So, we're heading into deepest August, it's 80 days until the election, and everything is so different than it was at the beginning of the summer.
It's hard to remember, but way back on June 27th, the country was facing the prospect of two elderly white men facing off in November, and only one of those white men was riding high at the time.
But now it's Kamala Harris who has the momentum, and Donald Trump's campaign seems, at least to me and the other obsessives who track these kinds of things, heading for a shakeup.
I'll talk about this and a lot more with Susan Glasser, a staff writer at The New Yorker.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent for The New York Times.
Tarini Parti is a national politics reporter at The Wall Street Journal.
And Chuck Todd is NBC News' chief political analyst.
Thank you all for being here.
I know you're all off to Chicago soon, the unlucky people who have to go through O'Hare in the summer.
But I'm glad to have you here.
Let me start with Susan, because Monday night at the convention is going to be Joe Biden night, right?
And, you know, we really haven't thought about him a lot in the last few weeks, but you've been tracking this.
I want you to just take a look at something that Biden just said.
It's very interesting.
JOE BIDEN, U.S. President: I served in the Senate for 270 years.
I know I only look 40, but I'm a little bit older.
The longest time I was too damn young because I was only about 29 when I got elected, but now I'm too damn old.
JEFFREY GOLDBERG: So, I'm not asking you to do sort of geriatric psychiatry here, but he seems loose and maybe not happy, but in an accepting mode.
What's your read of Biden and his mood as he enters this very important week in his life and the life of the Democratic Party?
SUSAN GLASSER, Staff Writer, The New Yorker: Well, that's right.
I mean, look, his legacy, in many ways, is riding on the outcome of this election, even though he's not running in it.
And certainly, you know, if Kamala Harris doesn't win, there will be plenty of recriminations that find their way to Biden.
And, conversely, if she does win, people will hail him for having made a decision to step aside in favor of, you know, the greater good of defeating Donald Trump.
And he's already said that.
But that event where we just saw the clip from Jeff, it was very interesting.
It was the first time that Biden has appeared in public with Kamala Harris since he announced this incredible decision.
JEFFREY GOLDBERG: It was quite a while ago, actually.
SUSAN GLASSER: Yes, it's been more than three weeks.
And, you know, I would say that the outer vibe was warm, but there was an undercurrent there, first of all, watching Biden step to the side while Harris, the big exciting draw, introduces him.
There was almost a sense of like, you know, that he's back to watching from the sidelines, that they had reversed roles.
And then I also think that he hasn't fully come to terms with it.
He has a hard time talking really like why exactly did he decide to step aside.
They started chanting, thank you, Joe, thank you, Joe.
And you can't help but wonder where they saying thank you for all of his service, yes, of course, but also thank you for stepping aside.
JEFFREY GOLDBERG: For clearing the way.
Yes.
What are you hearing inside the White House about their relationship right now?
And this is a question for all of you, what role are we going to see Joe Biden play in the next 80 days?
ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, White House Correspondent, The New York Times: Yes, that's right.
I mean, when it comes to the president and the vice president, you know, everything that we hear is still that relationship is good.
You still see the vice president as she's hit the trail, still being gracious towards President Biden.
Relationship is good.
You still see the vice president as she's hit the trail, still being gracious towards President Biden, but there's also still a defensiveness when you kind of broaden your context to those throughout the White House.
A reporter asked President Biden this week what he thought about the potential that the vice president would break away from his economic messaging and his economic agenda.
And he was very quick to say that she will not do that.
He snapped out another reporter who brought up the newest inflation numbers saying, will you finally sort of fight about this?
There's still a sort of defensiveness around his agenda, his domestic agenda.
I think that when you talk to White House officials, they still feel like they didn't get enough credit for some of the domestic policies that, to be quite honest, the vice president is somewhat running on right now.
I mean, she released an economic agenda, but it does very much mirror President Biden.
So, difference in scale and, importantly, difference in tone and rhetoric.
That's the primary difference between the two candidates.
JEFFREY GOLDBERG: Right.
What's the hardest thing for the two of them to go forward together?
What's the hardest part of this relationship?
CHUCK TODD, Chief Political Analyst, NBC News: Well, I think that he's not an asset, all right?
I think he's a liability with voters.
And I think the hardest part is going to be him accepting that he's not going to be used on the trail.
JEFFREY GOLDBERG: Stay with that.
So, Monday night, big Joe Biden night, and then Tuesday night, we don't hear any -- CHUCK TODD: We might not hear Joe Biden's name again.
But in passing, I mean, you know, Monday is Biden night and you'll have Joe Biden and you're going to have Joe Biden.
Look, he's got one job.
Keep -- go get a ceasefire deal.
That is literally, there's one thing he can do -- JEFFREY GOLDBERG: Before the convention starts?
CHUCK TODD: Whenever, just get it before college campuses totally come in before the start of the fall campaign, which is essentially in the next week.
That's the one thing he can do.
But I think the toughest part of this relationship is going to be, they're not going to want him on the trail.
I mean, look, you're right about the thank you voters.
I mean, Biden at least, you know, in the interview he gave to CBS last week, he did at least admit the reality of why he got talked into getting out, which was every Democrat was going to run against him, right?
He has admitted that's what it was going to be, and that wasn't going to be good for the party.
So, what does that tell you?
They don't want him on the trail.
There's a reason -- JEFFREY GOLDBERG: How do you keep the president of the United States off the trail?
CHUCK TODD: Ask Al Gore.
He did it.
TARINI PARTI, White House Reporter, The Wall Street Journal: I think that's the trick that they're trying to figure out right now, which is, how do you distance yourself from an unpopular president, while also sort of running on his policies?
And, you know, Kamala Harris was a part of the administration.
She can't totally distance herself from him.
TARINI PARTI: She is, even though she's out on the campaign trail and putting out her own policies.
As Zolan said, they're essentially building on what Biden has already done.
And so, I mean, it's got to be somewhat awkward for both of them.
And even though they're trying to portray this very warm relationship, everything is all right, you know, I'm sure, at the convention, I'm sure we're going to see some of this awkwardness at play here because the convention for all these months was being set up to be headlined by someone else.
JEFFREY GOLDBERG: Right.
You've covered Kamala Harris since 2019.
What's something we don't understand about the relationship between Biden and Harris?
TARINI PARTI: I think the biggest factor was that they really had no relationship, I mean, at the start.
And they had to build a relationship.
And from what I've heard, you know, there was obviously the debate moment that everyone remembers, and so the relationship, one could argue, didn't get off to the best start.
You know, the person who sort of connected them was Biden's late son, Beau Biden, who knew Kamala Harris.
And other than that, they didn't really know each other.
So, the first year with COVID and being stuck at the White House, they started getting to know each other.
Eventually, you know, they did establish a working relationship.
They did get closer, but they had to start from scratch.
