We're going to get two perspectives now, two different perspectives from Democratic members of Congress.

First from Congressman Adam Smith, he's the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, who today called on President

Biden to abandon his re-election efforts.

Congressman Smith joins us now.

Thanks for being with us.

So you say that President Biden should exit the race.

Why does it have to do with his electoral chances or in your

view his ability to do the job as president? The two most compelling reasons are

number one I don't believe the president is an

effective messenger at this point and that's the shame of it we have a great message

I think the president's done a good job the last four years. When you go look at where the economy was

when he came in, he's managed that in a way that has put us in a better position than any

other country in the world coming out of COVID. He passed the Infrastructure Bill, he passed the

Inflation Reduction Act, he has pulled together this coalition that has

helped us, you know, stop Putin from taking over Ukraine. but what we saw on the debate and

what we've seen since then and also in some instances before that he is not an

effective messenger for that and he has health care concerns. You saw that at the White

House press conference today where there were not clear answers given. So I

just think at this point there are other people that could deliver that message better and the stakes are so high and yes we are distracted

but I know the White House has said well members need to stop talking about this we're not the the ones bringing it up. We were not there at the White House press

event today. The media brought it up. Our constituents have brought it up. It's what people are talking about.

Yes, it is a distraction. We're talking about our message. people are talking about. Yes, it is a distraction.

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