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(WASHINGTON) — Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, appearing on MSNBC on Wednesday morning, declined to directly answer when asked if President Joe Biden had her support as he seeks reelection amid debate between Democrats on his viability as a candidate.

“It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run,” Pelosi told Morning Joe co-host Jonathan Lemire. “We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short.”

“I think overwhelming support of the caucus — it’s not for me to say, I’m not the head of the caucus anymore — but, he’s beloved, he is respected and people want him to make that decision,” Pelosi added.

Biden, in a defiant statement to congressional Democrats on Monday, has said he’s “firmly committed” to staying in the race to the end.

Lemire followed up by asking Pelsoi directly, “Do you want him to run?”

“I want him to do whatever he decides to do,” Pelosi responded. “And that is the way it is. Whatever he decides to go with.”

“I said to everyone — let’s just hold off. Whatever you’re thinking, either tell somebody privately, but you don’t have to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week. But I am very proud of the president,” Pelosi added.

Pelosi led House Democrats for the first two years of the Biden administration, helping pass some of his signature policy achievements such as the bipartisan infrastructure law and gun safety legislation. As a Democratic leader who has worked closely with Biden, Pelosi’s thoughts on the president’s ability to hold the office could carry a lot of weight in an election year where Biden’s rematch with former President Donald Trump is expected to be a close race.

ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, in Biden’s first post-debate television interview, repeatedly pressed the president what he would do if Democratic leaders such as Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries and Pelosi were to tell him they were worried his presence in the race would impact the party’s chances of controlling the House and Senate.

Biden told Stephanopoulos, “Well, it’s, like, they’re not gonna do that.”

Schumer on Tuesday largely declined to engage in questions on Biden’s path forward, simply telling reporters multiple times: “I’m with Joe.”

Jeffries, who earlier this week said he still supported Biden and that his position remained unchanged, huddled behind closed doors on Tuesday with House Democrats to discuss Biden’s path forward.

Some described the meeting as “rough” and sobering, according to multiple participants. Some described feeling powerless to change course amid Biden’s defiance.

After the meeting, a seventh House Democrat — New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill — publicly called on Biden to exit the race.

Senate Democrats also met for their own conference meeting on Tuesday.

Sen. Michael Bennet, during an interview with CNN, said during the meeting he expressed to colleagues his belief that Biden will not defeat Trump this November.

“Donald Trump is on track, I think to win this election and maybe win it by a landslide and take with him the Senate and the House,” Bennet said. “For me, this is not a question about polling, it’s not a question about politics, it’s a moral question about the future of our country and I think it’s critically important for us to come to grips with what we face if together we put this country on the path of electing Donald Trump again.”

Multiple sources confirmed to ABC that Sens. Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown conveyed similar concerns about Biden’s ability to win during the meeting. Brown and Tester are both facing difficult reelection campaigns of their own this cycle.

The Biden campaign pushed back on Bennet’s comments, saying the race was always going to be close and is “far from over.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Republican lawmakers say the Biden administration is refusing to release a set of audio recordings that could help settle the debate over whether President Joe Biden’s faltering performance at last month’s presidential debate was just a one-off “bad night,” as he has repeatedly claimed.

“We all know why they don’t want to turn over the audio because it will … show exactly what we all saw on the debate stage a couple weeks ago,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, told reporters on Tuesday. “That is something they want to cover up.”

The recordings capture Biden’s two-day interview last October with then-special counsel Robert Hur, who ultimately concluded that while Biden improperly retained classified documents, he shouldn’t be charged with any crimes because — unlike former president Donald Trump, who was indicted for allegedly hoarding hundreds of classified documents and then trying to cover it up — Biden cooperated with investigators and would likely convince a jury that he made “an innocent mistake.” Trump, meanwhile, has denied all charges.

Nearly two years ago, caches of classified documents from Biden’s time in the Obama administration and the Senate were found in his Delaware home and in private offices elsewhere, prompting Hur’s probe.

In his recorded interview with investigators, Biden appeared to be a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” and that’s how he would likely appear to a jury, Hur wrote in his final report.

Democrats and the White House immediately blasted Hur for making what they insisted were unfair and inaccurate conclusions. Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, demanded the audio recordings, claiming that to fulfill their oversight responsibilities they wanted to assess for themselves the evidence that Hur used to reach his conclusions.

White House Counsel Ed Siskel later said Republicans had no “legitimate need” for the recordings and likely only wanted them to “chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes.”

In response to Republican demands, the Justice Department released a transcript of Biden’s interview to Congress, but Biden — at Attorney General Merrick Garland’s behest — asserted executive privilege over the recordings to shield them from release.

Then the presidential debate happened — raising new questions over whether Biden could handle another four years as commander-in-chief.

“Most of us are concerned … about President Biden’s health,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, told CBS News on Sunday. “I want those tapes released.”

As early as this week, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., could try to push forward a resolution she drafted to hold Garland in “inherent contempt” of Congress, which Luna has said would draw on rarely-used legislative branch authority to fine Garland $10,000 a day until he hands over the recordings.

Her effort is controversial even within Republican ranks, and it’s unclear if it would succeed. But if it did, the Justice Department could try to challenge it in court.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment for this story, and the White House counsel’s office did not respond to questions from ABC News, including whether Biden would now consider allowing the recordings to be released.

What could the recordings show?

Testifying before lawmakers in March, Hur said that the recordings of Biden’s interview — which began the day after Hamas launched its large-scale attack on Israel — “were part of the evidence, of course, that I considered in coming to my conclusions.”

Hur’s conclusions were blunt: The president showed “diminished faculties and faulty memory” during his five hours with Hur’s team, at times exhibiting “limited precision and recall,” Hur wrote in his final report.

Even six years earlier, in recorded conversations with a ghostwriter that Hur obtained, Biden was “often painfully slow, with Mr. Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries,” Hur wrote. “In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse.”

Hur, in his final report, wrote, “It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict [Biden] … of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”

Republicans say Americans who are worried about Biden’s fitness for office deserve more than a written report and a transcript.

Last week, the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee filed a federal lawsuit in Washington to obtain the recordings, saying that there are “inherent limits of a cold transcript” and that audio recordings can provide “verbal and nonverbal context” such as tone and pace.

“The audio recordings, not the cold transcripts, are the best available evidence of how President Biden presented himself during the interview,” the lawsuit says. “The Committee thus needs those recordings to assess the Special Counsel’s characterization of the President, which he and White House lawyers have forcefully disputed.”

Republican lawmakers aren’t the only ones pushing for the recordings to be released.

In March, the conservative groups Judicial Watch and The Heritage Foundation filed federal lawsuits in Washington seeking the recordings and other case materials under the Freedom of Information Act. Shortly afterward, CNN filed a similar lawsuit, which a dozen other news organizations, including ABC News, then joined.

“The subsequent release of the interview transcript has made it possible for the press and public to somewhat assess Hur’s description of Biden for themselves,” the lawsuit says. “Transcripts, however, are no substitute for recordings, which reveal ‘intonations, hesitancies, inflections, and tone of voice.'”

It’s unclear if any of the legal cases could be resolved before the presidential election in November.

A ‘chilling’ effect?

In May, after Garland recommended it, Biden asserted executive privilege over the recordings.

Then, last month, the Republican majority in the House referred Garland to the Justice Department for prosecution after Garland refused to turn over the recordings despite a congressional subpoena. But the Justice Department declined to move forward with the case.

According to the Justice Department, the law enforcement interest in keeping the recordings private outweighs any other public interest.

In particular, releasing the audio recordings could “chill witness cooperation in future, high-profile investigations,” Garland has said.

“It is our view that we need witnesses to be willing to be audio recorded and they are going to be less willing to if they know it is going to be made public,” Garland told lawmakers last month.

Biden’s case, however, is unique: For him, the interviewee is the one with the authority to waive executive privilege, which would essentially give the Justice Department permission to release the recordings of himself.

Nevertheless, the Justice Department has also pointed to another law enforcement interest in keeping the recordings private: concern that enemies of the United States could manipulate them.

“If the recording of President Biden’s interview were released, there is substantial risk that malicious actors could alter the record to (for example) insert words that President Biden did not say or delete words that he did say,” a senior Justice Department official wrote in a declaration submitted in court in May.

Using widely available technologies, malicious actors could even “create an audio deepfake in which a fake voice of President Biden can be programmed to say anything that the creator of the deepfake wishes,” the official added.

Meanwhile, Garland told Republicans last month that he has “not been shown any reason why audio evidence of demeanor would make a difference in any legislative purpose that you have.”

“You have yet to suggest any law that you intend to pass or are thinking about in which the audio would make a difference over the transcript,” he said.

In their lawsuit, House Republicans called Biden’s executive privilege claim a “self-serving attempt to shield the audio recording” from becoming public.

“Any privilege that could conceivably apply to President Biden’s interview with the Special Counsel was waived when the Executive Branch released a transcript of that interview,” the lawsuit argued.

The Justice Department has until the end of next month to respond to the suit.

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(WASHINGTON) — At his first campaign rally in 10 days, former President Donald Trump jumped on the uncertainty of President Joe Biden’s campaign, offering Biden an opportunity to “redeem” himself through two propositions: participating in another debate this week and a golf match.

“So tonight, I’m officially offering Joe the chance to redeem himself in front of the entire world,” Trump said to a rally crowd at the Trump National Doral Golf Course in Florida. “Let’s do another debate this week so that sleepy Joe Biden can prove to everyone all over the world that he has what it takes to be president, but this time it will be man to man, no moderators.”

The former president also gave a nod to a notable moment between the two presidential contenders when they first faced off on the debate stage for the 2024 campaign cycle last month by also challenging Biden to a golf match.

Biden-Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer immediately shot down that suggestion, calling it “weird antics.”

As more Democrats start to publicly call for Biden to drop his reelection bid, Trump downplayed the challenges of having to face a different Democratic candidate if Biden decided to step down as the nominee, arguing that nobody would be able to beat him.

“Despite all the Democrat panic this week, the truth is it doesn’t matter who they nominate because we are going to beat any one of them in thundering landslides,” he said.

Trump also spent a notable amount of time during his speech attacking Vice President Kamala Harris as conversations flow about her as a potential Biden replacement on the ballot.

“You have to give him credit for one brilliant decision, probably the smartest decision he’s ever made. He picked Kamala Harris as his vice president,” he said. “If Joe had picked someone even halfway competent. They would have bounced him from office years ago, but they can’t because she’s got to be their second choice.”

The former president painted Harris as a “socialist,” going through her record as senator and vice president.

Tuesday night’s rally was a first for Trump’s youngest son, Barron, whom he introduced in the crowd.

“That’s the first time he’s done it. That’s the first time, right?” Trump said, after asking Barron Trump to stand up and praising him, saying he “might be more popular than Don and Eric.”

Meanwhile, former first lady Melania Trump — who held a pro-Trump LGBTQ group Log Cabin Republicans’ fundraiser in New York Monday night — was notably not in attendance. She has yet to attend a Trump campaign political rally this cycle.

As Trump encouraged early voting, which will kick off in two months, he told his supporters to make sure their votes were counted.

“Make sure that it gets counted. You can do that. Follow that vote because these people cheat like nobody’s ever cheated before. Frankly, they’re no good at policy, but they’re good at cheating,” Trump said.

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(WASHINGTON) — Marianne Williamson, the author and speaker who ran against President Joe Biden in the 2024 and 2020 primaries, sounded the alarm Tuesday evening over Biden’s ability to campaign and serve as commander-in-chief amid concerns over his age and cognitive health.

In an interview with Kyra Phillips on ABC News Live, Williamson slammed Democratic leadership for backing Biden after his politically disastrous debate against 2024 opponent Donald Trump earlier this month.

“I think the Democratic leadership completely underestimates the level of disgust that Americans are feeling due to their cowardice, due to their hypocrisy. You know, the issue is not just crisis; it’s crisis management. And they are failing at crisis management,” Williamson told Phillips.

Williamson said the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate should push for change.

“If [Biden] doesn’t want to give up the delegates, he doesn’t have to. It’s called an intervention. It’s called Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Schumer and whomever else walking into a room with the president, with the First Lady, with Hunter – whomever – and saying, this has got to stop. You are risking our victory in November,” Williamson said.

While leadership has said they’re with Biden, seven House Democrats have publicly called on the president to step down from the ticket since the showdown, even as additional information over his health and mental acuity has surfaced.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey on Tuesday joined Reps. Raúl Grivalja, Lloyd Doggett, Mike Quigley, Seth Moulton and Angie Craig in calling for Biden to withdraw from the race. Over a dozen senators and over 40 House members have publicly declared their support for Biden.

The presidential primary cycle concluded in June, with Biden earning over 99% of the Democratic delegates. Williamson was on the ballot in most states and territories this election cycle, notwithstanding a brief suspension of her candidacy in February before shortly jumping back into the race.

She said at the end of the primary cycle that she was no longer a candidate for the party’s nomination because the 2024 presidential preference contests had ended. Williamson was the first Democrat to jump in the primary this cycle, announcing her candidacy in February 2023.

“I’ve been challenging him for a year and a half, and I understand why these people are afraid. This crowd is tough. This crowd is vicious. This crowd smears. They lie, they suppress candidacies. And the elected politicians in the Democratic Party know they’re – they’re hearing the warning; they’re hearing the threat, and they know that it’s true,” Williamson said.

While she was a candidate, Williamson seldom discussed Biden’s age. In the weeks since the debate, she has been vocal in urging him to step down.

“I started all this feeling a lot of compassion for him. This had to have been a very humiliating experience. … What is happening now is not deserving of respect. No one person is indispensable,” Williamson said on Tuesday.

“We’re not only being asked: can the president handle the next four months of the campaign? It is reasonable for the American voter to ask: can he handle the next four years of the presidency?” We heard him be strong on ‘Morning Joe’ the other day. But the president of the United States can’t be episodically strong. The president of the United States cannot be episodically on top of his game,” she added.

Party leaders like Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have all been ardent in their support for Biden at the top of the ticket in 2024. On Tuesday, Williamson reasoned that those other Democrats who have been floated as possibilities to replace Biden were considering their own political futures rather than challenging Biden now.

“Because of their own cynical calculations, their own ambitions for their own careers, they won’t stand on principle and stand on what they know. And they expect the American people to turn the keys to the White House over to them, not just the White House,” Williamson said.

“We’re now risking the House and the Senate, not only because the president could drag everything down,” she added.

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