Hey, pull up a chair. It's tax on tap with David Axelrod and Mike Murphy.

Murphy, it's 130 in the morning in the east. I am overstimulated. I can't sleep.

Two nights, four hours of 20 candidates of democratic debates and I'm mulling over in my own mind. What it all means.

And you give me your headlines. I'll give you mine.

Okay. Well, I think the one people are going to be sleeping even less than you are the Biden campaign because this was the classic bad night. He had to be in command.

He didn't have to dominate totally, but he had to be in command and instead Kamala Harris did well, hijacked the debate became the star.

And he looked old. So the stakes for the next debate for Biden are as high as they could possibly be because if he can't dominate and take that position back next time, you only I think get one more shot before it starts to unravel.

She had a great night. He had a really wasn't a disaster, but it was weak and he is losing the grip he had as the winner, the machine, the risk-free candidate.

Yeah, that's right. I mean, I think his whole deal is predicated on that. He's the guy who can take out Donald Trump. He is the trustee reliable, unrisky, familiar face.

But there's always been this question, which is he's 76 years old. He's been out of the game for a bit. His he the flip side of restoration is backward looking.

And what he needed tonight was to be energetic, vigorous, forward looking. Didn't happen. And the one exchange that I think people will most remember was the one between Biden and

Kamala Harris about his comments at a fundraiser recently in which he talked about how he had worked collegially with a couple of notorious segregationists in the US Senate.

Let's listen to first Senator Harris. And then let's listen to the vice president.

We've also heard and I'm going to now direct this advice president Biden. I do not believe you are a racist. And I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground.

But I also believe and it is personal and I was actually very it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country.

And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing. And you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools. And she was bust to school every day. And that little girl was me.

It's a mischaracterization my position across the board. I did not praise racist. That is not true. Number one, number two, if we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights and whether I did or not, I'm happy to do that.

I'm the guy that extended the Voting Rights Act for 25 years. We got to the place where we got 98 out of 98 votes in the United States Senate doing it. I've also argued very strongly that we in fact deal with the notion of denying people access to the ballot box. I agree that everybody once they in fact, I know you might times up.

But vice president Biden, do you agree today? Do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America? Do you agree?

I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education. That's what I opposed.

So the whole scene played badly for Biden. I thought first of all, the way she posited the question in very personal terms about her own experience was really powerful. And by the way, any exchange that begins with I don't think you're a racist, but never ends very well just as a matter of course.

But and then his defense about his position on busing in the 70s on which he worked with Senator Eastland, one of the segregationists was kind of appalling. He invoked essentially a state's rights argument there.

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