Incredibly, President Joe Biden still thinks he would have beaten Donald Trump had he stayed in the presidential race. And that's according to new reporting from The Washington Post, which spoke to more than two dozen people who are close to the president. [00:00:16] So here's what they say. Biden and some of his aides still believe he should have stayed in the race, despite the rocky debate performance and low poll numbers that prompted Democrats to pressure him to drop out. Biden and these aides have told people in recent days that he [00:00:32] could have defeated Trump, according to people familiar with their comments. Aides say the president has been careful not to place blame on Harris or her campaign. So let me just be very clear and blunt. [00:00:47] There is absolutely no indication, no evidence, nothing to indicate that Joe Biden would have beaten Donald Trump. On the contrary, there is a mountain of evidence Indicating that he would have lost to Trump. [00:01:02] In fact, some of the people close to. Biden have since come out publicly to admit that their internal polling was even worse than the public polling that we all saw for ourselves. So how can someone be this delusional? I don't understand, and I'm going to show you [00:01:18] some of that evidence in just a moment. But, Jake, why don't you jump in? I think there's something in this story that's even more important than Joe Biden being delusional. And it goes towards the state of not just Democratic Party, but all of Washington. And so that nugget is buried in here, and I don't want you to miss it. [00:01:34] We'll get to that in a little bit. Just real quick on this. Look, the his own advisers said he would have lost at least 400 electoral College votes and that he had, quote, a 0% chance of winning. So. And that was right before he dropped out. So but he still holds on to it. [00:01:49] And I believe that he actually believes it. And some of his internal advisers, closest advisers actually believe it because the bubbles are so thick, you can get yourself to believe anything. And and and Anna, when you were away, we were talking about wicked. Adam McKay made some interesting comments about that movie. And and apparently a lot of people on the left think that Wizard of Oz is Donald [00:02:08] Trump because he says he knows everything. Then you lift the curtains and it turns out he knows nothing. Right. And we have more on that later in this program. But I, I said I could see how the right wing would think that Biden is the Wizard of Oz and oh, I don't worry. Democratic leadership knows everything. We are the professionals. [00:02:24] We're the ones who know what's right and wrong. And we play four dimensional chess. You open up the curtain and you've got a guy in mental decline who's like, I could have won when literally no one in the country thinks that. So yeah, the people in power are all the Wizard of Oz. They don't know anything. [00:02:41] They live in utter delusion. And the story is an excellent example of that. Well, I think what's also a common issue that you find with not just leaders in the United States, but world leaders is once they surround themselves with yes men. [00:02:56] And in this case, you know, this this piece is not just about what Biden believes, it's what Biden and his aides believe. I mean, it's hard to imagine that people who don't have cognitive decline like Biden would delude themselves into thinking that he had a shot [00:03:13] in beating Donald Trump in the election, but his aides allegedly are saying, yeah, he could have totally beat Trump, like he shouldn't have dropped out of the race. That's what that is, the regret. I mean, imagine at this point in the game, not confessing, not taking some ownership of the terrible decision to run for a second term [00:03:31] or the terrible decision to stay in the race for as long as Biden did. No, no, there's no humility here. There's no self-reflection. It's just doubling down on the exact thing that Biden did wrong. It's amazing. But I think it's because he has people surrounding him that were nodding their heads and saying, yeah, totally. [00:03:47] You're doing great. You could have beaten Trump. Super quick on that number one. Remember, they have a giant incentive for Biden to stay in office because their power is attached 100% to Joe Biden. Even when it's another Democrat running, they lose all of their power. But I think that they genuinely do believe because the bubbles are so thick. [00:04:02] And as Anna tells you the rest of the story, I'm going to come back and tell you every charge they made against Trump, whether that's true or untrue, and most of them were true, applies even more so to Joe Biden. And this story again proves that. So let's talk a little bit about the evidence [00:04:18] indicating that Biden really had no shot. Okay. So polls predicted that he was going to lose and that he was going to lose badly. And in fact, you're looking at some evidence of that right now. So the New York Times poll on the day he dropped out, had Biden losing by three [00:04:34] points nationally and getting wrecked in the battleground states as well. So obviously you need to win the battleground states. But more importantly, if you're a Democrat because of how the Electoral College is set up, and this is something Jake has repeated many, many times, you need [00:04:49] to win on a national level by five points. So to see Biden losing by three points nationally not a good sign, a clear indication he was going to lose. And real quick. And those polls are off. Remember they had Kamala Harris winning and she lost the popular vote. Exactly. So he wasn't really down three. [00:05:05] He was down more. Even more than that. Exactly. These polls tended to overestimate the performance of the Democrat and underestimate the performance of Donald Trump. So some polls were actually even worse than that. So let's take a look at this. So a New York Times Siena College poll found Trump was ahead of Biden [00:05:23] by six percentage points among likely voters and eight points ahead among registered voters. So some of Biden's closest allies acknowledge now that he was not the best candidate to run against Donald Trump for the 2024 presidential race. [00:05:40] But that's just because his style of governing did not always mesh with today's politics. Things are a little bit different like stylistically these days. Like that's what they're thinking, and I don't think that's it. But nonetheless, his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, who I can't wait [00:05:57] to never have to hear from again, says the president, has been operating on a time horizon measured in decades, while the political cycle is measured in four years. James Clyburn remembered telling Biden that he had to revitalize his campaign [00:06:13] because he was too focused on substance and not focused enough on, like, the politics of winning. The new environment that we currently live in, style seems to carry the day more than substance. Your style does not lend itself well to the environment we're currently in. [00:06:29] Or it could be that he was obviously deteriorating right before our eyes, and the American people did not feel comfortable reelecting him to serve a second term, I think. I think that was the heart of the matter. And then you can also get into the substance of Democrats [00:06:45] promising a whole host of policies that they never deliver on. And there's a lot of frustration and a lot of resentment toward Democrats because of that. And in addition to regretting his decision to drop out of the presidential race. There was also another move that Joe Biden wishes that he had not made in private. [00:07:03] Biden has said he should have picked someone other than Merrick Garland as attorney general, complaining about the Justice Department's slowness under Garland in prosecuting Trump and its aggressiveness in prosecuting Biden's son, Hunter, according to people familiar with his comments. [00:07:19] Look, I agree in regard to the criticism of Merrick Garland, the slowness in bringing the charges. If you're going to charge Trump, then why are you going to wait until you get super close to the election and you know, there's going to be delays in the cases? [00:07:34] And if he wins, well, those cases go away for the most part. And that's exactly what happened. There was also plenty of blame for Biden to spread around. He has also mused on changes in the media, arguing that he did not get enough credit for his accomplishments, [00:07:51] especially on the economy, which Inflation was crushing people, and then later the high interest rates were crushing people. It's hard to make a case that Biden succeeded in bettering the economy [00:08:07] when people were unable to afford the basics, and he did nothing about the housing market. I mean, the housing crisis is worse than ever before. And in fact, HUD, which is the, you know, Department of Housing, Housing and Urban Development under Biden, [00:08:23] just put out a report showing that between January of 2023 and January of 2024, homelessness increased by 18.1%. That is the highest recorded increase in homelessness that HUD has ever recorded. [00:08:39] So, I mean, these are things that Americans are feeling day to day. So the idea that the media should have done PR for Biden is laughable to me. Yeah, to be fair, that's what he's experienced his whole life. So he he thought, well, I don't have to put out my own message. [00:08:58] I'll just get the media to do propaganda for me, as they have for the last 50 years. Call me the boy from Scranton. Say, I'm such an average Joe. And. And every time I screw up, just pretend it was a stutter. Never investigate me. [00:09:13] And knowing that now we know for sure that he had mental decline from day one, according to his own staffers. We're going to talk about this a little bit later, but, you know, one of the reporters said on CBS over the weekend, it was our biggest failing, that we didn't, [00:09:29] look into Joe Biden's mental status. And. Yeah. Yeah. And that's like, considered controversial in mainstream media. No, it was an enormous failure of the media. They were actually super kind and deferential to Joe Biden. - But Joe Biden thought not enough. - That's such a good point. [00:09:47] That's such a good point, Jake, because I remember as early as 2010 when he was running in 2020, we were getting browbeaten for bringing up Biden's obvious signs of mental decline. And we finally just dropped it because the gaslighting was it was a lot. [00:10:04] And it's like, okay, fine, whatever. Everyone says that it's inappropriate to bring this up even though we see some obvious signs. Yeah. And let me just say that's it's not just Democrats, guys. It's mainstream media folks who browbeat people like us who tell the truth. [00:10:19] Like when I go to Washington, if I say Joe Biden has mental decline issues up until the debate, the reaction I would get every single time from reporters was this they look at me like you're some sort of radical, what are you, MAGA? [00:10:35] No, of course Joe Biden is totally fine. Totally fine. I can't believe you would say they found it so outrageous. It's ageism, ableism, all sorts of, you know, we're going to call you names so you can shut up and understand that you're not supposed to speak out about this. [00:10:51] Yeah, and look, I could prove it. So, like, we talk about bubbles. Biden had a bubble. But how about the mainstream media bubble? Did a single reporter or on air anchor or pundit for four straight years before that debate go on air? Certainly for the first three years, as he's shaking hands [00:11:07] with invisible people other than us, and we weren't allowed on cable news, so on cable news or mainstream media, did anyone go on air and go, this guy is too old and it's obvious. This guy, hey, we need to investigate his doctors and look into. Because when Trump came out with ridiculous notes from his doctors, [00:11:25] they were like, let's look into the doctors, let's look into this. We don't believe him. When Joe Biden comes out and he says, oh yeah, my doctor says, I'm in great mental health. Every reporter is like, he's in great mental health. Run the propaganda. Run the propaganda. All of you guys in mainstream media are pure propaganda [00:11:40] and you don't even know it. So that brings me to what you referenced a little earlier, Jake, and that is CBS correspondent Jane Crawford. She was asked what she believed was the most underreported story of 2024. And her reply went viral. [00:11:56] And I'm just going to preface it by saying I commend her for this admission. Take a look. That would be, to me, Joe Biden's obvious cognitive decline that became undeniable in the televised debate at the. - Presidential debate with Donald Trump. - Unquestioned. And, you know, it's starting to emerge now that his advisers [00:12:15] kind of managed his limitations. It's been reported in the Wall Street Journal for four years. And yet he insisted that he could still run for president. We should have much more forcefully questioned whether he was fit for office for another four years, which could have led to a primary for the Democrats. [00:12:32] It could have changed the the the scope of the entire election. Yet still, incredibly, we read in the Washington Post that his advisers are saying that he regrets that he dropped out of the race. You know, that he thinks he could have beaten Trump. And I think that is either delusional or they're gaslighting. [00:12:49] President Biden has. So just to clarify, at the very end, she says, I think that is either delusional or they're gaslighting the American people. But Robert Costa decided to butt in and incredibly, believe it or not, continue to provide cover for Biden. [00:13:04] Let's watch. President Biden has said repeatedly he was sick during the debate June 27th in Atlanta, and he's always been fine. And he leaves fine. That is his position, the position of many of his top aides as well, even though there is that reporting. So, okay, so is that the standard operating procedure for Robert Costa? [00:13:22] Is that how he does his reporting? If a politician says it, then it is by definition true and I print it. - Come on. - Yeah I mean look they're still doing it. This is a her saying that is a big national headline story. [00:13:38] Why? Because it's the first time any reporter on television is saying, hey, maybe we should have actually covered Joe Biden in a fair way and been a little bit tougher on him, given that his aides are now saying that he was in mental decline the entire time he was president of the United States of America and commander in chief. [00:13:58] Look, guys, if we're being honest, we should have been having a conversation about the 25th amendment. So the guy obviously doesn't know what's happening at all. This guy who's in such bad shape, he literally doesn't even realize he had no chance of winning. [00:14:13] He lives on a different planet, right? He's so detached from reality. They asked him about the drones and he's like, oh, I heard they were fine. He's not in charge. And did anyone say the 25th amendment did? I mean, they didn't come within miles of that when she finally says [00:14:29] it at the end here after it's too late. Even then, people are scandalized by it. I know it's amazing because they think their job is to protect the establishment, to protect the people in power. Whenever it's an outsider, right wing or left wing, they shred him to pieces. And whenever it's an insider, they're like, oh, we pray to you, we worship you. [00:14:45] So I loathe mainstream media and all they are is marketing for the status quo and corporate rule. So now back to Biden. So this guy, how many times did I tell you on this show? Frozen in amber, frozen in the 1970s. Now, let me tell you, one of the experts that the that The Washington Post [00:15:01] talked to Zelizer. He said President Biden and his supporters often yearn for a world that disappeared. You can't actually govern the way you did in the 1970s, in 2021. Now, why does that person say that? Because all of the reporting is that Joe Biden wanted to run the place [00:15:19] like it was the 1970s. And he thought, well, no, I'm going to bring people back to the way it should be and show that Trump was just a fad and that no one should worry about him. He was just an aberration. And we're going to instill faith back into our systems and our institutions. [00:15:37] Well, brother, if you're talking about the Constitution and democracy, that makes sense. But if you're talking about instilling faith in the system, that is money and politics and corruption and the current system that we have. The country despises that system. [00:15:52] And so what he did was say, well, I love this. And by the way, at a bare minimum, can you distinguish between the two things, the foundations of the country that they love and the current corrupt system that they hate? But even more important than that, guys, do they even understand that difference? [00:16:09] And the answer is a resounding no. No one inside the white House for four straight years understood the simple concept of people aren't mad at the Constitution. They're not mad at democracy. They're mad at money in politics. They're mad at the corruption. [00:16:25] They're mad that you're obviously serving the donors, obviously. So then the second part of it is they're like, oh, it turns out it's a new media ecosystem. And Joe Biden was just hoping that they would be kind to him, even if he didn't make his own case. But it turns out they weren't, or at least not sufficiently enough for him. [00:16:43] He's like, they kissed me only on my left cheek. I expected them to kiss on the left and the right and the middle cheeks. And so there's a middle cheek. Well, there's a lot in the middle. Right? And Biden wanted all of it. And he's like, what? The media won't serve me even though I'm the ruler. Right. [00:16:59] And so look, guys, again, put aside the media bias, put aside the establishment's perspective, but look at how little they care about figuring out the political world as it is. Because if they think Trump is that dangerous, you should do your homework [00:17:18] and you should work overtime to figure out, hey, what media ecosystem are we in? Is how do we get our message out? Should we try different things to get our message out? Or should we just stick with old man Biden? Sort of like the 1970s. [00:17:35] We'll just do the right thing and say that the system is the greatest thing in the world, and they're all supporters magically. I mean, you have to be a moron to say, I'm sorry, guys, but if you're in Washington, you have no idea how stupid you are. Like, you keep talking down to everyone, like you know things and then you don't do [00:17:52] the most simple homework. Hey, gee, I wonder how we can win an election. I wonder how we get our message out. And by the way, you want to know a clue? Here, I'll buy you a clue. Do your own press conferences. If you had a president who wasn't in mental decline that you were [00:18:08] trying to hide because you're all corrupt and you're all intensely selfish and don't care about the American people or American democracy at all. What you would have done is had a strong president come out and go look at these inflation numbers. I know they're problematic, and I'm on it, and we're going to work on price gouging, [00:18:24] but we're we did so much better than the rest of the world France, Germany, etc.. Japan. You make your case right. Look at these unemployment numbers. The record low unemployment. Why didn't Joe Biden do the bare, bare minimum? Because he's so arrogant and he's so stuck in the old ways, and he didn't care to [00:18:42] change, even if it damned his own party, even if it damned a country. He his ego, was more important than everything else combined. I loathe that man now. This propaganda of how he's a sweet old man and he cares about people and how much empathy he has. [00:18:58] That's nothing but junk marketing paid by a bunch of crooks in mainstream media. So lastly. Anna. Look, I told you about the charges against Trump are also true against Biden. So what were those people said? That Trump was a huge liar. That's true. I said that, and that's definitely true. [00:19:15] Well, what's Joe Biden? He's been lying about his mental decline for four straight years, let alone the fact that he's told many other outrageous lies that he was arrested with Nelson Mandela while protesting apartheid in South Africa. That is not a small lie. That would have been one of Trump's biggest lies [00:19:32] that his uncle was eaten by cannibals. Lunatic lies. But mainstream media realizes after the election. Oh, maybe we should have challenged them once, right? At least, at least some did realize it. At least most haven't even realized that. No, I know, I know, I know. [00:19:47] So. That's right. So number one. Giant liar. True of Trump. True of Joe Biden. Giant ego. What did Biden do? I'm not stepping aside. It has to be me, me, me me me me. I don't care about anyone else. I am the demigod. It must be me. [00:20:03] I don't care if I'm going to get checked into a senior citizen center. The day after the election. Number three against democracy. Well, what you do, brother. You made sure there was no primary on the Democratic side. You made sure no one else had any opportunities. You canceled primary after primary. [00:20:18] Your party did and you ate it and abetted that. So you were against democracy and finally meddling with his own government officials. You know, Trump famously, I'm disappointed with my attorney General Sessions and all that stuff. And what what did Biden do at the end? Oh, I'm disappointed in my attorney general, just like Trump said. [00:20:36] And I wish that he'd investigated my political opponent earlier. - Now that and more. - Aggressively and. More aggressively, that at least has some merit on the substance, right? Because it made it seem more political to do it later. But look, he's saying, I wish I had meddled with my attorney [00:20:52] general and made him investigate my political opponent earlier, and I wish I would have meddled with him and made sure he never investigated me or my family, or anyone attached to me. That's exactly what we said was wrong with Donald Trump for for for exact same things Biden and Trump now, did the press cover it that way? [00:21:11] We did. Did did the right wing media tell you all the problems with Trump? Did the left wing media tell you all the problems with Biden? Did mainstream media tell you all the problems with the establishment? No, because they're all doing propaganda and marketing. None of them are actually doing the news. Thanks for watching The Young Turks really appreciate it. [00:21:26] Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. You'll get to interact with us more. There's live chat emojis, badges. You've got emojis of me Anna John Jr. So those are super fun. But you also get playback of our exclusive member only shows [00:21:43] and specials right after they air. So all of that, all you got to do is click that join button right underneath the video. Thank you.