As much as the Biden campaign team may try to ignore it, the polls aren’t looking good and even the liberal media know it. This was illustrated on Friday’s CBS mornings as Principal Deputy Campaign Manager, Quentin Fulks didn’t budge as co-host Tony Dokoupil brutally but calmly dished out the numbers.
After months of disregarding and blatantly ignoring both the physical and mental strength of the President, the media has finally acknowledged it. There has been a major shift, across the board, in the party’s support of Biden. Dokoupil highlights this as he questioned Fulks (click expand):
Inside the Democratic party there are calls growing louder for President Biden to rethink, even reconsider his re-election campaign. The President left the campaign trail this week after testing positive for Covid. And he's under pressure from Democratic lawmakers, from supporters, and from donors to drop out of the 2024 race entirely. A CBS news poll released yesterday shows that the President is trailing former President Donald Trump by 5 points nationally. The largest Trump lead of the campaign so far. He's also lose being in battleground states. The Biden/Harris campaign's Principal Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks is with us now to talk about all of this, Quentin, thank you very much for being here. You don't have an easy job this morning, right. Because, the reporting is that your candidate, Joe Biden, has grown more receptive, over the last few days, hearing this negative information and maybe dropping out and that we could actually see him withdraw. This is CBS reporting and others as early as this weekend. Where is the truth in that?
However instead of responding, by acknowledging the legitimacy in such claims, Fulks disregarded the question, making false accusations surrounding Trump’s RNC speech:
It's not true at all. Joe Biden has been very clear, he is running for President of the United States and our campaign is continuing to implement a strategy to win with him at the top of the ticket. And I think all the calls for the anxiety is coming from a place of wanting to defeat Donald Trump. We saw what he did last night. He got on stage here and unfortunately he learned nothing from his first term. He doubled down on an extreme agenda, talking about ripping away women's reproductive freedoms, talking about gutting things like social security and medicare, and bringing in a new plan like Project 2025.
Dokoupil retorted with critiques of the campaign pointing out that, “you can't have a policy or character debate about Donald Trump until they're done having this conversation about Joe Biden.” Reminding Fulks of the mounting pressures from all sides of the Democratic Party again Dokoupil questioned him:
DOKOUPIL: Well Quentin, Quentin, can you show me where most Democrats want him to stay in the race? Cause I haven't seen one.
FULKS: Look, the poll that I look at is how voters are going to decide between Joe Biden and Donald Trump at the top of the ticket. Voters at home are not sitting around thinking about hypothetical match-ups, they're thinking about child care, health care, mortgage and rent affordability. And when it comes down to it, if they are going to vote for Joe Biden and Donal Trump. This is a margin of error race in all of the states. And so that is our focus.
Dokoupil, focusing in on his hard hitting questions, continued, “How do you change the narrative when voters out there are reacting with what they see with their own eyes?; What's so bad about Kamala Harris, you're not considering it at all?; It's not going to be Harris/Whitmer?”
Though Dokoupil questioned many times where Fulks’s evidence was based his answers were less than direct. (click expand):
Look, we think that because when we're out talking to voters, when we are out campaigning, we went through a Democratic primary process where Joe Biden won 14 million votes. When he goes out into the states, that is not what the crowds are saying they're chanting four more years. They are chanting, “Go! Joe, go!”
(...)
There's nothing bad about Kamala Harris. And I think that people are trying to make this something that it is not. She is on the ticket. The name of our ticket is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And so if people turn out because they love the Vice President or if people turn out because they love President Joe Biden, it makes no difference to us. But Joe Biden is the democratic nominee.
Throughout the interview, Fulks slipped up, stating Trump had “doubled down on an extreme agenda, talking about ripping away women's reproductive freedoms, talking about gutting things like social security and medicare, and bringing in a new plan like Project 2025.”
In reality, Trump did the opposite. He never once mentioned anything regarding reproductive health, or Project 2025, a point which was brought up by networks following the speech. On Social Security and Medicare, the former president stated he will protect both. Unfortunately, Fulks was not fact checked, but instead spread misinformed confidence in a campaign now treading water.
The transcript is below, click “expand” to read:
CBS Mornings
07/19/2024
08:10:06 AM EST
TONY DOKOUPIL: Inside the Democratic Party, there are calls growing louder for President Biden to rethink, even reconsider his re-election campaign. The President left the campaign trail this week after testing positive for Covid and he’s under pressure from Democratic lawmakers, from supporters, and from donors to drop out of the 2024 race entirely. A CBS News poll released yesterday shows that the President is trailing former President Donald Trump by 5 points nationally. The largest Trump lead of the campaign so far. He’s also lose being in battleground states. The Biden/Harris campaign’s Principal Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Foltz is with us now to talk about all of this. Quentin, thank you very much for being here. You don’t have an easy job this morning — right — because, the reporting is that your candidate, Joe Biden, has grown more receptive, over the last few days, hearing this negative information and maybe dropping out and that we could actually see him withdraw — this is CBS reporting and others — as early as this weekend. Where is the truth in that?
QUENTIN FULKS: It’s not true at all. Joe Biden has been very clear, he is running for President of the United States and our campaign is continuing to implement a strategy to win with him at the top of the ticket. And I think all the calls for the anxiety is coming from a place of wanting to defeat Donald Trump. We saw what he did last night. He got on stage here and, unfortunately, he learned nothing from his first term. He doubled down on an extreme agenda, talking about ripping away women’s reproductive freedoms, talking about gutting things like Social Security and Medicare, and bringing in a new plan like Project 2025.
DOKOUPIL: Look Quentin, can’t have a policy or character debate about Donald Trump until they’re done having this conversation about Joe Biden. And there’s some difficult information for the President. You’ve got two out of three Democrats — his own voters — saying he should step aside. You’ve got major donors saying he should step aside. You’ve got big time party leaders saying he should step aside. Is this information reaching the President?
FULKS: Look, the President has spoken to a number of elected officials and he’s heard the concerns from across the Democratic Party. But what the President has also heard is directly from voters. He has hit every single battleground state over the last several weeks and that is not what the voters are saying. That’s not what the 14 million voters are saying who voted for him in the Democratic primary.
DOKOUPIL: Well Quentin, Quentin, can you show me where most Democrats want him to stay in the race? Cause I haven’t seen one.
FULKS: Look, the poll that I look at is that — how voters are going to decide between Joe Biden and Donald Trump at the top of the ticket. Voters at home are not sitting around thinking about hypothetical match-ups. They’re thinking about child care, health care, mortgage, and rent affordability. And when it comes down to it, if they are going to vote for Joe Biden and Donald Trump, this is a margin of error race in all of the states. And so that is our focus.
DOKOUPIL: Voters are thinking, particularly Democratic voters are thinking they don’t want Donald Trump back in the office and then they see Joe Biden out there campaigning, they have concerns about his age and ability to continue in this job. Then he gives a speech at the NAACP, he has to pause three times in two minutes, seems to lose his place. He needs help getting into a vehicle. He has some difficulty, it would appear, on the stairs. And this is on top of years of videos, that I know you guys — you’ve tried to discount, how do you change the narrative when voters out there are reacting with what they see with their own eyes?
FULKS: Look, we’re not trying to discount anything. President Biden is 81 years old. Donald Trump is only a couple of years older than him. But, again, I do not think that is where many American voters are putting their faith in how they are deciding to vote.
DOKOUPIL: Why do you think that? Because, we don’t have any polling to suggest otherwise? And I — I’ve talked to Democrats in numerous states over the past few weeks. They think what Joe Biden is doing is — is borderline selfish and they’re angry about it.
FULKS: Look, we think that because when we’re out talking to voters, when we are out campaigning, we went through a Democratic primary process where Joe Biden won 14 million votes. When he goes out into these states, that is not what the crowds are saying. They’re chanting, four more years. They are chanting, go, Joe, go. The President is deeply in touch with the American people and what is going on the ground. And when it comes to the issues, we know we are running on a deeply popular agenda. I do not think that voters at home want a nationwide abortion ban and that is what Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans will do.
DOKOUPIL: What’s so bad about Kamala Harris, you’re not considering it at all?
FULKS: There’s nothing bad about Kamala Harris and I think that people are trying to make this something that it is not. She is on the ticket. The name of our ticket is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And so, if people turn out because they love the Vice President or if people turn out because they love President Joe Biden, it makes no difference to us. But Joe Biden is the Democratic nominee.
DOKOUPIL: Alright, it’s not going to be Harris/Whitmer? Or Harris —
FULKS: It is going to be Joe Biden/Kamala Harris.
DOKOUPIL: — Quentin Fulks, you have a difficult job. You did it well. Thank you very much, appreciate it.
FULKS: Thank you.
DOKOUPIL: Send it back to you guys in New York.
GAYLE KING: Quentin’s like —
NATE BURLESON: Alright, Tony. Well eon. Difficult questions. Well done on that. We’ll check back in with you a little bit later. Good job by Tony there.
KING: I’ll say. I think Quentin Fulks is going, why am I standing here now? But Tony just asked the questions that a lot of people are thinking and that we’re all hearing too.
BURLESON: Asking —
KING: But Quentin also responded, saying we’re hearing something different. So, we shall see.
BURLESON: — right now it’s Biden/Harris.
KING: We shall see.
BURLESON: And that’s how they’re moving forward.
