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vice president kamala harris to be the democratic nominee and lead the charge against donald trump and jd vance. over the last few hours, endorsements for vice president harris have poured in from democratic governors and state attorney generals and unions including the employees international union. i've had a statement from the executive council of the federation of teachers. fund raipzing has just exploded for democrats. donations reportedly exceeding $30 million in less than half a day. that would be the biggest day for online democratic donations potentially ever. it might be the largest democratic fund-raising day ever. now, for kamala harris to officially become the democratic nominee for president, she will have to formally win the

nomination. she will need to secure the votes of enough delegates who will be free to vote for whomever they like now that president biden is dropping his reelection bid and is no longer standing in the election. reuters has reported the campaigning has already begun. already this evening democratic parties in the great state of tennessee is reporting that all 77 will be voting for kamala harris. it's not just tennessee. the chair of the north carolina democratic party always says her party has elected to vote to vice president and it's not just tennessee and not just north carolina. in the state of south carolina, the democratic party there has now pledged its delegates to harris. one state party chairperson tells nbc news on the call that happened earlier this evening among all of the different state party chairs, there were, quote,

no objections to moving forward with being open with our support for the vice president and moving forward. the chairperson cautioned there was no formal role call vote of state party delegations or support but the chairperson said the call, again, the call among all of the democratic party chairpersons in the country, it concluded with a strong call for unity in this moment and support for the president's choice, vice president harris. she'll need close to 2,000 next month. she appears well on her way. again, the national finance chair of the joint fund-raising committee between the biden campaign and chairs telling nbc news tonight that, quote, i believe there will be enough pledges for kamala harris to be the nominee by the end of the business day on wednesday of this week.

jen, over to you. >> joining us now is democratic senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts. she's already endorsed vice president kamala harris. thank you so much for taking the time being with us this evening. i really appreciate it. you put out a video, a very effective form of communication as you often do. you wrote in part what's fun to think about when you're up against a felon, who better to take it up against than a prosecutor what do you think would scare trump in a general election against vice president harris? >> a tough woman scares trump and someone who holds people accountable. think about vice president harris's years as a prosecutor. she's someone who's gone toe to toe with people who bluster,

people who bully, people who lie, and she has held them accountable. she doesn't get distracted. she doesn't get rattled. she just hones in and she delivers. i think somebody like that is really frightening to donald trump. >> i've no doubt about that. i can't even imagine what he's thinking right now. i'd love to know. i'd love to know what you were thinking because you're such an effective communicator about the democratic party. they were arguing about having the better agenda for the working people of this country. tell me about those moments. >> i kept thinking about project 2025. yay, yay, i hear jd vance and donald trump saying working people, working people, but read

down in detail project 25 in which donald trump has already said he is ready go and jd vance backs him up on a tax cut that will deliver $3.5 million in tax cuts every year to every billionaire in this country, and project 2025 says it's going to be paid for on average family of four will pay $2,600 more every year just so the billionaires can have more. that is not supporting working people. that is not out there trying to strengthen america's middle class. you know, here's the thing. i have known vice president harris since she was back as a baby attorney general and i was trying to set up the consumer financial protection bureau in the wake of the 2008 crisis.

we worked shoulder to shoulder to fight back against those giant banks that were trying to cheat homeowners all across this country, and that's what kamala has been doing year after year after year. so she's got that prosecutorial experience, but she also has that economic experience. just a couple of months ago she was in there pitching with the cfpb to help people who are drowning in medical debt. she's been there. she's been really down in the dirt under your fingernails. what does it take to stand up for hard-working people in this country and just give them an opportunity to build a little economic security. and that's what vice president harris has been doing. that's what she's going to be able to run on and just beat the pants off of donald trump and jd vance on. >> the pants off. i don't want to remember that

visual, but it's a good one for people to hear. you know, one of the big decisions the now likely nominee, the current vice president needs to make is who her running mate is going to be. you already said she has a record to run on. what kind of a person -- you know her well. what kind of a candidate would be a good partner for her, and is there anyone in her mind you would like to see her consider? >> you know, i really like the way you frame this question. who would be the right partner. i actually think that is the right question. i know all the pundits and pooh-bahs say, oh, so and so from the next state or so and so would appeal to this group, i think vice president harris has had a terrific relationship with president biden. she has been part of the decision-making process. she's been out there fighting every day for the items in the administration's agenda. student loan debt, for example.

she's been in there making those punches, helping people get the relief that they need. i think she's going to want to replicate that kind of experience, and she wants to be president to a vice president that's someone she can depend on, and what makes somebody someone you can depend on? i think it's the shared values. it's somebody who really does see the world the same way. it's somebody who believes that government is not here for the billionaires and the giant corporations. government is here to work on the side of working people. government is here to invest in americans, to invest in education and health care and housing. oh, and a big one coming up, big fight that we're going to have, child care, because we need to get this done across the country. i think she's going to want someone who looks at government the same way, someone she can

rely on. i think she's got a lot of good people out there she can pick from. we've got a deep bench, and that's good. >> no question about it. that is the person's partner, no question about it. first person in the room, last person in the room. elizabeth warren, thank you so much for taking the time. >> great interview, jen. elizabeth warren is a powerful communicator on behalf of her party. the party is consolidating around vice president kamala harris as nominee. you not only had her working with the biden administration, but people who worked alongside her in the senate, who ran alongside her, but people who have had experience in the senate and seeing these endorsements come up and seeing that sort of articulated support

from elizabeth warren, i think we're going to have a lot of that in the coming days. i mentioned moments ago there were three state democratic parties who have now made the decision, they've heard enough, and they've decided all of their delegates are going to kamala harris. we've heard that about south carolina, north carolina, and also tennessee. now you can add new hampshire. that's the fourth state where all four states have pledged to kamala harris. i think the idea of her getting a fight to get the delegates is falling by the wayside. again, one of the states that already pledged all of their delegates is tennessee. joining us now is the chair for the state of tennessee. mr. remus, i appreciate you being here. thank you. >> thanks for having me, rachel.

>> can you help our viewers watching across the country right now understand what it means for you in tennessee to have done this, what your options were? you were the first state to do it. did you know you were going to have to make this decision right away? walk us through this and how you had to make the decision. >> obviously we're proud to be the first state to have the delegates support vice president harris and stand behind her in becoming the presidential nominee of our party. we did not have this planned. we had a meeting on the calendar. just before it occurred president biden spoke about vowing out. when our calls started, the vice president had not even made known publicly if she wanted to be the nominee, but during our call, we had an opportunity to have a real discussion about the

future of our country and what it means to us to swiftly move beyond the moment that we've seen play out over the last three weeks and try to lead the charge because i kind of figured we probably were the only state party meeting in that moment and kind of helping to lead the charge and set the tone for swiftly closing out this process and coalescing around the nominee who can continue to deliver results on behalf of the democratic party for the american people. all of our delegates who were on that call, there was no defections, there was no contention. even understands we have a mission and that mission is to defeat donald trump and we're on board to help accomplish that this year. >> so that's true. there was essentially no hard core debate, no big disagreement. it was essentially a unanimous decision by all of your delegates? this wasn't a hard call? >> it wasn't a hard call. i think the biggest part of the discussion we had was delegates

wanted to know how quick the dnc would roll out the rules and how it would play out. no one was saying we need another candidate or option. all of the delegates on that call understand it's important to support a nominee and vice president harris is the most qualified person to step into that role. president biden picked her because he believed she was ready to be president on day one if she had to step into that role, and we've decided to stand behind her because we believe she is indeed ready to be president. she has been in tennessee, whether it was a school shooting. she's been here in our state, been on the ground, been a friend to tennessee. we want to make sure that if this process plays out over the next few weeks that we are steadfast in our support for vice president harris to become a historic first woman president

of the united states. >> mr. chairman, let me ask you about something we understand happened. we don't know much about what happened on it. it was a call this evening as far as we understand with all the state party chairs, all the state party chairs of all the democratic parties in the country. were you on that call? can you tell us anything about that call? was that a previously scheduled call or sort of an ad hoc thing in the wake of the president's announcement today? >> i was on that call. it kind of happened sort of quickly. it happened at the end of my call with our state delegation. all state party chairs were on there and vice chairs were on there. we had a very lively discussion about the future of the country. the contents of that call, we have a trusted bond between state party chairs, and i think as we progress over the next couple of weeks, we will see

state parties dealing with how you coalesce delegates around a nominee. once the process is laid up, i think much of that dialogue in that call, state party chairs will begin to real yo our troops around that nominee. >> hendrell remus, chair of the democratic party, the chair of the first state to pledge all of their delegates around kamala harris. thank you for helping us understand the process and making a little bit of history here, thank you. >> thanks for having me. "politico".com is reporting tonight on the meeting that took place last night in delaware between president biden and two of his closest and longest serving advisers. according to "politico", and this is pretty stark reporting, the two men, donilin and machete

talked about fund raising. get this, they also brought with them new internal polling done by the biden campaign which showed that joe biden's path to victory was, quote, gone, according to five people familiar with the matter. when president biden first started fielding questions about whether or not he would heed the calls from some in his party he u should not head the ticket heading into nosh, that somebody would have a better chance at taking on donald trump, one of the things he said he would get out if he believed, if he was brought data that showed that he did not have a path to victory, that he did not have a way to win. again, politico.com reporting tonight that that data was delivered to him last night at his home in delaware where, of

course, the president has been isolating with covid. that is internal biden polling. we haven't seen that internal polling, so we can't confirm it either publicly or through our own reporting, but we've had steve kornacki closely watching the polls around this decision. steve kornacki, national political correspondent, looking at the polling that was staring biden in the face heading into this decision, but also the bits and pieces of polling that we've got about about how a presidential candidacy of kamala harris might look a little different in the polling than what president biden was up against head-to-head with trump. steve, what are you looking at today? >> i guess a couple of things, rachel. this is an average of all of the polls nationally that have been conducted since that debate at the end of june that set all of

this in motion. nationally joe biden was behind trump by two points. first of all, we know back in 2020 when biden defeated trump, never in 2020 did trump ever lead biden in the polling average. biden led it from start to finish that year. this time around here's trump leading biden in the polling average. frankly, we've seen it for your a long time now. it was the end of last summer, summer of 2023 in our nc poll that trump pulled level with biden and pulled ahead of him. so in some ways looking at these numbers since the debate as they kind of looked up in that debate and said, whoa, you know, biden not quite what we expected in his public performance, you heard comments like that, i think one of the things that happened is the numbers didn't change dramatically from that date. the number did not change at least nationally, but the

democrats looked at them for the first time in a year and started taking them more seriously. that i did get a little worse for biden nationally. he's down in the high single digits. there's something that complicates the path 270. when you see the article "the path is gone," i would caution it will ever be unprovable and that will forever be a subjective statement, "the path is gone." remember in 2016 the entire political world including trump's own party ruled that the path to the presidency was gone and donald trump won in 2016. and there were lessons in that, that if biden stayed in, that would be the statistic. so the question for democrats

becomes, okay, if kamala harris does become the democratic candidate, does that change things? so the same polls that produce this average since the debate in the biden/trump race, what do they show when harris is subbing in? a difference, but a difference to a poll. kamala harris, 46%, donald trump 47% in both of these. she's not heading in with an obvious strength over joe biden or an obvious weakness to joe biden. those numbers are pretty close to the same as a starting point for harris. for joe biden, this is the average when you ask that question, do you have a favorable/unfavorable view, biden, 36%, 57%, we've been seeing numbers look this for a long time with him. obviously these are very perilous numbers. what are they for harris?

average for the same pair of polls, a little bit better. 38%. 5 7 pp /* pp. >> this is the starting point for kamala harris. the big question is what's going to happen in the next week, next two weeks as this rollout of kamala harris as a presidential candidate begins? does she get a second look from voters? do the numbers improve? is there movement in the horse race? is there backlash? she'll be the first candidate nominated from either party since 1968 to be the nominee without contesting in name the presidential primaries. is there kind of a backlash to how all this went down? that's another question. if it's harris,er who it is if

there is another presidential nominee, this is the battleground they'd be walking in. the core six battleground state ts, every single one of these states was won by joe biden. buddhen had flipped from donald trump in 2016. so obviously harris if she is the democratic nominee doesn't have to win all of these states but these are the states that i referenced that polling that showed biden down in many cases, mid-single digits, she'll have to win a number of those states. there are different combinations here. the other challenge for harris orrer who the democratic nominee is, the poll that came out in the last couple of weeks, it was suggesting that democrats were starting to get into trouble outside of the corbatleground states. in particular there's been polling from virginia that showed a close race, a tied race

in some cases or even donald trump ahead by a couple of points. new hampshire, joe biden won new hampshire by seven points back in 2020. it was thought to be safely democratic polling there. they had a fairly competitive race. there were rumblings about a statewide vote in maine, maybe about minnesota, new mexico. again, there wasn't a ton of polling there. there was some indications, but that's the other order of business for whoever emerges as a democratic candidate. can they make it in those states and some of the swing states to win the election. >> can i ask you a technical question, sort of setting expectations? it does seem like what's happening in democratic politics is the consolidation around harris is fast, overwhelming, and, therefore, likely to be in pretty much complete and fairly short order.

if there isn't going to be a fight in the democratic party and harris is going to be the nominee, how soon would you expect high-quality swing state polls to start emerging to reflect that news? >> specifically when you say swing state, i think that complicates it a little bit. in terms of national polls, i would expect in the next two weeks or so, we'll start to get a good readout nationally. you can imagine what's happening now. the profiles of kamala harris presumably, interviews, whatever the public rollout looks like immediately. i think a real test nationally of is she getting a new look, there will be plenty of national polls, i would expect, in the next couple of weeks for that. the hesitation in the swing states and i mentioned them showing biden getting into some trouble here, we haven't had a lot of them. the swing state polls that we've had, a lot of them don't necessarily fall into the -- they're proven commodities, they

have long track records, widely thought to be accurate. we've had some and they've certainly shown some trouble for joe biden, real trouble in these states, but i think one of the realities we've had this campaign cycle and it's complicated and why we've come about this way, not a ton of high-quality swing state polling. in terms of when we'll start to get a readout on harris or whoever the democratic candidate is against trump, that might take a little longer. if there's going to be significant movement one way or the other, i do think you'll get a pretty clear indication of that in the national voting. >> steve kornacki, thank you, my friend. really appreciate having you with us tonight as we continue to continue covering this news. let's bring in our next guest. i bet you are having a day. i can feel your heat coming off

from here, symone. she's now co-host of "the weekend" here. where were you when you heard the news, and how did you learn the news, and what was your first reaction? >> i was actually pulling up to my mother-in-law's house, i was supposed to be cropping something off to her, and one of the senior producers for your our show called and said making sure you saw your email. i said what email. she said joe biden has dropped out. i was like, what? when i walked into my mother-in-law's house i told her and her sister-in-law the president was still the president but no longer the candidate. >> what have you learned throughout the course of the day as we've been consuming not only the news about it but talking to

sources an developing our own reactions about this? >> honestly, rachel, i had expected this was the point the president was going to come to because he was swimming against the tide and the tide was strong, but i was shocked it happened this afternoon. i was sad for the president, someone who had dedicated literally his entire life. he got into public office when he was 29 years old. i would have to say he was running for president since before i was alive. and the third time he ran for president, he got the nomination, he was elected president, handled coviding and all of these things only to be essentially backed up against a wall from members of his own party and he made a decision, frankly, that i think there are many elected officials across the country that would not have had the courage and the statesmenship and fore site to do what joe biden did. and then he immediately endorsed

vice president kamala harris as the presidential nominee, and my phone started blowing up. and elected officials had gotten calls already from the vice president. they had missed the calls and were trying to figure out how to call her back and figure out what she was saying and people were asking, what happens now. i got on the phone with some dnc members and members of the rules and bylaws committee. they still are planning to do a virtual nomination, very similar, frankly, to what they did in 2020 because of covid. in about two weeks from now, we'll have an official nominee from the democrats for president. >> symone, it's been my sort of feeling since we've been on the air these few hours that any question about whether or not this was going to be some sort of open process, whether there was going to be some sort of surprise new announcement,

whether there was going to be some mini primaries or open conventions, all of that seems to be settling immediately tonight with now i believe it's four state parties having already pledged all of their delegates to vice president harris with president biden's unequivocal endorsement. we've got at least seven democratic governors who were themselves seen as potential candidates or potential running mates for vice president harris. they've all endorsed her. senators have been lining up to endorse her. progressives, moderates endorsing her. we've seen important interest groups and labor groups endorsing her. it does feel -- i document want to be -- there's other information i'm unaware of. maybe i should be less blinkered about it, but my subjective experience of this is she's done as the nominee. is that your sense? >> my sense is the vice president is doing what she said she would do.

she said she intends to earn and win this nomination. in the immediate aftermath that the announcement was made known to us, the vice president was on the phone, picking up the phone, calling and asking for their support. i think it's important to know the support was not blindly given. i saw steven on earlier this evening and i know he's someone the vice president called and had a conversation with regard to his support being given to her. that's how you win a nomination. that's how you lock up support, and that's how you build a coalition, and i think the vice president is off to a good start. i don't think there are going to be any bumps or hiccups on that end, rachel, but this is going to be a very rigorous 107 days. after the democrats do their business and you have the virtual convention in august, people are going to start voting in early september. this is not a situation,

frankly, in my opinion, the little bit i know, the little experience i've got, rachel, that because joe biden was old, that's why the race was so close. the race is close because there are people in the country who want to support. a little over 11,000. donald trump seems to know that number quite well. i document think people should expect the margins will all of a sudden widen and this will be a wide open race and if there's not, all of a sudden there's something wrong or actual issues with vice president kamala harris's canidacy for president. she'll have to do her work. i look forward to seeing if we do see a debate between vice president harris and donald trump. >> yeah. the debate question obviously white open. that question, the internal fight within the democratic

party which is really a heartfelt very emotional very difficult fight within the democratic party is now over and now it's a 107-day sprint with early voting starting before them. sai moan, great to see you tonight. we've got much more to come. claire mccaskill has something to say about why schumer and nancy pelosi and former president obama have not yet explicitly joined the long line of endorsements for kamala harris, and after this quick break, we're going to be speaking with congresswoman jasmine crockett who's great to talk to but parly great to talk to tonight and right now because she just spoke to vice president harris. we will get a report from her on that con very sausage right after this. stay with us. at con very sausag after this stay with us

welcome back to our special coverage of the historic announcement by president joe biden today that he will no longer stand for reelection. he's endorsing his vice president kamala harris, and over the course of us being on the air tonight, it's just been a steady flow of news as the democratic party coalesces around the new presidential candidacy of vice president harris. just after giving you the endorsements, i need to add two, governor phil murphy and jay inslee have now added their names to the growing list of democratic electeds who have endorsed, thrown their support to vice president harris. in addition to the senate, senator raphael warnock, the influential and admired senator from georgia lending his endorsement to the presidential campaign to vice president harris as well. joy, over to you. >> thank you very much. i will add wes moore, the very

popular governor in maryland. he'll do that at an event tomorrow. that is also happening. i would like to bring in our friend and a favorite people love to watch on this here network jas mick crockett, congresswoman from the great state of texas. congresswoman, welcome. i understand you got off of two big calls, and it busted its capacity. also you spoke with the vice president. do you want to tell us anything about that call with the vice president? >> just so everyone is clear, i was never one of those leaky people, so, no-no, i have nothing to say about my phone call with the vice president other than what i'm sure the american people know, which is i stand ten toes down with vice president kamala harris to become the next president of the

united states. i made it very clear very early if joe is out, there is only one person i will be working for, so this idea of throwing out joe manchin and all these other people, listen, if you all decide to go any other way, have fun with that, but the only person that i will get out there and break my back for and believe in and who is qualified is vice president kamala harris. >> it was said by the great donna brazile, former head of the dnc, she confirm shd e got a call from senator joe manchin to inquire about the nomination. i will note he did leave the democratic party, so it's not clear how he would do that. she reminded him you have to be a democrat to do that. she's not sure what he was thinking, but he did make that

inquiry. let's talk about it. you've been one of the members who's been very clear that the push to get joe biden to stand down was not something your constituents were in support of. we were both in new orleans. we spoke to civilians who were very ayn grel about it. you agree in some ways. what do you make of how this process played out and are you confident there is no way to stand in the way of vice president harris being the nominee? it seems like she's getting all these state party endorsements. >> i am not confident. will be working and working and working as you mentioned. there was another call with black women which is still going on right now. i have been in touch with those delegates that have pledged themselves to president biden in my district. we're in the process of contacting all of the texas delegation. i'm not confident at all because as it was laid out earlier, i do know that behind closed doors

while i won't name names that there were people that were absolutely like can't be the vice president. in one breath they were saying the president needs to be out. in the next breath they were also saying it can't be her. it was one of the reasons i was very fearful we would end up balling into this trap of chaos, which, you know, we ee done a really good job in the house of making it clear a chaotic party is the republicans as we've watched them perform as straight up clowns the entire year and a half. the fact we would eat our own was really disappointing especially since i know it wouldn't be this smooth transition over to the other person on the ticket, which is the vice president. but nevertheless, everybody knows i was doing everything i could for the president. i'm going to do everything i can for the vice president. i was just in phoenix with the second gentleman where we were campaigning. i have gone around this country. i've been to philly four times.

i've been to michigan. so a lot of the people who were coming out and had all these opinions, i had. seen them in the streets fighting for this. so now that they got their way, my only request is will you finally lace up your shoes and do some work? you know, if it was the president that was the problem, then, fine, get to work, but we have to win. i mean, i appreciate you, joy, at all times. you probably were one of the very first people to bring up project 2025. you have always made it clear that there really budget a decision to make. it's democracy or dictatorship, right? a family man or a phelps. you made the choice very clear, but seemingly some people were struggling with it, and, you know, i can tell you that i know this vice president. i know her heart. the fact that i did get a phone call from her, i'm just a freshman member of congress, y'all, but it tells you the type of person that she is, and i can't really say that i know for

sure that i would be here today without the inspiration of kamala harris, which i was able to share with her with me being sworn in. as a young black female lawyer, i looked to her when she first bake an elected prosecutor in the bay area, and i've been following her career this entire time. i look forward to her fight. if anybody thinks this is going to be easy, it's not, and we need all hands on deck. >> congressman jasmine crockett, thank you. when i first got my readout, kamala harris was one of the first kind people who reached out. she's one of those people. there's going to be a lot of attention around her coming up and i think people will find the lovely person that she is and they'll be interested to hear her thoughts on donald trump. i certainly would like to see that in debate. i would pay money for it. it's going to be epic.

thank you so much. i appreciate you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, rachel. people are going to want to see it. >> i'm telling you. i don't know what they're going to do about the debate. donald trump is already like complaining that this is somehow against -- the republicans are complaining this is somehow against the rules and this is unfair. donald trump is posting online that this is totally not cool because they just did all the convention that was about running against somebody different. wait a second, like they want a do-over. any time that is the character of what is happening in your opponent's camp, you know you have made a wise decision strategically speak. i have a few updates. a couple of hours ago after 7:00 p.m. eastern time, the fund-raising group act blue, which is a fund-raising juggernaut for causes and

candidates, announced they had raised $27 million for the presidential campaign for democrats and for the presidential campaign, vice president harris. again, that was two hours ago, $27 million. they've just posted an update two hours later. it's now $47 million. act blue saying $46.7 million has been raised in just about -- a little more than seven hours since this announcement was made and since president biden endorsed kamala harris to succeed him in their reelection bid. this would be -- this is already just at seven hours, which is, you know, not even -- not even halfway through the day, just in seven hours this is already the biggest online democratic donation haul since the 2020

election. but, again, that's with only seven hours on the ticket -- seven hours on the ticker and still koulkting. nicole, over to you. >> rachel, you have this expression about events that creates their own weather. it's one of those no one has asked you to tell your story and where you were and what you think, so i'm going to do it. >> i was in the studio and rerecording for like the 45th time the ending section of the next episode of my podcast, the next episode of "ultra-." it's one of those that i'm a little bit of a -- i get a little focused and i was like on my 40th take trying to do the end of this and now i'm going to have to do 40 more takes because my producer -- we're using riverside, the software and she butts in and going, i'm really sorry, rachel, i know we're going to have to do a few more takes, but biden's out. okay, so do you want to take it

from the top here? >> i hope that's recorded. >> yeah, it is actually now that i think about it. if you're listening to episode 7 of "ultra," season two, and my voice sounds irrelevantly cadenced, you'll know i was deeply distracted when i was doing that recording. >> i'm really happy. i'm going to have look for that conversation. i'm bringing in claire mccaskill. claire, two-part question, tell us how you learned the news. i've had conversations with you. i'm not surprised at all. tell us how you understand this came to be. >> well, it happened at a great moment for me always. i was surrounded by sp of my 15 grandchildren when i got the news in my home here in st.

louis, and so it was a sad moment, but i was not surprised, i was not shocked. you know, i'm just going to say, i do think this is going to be a smooth transition to kamala harris as nominee of the democratic party. and i want to say that i think there's a reason that president obama and chuck schumer and nancy pelosi and hakeem jeffries have not endorsed kamala harris today and that is -- it's really simple. too many people perceived that they were the people that were getting joe biden out of the race. i think what finally moved joe biden was the data. i think his staff brought him numbers from the swing states that showed that not only was he running ten to 15 points behind the democratic senators in the

same states and clearly underwater in those swing states, but that also he was losing ground in other states that they had thought were safe, quote, unquote. so i think it was people's opinions that moved -- ultimately moved joe biden to do a very selfless, not selfish, very selfless and patriotic thing. so i think what you're seeing is what chuck schumer and nancy pelosi and barack obama and hakeem jeffries hoped you would see, and that was a natural coalescing around the qualified selection of joe biden to be there in case he wasn't, and that is kamala harris. >> what do voters who haven't paid attention to the work she's done, some of it behind the scenes, but increasingly, a lot of it, she's really -- she's been all over the country as a policy maker, as sort of the

lead advocate in the post-dobbs landscape, talking to women who have been affected by the supreme court. i think she's one of the first administration officials to start talking about project 2025. in the last few weeks she really put this sort of anxiety and uncertainty on her back and was really stellar on the campaign trail. what do people not know about vice president kamala harris? >> well, frankly, they don't know very much about her, and that will now change. this is a woman who has overcome odds at every step in her career. she was never supposed to win elected d.a. in san francisco. she was never supposed to win the attorney's race in california. keep in mind the call these races in california, even though they may not be competitive with republicans, they're brutal in the primary process, just brutal. so she's overcome these odds. then to win the u.s. senate seat and i served with her on the

u.s. homeland security on the senate, and, listen, this is a tough smart woman with a big heart, and i would just hope everybody would give her a chance. open up and listen to who she is and where she's come from. she's not only been all over the country. she's been all over the world. she's very prepared for this job. and i think america's going to really like her once they get to know her. i think too many people -- the vice president has a tough job to get the kind of attention and, frankly, the chance you need to prove yourself because you're diminished by the very nature of the job. so now she's got a chance to show people who she is, and i think if they give her a fair shot, she's going to be the first woman president of the united states. >> wow, wow. to hear it said. every time anyone says it, i'm like, wow. claire mccaskill, it's so great to talk to you. rachel, back to you. a little more news has broken while we've been talking.

it appears that we've got now yet another state where the delegates have been pledged to kamala harris. that is true in tennessee, in north carolina, in south carolina, new hampshire, and now louisiana. in louisiana the delegates will be pledged to vice president harris for her presidential run. this is turning out to be a -- toning out to be a predictable cadence of events at this point. joining us now is nbc news presidential historian michael beschloss. michael, i appreciate you joining us tonight. we talk about a lot of things small "h" historic. this is capital "h" historic. where were you when this happened? >> i was working on my book and one of my kids told me they

couldn't believe this happened. i was smiling. people around joe biden thought people might convince him to hang on. that was the wrong feeling. can i mention three big moments in history culminating in to tonight? >> please, absolutely. >> one would be 1795. george washington, although, he could stay in power the rest of his life, he said i'm leaving the presidency because power is leaving democracy when you do not have to. 2021, january 6th, donald trump tried to steal our democracy by hanging onto the presidency when it was against the law and the voters have not said yes. finally, the third moment in the sequence is today. joe biden who could have dug in his heels as some were predicted and hung on for at least a few more weeks said i'm going to relinquish power because if i keep on, the democrats might

lose this election and elect donald trump, and with that we would lose our democracy. all i'm saying, we learned all those lovely speeches that joe biden has given about democracy. i never questioned that he meant it. i think anyone who had any question had it demonstrated today that this is a huge towering figure in the history of world democracy. >> in the arguments about whether or not this should happen, whether or not president biden should stay at the top of the ticket, one of the arguments against him leaving the ticket is there would be chaos in the democratic party, that we would head into an open convention about nobody would know who the nominee was going to be, it would be a scrum, a free-for-all, a leaderless party. today that has not proven true even for one second with the democratic party. state party chairs, state party delegations, elected officials

and everybody else. that, itself, is sort of a husband storic coalesce ens. >> no chaos. in 1952 when truman pulled out of the primary, no one knew who was going to be the nominee, it turned out it was adley stevenson. lyndon johnson almost did the saum thing after almost losing the new hampshire primary. but hubert humphrey was his presidential successor and lost by only 4 thousand popular votes by president richard nixon. we've got to have faith in the fact there's some reason why our democracy has been hello if think for more than two centuries. all of us should be more hopeful tonight than we have been in a

long time. >> thank you. thank you, thank you, thank you. >> thank you, rachel. tomorrow morning, two of the people we have mentioned we have been talking about will be joining morning joe on msnbc. roy cooper is going to be on the show as is kentucky governor andy beshear. tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. eastern, my colleagues and i will be back with more special coverage. i'll see you then. more special coverage i'll see you then.

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