[Blitzer:] We have breaking news tonight. New details emerging right now of Joe Biden's change of position on the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for almost all abortions. Sources are telling CNN that top aides have made a forceful case directly to the former Vice President that led him to withdraw his longtime support for the Hyde Amendment. And, Rebecca, let me play a clip of how the former Vice President, Democratic presidential frontrunner explained his reversal.
[Joe Biden, Former U.s. Vice President:] I have supported the Hyde Amendment, like many, many others have. Because there was sufficient moneys and circumstances where women able to exercise that right, women of color, poor women, women not able to have access, and it was not under attack as it was then, as it is now. But circumstances have changed.
[Blitzer:] Circumstances have changed. Is that the full story?
[Buck:] Well, the circumstances that have changed, Wolf, are the political landscape for Democrats. And Joe Biden no longer feels comfortable politically being in the middle of the road, as he has said before, on abortion. So what's changed is that the whole Democratic field was going after him on this issue. He was in a politically unsustainable position. And he recognized and his campaign recognized that he was going to have to make a shift on this. Now, he's trying to say that the circumstances that have changed are all these states trying to roll back abortion laws. That's been happening for weeks. We have known this is coming. What changed it that he was in a political crisis.
[Blitzer:] Do you believe, Sabrina, that the former Vice President is making a good case that this was a principle evolution as his of his position instead of an overnight change of heart?
[Siddiqui:] Well that's a fairly difficult case for them to make when they took multiple positions in the course of 72 hours. Look, what's striking about this is that Hillary Clinton made the repeal of the Hyde Amendment a focal point of her 2016 campaign. It was actually part of the Democratic Party's platform in the previous election. So Joe Biden has had three years to rethink this issue as he's been weighing presidential bid. And as Rebecca pointed out, you've now had this debate over these extreme abortion laws across the country really playing out within the Democratic primary in particular, and so he could have also used that in his opportunity to come out and evolve on the issue, if that's what they want to call it. It was very clear, especially since his campaign made a point to say that he still supported the Hyde Amendment just earlier this week, that when faced with the backlash from progressives as well as other contenders in the field, that's when they saw that this would not be a tenable position for him and they had to reverse course.
[Blitzer:] Susan Hennessey, all these new laws being passed in these various states, anti-abortion laws, plus the new conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, do you think it's reasonable that the former Vice President changed his position because he sees what's going on?
[Hennessey:] Yes. So I do think that it felt safe for conservatives like Biden to want to stake out sort of a moderate position when it felt like Roe was solidly the law of the land and that pro-choice advocates had won on this issue. That's not the case anymore. The court is poised to, if not, overturn Roe directly to sort of chip away, to make the right fundamentally or as a practical matter inaccessible to women. I think Biden recognizes that this is going to be a major election issue for Democrats. If Donald trump wins re-election and gets another seat on the Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade will be overturned in this country or abortion will be rendered practically inaccessible. That is an issue that conservative voters have been campaigning on the promise of for decades. They have captured court. That moment is now here. It still is they still do not hold the majority view. The overwhelming majority of Americans want Roe v. Wade to maintain on the books, they want abortion to be safe and legal. And so the question here is the challenge for the Democratic candidates is going to be how do they turn out that majority of voters who actually want to protect that right. And I think that Biden realizes that you aren't going to be able to energize people from sort of a position of compromise or hesitancy. But the person who's going to win the Democratic nomination is going to be someone who is an unapologetic defender of reproductive freedom.
[Blitzer:] How do you think Biden, Phil, is handling this?
[Mudd:] I find this really interesting. Just for me, you get one get- out-of-jail-free card. That is you get to say, I reconsider this and my judgment. I exercise good judgment. I can change. You do that a couple of times and then you instantly become a flip-flopper. He's got 18 months to go before an election and he's got to deal with issues like tariffs, immigration, universal healthcare. The next time he does this, and he's got a long lead time here, people are going to start to say, this isn't about good judgment. This is flip-flopping. I close by saying, it was 30 years ago that George Bush, the senior, said, read my lips, no new taxes. And then he imposed new taxes and people still haven't forgotten one flip-flop. I think he gets a pass here, but I don't know if he gets two or three in the next 18 months.
[Blitzer:] When some of these new Supreme Court Justices, as Susan say, and during their confirmation hearings that Roe v. Wade is settled law, it's the law of the land, what do you say?
[Hennessey:] Well, Roe v. Wade is settled law for the lower courts. And so it's a little bit disingenuous whenever we hear Supreme Court Justices say, well, Roe is the law on the books. The Supreme Court has the capacity to overturn Roe. They have overturned precedents that are as old as Roe. And so I don't think anyone should be fooling themselves that they really are prepared to overturn this rule.
[Blitzer:] Rebecca, what do you think?
[Buck:] Absolutely. And so the question is how urgent of an issue will this be for Democratic voters? I think what we're seeing in the polling suggests that because of the Supreme Court, this has become incredibly urgent, that's why Joe Biden.
[Blitzer:] It's going to be a huge issue in the 2020 campaign. All right, guys, thanks very much. Much more news coming up, a near collision at sea, the ships coming so close that American sailors could see their Russian counterparts sunbathing. Plus, new developments emerging right now in an alleged terror plot targeting Times Square in New York City.