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is provided by... woman: two retiring executives turn their focus to greyhounds, giving these former race dogs a real chance to win. a raymond james financial advisor gets to ow you, your purpose, and the way you give back. life well planned. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" >> hello, i'm christian fraser. this is "the context." >> joe biden of legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history. >> vice president kamala harris has excited the community. she has excited the house democratic caucus chair.

and e is exciting the country. >> the vice president is smart and strong which will make her a good president, but she is also kind and has empathy, which can make her a great president. >> if you want to lead this country, you should feel grateful for it, feel a sense of gratitude. i never hear that gratitude come through when i listen to kamala harris. christian: joining me tonight, former special assistant to barack obama, the democratic fundraer lindy lee, democratic strategist, and anchor an executive producer of latino usa of national public radio. christian: the most thunderous sound in politics is the sound of a turning page, so said one senior democrat last night, as

the endorsements for kamala harris flooded from all sides of the party. on sunday, the democratic super pac, act blue, raised 47 million dollars in donations, the biggest day of the election. bill and hillary clinton endorsed the vice president instantly, as did senior senators and most of the brand name democrats who might have posed a challenge. governors josh shapiro, gretchen whitmer, gavin newsom, andy beshear quickly fell in line. after 25 days of infighting and barely 100 days until the boat, things are moving quickly. former speaker nancy pelosi endorsed harris tonight. tom democrats chuck schumer and hakeem jeffries so that they would meet her soon, but no one is talking about a challenge. >> vice president kamala harris has excited the community. she has excited the house democratic caucus.

and she is exciting the country. so i'm looking forward to sitting down with her in person in short order with leader schumer, and we will have more to say about the path forward as soon as that meeting is conducted. christian: for joe biden, isolated with covid at his beach house in delaware, there was no way out. the senate majority leader chuck schumer visited him on saturday armed with the polling, with the six most important states all but lost. three more were now in the balance. the word is he was coming to a decision by saturday evening. at 1:45 on sunday, he convened the call with the chief of staff who arranged the call with connolly harris and his closest advisors. one minute later, his x account posted that he would remain in office but cede his party's nomination, the first eligible incumbent to do that since lyndon johnson in 1968. less than 30 minutes later, he

would endorsed, harris. -- endorsed connolly harris. >> joe biden's legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history. in one term, he has already -- yes, you may clap. [applause] in one term, he has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who has served two terms in office. christian: lindy lee, there is no purpose to a fundraiser who cannot get donors to part with their money. last time we spoke on the program, you said they were all sitting on the fence. what has it been like the last 24 hours? >> amazing. the avalanche has washed over us. there is a palpable sense of excitement. actually you can tell i kind of lost my voice. i have been on interviews all day long. yesterday morning, i did a fox news exclusive for the first

time suggesting to the president that he step aside. it was my first time to do so for an american audience. it was a big deal for me because i also endorsed vice president. two hours later, i find out the president stepped aside. for me, it really hits home. i've been speaking with donors and delegates, elected officials. it has been uniformly positive. i have yet to encounter a signal person that has signaled dissent or opposition. everyone is so excited. i have donors sitting on the fence before now ready to write those six or seven-figure checks that disappeared in the wakef the debate. christian: you could sense the relief last night, of course, in democratic circles, great respect for joe biden. but the overwhelming sense that came through many of the interviews last night was they had been freed from a contest that 70% of american didn't want, to joe biden-donald trump

rematch. if people want to change candidate, democrats would say here it is. >> lindy mentioned the word that i think captures the mood in washington among democrats, and that is relief. i also have to say, i have a dueling emotion of sadness because i work for joe biden, great guy, true public servant, one of the most decent men i've ever met. it is hard to see him go through this, make a decision that was no doubt difficult. but i have to say that ever since that debate, i've been losing sleep. i've been watching the polls tilt in trump's direction, and the announcement yesterday was this massive sigh of, ok, it is now time to hit the ground running. i think it was unquestionably the right decision for biden to step aside and to hand the baton over to kamala harris.

the last thing the democratic party needs right now is a food fight with others growing their name in the hat with a different ideological position within the democratic party, vying for the upper hand. i think we are at the beginning of a new chapter. we only have 100 days, but we will see the ticket come together soon probably with a running mate, a governor of a swing state. and they will have a lot of momentum into the august convention. christian: charles talks about the ing states. you can probably sweep those -- split those in two. midwest states, pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, crucially important to democrats, but equally important are the southern states, arizona, georgia, nevada. one of the problems in that polling is that the latino base, african-american base, young base, has been drifting away

from joe biden. do you sense in the last 24 hours latinos are ready to give vice president harris another look? >> this is a fascinating moment in u.s. politics. frankly, it is excitement just because things are ming. there is a conversation being had now that goes deeper than just the debate between joe biden and donald trump. we are now talking about this precise issue. how do you motivate black voters, do you motivate latino, latino, latinx voters to come out? i've heard people say in my reporting, will latinos vote for a black woman? immediately i went back to conversations that were being had when barack hussein obama was on the ticket and people were saying, will latinos vote for a black man whose name is barack hussein obama? they did.

in fact, it was my dad who actually voted for barack obama, mexican man raised on the south side of chicago. that to me is a hint of what's ssible. overnight, black women, who have energize electoral politics in our country throughout, and we have a black woman who will probably be the candidate, this will transform the national political dialogue in this moment. i do think that latino and latina voters will give another look to kamala harris as the rest of the country. but there is something she can use. she is the daughter of immigrants. it is the moment where she needs to drill down on that youth about. you need to remember, latinos, every minute, turn 18 in the united states. our median age is about 11 or 12 years old. this is a youth population. kamala harris has gone after it.

now she needs to zero in. i think she can do it. christian: i was watching today at the white house. she has been quite fortunate in one respect because the president was not there to overshadow this first appearance. she took the pulpit on the south lawn. that image of her standing with the white house behind her, surrounded by young people, as maria says, she has to go after the young vote. let surrounded by these champion athletes, you could not hope for a better first day on the job. >> i absolutely loved it, loved her in front of the white house, in front of the young people. we are about to enter a period of intense competition. we have no better fighter than the vice president. she is absolutely going to prosecute the case against donald trump and the republicans, which has been needed, as we move forward. it's been mentioned about young people. they are going to give a second chance.

i was looking at my feeds, talking to the younger groups that mobilize young voters. there was so much energy and enthusiasm. generational change is something we've been talking about for a long time in the democratic and republican party. we are seeing it now and people are hungry for it, looking for a president that is closer to understanding the challenges of being a young person in is country and the world, and to understand the opportunities and challenges we face with things like big tech, technology, housing, all the things that make life better for us here. she has an opportunity to speak to young people, use culture, all things in a different way. we will see and feel that right out of the gates with her campaign. christian: charles, the clintons were out immediately to endorse her nomination. why not barack obama, why is he waiting? >> i think there has been a debate internally about the

procedural issues at stake here. joe biden won the primary. joe biden was the nominee according to the rulebook, democratic national committee. there is a question when he steps aside, what happens? how do we know who should lead the ticket? i think that is why you are seeing a bit of a delay from barack obama and others. today, as you mentioned, nancy pelosi has come out, more people will come out in the coming days. but my understanding is this really is a question of making sure that they. the i's, cross the t's, that the republicans don't have a leg to stand on when they say, wait a minute, we are going to take you to court because she shouldn't be the nominee, she shouldn't get the campaign funds. i can guarantee you the the trump campaign will try to throw all kinds of spaghetti against

the wall when it comes to procedure. i think the democrats are doing their homework to make sure they have a watertight case. i think we can probably put good money on the likelihood that kamala harris is the nominee. let's see what unfolds in the coming days. the other names that were floated out there, as i mentioned, the governors of swing states, a lot of them have already come forward saying they support her. so it doesn't look like we will see a challenge. christian: all the movement was in that direction, toward harris. it is a bit of a juggernaut at the moment. you can understand why some of the governors who may have thrown their head in the ring had been quick to endorse her. what about your donors? there has been this sugarbush within the democratic party. they have to change candidates, not joe biden, but donors are a little more intuitive about this thing. are they content she is the best

candidate to replace joe biden? lindy, go ahead. >> people realize we have fewer than four months, so this is no time for a wish cast situation. we have to run with what we have. logistically speaking, she makes the most sense. she can now inherit this giant political operation, the campaign team is 500 pierson's strong. she went to wilmington today to greet all the campaign staffers and officials. she gets to inherently $96 million cash on hand that biden had before he dropped out. logistically speaking, she is the ideal inheritor of the campaign assets. i have spoken with top donors. i actually spoke with somebody just before this interview. somebody who gave $2 million in 2020. he is excited about this, he really is. the primary requirement, ask of

these donors the past few weeks and all of this craziness is just somebody younger, somebody who canffectively litigate the case against convicted felon trump. on the face of it he is actually a weak candidate. unfortunately, president biden, who i love, was not able to make the case to the american people. that is a vital requirement for a candidate. christian: we will take a short break. arnd the world and across the u.k., you are watching bbc news.

christian: welcome back, as lindy was signaling, kamala harris now begins the task of taking over the vast infrastructure of joe biden's campaign which has roughly 1300 staff members and thousands of offices around the nation. the question is whether she brings in her own people to run it. the michigan governor gretchen

whitmer was fancied as a potential running mate announced that she will stand as the cochair of the campaign. that $96 million on account has already been transferred to the harris campaign. the delegates that joe biden won are free to choose where they go next but you would think most would continue to support the running mate on the ticket, especially since we now had that endorsement from nancy pelosi. and a statement from the association of state democratic committees, which is significant. these are the party leaders who oversee state delegates to the convention. it would be very hard to challenge kamala harris without the support of tears of those state committees. do you think that is first of all why hakeem jeffries and chuck schumer are holding their powder for a short while? obviously, there are some states that have not indicated which way their delegates will go. our people waiting to see what state chairs make up the race over the next 24, 48 hours?

>> i think this whole process is moving very fast. it started over the weekend, moving very quickly. we have six states now that have unanimously transferred their delegates over to the vice president. i think we will see more in the coming days. i know there are meetings happening tonight and tomorrow among many states. there is a rules meeting with the dnc that will be happening on wednesday, i think, to really button up that conversation we were having about the legitimacy of the process. yosee some folks taking a little time to make sure that the ducks are in a row like we discussed. but i think you'll see a consolidation. i led the dnc for a period of time. i have worked on presidential campaigns, campaigns all across the united states for nearly 25 years. these things take time to communicate properly with people across the country, to make sure that folks feel heard, make sure

they have their questions answered. i am confident that that process is happening now. i know a lot of the people doing that work, and these are folks that will make sure that we come out of it strong and strengthened. and if kamala harris is in fact our nominee, at there are no challenges that conveys her in that process. i just want to name -- i don't want to take this for granted. i have worked to elect women in this country for a long time. i don't want to take for granted just how quickly vice president harris has consolidated support. i have never seen our party move as quickly as it has in the last 24 hours, raising money, with endorsements, not just with the elected officials we talk about, governors and senators, about groups, labor unions, climate groups across the ecosystem here. i've never seen this kind of speed from this party. i think it speaks to the strength of her candidacy and

the urgency of the moment. christian: you talked about the time lost, we are 100 days from the boat. 25 days of infighting since the debate. democrats have to get their act together because they are trailing. kamala harris has to make up some ground particularly in those swing states. you touched on it a few minutes ago, this idea of an african-american, asian american woman running for the presidency. we have got to talk about hillary clinton's campaign in 2016. for all intents and purposes, she was thfavorite in the race, and she lost. why would you be convinced that white males in michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania would come out to vote for kamala harris? >> actually i'm not focusing on white males at this point. if you look at what happens in terms of the elections now, what you really want to do is energize the black vote. make sure you get all of those

voters, black voters who were going to go for trump, bring them in so you have a 98% turnout of black voters for kamala harris. that, along with focusing on the latino vote -- it doesn't fit in people's heads. the latino vote is the second largest voting cohort in the united states. how you move latino voters will determine a lot what democracy looks like. these are the voters that you have to energize. christian: those are the voters outlook and joe biden's record on the economy, tackling inflation, the cost of living, and are more energized by the trump campaign. >> absolutely. what we are trying to process here, what i'm trying to process the last 24 hours, what is the argument for the people that

will double down and go for trump? we know all the people that are on this call right now, we all know there are people who will double down and go for trump. trump is a difficult candidate. he carries a lot of ugly baggage. this may be the situation where people who were trump-like supporters, women who have a lot of questions on abortion access, will make the decision to dump trump as it were. how many white men will do that? i think we also underestimate white men. many of them did come out to vote for barack obama. it is possible. here is the thing. kamala, when we talk about the youth vote, she had people like hip hop who would you star fat joe, organizing and visiting college campuses with her. she has that energized youth about. somebody said about using culture.

for me the moment is not only who will be her running mate, but as we say in spanish, what is the theme of the democratic party right now? you have to have a response to build the wall. what is it? believe in democra, believing women, i don't know what it is, but there has to be a response that makes it clear for those trump-light voters, this is the choice i can make because of hope and possibility, as opposed to feeling that i'm a white man that will lose everything because a black woman is becoming president. christian: if she comes to the race as the attorney general of california, the prosecutor who can prosecute the case against donald trump, put forward a proposal for the future, that is the sort of harris that you could see making ground in the polls. if you get this milk toast 2020 kamala harris whose campaign went nowhere, this isn't going to work, is it?

>> just picking up on what maria said, mber one, i think you will see a lot of enthusiasm among younger americans. biden was struggling there in part because of the gaza war. a lot of younger americans, both white and nonwhite, will be jazzed by having a younger woman of color at the head of the ticket. number two, maria mentioned this. another key constituency are moderates, particularly modern women in swing states. by choosing j.d. vance as his running mate, trump has doubled down on his voter base. roughly 42% of the american electorate are white without a college education. that is trump's voter base but you cannot win with just that. you have to pivot into the middle. in many respects, trump will have a hard time doing that. i think kamala harris can go raight for the independents,

the moderate republicans, moderate republican women in the swing states, that will determine the election. i expect her to very much head in that direction. finally, as you said, she is tough, she is a fighter. we saw some of that in the previous debates. when she gets on the debate stage with trump, she goes after somebody who is a convicted felon, misogynist, someone who attempted to overturn the 2020 election. he will be in trouble. christian: roll call or open vote on the floor or virtual rollcall? which would you prefer? >> i think she will be the nominee either way. i think we will know before we get to the floor, if the dnc decide to do something in advance, i think people will still be pretty bought in on this. christian: when the rules committee meets tomorrow, you would say let's see it be done,

let see the delegates come forward and she her on the floor of the convention in chicago. >> i think however that the nca decides to proceed with this, whether in advance or before, there are logistical issues they have to deal with. all kinds of things that need to happen here. either way, we are seeing the type of consolidation that i'm not worried about either direction. christian: we are going to go to a short break. on the other side of the break, we will talk about the running mate. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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