Obama 'scolded' protesters, comes to Biden's defense on Gaza

just down the street at Radio City Music Hall not too far away from where I am presidents Barack Obama Bill Clinton joined President Joe Biden for a record-breaking campaign fundraiser the event pulled in a staggering $25 million uh the biggest haul ever for a political event according to the Biden campaign it expands the president's already uh staggering $155 million campaign War chest and that is more than twice as much cash on hand As Trump and the RNC currently have NBC's White House corresp

ondent Mike memoy was at the fundraiser he joins me now Mike it's great to see you uh in person it's been a minute great to have you here in New York um so what stood out to you the most this was quite a historic event in so many different areas it was kind of groundbreaking in its format for a political event you're you were there what did you take away from I mean only 45 men have served as president of the United States right and we got to see three of them in a conversation tonight now Steph

en Kar was there too he tried to make it light he start Ed off by saying this is a historic moment we have three presidents coming to New York and not one of them is going to court you know so that sort of gave you a sort of sense of the lighter moments but listen I mean this this event was all about trying to help Joe Biden fix some real vulnerabilities he has in this election the biggest one and probably the standout moment tonight obviously was Gaza you just look out across the street see how

many protesters there were outside and there were some inside and they tried to disrupt the event at multiple points and it was Barack Obama I mean the Obama Biden relationship is so interesting I've spent a long time covering it Biden defended President Obama a lot and that was what endeared him to President Obama and a lot of his supporters it helped him become president tonight it was Obama coming to Biden's defense as they were continuing to disrupt this event Obama at one point scolded the

protesters and he said you know it's not enough to if you want to talk you also have to listen he said that it's one thing to have moral Clarity uh and to think you have the solutions but it's another thing to recognize that the these are not easy problems to solve he said what only a president can say this is a diff this is not a an easy job it's a it's a lonely seat as he described it and he went on to sort of lay out the challenges in this uh situation in Gaza things President Biden has trie

d to do the complexity of what's still ahead and he said you know that's the kind of President I want is somebody who's bringing his empathy his wisdom to the situation and and the crowd ate it up they they really did erupt at that defense do you get a sense that there was at all this contrast you know there's this generational contrast between what a President Obama represent and certainly what our President Joe Biden has talked about but was there any sense from the Biden campaign that having

these two uh stars meast stars of the democratic party flank flanking the current president um could in any way backfire and just kind of reminding people the St contrast I I think the Biden campaign recognizes that they need all the help they can get right and there's no one better to help them than these two former presidents it's interesting because you talk about the ways in which they can help the president with some real vulnerabilities what what is one of the biggest vulnerability Biden h

as is his Aid he's 81 years old and these are two former presidents who are younger than him former presidents who are younger than him and by the way former presidents who beat much older men when they first ran for president in 96 in 2008 and so it was interesting to see them all on stage together but they also made light of of Age and and President Biden himself talking about uh Donald Trump's ideas are old and they're out of shape so a little bit of red meat for the audience tonight yeah and

speaking of the fourth president he was also in New York uh doing something else but uh not going to court at least today not today Mike mem it's great to see you as always my friend thank you so much for more I want to bring in Donna Edwards former democratic congresswoman of Maryland and David Jolly former Republican Congressman of Florida um Don I'll start with you and as we mentioned there this kind of last point that I was bringing up with Mike Biden standing on stage with two younger form

er presidents still ranked in uh an enormous amount of money uh is this a sign perhaps that age is not as big of a weakness as Democrats feared well uh I think what happened is we had a state of the union message earlier this month and I think that that really helped to put aside uh the age question in a lot of respects and I think that what you saw what was at least Mike reported on on stage this evening are different elements of the democratic party coming together um supporting obviously the

two president supporting uh President Biden and offering a way to talk about communic with the various parts of the democratic party each of those parts Democrats are going to need in order to win an election in November David Biden has been taking uh more pointed shots at Donald Trump uh lately particularly how cash por his campaign is compared to uh Joe Biden's um talk to us about the importance of money at this point of the race and will these shots that Joe Biden is taking with the numbers t

hat we're seeing today 2 5 million um have an impact on Donald Trump yeah look I think they will and I think it's a a broader indication of a campaign that's starting to fire on all cylinders both in raising money and organization and targeting voters but also in fine-tuning a message look they don't have to play offense against Donald Trump Donald Trump kind of projects a a his own image of criminality and culpability in front of the American people all by himself so Joe Biden could just be f f

ocused on his domestic successes his leadership on the world stage but they're also including these dings on Donald Trump and it is because despite whatever somebody might have fave or unfavorable position on either candidate when they look at the contrast it is very good for Joe Biden and the Biden Camp knows that so where does the money really make a difference Aman it makes a difference in those seven states that will likely decide the Electoral College count and I would even say you have to

bake into Donald Trump cash on hand the fact that it might not even be spent fully on campaigns it might be spent on legal expenses I mean the the Gap might be a lot larger than it actually looks like on paper now Joe Biden's campaign is in a great spot to be six months out Donna where should that money go in those seven states to go specifically how how should this campaign uh the Biden campaign put this money to use in those seven states where do you think would be most uh effective well I mea

n you already see it happening the Biden campaign has been running um consistently running ads in a lot of the states that are viewed as swing States uh to try to move the needle and you can actually see that that's starting to have some impact in these National polls where the Gap is slowly slowly uh closing um the Biden campaign is also they announced they're opening up 300 or so offices all around uh the country and so I think that that's really important to have a presence um in this States

and to be working from now in this long campaign stretch from now until uh November and to put that on the ground um and get those surrogates out uh speaking on behalf of the president I mean I think today Aman what you saw is the contrast that is going to go on for the duration of this campaign there you got the three presidents on stage uh talking raising money uh running their campaign Biden is going all around the the country and then you have the contrast of Donald Trump either on a golf co

urse in a courtroom um or someplace on on true social that is not a a a way to run a winning campaign and I think that the Biden campaign is counting on being able to use all of that extra cash to continue to get its message out hey everyone MSNBC has a new and improved app you'll get realtime alerts and Analysis live blogs in-depth essays video highlights and the best 2024 election coverage download the new MSNBC app here's how to do it you tap on the App Store on your phone you hit search on t

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