>> Good evening and welcome to
Washington week.
This week started with another
high-profile mass shooting.
In highland park, a man shot
seven people to death at a July
4 parade.
According to the gun violence
archive over the holiday
weekend, there were at least 11
mass shootings.
That comes as the challenges
facing the nation continue to
mount.
A debate over gun laws, abortion
politics, and historic
inflation.
This week, president Biden faced
a rash of bad headlines, with
Democrats questioning whether
he's meeting the moment.
As an example, critics pointed
to the president's response of
the parade shooting as not
forceful enough in contrast to
jb Pritzker's open frustration.
>> We got a lot more work to do,
we've got to get this under
control.
>> If you are angry today, I'm
here to tell you be angry.
I'm furious yet more innocent
lives were taken by gun
violence.
>> Republicans continue to focus
on mental health issues rather
than access to guns.
Joining me to discuss this.
>> I think yesterday's shooting
is an example of what the
problem is.
The problem is mental health,
and these young men who seem to
be inspired to commit these
atrocities.
>> Joining me to discuss this
and more, Michael Scheer, white
house correspondent for the new
York Times.
The chief national affairs
correspondent for CNN.
And joining me in studio, Lauren
for the pbs newshour.
And the political enterprise and
investigations reporter for the
Washington post.
Thank you for being here.
This was a serial start to the
week.
I can't even imagine people went
to a July 4 parade and ended up
running for their lives.
The politics on this continue to
be challenging.
What do you hear from the white
house and lawmakers about the
shooting at other shootings that
have happened recently that
might lead to a renewed effort
for gun legislation?
>> It is difficult to see
anything the president is
calling for in addition to what
was passed, which was more
expanded background checks, red
flag laws.
But what the president has
called for ar an assault weapons
ban and a ban on high-capacity
magazines.
Those things don't really have
any Republican of congress.
That is why a lot of activists
and Democrats and their own
party are pushing them to do
more executive actions.
The white house is very focused
on getting there nominee to
alcohol, tobacco, and firearms
agency confirmed.
It is their top priority.
That is where they are putting
their focus.
I don't see the white house
doing any more executive actions
anytime soon.
>> That is a stark reality given
what is going on.
Michael, you did a deep dive
into Democrats wanting to see
more fight out of president
Biden.
Can you talk about the main
concerns when you talked to
Democrats and allies of the
president about what they want
to see from president Biden and
how the white house is
navigating this?
>> Thank you for having me on.
When you talk to Democrats,
complaints divide into two broad
categories.
One is actual policy, more
policy engagement.
They want the president to do
more to confront inflation.
Guns, the overturning of roe V.
Wade.
And they have a lot of
suggestions.
None of which -- and this is the
source of the frustration, that
the administration is taking
them up on.
For roe V. Wade, there are
suggestions for them to allow
abortions to be done on federal
land.
The administration said it is
not practical.
The other broad category is a
performative piece.
Part of the presidency is
seeming engaged and being in the
moment that the rest of the
country is in.
I think this week was an example
of how the president to a lot of
Democrats seemed really out of
touch.
You have all of these big issues
hitting the country at once.
And the president was in
Cleveland talking about pension
plans and he spent much of the
time this week conferring the
metal of honor and medal of
freedom on deserving people.
To a lot of Democrats, I think
it felt like his heart is not in
confronting some of these big
issues.
>> There are so many big issues.
I want to stick with you.
You wrote in this piece.
Other democratic politicians are
jumping into what they see as a
void of leadership.
I wonder who is really jumping
in to fill the void they see,
and why they are standing out in
the way president Biden isn't?
>> The examples I think that I
gave, the governor of Illinois
who caught a lot of attention
among the run-of-the-mill
Democrats and activists for his
passion and his rising to the
moment, in terms of his angle
after the shooting in highland
park.
The other is Gavin Newsom in
California, who raised some
eyebrows by not necessarily
campaigning and running ads in
California, but rather Florida,
directly challenging Ron
Desantis.
There are a lot of Democrats who
say why isn't our president
doing that, why isn't he taking
the fight to the governors of
Florida, Texas, some of these
Republican states.
Why isn't president Biden more
aggressive in that way?
The fact he's not is an opening
for other folks.
>> Another story that caught my
eye is they say Biden is not
running out of ideas, Democrats
fear he's running out of time.
What is your sense talking to
the different sources you are
talking to about the pressure
president Biden is facing when
the midterms are performance
away.
How does it connect with what
other presidents have had to
deal with?
>> The summer before a midterm
election is always an
uncomfortable position in the
white house.
President Biden joins the ranks
of many presidents who are
likely to lose seats in their
own party in midterm elections.
President Biden has been there
to see this firsthand.
The summer before president
Obama's midterm election
drubbing in 2010 was a difficult
time.
The difference I think for
president Biden is one of
himself.
He's not traveling nearly as
much as other presidents, he's
not front and center as much as
some other presidents.
Part of it is his age, part of
it is the sheer fact of who he
is as a politician.
He was not elected to go after
the governor of Florida.
He was not elected to be the
loudest voice in the room.
So now, some Democrats, the
frustration is boiling over.
As he said the other week, I'm
the president who you have.
He's the president in the moment
here.
There is nothing he can perhaps
do to satisfy all of the
anxieties and frustrations.
But there's more he likely could
do.
He's frustrated -- he has said
many times, he told me at the
beginning of the year in a press
conference he planned to leave
Washington more, to be in the
country.
That has not happened much.
He traveled to Cleveland, but it
was his first domestic trip in
quite some time.
Presidents are busy, his
schedule is busy with foreign
trips, etc.
The reality of what he can do,
he's never likely to meet the
moment of some other
Progressives.
Not sure we want our president
to be going after individual
governors.
And of course, governor Pritzker
was fired up because it happened
in his own state.
We have seen passion from
president Biden.
What I think some other leaders
are really looking for is more
of a direction, more than just
this optimistic speech he gives.
Really taking things by the
reins.
That is what he really has not
done.
The challenge is getting through
the summer and into the midterm
elections.
He is in a tough spot.
We will see if he digs himself
out of it.
Definitely a tough spot.
Talking about the frustration
boiling over.
I read something I think if you
asked the Biden campaign whether
it would be true, they would say
no.
But Joe's approval rating is
lower than the former president,
Donald Trump.
A stark thing given we covered
trump together.
What is the significance of
that, given president Biden is
trying to put up a fight?
I was in Cleveland hearing him
talk to union workers.
But president trump still has
his grip on the Republican
party.
>> He does, and he would be the
nominee if it was an election
for the 2024 nomination.
By a lot of accounts, he's
thinking about announcing soon
to try and be the nominee.
Former president -- for
president Biden, a lot of
factors are challenging.
As long as inflation is high,
gas prices are five dollars a
gallon, as long as there is this
type of concern, and it is hard
to put a finger on it.
I talked to democratic
strategists and others.
People will feel unsettled,
whether covid, the economy, a
sense things are not heading in
the right direction.
The barometer in politics is do
people think things are heading
in the right direction or the
wrong direction.
And there's a lot of the country
thinking things happening in the
wrong direction.
If you have his numbers, you
have a Republican party chomping
at the bit to defeat him.
There's a good chance to do it.
>> Talking about things being
unsettled, president Biden put
an order aimed at protecting
access to abortion and
medication at emergency
contraception.
The reality is there's no action
the president can take to
restore the nationwide right to
an abortion in the wake of the
supreme court's ruling.
You have done a lot of great
reporting.
How much is this executive
order, what does the impact the
white house think it will have?
>> This is a kid of action is
steps president Biden directed
his agencies to do after the
decision came down.
Ultimately, I spoke to a lawyer
who said it is an enforcement of
laws to direct agencies to
protect people who may try to
travel, doctors and patients who
may try to travel to get an
abortion, enforce privacy for
health data.
But it is a lot of using the
current laws on the books.
Democrats want to see the
president go bigger and be more
creative.
A lot of executive actions they
want are clearly not part of
what happened.
They are looking for him to use
medicaid to fund travel for
abortions, not the actual
procedure, because under law the
government can fund the
procedure.
And also to expand through the
fda more access to medication
abortion.
Taking away final restrictions
on pharmacies.
The president may be cautious
about that, simply because of
the legal challenges likely to
come.
>> What is your sense of how
Democrats see what president
Biden is talking about the
bright spots?
It is about what he's trying to
do with limitations.
There was president Biden going
to Cleveland, wanting to talk
about the economy and really
good things happening.
A jobs report they wanted to
take a victory lap on.
But knowledge that Americans are
feeling unsettled and not great
about where things are.
>> Exactly right.
Today was a good example.
The jobs report was strong
enough that under normal
circumstances, the white house
would be yelling it from the
rooftops.
But they are very afraid if the
president was overly optimistic,
if they are ignoring people's
pain, and he would come across
as detached from the way people
are experiencing.
Ultimately, the way people vote
is not based on some statistic
or a percentage the president
can point to on a chart, but it
is how they feel on how their
lives are going and how they
feel about their pocketbooks and
the resources to do the thing
for themselves and their
families that they want to do.
Polls suggest people are not
feeling great about those kinds
of things.
The president risks a lot if he
doesn't seem to acknowledge
that.
The flipside is by
acknowledgment all of the pain