Brooks and Capehart on voters’ concerns about Biden’s age, Trump’s ballot eligibility

Read the Full Transcript

• Amna Nawaz:

  The special counsel's report on President Biden's handling of classified documents draws a spotlight on concerns about his reelection campaign.

  On that and the other major political stories shaping the week, we turn to the analysis of Brooks and Capehart. That is New York Times columnist David Brooks, and Jonathan Capehart, associate editor for The Washington Post.

  Great to see you both.

• Jonathan Capehart:

  Hey, Amna.

• Amna Nawaz:

  So, special counsel Robert Hur released his report on the president's handling of those classified documents. The investigation, we know, did find some classified documents during their search.

  This was at President Biden's Delaware home, a tattered box in a garage, among others. But he did conclude the evidence was not sufficient for criminal charges.

  Jonathan, what was your reaction to that decision and how it's being received?

• Jonathan Capehart:

  Well, I mean, great the decision not charging the president, terrific.

  The other thing about the report that was good is that it compared and contrasted President Biden…

• Amna Nawaz:

  Yes.

• Jonathan Capehart:

  … versus what former President Trump did. And that is the thing that I think everyone needs to remember.

  When classified documents were found at the home and all the other places of President Biden, President Biden and his administration cooperated, gave them back, had authorities do searches. When documents were found or believed to have been at the former president's residences, he stonewalled.

  He lied about handing them all over. And that's why he was indicted. And so anyone who's trying to conflate the two situations is being disingenuous. So that's what I have to say about that.

  (Laughter)

• Amna Nawaz:

  Well, David, we know he did — the special counsel went to great lengths to say there were several material distinctions between the two cases.

  Is that resonating with the public?

• David Brooks:

  Yes, I think so. I think people know the Mar-a-Lago case is more serious.

  But Biden was sloppy. He did share classified material with a ghostwriter, apparently. I think, frankly, it was unattractive of him last night to blame it all on staff. Maybe staff was partially to blame. But I don't think that's what leaders do, that they blame the team.

  But, nonetheless, as Jonathan said, he cooperated. It was sloppy. He said, let's rectify this. And if Donald Trump, when they came to him about his documents, had said, yes, I cooperate, he probably wouldn't be in the mess he's in.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Well, we also know the special counsel chose to comment on Biden's memory function in that report, saying he had — quote — "significant memory problems."

• He wrote this:

  "Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

  Jonathan, what did you make of that inclusion in the report? Does that…

  (Crosstalk)

• Jonathan Capehart:

  … Amna?

  (Laughter)

• Amna Nawaz:

  Your face perhaps says it all.

• Jonathan Capehart:

  So…

• Amna Nawaz:

  But, please.

• Jonathan Capehart:

  And that wasn't the only place where he talked about the president's age.

  I thought those reports were supposed to be just the facts. That was gratuitous. A lot of the other ones were gratuitous. We have spent way too much time talking about this president's age. And I will say it again. When Ronald Reagan was the oldest person to ever be in the White House and to run for reelection, I don't recall a lot of people within his own party talking about the fact that we need to get another person, he's too old.

  And what counsel Hur did was feed lines to Republicans who want to make the president's memory and capabilities and whether he's senile a talking point. It gives them some fodder. But what he's also — what counsel Hur has also done is given bed-wetting Democrats another reason to complain about the president's age.

  Meanwhile, they're not focused on the fact that the 82-year-old president of the United States has an incredible record in the three years he's been president. I wish people would focus on that. And the fact that he mixed up the president of Egypt with the president of Mexico, I did the same thing on — around this table when talking about the governor of Virginia.

  Remember when I said Governor Northam, and the two of you — your heads popped off. You're like, who's he talking about?

• Amna Nawaz:

  Well, the former governor.

• Jonathan Capehart:

  A former governor, but still.

• Amna Nawaz:

  And, also, to be fair, you are not president of the United States.

• Jonathan Capehart:

  I know, but…

• Amna Nawaz:

  Yes.

• David Brooks:

  Not yet.

• Jonathan Capehart:

  … one can dream.

  (Laughter)

• Amna Nawaz:

  But let me ask you about this, David, because what you did see, as you both mentioned, President Biden come out in a fiery press conference last night, and he referenced specifically one of the mentions that counsel Hur made about him, his failure to remember when his son Beau died.

  Have a listen to how the president responded.

  Joe Biden , President of the United States: How in the hell dare he raise that?

  Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself, it wasn't any of their damn business. I don't need anyone to remind me when he passed away.

• Amna Nawaz:

  David, the White House used the word gratuitous. Was it?

• David Brooks:

  Two-thirds.

  I think the special counsel used — talked about the age because his job is to think through how a jury would think. And the argument was, a jury would not convict the guy because they think he'd be a well-intentioned guy with memory problems.

  Nonetheless, prosecutors are also not allowed to insult people who they don't charge, because they — the people they're insulting don't get their day in court to fight back. And so there — this is prosecutorial standards, and I think he sort of very much flirted or went over the line on that.

  On the age issue, I think it's a perfectly legitimate issue. Listen, I have been interviewing Joe Biden for 30 years. He's not as quick as he was. I say he was a pitcher used to do it throw 94 now throws 87. So the age is a factor, and you got to think, it's 86, he will be if he's reelected.

  It's a totally legitimate issue. His staff seems to think it's a legitimate issue, because they act like he has a big problem. I was stunned that he turned down the Super Bowl interview for the second year in a row this time. Your guy is behind. You have a chance for an easy interview to talk to tens of millions of people, and you turn it down because they're so cautious, the staff thinks he will say something stupid?

  Now, my own personal opinion, based on my own direct contact and my reporting, is that his judgment is — his memory may sometimes slip, but his judgment is good. And he absolutely runs the White House. He's in charge of that administration. He's completely sharp enough to do that.

  But will he be able to do that in five years? I think it's a legitimate issue for voters to think about.

• Amna Nawaz:

  I know we're going to be talking about this a lot more, but I do want to get both of your takes on another issue this week, because the Supreme Court did hear arguments related to the Colorado case that's seeking to remove former President Trump from their primary ballot.

  It doesn't seem like they're likely to do that based on some of the concerns we heard from the justices. But what's your takeaway, Jonathan, from how the justices are looking at it and the impact of this decision?

• Jonathan Capehart:

  I mean, if we were to judge the arguments on their face, it seems like we're headed to, what, 8-1 or unanimous decision to keep his name on Colorado's Republican primary ballot.

  This might be the one and only time we get a unanimous decision, especially when we think about the fact that this is a 6-3 conservative supermajority, where the pendulum swings from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson all the way to the six conservatives on the far right. And yet it seems like they are all pretty much in agreement here.

  So that's what I found the most amazing takeaway I took from the hearings.

• Amna Nawaz:

  What about you, David?

• David Brooks:

  Yes, unsurprising.

  There was no way the Supreme Court was going to get in — want to get involved in the middle of an election. And I was comforted by the lines of questioning, particularly the idea, as Justice Roberts said, that the 14th Amendment is not there to empower states. The 14th Amendment is there to take power away from states and give it to the federal government.

  And the idea that each state gets to choose basically who can be president, can choose for the other states, as several justices have said, it just doesn't seem like a smart argument. So I'm relieved that this whole issue seems to be about to go away.

• Amna Nawaz:

  I also need to ask you both about this, the year that was this week in Congress. It just felt like everything happened.

  Jonathan, we came as close as we ever have in decades to having actual immigration reform, failed when Republicans backed away after a deal from four months of negotiating. What's your takeaway from how this unfolded?

• Jonathan Capehart:

  It just says to me once again that Speaker Johnson's not in control. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's not in control. Senator Lankford, who was the Republican who negotiated with Murphy and Sinema, is not in control.

  Donald Trump is in control. Donald Trump signaled before the text was even presented, weeks earlier, don't do the — don't do this bill. And the bill, even though it got, what, 67 votes on the procedural, it's not going — even if it gets out of the Senate, it's not going anywhere in the House.

  So that's what's so unfortunate about what's happening. And leave aside the competence of Speaker Johnson and the mess that he had to deal with in his own chamber. It's just, nothing is going to get done.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Did Republicans miss their best chance for some kind of border bill?

• David Brooks:

  Oh, for sure, for a generation, yes. But that's not the least of it.

  I wish it was just Trump said, I need election issues, so don't pass this bill, and they cynically did it. I wish that's all it was. It's much deeper than that. The Republicans are not only bowing to Trump. Trump is inside their brains. They're thinking like Trump.

  And so — and a couple things. So how does democracy work? You have a negotiation, the two parties meet. You have a compromise. You hope to improve on the status quo. This was the most one-sided compromise I have ever seen.

• Jonathan Capehart:

  Yes.

• David Brooks:

  The Republican Party got pretty much everything they wanted. Democrats got nothing. And, still, the Republican after Republican are arguing, I can't support this because it doesn't have everything I want.

  And that's Trump's myth of the dictator, that I will come in there and you will get everything you want. So they're beginning to think like Trump. And then, on foreign policy, I'm a conservative. I was rooting for Republicans for decades. Ronald Reagan, John McCain, Mitt Romney, these were internationalists. They believed America has a role in trying to preserve a stable world order.

  We now have a majority of Republicans in the Senate and an implacable seeming majority in the House who are going to — who want to cut the Ukraine funding bill, the ultimate isolationist act, which would destroy American credibility and sentence a nation to servitude.

  And so the fact that this is the Republican Party, I thought I was unshockable, and I remain profoundly shocked this week.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Jonathan, were you shocked the same way? Or did you see this coming, that Republicans would block it?

• Jonathan Capehart:

  Oh, no, no, I — no, I saw this coming. But the thing that worries me the most is what happens on March 1, the first funding deadline, what happens on March 8, if — we're going down a road where we're going to a government shutdown that could be a government shutdown we can't get out of.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Jonathan Capehart, David Brooks, thank you so much. Great to see you.

• Jonathan Capehart:

  Thanks, Amna.