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today on cnn this is cnn breaking news three days after republicans wrapped up their nominations for president, vice president, or stunning move by democrats, president biden has withdrawn from the race after dozens of congressional democrats publicly oppose his candidacy in the weeks after that incredibly poor debate performance renewed questions about it his fitness for office. president biden has endorsed his vice president, kamala harris, quoting president biden, now quote my very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick kamala harris as my vice president. and it's been the best decision i've made today. i want to offer my full support and endorsement for camila to be the nominee of our party this year, democrats it's time to come together and beat trump. let's do this unquote also tonight, harris is rapidly securing endorsements from top democratic officials, lawmakers, even potential opponents for the nomination moments go all 50 democratic party state chairs signal their support as did congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez, who had warned against a biden exit just days ago.

>> we want to start this hour's coverage with priscilla alvarez in delaware trailing president biden. this evening. so what more are you learning about? what was behind the president's decision? >> anderson, the president had remained defiant, really only until the last 48 hours. what we're learning that played out behind the scenes is a president who while self-isolating at his residence in delaware, was also reflecting on the last several weeks, the president on saturday had some into his senior advisors to his rehoboth beach home where they huddled and assess the polling and also what democratic lawmakers have been saying. and it was during that time were told that the president was starting to come to the decision that he was going to drop out of the race he also we're told consulted with his family, of course, they have been influential in almost every decision the president has made over the course of his long political career. and then it was on sunday as his top brass on the

morning shows was saying that he was in the race and he wasn't going anywhere while in the early afternoon hours, the president notifying senior white house and senior campaign teams that he had in fact decided to drop out of the race and then just minutes after putting out that letter to publicly saying that he was not going to seek reelection. now, importantly, shortly after he did so, he also so put his entire support behind vice president kamala harris saying that he is endorsing her to be the democratic nominee and urging the party to come together, particularly after a divisive last several weeks. now, the vice president herself sources tell me did not know until today that this was going to be the president suzman the two spoke multiple times over the course of the day and now it is full steam ahead for the vice president who up until this point was fiercely defending the president and completely behind them, aides told me multiple times that the two there was no daylight

between the two as she was hitting the campaign trail but now today, she was working the phones, trying to get these endorsements as she tries to secure the democratic nomination. so it has been a pivotal, remarkable day for this campaign. and really anderson, it shook of white house officials and campaign officials who, up until earlier today, really thought the president was not, wasn't going anywhere and that he was going to stay in this presidential race. so certainly a lot of people still absorbing this news as they prepare to put vice president kamala harris to lead the party's ticket priscilla alvarez. thanks very much. >> jake. >> thanks. anderson joining us now, connecticut, democratic senator chris murphy, senator, thanks for joining us earlier today, you said president biden will go down in history as quote, one of the most consequential presidents in our nation's history. we're you surprised by his decision to exit the race? and did you find out the same way the rest of us did by his posting on social media.

>> i did. my sense is that there was really no heads up to senators, not likely to governors. this was the first i heard of it. i was i was not shocked. obviously i had the sense that the president was spending time where he convalesced with covid to make a decision, but it is still extraordinary there's a. president vizer, remarkable record of achievement. i worked most closely with them on the first gun violence bill in 30 years would have never gotten done without him. he had a path to win, but he judged that kamala harris had a better path. and in the end, he decided to put his country first. you saw this tremendous outpouring of support for common weeks and excuse me, in the minutes and hours after biden's decision, i think there are cynics out there who might think that was staged, that was all set up. not true. as i said, all of us learns about the president's decision at the same time. most of us endorsed camila with didn't minutes or hours because we

know what we because we just think ultimately she's the best candidate and she's going to make a remarkable president you say your enthusiastically supporting your friend vice president harris to be the nominee. >> why do you think she's the best choice for democrats to defeat former president trump, as you know, there are some in the democratic party who think it should be some sort of open process, whether it's a meaning, an open convention are many primaries or whatever that there should be some sort of competition and some people feel like there might be better candidates in terms of their ability to beat president trump yeah, i don't think there's a better candidate, but i certainly welcome competition. i think you see right now, you know, a lot of both leadership and grassroots support record amounts of grassroots donations to the vice president today. i think she's the best candidate for the simple reason she marries together both past and future. we should run on joe biden's record, right it's joe biden and kamala harris's record. it's an economy that's

how many country that's recovered from covid, america's reputation has been healed around the world. that's not to say there aren't still challenges, but it's a record we should run and she can do that, but she also represents this bridge she is the next-generation. she is going to be the first woman president. a woman on the ticket in a moment when women's rights are under assault, a prosecutor running against a felon, she can run on the biden-harris records. she can be a bridge to the future. she's got a unique contrast with trump to many of us so just made sense that she was the best candidate and given that we only have four months let's let's let's get the fight. let's get let's get to it. >> she says vice president harris says her intention is to earn and win the democratic presidential nomination. what does that process? look like? the convention is about three weeks away those i think you'll know whether there's any viable challenge to her in the next 24 to 48 hours. >> obviously, this has been a

pretty organic outpouring of support for as i said, not coordinated because no but he including her knew about the president's decision until this morning when he made it. >> but listen, if there is a viable challenge to her, well, then let's have that discussion. i've never anathema to having an intraparty fight. >> i think often that will make the candidates stronger. it may not happen here because people seem right now to be pretty enthusiastic for the reasons i stated about vice president harris who do you think she should consider for her her vice president. do you think it'd be it's important than to be somebody from a battleground states such as josh shapiro from pennsylvania needed he is somebody who maybe is a little bit perceived, at least a little bit as a little bit more moderate like governor cooper from north carolina, governor beshear from kentucky what are what's your thoughts on that? >> i have absolutely no, it i

think right now she is drinking from a firehose. she's standing up a campaign. she's potentially fighting for the nomination. she's thinking about who might be your vice presidential running mate, all the names you've mentioned would be fantastic. i guess my only thanks to her is the advice you'd probably give to any person picking a running mate, just choose somebody you're confident can be president of the united states, i think really you're going to have these two incredibly strong figures of top of the ticket. donald trump and kamala harris. i think that 99 point 7% of voters decisions are going to be based upon those two candidates, not the vice presidential candidates. >> one of the big lines of attack we've heard from the trump campaign just in the last few hours, is that vice president harris in their construct helped enable the cover up of the condition that president biden is in, leading to his stepping down what is the democratic response to that

so i wasn't i've been in rooms with president biden. >> i've talked to him on the phone i saw a president who was still able to command and lead this country. and my sense is that the president is not stepping down because he doesn't think he can do the job. you stepping down because he's looked at data and he thinks that the most important thing is beating donald trump and rightly or wrongly looks at that information and thanks to kamala harris is the strongest candidate. so i think republicans are grasping today, right? they have these preset narratives. they were going to use against camila that she's immigrations are that she's part of this alleged cover up. i think it's all just a little bit of desperation from republicans today, knowing that there's a ton of growing grassroots enthusiasm and they probably didn't expect for kamala harris, i bet you're republicans were planning or at least hoping that this was

going to be a big messy internal fight. well, it turns out people were pretty excited about camilla harrison. it may not end up being a big claim senator chris murphy, democrat of connecticut. thanks so much, sir. appreciate it thank you anderson. i'm trying to gain by our team of reporters and white house veterans have mean, van you heard senator murphy talking about its endorsement for vice president harris. >> i mean, do you think it's her nomination to lose because the idea of you know, there's some concern about a messy, a number of candidates, but there's also those who think that could actually provide some energy and would make, if it ends up being vice president hours make her an even better nominee. >> there's gonna be some process and i think that's good but right now it is source to lose because first ball she's got a whip operation. second to none. all this past week, some of the best people in american politics i want to put anybody name out. there have been calling people comparable online, getting talking to two delegates, talking to people, good people on air saying listen if this ball goes to

kamala harris she deserves a shot. and so who has the whip operation like that? no nobody can you put one together that quickly maybe. but she's definitely in the lead. i also think republicans are about to have a little bit of a wakeup call. a lot of times people get in these kind of circles and these echo chambers, they start believing the stuff that they say. and i think that just because they don't like kamala harris and they see are certain way the whole world is going to feel that way. but there's a whole bunch of people who are just now googling comma here, just now trying to figure out what this is about. there's an opportunity on both sides to shape her and so i think that i think republicans are in trouble because the little boogie person that they believe it's commonly harris is not necessarily what other people are going to see over there couple of weeks, dan's point about the whip operation. i was just texting with it democratic lawmaker who came out, said biden should leave the race. he's already heard from the vice president today. we'll hear from that person tonight. i think this is a methodical process. they didn't come up

with this just on the fly. they've been preparing quietly for what she would have to do if she needed to bring this party together. and we're seeing that in motion tonight. i think that the other data point that i noted tonight, the biden-harris formerly biden-harris now harris campaign finance chair i just tweeted out. he's never seen the love and outpouring of money that he has seen tonight. that's not just actblue the campaign is reaping the benefits of energy. they've needed that really desperately. they are getting that now. and that's not for nothing. there's a lot of work to do in the battleground states but, but the number one job for joe biden just to begin to claw back from the hole that he's in. if you really look at the numbers, it's getting the party back together just just getting most of the people who voted for him last time back on board. the democrats need to do that in order to be back in the game. >> but kaitlan, you have some new reporting on hello, president biden came to this decision. >> well, i mean, i think the

two biggest announcements he made today, one, he's getting out of the race, but getting behind her. that has changed the trajectory of what the last six hours have looked like since he dropped that letter. and what we were told is that as of yesterday morning, he was still telling people full steam ahead with the campaign that started to shift saturday as he was meeting with a top advisers, steve richetti, one of the closest of close advisers that biden as he called mike donilon and other close advisers, some intend to his rehoboth beach delaware house, and then had a few others on hand and it was saturday afternoon. i'm told that he started to come to the decision that he was going to get out of the 2024 race he made a few calls to other other his chief of staff, jeff zients, other other top advisors of his, and then he had a family meeting, which i think, if you know, biden, that is exactly what he's going to do when he's weighing a decision certainly one is critical on his personal as this one. but i'm told he didn't come to the final decision to leave this race until today. and that was when he phoned vice president harris and let her know that it wasn't official decision so when you talk about what this effort looks like, she hasn't had all that long to really

wrap her head around the fact that she is now potentially going to be the democratic take nominee and that people are getting behind her and talk about this. it's going really quickly you could see the trajectory of this thing and there's no doubt that any of us have been around politics, knows they have been quietly planning for this exigency for a while. >> what's impressive is how they've, when you say, you mean the people around them the vp and her supporters, i think without being disrespectful for the president, they put things in place so that when this moment came, they could move. and the thing that's been impressive in this first six hours, as you say, is the number of people who are touted as prospective opponents? who have endorsed her. there's only really one major figure out there jb pritzker, the governor of illinois, i'm sure we'll hear from him soon one way or another. but you have to say and i wouldn't have said this six hours ago. i mean, this

could turn out to be the process part of the process is can and you marshall support and she's doing it now the bigger project is can you marshall support among voters and how you present yourself that is harder to plan for. they haven't had a lot of time to do that and do that kind of planning. and they're going to have to do it on the fly. so that's going to be a big challenge. but i think tonight i have to say she is well on our way to completing the first task, which is becoming the nominee. >> well, you want to knock on kamala harris has the potential replacement was that she's too left-wing and that she couldn't she wouldn't really do well with moderates and with indeed pendants. and i think that if it ends up being heard, this is where the question of a vice president is going to be so important for her if she can bring in someone from a swing state, a governor, somebody who's won statewide like a josh shapiro, like a mark kelly that could soften her with some of these voters who are disillusioned with both candidates. they weren't after what with biden. they're certainly not comfortable with trump. there's a way for her to do this and i think that what she brings to this that has so

been lacking is the biggest frustration with biden for trump opponents was he couldn't litigate the case against donald trump, why he's unfit. what is next agenda would look like and it was very backward-looking. she's going to have to defend her time with joe biden, but she can prosecute that case and talk about a forward looking vision and a next-generation know, donald trump started out this year. we all started out this year thinking that there were going to be all these trials that we're going to happen in the course of the year. and then we'd have him facing these prosecutors and state after state after state. right? >> and then he didn't have to face any of those prosecutors except for the one in new york. >> now he's going to have to face a prosecutor on the largest stage in america right now, in this prosecutor is coming for him. i imagine she's going to be coming for him every single day and that they do have a debate. donald trump sitting across from a prosecutor cuellar with 34 felony convictions, and then some more pending. i imagined this was going to be a very tough time for this particular president. that had to navigate that kind of an environment. >> whoever, whoever said, this is a chance for each of them to define for her to define

herself, and they're going to try and define her to this is the battle, right? now. who can define kamala harris in the short term, and you can see that the trump campaign, once they're secure that she is going to be the nominee is going to unload with a lot of paid media or get all their surrogates out there. and they're going to try and define her. so it's important for them to be prepared for that and to push back. and the goal has to always be yes, to find her, but to finer in the context of the contrast with donald trump when in front of people when we're finished with this one or the other things they're thinking about the vice presidential selection. the person who i've heard people talk about a little bit more as mark kelly, one obviously when you say senator mark kelly, the next sentence has to be jet fighter pilot astronaut that you can kind of start talking about him, right? it did find that those are two words or three words that define him in a way that every other one of the candidates, you have to give a little bit more information about why

shapiro or why the governor of north carolina, you don't have to do that. the other part is obviously arizona. you can have a governor who can appoint a replacement, but then lastly, you get gabby giffords as part of the process and gabby giffords joins that ticket. all of them standing on stage together. i think it's a powerful message and this moment, we're thinking maybe about political attacks and gun violence. she is a wade for the democrats to have a conversation about what this really means through the eyes of somebody who is working to prevent other people from facing those problems versus donald trump, who is focused on himself. and the way he is suffering, gazans that's gabby. gabby was shot if you're talking about gabby giffords, who survived being shot in the gun violence issues, important issue. >> how much for her if it is harris to vice presidential selection. i mean, how much is it about? a swing-state play and how much is it about reaching out to moderates to the well, those two things are not mutually exclusive. in

fact, i think they're very much related when you think of the people who are at the top of that list, governor shapiro of pennsylvania and pennsylvania is a absolute must ve he must win state he also is a very, very articulate and moderate who's had great reach into some of these small towns and rural communities that democrats have had a hard time reaching. mark kelly is a moderate who has a strong profile on border issues coming from that state. and as also expert on national security issue, congressman clyburn had said, just in passing, possibly a business person as well, i should have followed up with him on that, but i mean, who is there somebody i'm not sure about. >> i'm not sure about the business profile though that's an interesting idea and i think it could be a smart one. but i will say, i mean the two names that i hear the most from people around around vice president harris and democrats who know what they're talking about are roy cooper and mark kelly. those are the two that i think that even though there's a lot of chatter about josh

shapiro, i think by by far and away roy cooper in north carolina, who is a term-limited governor. he had a profile. i think that kind of balances her out and also mark kelly, who she has a personal relationship with those to rise to the top of the list, i'm usually a skeptic about vice presidential nominee partners even making a difference at all. but i think in this case, it actually might have play a huge role in how she's received. >> and just to note, we have just confirmed from a source that governor whitmer was on a harris for president campaign call in her state already today, speaking of the dynamics that they are going to be watching him, what's at play in these very powerful figure? isn't their party? >> and if there, if there is any risk, there is any risk of her losing men, which i think there are people in the campaign worried about first woman president, women of color sending somebody like mark kelly, who is a fighter pilot in the ashram, is a way to go after some of these men. black, latino, and white, that might be worthwhile. >> jake, back to you thanks anderson. i'm joined now by former presidential candidate

and democratic national committee chairman howard dean, also cnn contributor elaine kamarck, a dnc rules committee member who literally wrote the book on the presidential nominating process. it's called primary politics. everything you need to know about how american nominates its presidential candidates. let's send that puppy up there on the amazon rankings. governor dean as the former dnc chair what's going to happen next and what's the path of least resistance for democrats? >> it's already happening much to my astonishment apparently this afternoon, this evening, all 50 state chairs endorsed kamala harris so i mean, this idea that there's going to be many primaries, just not going to happen and there's a lot of reasons might be acute feel better if it happened, but as you all pointed out, all the principal players have already decided they are going to support kamala harris so at this point, i'm going to defer to elaine because she knows far more about the rules than i do

and they probably changed a bit in 20 years but at this point from a political point of view it hasn't even been 24 hours and i think this thing is getting pretty close to be locked up yeah, it's interesting a few hours ago i was reporting that the other possible candidates were kind of keeping their powder dry powder dry to see how much the democratic party coalesced around harris and, since then, they've almost all to a person, almost all of them have coalesced, joined the coalescing alayna, i want to get reaction to something congressman dean phillips said on cnn tonight take a listen we should host four townhalls around the country. i do a straw poll now of the 4,000 convention delegates, democratic delegates vice president harris should be automatically invited, and then three of the other top vote getters to do a series of four townhalls, introduce themselves to our delegates to the country it will legitimize her candidacy. it will energize the base of democrats, this whole country and we'll also, in the words of jim clyburn, afforded

the opportunity to vet a likely vice presidential candidate so let's, let's assume that that other potential nominees include senator joe manchin, who reregistered as a democrat, and congressman phillips and maybe one or two others. do you think that would theoretically work? >> no. >> no. it's not going to work. look, this is a decision that is in the hand of 4,000 and some odd delegates. and in all of the discussion that's taking place in the last three weeks since the debate, everybody seems to have forgotten that they're the deciders okay. there's obviously president obama has to say, and the senators, et cetera, they're the deciders and one thing to realize about them, there are all chosen for the fact that they were loyal, very loyal to joe biden i bet you that most of them or large proportion of them have actually met kamala harris because let's face it, one of the things vice presidents do as they go out and they tend to the party faithful this notion that somehow somebody has got to

pick out of the sky some people to run against somebody else when none of the major candidates talked about for 2028 and talked about for vice president. >> none of them are running so, you know, just to have a, have a sort of mix of candidates for the sake of having a mix of candidates doesn't do anybody any good including harris, governor dean, you told my colleague, abby phillip last thursday that you would theoretically support a ticket with vice president harris in north carolina, governor roy cooper cooper just endorsed her. do you still feel as though that is the democrats best shot to keep the white house as of right now i think all three of the people that you all discussed are very, very good candidates for all the reasons that you've discussed my thinking is that we're a little behind in pennsylvania, north carolina is winnable. >> obama was the last one to win it, but i think it's the next swing state and have all the people who could do that or roy cooper has been a

terrifically popular governor in a state that's had a pretty corrupt republican legislature so he knows how to play the game. he's incredibly popular in a state that elects republicans. and they haven't have a governor's race where there's a right-wing lunatic running for governor against their attorney general josh stein. so write this should be a very good year for democrats in north carolina. i would obviously, pennsylvania has for more electoral votes in north carolina does. but if you have to make that trade, you only lose four votes all three of these candidates are terrific for all the reasons you've said, and this is not up to me. i'm still in shock over biden resigning i am sorry. he did. i think it had to happen. this is an honorable guy and i said long before he resigned that i believe that he has the best domestic policy record of any president since lyndon johnson in his first term. i mean, what he's accomplished this absolutely unbelievable,

especially in the face of the hostile congress because of his long history in congress. so i, this is the right thing to do. i feel terribly sorry for the bidens because i can't imagine having lost one of these races myself. i can't imagine having lost it, having served a term as president for a completely undeserved matter manner. but here we are. it's going to be camila and let's just get it over as painlessly as possible. i'm perfectly willing to listen to crackpot ideas that dean phillips, saturday's. so smart, he never would have got he would have gotten more than 62 votes in new hampshire or whatever he got but let's the dice are rolled already. if you get all 50 states shares, not all of whom agree with each other backing this, this election is over. alayna, we've got to focus on the real enemy at the party of hate and anger, which is the republicans. and i think kamala harris is going to do a really good job on that au and what do you foresee is the biggest obstacle for democrats in the coming days and weeks i

think they've got to get their act together behind kamala harris, pure and simple. >> look what has happened here is literally, we've run out of time. maybe way back in maybe april if this had happened in april, maybe we could have had a mini primary, maybe some other candidates would've gotten in. we are less than a month away from the democratic convention and remember that kamala harris has happened, has done one thing that none of the others have she has been vetted on a national stage. we know everything there is to know about kamala harris. there's no surprises, not only does she know the issues because she's been serving in the white house? she can talk to you about what our arms tuition is in the ukrainian battlefield none of the other candidates can do that. they're all smart. i'm sure they could read a briefing book but she's ready. and again, if this if there were a couple of months, maybe we could have had a bunch of other people in the field there's no time. we have run out of time. and i think it's

time to go camila. >> what is the profitability is already endorsed harris and we're going to run and run in came marc howard dean, thanks to both of you. >> appreciate it coming up next former president's reaction to the current president dropping out of the 2024 race. and what he's saying about the next plan debate. plus john berman is going to take a look at how voters view potential non-biden matchups. that's coming up weeknights at 8:00. tonight out 360 new reporting to keep the full story we'll to fight how important is that? be unafraid, you have reasonable grounds to believe that alleged war crimes have been committed have compassion and that's real trauma what you have been, seek truth is israel in full control of its territory and go with a search for answers? >> thanks. anderson cooper 360, weeknight today on cnn, every weekday morning. >> here are the five things you

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president. why do you think he's doing this? and can he be talked out of it wood republicans? we willing to support this aid package, we need a functioning legislative branch are you willing to let people in the west bank vote why do you think so many republicans? have downplayed this. do you think he's guilty? >> the lead with jake tapper weekdays, it for. on cnn a new information a source tells cnn a potential vice presidential candidate for the democrats in north carolina, governor roy cooper spoke briefly with vice president harris. >> the source says, quote, the governor expressed his support for her it'd be the nominee. the call comes as we're also seeing republican attacks on vice president kamala harris. they came moments immediately after president biden announced his exit from the presidential race and his endorsement of her candidacy the rnc said in a statement, i quote, not only would harris be a disaster in the white house? but she also helped biden cover up his declining health while in office, which destroys her credibility. john berman joins us now for more on a potential

harris trump matchup. so how does harris compare to biden in polling against trump? better, better the question is, is it good enough, anderson, up here we have the 2020 election results. >> the popular vote. joe biden biden won by about 4.5 points in the latest cnn poll of polls, which is the average of all the polling over the last few weeks biden trail trump by four points. that's a big swing from apv 4.5 to down for, as for kamala harris, the vice president is actually only trailing donald trump by one point, right now. so better than president biden is doing, not obviously as good as biden did in 2020. and in case you're wondering how harris compares to some other possible candidates who had been mentioned really before night, because many people have taken their names out this is that there are poll our cnn poll about three weeks ago, which was a long time now, a lot's happened biden trailed trump by six. harris trail, trump by two. what you can see, her number 45 better than either

biden or some of the other people we tested, like pete buttigieg, gavin newsom, or gretchen whitmer. now, obviously elections are not national popularity contest is state-by-state. and when you dig into the states, it tells a little bit of an interesting story. i want to look at virginia. now, virginia, you might say, hasn't been a swing state and a while since before barack obama, joe biden won it by ten points here. but lately, things have been pretty close. if you look at the latest poll out of virginia you're times sienna poll? no clear leader biden up by two. that's nowhere near the ten points he won by a tested kamala harris also in virginia, the times did she was leading donald trump by four? no clear leader, but you can see doing better than donald trump. why? why was she doing better than biden against trump? well might be an issue of gender hear joe biden, you can see leading among women in virginia by 16 points. democrats need to beat republicans by a lot among women, kamala harris in that same poll leading donald trump

among women by 26 points or 23 points. that's a bigger gap. she is able to expand and that lead among women and the men sort of split about the same. trump, trump leading biden by 14 here 16 among men there, anderson, you can see maybe reason for hope among democrats that kamala harris can do well among women what impact could some of the potential running mates possibly have on the electoral map? >> it's really interesting. let me clear at this screen here and we talk about the possible names being mentioned right now. our jamie gangel and others have reported that some of the leading candidates right now include governor andy beshear, kentucky, roy cooper, governor of north carolina, mark kelly, senator in arizona, and josh shapiro, the governor of pennsylvania. i'm going to move them down here because what's interesting about these folks is many of them live in pretty interesting places. if you're trying to build an electoral map victory, josh shapiro, the popular governor of pennsylvania, look at

pennsylvania, that's a state joe biden won and by just over a point last time, could josh shapiro help expand that lead? that's something that could be exciting for democrats same story for mark kelly in arizona here, a state that biden won by less than a point last time, maybe kelly on the ticket makes arizona easier for a potential presidential candidate kamala harris. now north carolina's you're seeing north carolina is was the closest state that joe biden lost to donald trump. would roy cooper the retiring governed in north carolina? let democrats go on offense in a state that republicans have been winning, that might be attractive now, one face on this list right here not like the others, and that's andy beshear, the governor of kentucky paqui kentucky is a state that donald trump just crush joe biden last time, 25 points. so if you're picking andy beshear in kentucky, you're not doing it for electoral math. you're doing it for other reasons and thanks so much jake, back to you all right. let's discuss with my panel and dana, we're getting some brand new reporting about

the hours before president biden made his decision and the data that his top aides showed him tell us more about that au interesting, this is from our colleague, phil mattingly, who is reporting that the two closest allies and aides almost like family to joe biden, you probably a great mike donilon and steve richetti were with the president in on saturday and gave him information that basically showed that there was no path to winning, like not that's a scenario like non-existent is the word, the word basically non-existent the quote from phil's reporting here. and he says that it wasn't just a single poll number, but that it was the overall sort of collapsing of support, not just among the democratic members, governors, house members, senators, that were coming in one after another. thereafter, another. but the underlying support also

with the voters, which is what makes the most sense first of all, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. obviously. >> but it's also interesting if you put it up against the reporting that we had just a day or two earlier, which despite the fact that you had all of this incoming to these two individuals, but also to others in the biden orbit about all kinds of data showing that the house will be gone. >> no chance to taking it back. the senate will be gone. and it's almost impossible for president biden to win the white house. the president himself, i was told explicitly, did not believe that data something changed on saturday when he had according to phil's reporting, when he had different data presented to him, and he believed it regarding sellers. >> you've been working the phones as a proud democrat. what are you hearing about the coalescing around vice

president harris? is this race basically over? >> i don't know if it's over, but we're doing the work necessary, which means that the first thing before you are coronated are crowned the nominee is you have to whip these delegates and you saw what happened in tennessee. you're seeing what's happening in louisiana, south carolina, et cetera tell us what what is happening. so what happens is i mean, like earlier today i was on the phone which auclay lumumba, who is the mayor of mississippi with frank scott, who is the mayor of jackson, mississippi. frank scott who is the mayor of little rock. randall woodfin may of birmingham. i mean, you get all of these people together and you're like, look, we need to go out and get these delegates polina moreno the city council person down in new orleans, or nikki fried, who is the state party chair in florida and so anyone who wants to challenge, commonly harris is going to have to have an infrastructure in place to be able to whip these delegates and go do that and on a broader scheme, just to kind of piggyback on what on the statement that you just mentioned i think that you can see what commonly harris represents in terms of the historical nature of what we have to do now is sell her as

someone who is battle worn in battle tested in one of those battles, we have to be able to articulate that she was a da an attorney general, where there's a question about crime in communities today, we have to talk about her leadership on bringing us out of covid and all the things and envelop her and joe biden's agenda and successes. and i think she is someone who can actually energize his base he's in bring those things out, and our job is to make sure that we bring that energy because as david probably will tell you, there's gonna be a question about things like what happens with white voters. joe biden overperforming with white voters compared to other democrats. how do we pick that up? and calmly, and the team are now thinking about what that looks it's like. >> i just add one thing because what we're seeing happened so fast is what you're talking about effectively, the grassroots, the delegates, the people who matter, who are going to not only vote for her for the nomination, but also do the work for her that's happening. thanks to people like you and others who have been longtime supporters have

kamala harris and in the meantime, yes, we're seeing a lot of house members, governors, senators coming out very, very quickly saying but they support her for the nomination. chuck schumer, the democratic leader, hakeem jeffries the chuck schumer, the senate majority leader. hakeem jeffries, the house democratic leader our intentionally pulling back, not that they don't want her, but there intentionally pulling back because they don't want it to look like a coronation. they wanted to look like a groundswell from the grassroots and they feel that if they put their thumb on the scale right now, it will be maybe overkill it's okay bedingfield, this is from the leading pro-trump super pac. they've already announced plans to run their first attack ad against vice president harris in battleground states. here's some of that camila was in on it. >> she covered up jos obvious mental decline. are president is in good shape in good health. tireless vibrant, and i have no doubt about the spike

of the work that we have gone. >> but kamel and knew joe couldn't do the job. so she did it. look what she got done a border invasion, runaway inflation, the american dream, dead what do you think? i think this is more of a bank shot argument. if joe biden is not the nominee, i mean, i think look, they've said they've signaled they're going to do this. there's no question. and we saw in some of the polling that, you know, presumably was moving members over the last week that voters were saying i don't know if i trust you when you vouch that joe biden's healthy, so i think no question. they're going to go at this line of attack. i think it's, it becomes a bank shot when joe biden is not the nominee. i also think we have to remember we have to get back to the fundamentals of this race. donald trump himself is also an incredibly unpopular nominee. and by but potentially vice president harris becoming the nominee, you remove the single biggest challenge that democrats had in taking trump on directly, which was this notion that voters thought that biden was too old. and you've kind of take that off the

table. you've, republicans can continue to argue this on the margins, but in kamala harris, you're going to have somebody who's gonna be able to take the case directly to trump and, you know remind people what ryan, the swing voters were going to determine the outcome of this election, what they don't like about donald trump. so i think they're going to keep making this argument to me. it is not as powerful with joe biden, not at the top of the ticket shermichael, do you think i've heard a lot of democrats say that this decision changes the focus and puts a bank on donald trump. joe biden stepping down, kamala harris becoming the nominee, presumably. and you know donald trump is now the oldest presidential nominee in the history of the united states. and though certainly people not asking the same questions about him, that they were asking about president biden he also is not who he was ten years ago, 15 years ago? yeah. >> i mean, that's an interesting question. i mean, i'm a strategist. i look at the date, i look at the numbers in 2020, donald trump won suburban voters by four points

however, 55% of joe biden's coalition where suburban voters, however, it was younger voters, african american voters, latino voters that really helped push him over the threshold. so if i'm looking at that underperformance by trump with biden, but the likelihood that harris will potentially underperform unlike biden with suburban voters i see potential for donald trump. there i also begs the question of how well will kamala harris perform with younger men, particularly the younger men of color? i think that's going to be a real question for democrats if i'm trump, i'm strategically focused on that group as well. so i do think quantitatively speaking here, jake, there are some groups that as a strategist, i would absolutely put all of my focus on in terms of penetrating to move where i think there's real movement from potentially for donald trump. >> can i just respond to that briefly? because i do think that people are going to come and do punditry in question kamala harris is ability to woo black men and hispanic men to

her coalition and what you're seeing her do is put black men at the forefront of whatever campaign may be. there's a call going on right now with over 1,000 black men on zoom over 3,000 black women and what she's trying to do is say, i hear you, but even more importantly, that ad that you just showed jake and one of the reasons that that act that is not going to resonate as a problem that both donald trump and joe biden had together, which is that they both tended to look backwards. that ad is talking about joe biden's age. joe biden's failures that things that joe biden was unable to do. one of the things kamala harris has to do when you go big in a campaign like this, is make sure that you're forward looking and saying, look, it's not about what this country three words are, what it is, but it's about what this country can be. donald trump cannot do that because he's a prisoner of his age, kamala harris can say quickly, just to quickly, it's not just messaging the trump campaign now now has to pivot, presumably all of their modeling, their data. i mean, there are other elements to campaigning. it's not just messaging. they were planning to run against joe biden but now it's a different ball game at a time. >> we're out of time, but i don't know what our plans are

for the next hour, but i'm not going anywhere thanks, everyone. coming up next. biden's decision to not run for reelection feels unprecedented, but doris kearns goodwin is going to join us next to explain how a lyndon johnson faced a similar issue decision in 1968 and what the historical consequences of lbj not running for reelection. we're stay with us christian cooper, 360 week ai today on cnn with generative ai on aws companies are already transforming how they work to generate new ideas and turn experiments into reality aws is the easiest way to get up and running so you can quickly build and scale generative ai with security built-in with generative aui on aws businesses can push the boundaries of innovation. high got this thousand dollar camera for only $41 on deal, bad deal dash.com online auctions since

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about sharing that so you can be outfront two. >> let's go outfront erin burnett outfront weeknights at seven on cnn i'm dr. sanjay gupta. >> and this is cnn breaking news, president biden dropping out of the 2024 race, endorsing his vice president, kamala harris. here's how the historic moment is being captured on the new cover of time magazine it shows her literally stepping into frame is president biden steps out. we want to get some perspective now from pulitzer prize winning presidential historian doris kearns goodwin, her latest book is an unfinished love story, a personal history street of the 960s. so doris, as always, on remarkable days, we turn to you what went through your mind when you heard about president biden's announcement well i think the first thing that went through my mind is having lived with presidents for the last half-century i know that this is one of the hardest decisions they could possibly make i mean, every president wants their administration too b endorsed. >> they want to finish the job. it's what it's what abraham

lincoln said in 18, 64, it mattered even more to him. he said to win the second election, then the first because it would show that people cared about what he had done. and like biden said, over and over again, i want to finish the job, but i guess what also went through my head was the thought that he was particularly hard for president biden because he's it's always come back from these tough situations before we've seen it time and time again. and he must have believed in these last three weeks for part of that time, i've done it before. i can do it again. until what i guess will come out more and more in these days ahead, my guess is that the reports that came in from the congressman who talked about what their constituents were feeling in the field that the perception of age and health is something you can't come back with by will, by hard work and buy your whole history of resilience. it's just there. and once that became part of it, than he was it's able to make the decision that it was better to concentrate on the presidency, as he said, and then focus on that and allow the campaign to go forward. and i would guess if anything, he's feeling a great sense so relief tonight, attentions must

have been enormous, as i know, they were for lbj and when that decision is finally made than the anger, the sense of betrayal, what am i going to do? it's over and then you're going to get accolades as i suspect, we're already seeing for him and he can bask in that. and rightly, in these days ahead, you worked with lbj you knew him well? >> talk about the decision that he made and the impact that it had on him i think it was the hardest decision he ever had to make and he was a man like biden who is entitled hi, our life had been in politics, was said that its decision to withdraw was almost like political suicide for somebody for whom that was their whole life. >> but he felt he had to do so in his case, what it was was the tet offensive had occurred at the end of january, and it really taken away the notion that the war could be won by more and more troops going away. so he knew that that he had to somehow wind the war down. but the only way that could be believed as if he were not a candidate for president. and also, unlike biden, he was still running for election, but he was in a contest and with

mccarthy and bobby kennedy, and he was not doing well in that contest. anyway, he comes to the he comes to the speech performance that night and thunderstruck was the nation because they were not expecting this he started talking about winding down the war. he started talking about going to the peace table, and then he said with our sons and far-away fields and the challenges at home, i don't want to devote a single day they have my life to other than the presidential duties of the same thing that president biden talked about in his, in his letter. and then what happened is the next day he goes out on the field. people are clapping i'm for him. the anger that they had felt her and was dissipated. every review, every editorial said he had put principle above politics, that he had been selfless. and this is 37 years. he never done anything like this. said, three days later when the north vietnamese agreed to come to the bargaining table, that it was the happiest he had ever been. so it all seemed great. but then what happens is that fate intervened. he was ready to go to hawaii to talk to the generals over there and begin the peace talks, negotiations. and then he gets a message the

night he was prepared to go the whole white house plane is filled with aides, et cetera, that martin luther king had been shot and then everything seemed to change after that riots in the cities, bobby kennedy killed two months later, the war continuing on. and then that crazy democratic convention in 1968 but i think this echoes for president biden and what he's going to receive in these next days ahead, relief, an accolades linden. >> linden johnson, popularity soared after he he made that announcement exactly. >> so in fact, his support was only like 36, 35% at the time before the announcement, much like president biden's it went up from 56% disapproval to fix these 56% approval in several matters of days showed show that the people were longing for a change they were longing for somebody to be a leader and take control of the situation and seemingly moving forward for the benefit of the country. and i suspect we're going to see that in these days ahead as well. >> what do you think present biden's legacy will be as opposed to what it might have

been if he had stayed in the race and loss i think if he had stayed in the race and lost a lot of that legacy even though it's concrete would have been hurt because people would have felt that he was doing it for his own reasons rather than for the country, even if he believed that he was the best person that could win the race. >> but now as it is, even though fate may intervene again, we have no idea whether or not whoever comes forward, if it is if it is vice president harris, who she may loosen her own right, but at least it won't be him who loses it. and the interesting thing for i think president biden is some of his legacies are already being talked about i mean, historians, they start talking about it right away in the last presidential poll, this year, they brought him up to number 14, which is one-third of the top one third of the precedents so he knows that, other presidents don't know that until much later when president carter lost that reelection campaign, he was so sad about the fact that i can't finish what i was i'm trying to do. same with bush 41. he said he was afraid he'd be an asterisk in history because he couldn't finish what

he had wanted to do and he worried that he had let down his supporters both of them, thankfully, lived long enough to see that there were held in great esteem by their countrymen. biden already knows that. so i think he'll be able to go to sleep tonight, knowing that and knowing the relief that i think lyndon johnson felt doris kearns goodwin. >> thank you so much thank you. it's good to have you on. i had two big factors that forced the president's decision endorsements and donations. now president biden dropping out and getting behind and kamala harris is now changing both. when our special coverage continues to be backdrop for a minute i said i was sleeping. okay. but i was waking up so tired. then i tried new equal sleep nasal strips. they're four-point lift design opens my nose for maximum air flops i breathe better and better and stay better days. >> start with z equal nights.

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