Welcome to Talking Feds, a round table that brings together prominent former federal officials and special guests for a dynamic

discussion of the most important political and legal topics of the day.

I'm Harry Littman. The first presidential debate was for Democrats 90 minutes of torture.

President Biden started off weekly with a notably raspy voice and seemed badly off his game,

with many moments of unclear and even daughtering answers.

Trump for his part served up lie after outlandish vicious lie but they almost seemed beside

the point next to Biden's shaky performance. The gravity of the debate was

impossible for the Biden camp to spin away. The President's performance

provoked unanimous criticism by analysts and immediate gnashing of teeth within

the party and the donor base. A chorus of calls arose for Biden to

immediately withdraw from the race. It is a crisis of the first order within the

White House and all see the next several days as existential,

either calming the water somewhat or roiling them to a point where the pressure on him

to step aside becomes overwhelming.

Almost but not quite lost in the debate debacle was the Supreme Court, which this week issued

a series of decisions that by and large advance the court's

strongly conservative agenda and in particular one that completely upended

administrative law.

Now the country holds its collective breath

for the imminent ruling on immunity

set to drop shortly after this episode is published.

Regardless of the outcome, the prospects of Trump's spacing trial for the pivotal January 6 charges

...