from the esentence festival. with me, former director of the new york state democratic party and gist basal, both with us. have they moved past it? the whole back and forth now that joe biden did apologize, and why did he do it today? i think they re past it. you know, he seems to be gaffe prone. it may happen again. i think he did it because he had to stop the hemorrhaging. he wasn t losing he wasn t below anybody in the polls, but he was losing support quickly, particularly among african-americans, it was important to sort of put a pin in it and try to change message and change the narrative so to speak. and he sounded contrite, and i liked that. and i think it s also notable, as you heard some of the comments from essence fest. to me it s important now. if joe biden wants to sort of push ahead, really put this behind him. he s got to be more forceful about not just what he can do