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lima, someone needs to customize and saved hundreds and car insurance would liberty neutral. let's fly chief i thought you were right behind me. >> only pay for what you need labor day au rafael romo at the georgia state capitol in atlanta. >> this is cnn if you're just joining us, i'm wolf wolf blitzer in washington, kaitlan collins joins us from new york. >> i want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. we're following very fast moving major breaking news president biden has dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and is publicly endorsing vice

president kamala harris to be the democratic presidential nominee. he made historic and stunning announcement at around 1:45 p.m. eastern time earlier today, sending out a statement that reshapes the 2024 presidential race just one month before the democratic national convention in chicago and wolf we're now learning from sources that the president's exit plans were set into motion operationally last night finalized today before he made that announcement? we're also told by sources, according to cnn's mj lee, that vice president harris was not notified about that decision, that final decision from the president until today, we are told the president biden consulted his family, his top advisers by phone from his delaware home. that's where he's been recovering from covid for the last several days. and this is a decision that he kept very private only notifying his senior white house aides and staff from the campaign. moments before human public with this unprecedented

announcement that announcement wolf read in part and i'm quoting the president now, while it may have been my intention to seek reelection, i believe it is in the best interest of my party and country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of the term i've got a team of correspondents here with us wolf, but let's start with you in washington all right. >> kaitlan, we got a lot going on right now. i want to bring in our senior white house correspondent, mj lee. she's joining us from the whitehouse right now. i know you're constantly getting updates, more information. what else are you learning mj yeah, wolf. >> this has been a remarkable afternoon, just four months out from election day. president biden making public today, his decision to drop out of the 2024 race. he said that he had every intention of continuing to seek a second term, but in a letter released the public this afternoon, he wrote that i believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as

president for the remainder of my term wolf, this was an incredibly closely held decision that was made and we are told within the last 48 hours or so and almost everybody close to the president, including senior most advisors, were in the dark until basically moments before for that letter went public we are told that last night the president asked some of his closest aides, chief among them, mike donilon and steve richetti to begin the process of maine making this decision public, including by starting to draft that letter that we saw this afternoon. the president, of course, in importantly has endorsed his vice president kamala harris, saying he is offering his full support and endorsement to be the nominee of our party this year and really called on the democratic party to rally around her and support her. but wolf, we really cannot overstate how much pressure the president had come under in recent weeks ever since that debate performance at the end of june from donors calling on him to forgo a second term and

seeking a second term. democratic elected officials, of course, really putting the pressure on him to resign consider his decision, and initially, we saw a picture of a president that was incredibly dug in, even saying that he was confident in the polling and the data that he was being presented with, even in the face of polling and data that clearly showed that he was slips he was slipping in the polls, both nationally and in key battleground states. and in recent days, we did start to see a picture of murder of the president, perhaps being a little bit more reflective and willing to contemplate an end where the president would drop out of the 2024 race. now, this is a man wolf who had pledged back in 2020 to be a bridge and a transition candidate. and a picture that is emerging as one where the president after getting into his job, decided that things were just simply too serious and he believed that he really was the person most qualified to finish out the job that he had started. but of course with this decision today, he is now

returning to becoming that transition candidate and he is certainly hoping that he can pass on that the ta1 to his vice president, kamala harris. >> will these next several weeks and months will be critically, critically important. and i keep saying historic obviously as well mj lee at the white house, we'll get back to you. i know you're always working your sources. kaitlan. go ahead and pick it up. >> yeah. we'll hard to see how it can get more historic than what we are watching right now. this is now fec official has there has been a notification to them with a letter saying that this is to inform you that vice president harris is no longer a candidate in the 2024 election for vice president says vice president harris is now a candidate for united states president in a 2024 election and will henceforth be conducting campaign activities only in pursuit of that office. this is a statement to essentially let the fec know this. well, if it's hard to imagine that letter existing three weeks ago before that debate in atlanta, but it is now the reality that is facing

the democratic party, but also republicans who are now a wave of fresh uncertainty of who it is donald trump is going to face on the ticket this november. i've got cnn anchor and senior political correspondent, abby phillip here with me as well as cnn's senior political go commentator and former obama administration official, van jones. van, i mean, it is just to look at that in black and white on the fec website and to see, paris is now the candidate for the 2024 presidency is something that would have been unthinkable a month ago well, absolute, absolutely. it just unbelievable this year is we're tracking 1968 now, almost beat for beat. you have an unpopular war in 68 vietnam, unpopular war. now, gaza you have a new technology upset and young people of color television now it's tiktok name rfk jumped into the race, 68 rfk junior. today, the sitting president quits lbj thing president quits. biden. the democratic convention in chicago. it's in

chicago, it's literally beat for beat for beat the most historic year before with 68. now is 20004024. the only bad thing is and 68, nixon won and so we've got a break history now if we want for trump to be defeated, but we are literally beat for beat. the most historic year-end news before with 1968, we are doing it beat for beat 2024. >> yeah, it is amazing to see the historic parallels. i mean, abby, what are you hearing from people? who, who are kind of wondering if this was going to get to this moment. but i mean, as of friday night, president biden was telling advisers privately, i'm not getting out of the race, essentially stop asking 24 hours later as we've now learned from our reporters, he was drafting the letter that they published today. >> i mean, this was a decision that only he made and i mean, i spoke with someone on friday who had been in very close touch with his inner inner circle who told me that as of that moment, he was not okay. convinced that this was the right strategy, but everybody knows close to the president that only he can make that

decision at this moment and at the end of the day, i think the time was of the essence here everyone knew it was not a matter of getting to the convention unless he was planning on staying and if he was going to get out, he needed to get out right now, the beginning of this week in order to give whoever succeeds him, he wanted it to be his vice president the best chance to consolidate the party. and that is already happening right now. i was just speaking to several sources who are telling me vice president harris is calling around on capitol hill. she's calling around to democratic order we're going she has a list of dozens of calls that she's making today and tonight. the message is what she said in her statement. you've been with us up until this point. i'm asking for your support stay with us, but the ball is in motion now and she's starting from what i've been told with two of the biggest constituencies in the democratic party, the congressional black caucus, congressional hispanic caucus. she's made calls to the heads of both of those organizations

today that's again, i keep having to emphasize this because i think when we talk about voters of color in the democratic party, it sounds like a talking point, but this is a party that is powered by voters of color by members of color, the the dnc, the delegates who will eventually vote to decide who is the nominee. those people, the most powerful thing yours in those, those constituencies are black men, black women, hispanic men, hispanic women. she knows that she is working those lines and i think she's trying to lock this in as source told me a fundraising source told me it's 24 to 48 hours. that is what people are looking at. and if she can show a real command of this race, it will be over within just a matter trump days. >> and jim clyburn getting behind her a lengthy statement and right at the end, he said, i echo what president biden said to endorse her as the next nominee. what does the next month look like for vice president harris, who said in her statement that she is not assuming she's the heir apparent to this nomination, but she said i'm going to work

to earn that's nomination that's what working to earn. >> it looks like, you don't say the president named me and it to me. and because i'm a black woman, you have to give it to me or you're racist or sexist, she's not doing that. she is doing the hard work. she's calling the power centers party. she's calling black organizations. he's called hispanic organizations. again, if you've she's also calling donors exactly though she's she's doing what what needs to be done. and that's the way it's supposed to be. we are a party. we have rules for our rules to create the rules that make the rules. we already ruled based party and associates following the rules that is happening right now. i mean, look, this is a really critical period for the democratic national committee. they're having meetings. there's a meeting planned for the end of this week about the rules for it the convention. this is happening right now. they're going to be putting it an overdrive, trying to establish what that process looks like for the convention with a nominee unsettled. at so it's, it's a high it's a

it's a high wire act right now for the entire party, they are aware of that. but right now the work in the vice president's office is just moving at a frenzied pace want to see how smart it is though because there is a process. >> if you think you've got a better shot, you can jump into water to calm harris. she's like, look, the water is warm, jump in but once you go through the process and you have to support our nominee, and so we're going to have a process. it's going to be clear and transparent. everybody is going to understand what it is. and then once we have a nominee and it looks like it's got to be calm au harris then everybody you had your moment. if you if you want to jump, jump into waters warm but once we have a nominee, everybody has got behind that mean and what does that look like, though in the sense of we for three weeks, we have seen a major division in the democratic party of those who thought biden should get out and said it. lot of people thought it and didn't say it because they didn't want to. they thought he should make it on his own. and then other people well, who are who are firmly behind him. i mean, it is a question of a unified front. what that looks like as we wait to see, does anyone else get in the race? >> i mean, look, i everyone

that i've spoken to, there's no question that once, the vice president, if she is able to consolidate this quickly and show strength and get a majority of the power centers in the party behind her. there will be an immediate effort to consolidate around her and everyone that i've talked to believes that this change at the top is going to lead to an injection of an enormous amount of energy, energy that frame thankfully, kaitlan has been notably missing for the democratic ticket. there is a major enthusiasm problem that the party has or had up until this point. they haven't opportunity pretty to turn that around, but that being said, i mean, if you are one of the other names that have been floated around as someone who might want to be president someday. the question is, do you really want? to take on the sitting vice president of the united states? do you really want to get into that fight right now? or do you wait until sometime later? those people are going to be making those decisions as we speak and i'm sure we will hear from them in

the coming days, but i think people underestimate that that's a very high bar for someone to decide to do that. everyone knows that's a high bar everything is structurally set up. well for vice president harris to inherit this, but she's got to show overwhelming strength in these next few hours. >> and that's an uncertainty for the trump campaign as well. i spoke to donald trump moments after biden announced this and he said that he believes he can defeat harris. i mean, we don't actually know that there's not really new polling to a real-time scenario here. and also we don't know that she's going to be the nominee. we're seeing a lot of people line up behind her, but i mean, this is just a moment of uncertainty for republicans i feel so sorry for the republicans. i just i'm just crying so many tears. they don't know what to do yet debris running against biden right now, the senate is senate republican candidates. >> they've been using biden. they're going to change tack to change tack this, but, you know the thing about it biden. >> here's, here's a difference. you had a lot of swing state governors that were

sniffing around. and obviously you got to win pennsylvania. maybe it should be shapira. you gotta win michigan we should be gretchen. but that assume one thing, that assume that biden was going to let it leave the door open. once biden comes forward and said, look guys this is my advice, president this is who i believe in that makes it a much steeper grade for anybody else to biden's it, listen, it's up to you guys. maybe somebody johnson. it's going to your point, abby she has a whip operation. she's as the presence of our doors meant to put all that together next 24 hours, 40 hours, very, very one quick thing, kaitlan, i mean, i was at the rnc, talked to trump officials about this. they insist obviously, that the race doesn't fundamentally change. they think a vice president harris is fundamentally going to be painted the same way as president biden but at the same time, the truth is for the biden campaign, they really had one main plan which is to win the blue wall. the question is, does a vice presidential pick on harris's part? and her unique the unique things that she brings to this race. does it close some doors? does it

open others? a lot of people have different views of that, but there is a calculus, it's not just a clear advantage in one direction. there's going to be it's going to be a disadvantage in some areas and advantage and others depending on what she decides about a vice presidential pick and that's going to change the map for shore? >> yes. safe to say it has fundamentally changed wolf back to you. >> kaitlan. thank you. i want to get back to our panel right now and audie, let me start with you on this block because as we know, the democratic convention in chicago is coming up with a couple of weeks or so early voting for the presidential election actually starts in september. so what are the democrats? what do they need to do to unify the base, right now to get everybody working together on behalf of this new ticket, i think some of it is no alarms, no surprises making this look like an orderly process. i'm also going to cheat in turn to karen finney i know this woman's phone has been going how is this going to work? a many primary a genuflect to nancy pelosi's office how is this

going to work so technically, the room who's committee meets can only meet 48 hours after the nominee has dropped out. >> so 48 hours from now, the rules committee that's the earliest they can meet. they did happen to have a meeting scheduled for friday. i'm going to say they probably won't make it to friday and they will have to decide i think we one of the goals. though between now and then is to continue to see the strong show of support i don't know. maybe some of the folks who've also been named as people who might run in an open primary may or may throw their support behind her in sort of take their neighbors need to go a little bit further out of control a food fight. well, i think most folks have come to recognize particularly after the last three weeks where we have had so much more time talking about joe biden than donald trump we would really like to not have that happen and let the convention be an affirmation of our party and opportunity to thank joe biden and so again, i think what you're going to continue to see he organizations, members of

congress coming out. nic claiming their support. i mean, i've seen even people who are currently pledged delegates saying, hey, i'll supply, i'm with joe biden says that's why should support that's why i'm going to support those still have to figure out a process. the delegates are still going to have to vote. >> and that's a footnote here to because when i talk about it being orderly, yes, there's the money in the messaging. you also want this done, like airtight legally, because obviously republicans are waiting to pounce in terms of how is this money transitioned? who is the next person? how was that voted on? there? for a little pockets of vulnerability along the way over the next couple of weeks. and all those things are coming into play. >> so she's got to pick a vice presidential running mate between now and the conventions it's not a lot of time. >> there is not a lot of time and that process my understanding is that it is already underway, that it had quietly been underway. in fact, for some period of time, i know we had some i'm reporting friday into saturday about some of those calls that were going out because the bottom line was kamala harris had to be incredibly careful about how

she handled herself as she was waiting for president biden to decide what to do. a misstep could have actually really jeopardized her ability to step into this role. and the way that she handled it, there was never any daylight between her and the president her team was always very careful to say that whatever they were doing was with the permission of the president and they really did keep things under lock and key for the most part, it started to kind of pushed the seams there in the last 72 hours. so i definitely did, but i was just talking to an advisor and they said really this balanced president biden an adviser to the biden-harris campaign. >> so this balancing act that shoe now faces saying going through the process, but also seizing the rains. so this is something that as karen has been saying, it's really been happening as we've been sitting here this afternoon. the calls are going out. she's along charge. she is in charge and she does not want to be presumptuous. but again, the delegates, the 47 100 delegates, are largely biden-harris delegates. she i

think it's a mistake to think of kamala harris back to her presidential campaign paying there's a lot of talk about that. a lot of time has changed. >> joe biden barely won the nomination as well in iowa and new hampshire. >> i mean, he's struggled. so the reality here is this is an entirely new moment for her. she is a grown candidate that doesn't mean this is going to be easy for her at all. but the bigger challenges you can just see the sentence so democratic urgency is fueled by one, her wanting to close off challengers, but even more than that, a unifying factor is going to be donald trump and j.d. vance and others taking shots at her time is running out here for her to unify the party so we shall see i think any of our productions would have been off a month ago, but it's hard to imagine anyone stepping up in a serious way and challenging her with the african-american woman being the lifeblood of the party and shisa historicyears and gained an enormous amount

for the experience in that role. >> there's no question about that. something i think she looks forward to talking about on the campaign trail. if she is the nominee, i think you also can't miss the fact that over the course of the last three-and-a-half weeks, despite the fact this has been a total implosion and said the party of the intraparty warfare democrats feel like she's comported herself quite well, including folks in the biden team that maybe at times has gotten crosswise with her, that she really handled the moment and kind of rose to the occasion of the moment bowman, through a very difficult period of time to just point, i think there's two things in her statement that really kind of stood out to me, which is one that it was her intention is to earn and win this nomination and that gets at the balancing act that jeff is talking about there. that's important and to the very last line, which is we have 107 days until election day. it says together we will fight and together we will win there's 107 days left. there is urgency right now. she will have the balancing act. she will definitely partake in trying to make sure that balancing act works properly and not undercutting any process. but there is 107 days

and the stakes could not be higher. >> one source said to me this is speed dating and it's better every don't have a lot of people to date i just was talking to someone who's been working on the convention and the source said, the message will be the same faces will be he difference. there are a lot of people scrambling to do videos, but karen, when we were off during a commercial, we were talking about an odd you said that these four names that are being floated, that she might approach or be interested in talking to about being her vice president to bring you a currently better take it together. and they were for arizona's senator mark kelly, kentucky governor andy beshear north carolina, governor roy cooper, and josh shapiro, governor josh shapiro pennsylvania, and one of the two of you made a very funny line about what do they have in common. they're all white men

this is, you do not see that they are there, they are. i asked is there a difference? they made the graphic and new orders that was right. but i think it's interesting that you know, for white men and know gretchen, what we're even though there's michigan yeah. i don't know what i mean. >> let's be candid is what she had to change, right? see much change. you can dando, but look, the other thing when we were looking at those names is to think about what happened. so if you select a mark kelly, you have a democratic governor who can replace that seat if you select a governor, think about who is the lieutenant governor in these states where you have these governors because again, part of their consideration as well, wait a second. are we going to lose? who's a seat that could be? you look at someone like josh shapiro, very popular, but he can help win in pennsylvania from the governor's mansion, not necessarily doesn't necessarily so we have to be on

the ticket. he probably would not appreciate me saying that. i would you know, if he's in consideration, i certainly wouldn't want to knock him out, but also, there's their considerations around the vetting because as you all know, presidential elections are nothing like running for statewide office in terms of the level of vetting in the level of closeness that they will be evaluating other side will go after you. this is the thing that we aren't talking about while we are of course, many in karen's party are lauding president biden for the decision that he has made. >> the reality is he could have made this decision a year ago and given democrats the crucible of a presidential primary, because these primaries, let me tell you, having covered so many, most men and women but especially men, who believed that they can become president of the united states they think so highly of themselves. >> they approached the process thinking, i have gotten this far, i am worth so much. this is going to be something that i'm going to be able to do with relatively little problem. well, call ron desantis and

asked him how that went okay. like there's a reason why republicans for example, usually nominate someone who's running the second time around donald trump that wasn't true, but look at mitt romney, look at bob dole, look like all the way back, because actually running is something that is unlike any other test that exists in american politics. and honestly, none of those people that were up on that screen has been through it and they're going to have to go through it really, really fast we're living in an age where we just got this announcement basically through the political equivalent of the notes app. >> no interview. he didn't like make announcement in any form. this is we're in a different environment now. and the thing that is strikes me is that democrats, they are not in a mode yet where they have a candidate that they love. there still talking about beating donald trump. and it's still talking about what pragmatically where this person could win and where this person could not. whereas being at the ben sheehan, we heard people talking about loving their candidate on the republican. >> hold their thoughts for a moment. we're going to take

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biden has dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. and there's publicly endorsing vice president kamala harris to be the party's new nominee. he made this historic and stunning announcement at around 1:45 p.m. eastern time earlier today sending out a statement that has up upended the 2024 presidential race just one month or so before the democratic national convention in chicago. and it's a decision he kept very, very private only notifying his senior white house advisors and campaign staff moments before he went public with his unprecedented announcement. let's get to see it as cnn anchor and chief congressional correspondent, manu raja is joining us right now manu update our viewers on the reaction you're hearing behind the scenes, there are furious amount of phone calls being had between top democratic members out who to get behind for the presidential nomination, who to get behind for potential vp pick under a harris nominee, assuming she gets the nomination, and harris

herself reaching out to key members of the house and senate, democratic caucus. >> we are told, as well as harris, his team tried to reach out to some of the senators. i'm told who have not yet made an endorsement trying to shore up some critical support at this time. also, joe biden himself. this move very much blindsiding even top democrats were told that he has recently reached out to hakeem jeffries, the house democratic leader that came after joe biden went public with his announcement that he would drop out from this race. now, wolf, both sides are now gaming out the impact that a kamala harris as the democratic nominee would have down ticket. recall the big concern among democrats that if joe biden were at the top of the ticket, he essentially would sink their chances at keeping the senate and taking back the house. now that if her kamala harris is at the top of the ticket, what does that mean? down ticket to these racist number of democrats that i've spoken to believe that they believed she could shore up support port from some younger voters, from minority voters, people who have been voters who have

actually not been framed from the biden coalition, perhaps he can energize that base republicans on the other hand, believes that they can very much ty harris to all the policies that they believe will be make her toxic to some of those more swing district republicans, swing states distinct just with democrats and swing state democrats as well in senate races, expect that to be the big debate here in the weeks ahead and wolf, just a note of that quickly out of the gate. tammy baldwin, who is facing one of those difficult senate races in the country, came out to endorse kamala harris, other though vulnerable democrats that's have kept their powder dry and click sherrod brown from ohio, one of those vulnerable democrats in the country, yet to endorse kamala harris, even though he praised biden's decision for stepping aside, mount erasure reporting first, manno. thank you for all that information. kaitlan until today, we thought the vice president, kamala harris, would start getting ready for a potential debate against so the republican vice presidential nominee, j.d. vance. but now she's got to start thinking

potentially about a presidential debate against donald trump. >> yeah. and we're seeing senator j.d. vance, who was just recently now formalized as donald trump's running mate in milwaukee at that convention last week, he's responding to this news, but it's unclear who he is going to fail based on that debate stage, if they'll come face to face, what that will look like. that was actually a statement that was out from the vance campaign last week asking who they were going to actually ultimately be facing. that was before president biden made this decision. obviously wolf, but this is something that trump's campaign is tracking very closely. as cnn's national correspondent, kristen holmes is following all the developments for all of us. kristen, we heard from donald trump himself earlier this afternoon, but what more are you hearing in the hours as this news is sinking in for them, just as much as it is for democrats. about what their plan is going forward now. >> yeah, kaitlan, they have starting to prepare opposition research on a number of various democratic potential candidates that included governors from democratic states. but the real focus for the trump campaign

has been on vice president kamala harris. there is a belief among trump, trump's orbit that that is who they will put at the top of the ticket. and in that vein, we are learning that both the campaign and some of the super pac surrounding donald trump are going to start putting out a number of attack ads on vice president kamala harris. they have seen the recent polling that shows what was that of all the potential democratic candidates who could be at the top of the ticket, kamala harris has the best name id, both their belief is that it doesn't necessarily translate into would they call name education meeting that a lot of america doesn't really know much about kamala harris or her record, which for them gives them an opening to point her in a negative light. now a lot of these ads, they're going to run in battleground states. a lot of this is just testing the waters because right now they still don't know exactly who it's going to be at the top of that ticket and what that ticket is going to look like. and one of the things we had been reporting is in terms of research maada, modeling data gathering. they had been planning sending for a race

against president joe biden. they believed they could be president joe biden. and you're going to hear a lot publicly from trump officials, from people close to donald trump, where they say kamala harris is easy to beat that she is not going to be a threat at the top of the ticket. but the reality is when you really get through these conversations with some of his top political advisers, they are aware that any shift in the race could shift their planning. they know that there was an enthusiasm gap for president joe biden. how does it's moving that ticket around even with kamala harris at the top of the ticket, shift that enthusiasm gap. they don't want any more turnout for democrats in the fall. obviously, if there's more enthused the asthma around whoever the candidate is that is going to lead to likely more turnout at the polls. so obviously all of this, they are watching closely, but much of it is unfolding for them in he'll time yeah. >> and what are you hearing in the sense of we're already seeing attacks from well-funded trump's super pacs going after harris it's not we don't know

actually who's going to beat the democratic nominee. kristen. obviously this is a bit of a holding period for the trump campaign, and it has been a hold link period for several weeks. that's why whenever they were coming out and attacking harris, who are also seeing them kind of starting to vaguely attack some of these high profile democratic governor because they don't know exactly what the campaign is going to look like. the other thing to talk about here is the fact that donald trump's team, they haven't spent a lot of money on advertising, but they have spent millions of dollars on modeling on data collection, on formulating an entire campaign based on that, that was to beat president joe biden. this looks completely different with whoever else is on the ticket. that is why you're also going to hear donald trump if it is potentially vice president kamala harris going after her as saying she is part of the biden administration. they believe that as one of their biggest assets, painting a broad brush, because again, what they've prepared for is running against biden his policies his admitted restriction, him as a person,

but also they are hoping they can loop kamala harris into that, which is why, again, they are hoping that she likely is at the top of the ticket, but they are saying to me he that they are preparing for all scenarios right now yeah. >> a lot of scenarios to prepare for their kristen holmes. thank you for that. keep us updated on what you're hearing. and david axelrod joins the table now, david, i just heard from a source familiar that says the biden campaign just did an all call with staff who obviously totally shellshocked by this decision and that jen o'malley, dillon, and julie rodriguez, who are running this campaign talked about moving full steam ahead. they said everyone on that campaign still has a job. obviously they believe they are now working for harris. but what are the alkyl actual calculations happening inside the democratic party? about who the nominee is beat trump yeah, look, i think that the vice president clearly has an advantage in in this and may well be the putative nominee, but i do think, you know, the reason that people are holding back is because they're trying

to calculate who gives him the best chance to win. and that's a very precise calculation. there are basically three states that a democrat has to win and it's still the states that joe biden had to win. pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin. there is a sense that the sunbelt states may be the bridge too far pennsylvania has always been sort of the tipping state, both campaigns pointed to as the one that we're that the democrats had to have trump has other paths so the question is, who can run well in those states in the question they're asking about the vp is how will she run in those states? and that's why you're seeing the names you're seeing in terms of the vice presidential candidates, obviously, josh shapiro would give them a good chance in the state of pennsylvania, mark kelly, who's war hero and an astronaut and a moderate with a strong record on border issues. he's also from a battleground

state, would offer another set of assets to them, but they need to, they need to demonstrate it's fine to me. mobilize the cbc and the hispanic caucus. they need to a make a case to the whole country as to why she should be president, why she'd be the strongest candidate for president and be they need to talk to these governors and swing states senators and members of congress and say, here is why i think i can help one of the interesting, i mean, you described it as a precise thing and i think it is definitely sort of like threading this very delicate needle at this moment. but the other aspect of this is the unknowns about some of these other names. and that's the thing i think that gives people a lot of heartburn. is there? deliberating over who really should be at the top of the ticket if they had their fantasy pick, which is how some of these have described it as a fantasy football, but a fantasy pick, right? but what does gretchen whitmer look like as

an actual candidate? to be a president of the united states how does she actually help the democrats, having not really been on the national stage before? and that's probably true of all of these other figures. and josh shapiro, a gavin newsom, all of them. and so there is a sort of imprecision to what happens outside of kamala harris that i think is causing a lot of stress right now inside of the party, there are people who want someone else, but they also have to prove that those other people are not going to come with downsides and frankly, they just don't know about yet because they haven't been on the scene. >> strongest case for a comma is that she's she's battle-tested, right? you don't imagine it's going to be some new skeleton, a fallout the closet because she's been on the national stage and she went through a national campaign. so there's i think a certainty you can have at least, you know what you're dealing with, what calm here? i think with some of the other folks, if you are if you just add chatgpt or spock, or a martian, just it's mathematically, you'd say you got to win michigan you've got

to win pennsylvania, you got to win wisconsin. and so he said, well, look, you've got a democratic governor or two of those three states. >> so you're popular one the very popular, very japura is popular. >> gretchen as poppy hello and so you would might start there any well, but then what about chief female? what about anti-jewish stuff? his view would start at least considering those, those different possibilities. and so that process needs to have, it needs to play out because it if you don't let that process play out and you say, well, just because she's a dp, you got to take her well, you know what vp is skipped all the time biden got skipped. quell got skip, cheney got skipped. so dps change in the campaign, i think is the issue when there's only a couple of months left on one of the other things. i here i'm hearing i hear what you're saying about pennsylvania, wisconsin, and michigan, but just to throw out something else it's that i have heard when i talked to democrats, is that some people say, well, if she could open up the map in other ways, right? roy cooper maybe opening up north carolina maybe. that's a better state for her than pennsylvania but

not enough but not enough electoral votes to make up for it were the exchange that it wouldn't so i guess what i'm saying is that just to tell you what i'm hearing from people there there is the blue wall. >> right. but there's also a calculation about how else might she changed the map? maybe it does bring some of the sun belt states back. maybe it does bring a georgia back these are on known, i cannot stress enough. people don't. there's no people can take the data to the bank on this stuff because it's not factored in. what we don't know about these other potential canada yeah, a lot of questions here and david, i wonder your thoughts on the prospect of a delegate vote, but we do go to squeeze in a quick break as we are following every development by the minute, since president biden announced he has exiting the race, throwing his support behind vice president harris. we're still waiting to hear from top democratic leaders if they are also behind her as the next nominee more after a quick break tv on the edge, moments

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how much you can save anderson cooper 360 weekend ai today on cnn closed captioning brought to you by meso book if you or a loved one have mesothelial, will send you a free book to answer questions you may have called now and we'll come to you 808 to 14000 we're continuing our breaking news special breaking news coverage of this truly historic day here in the united states. i want to bring in democratic congresswoman debbie dingell from the key battleground state of michigan, to join us right now. we're congresswoman thanks so much for joining us. i'm anxious to get your reaction to this decision that that we heard today from the president good evening. move off. >> you know, when i heard it, i cry because it's been a very intense three weeks since the bid his debate i know that this

is a man who made it very, very, very the decision. >> kharkiv itself he's loved his poetry they had been in public service before decade and do humanness. we just can't forget the humanness of what this day is about. and i think he has done many good things will go down in history as one of the most successful president in fighting for working men women, and families during his presidency. and look, this has been a tough three weeks and it's a very difficult day today. >> are you surprised congresswoman that former president barak obama as a mother very prominent democrats are not yet publicly endorsing vice president kamala harris to be the next democratic president. eventually nominee so well, if i want to be very clear that i did indoors come let this afternoon, but that does not mean i i looked very hard and see who i'm going to endorse in any presidential

primary. >> and because some elected officials are endorsing her this now. need that as democrats, we should not have a transparent and open process i'm supporting her because one millions of voters nominated a biden-harris ticket. she was on that ticket that they voted for. i know she's a capable woman and joe biden, who was elected are nominated it would have been formally done it that democratic convention. >> has given his support to her, but everybody has to make their own decision and she has to go out and run a campaign with all of the delegates to get elected at the convention. i suspect that we that's probably why former president obama said what he did we can not have a coronation, we cannot have elected officials make anybody feel that she'd been shoved down their throat? >> i think that at this time. and this place, she is the right candidate for the reasons

that i just said. >> are you confident congresswoman that vice president harris can unite the democrats after sure. the last few weeks of deep division. and defeat and eventually defeat donald trump in november so we'll, if you know what, i'm going to say to you, it's not on her. >> it's on all of us. we've had a circular firing squad which has begun to worry me deeply in the last week. it isn't her job, it's democrats that we have to unite each other coming out of the democratic national convention behind our ticket, because we do know who the republican nominee. nominee and his vice president are. we have got to make sure that we are doing the contrast that people understand what those policy differences are. it's on all of us to unite and make sure that but we are campaigning hard to make sure we know and get elected. the person that we have to get elected so that women still have the right to choose so that we don't have people in office that think january 6 was

okay. and i could go through at long list of issues. you will hear about between now and november who do you think congresswoman might be the strongest running mate for kamala harris if she does become the presidential nominee. >> okay. i'm not like my head is spinning. it's been spinning for three weeks. i think that she's got their conversations that need to be had. we need to see who even the people are that would be interested if they were asked. and i'm just not going in there today. my guest is just spinning to many different other ways. >> well, i think all of our heads are spinning right now representative. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> kaitlan, back to you yeah, wolf can confirm that everyone's heads are spinning trying to soak in what this news means, what it means for the race. >> the next few months, of course, that is going to be something that is totally changed when today and david axelrod there was essentially a delegate vote that everyone was wondering what that was going

to look like for biden. >> well, you know, they had set up a vote in advance because of because of the ohio's electoral situation and their unwillingness to recognize a candidate unless it came out by us certain date. so that was the reason they advanced it. while you change the law, they still said they wanted to do it and it's supposed to happen as early as next week. and the question is whether that happens or not and or whether they whether this actually goes to a convention. i think what's going to happen is that the vice president is probably going to work very hard to nail down the commitments of as many delegates as she possibly can in the next few days and say, i've got the number i think if you can't, you should because otherwise you're talking about an open convention. >> and so this split race between certainty around camila and at least trying to give us a solid shot versus a concern does the math math for a kamala harris? those are the things are going to be competing if she can wrap it up, she could

she could she should wrap it up, but she may not be able to and then you'll have an open convention. >> yeah. >> i mean, i think it's really unknown as of right now. as david said, that vote was supposed to happen sometime after august 1st. i don't know if that's going to stack, it can be moved. my feeling is that it probably will be, but there is a scenario in which if she feels like she has the votes she wants that vote to happen before the convention just to allow democrats to go into the convention, knowing exactly who their nominee is. i mean, having a day one where it's clear who the nominee is, who the running mate is, what the messages would be hugely advantageous to them. but i mean, an open convention is probably who knows, i don't want to say most likely, but it's possible and their tv there's a process for that to happen there's see pelosi schumer, jeffries top democratic leaders right now, the obamas or have not yet gotten behind her, is that they're weighing eating. >> they don't want to force the voters hands. what is that schumer schumer and jeffries

have to worry about their members every one of those people are focused on one thing, anybody you know? >> because nancy pelosi says she begins every sense with how do we win and that's the question they're asking right now. it's the question that kamala harris needs to answer. and anybody the else who might step up and abby maybe right. i'm not sure anybody else will put anybody who steps up needs to be the case. this is how we can win, and this is how i can help look when you talk a lot about donors in this. and i think for people watching, that probably sounds really depressing that people who have a lot of money has such influence in the process. but the reason is, you can't run a campaign without money and the people with money one of them do want an open process and that makes a difference because if they are so committed enough to that, that they're willing to say, we will bank roll the whole thing if it is somebody told me really different. that's going to matter. >> your mind is going to be there for whoever is nominated, whether it's probably not going to look like just yet. >> and van makes a great point.

we are three hours into this we're following all this very closely. we're all going to be here all night, so don't worry, thank you for joining us on this breaking news. i'm kaitlan collins in new york, and our special coverage will continue in just a moment. erin burnett will be joining us from new york. we have much more on all the breaking news and we'll have that for you right after this quick break i won't prevent history painting a house of the dragon streaming exclusively on max with priceline vip family, you can unlock deals five times faster. >> you don't even have to be an actual family. >> i'd be the dad on the day physically, it's clear that i'm the dad. >> okay. so which dad is pain? you're now, do i loved the let

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