former vice president dropping his strongest hints yet about a presidential run. i appreciate the energy you showed when i got up here e. save a little longer, i may need it in a few weeks. reporter: going after president trump at two events. the guardrails we put up to prevent the abuse of power, they re under enormous stress now. reporter: if the former vice president gets into the race, polls suggest he would instantly become a democratic front runner in an already crowded field. and it could set up a trump-biden showdown already playing out. biden on candidate trump. i wish we were in high school, i could take him behind the gym. reporter: the president taking his own shots. i think he ran three times and he never had more than 1%. so we call him 1% joe. reporter: biden recently calling himself the most qualified person to be president, but acknowledging, quote, i am a gaffe machine. biden would tout his working
was too old. people still want someone around 50. i think bernie sanders pretty much blew up that notion in the last election cycle. and age doesn t matter until it does. until there s an alternative that is a new shiny kind of inspiring face like a beto o roarke. i think what s going to be more important than age is who can bring that secret sauce of appealing to those midwestern industrial states in a working class appeal while also keeping this new coalition together of the republicans, the more affluent suburban moderate swing voters and not alienating them. not going too far to the left. i don t know what will emerge in the primary that s what you ll have. when you court during the presidential process, when
somebody like sherrod brown could be capable of doing that. working class, recession. i wouldn t rule out amy klobuchar and some of the other democrats as being able to reach those voters as well. your thoughts? to john s point ohio went about ten points for trump and then brown won it comfortably, six points or so. he s got that feel. i ve long thought that hillary clinton s best running mate in 2016 would have been absolutely. because he went to yale and he doesn t let it show. he has that working guy s gruff voice, comes off as a labor kind of guy. be solid on the social issues, choice and lgbt issues and all that stuff. those risk prone when it comes to the economy want to know the president is on their side.
race. i grew up thinking eisenhower was too old to run for president and he would be have been younger. people want somebody to be 50ish. i think bernie sanders blew up that notion in the last election cycle. and age doesn t matter until it does, until there s an alternative that is a new shiny kind of inspiring face like a beto o rourke. i think what s going to be much more important than age in this cycle is who can bring that seek contract sauce of appealing to those midwestern industrial on a populist appeal, a working class appeal while also keeping this new coalition together of the republicans, the more affluent suburban, you know, moderate swing voters and not alienating them, not going too far to the left. i don t know what would emerge. that s the ideal candidate. but when you re courting
ohio, wisconsin and michigan. how? democrats voted for donald trump. the republicans didn t put him over. it was democrats that put him over. wait, i have street cred here, too. i happen to be in michigan. in michigan what we saw was we saw democrats previous, like reagan democrats voting, but we also saw real democrats, the base, not turn out. this is to donna s point that everything depends on who you choose. you re right, john, this is a midterm election so you can t say trump necessarily lost. he did hold the rural vote and he can get those people back out again but what can democrats do? they can also get their people out depending on who the nominee is. if, for instance, let s say you choose someone does it have to be someone who dramatizes it? no. it has to be someone who will unite the working class. the working class is divided along racial and cultural lines.