harris, our country will be badly worse off. for the sake of our nation we have to go with donald trump. donald trump has been demonized. he s been sued, he s been prosecuted, and he nearly lost his life. we cannot let him down, and we cannot let america down. donald trump s former rivals for the republican nomination showing loyalty to him last night at the republican national convention. we ll have more of their speeches and a live report from milwaukee straight ahead. plus we ll have a look at president biden s pitch to a key voting block he needs this november to hold onto the white house. and we ll bring you the fallout from democratic senator bob menendez s corruption conviction as high profile members of his own party call on him to resign. good morning and welcome to way too early on this wednesday, july 17th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. and we ll begin this morning with day two of the republican national convention where a pair
assure myself. and that is i am getting the job done? am i getting the job done? can you name me somebody who s gotten more pieces of legislation passed in 3 1/2 years? i created 2,000 jobs this last week. so if i slow down, i can t get the job done. that s a sign that i shouldn t be doing it. but there s no indication of that yet. that was part of president joe biden s defiant pitch on why he should stay in the race. his news conference yesterday at the closing of nato summit came with a few glaring gaffs but also a strong command of issues, particularly foreign policy. we ll deal with all of that in just a moment. behind the scenes there are close allies trying to make the case on why biden should step aside. we ll go through that new reporting. and it all comes as there are more democrat defections on capitol hill, calling on the president to withdraw over concerns that he can no longer defeat donald trump this november. good morning and welcome to way too early on t
president biden last night. the president hoped to overcome the poor debate performance a couple weeks ago and concerns about his mental acuity with a news conference last night at the close of the nato summit. he did have some gaffes but also showed strong command of key issues, particularly on foreign policy. behind the scenes, though, advisors and close allies are said to be making the case for why he should step aside. we ll go through our new reporting from nbc news. also, on capitol hill, more democratic lawmakers calling on the president to withdraw from the race over concerns he cannot defeat donald trump in november. good morning. welcome to morning joe. it is friday, july 12th. i m willie geist. with us, we have the host of way too early, white house bureau chief at politico, jonathan lemire. msnbc contributor mike barnicle. pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of the washington post, eugene robinson. and president emeritus of the counci
the 2024 race. this hour, the growing list, which for the first time now includes a democratic senator, who says this is about the good of our country. plus, key biden aides heading to capitol hill this afternoon, can they stem the tide and convince skeptical democrats to fall back in line? and later, the countdown to milwaukee. republicans now four days away from their convention. so where is donald trump s pick for vp? good morning. it is 10:00 eastern. i m ana cabrera reporting from los angeles today. in just hours, president biden will take questions at what could be the most closely watched press conference of his 50-year political career. it will be his first solo presser in roughly eight months. and the first since that debate against donald trump, that sent democrats into a tailspin. a dozen congressional democrats have now called on biden to exit the race. a list that now includes a senator. and today, key biden aides will meet with senate democrats, despite all
the let s bring in retired four-star general jack keane, chairman of the institute for the study of war. general keane, always great to see you. as i look at it, it looks like here with three days to go, they re really closing down the evacuation to a much lower number, and is that how you see it, and is that the only choice they have given the security risks? yeah. given if security risk and the date certain of 31 august, there s not much choice here but to keep people away if they have actionable intelligence and given they were right about the last intelligence they reacted to, we did have an attack, so i m certain this intelligence is very, very credible and taking precaution their measures to avoid a mass casualty situation like we experienced is certainly in order here. and that will, obviously, deny more people from getting out of afghanistan, american citizens, to be sure, followed by likely tens of thousands of our afghan partners. paul: yeah. let me ask you abou