Well, let's be honest. It was the debate from hell and it started a five-alarm fire inside the Democratic Party.

But for now, Joe Biden is pushing ahead and rejecting calls to step aside.

I have never been more curious about David Pluff's take on things than I am right now, and he's coming up first.

Plus, we're getting our first look at brand new poll numbers following the debate,

and a top pollster for the Biden Harris campaign is going to join me for an exclusive interview

here in studio. Also today, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi is standing by the president

and firing back at Donald Trump. Nancy Pelosi will also be here in just a few minutes. And later,

Trump's Supreme Court prepares to rule on Trump's claim of presidential immunity.

Better late than never, I guess.

All for some thoughts about why the real damage has already been done.

Okay. Let's start with the obvious.

Joe Biden had a very bad night on Thursday.

There is no one, not Democratic lawmakers, not Biden campaign officials, not Joe Biden himself,

who would tell you that he had a good night, or they shouldn't tell you that. And remember, the biggest concern about the president from the moment this reelection campaign started

was about his age and his ability to campaign effectively.

The campaign wanted to have a debate early, to shake up the race and silence those concerns.

Instead, the president made them much louder.

And his performance, or lack thereof, at many

moments, also completely overshadowed what was a complete torrent of lies from Donald Trump,

but some crazy language. So no, not a good night for the Biden campaign. And what came next was a

full-scale freakout inside several factions of the Democratic Party.

My old boss, David Pluff, who I'm going to talk to in just a minute, and who is one of the smartest political minds in the country, called it a DefCon one moment that night.

...