how do you know when you've made the right decision? it's the feeling you get in your gut, the one that tells you what's right or what's wrong. it's the one that says, "sure, i could have a drink." or the feeling that says, "ok, i've been drinking, now what." it's the voice inside you that says, "i'm buzzed...better leave the car when it's time to go." plan ahead. catch a sober ride. buzzed driving is drunk driving. >> announcer: "this week" with george stephanopoulos starts right now. sky-high tensions. >> what the heck is that? >> the military shoots down the chinese spy balloon that has been floating across the u.s. for days. >> the balloon has violated u.s. air space and international law. >> secretary of state antony blinken postpones his trip to beijing, another blow to

u.s.-china relations. >> the decision to take this action on my planned visit is detrimental. >> the fallout with senator marco rubio, and admiral mike mullen. hiring surge.e ioand the state of our economy is strong. >> president biden boasts historic job growth ahead of his state of the union address as biden gears up for re-election. the republican opposition digs in. >> we're not passing a clean debt ceiling. >> everything they've done has been a mess. the record debt. >> the latest with transportation secretary pete buttigieg and new hampshire governor chris sununu. plus, surprising numbers from our new poll and our powerhouse round table. and -- >> do you trust that the water is safe? >> no,i don't. i don't drink it. >> no end in sight for jackson, mississippi's water crisis. rachel scott has a new

series, "through the cracks." good morning, and welcome to "this week." with the state of the union address just two days away, we have a new poll showing the steep challenges facing president biden, and some alarming numbers for democrats about the prospects of a biden/trump rematch, but we begin this morning with the chinese spy balloon shot down yesterday. the balloon first entered american air space over alaska ten days ago, before crossing into canada and then re-entering american air space in montana on tuesday, spending the rest of the week floating across the mainland of the united states at an altitude of about 60,000 feet. the chinese insisted it was just a weather balloon that had veered off course. the pentagon says it was a sophisticated, high-altitude

surveillance system sent by the chinese to spy on the u.s. the balloon's path went above the u.s. nuclear silos and other sensitive sites, sparking a major diplomatic clash between the united states and china and prompting secretary of state blinken to cancel a highly anticipated visit this week to beijing. and late yesterday, an air force f-22 fighter jet fired a single air-to-air missile into the balloon, bringing it down into the waters off the coast of south carolina where there is now an ongoing effort to retrieve the surveillance equipment it was carrying. there are a lot of unanswered questions this morning about what the chinese were trying to do, and about a second chinese balloon spotted yesterday over south america, and what this means for u.s.-china relations. former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, admiral mike mullen is here, but first we're joined by the vice chairman of the senate intelligence committee, marco rubio. we're hearing the reaction from

china now to the shooting down of this balloon. their spokesperson has said that this was simply an accident, a weather balloon that had veered off course, but they said this. for the united states to insist using armed force is clearly an excessive reaction that seriously violates international convention. china will resolutely defend the legitimate rights and interests of the enterprise involved and retains the right to respond further. so what do you make of that? it sounds like they are threatening or at least suggesting some sort of retaliation for the taking down of this balloon. >> well, i can assure you that if we fly a balloon over china, they're going to shoot it down and probably a lot sooner than we did, but i think there's an important thing to understand. there's intelligence value to what this balloon did. that's why they have them. that's why they've used them, and we'll learn more about that here in the days to come especially as we're briefed on it.

there's a symbolic issue at play here. this is not a coincidence that this transversed the united states leading up to blinken's visit to china. this is deliberate. they did this on purpose. they understood it was going to be spotted. they knew the u.s. government would have to reveal it to people and they would see it over the sky and the message they were trying to send is, what they believe internally, and that is what the united states is a once great superpower that's hollowed out, that's in decline, and the message they're trying to send the world is, look. these guys can't even do anything about a balloon flying over u.s. air space. how can you possibly count on them if something were to happen in the indo-pacific region? if they won't do anything over u.s. air space, how will they come to the aid of taiwan or stand with japan or india when the chinese move on their territory? i think that's really the key part here is they knew exactly what they were doing, and there was a message behind it. >> but the balloon was shot out of the sky. what do you mean?

i mean, the balloon was taken down. >> yeah, and i think they understood that ultimately that would probably be what could happen, and then they would make this other statement about, oh, the u.s. is overreacting. it's just a weather balloon. look how silly they got. it's part of it as well, but the world is going to see, we have a balloon that entered through alaska, traversed everywhere from idaho, montana, across the midwest. look at the flight path this thing took. it's not coincidental. it went over icbm fields, some of the most sensitive military sites we have, and exited over the sea board of the united states and into the ocean. there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. when was it spotted? why was it not brought down sooner? i'm open to listening to the arguments about why wasn't it dealt with sooner, but you asked about china's comments. this is what we wanted the world to see. that they could send a balloon at 60,000 feet over u.s. air space, over military facilities and we would be unable to stop it and that ultimately when we

shoot it down, if we did, they would argue, look how they overreact to a weather balloon which is obviously not what it is. >> so you are a member of the so-called gang of eight. you're one of the congressional officials that will get briefed first on this. what questions do you want to ask? >> well, i think the intelligence value of it is first and foremost in our mind. what do you believe we collected from it? what is the value of it? it is one of multiple platforms. look, countries spy on countries. china has satellites. china unfortunately has embedded in our country software and hardware that could potentially be used for espionage. what was the value of this platform? it's one we've seen them use for a handful of years here, but what is the value of it? secondarily to it is really an understanding of what are we going to do about it in the future? i don't believe this is the last time we're going to see this sort of thing happen. again, i don't think this is

coincidental. i think they did this on purpose to send a message to the world that they can enter american air space and do so without us being able to do or willing to do much about it. >> the suggestion that we have heard from pentagon officials is there may actually be more intelligence value that we will glean from this. this was shot down over water. they will hope to recover the payload largely intact. is it possible we may learn some significant and important things about the way the chinese are operating by retrieving this payload? >> potentially. it depends what we retrieve. this thing went into the ocean. it depends what we retrieve, and the chinese suspected this might happen. look. they flew this thing across the middle of the united states. i imagine whoever designed this thing and put it up there realized, at some point the americans may get their hands on this. it's quite possible it was designed in a way there wouldn't be much value to us in that regard. we're going to find things that will not be discussed publicly because if they knew what we gleaned from it, they'll protect themselves from it in the future.

those are some of the questions we'll want answered in the days to come, and it depends what we're able to retrieve. when you shoot something out of the sky and it goes in the ocean, you don't always get it back in a neat package. >> did antony blinken make the right move to cancel that trip to beijing? >> i don't know how you could make that trip happen at this point with this thing happening, but these two things were linked and most troubling, and maybe it's not true. i hope it's not true, but there are reports in bloomberg and other outlets, but there are reasons that the biden administration did not disclose this balloon because it did not want to endanger or imperil his ability to travel over there, but i think once this happened, there's no way he could have possibly made this trip at this stage. >> he shot it down at the advice of the military. you don't think he should have shot it down against the advice of the joint chiefs, do you?

>> it begins by understanding, when did we first track it over air space? if it entered through alaska, norad, it's our system of spotting things protecting both canadian and american air space, so i would love to hear from military officials about why wasn't it addressed earlier? what were the options at that point? again, look. maybe in a closed session or maybe in the settings of with a benefit of hindsight, they'll have real good arguments about why it couldn't be done. i recognize that when you shoot something out of the sky that's the size of three buses and it lands in the wrong place, it could hurt, harm or kill people and damage infrastructure, but by the same token, i think that if that was the case, then i think it would have been helpful for the president of the united states to get on national television and explain to the american people, this is what we're dealing with. this is what i'm going to do about it and this is why i haven't done it yet. none of that happened, and i don't know why they waited so long to tell people about this, and they knew the trajectory that it was on last week from late last week, or early last week.

>> we're told by the way this happened three times under the previous president, and obviously there were no public notifications there. senator rubio, thank you for joining us. we really appreciate your time. >> thank you. let's bring in admiral mike mullen, the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. it's been shot down. now what? >> i think they'll focus heavily on obviously recovering it. it's in what i understand to be about 45, 46, 47 feet of water which is relatively shallow. i suspect whatever the package is, and how intact it is will be recovered, you know, relatively shortly. that's one. secondly, i think strategically this really damages a relationship between us and china, further damages which was deteriorating and i think that's really the big part of this. i would, and i think the senator, you know, he keeps talking about they, which i understand, but one of the questions is whether the right hand knew what the left hand was

doing inside china, and quite frankly, not dissimilar to when bob gates was in china about a decade ago visiting. i mean, literally sitting with the president when the pla let -- tested a stealth aircraft, and by all reports he didn't know anything about it. i think that's a big question. >> the suggestion is this could have been done by elements within the chinese military to intentionally disrupt this visit by the secretary of state. >> clearly. i think that's the case, and i think to your question about thing, i think he absolutely - did. there's no way that he could have had a meaningful visit, and we have a host of issues that we need to address. the biden/xi meeting recently was attempting to put a floor on the relationship because things have deteriorated to such a bad point. >> it seemed to be a warming of relations. >> it was.

it seemed to be. we have had staff talks since that time, and clearly this puts a big dent in moving that forward in a constructive way, which we really need to do. >> and we've heard -- it was pi rubio really not go into it again, but we've heard from other republicans and from him before it was brought down a lot of criticism of president biden for not shooting it down earlier. what do you make of that? >> i mean, certainly what i have seen in reports is the president made a decision on wednesday to shoot it down, and then basically turned it over to the military to pick the time and place. it's very clear to me that the intelligence value of this from the standpoint of what it was getting was not worth the risk of killing an american on the ground, and it's a substantial package in terms of its size, and even in the least dense areas of the country, there was that possibility, and i know that's why we waited to this point to take it down. >> is it also possible that they wanted to bring it down over water because it would do less

damage as it fell to the ground? i mean, we hear about the intelligence value potentially of whatever it was carrying. it landed in water which is different than landing on the ground. >> yeah. i mean, being able to figure out exactly what's going to happen when you fire a missile into a package like that, that's pretty difficult. i think the overriding concern was not hurting any american people on the ground. >> we hear this has happened before. there's this other balloon that was spotted just yesterday over south america. while you were chairman, did you -- were you aware of this, the extent of this program? >> this program at least by reports, it's about ten years old. it's a fairly robust program, and as has been said, it's not like spying on each other's a new thing. >> no. >> so to my knowledge, it's the first time, you know, i've seen anything come over the country like this. there's no question.

obviously you can't hide it. so to what the senator said, i think there was, you know, whoever launched this thing with deliberate intent and it doesn't get here instantly. it takes awhile, and i think he asked some good questions about when did we detect it and what were the decisions made? >> there is no way that this was just blown off course. >> no. i don't think so. this is -- >> blown off course just happens to go over our -- >> actually, i think i know enough about the system that you actually can navigate this system that has propellers on it if you will. so this was not an accident. this was deliberate. it was intelligence, you know, and we need to do two things. we need to sort out all the details of that. more importantly, we need to make sure we can get this relationship moving in the right direction. >> all right. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. as president biden prepares his state of the union address on tuesday, e'll have the surprising insights from our new poll. plus, pete buttigieg and

chris sununu join us live. we're back in 60 seconds. ♪ma ma ma ma♪ [clears throut] for fast sore throat relief, try vicks vapocool drops with two times more menthol per drop*, and the powerful rush of vicks vapors for fast-acting relief you can feel. vicks vapocool drops. fast relief you can feel. think he's posting about all that ancient roman coinage? no. he's making real-time money moves with merrill. so no matter what the market's doing, he's ready. and that's...

how you collect coins. your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. we've created more new jobs in two years than any president did in their entire term. the biggest investment in the american infrastructure since eisenhower's administration interstate highway system. our roads, highways, bridges, ports, airports, clean water systems, high speed internet, rail. lower health care costs and lower prescription drug prices. so let me ask you a simple question. are you with me? [ cheers and applause ] >> president biden sounding very much like a candidate for re-election at the dnc's annual meeting in phladelphia on friday, but as we mentioned, our new poll this morning with the

"washington post" shows significant warning signs for democrats. more than half of the country disapproves of biden's job performance, weighed down by significant discontent over the economy. 40% say they are worse off financially than they were two years ago. the most negative response to that question in nearly 40 years of our polling, and as biden prepares for a likely 2024 re-election campaign, less than a third of democratic voters want to see him renominated. perhaps most frightening for democrats in a hypothetical rematch of the 2020 election, trump has a slight edge, 48-44 within the margin of error over biden. here to discuss it all is >> good to be with you. >> i hear the president's message. i suspect it's what we'll hear on tuesday, that the economy is back on track. how do you make that case when

so many americans don't feel it? >> you make that case by pointing to the reality and recognizing that the story won't tell itself. what we're seeing is extraordinary. record job creation as the president has pointed out, more created in two years on his watch than four years on any other president's watch, and usually when you have unemployment go down like this, you have inflation go up, but right now inflation is going down as well. the economic track record in terms of creating manufacturing jobs, in terms of lowering costs like $35 insulin for seniors. we tried to get $35 insulin for everybody, and senate republicans blocked us, but the president was able to do it for seniors. accomplishment after accomplishment, and if you look at things like the infrastructure package that i'm working on that was passed in his first year, and set up in his second year, and it's in the third and fourth years -- >> those projects get going.

>> it takes time to get funded and we're starting to see the construction phase begin. >> the number that really struck me in our poll was only 16% -- only 16% say that they feel better off today than they were two years ago when biden took office. that's a tough -- that's a tough number to make the case that, hey. happy days are here again. >> look. we have been through a lot, and, you know, the president and the entire administration recognize that there continue to be headwinds, challenges, problems facing this economy. the president took office under some of the most challenging circumstances facing any president in modern times, but you look at things like the fact that real wages are up, the fact that the number of people participating in the labor force is up. again, something that doesn't always happen when you see those unemployment numbers coming down, and i think we can expect to see continued improvement if -- if we stay the course of these successful policies and part of what i think you're going to see on tuesday when you see the president address the nation and the congress in the

state of the union is a reminder that this successful approach stands in stark contrast to a strategy that would focus on things like preserving tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, looking at cutting social security and medicare which we're hearing about from a lot of house republicans. kevin mccarthy -- >> that was said it's not on the table. no cuts to social security or medicare, but i want to ask you about these negotiations. are they negotiations over the debt ceiling? you have warned that if the united states defaults on its debt that it's going to cause huge problems for the department of transportation, huge problems for the economy at large. >> yeah. >> how are those negotiations going? can we call them negotiations? >> i think the president's been very clear that the full faith and credit of the united states is not negotiable. remember this is not a decision or a negotiation about how much to spend or even how much to borrow. this is about whether the united states pays its bills, and we

always do. we've done this dozens and dozens of times under democratic and republican presidents, and there should be no question that the united states will pay its bills. now i will also say that there are always negotiations going on over the fiscal path of the united states. the president's going to present his budget in about a month and there's a very natural, healthy push/pull process when it comes to -- >> you're going to get the debt ceiling to pass and limit spending and the two don't -- they're kind of simultaneous -- >> one is not appropriate for negotiation. the other one is. let's talk about where we're headed and the investments we're making on infrastructure and everything else the president is going to propose. we haven't seen any indication that house republicans are ready to put pen to paper on what they want to see, which is why it's very hard to understand what exactly they're proposing to cut. >> the plan to balance the budget. how soon to you expect the president to announce he's running for re-election? >> that's out of my lane and

above my pay grade at the same time. >> do you want him to run? do you want him to run again? you saw our poll. you have a large number of democrats that say they don't want him to run. >> he is an absolutely historically successful president, and i want to see that continue. >> you want him to run again? >> when i'm appearing in this capacity, i can't talk campaigns and elections, but i'm incredibly proud to be part of this team he has built and part of the results that he is delivering. the biggest infrastructure package since eisenhower, the most significant economic achievement -- package since fdr. all by the way while having the most -- the slimmest congressional majority of any new democratic president in about 100 years, and again, we're just two years in. so what he's achieved is extraordinary. when i see tongues wagging about polls and stuff, i can't help but think about, you know, the tongues that were wagging in october. everything this president has done again and again and again whether it's politically or policy-wise, it has been beyond

expectation. s. >> thank you for being here on set. we'll talk to you again soon, i'm sure. >> thank you. let's get the response from new hampshire governor chris sununu. thank you for joining us. before we get to politics, i got to ask you about the big story over the weekend of this past week, the chinese spy balloon. did the president make the right call to shoot it down? >> too little, too late. at the end of the day, they saw this balloon coming. this is all about china poking at us. this is all about china testing the american resolve, whether it's with tiktok or the balloon or whatever the thing is going to be next month, they know that tensions are escalating. they want to see what kind of leadership we have, and no. the president failed on this one. should have been a lot more transparent, should have taken action a lot sooner and gotten it done. this is not the last we're going

to see of china. i know the president wishes that, but it's not. >> the military advice he had was to wait until it was over water. do you think he should have disregarded the military advice? >> there were clearly opportunities to take care of -- take care of the balloon before it finally got over the atlantic. there are reports that they saw it coming in from the pacific, that it was coming in over the forest. it was coming in over the islands. there was opportunity to take care of this before it ended up in montana and they realized, oh, gee, we have a problem. you have to be transparent and fast-acting. they weren't. they weren't at all. >> so the president's state of the union address tuesday, what do you want to hear from him? >> look. i'm a free market, principle republican. i would love to hear he's focusing on an efficient budget, believing in locals, believing in individuals and individual liberty, but i know what we're going to hear. we're going to hear him take credit for adding more jobs than ever before. after a pandemic, that wasn't -- that wasn't very hard. he's going to kind of talk about we have unemployment finally coming down and inflation coming down.

inflation was at a record high. it couldn't have gotten any higher. the president is going to do what he does. try to take credit for all of this stuff, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter about the speech. it matters what's going on around this country, and talking to people. going into a grocery store and just talking to people in the cereal aisle. what are they feeling? do they feel confident about this leadership that the president -- no. your own polls just showed that, right? so at the end of the day, the best leadership is one that looks inside, says, what are we doing right? what are we doing wrong? if we don't acknowledge the problem, we can't fix it. it's what i do as governor and a lot of folks do in washington. >> inflation is down. gas prices are way off, about $1.50 off their high, and you can't ignore that unemployment number, 3.4%, the lowest in decades. i mean, that matters, doesn't it? >> turned around from where we were. of course, that was going to turn around, but believe me, we're going to be in three or four years of stagflation. they're pulling billions of

dollars, which they should have started two years ago by the way. they're getting their arms wrap around interest rates and controlling that, which again, they should have done two years earlier. i think janet yellen should have been fired. she played politics knowing what the macro economics were going to be. you could still get a lot of cash out there in the economy. you're going to have this inflation, and inflation doesn't go down, right? just the monthly number gets better. >> the increase is less. >> that's not the way it works. that's right. the prices are not going to go back to where they were, and biden administration likes to pretend that. you had secretary buttigieg on. they put a trillion dollars into infrastructure and transportation so we can build more roads, but it costs twice as much to build a road. all they did was create an inflationary problem so we didn't have to deal with it at the government level. it's backwards macro economics and we need people to understand this at a real level, not try to take credit at point in time

talking points. we got 10% unemployment. that's not what this job is about. it's about creating long-term benefits and structure that we can all drive into. >> it sounds like you're considering running for president. what's the deciding factor going to be for you? >> it sounds like it from this interview? >> yeah. >> i'm not sure about that. >> it sounds like it. you're thinking about it. p>> t. look. definitely thinking about it, and having those conversations, but at the end of the day, you're going to have a lot of republicans that get in that race. they're all really good people, really good candidates. you have nikki haley and mike pompeo and governor desantis and a lot of them will get in. we have to get into a discussion about where we're going to go. i'm kind of that live free or die individual liberty. i believe government has to get out of your way, and we've done it really, really well in new hampshire.

we're sharing that model across the country. no sales tax or income tax, number one in individual liberties. all those statistics. how are we doing it? how does it translate into real world things like mental health, opioids, what's happening with education, right? we all despise and hate this cancel culture, but what can we do at a government level and make sure those changes are happening in our community? >> you saw what our poll said about trump/biden. do you think donald trump can beat biden? >> no. at the end of the day, the poll showed us that. the country will push back against it. just look at the results of three months ago, and that shows you where extreme candidates are going to end up falling. it can't get done. he could get the nomination, but he can't get it done and what i try to espouse to republicans and we want to vote for the most conservative candidate that can win in november and get stuff done in '25. >> governor sununu, thank you for joining us. we appreciate your time. the round table weighs in next.

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he shared his. we walked out saying we would continue the discussion,and i think there is an opportunity here to come to an agreement on both sides. >> start treating each other with respect. that's what kevin and i are going to do. not a joke. we had a good meeting yesterday. i think we got to do it across the board. >> president biden and house speaker kevin mccarthy both expressing some optimism after their first meeting on the debt ceiling. let's bring in the round table. former dnc chair donna brazile, jonathan martin, mary bruce, and chris christie. so mary, state of the union tuesday. >> mm-hmm. >> i assume this is basically, like, the opening salvo of the re-election campaign. biden is running for re-election, right? wth, es a good opportunity for a soft lauh. he hasn't made it official, but outline the argument to have t-

another four years. we know what to expect here, right? we know that the economy is numbers.ased off the latest job- he's going to say he deserves credit for that, and to continue it. the problem is that message hasn't been resonating. right? look at the poll. four in ten americans say that the economy isn't helping out. they feel worse off now than they did when he started and americans aren't feeling him. they aren't feeling the effects to of any economic growth in their wallet, and they're not enthusiastic about him. these numbers stand out to me. six in ten americans say they would be disappointed or even angry if he wins again. that is more than 56% who have a negative response to trump win. he has to make a compelling argument, and set the stage for why he deserves another four years. >> it's hard to say stay the course when the answer for are you better off now for so many americans is no. >> if you listened to secretary buttigieg, you would have thought we were in the eisenhower economy for god's sake.

here's the problem. politicians when they run for office, you don't always win. sometimes the other guy loses. joe biden's president because donald trump lost. joe biden didn't win, and joe biden's never taken possession of that fact, and so he continues to do what he did when he was running which he thinks was great, because i won. no, you didn't win. trump lost, and you can't change who somebody is, jon. in the end, joe biden is not an exciting candidate. he's old, he's boring and the american people are not relating to him and that's why those numbers are the way they are. he was running against someone in 2020 who was so toxic that he won anyway, but -- >> governor, as long as donald trump is still looming out there on the horizon, democrats are going to be loyal to this president. >> good.

>> they perceive the threat of trump as making it sort of imperative that biden is the nominee to keep trump out of white house. that leads to the elephant in the room if democrats realize this fall that trump is not going to be the nominee of the gop. is there then a, you know, awakening if you will, about maybe it isn't the best idea to have a president who is underwater and 81 years old? >> let me just say this. the american people wasn't just voting for a man. they were voting for a vision. they were voting for a president who could take them beyond the current toxicity of trump and to a future where a president invests in the american people, invests in jobs, invests in the economy, invests in our infrastructure. that's what they were voting for. you keep discounting the fact that -- >> no, they weren't. >> governor, i give respect to practically everything you say about donald trump, but the one thing you will never say about joe biden was that he was sleeping on the job.

he was working deliberately to help the american people grow this economy. >> that's not what the american people think. >> but the republican party is in a down mood. they're in a funk. i mean, when you look at the numbers today and where the republicans are, they're against anything that joe biden promotes. if joe biden says the sun is coming up tomorrow, the republicans will say, oh, no, it's not. you're in a down mood. >> in the same way, that's the role of an opposition party. in the same way that the democrats were against everything donald trump did -- >> not everything. >> yes, everything. >> not everything. >> everything he was for, they were against. republicans voted for the infrastructure bill. we can all find little pieces. >> there have been significant bipartisan legislative achievements. >> lots of them. >> i want to get you in on our poll, not about democratic leaders who are all with biden,

but look at democratic voters. democratic voters, only 31% in our poll want biden to run again. 58% want someone else. now look at the flip side. republican voters, and you see it regarding donald trump. 44% want him to run again. i mean, much closer. how is it that at this point we're at a situation where republicans are more enthusiastic about a trump re-run than they are a biden re-election? >> because democrats are always thinking about the future, and we're thinking about the future of the country and the future of our political party, and look. if you go back to last summer, many democrats said, hey. we don't want -- we don't want what we have, but you know what? it's better than the alternative. i recognize that the president will have great challenges, and building back the majority coalition tht he assembled in 2020. i do believe that he has the ability to overcome some of these challenges. will it be easy? no, because you've got to bring

in this young group of voters, and you know what? they're not looking at what's going on today. they're thinking about their future, and they're looking for someone else. >> at some point, there's going to be a democrat who's very ambitious, out there in the ranks of governors or in the congress who looked at this data you're talking about and realizes the political leaders may be deferential to president biden, but our voters have a different view. >> ther may be a challenger? >> boy, there's an opportunity. if, if, if trump fades. this is the key. so much of biden's future hangs on trump because that force field around biden is emboldened by trump. if trump is not the threat this fall that he is seen as today and he is fading, i think democrats are then going to ask questions about biden. it totally hangs on trump. >> to jonathan's point, so much of it and so much of the democrats' argument, a lot of the argument that's coming out of the biden team on this is

that biden is the only one that can beat donald trump, and that's part of the argument. you look at poll after poll after poll, but those are very close for democrats. to make the argument which is a lot for them that biden's the only one who can beat trump and they think that's an argument that extends to someone like ron desantis, and if you continue to see numbers that close, i wonder to jonathan's point, if that changes the calculus. >> it's an argument to say he beat trump. there are two people in the history of mankind who have run against donald trump in a general election. one won and one lost. >> we have to remember what the 2020 election was like. joe biden didn't -- barely had to leave his basement in wilmington. he didn't have to campaign. i want to ask you, jon. you've covered presidential races. >> you're going to ask me now? >> yeah. >> turn of the tables. >> did you see joe biden on air force one doing campaign stops a day and being effective? can you imagine how many gaffes there will be in these? not any other reason than he's making it up. >> i don't know. >> he's not capable of running a

traditional, american race, and what he had in '20 was a gift. he had donald trump who was toxic and he had a pandemic which prevented him from having to go out and speak every day. >> the midterms looked good for joe biden. joe biden was out there, not in every state, but he was out there and democrats way outperformed. >> and look. i recognize because i used to be on those planes going to six and seven events a day. >> sometimes eight and nine. >> well, hell yeah. i said hell. sorry about that. joe biden knows how to put together a winning coalition. he did it in 2020, and if he has to do it again, he will. look.

ronald reagan announced on october 17, 1983, all right? >> his re-election. >> when should biden announce do you think? >> not until late summer, early fall. >> why? >> who's running against him? >> right. >> all he has to do is make the deadlines and get on the ballot. get on the ballot. >> what do you think about when he'll announce? what are you hearing? >> all they will say is after the state of the union, which does not help to clarify. there's no pressure on him to announce now. >> why? >> financially, politically, he could put this off, you know, for months and months and months. >> i want to talk about the other guy, trump, who is right now the only -- >> it rings a bell. >> -- the only announced candidate for president on the republican side, i think. there's been a lot of question about, you know, potential candidates. would you support trump if he was the nominee? i won't drag you through that again, but i want to play trump's answer to that question. he was asked this week, would you support the nominee

th iwhat he said. > myueion to you, mr. president,are e ill you support >> it depep nomineis i d give you t se answer i gave in 2016. it would have to depend on who the nominee was. >> i mean, this was as the rnc is going around saying that as a condition to get into the debates, all candidates will have to say that they have promised to support the nominee. i mean -- >> it tells you one of two things, right? it tells you that trump is aware of that and makes a conscious decision. it says he doesn't want to debate and be on the stage. >> do you think that's the case? >> i think it might be because i think he knows that debates this time will be much, much different than they were in 2016. >> because he has the record to answer for. >> that's exactly right. also, look, if you are a candidate and the rnc is saying that to you, you say, yeah. when everybody else agrees, when everybody says yes, i'll say yes, but i would say this. you would be dumb as a esent in my vi iyoy, for

ee no matter who it is, but donald trump who is the front-runner says, i won't necessarily do that. when the front-runner says he'll support the nominee, then count me in. until then, forget it. >> you had a very interesting article this week saying that, you know, talking about how slow republicans are to come out to jump. nikki haley, we'll probably hear from in a couple of weeks. what's going on? >> i'm struck by the slowness that the field is developing, but i think this is going to be a smaller field than past gop races. i think they're dealing with trump is a hassle. you played the clip there. will he or won't he endorse the nomination? senators who are in their 40s and 50s, just sit it down and see what happens down the road. desantis, he appears to be a strong trump alternative. he's constantly debating tlyo my

available for gop candidates this time around because they're not going to want to burn cash on somebody that they think will prolong this race. they're desperate to find a trump alternative and fast. >> i wore red today to represent your side of the aisle, chris. >> our heart is warmed by that. >> you got your blue tie on that. i love the compliments here, but here's the thing. donald trump ran as an insurgent in 2016. there's a lot of power when you are an insurgent. there's no power when you are not an insurgent. he is the incumbent, and he is going to have to continue to go out there and get endorsements, supporters, and raise some money. the republicans will have a large field because you have a lot of governors, and you have a lot of other talent that's been

sitting on the sideline, and they're going to take on donald trump. it's going to be an interesting primary season, jonathan. trump is still the front-runner. >> can trump beat biden? >> i don't think so. >> and what do you make of sununu? >> listen. i know chris really well. i've known him for 15 years. i mean, listen. everybody is playing around with the idea of, will i run or won't i run? i think the reason it's developing slowly is nobody sees nit imperative to do it. who wants to be the first in the pool with donald trump when he has no one else to shoot at and his whole life is about shooting at people? you know, why do you want to necessarily be the first in the pool to do that? secondly, there's no push right now from any other outside forces to say, you must make a decision tomorrow. so when there isn't, there's no real reason to begin -- listen. i have been through this. it is a long, difficult process. to the extent you can make it

shorter, that's good. >> 17 candidates in 2016 filed, i think, for the ballot in south carolina. i think this time around we'll see seven to nine do that. here's one date to watch. that's this summer, the rnc summer meeting in milwaukee. they're going to have a debate. so i think that's the one -- >> who's going to be in that debate? >> that'll get candidates to be on that stage. >> whether or not donald trump will be on that stage -- >> or chris christie. >> chris christie. we are out of time. thank you very much to the round table. coming up, a first look at an abc series that follows the money for federal programs and the communities that slip through the cracks. stay with us. follows the money for federal programs and what slips through the cracks. gs worth of transactions against thousands of compliance controls with the help of ai. now you're making smarter decisions faster. operating costs are lower. and everyone from your auditors to your bankers feels like a million bucks.

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nervive contains alpha lipoic acid to relieve occasional nerve aches, weakness and discomfort. try nervivenerve relief. safe, drinkable, reliable, sustainable, and equitable water treatment facility is a much longer road ahead. as i have always warned, you know, even when the pressure is restored, even when we're not under a boil water notice, it's not a matter of if these systems will fail, but when these systems will fail. >> the mayor of jackson, mississippi last year after 150,000 residents have been under a boil water notice for more than a month. five months later, many are still without access to safe, clean tap water. senior congressional correspondent rachel scott follows up on efforts to fix jackson's water system on her new series "through the cracks." >> reporter: this is a judge

trying to fix the water crisis in jackson. he's only been on the b a few months, but the problem goes ad. the crumbling water plant is in desperate need of repair. >> this is a failed system from an infrastructure standpoint. >> reporter: he took us inside the water treatment plant, giving our cameras treatment facility. the main - this is the start of what every jackson resident wants. >> every day. >> clean, safe drinking water. >> we have been realy good at producing it. unfortunately, had the gaps and we're missing critical parts. all those things contribute to these episodes where we have had these disasters. >> reporter: the condition of that water treatment plant is felt by people like glenda barner. do you trust this water? >> i don't. i don't drink it. i have not drank jackson city water in years. >> reporter: the grandmother of seven often has to prepare meals

for her entire family just using bottled water. >> and i think about it not just for myself, but as a city. we shouldn't have to go through this. we really shouldn't. >> reporter: in 2022, mississippi received $429 million from the bipartisan infrastructure bill to address water infrastructure directly. we asked the mayor for an update. >> none of the money has been allocated at this time, and the application process has not been released by the state. >> reporter: but there was an application process. abc news has learned leaders in jackson did not apply last year for any of that funding, and only recently applied in 2023. >> you depend on your city, your federal, and your state government to help you in times like this, but they're having infighting over the politics of it. you know, they say they're allocating money. where's the money? whs he m beingpen?e 00 milf rodeepty ojackson reha

the american rescue plan in congress. in a new plan obtained by abc news, it's laid out how they intend to address the water system issue and address leaks, but it'll take time. the plan spans 20 years. though some improvements will be seen in the first five. what do you tell residents when you hear from them about their frustrations, especially those that are losing patience? >> a little bit more patience, which is hard to ask. they've suffered. it's been terrible. >> thanks to rachel for that. her full report airs tomorrow on abc news live, prime with linsey davis. we'll be right back. news live,y davis. we'll be right back.

that's all for today. thank you for sharing part of your sunday with us, and tune in tuesday night at 9:00 p.m. i'll be joining david muir and our entire political team for

live coverage of president biden's state of the union and the republican response. have a great day.

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