fiery speech to follow up a debate that many democrats called a disaster. can his direct attacks now on donald trump quiet the talk about his future on the ticket? plus, what the polling reveals about the democratic names floated to take his spot. our steve kornacki is standing by with the numbers. and the debate question that donald trump did not want to answer, his response when asked if he would accept the results of the next election. the supreme court siding with a january 6th rioters, that could upend cases, including one against former president trump. our nbc news reporters are following all of the latest developments. we begin in battleground, north carolina, where president biden's demeanor was completely different than the debate stage last night. nbc's mike memoli is reporting from raleigh. the president, he sounds rearing for a fight. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, chris. i mean, we started this debate series of events with a lot of people wondering whether president biden was up for four more years in office. that was certainly one of the big questions that the campaign hoped to address in that debate. instead, it left a lot of democrats wondering if biden should be on the ticket for the last 130 days of this campaign. i spoke with a senior biden adviser, who said, listen, the president knew. he didn't need to hear it from fellow democrats, didn't need to watch the bad coverage to know he didn't deliver the performance he should have. they worked closely, he and his team this morning to draft the new section, the closing section of his remarks today. he knows he's not as young as he used to be, he's not as good a debater as he used to be, and doesn't walk as he used to, but he wouldn't be in the race if he didn't believe with his heart and soul that he could do the job. we also heard some of the attack lines that democrats might have liked to hear more crisply last night during that debate. here's just one of them. take a listen. >> unlike the other guy, we're going to stand up to dictators like putin because -- [ applause ]. >> america bows to no one, no one, no one ever. >> i don't know what you did last night, but i spent 90 minutes on a stage and debated a guy who has the morals of an alley cat. did you see trump last night? my guess, i mean this sincerely, a new record for the most lies told in a single debate. he lied about the great economy he created. he lied about the pandemic he botched. >> reporter: now, this was a very different president than the one we saw last night on the debate stage. this was also a president who unlike last night on the debate stage was reading from a teleprompter. it was also a president who had a very enthusiastic audience. s the energy he was clearly feeding off. did the speech begin to address some of the skittish nerves that democrats across the country are feeling or does it feed the idea that maybe president biden can have strong moments like the state of the union address or like a rally or two. what they need to see is a more consistent performance from the president, especially if there is another debate as scheduled on september 10th, chris. >> mike memoli, traveling with the president in north carolina, which brings us to virginia where donald trump is heading for his first debate rally. the issue of january 6th, the issue of honoring the election results came up at the debate last night. what more can you tell us? >> you know what joe biden thinks is the greatest threat to our country, the weather. you got it, ma'am. >> reporter: i'm having a little bit of trouble hearing you. at this rally, we have heard several mentions at this point of the debate last night. of course trump himself won't be on stage for about an hour now. look, one of the questions i think many people were looking to see asked on that debate stage, i know you were listening for too is the issue of january 6th and the role of election denialism around the 2020 election. a lot of texts i got last night, and a lot of us got texts last night, but many were focused on why that came up so late in the debate and the response that trump had to it. listen to that exchange, and we'll talk about it on the back end. >> the question was will you accept the results of the election regardless of who wins, yes or no, please? >> if it's a fair and legal and good election, absolutely. i would have much rather accepted these, but the fraud and everything else was ridiculous. and if you want, we'll have a news conference on it in a week or we'll have another one of these in a week, but i will absolutely, there's nothing i'd rather do. >> reporter: chris, i have been covering trump since 2015 on and off. if i waited a week or held my breath for every time he said we'll have a news conference on that in a week, i'd be holding my breath for a long time. while that press conference may not come, that's an answer democrats wanted to see a starker answer on it. in terms of the way we're listening -- and we're seeing bob mcdonald come on stage now. in terms of the things we might hear from trump, i imagine his campaign is doing something we're going to echo. joe biden, despite the panic from other democrats is going to be the person he's facing on the ballot adviser told our team in atlanta, the only way he's off the ballot is if he's stepping down, and biden is not going to be stepping down. certainly that's something that biden seemed to underscore in north carolina. we'll listen to hear how trump talks about the debate. you got to imagine this is going to be a victory lap. this is the best case scenario for the trump campaign. it dispels any notion of them cutting off a debate post news cycle with a vp pick. that's something we're watching closely here as well as the rnc convention gets closer, chris. >> ali vitali, thank you so much for that. with democrats privately discussing replacing joe biden at the top of the ticket, big h be able to fill the spot? we go to steve kornacki because there are some indications with numbers to answer those questions. >> yeah, i mean, a couple of ways of looking at it. the backdrop of the performance and the reaction from the democrats, look at this way, in the 2020 campaign, we asked folks, who is better when it comes to having the necessary mental and physical health to be president, and there's basically a wash. 41 said biden. 40 said trump. so there were concerns about both but they were even on that question. now, over several years of being president, those perceptions changed when it came to biden. but not so much with trump. we asked the question again at the start of this year, and at the start of this year, look at that, that biden number, a 2-1 margin here, widespread concerns about biden have developed during his presidency, and were not new last night. a "new york times" poll this week showed -- asked voters a blunt question, is age such an issue that the candidate is not capable of handling the presidency before the debate, 45% of voters said that about joe biden, the number for trump was just 16%. look, first of all, what do these numbers look like when we start getting polling, probably next week, a fallout from this debate. if they get any worse, obviously, biden is in a precarious position. that chatter, you should hear grow. the question becomes if not biden, who would it be. that's where it gets complicated. the logical person is the vice president. ran for president once. assume she has presidential ambitions. here's the issue there. she's well known. this is her favorable, unfavorable score in two recent polls. compare to biden. 41% favorable in the fox news poll. in the same poll, joe biden was 44%. he's three points less. in the economist, yougov poll, she's at 49%. if you're looking at the vice president, does that put you in a better position politically. you say it doesn't, would kamala harris also agree to step aside and let a brand new ticket come in or is that something she would fight? would you have complications there? if you got to the next level and it's not kamala harris, then the issue is stature, who of any stature could you put in who democrats would agree on, be consensus immediately, and who the country knows. there's not much polling on names you hear. this was conducted by ipsos for an interest group. there's a lot of names i would like to test. these are the three they did test. pete buttigieg, favorable, 30, unfavorable, 28, that's still a lot that don't moe him. gavin newsom, almost half the country doesn't have an opinion of him, those that do, double digits. gretchen whitmer, 17, 17, among those who do. there are other names, josh shapiro, the governor of pennsylvania, amy klobuchar, senator of minnesota. those are the numbers when you get beyond biden and harris and, big name national figures. it's a question mark. you can see democrats might see potential talent nationally, and say gretchen whitmer, that's a big question mark. how would she be received by the public, and would that give democrats pause. is there a democrat out there with the national stature and popularity who would step in and immediately unite the party and be strong against trump. you hear this one a lot. there's no indication she has any interest but just to give you a sense, michelle obama, the last time we polled her on this question of favorable, unfavorable, that's been a few years, it was 57% favorable and 25% unfavorable. so that's the kind of profile, just in terms of, you know, widely known and look at that, much more popular. more than twice as popular as unpopular there in the poll. that's the kind of profile the democrats would probably want in a situation. beyond michelle obama, not sure where you could find that, chris. >> i asked somebody close to michelle obama last summer, if she would even consider in a dramatic situation. i didn't get the question out and the answer was no, so -- and not a lot of time for folks to build name recognition. fascinating stuff. thank you. in 90 seconds a huge court ruling in a criminal case that is not donald trump's but could have special counsel jack smith rethinking how he prosecutes the former president. resident ♪♪ citi's industry leading global payments solutions help their clients move money around the world seamlessly in over 180 countries... and help a partner like the world food programme as they provide more than food to people in need. together, citi and the world food programme empower families across the globe. ♪♪ nothing dims my light like a migraine. with nurtec odt, i found relief. the only migraine medication that helps treat and prevent, all in one. to those with migraine, i see you. for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura and the preventive treatment of episodic migraine in adults. don't take if allergic to nurtec odt. allergic reactions can occur, even days after using. most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. it's time we all shine. talk to a healthcare provider about nurtec odt from pfizer. okay everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. yay - woo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, nutrients for immune health. and ensure complete with 30 grams of protein. (♪♪) we are back with the breaking news from this morning, the supreme court issuing a major decision related to january 6th. making it harder to charge riot defendants with obstruction. it's a new complication for special counsel jack smith whose indictment against donald trump includes obstruction charges. hundreds of other january 6th cases could be impacted by the ruling. joining us now, nbc's ryan reilly, catherine christian, former assistant district attorney, and msnbc legal analyst. ryan, as someone who covers this day in and day out, and has since january 6th, give us the nuts and bolts of this decision. >> this impacts overall hundreds of cases. if you really narrow it down to the cases this will have a material impact with in the short-term, you're talking about a spectrum of 52 cases, and 27 of those cases, you have an individual currently serving a sentence of incarceration, who may be impacted by this case. we have already seen some filings, in fact, one of the judges has set up three resentencing hearings for an individual who's sentenced under this obstruction of justice charge. going back to manhattan, deciding where that sentence is going to ultimately fall and perhaps shortening the sentence that was imposed there. what the justice department has said and prosecutors are saying is this isn't going to have the sweeping impact we have feared here. there's a holding party. as they sort through the justice department, what the pounds of the ruling are, and how they proceeded. be able to tie it directly, and that often requires them to go into their devices and see what sort of messages they were sending before january 6th, and especially now that you're getting 3 1/2 years out. a lot of that information, especially in some of the recent cases we have seen have gone away. people switch phones. it's not available anymore. there's been litigation about that. there are hundreds of people who have been identified but not yet charged, and we've only got a year and a half left on the statute of limitations. it's a matter of resources. how many cases is the justice department going to get out the door. this could change if donald trump is elected in november, and ultimately decided this isn't going to go forward and orders the justice department to dismiss charges, and pardons rioters, et cetera. a lot of questions in the year in the next year and a half in the statute of limitations. if you're a lawyer for one of the defendants what are you doing right now? >> immediately filing motions to dismiss the charge. including donald trump's lawyers. two of the january 6th cases involved these very charges. they're going to move to dismiss these charges, arguing that this decision rules and therefore it has to be dismissed. the special counsel could say, we agree, we could try them on the other two charges or disagree. there will be litigation, assuming that the supreme court on monday doesn't find he's immune. assuming the case goes forward, that will be more delay. there will be an argument about whether or not this decision makes these charges go away. >> there was a slim to none chance that this was actually going to go to trial before the election for sure. but when you look at the overall case, what does this mean for jack smith? >> well, it's not fatal. assuming jack smith says you know what, we agree with the supreme court, let's go with conspiracy to defraud the united states, conspiracy against rights. what he's losing is that maximum prison sentence of 20 years. that's what those two charges have. if he wants to try this case, assuming it's possible before election day, and i don't think that's possible. he will concede it, this will cause more litigation and more delay. >> one of the biggest decisions we have been waiting for didn't come today, and it's going to come on monday, at least chief justice roberts says, monday is it, last day of the term, which means the presidential immunity decision is going to happen. remind folks of the stakes here and what the possible options are for this court. it's not just a yes or no necessarily. >> there's three. they can say, which would be, in my opinion, it's not going to happen would be ridiculous that the president of the united states is immune from criminal prosecution or in this case, a former president. >> he could literally walk down fifth avenue, shoot someone, and nobody could do anything about it. >> then boom, the case goes away. they could also say the case doesn't go away, he can be criminally prosecuted, period, send it back to judge chutkan and have the trial or they could say there are some acts he's probably -- official acts that he could be immune from, but the private acts he can not be. send it back to the trial judge to figure out which acts he should get immunity. >> let's clarify what a personal act would be. that would be something related to the campaign, correct? as opposed to the governance of the nation when you're president of the united states. >> exactly. most of his unindicted coconspiracies are not government officials. but the other people were private actors. lawyers. rudy giuliani. it's hard to argue. if you remember the oral argument, it was justice barrett who read from the indictment, saying you said that's a private act. so this could happen. there will be a hearing where judge chutkan will have the hearing, in many ways, that's good. it means the trial will still be delayed, but the public will hear actually evidence and witnesses about what the government said donald trump did allegedly. it's not a trial, but it could be a mini trial. >> a very big day on monday with the supreme court, catherine christian, i'm sure we'll see you then. thank you very much. still to come on msnbc, new reporting on the one person in joe biden's inner circle who he would listen to when it comes to stepping aside. 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