Democratic strategist warns changing presidential nominee 'is not cost-free'

What can Biden do to quell concerns joining us from the nato summit. Thank you. Geoff: For more analysis of president Biden's upcoming press conference and his political standing we are done by democratic strategist and former advisor to Hillary Clinton, Philippe Reines. Thank you so much for being here. What if anything can president Biden do in this press conference tonight to quell concerns and and these calls for him to exit the race? Philippe: Honestly I would say nothing. Because everyone is so dug in, that there is confirmation bias and that if you want him to half to leave you are going to find plenty of things in what he says and how he says it and how he looks to walk away with that. Before the press conference even started he accidentally called president zelenskyy president Putin. So you have half of Washington already lighting up his phones. Geoff: But he caught himself. Philippe: He did. I don't think it is a big deal. The fact he doesn't -- most of America would not even cash that. But this is how Washington works. The issue is why are we all sitting around with baited breath watching a press conference for a nato summit? If Joe Biden is going to salvage this, which he absolutely can, he has to go out and do his job without there being these huge moments in time that can blow up. Because these huge moments in time are not going to save him. They can only go bad. He needs to go out on a regular basis, maybe just go to the hamburger store with vice president Harris with a rain bands on. Have someone yell a question at him or be in the rose garden & something. It needs to be regular. Not ok, we're are doing this big interview with George Stephanopoulos and Lester holt. I can tell you right now, I have been to a ton of nato and other press conferences. Half of that room is foreign press. They are going to raise their hand and ask something actually Should Biden stay in the race about nato and the American press is going to be livid because that is not why they are there. Geoff: Top campaign staffers met with senate Democrats today to address their concerns. If you are a Biden campaign advisor what is your best argument to some of these worried Democrats as to why Joe Biden should stay in the race? Philippe: I think it is a couple of things. First, listening to Jen O'Malley Dillon laying it out, that is the first place to start. That there are many ways to get there. I am sure she did it in the room but you need to hear Howell. The how is what is missing right now. Everyone is focused on the damage, not how to move on. We are all mired in it. What is missing here is this notion that moving away from Joe Biden -- which we should all remember is entirely his decision. The entire country can decide it should not be him and that does not make a difference. That there is a cost to that. There are people who support Joe Biden who would be a set that. Ok. It would rationally and logically be the vice president Kamala Harris to be denominatednow, there are lots of people -- to be the nominee. Now, there are a lot of people playing fantasy football saying it should be Gretchen Whitmer, or Gavin Newsom, or them together. There is a huge risk there. Every iteration you go out you have to do the cost-benefit analysis. To some extent the argument you are making is it is not cost-free to just suddenly uproot who the nominee is. First of all, he is the only person who has beaten Donald Trump, so maybe we just stick with the horse we rode in on. There is also an argument that if Joe Biden were to lose, which I don't think is a Fait accompli, but if he were to lose, they would be less carnage could there would be a lot of very upset people. They would be less carnage than if it went through the process of some various cockamamie schemes that alienated multiple demographics and subsets of a party, to end up in the same Bidens data team place, losing the white house. That could linger for a long time. Geoff: What do you think it means that the Biden campaign is poll testing Kamala Harris against Donald Trump right now? Philippe: I know that is an attractive thing to look at. I don't think that is abnormal. I think that is Putin. They need to test every single thing they can. In 2012, Barack Obama tested Hillary Clinton as vice president. You just do these things because you need to understand. Part of that is an interesting point. If you look at the arguments being made to president Biden, one of them is the data. And these polls. They are not necessarily a slamdunk. The national polls are in no way did -- dispositive of what has been going on. State polling is starting to crater. But you need to know these things. Indeed if the party which is not a monolith, but if there will be a decision by the president to take an extraordinary step, needs to be as well-informed as possible not just for himself but for the vice president, for the vice president supporters and for all of us. Because at the end of the day we want to keep Donald Trump out of How much damage has the debate done office. If they just at a question in the poll, great. Geoff: How much damage do you think these last two weeks since the debate has done not just to president Biden, but to the biden/harris ticket? Philippe: The first week after the debate was very damaging because it was essentially silence. This past week before Nancy Pelosi pretty much reignited the fire was affected and that he called into cable shows, he was very strong about it, he sent a very smart and clever letter to the hill. The heat -- the issue here to me is this is salvageable but not the way the white house in the campaign has been fighting or not fighting over the last two weeks. They are not meeting the conversation where it is happening and I think that will be the problem with this press conference is that he is going to look the same. So that is 0-1 right there. He is going to not be talking about this in a health context. And that is 0-2. And that is tough. Geoff: Philippe Reines, thank you as always for your insight. Philippe: Thank you for having me. ♪♪