Todd: fox news alert, another historic moment in this 2024 election season. President joe biden dropping out of the presidential race. Lawrence: move comes amid new reporting suggesting biden hesitated to drop out because his team did not think vice pres president take on president trump. Steve: harris already, her campaign, pulling in more than $49. 6 million in less than 24 hours, according to harris people. Ainsley: reacting to this historic moment as we see the 50 plus year career of joe biden come to an end. We begin with jacqui heinrich in rohoboth beach, delaware, where the president wrote that letter with his aides and released over the weekend. For 23 days, the president maintained his decision to stay in the race was final. One by one his allies like hakeem jeffries, nancy pelosi, chuck schumer and barack obama made clear they wanted him to change his mind. It sounds like the biden team was bracing for this to get ugly. Nancy pelosi was gearing up to release internal polling
Trying to assassinate a president, a former president, elected official there is no place for that whatsoever note the secret service is going to do everything they can to continue to protect president trump. My third thought is american seem to get out and vote for this only one way to deal with this and that is to get out, get yourself to the polls do not worry about news reports or anything like that. Get to the polls it s in the hands of the american people to have the country they want going forward for that as a country where we embrace of tolerance we do not just have one thought, one mind one way of look at our issues are one way of looking at the world. You get out and vote, let your voices heard and we are tolerant of all voices even we do not agree with them. Quick answer, well stated but thank you byron donalds republican congressman from florida if we have our colleague martha i would like to try to bring her back in. Martha, we have been waiting to hear from president bid
Allegations laid out in a sweeping investigation by new york s attorney general. Now he s facing calls for his resignation from president biden on down. There s also the threat of impeachment, lawsuits, and even a criminal investigation. We will get into all of it just ahead. Plus, another reminder that democrats kind of like joe biden, a moderate member of the party just beat a progressive fire brand backed by bernie sanders in ohio, but how did donald trump s candidate do? all that as coronavirus poses new threats to public health. The american economy, and all of those elected leaders who should have the power and prerogative to do something about it. Also police officers who responded to the capitol riot are being recognized by the u. S. Senate with the congressional gold medal. If senators can t agree on that unanimously, why is the truth still so elusive on capitol hill. Good morning, and welcome to morning joe. It is a packed wednesday, august 4th, and we will begin this morning
Assault israel. It s unrelenting. And we are going to challenge it vigorously. Are you on the side of truth or lies? fact or fiction, justice or injustice connect democracy or autocracy? that s what it s coming down to. Stand up, for god sake, and help prevent this concerted effort to undermine our election. Have you know shame? we are facing the most significant test of our democracy since the civil war. Jesse: joe biden is also calling for a federal takeover of elections and is promising to use his department of justice to go after the states. Now, keep in mind, while the president spewed that kind of rhetoric, liberal factcheckers have found these republican bills actually expand voting hours. But those facts don t matter to liberals in texas. A group of showboating democrats just skipping town in order to block republicans there from passing these new voting bills. They are fashioning themselves as political martyrs, who of course fled the the down next washington, d. C. , without
President biden described their meeting in geneva as constructive. But for the most part the summit s outcome was more about keeping the conversation going as opposed to any tangible progress right now. And as the president said it, it will now be up to russia to determine where we go from here. What is going to happen next is we re going to be able to look back, look ahead in three to six months and say did the things we agree to sit down and try to work out, did it work? i don t say i trust you, no problem. Let s see what happens. You know, as that ole expression goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I want to bring in nbc s josh lederman at the white house, chris hill, and glenn johnson, politics editor for axios and former state department senior advisor. His book window seat on the world is about his time with secretary of state john kerry and attending meetings like yesterday s summit in geneva. Josh, to you first. The president says let s wait and see. What does he me