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XPost: alt.politics.socialism.democratic, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, rec.arts.tv From: leroysoetoro@barackobama.com

https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/austin-police-chief-on-citys-homeless- problem

MARTHA MACCALLUM, HOST: Bret, thank you. Great to see you. All right, everybody. Tonight, as team Obama and other candidates continued to kind
of pile on Joe Biden all the time, there's a new analysis that looks
beneath the numbers of the frontrunners current standing and asks the
question, is Joe Biden really the front runner here?

First, in the most straightforward way, the answer is yes, according to
the current polls. But how long will that last? Because look at the trend
here. He's been on a steady decline, basically, since he stepped on the
debate stage. He will, however, get another shot at that later this month.

And while he's garnered more endorsements, that's just one measure than
anyone else, really most of the big endorsements have not backed to
anybody yet including him. All of this and Obama team support confused to
be lukewarm to downright cold.

Last night, former White House communications director Jen Psaki, chimed
in about Biden's frequent mention of his friendship with a former
president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Barack said it best in other context.
When Barack and I -- Barack did, I help. That's exactly what Barack and I talked about. The thing Barack and I would talk about -- It was a
consequence of what Barack had done.

JEN PSAKI, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: If it was possible
to transfer support from an endorsement or a friendship, Hillary Clinton
would be president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Ouch. And Michelle Obama and David Axelrod have been negative
to non-committal, respectively. And a former Obama staffer is less than impressed with the former vice president's fundraising.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAVI GUPTA, FORMER STAFFER, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: I think we -- everybody
was expecting bigger fundraising numbers from him, especially, since he
was leading in the polls. But I think Biden's in trouble with these
number.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So, take all that and then look at this. As Obamacare today
faces a very big hurdle in the courts. Joe Biden is putting a lot of his
chips on the healthcare program that his fellow candidates are basically
saying is so yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The quickest fastest way to do it is build on Obamacare. To build
on what we did. The idea you're going to come along and take the most significant thing that happened that any president is trying to do and
that got done and dismantle, it makes no sense to me.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Four out of the top five people in your polls
right now are on the complete opposite said from you.

BIDEN: Look, starting over, it would be, I think, a sin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: In moments, Charlie Hurt, Ari Fleischer, and Austan Goolsbee
weigh in. But first, we begin with chief legal correspondent Shannon
Bream, who joins me now. She is also the host, of course, of "Fox News @
Night" later this evening, we'll all be watching. Shannon, good to see you tonight. Tell us what happened in the courts today with Obamacare.

SHANNON BREAM, ANCHOR: Well, Martha, this could be the end of Obamacare depending on what these three judges decide to do. And, of course, there's always the next step where this could end up at the Supreme Court in the
middle of a 2020 presidential campaign, in election.

So, I mean, the stakes are really high here.

Essentially, what the opponents are arguing is that, listen, when Congress
a couple of years ago, zeroed out the penalty that tax you would pay if
you didn't comply with the individual mandate, they say that was the whole linchpin holding this entire thing together.

You'll remember the Supreme Court said they hung it on that. It's a
taxation power that means the House could start this thing, it could go
through the process on the Hill. So, the opponents are now saying that
that's gone, the whole thing has to go.

And two of these three judges today, one of them didn't say a word, we're
told during the arguments today in New Orleans. Two of the three had
serious concerns about how the law could survive.

So, it looks like, at least, from the arguments today, they were pretty
open to what the plaintiffs had to say about getting rid of the Affordable
Care Act altogether.

MACCALLUM: Yes, and who are these judges, Shannon, who are making this big decision?

BREAM: Well, it's interesting the president has made a lot of -- you know, noise about filling up the federal judiciary. Well, one of his appointees
is actually on this Fifth Circuit Court today. Another is an appointee of President George W. Bush. And the other one, the third who didn't speak at
all was an appointee of President Carter.

So, you do have a mix on the panel there, but it's almost certain that
whomever wins or loses here, this thing is going to end up at the Supreme Court. And listen, it's going to be a political event as well because if
the Democrats lose, they're going to say, OK, Republicans are stripping
away health care from tens of millions of people but they have no backup
plan. They've talked about it quite a bit, you know, the GOP has not been
able to come up with enough of one to get everybody together to vote on
it. It's going to be very political whatever this court does.

MACCALLUM: I mean it would be amazing to see the Supreme Court have to
face this question again.

BREAM: Yet again.

MACCALLUM: Especially, if there's no tax. Because that's what Justice
Roberts hung his decision on. He said, you know, Congress can tax, and therefore, this program is constitutional. And then, you've gotten Brett Kavanaugh in the mix now, right?

BREAM: Yes. And so, it's a very different court than heard this case and
this is be the third bite essentially, really at the foundations of the Affordable Care Act before the Supreme Court.

It puts them in a terrible position because they don't want to be viewed
as political, but they've ruled on this law before. It's very likely it
could end up there again in the middle of the campaign.

MACCALLUM: Wow.

BREAM: Both sides are going to campaign off of it. And those justices may
have yet another very tough decision to make.

MACCALLUM: That is going to be very interesting. Shannon, thank you so
much. Great to see you. We'll see you later tonight.

BREAM: See you.

MACCALLUM: So, coming up now, Charlie Hurt, here in studio with me.
Washington Times opinion editor and author of the new book, Still Winning:
Why America went All In on Donald Trump, And Why It Must Do It Again.
That's Charlie's opinion and that is the title of that book.

Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary. Both are Fox News contributors. Austan Goolsbee, President Obama's former chief economist
and professor at the University of Chicago. He's been reading Charlie's
book back to front. Right? Right, Austan? And is --

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, FORMER ECONOMIC ADVISER TO BARACK OBAMA: You bet.

MACCALLUM: And he's convinced. Great to see all of you tonight. You know -
- you know, first of all, Austan, let me go to you with the sort of introduction that we put together tonight about these questions about the support for Joe Biden in the Democratic Party. And the fact that he seems
to be putting so many of his eggs in the Obama care basket given what's
going on in the courts.

GOOLSBEE: Yes. Look, I thought your opening was fair to the vice president
and the fact is he didn't have a great first debate. The nomination and
the White House are not jobs that are owed, anybody. You have to earn it
for either party, either nomination.

If Joe Biden uses this challenge as an opportunity and goes out nerds the nomination in a way this would be the best thing that could happen to him.
If he doesn't, if he continues to be undisciplined and stumbles, he's not
going to be the nominee, and I think that's just a reality.

MACCALLUM: What does your gut tell you right now, Austan, about where this
goes for him?

GOOLSBEE: You know, I worked closely with the vice president, and I'm a
big admirer of his, and I think you would count him out a bit at your
peril. I think he could turn it around and I have been a bit surprised
that he wasn't more talking -- why was he talking about what he did in the Senate in the 1970s? He should be talking about I was friends with
President Barack Obama who's very popular to the Democratic electorate.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

GOOLSBEE: And if the court throws out Obamacare in a way, that's going to
be the Trump campaigns biggest nightmare. Because they're going to get
some people really agitated and that's an issue that's kind of played it
to Biden's favor.

MACCALLUM: All right, Ari, I wanted you to take a look at some of these
sort of underlying numbers which 538 did a very interesting job putting together some of this. Take a look at this, which deals with -- you know, recognition, candidate recognition, and how well are unknown they are,
right. So, we know that Joe Biden got a very nice pop because he was
probably the only name that people knew in the early going here. He --
he's at that 30 percent line in terms of recognition there.

Now, think about the fact that Hillary Clinton was at 60 percent. In the
same measure according to 538. And Ari, she lost as we all well know.

ARI FLEISCHER, CONTRIBUTOR: Well, that's the real question is Joe Biden- Hillary Clinton 2020. And I think all evidence going to point that's going
to be the case for him. He just feels like yesterday's senator. And that's
his problem.

This is what he talked about the segregationist that he knew in the 70s, because it was comfortable it was natural, it was Joe. And he's missing
what 2020 feels like for especially for grassroots Democrats. Now, I do
think there's another side of all of this. And that is there's a
tremendous tension inside the Democrat Party to get as far left as they
can, but still, defeat Donald Trump.

You've got the pragmatist who just want to defeat Trump. They really don't
care who it is as long as it's not Trump. But you've got the people who
are ideological, who really want to use this moment to get to the left.
And we're going to see that tension play out.

MACCALLUM: Yes, you know, and we've seen Elizabeth Warren and Kamala
Harris as we showed, in the beginning, are rising in terms of people's perspective on their electability. Charlie, you know, when you look at, at this, electability is a very tricky thing. So, Joe Biden might be more electable than any of those other folks, and President Trump has said,
"You know, give me Elizabeth Warren, I'd love to run against to her. He's
a little more complimentary about Kamala Harris."

CHARLES HURT, CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, and it kind of reminds me a little bit of
2004 when you had President Bush running for reelection and there was a
lot of people on the Left who really didn't like him. And they would do anything to topple him. And, of course, they ran off with Howard Dean for
a long time.

And then, at the last minute, they were reminded the electability was the
only thing they cared about. And so, they jumped into the arms of John
Kerry, which, of course, didn't work out very well for him. But, you know, people forget.

Joe Biden has been part of the problem in Washington for nearly 50 years
and the entire time he's been in Washington, he's been trying to figure
out how to become president. And he's run a couple of times and it's --
and it's been disastrous. And the only -- the closest he's ever gotten to
the White House is when Barack Obama needed somebody that fitted his description. And so, you know, it's a good reminder that he really is kind
of bad at this.

MACCALLUM: Yes, well, he's never made it past to Iowa. But he's also been
vice president for eight years. But Austan, you know, it raises the
question that we talked about an intro here. You know, why are so many of
the close Obama associates so unwilling to be pro-Joe Biden.

GOOLSBEE: Well, I think you got a lot of things going on. There were a lot
of people who worked in the Obama administration, many of those people
have actively chosen a candidate now. They either from what who their home state was or people that they're working for so. That explains part of it.
And I think this tension that's going to play out between different wings
of the party and between the older wing and the younger wing, that's a
natural process to happen in a primary.

This is the most on steroids mega version where we got 26 candidates now
on the Democratic side. So, I don't think that just the fact that there
are a bunch of Obama staffers who have chosen somebody else besides Joe
Biden, necessarily means he's going to have trouble. But it doesn't mean
he's home free by any means.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

GOOLSBEE: I mean, like I say, he's got to go out and earn it and show that
he's on his game.

MACCALLUM: Yes, so, Ari, you're shaking your head, why?

FLEISCHER: Because I think it is serious. I think these are people who
know Joe Biden. They worked with him at the White House. They've seen him,
I suspect, they had to carry a bucket and a pail and a broom. And clean up after him a few times. And so, they know the character of the man.

You know, I was just thinking in the Bush White House. If we were put in
the same position, there was somebody we knew that a vice president who
was running and we didn't support him that would be telling.

MACCALLUM: You guys wouldn't involve rallied around Dick Cheney for
president.

(CROSSTALK)

GOOLSBEE: But there are many that do support him, in fairness.

FLEISCHER: Well, he never said he was going to run. But if there was any younger person who said he was going to run, the White House staff under
Bush was throwing their support to a senator here or a congressman there,
it wouldn't feel right.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

FLEISCHER: That there's a sign of problem for the vice president.

MACCALLUM: So, Charlie, also today, you know, he calls himself middle-
class Joe. He released his tax returns today. He's made $2.8 million in speaking fees and other engagements. You know, more power to him, he has
every right to do that as a private citizen. But, you know, is that going
to pose a problem for him in the next debate potentially.

HURT: Oh, I think absolutely. And I think that there's this huge
disconnect between him and the rest of the candidates running. And in a
lot of ways, it's a little bit alarming for America because you have a Democratic Party that has just sort of lurched so far to the left that --
it's not even recognizable by a thing.

I think a lot of regular Democratic voters who are their base outside of Washington. And that's bad for Democrats because I don't think they can
win the White House that way -- that way.


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