President Biden addressed the nation last night from the Oval Office the first time he's publicly spoken since stepping away from the presidential race his decision to do so made less than a week ago wasn't reached easily and came after intense pressure within the Democratic party for him to end his bid now in the address Biden said that he reveres the presidential office but loves his country more which is why he's handing the Reigns to vice president kamla Harris and that it's been the honor of his life to serve as president referencing great presidents before him who led the country through critical moments I've made it clear that I believe America is at an inflection point one of those rare moments in history when the decisions we make now will determine our fate of our nation and the world for decades to come America's going to have to choose between moving forward or backward between hope and hate between unity and Division we have to decide do we still believe in honesty decency respect freedom justice and democracy President Biden ended with a warning that whether we keep our Republic now is in the voters hands so how was this address received here with me now to offer their take is Republican strategist Chris Russell and Democratic strategist Julie Julie Roginsky, Chris ,Julie great to have you both here tonight uh Julie I want to to start with you what do you make of the overall tone the tenor and the substance of what was probably President Biden's last speech from the Oval Office last night um I thought it was full of grace and I thought it really laid out the stakes of this election and not just the stakes of this election but the stakes for the future of this nation um look his delivery left a lot to be desired but I think the substance of what he said is going to be read in the history books for for generations to come went down as one of the finest presidential speeches I think in the history of the country yeah I I think there's a point there about uh the delivery reading versus hearing that speech um Chris I want to turn to you because we saw former president Trump extremely critical of the speech um saying that he's defeated Biden out of the race and essentially that he's no longer going to be nice I want to hear from you what you think now is the best strategy for Trump to turn his attention towards kamla Harris oh he did defeat Biden out the race and and I I don't I understand that it was a difficult speech for him to give I don't think was a great speech I thought it was a campaign speech that did ignored the big issue in the room the elephant in the room which is his his uh Acuity and whether he's capable of being president anymore whether he's capable of clearly not capable of running which is why he was pushed out so I didn't think it was a great speech I think in terms of President Trump and Cala Harris he has to make her own Joe Biden's record which clearly was having an impact on Joe Biden and his chances of success the fact that Trump is competitive in New Jersey and polling that I've seen tells you it's a vastly different election from 16 and 20 he's got to make Camala Harris uh own her radical record uh on things like uh Public Safety on taxes on spending and he's got to continue to drive the fact that she is the person who is the most extreme person in this race and who will take the country in the wrong direction Julie I would love that Chris to Chris's Point um the GOP is gonna go after uh the vice president as the most Progressive uh person right now um looking at her Medicare for all her abolishing Private health insurance the green New Deal things that were on her platform when she first ran for president in 2020 uh is she too Progressive for middle of the road voters in particular in the middle of the country I am going to take Chris up on that offer I would love for this election to be held in the Biden Harris record largest job growth in the history of this country lowest lowest crime rate uh in Generations lowest unemployment rate in generations and I can keep going I would love for that to be the topic of conversation especially compared to what Trump did when he gave tax cuts to the wealthiest Among Us and love the middle class holding the bag million people dead of covid on his watch the economy left in shambles Joe Biden KLA Harris came and cleaned it up and the statistics bear it out I would love love love Chris for this election to be held on this zly jie but that's not what Americans think Julie Americans think the country was doing better under under Trump so that's not what voters believe their perception is reality in these campaigns and that's not the reality that's not perception I don't think it's reality either to the question though Julie to the question is is Vice President kamla Harris too Progressive for middle of the road voters no she's not I just fleed out her record as vice president that is not just not too Progressive but is exactly what has been happening to this country and by the way Chris to your point we've had a President Who unfortunately while been while he's been a great president has not been able to take the fight and the messaging to Donald Trump and I've been complaining about that on this show and everywhere else where I could for the last four years we finally have a standard Bearer who is going to be able to delineate the differences between her record and the record that Donald Trump left us with and once she does that I'm very conf find out Chris I want to turn to you because we see the the former president already back with calls for Unity are gone let's just say uh the rhetoric is back we hear him saying things like the election was stolen um immigrants are stealing jobs that they are killing hundreds of thousands of Americans I believe was something he said he's called vice president Harris a Dei hire is this rhetoric going to turn off middle of the road voters we know it works for his base but he needs to expand beyond that base to win this election he does and I think he's got to get back to the issues that got him to the point where he's at which are immigration and how people feel about that crime and Public Safety America standing in the world if he focuses on those issues particularly in those states that you mentioned before that matter Michigan Wisconsin Pennsylvania he's got to be driving home his point in those issues in those States because that's where where the election is going to be decided that's where president's Biden's record is not being felt the way Julie's articulating it and Camala Harris owns that record and Trump has to drill her on those issues in those States Julie I want to look at uh women in this race because we see this morning push back about comments that were made by now Vice Presidential nominee uh JD Vance calling criticizing kamla Harris in the past um saying that she was a childless cat lady that's gotten a lot of attention from women uh some with children some without and some who like cats but is this election now going to Galvanize women in a different way do you think that this gives more traction to get female voters out you know how cruel let's put politics aside how cruel there are women who choose not to have children because they don't want any but there are so many women millions of women who would desperately love to have children and they can't for what any number of reasons and so to make fun of them and to mock them is disgusting and I truly hope that JD Vance's daughters ever come into difficulty having children that he's not going to mock them the way he's mocking the rest of American women who can't have kids especially when he espouses espouses policies that prevented prevent women from having children I me this is a guy who voted against initro fertilization to make it easier for women to have children and now he's mocking them for not being able to have any and by the way let me just say he's really treading very very dangerously now because you know who a uh childless cat lady is Taylor Swift he wants to activate the swifties the Generation Z and the millennial swifties who are going to come after him with a Vengeance he just did so it was a stupid thing to say it was a cruel thing to say and but it just encapsulates why he's so perfect for Donald Trump these are cruel people Donald Trump's own Nephew just wrote a book saying Trump basically said that people who are disabled should just die because they're too much trouble and too expensive to take care of I mean this is somebody who talks about women as though they're chatt this is not somebody who represents women or repres or can be a leader for this entire he can only be a leader for himself he doesn't care about anybody else who's not Donald Trump Chris uh the Trump campaign I believe yesterday filed a motion in court to try to block the transfer of President Biden's War chest to vice president Kamala Harris there's a lot of legal EAS here um Harris's name is on those uh campaign funds and so her team is fighting that in court uh how does this play out do you think that this is a smart strategy legally I think it makes sense as a as a political tactic I don't think from what I've talked to people legally I don't think it's going to it's going to work I think what it now it's talking about the dysfunction and keeping the dysfunction of the democratic party alive and the division that led to President Biden leaving the race I think ultimately voters won't care about things like that they're going to care about inflation immigration energy crime the issues that are going to drive the election those in those States that's where Trump is going to have to get back to and stay with the rest of the way because that's how people are going to decide their vote all right Chris Julie uh Chris Russell Republican strategist Julie Roginsky Democratic strategist thank you both always for an enlightening and exciting thoughtful convers ation [Music]