RFK Joins TMZ Live to Break Down the First Debate of the 2024 Election | TMZ Live
Donald Trump and Joe Biden locked horns at the first 2024 presidential debate Thursday night in Atlanta, Georgia -- and RFK Jr. stopped by to break it down.
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00:00The debate last night, it is what everybody is talking about.
00:03It was an unmitigated disaster for Joe Biden.
00:07Yes, absolutely.
00:08For the president, it was not the performance he needed,
00:11not the one that the Democratic Party was clearly hoping
00:13based on everything that they've said leading up to it,
00:16that wasn't what they wanted to see.
00:17In a minute, we are going to bring on somebody
00:20who may well decide this election,
00:22and that is Robert Kennedy Jr.,
00:25who is the third party candidate running.
00:28Some people are calling him a spoiler, but he has...
00:31Maybe not so much.
00:32He now, because of this debate, has a new life,
00:36which we're going to get into with him in a minute,
00:37but I just want to say one thing to you
00:39before we bring him on.
00:41Look at that picture there.
00:43With his mouth agape,
00:45I know that his people worked for a week with him on issues.
00:50Camp David, they were doing this whole prep.
00:53They had a mock stage.
00:54Right.
00:55They had a mock candidate.
00:56Did anybody videotape it to say,
00:59here's how you should look when Donald Trump is speaking,
01:04and you shouldn't be looking off into nowhere
01:06with your mouth agape?
01:07With your mouth open, right.
01:09Or looking down, or there were a lot of times
01:10where he was looking down and his mouth was agape,
01:12which really scared me because I thought,
01:15did he fall asleep?
01:16Is he going to fall over?
01:18You're right.
01:19Isn't that just crazy?
01:20The visuals make a big difference,
01:22and it seemed like he had a lot of facts,
01:25and even though he got a lot of them wrong,
01:27maybe too many.
01:28Maybe too many.
01:28But the visual was not something
01:31that clearly was not a priority.
01:34And everybody was thinking last night,
01:36it wasn't really about the issues,
01:38although they spent-
01:40We knew where they both stood on the issues, right?
01:41Right.
01:42It was just about presentation.
01:44And I got to say, as bad as it was to watch,
01:48and heartbreaking, really, to watch,
01:51look at Joe Biden leaving the stage with Joe Biden.
01:56I mean, that was just stunning to watch this.
02:00After everything you'd seen for the 90 minutes
02:03of the debate, that was like the affirmation,
02:05this slow walk off with the First Lady.
02:08It is terrible.
02:09Look, the Democrats are panicked.
02:11The convention is coming up in a little more than a month.
02:14You have a situation now where people are asking privately,
02:17they're saying, how do we get him to step down?
02:19Because there are other candidates in the wing.
02:21That's the first step.
02:22Yeah, the first step is, how do we get him to step down?
02:24And the second step is, who steps in?
02:26Who steps in?
02:27There's a bench.
02:30But I just want to say one other thing,
02:31then we'll bring Robert Kennedy Jr. in.
02:34When you look at pictures of presidents
02:37when they get in office and when they leave office,
02:40how they age is remarkable.
02:43It always happens.
02:44It always happens.
02:45Even with the young president, we saw Barack Obama, right?
02:50And so to watch Joe Biden and to watch him today
02:53and see the difference, what would the difference be
02:56between today and four years from now?
02:58And that's what I think is giving people so much pause here.
03:03So let's bring in the person who is really
03:07at the center right now of what a lot of people
03:10are talking about.
03:11They've been calling him a possible spoiler,
03:13but maybe not so much at this point.
03:15Joining us once again on Team Z Live, RFK Jr.
03:18Welcome back.
03:19Good to see you.
03:20Thank you, Charles.
03:21Thank you, Harvey.
03:21I'm glad to be back with you.
03:22We're happy you're back.
03:24First, we just want to get a reaction
03:26to what happened last night.
03:28You know, I think it was a sad night for our country.
03:30There's 341 million people in our country
03:34and we're the template for democracy around the globe.
03:37And the idea that that's the best that we can do,
03:42I think is a big, big disappointment.
03:47I mean, I think President Biden accomplished
03:50something extraordinary, which was to make President Trump
03:54look kind of reasonable and likable.
03:58I also think from my own personal point of view
04:01that nobody is accusing me of making President Biden
04:05lose to President Trump.
04:06I think the frailty that he showed
04:09and it's sort of the lack of mental acuity
04:16and vigor was, I think, affected everybody who's on.
04:21Even MSNBC at the end was saying he's gotta go
04:26and I'm sure you read the New York Times this morning
04:29and all of the major liberal outlets
04:33are now calling for him to step down.
04:35But this is something we knew about for a while.
04:38We should mention that you actually made an offer
04:41in the interview with Dr. Phil
04:43that aired right before the debate.
04:45You talked about this offer you had made to President Biden
04:48basically have him drop out of the race
04:51and that you would take on Donald Trump.
04:53Does that seem more likely now?
04:55My offer to President Biden was,
04:57let's do a poll together in October.
05:00We'll co-fund it and whichever of the two of us
05:06is less likely to beat Donald Trump,
05:08the other one will drop out, a personal dropout.
05:11I will drop out if I'm less likely to beat Donald Trump.
05:14And if he agrees to do the same,
05:17it was called the spoiler pledge.
05:19And of course, I did not, not surprisingly,
05:22I didn't hear back from the president.
05:24So there is some history here.
05:27I remember that the only time in my lifetime
05:30when a sitting president decided not to run
05:33after he threw his hat in the ring
05:36was when your father ran in 1968,
05:38Lyndon Johnson dropped out of the race.
05:40If that happens with Biden,
05:42there are some obvious people here who might run.
05:46And that would be Gavin Newsom,
05:48Raphael Warnock, Gretchen Whitmer, Wes Moore.
05:51Are any of those candidates palatable enough for you
05:55that you would throw your support behind them and not run?
05:58Or are you in it for the long haul?
06:00I would make the same deal with them
06:02that I offered to President Biden is,
06:06let's see, let's run a poll
06:09and see if they're more likely to beat President Trump
06:12than me and I will withdraw in October
06:15if they're more likely to beat him in a head-to-head race.
06:19I don't think that's gonna happen.
06:20I think my numbers are the strongest against Donald Trump's.
06:25But if they wanted to take that bargain, I would take it.
06:29That would be an actually a very serious offer
06:33that you're making to one of these people.
06:35And the thing that we found revealing about that offer
06:38was the fact that it kind of revealed
06:40that really the most important thing to you, it seems,
06:44is that Donald Trump is defeated.
06:46And we hadn't really heard that from you before.
06:48Is that the end goal here?
06:51I wanna beat Donald Trump.
06:52I would wanna beat President Biden too.
06:55My job is and my ambition is to be president.
07:00So, and I think I'm more likely to beat him
07:02than anybody else.
07:04But I don't think either of these choices are good choices.
07:06I think President Biden is probably more likely
07:11to get us into a nuclear war,
07:12which I think we're closer right now
07:15to a nuclear war than any time in history.
07:17I don't even know who's making the decisions
07:19in the White House,
07:20but this crazy decision that was made last week
07:25to shoot missiles into Russia
07:28and kill civilians who are sunbathing on a beach
07:32with cluster bombs, which are war crimes to even use them.
07:37They're only killing civilians.
07:41And to drop that on a civilian population
07:44is such a terrible provocation
07:48and such a reckless, risky decision.
07:52It's hard and I mean, I can't even imagine
07:55that President Biden was even consulted on that.
07:58Since the debate last night,
08:01what has happened with your campaign?
08:03Have people reached out to you?
08:05Have you heard about growing support?
08:08What's happened since nine o'clock last night, Eastern?
08:12We're getting a lot of attention in this campaign.
08:15It's trending all over and we're getting deluged
08:18with requests from the press,
08:20but also just congratulatory notes from people
08:23who I didn't know where they stood.
08:27Just a lot of surprising people.
08:29Oh, it's very, very gratifying.
08:32Will this help you get on more ballots in more states now?
08:37Because it seems like that's still the one hurdle
08:41that you would have in defeating either candidate.
08:45We're gonna be on the ballot
08:46and that's not gonna be a problem.
08:47The issue is then if I can persuade people in this country
08:51to vote out of hope, my numbers are better
08:54than President Biden's or President Trump's
08:57in term of favorability.
08:59Oh, if people wanna vote for hope,
09:03if they want a different future,
09:05then they're gonna vote for me.
09:06If they vote out of fear,
09:08then they're gonna vote for President Biden
09:10or President Trump and they're gonna get more of the same.
09:12I wanna pick up on something you said a minute ago,
09:15that there were certain people that were surprising
09:20who had reached out to you, presumably with support.
09:23It sounds like you don't wanna say who,
09:26but can you characterize that?
09:29Are you talking about senators?
09:32Are you talking about others in Congress
09:33who aren't necessarily,
09:36they don't wanna necessarily come forward and say,
09:39we want Biden to step down,
09:41but are you kind of secretly getting these calls?
09:43And can you-
09:44No, I'm not getting calls from people in Congress
09:48or high DNC people.
09:51But I'm getting calls from people
09:54who are lifelong Democrats
09:57and who sort of disappeared out of my life.
10:00And those are the kind of people I've been hearing from.
10:03Some of them are well-known people, they're actors.
10:06Some of them are in politics, but peripherally,
10:11and not elected officials.
10:14I haven't heard from any of them.
10:15Got it, all right.
10:16Well, this was a big night for you, collaterally.
10:22And I'm really fascinated by what you said,
10:25that if there is a new nominee,
10:28that you would do the same polling challenge
10:31and either they would withdraw or you would withdraw.
10:34That's a big statement.
10:36So thank you for coming on.
10:38We really appreciate it.
10:39Thank you very much.
10:39Thanks, Charles.
10:40Thanks, Harvey.
10:41Great to see you guys, as always.
10:43And good seeing you.
10:44Thank you, Mr. Kennedy.
10:44Good to see you.
10:45Good seeing you.
10:46That is interesting.
10:47That is interesting.
10:48And that's a challenge somebody else might take up.
10:51Maybe.
10:52Because that way it's unified.
10:56Yes, it would be unified.
10:58But accepting it, the problem with accepting the offer
11:01is that it can be seen as weakness.
11:04That you're,
11:04It could also be seen as strength
11:06that you believe that both sides would say,
11:09we believe we're going to win.
11:10We're united to defeat Donald Trump.
11:11That's right.
11:12Yes.
11:13Thank you very much.
11:14Thank you very much.
11:15All right.
11:16All right, well I'll be back right after this break.
11:17See you here shortly after the break.
11:17All right, bye.
11:18Bye.
11:19See you soon.
11:20All right, bye.
11:21All right, bye.
11:22All right, thanks.
11:22Bye.
11:23Okay, thank you.
11:24Bye.
11:25Bye.
11:26Bye.