potential general election. meanwhile, president biden had this to say about his likely opponent. have you seen donald trump s mugshot to get? i did see it on television. what did you think? handsome guy. wonderful guy. joining me now, retired marine corps lieutenant colonel amy mcgrath, she also ran for senate in kentucky against mitch mcconnell. and the cofounder of the lincoln project, he worked on a number of republican campaigns. reid, these numbers that trump has among republicans remain strong, but do you think this puts the party in a bind because their voters are demanding a candidate who keeps losing to independents? look, as i said before on the 11th hour with you, simone, they made a deal with the devil and now they re paying for it. the devil always comes for his do. you showed those numbers from reuters are from a poll last month that showed that 37% of independents are more likely to vote for joe biden because of this. only 8% said they re more
thank you. great to see you. cnn national politics reporter daniel strauss is joining me to discuss all this. let s start with president biden sort of weighing in on trump s arrest yesterday. listen. have you seen donald trump s mug shot yet? i did see it on television. what did you think? handsome guy. wonderful guy. that s what president biden said when asked about seeing trump s mug shot. as you know, the white house has made it a point to stay mostly mum about trump s legal problems and issues he s facing. this will obviously be the strategy moving forward. tell us why that s so important for the biden administration. yeah, because the entire premise of the biden administration, what he ran on during his campaign is lowering the temperature, returning to a more serious, more mature custom
they should ve never put him out on the stage before the software update was complete. the guy just came up and had a group of what was happening around him. and then look, he s a candidate that was over prepared, over, schooled over managed but without the national graces and skills of somebody with the ability to perform could ve taken advantage of all of that over preparation. the problem for desantis is that he is fundamentally unlikable, alienating, degrading. and he comes out of the box. were fox gave him a beautiful opportunity to. shine right in the very beginning and what did he do? he screamed at the camera. yield. he was, bellowing bullying. the guy is just not ready for the. show and with a punk like ramaswamy can go out there and put him in the shade, it really gives you an idea of how badly invested those of mega donors were around ron desantis. and i want to go back to nikki
a pilates class. pete: think that guy has ever done pilates? will: joe biden had comments on donald trump s mug shot. watch. mr. president, did you see donald trump s mug shot? i did see it on television. what d you think? handsome guy. pete: sounds real popular in lake tahoe. those were boos as he walked out. handsome guy, wonderful guy. i ve been conflicted on this and you see some people on the left try to say what a sad day for our republican. i just hate to see it when in actual alty this is what they vs what they ve wanted to see for six years. that s what joe biden was winking at right there. handsome guy, wonderful, too
you ve got other governors on the stage and former u.n. ambassadors who have records you can point to, you can pick away if you need to. and you have president biden, of course, who when he was on that stage, in the center, vying for the dnc nomination, everyone was looking at his senate record, as the vice president, also what his president barack obama was doing as well. he has now commented on trump s latest arrest. he did so earlier today. listen to what the president had to say. have you seen donald trump s mug shot yet? i did see it on television. what did you think? handsome guy. wonderful guy. well, obviously tongue in cheek there. van, what s your reaction? you re smiling. look, that s biden. he knows better than to wade into those waters too much because if he said more than that, then they would say, look, we told you that biden would sic the doj on trump and the whole thing. i think biden has played this very, very well. as far as ramaswamy, look, this