David Axelrod

They need to jump on this issue and they need to be clear and direct about it.

I think it would be irresponsible to run if he were being treated for that.

He's not winning this race. He's more likely - if you just look at the data and talk to people around the country, political people around the country, it's more likely that he'll lose by a landslide than win narrowly this race. And if the…

He needs to come to grips with this. I know he cares about the country, cares deeply about the threat that Trump represents, he needs to act on that.

I think that this is a -- this will define him if he moves forward.

This is entirely in the president's hands. And what he has to think about is what's best for himself and the country.

I think the president's done a great job in many, many ways. And he should be proud of that. That's not the question on the table. The question is, is he up for the next four?

That's not really what elections are about. They're not about the last four years, they're about the next four years.

There's no question about it, Anderson. As I said in the last block, he was -- they were looking forward to this debate to kind of restart this campaign, set aside these issues about his fitness. And they've been exacerbated.

We've heard what the president has said along the way in this campaign, President Trump, about what he would do if he would - if he came back about retribution, about vengeance.

There are major problems with President Trump and they're all - they all circle around this notion of a guy who doesn't recognize rules and laws, and norms and institutions who doesn't respect guardrails, and now guard - further guardrails…

I think there's a lot of concern -- private concern about it, but I think there's also are resolved to try and be supportive of the president and see how this thing plays out.

There's considerable risk associated with it. First, you have no primary. So how do you choose a candidate in a -- in a party that has a lot of diverse voices and a lot of ambitious people.

You're talking about uncharted waters. Of course, everything about this race is uncharted waters, but you're talking about uncharted waters here.

Elections are about the future and I think where the President has to go is bring that sort of famous empathy of his.

You want to make it a choice. That has to be the imperative for the President tomorrow.

I do expect him to try and distract him.

I'm not sure confidence necessarily is his friend. That's when Trump tends to get in trouble, is when he's over-confident.

This is about your future and the question you have to ask is, is this person going to fight for me or is this person going to fight for themselves? And that is very, very clear.

There's just a lot of concern about the age issue and that is something that I think he needs to ponder. Just do a check and say, is this the right thing to do?

Joe Biden's great superpower as a candidate and a politician has been his empathy, Joe from Scranton who understands how everyday people live.

This country is doing better than others in terms of recovering from the pandemic. But that's cold comfort to people who, as that one gentleman said, go to the store and find that groceries are 20 percent more than they were a few years…

What Congressman Comer said today, Chairman Comer, was really disgraceful.

I think that's the important question. You know, Anderson, a couple of weeks ago when Trump was convicted, I said that I thought that the really important question was not how it would affect voters directly but how it would affect him and…

He is obsessed. I had Chris Christie on my podcast last week and Christie said the big question about his cases would be for the conviction wasn't how voters react to it. It's how Trump reacts to it.