.

I'm determined on running, but I think it's important that I lay fears by seeing, let them see me out there. Let me see them out. You know, for the longest time, it was, you know, Biden's not prepared to sit with us unscripted. Biden's not prepared to in any way. And so what I'm doing is, and I've been doing, I think we've done over 20 major events from Wisconsin to North Carolina to, anyway, to demonstrate that. I'm going out in the areas where we think we can win, where we can persuade people to move our way or people already there. And you look, the other thing is we have the most extensive campaign organization that anybody's had in a long, long time. We have well over a thousand volunteers knocking on doors, making phone calls, making tens of thousands of phone calls. We have headquarters. I forget exactly how many. I want to cite a number and then find out. I'm off. We have scores of headquarters in all the toss up states were organized, were.

Moving with the eyes of the world on him as he took questions. There were some blunders, like in his first answer to Jeff Mason of Reuters, when President Biden mistook Vice President Kamala Harris and mistakenly said, Vice President Donald Trump.

What concerns do you have about Vice President Harris ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket?

Look, I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president. Did I think she was not qualified to be president? So let's start there.

That was at the beginning of that press conference. But as he went on, there were also lengthy answers where the president went in depth on complex foreign policy issues from Gaza to Ukraine. The president also acknowledged at one point during that moment that he needed to adjust his schedule as he carries out what is arguably the most important and difficult job in the world.

What concerns do you have about vice President Harris ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket?

Look, I wouldnt have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, but I think she was not qualified to be president. So lets start there.

The question of the hour, of course, did those answers matter? He took them from reporters. Was style or substance more important to some and others to lawmakers, to donors, but most importantly to voters? My sources tonight are a host of powerhouse political insiders. But I want to start with David Axelrod, who is with us tonight. David Axelrod, obviously, you worked with President Biden when he was Vice president Biden. And as you watched that press conference and you listened to him take those questions from reporters, what was your assessment of how he did?

Well, first of all, my assessment was that they made a smart move by having this at the NATO conference, you know, almost like the State of the Union. He's so comfortable in that environment in the Congress and, you know, at a NATO conference, which is his strong student. And in the second half of that press conference, you saw that he, that's his comfort zone. He's very, very fluent on national security issues. And he, and that showed in those answers, in some of the answers you played, you saw some of the problems. I mean, the miss spoken name, the stumbles. The other thing is, you know, at once he says, I need to allay people's concerns. And so I have to be out there more and I have to do more. And at the same time, he complained about the length of his schedule and said they're putting too many things on my schedule. And that's why I didn't do well in the debate. And that's really the issue. The issue isn't about his record or history or it's about his ability to move forward. And when he was asked those questions, he really didn't have a great answer for what people should expect in the future based on what they're seeing now.

So I don't think this changed much. I think that a lot of attitudes have now been kind of hardened. I don't think he's going to change them. And one last thing, Caitlin. He said at the end that he might change his mind if his team came to him and told him that he couldn't win, but they haven't done that or that someone else had a better chance of winning. If that's the case, then they're not really leveling with him about where this race is, and they really should. It's not fair to him if they're not telling him the truth. He is in a very, very tough spot. I don't know anyone in politics who would tell you, who looks at the numbers that we see, would tell you that he has a very good chance to win this race and that perhaps others wouldn't have a better chance to win this race. He needs to know that. And there need to be some hard conversations.

Yeah. He was asked that question there about whether or not, if he saw polling that showed that the vice president would fare better in a matchup against Donald Trump, what he would do. And he made that answer there. And earlier, that sound bite that it was supposed to be there at the end was, of course, where he was asked about some remarks he made to governors in a meeting that he had with them following the debate. He talked about curtailing his schedule. The reporting was that he would stop doing public events after 08:00 he defended that, saying no, just instead of starting an event at 09:00 or 10:00 starting it a little bit earlier in the evening, talking about constraining a schedule that he described as going from 07:00 a.m. until midnight. Of course, a presidential schedule can be unwieldy, as you, David Axelrod, know. And Congressman Rokhana, you know, as you're looking at this, minutes after President Biden got done speaking, Jim Himes, your colleague, who is the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, came out with a statement saying that he does believe President Biden needs to step aside from the 2024 race after he made very clear he doesn't plan on doing so.

What do you make of that call?

I'm sure Jim had that plan, and Jim knows foreign policy. But let me just be blunt. President Biden's command and grasp of foreign policy was better and more coherent than 90% of the conversations on the Capitol. And so in this case, he was in his comfort zone. In this case, he was talking about things that he rarely knew. And I agree with David Axelrod that they put him in a very good position to talk about foreign policy.

What did you hear in that press conference, because it kind of seems to be a situation coming out of it where, yes, there was a moment at the beginning where he said Vice President Trump instead of Vice President Harris, but he did have lengthy answers on subject areas that he knows very well. He talked about, obviously, his long history dating back with Israel. It seemed like a Rorschach test that you could see what you wanted to see.

You stole my answer. I was going to say Rorschach test, but I'll use confirmation bias. I would just correct. One thing the Congress said is that it's not just a matter that it was 90% better than the hill, it is 100% better than his opponent would do, and that really, at the end of the day, is all that matters. To David's point, yes, the president did give an inch tonight on if they came to him and said, you can't win. But I think what that really means is, sir, if the election were tomorrow, you would lose. Now, thankfully for Joe Biden, the election is not tomorrow. So the question is, can you recover from what happened? Whatever you want to call it doesn't matter. Can you recover? And Joe Biden believes he can. I don't know that he's right or wrong, but he's the president and he's the nominee. I have all the faith in the world in vice president of Harris. If, God forbid, something happened and she became the president in the way the constitution meant, I feel very, very comfortable. Thank God that has not been the case. But right now, it just seems there's a little bit of freneticism, and also, to David's point, about how tonight didn't change anything.

You know what? If the president had done something really out of line tonight, it absolutely would have changed everything. People would be like, you see it happen again. It could happen again. He has to leave tomorrow, so give some credit where credit is due. It was a solid performance, except for one flub. It's not that he thinks his vice president is Donald Trump. That would be dementia. He just used the wrong word.

I want to get a sense from voters of how tonight went in their eyes tonight. Our Gary Tuchman has been talking to a group of seniors in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Gary, what have you been hearing?

Well, I understand we are in the battle ground state of Michigan, in the western part of the state. This is the Portage senior center, where seniors between the ages of 50 and 150 could come for exercise and fun. These ladies, we have seven ladies here, all of them like Joe Biden, none of them are voting for Donald Trump, but we want to see how they feel about the problems that Biden has been having and how he thought his new, how they thought his news conference just went. Now, out of all seven of you, how many of you think it was better than you expected this news conference, how many think it was better than you expected it would be? 12345. How many of you think it was worse than you expected it would be? How many do you think it was? The same. So overall, it's a fairly positive review. I know we were watching it together. They all just got out of exercise class, so that's why they're dressed like that. I told you I would tell everybody that, but we were watching out together. And when he confused the names of Trump and Harris when talking about vice president, she all kind of gasped.

But it got better, right? Is that what you think now? Four of you, 1234, all of you think that Biden should be staying in the race? You told me you think that he should pass the torch. The two of you weren't decided. My question for you, you weren't decided before this happened. If you should stay in the race, how do you feel now after watching this news conference?

Relieved.

And I think he should stay in.

So your opinion has changed from not sure to he should stay in?

Yes.

And how about you? How do you feel? You weren't sure. How do you feel now?

Same. I think he's the logical choice.

Okay. Now, you thought he should pass the torch. How do you feel right now?

I still believe he should pass the torch.

And why do you say that?

I think he conveyed more defensiveness versus confidence. And I think we are really craving to be able to be confident about the candidate that we carry into the November election.

How did you feel about this news conference just now? Did it give you more confidence in Joe Biden?

I have all the confidence that I did yesterday, so I just.

Were you confident yesterday?

Yeah, because everybody has a bad day. And I could see that he was sick, but for some reason, they decided to do what they were going to do, even though he was sick. And I think that might have been a bad choice. And you just saw him when he's sick and when he's tired and those sorts of things. But at the heart of it, he's a strong guy.

What do you think? Do you agree with that?

Yes, I would agree with that. I think what came across was of what he is. Joe Biden is very caring about people. He's very knowledgeable and experienced, and he's not just out for himself that he really cares about.

And there's no chance that you would be more confident with the Kamala Harris or your governor here at Whitmer in the state of Michigan, right?

Yeah.

I think Joe Biden did an excellent.

Job during this news conference. But was there any part of you before this that said, I'm not so sure that I can still support him and I want another Democrat?

I've always been confident in you.

Any of you going to be watching? The Republican National Convention starts Monday, no hands going up. Democratic National Convention five weeks after that. Okay. Not all these people are Democrats. Some are independents, but they all like Joe Biden. And it's fair to say that none of you are going to be switching to Donald Trump. Thank you all for joining us. Anderson, back to you.

Kerry Tuckman, thanks so much.

Breaking news as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Jim Himes, called on President Biden to step aside moments after he finished that news conference earlier tonight. He is now among 15 House Democrats to do so. And Congressman Himes is joining us now as it was a moment, of course, Congressman, where we were just watching the president speak and give that press conference. And then as soon as he was done, your statement dropped. Obviously, that means you had it ready. Was there not anything that he said that could have changed your mind on calling him to get out of the race?

You know, that's precisely the problem, right? This is not about one press conference, one debate, you know, one speech. This is about the presidency of the United States. It's about an apocalyptically powerful individual and whether the trajectory to the election and the outcome of the election and beyond in the event that Joe Biden were reelected into a job that requires you to deal with the most hideous stuff on the planet. The president doesn't get to answer any easy questions. I mean, a debate with Donald Trump is a walk in the park compared to what happens at 04:00 a.m. in the White House. So this has nothing to do with one particular debate? I didn't put out my statement because I, you know, there's an old, there's an old tradition that, you know, politics and partisanship stops at the water edge, water's edge. And I wasn't going to do that with, with the important NATO things happening. But, I mean, that was the, that was the timing.

Well, you heard him get a question from David Sanger about the ability to deal with President Putin, President Xi, and he said, I can deal with them now, and I'll be able to deal with them three years from now. Do you not agree with that?

Look, it's excruciatingly hard to answer that question, right? Because, you know, a huge part of politics is loyalty and love and emotion, and nobody understands that better or attracts that better than Joe Biden, a storytelling irishman who lives in an emotional world. And those are critical values for politics. That's why rallies are so exciting. That's why people tear up when they hear the name Bobby Kennedy or Jack Kennedy or John McCain or whatever. But the problem is that can go way too far. And when there's an excess of love and loyalty, you get 70 million Americans who will not budge from their support for a felon, from a criminal, from an adjudicated rapist, who has promised to turn this country into an authoritarian country. That's what happens when you won't set aside loyalty and love and emotion. So the stakes are so high that right now the question is not that, not how loyal are you? But can we avert, forget about, and we can talk more, if you like, about the event that Joe Biden were reelected. But can you avert a second Trump presidency? And there is not a single number out there, not one cook report, telling us that we may lose the House that says that Joe Biden is going to win.

And so the answer to that, which is a fair answer, is that, yeah, but there's still time. There's four or five months to the election. So then you need to ask yourself, what's the trajectory look like here? Are things getting better? If you believe that the problem the Democrats have is that we haven't gotten our message across. The message of the bipartisan infrastructure law, the message of capping out of pocket expenses and Medicare at $2,000, at capping insulin costs at $35, and standing up for veterans. And if you believe that our problem is that we haven't gotten that message across, well. And if you also believe that the president has the biggest megaphone, you have to drop the emotion and the loyalty and love and say, in the next four or five months, is that story going to be told with such precision and poetry and beauty that you will turn around all the numbers that say we are going to lose? And I did this painful thing tonight, because for me, the answer to that is, I just don't see that trajectory. I don't see the numbers.

And you think he'll lose to Donald Trump if Joe Biden goes up against him?

Look, I like Yogi Berra said. Predictions are hard, especially about the future. All I can do is look at the numbers right now. No president has ever won with a 37% approval rating. Look at the swing states, because this isn't a race that is decided in five or six states. The president, you can look at lots of different polls, but the president isn't really up in any of them. And then you can ask yourself, and again, this is future. We don't know the future. What does the trajectory look like? And imagine that three months from now, we get another performance like there was in the debate right before the election. Do you want to take that risk? I don't know. Now, I don't presume to understand the president's calculus, but he's top ten presidents, right. Why would you gamble that legacy, the legacy of being a top ten american president. Transformative. Lyndon B. Johnson. Transformative. And you're going to gamble that on possibly being the guy that handed the country over?

Yeah. You're saying, congressman, you said that you, you waited to put your statement out until after, because of, it was the NATO summit here in Washington. You believed you wanted to wait until he was done meeting with world leaders, done with all of that. Do you expect that there are other Democrats in the House more that are going to come out? And if so, how many more do you think there will be?

You know, I don't know the answer to that question. What I can tell you is that I circulate amongst my colleagues, and I would tell you that there is a very small percentage of my colleagues who are ride or die, who say, this is the only way to go. My colleagues and I are worried about two things. One, what is plan B? That's a totally fair question. I actually think plan B looks pretty good. I don't know what it looks like, but I think we have a remarkable bench of democrats, and they're also worried about something very legitimate, which tortured me and continues to torture me, which is, we cannot be here anymore. This needs to be resolved, I don't know, in the next five to seven days, because we just went ten days where the story was not Donald Trump promising totalitarianism, it was, how is Joe Biden going to do in the big boy press conference, wherever you are on this stuff, this needs to stop soon. And, look, if Joe Biden, at the end of the day, he's our candidate, no one will work harder than I will to elect him. But this is the moment.

And in the next 96 hours, perhaps, is the moment to set aside the poetry, the loyalty and the love, and ask yourself a hard question, which is, are you sure he's going to win. And are you sure that we don't have people who might articulate the incredible backward looking successes? Now, remember that. And I say backward looking because politics is about the future. The president focused today on his record behind us, important. But politics is always about the future. Ask yourself that question. Are you sure? Because you're not just gambling your own political reputation, you are gambling the future of the United States of America.

Congressman Jim Hymes, I'll just say you are on CNN pretty frequently. You are here to weigh in on foreign policy issues, intel issues. I've rarely seen you this fired up as you are talking about this issue tonight and your call on the president to step aside. Jim Hymes, thank you for joining us to explain your reasoning.

Thanks, Jeff.

Zelena, I understand you have some breaking news on the efforts behind the scene to convince President Biden to end his campaign. What are you hearing, Anderson? We are learning tonight that throughout the course of this week, as we've seen the public words from former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, we're learning that she has had a private conversation earlier this week with former President Barack Obama. They have talked about this matter. We do not know exactly the contents of that private conversation, but we do know, talking to a variety of Democrats. In a news story just posted moments ago, Isaac de Vera and I talk to many Democrats who are looking to Pelosi and Obama to sort of find a way out of this infighting and crisis that has dominated the Democratic Party. Now, they have intentionally given the president his space and his time on this. But we have seen Speaker Pelosi's very carefully calibrated words. But the new information we are learning that she has had a conversation, perhaps more than one of them, with Barack Obama. Of course, this is very fraught for former President Barack Obama. He has a friendly and loyal relationship with President Biden, but it's also a searing one dating back to 2015 when he urged him not to run for president, then against Hillary Clinton.

That still hangs over all of this. I'm told he does not want to be too assertive. He does not want to push too much. But it is clear that many Democrats are looking to them to sort of find a way out here. But one Democrat who were quoting in this story this evening, Anderson, a very senior Democrat tells us this. They are waiting and watching for President Biden to reach a decision on his own. And we heard Speaker Pelosi say earlier this week she wanted people to wait until after the NATO summit. Well, that NATO summit is now over so the question is, on Friday, going into the weekend, are there any more conversations, private conversations perhaps with Chuck Schumer and others directly to the White House? Of course, the decision is still President Biden's and his alone along with his family. But the fact that there are others sort of in this orbit talking about this is certainly significant, as many believe time is running short, Anderson. I mean, so that's really fascinating reporting. And I think a lot of people, maybe nothing, know the reference that you made to 2015 and then President Obama and Joe Biden and his desire to run back then.

You think that the echoes of that are still felt in the relationship between former President Obama and President Biden? No question about it. It has hung over their relationship really for much of the last decade. And if you'll remember what happened back in the summer, this was essential. Can you explain?

Sure, go ahead.

If you'll remember what happened back in the summer of 2015, Beau Biden died of brain cancer. It was a searing tragedy for the family. He was the attorney general of Delaware, the bright light, at least politically speaking, of the family. But Joe Biden was still considering then vice president, was still considering whether he would enter the democratic presidential nomination. Of course, Hillary Clinton was already running. Bernie Sanders would later run. But for weeks and weeks and weeks, the Bidens agonized over this decision. Well, President Obama at the time sort of counseled his vice president to not run for president. He saw how hurt he was, how wounded emotionally he was. So they came to that decision in the fall of 2015. But there's always been some sentiment hanging over the Biden family and first lady Jill Biden. I'm told that they believe President Obama was too heavy handed in his guidance there. So that, I'm told is infusing this moment right now. President Obama does not want to try and force his hand on this. This is not his decision. This is President Biden's decision. He is the president. He's no longer the vice president.

We should be clear about that. But that is one reason I'm told, that former President Obama is taking a lighter touch on this, trying to hear from a lot of Democrats this week. He's been fielding phone calls and things, but he and Nancy Pelosi have a unique relationship with President Biden. So many Democrats hope they can help him find an off ramp here and sort of reset this democratic race. But again, this is President Biden's decision and his alone to make. David Jellinger, what do you make of the reporting by Jeff Zelena and others?

Well, the recounting of 2015 is fascinating. In fact, I just went back recently and watched President Biden and Jill Biden in the days following the announcement that he wasn't going to get in that race, sit down in a 60 minutes interview where he says he'll never seek public office again. Obviously, we know that changed. But what you saw in that interview was Jill Biden, now the first lady, talking about how disappointed she was that Joe Biden had made the decision not to run, that there was all this work that she believed he could single handedly still accomplish if he were to go and be successful. And that gets back to what Jeff was saying about where this decision rests right now, Anderson, this. And again, I can't stress enough when you have Nancy Pelosi saying that President Biden still has a decision to make, and you had President Biden send a letter on Monday to all the Senate, House and House Democrats saying, the decision is made, this is over. That's clearly at odds with each other. And I think we see now that President Biden understands that there is going to be more conversation here, especially learning now that Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama have had a conversation about President Biden's status as the nominee, specifically now, as conversations and NATO week is behind us, go directly to President Biden from Nancy Pelosi, from others, not just staff talking to staff, but actually now having direct conversations in this moment where senior democratic party leaders are going to express to the president not just the views of their caucuses, but this moment of decision making for him.

And he and his family and his closest advisors, many of whom have been with him for decades, are going to enter a new period of assessment. And I think that that is what we need to watch for in the next 72 hours as we go into this weekend.