Former Biden Chief Of Staff Ron Klain Reveals Warning Hillary Clinton Gave Him About Biden

I'm going to ask a broad question that's yes or no right now, and then we can dive into details if there are any yeses. And it's, between 2019 and present, have you had any communications, meaning in-person calls, texts, anything, with the following list of people regarding President Biden's ability to be President of the United States. I'm cutting out health and age because I'm sure, like, we've run into, you know, we talked about a cough drop or something, so, ability to be President of the United States. First Lady Biden? No. Hunter Biden? No. Ashley Biden? No. Naomi Biden? Not to recall, no. Valerie Biden-Owens? Not to recall, no. Vice President Harris? No. Second Gentleman Emhoff? Not to recall, no. President Obama? No. President Clinton? No. Secretary Clinton? Yes. Mr. Zients? No. Mr. Rahm Emanuel? Yes. Mr. Bill Daley? No. Mr. Jake Sullivan? Yes. Ms. Anita Dunn? No. Mr. Mike Donilon? Not to recall, no. Mr. Bruce Reed? Not to recall, no. Mr. Steve Reschetti? I would have discussed with Steve the political fallout of the debate, but Steve did not express to me the view that he thought the President was incapable of being President. Ms. O'Malley Dillon? Same answer for Ms. O'Malley Dillon. Mr. Bernal? No, not to recall. Ms. Tomasini? No, not to recall. Ms. Tandon? Same answer I gave for Mr. Reschetti and Ms. O'Malley Dillon. Ms. Ashley Williams? No. Dr. O'Connor? No. Ms. Bedingfield? Not to recall, no. Ms. Psaki? Same answer I gave previously that I would have discussed with Jen the political ramifications of the debate, but not a view by herself or myself that the President was incapable of governing. Mr. David Axelrod? Same answer. I had a spicy conversation with Mr. Axelrod after he was quoted in the New York Times saying the President should step aside. Ms. Jean-Pierre? Not to recall, no. Speaker Merida Pelosi? No. Senator Schumer? No. Leader Jeffries? No. I think I've asked this a thousand different ways, but any other sitting Senator? No. Any other sitting member of Congress other than the ones that we've already discussed? None beyond the ones we've already discussed. And then what about any member of the Cabinet? No. You said yes to Secretary Clinton. What were the nature of those conversations? Secretary Clinton was present at this event I did in Aspen where a lot of people were saying that President Biden should step aside. And afterwards she took me aside for a conversation and said, look, he's got a big political problem. You need to find a better way to address this than you did. I said, I understand. She did not say to me she thought the President was incapable of governing. It was all about politics. But she said that, you know, the sentiment in the room was a common sentiment among donors, at least, and among politically influential people. And the Biden campaign was doing an inadequate job of addressing it. If I mischaracterize your testimony today, that sounds similar to how you felt at the time, that it was a political problem, not a governing problem. Yes. You said yes to Mr. Emanuel. What were the nature of those conversations? Well, one of the people who was most outspoken in that Aspen meeting about the President's age was his brother, Ari, who had been President Trump's agent. And Ari had heckled me, essentially, from the stage. And so I called Rom to say, what the ****'s going on with your brother? And he said, well, you know, Ari just thinks Biden should step aside. Do you think Mr. Emanuel is running for president in 2028? I don't think so. In the end, I think he will. I think he will head fake a lot, but I do not think in the end Rom will run. You said yes to Jake Sullivan. What were the nature of those conversations? In the summer of 2024, after the debate, the NATO summit was here in Washington, and there was public reporting that the President's performance at the NATO summit had been uneven. So I called Jake to ask him if that was true or not. Jake said the meeting had been a difficult one, that the allies weren't all aligned, and that the President had sometimes been effective, sometimes ineffective in getting them in line. But in the end, the President had gotten the job done. The allies had agreed on a plan for going forward on Ukraine. The allies had agreed to make more of a contribution if the U.S. pulled back, and it ended well. And the meeting was a tough one because people disagreed, not necessarily. Was there further discussion regarding the President's ability to conduct that meeting? We discussed Jake's view that the President had not been as effective in getting the allies to agree as he had been in the past. And part of that, I think, was just the allies were tired of the war and tired of the expense and concerned that President Trump was going to get reelected and would have a more contentious relationship with NATO. And they were pressing the President quite hard on that. Did Mr. Sullivan express to you that the lack of effectiveness from the President in that meeting had anything to do with the President's ability to conduct his job? No. He did not raise any concern with the President's ability to govern. He did raise the concern that he thought that it would be hard for the President to get reelected. Can you explain that a little bit more? That if the President wasn't more able to fluidly handle these allies, did he have the political skills to succeed in a campaign that was already in trouble at that point in time? When in 2022, when the invasion first happened, was the President able to handle the allies? He did very successfully. Got them aligned on a sanctions package very quickly, which people thought would take months to do and only took days. And got them aligned on a plan to deliver aid to the Ukrainians in Poland. And then in the summer of 24, Mr. Sullivan's view that he didn't think that the President could win re-election? He didn't think the President had been as effective as he had been in the past and said, you know, like, it would be hard for him to win re-election this way. Because he was now less effective than he was in 2022? Apparently, yes. Thank you.