needs. >> okay. thank you, mr. chairman, for your courtesy. i yield back. >> chair recognizes dr. fox from north carolina. >> thank you, mr. chairman. director cheatle -- >> and you've been watching the director of the secret service facing questions from lawmakers on the house oversight committee with just over a week after the attempted assassination of former president donald trump. >> and it comes after top republicans have called on director kimberly cheatle to resign. director cheatle testifying a little bit earlier that the secret service, quote, failed saying that she takes full responsibility for the attack against trump. we're going to continue to monitor this hearing. and joining us now from capitol hill is correspondent ali vitali, and former secret service special agent, ev vi pom pour ras who's been listening with us. >> it got tense at various moments. that's what we expected. the thing that caught my attention most in the secret

service director's opening remarks is when she said that there are points where she might be limited in what she can disclose. that's certainly something that was sure to upset and frustrate lawmakers. you're watching members from both sides of the aisle here ask her very serious questions both in specificity and also in the processes of the agency writ large of how this could have happened in butler, pennsylvania, with former president donald trump. i think some of the specifics that you heard in that room that really elicited the most frustration from lawmakers -- and they were asking her questions that i think all of us have, and the way that congressman jamie raskin put it was what would you say to americans who pay your salary, who put that $3 billion in the coffers of the secret service to help you guys do the job of protecting key assets in american politics. and she said that she's nine days out from what happened in butler, pennsylvania, and that they are trying to do investigations that will help them get to the bottom of this.

there were also specific questions, though, from the chairman of this committee and others about things like was there not someone on the roof of that building because it was sloped? why wasn't there someone on the roof of that building? how could the shooter have been in a position where he had a clear line of sight from the roof that he was on to the man that was on the stage. some of those questions went unanswered in large part because the secret service director continued to say that investigations were ongoing, and they were only nine days out. one of the other key points here was the question of whether or not assets that were requested by the trump campaign were denied by the secret service. that's something that chairman jim jordan said in this hearing and something that the secret service director herself did not necessarily provide a lot of detail on. we know from our own reporting from our team here that there were instances where the secret service couldn't provide the assets that the trump campaign asked for, but that was not the case in butler, pennsylvania,

something that cheatle herself spoke to in this room. as we're watching this back and forth, the continuous thing that we're looking for and lawmakers too, is what details can they get that they don't already know, and at this point it looks like those details are going to be pretty minimal. >> as someone who served in the secret service, what are some of the questions that you think the director has yet to answer? and i was particularly struck by the specific question on whether there were parameters, planning, or protocols changed by the secret service when they determined that there was actual threat by iran. and there was no answer to that. >> i think, you know, i understand her not wanting to give too much away because obviously bad actors are watching this. you want to protect some information, but i do think it helps to answer directly. you can give -- and you and i were talking offline, you can say, yes, there were, i just can't get to the specifics. and you know, i think people are looking for transparency, and you want to find that balance, but there are a lot of questions

that are still unanswered. when you do a site plan, to explain it to people to understand, the staff picks a place, we're going to go to butler, we're going to do an open rally. they put a secret service team together. there's a lead, which is the person in charge of the overall thing, that's motorcade route, site. then there's a site agent. that agent in charge of that site, butler. now within that site agent, you get cs counter sniper. you'll get a tactical maybe. you get all these different elements and together you put a security plan. so at this point i understand that there's an investigation and i'm not sure why she's not able to say certain things. i can't say, but at this point you do know what was requested, and she did say nothing was denied in this specific scenario. so when i hear that, clearly there was a line of sight issue. so then if she's saying nobody ever asked us for this meaning meaning the field team there,

then my next question is who did it, and why did they not ask and did you speak to them? it was interesting they asked her, did you speak with the sniper who took the shot. she said yes. they didn't ask did you speak with the agent who put the plan together. i would want to know what that plan was in place and why -- i mean, it really is a simple question. why wasn't that rooftop secured, and she couldn't answer that. >> multiple times she was saying we're still doing a review. we're waiting on a final report. there are multiple ongoing investigations. that was the answer instead of a more direct answer to these specific questions, where was the failure specifically. as we're continuing to listen in, she was asked whether she should resign. in fact, she was challenged to do just that by mike turner, a republican on this committee, and she has since responded that she is the best person, she believes, to continue to lead the agency. one of the things we were talking about going into this

hearing, and we heard addressed right at the top of the questioning was the resource issue. she talked about it in her opening statements about not having enough resources, enough manpower, and then we heard that, you know, the budget for the secret service has gone up over the past ten years from 1.8 billion to $3.1 billion. to the average person that sounds like a lot of money. >> that's a year, right? >> but you say that's still not enough. >> it's not enough, and she did something really smart at the beginning. when you come in with numbers and facts it kind of hushes things down. she said since january 1st, i wrote it down, we secured 7,500 sites. 7,500 sites. i want you to think about the manpower and what that take. we're protecting currently 36 people, and that is not counting the foreign heads of state who come. they also just did the nato summit, which is massive, the rnc, and then unga united nations general assembly.

you've got 100 plus foreign heads of state coming. that requires manpower. so i think numbers are good so that people can understand. >> and then full-time 36 individuals protected on a daily basis with 8,000 employees. the director was saying in an ideal world that would be about 9,600 employees. >> to clarify with the employees, when she's saying employee, she's saying 8,000, i would want to know how many of these are agents. there's civilian positions. they even have mechanics who work on the cars. there are those positions. they should have asked how many agents do you have? because it's the agents that are the ones running around doing protection, doing the advances. that's what i want to know. >> she she believes she's the best person to run this agency. she worked her way up the ranks. she knows it wells. do you think she's done enough to give the american people confidence in her leadership? >> you know, it's interesting and i don't know how to answer

this question because as i watch it, she's both a secret service member, but she's also dealing in this political world. and i've seen these before. i've seen secretary mayorkas when he testifies, when i'm hearing her, i hear him. >> and he's her boss. >> he's her boss. i don't know obviously there's a discussion there so i don't know how they're supposed to answer when they go to these hearings. do the american people want clear answers? should they get them? yes. but then when you go to this arena, which is such a strange arena, is this the way she's supposed to answer? is this how she's briefed to answer? is this what is appropriate for these types of scenarios? that's where i kind of come in and as a human being, i'd say, look, these are the assets i had. this is what i was given. this is what was done. that's where i'm not sure in a setting like this is this the way you're schooled -- and you might know better -- is this how they're supposed to answer. >> i don't know how they're supposed to answer. what she has said is not satisfying when it comes to

giving transparent information about what happened and at least providing the light on the situation that helps us understand what happened and why, and that's what's still missing. >> i think what's missing too, you know, they did hit her on the response, the latter part, where they said why did it take so long? because ideally they were on stage. it was very heroic. they hunkered him down, but then there's that moment where he's actually standing up. we do know the shooter was neutralized and we hear that, but you don't know -- when it's realtime you don't know what you're dealing with. the other question is that protocol for him to be up and standing out there not knowing if there's a second shooter. there's no way to know in that moment that there is no second shooter. impossible. so that's a red flag. why did that happen? and then there's so many -- when you do these advances there's layer upon layer upon layer, if there's a threat, something catches it. something catches it, and you see many moments here where nothing was caught. she is trying to explain the

difference between someone being a suspect and someone being a threat. or being suspicious rather, excuse me. you do get -- there's so many people that appear suspicious, so i think and what she may not be saying here is that the secret service knew there was a suspicious person. that is not enough to not let the president go on stage. suspicious people are everywhere. i think if they knew -- she said and she said we didn't know he was a threat. >> threat, right. >> there is a difference. ali vitali, stay with us. ev vee pom por raus, thank you so much for being with us. we're following new developments this morning after president biden decided to bow out of the 2024 campaign and endorse vice president harris. later this hour, the vice president will be making her first public appearance since that announcement. we will bring you her remarks live when she speaks at a white house event celebrating college athletes. nbc news has also learned the vice president spent more than ten hours on the phone yesterday calling party leaders, members of congress, governors,

and leaders of advocacy and civil rights organizations and just in the last hour more democratic representatives, senators and governors have been lining up behind vice president harris who says she intends to work for and earn the democratic nomination. >> we've heard from former president trump after biden's announcement. nbc's monica alba is joining us now from the white house. ali vitali is on capitol hill along with tyler pager white house reporter for "the washington post," and the co-anchor of the pbs news hour and julian castro former secretary of housing and urban development. monica, let me start with you. we have all this reporting about two calls the white house chief of staff held today. what are you learning about? >> yeah, that's right, jose. after the president made this monumental decision yesterday, really it was just a tight group of senior leadership that knew

right before it was posted on social media, so it really caught a lot of people, the rank and file white house staffers, even the campaign staffers who have been working on this effort for years off guard. they were a little bit surprised. they had been told in the lead up to this announcement that the president had made his decision, that he wanted to stay in the race and he was committed to that plan. now that everything has shifted, you are seeing people like the white house chief of staff hold these calls to really thank the team, i'm told, but also to stress there is more work to be done to try to focus on these next couple of months, even though the dynamic has shifted so dramatically. what was interesting is from his official pern perch, the white house chief of staff can't discuss the 2024 race in any real detail. he did say on this call i'm told that the white house counsel had advised him to be sure not to talk about who the next president may be, quote, whomever she is. so a reference there obviously to the fact that the president

has fully endorsed his vice president kamala harris here. you're right that we're going to be hearing from her shortly. she's going to be doing an event that normally president biden would be doing on the south lawn with the ncaa championship teams from the last year or. so we expect that she will speak generally about the president and maybe his historic decision here, but this is not going to be her moment for communicating about how she views her specific backing now and her role as the potential nominee here as that continues to be lined up and as we see others coalescing around her and endorsing her. so from the white house side of things, jose, i think you can expect there will be a continued try to pivot back to business as usual, which is, of course, difficult after things have changed again here so significantly, and similarly, on the biden campaign side of things, we know that there have been calls from the senior leadership there to the staff to let them know that they still

have their jobs, and in fact it's moving over to the harris for president apparatus, even though there could be new faces injected into the team as well we expect. but both of those teams are all waiting to see what vice president harris is going to say and do in this key moment, and we know she has travel scheduled for the coming week. she's supposed to be heading to milwaukee tomorrow. you can expect her to return to the campaign trail in the more traditional sense. she thought she was going to be doing that to support president biden, now she's going to be going out and talking about why she thinks people should rally around her as the democratic nominee. she said according to people close to her, she really wants to talk about earning this nomination and working for it, and as you implied, she has been working the phones yesterday hours and hours, more than 100 calls with people like former president obama, former president clinton, former secretary of state hont, dozens

of lawmakers and key stakeholders who will be critical to this conversation as it moves ahead. >> so much has been happening in less than 24 hours since this announcement. we've seen dozens and dozens now of lawmakers come and back harris following president biden's lead in just recent hours we saw top house democratic leaders specifically, pete aguilar, katherine clark endorsing harris. we've seen governors also back here. a couple of missing names, though, so far are speaker emerita, nancy pelosi, current leader hakeem jeffrey, chuck schumer. help us understand the dynamics and what those leaders might be waiting on. >> those leaders are in the position of having to be represented in the case of jeffries and schumer of where the rest of their caucus is. this is a traveling day. democrats are back in town, the

secret service you and i have been covering, and i'm standing outside. for jeffreys and for schumer, it's important for them to be reflective of where their entire caucuses are. that's at least my guess as to why we haven't seen them come out with more full throated endorsements of vice president kamala harris. to that end, both of those leaders did speak to her yesterday in her many, many phone calls that she was making around capitol hill and around the country in various parts of the democratic apparatus. that said, key caucuses on capitol hill have already thrown their support behind her. dozens of individual democrats have said that they are going to endorse her, and don't want this to be a free for all open process. when you look at the fact that many of the governors who have backed her from gretchen whitmer to andy beshear to gavin newsom, all of these are people who were also in the conversation around who could be the nominee, if it wasn't president biden, by biden throwing his support behind harris, and watching all of these leaders fall in line, it makes it so that the jockeying is not for the top spot, but really for the second slot as

vice president to the now vice president and i think what's important here is on a delegate tracking metric, yes, you want to see all of these key party leaders and all of these different state chair people falling in line behind the vp. that just makes it easier for her to eventually clinch the nomination during that virtual roll call that could happen as soon as two weeks from now, guys, but the other piece of this too as i take off my congress hat and put on my author hat is it's really important to have validators, especially for female candidates. experts will tell you this that it's important to have people who request speak on behalf of whoever the woman is that's at the center of the political conversation. so for kamala harris that is essential, especially as she tries to do something that biden never had to do, which is bridge voters' imagination barrier, letting herself seen as someone who is not just possible as the nominee but also who can win and be electable. >> governor whitmer of michigan just announced her endorsement of vice president harris.

listening to ali's issue of how do you tap into people's imagination and possibilities, what does the vice president bring to this campaign? it's a campaign that is going to be so truncated. >> jose, i couldn't agree more with everything ali was saying there. she's speaking from such great experience and her own writing and reporting as well. look, i think harris's backers have made very clear, she brings a lot to this campaign right now because she's been the vice president for all of those delegates who are now pledged to president biden, for everyone who backed him during the primary campaign, they were backing harris too. that's a point that i hear again and again, so the same legislative record that he has been running on calling himself one of the most consequential presidents of modern time, being called that by historians who look at this record of bipartisan work, harris was a part of that as well. the part of the campaign that she has brijd for him and will now be able to sort of carry forward in a different direction

if she is to become the nominee is that she shores up a lot of places where president biden had previously been weak. we've already seen her campaigning on college campuses, spending a lot of time in swing states, a lot of those suburban women voters that we know there's been some weakness there in a coveted voting block. she can help pick up some of the slack there as well. and let's also not forget that she has been one of the most potent and powerful messengers on what's been one of the most potent and powerful messages for democrats that helped them to avoid a republican red wave in 2022, and that is the issue of abortion rights. being able to have her as the primary messenger at the top of the ticket i think makes that even a stronger message potentially for democrats who think that that will be and continue to be a strong message ahead in this campaign and leading up to november. but the timing here is absolutely critical as my colleagues here have been reporting, you know, they want to get this wrapped up before the convention.

there are those two possible paths, an open convention or virtual roll call. you've got ballot deadlines in august for some places. you've got early voting beginning in september for some places. this is something democratic sour sources are telling me they want to get wrapped up. >> we had reported previously that one of the things that's happening behind the scenes prior to president biden's announcement was that he was looking to his team for some polling on how kamala harris would stack up against donald trump. as far as we have seen, many of the polls suggest these national surveys recently, they suggest that numbers for kamala harris are very similar to the numbers that president biden was seeing against donald trump. what are we learning about the vice president's strategy now going forward? >> i think it's a great question, i think it's one of the things that gave president biden some reservations about setting aside and anointing vice president harris as his choice to take over the democratic ticket, and i think we'll see in the coming days and weeks about,

you know, the sort of aggressive campaign strategy that harris takes. i think we should expect to see her out a lot more and have a robust campaign schedule. i also think one of the things democrats are excited about is this contrast she can draw with former president trump, this prosecutor versus felon idea. obviously kamala harris was the attorney general of california, was a district attorney before that, and you know, really rose to fame among democrats nationally when she aggressively questioned trump cabinet officials and others during her short stint in the senate, some of those high profile televised hearings. she really developed a lot of fans and supporters because of her performances there. i think we should expect to see her on the campaign trail really going after trump. we already saw in one of her initial statements yesterday calling out project 2025, this policy document created by some of trump's allies outlining what a potential second term would look like.

it's a document that democrats think will be very animating for their voters, and so i think she will, you know, really try to take that case and prosecute the case. i was someone that was out on the trail with her with ali in 2019 when she was running for the democratic primary. you can hear some of those early campaign events then, obviously not a successful campaign, and she dropped out before the iowa caucus, but really framed herself as someone that could take on donald trump using her prosecutorial skills to make the case to the american people. i also think the last few years serving as joe biden's running mate, giving her that record to run on will allow her to use some of the popular policies we've seen voters say they like but are not attribuing to joe biden. i think there will be a concerted effort for her to try to take credit for some of those policies and again, another big issue for her will be abortion rights, trying to win over female voters, particularly suburban women who prove to be critical each election cycle in some of those key battleground

states. >> julian you were among one of the first voices to call for president biden to step aside. the process that has to go forward now, how do you see its transparency? >> jose, first, as many people have said, president biden deserves a lot of credit, not only for being a historic president with tremendous accomplishments in these last three and a half years, but also for something we rarely see these days, a selfless act in politics and political sacrifice that he's made for the betterment of the country and certainly for the democratic party. what we've seen in the last 24 hours is a shot in the arm to this campaign, kamala harris has already brought a lot of energy. she's consolidating support. already more than $50 million has been raised in small dollar donations for the campaign. she made, it's been reported over 100 phone calls to leaders across the country, and that is showing in the support that's

being voiced all over the country right now. she's off to a very strong start. of course there's going to be a process, if for no other reason there has to be. those delegates ultimately have to vote. they have a vote in the process of selecting a nominee, so the process is all about scoping out when somebody that wants to throw their name in, we know that she's in there, is going to speak to the delegates, persuade them, they vote before the convention comes and then that will be ratified at the convention. for all intents and purposes, what we've seen in the last 24 hours, the support that she's gotten from other names that have been mentioned as potential presidential candidates means that, you know, i don't think that she's going to have significant competition here. she's the very likely nominee for the democratic nomination, and i think what you're seeing is the democratic party rallying around her, saying this is our candidate. she stands a good shot at

beating donald trump in november. everybody needs to get behind her, and that's going to give her, i think, a good shot at beating him in november. >> monica alba, al thank you all very much. joining us is democratic congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz of florida, she's also the former chair of the democratic national committee. >> thank you for your time. you've already announced your support for the vice president. what are you basing that support on? >> i announced my support for vice president harris yesterday, you know, within hours of president biden saying that hechs he was ending his campaign and endorsing the vice president. i was heartbroken because i was supported joe biden since my days as a university of florida college student, and supported him for his first bid for the

white house in 1988, but i was so full of admiration as you can see so many of us are across the county because joe biden has always put country over self ask and country over party and understood it was a moment in which we had to make sure that we were able to have a torch bearer that was going to carry on what has been the most successful agenda and accomplishment of any administration in modern times. we have an opportunity to elect not only the first woman but someone who was hand in hand locked at the elbow with joe biden implementing and advancing this remarkable agenda. >> i'm just curious, i know you support kamala harris to be the next nominee, but should the process be open for others to throw their hat in the ring? >> ana, the process is open for others to throw their hat in the race. i mean, we are going to go through our process. the dnc delegates will vote on

who our nominee will be, likely there's going to be a virtual nomination because the republicans unfortunately in ohio and now we've heard since yesterday that they're planning on challenging in court who our party decides to nominate as our candidate for president of the united states. so we cannot afford to allow republicans to interfere with that process. and so there will be a process, but what's wonderful is the unity that we've seen over the last less than 24 hours. really every major potential candidate that might have decided to run has said they would not run and endorsed vice president harris, and that's because we all understand that the choice in front of us, the choice in front of americans is having the opportunity to continue this incredible agenda where we reduce the cost of prescription drugs, made historic investments in infrastructure and climate change, passed the most

significant gun safety reform in 30 years, and we have an opportunity to nominate and then elect a president in kamala harris who was the attorney general of the largest state in the country, ran the largest public law firm in the country and put bad guys in jail and corporate cheaters and held them accountable versus a ticket on the other side where the nominee of their party should be in jail. and you have a vice presidential candidate who just not even two years ago was his most -- his own running mate's most vocal critic. the hypocrisy abounds and the american people will have their choice. >> congresswoman, what would you say to those millions of democrat voters around the country that went out during the primaries and supported president joe biden? is it that because the president saw he had no shot at winning

re-election that that is the only reason that he's pulling out? what would you say to the people who say, you know, democratic voters who say we support that person? >> when voters go to the polls, when it comes to the presidential election, there are two candidates' names on the ballot. so those 14 million votes that were cast for joe biden, were also cast for kamala harris, and i think when people vote in a primary election or in a general election for a ticket, they understand that if something happens to the presidential candidate, whether in this case they have decided to step down and not continue their campaign, then it is the vice president who has been asked by the presidential candidate to be able to be prepared to step in their shoes and that's why kamala harris was asked by joe biden to join the ticket. she has earned those votes right alongside him, and i know -- and

that's why, jose and ana, you've seen delegates -- delegations across the country elected leaders across the country, our leadership across the country, quickly coalesce around kamala harris because we've already voted for her, and we've already seen what she's able to accomplish alongside this president. >> congresswoman, we are looking at live images from the white house where we expect we could see vice president kamala harris any moment now offering some remarks related to the ncaa and college athletes, but of course we'll be listening to her also for any comments she has about this historic moment. president biden moving aside from the 2024 race endorsing her to be the next president of the united states. so we will take her remarks live as soon as those happen, and so forgive us if we have to interrupt you. >> that's okay. >> i do wonder given your experience with the dnc what this shake-up means for the convention, which is just four weeks away? >> well, our convention has a

process to nominate our presidential candidates so after the primaries are over, you know, our presidential presumptive nominee goes into the convention with either the support of the convention delegates if we've done that virtually like we've done in 2020 or at the convention the actual vote takes place. my expectation is that the nomination process will proceed virtually and that will happen likely within the next couple of weeks. the dnc convention rules committee is going to be meeting, i think, on wednesday to finalize that process. and it's because we have to make sure that the republicans are not allowed to play games with making sure that our nominee is on all 50 state ballots. so we'll have a process that will play out, and our nominee will be elected by convention delegates who are going to be representing the sentiments of in some cases the voters that elected them and in others, their party's leadership and

it's absolute -- and most of all, the american people who elected joe biden and kamala harris to implement what has been an historic agenda, reducing the cost of prescription drugs, cutting student loan debt, working hard now to reduce the cost of rent so we can have affordable housing, making sure that insulin was $35 a month. that is what the american people will be behind, and our party will establish a process to nominate our presidential candidate, which is very clearly looking like it will be as it should be vice president harris because she's earned our support right alongside president biden when voters cast their votes for both of them. debbie wasserman, schultz, thank you for your time. >> mike memoli is with us from delaware. what can we expect to hear from the vice president in just minutes?

>> reporter: well, jose, this is quite the curious introduction to the country for potentially the next democratic nominee for president, vice president kamala harris. but this speaks to just how unpredictable and how closely held this whole situation has been, the president speaking to vice president harris multiple times over the course of the weekend before revealing to the country he would not seek a second term. this even itself is one that is always on the white house's schedule each year to honor the individual and team championships across collegiate sports in one place. it was supposed to be president biden who was there to congratulate those champions, but of course the president is here in rehoboth beach still with covid-19 and so the nature of the vice presidency is you fill in for the president. we will see vice president harris to take the president's spot, to congratulate those champions. this is a moment, of course, she knows that the eyes of the country are upon her. it is an official event. it's not a campaign event. this will not be her introduction to the country as a

candidate. because she is going to be filling in for the president, she will have some moments at the beginning of her remarks, we understand, for her to praise the president for his leadership. she will be effusive in talking about his record over the last three and a half years and sort of apologizing for the fact that he couldn't be here himself. and so that is going to be what we are looking for, just to hear what she has to say at this moment. the vice president, though, does want to as soon as she can we understand it, speak directly not just to the american people but also to those members of what is now the harris campaign. i have to admit this morning when i was writing an email and writing a tweet myself calling it the harris campaign instead of the biden/harris campaign. i had to think about it for an extra second as we were doing this. this is an important moment where we will see the vice president soon, hearing not hail to the chief, the presidential anthem, but hail columbia the vice presidential anthem to introduce her and the beginning of what will be a sprint to not

just the convention where she hopes to and expects to at this point be the nominee for the party but through the election to be the next president of the united states. >> mike, i have to wonder whether she saw this coming. it seems like it's just been such a whirlwind last few weeks, but especially in the last 24 hours in particular, and we know she made all those calls that you reported out. what do we know about her next steps now on the campaign trail? >> yeah, it's interesting because in the 26 days now since that june 27th debate where president biden so badly stumbled leading to his decision to exit this race, there has been a lot of attention from the get-go on the vice president including in the immediate aftermath of that debate. remember, she was doing interviews including here on msnbc to talk about it. as i've talked to both advisers to president biden who have conspicuously kept the vice president close by his side. we remember those photos, those visuals on the 4th of july where he even stood there on the truman balcony of the white house with her raising their arms together, speaking

effusively about her in the various settings about how she is ready to step into this job. just as the biden team erred on the side of keeping her close to him, she has erred on the side of being intensely loyal. there have been certainly a lot of conversations from allies of her, other democrats who wanted to see her -- wanted to know if she was taking steps herself to be prepared to launch a campaign of her own, and i understand according to people very close to the vice president that she was very wary of doing so. that she didn't want any perception of daylight between her loyalty to president biden and her determination to stick with him as he was determined to stay in this race. but not wanting to be seen as potentially making her own plans to step out on the her own. but now that that has happened, she has immediately gone to work. just as the president was here making dozens of phone calls yesterday to democrats all across the country, so too was vice president harris at the vice president's residence, the naval observatory in washington making upwards of 100 phone calls, speaking to major party leaders, major constituency

group leaders in the democratic party to make sure that they knew that she was going to ask for their support, not just expect their support. this was a day when she was surrounded by her family, of course, her husband doug emhoff, the second gentleman as well as a team of advisers in a very intense atmosphere, but also one that was rather relaxed. she was wearing her howard university, her proud alma mater hooded sweatshirt. she was making sure everyone had food ordered throughout the day, getting pizza. we understand that she's a fan of anchoies as a topping on her pizza. these are some of the details that are coming out about what has been an important 24 hours for her, and she will now look at opportunities to get out onto the campaign trail very quickly. it has been so interesting to listen to just how broad support is among democrats for her so quickly. we've seen just this morning new endorsements from some very prominent governors, governor beshear of kentucky, a rising star in the party, governor cooper of north carolina,

somebody who is already very high on the list just along with beshear as potential vice presidential candidate with vice president harris, and most notably, i think, was jb pritzker, the governor of illinois. to the extent that there was going to be a process by which somebody could challenge vice president harris for this nomination, that was one name i had been told to be listening closely to because governor pritzker is somebody with deep pockets who could potentially have funded his own campaign if he needed to. while harris is inheriting the significant infrastructure of the biden/harris campaign, which is now the harris campaign including the $50 million that the campaign raised just overnight since the announcement, since president biden threw his support to harris. pritzker was somebody who could potentially have stepped in, but he made it clear this morning that he was endorsing her as well. largely clearing the field for her in this process that the dnc is going to outline moving forward. >> if you would, stay with us. back with us also is am na na

voz, and april ryan white house correspondent and washington bureau chief and the author of the book "black women will save the world: an anthem." so i just want to get amna your thoughts on we're waiting for the vice president to come out. it should be any minute now, but what tight rope she has to walk in these next hours as she assumes a whole different world and responsibility. >> jose, i think it's fair to say it's a tight rope she's been walking probably her entire life and career. i know we're all familiar with kamala harris getting to cover her as a presidential candidate herself, as vice president. let's remind folks, this is the daughter of jamaican and indian immigrants. this is a woman who was raised by a single mother, who made history in her career in california and then again as the first black woman vice president. this is a woman who has broken barriers at virtually every stage of her professional life and stands to do so again if

this moves forward. and i think one of the things to note at this point is, a, the conversation around her. we're already seeing some of the opposition research as the republicans kind of scramble to pivot after the convention messaging last week and figure out how they would target a potential nominee, harris here, and you see some struggling around there, concerns around implied racism and sexism, which is sort of endemic in american society and politics at times, and i think that's part of the thing that we have to anticipate if she does end up becoming the nominee. the political tight rope is another one in the days ahead, right? which is to say the language she used in her first announcement saying i intend to earn and win, a lot of questions about how democrats to want see her earn it. you're already seeing some democrats say they want to see an open convention because they think it would help her, it would empower her. you see other democrats saying we don't want to mess around. there's no time for that, let's get behind her and beat donald trump. i think until the rules committee meets on wednesday afternoon and we figure out what

that infrastructure looks like for how democrats plan to move forward, we won't quite know what that plan looks like. this is absolutely a tight rope as you say is probably the best way to describe the position the vice president is in right now. >> as we continue to look at these live images, i want to bring in april ryan, and april, we've been given the two-minute warning a couple of times now, so she could show up any minute literally, but she did just tweet this out. let me read it to you. it's the first full day of our campaign, so i'm heading up to wilmington, delaware, later to say hello to our staff in headquarters. one day down, 105 to go. together we're going to win this. as she hits the trail now as a presidential candidate, what do you see as her biggest challenge and her biggest strengths starting out this truncated race? >> well, let's start with the strengths first, ana. first, this is not her first foray into running for president, but this time she has

the endorsement of a president. she has the endorsement of many, many people. yet, we're still waiting for some other key democrats to join in. that's one of the crosses that she has to bear right now that some of the democrats, some of the major democrats, former president and nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, and hakeem jeffries have yet to give their endorsement because they are looking to see who else is going to join the field and then once that person goes into the convention and receives all the delegates, that's when they're going to do it most likely. there are some democrats who are still looking for that open process and open convention, and i was told yesterday by a former congressman ed towns of new york that anytime we have a brokered or open convention or any kind of difficulties, democrats lose. so there has to be a united front right now. there is excitement for her, that south lawn people are calling me from the south lawn saying the energy is charged.

they have never seen anything like it before. last night on win with black women, this call, they raised $1.5 million for kamala harris on a call from 8:30 at night until 1:30, and the average donor was about $37. the same amount of money that barack obama received. >> thank you, we're just going to continue this. i'm listening and watching this right here at the white house. they just introduced the vice president, so she should be coming up any minute now. let's listen in and as we go into the south lawn. ♪♪ >> good morning. i'm linda teeler, senior vice president for championships for

the ncaa. you've been asked to sit, please. i'd like to thank president biden and vice president harris for organizing this event today. this is an incredible backdrop to celebrate incredible achievement. i want to start by congratulating all of you on your successful season. there are more than 500 student athletes in more than 1,000 in-state institutions across the country. many of those teams and student athletes started the season with a goal of achieving a national championship. you all have done that. you're the best in your sport. you've crossed that finish line. you will forever be ncaa champions. congratulations. [ applause ] for the student athletes here, i hope that you take a moment to truly appreciate what you've achieved, whether it's your first ncaa championship or one of many. what you've done is remarkable. in addition to your success on

the field, many of you are using your platform that that success has brought to do really incredible things, to engage your communities, to become entrepreneurs, to represent your families and your friends, to serve in leadership roles across the ncaa at your conference and on your campus. what you do and how you do it is an inspiration, and we thank you. for the coaches here today, i hope you also take a moment to truly appreciate the season. i know for many of you, it is natural. it's in your nature to turn the page, look to your next season, start planning for the next championship, but for all of you i hope that you, again, take a moment to truly appreciate what you've accomplished. it is incredible, and you also will forever be known as national championship coaches. congratulations. [ applause ] having worked on a college campus for over 21 years, i understand that it takes team work to make this particular

dream work, and so i want to make sure we shout out those athletic trainers, medical personnel, strength and conditioning coaches. yep, let's go, right? [ applause ] academic advisers, media relations folks, all of you who make this possible for student athletes to achieve their dreams. thank you for supporting them in every way. thank you. [ applause ] again, thank you for allowing us to celebrate you today, for being here, making the trip. we appreciate it, and we appreciate being part of your special day. now it's my distinct honor to introduce the vice president of the united states, kamala harris. [ cheers and applause ] >> greetings, everyone, linda, i want to thank you for all you do to support these extraordinary student athletes, and it is good to be here with so many leaders

including of course, members of congress, members of our administration, and our extraordinary athletes. our president, joe biden wanted to be here today. he is feeling much better and recovering fast, and he looks forward to getting back on the road, and i wanted to say a few words about our president. 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 have served two terms in office, and i first came to know president biden through his son beau. we worked together as attorneys general in our states, and back then beau would often tell me stories about his dad. he would talk about the kind of father and the kind of man that joe biden is, the qualities that

beau revered in his father are the same qualities that i have seen every day in our president. his honesty, his integrity, his commitment to his faith and his family, his big heart, and his love, deep love of our country, and i am firsthand witness that every day our president joe biden fights for the american people and we are deeply, deeply grateful for his service to our nation. [ cheers and applause ] and so with that on behalf of our president and dr. biden, i am honored to welcome all of you to the white house to celebrate the achievements of these great athletes. every one of them is a national champion, a national champion. in america tens of millions of people play a sport as a child,

and the best of the best grow up to become national champions. here today we have seven undefeated teams, 11 repeat -- >> okay, so those are remarks now from vice president kamala harris following the news that president biden was stepping out of the 2024 race throwing his endorsement behind her. we heard her take a moment to acknowledge the president and that he is recovering from covid, wished he had been there, and then saying some nice words about his big heart, his deep love of the country and -- >> and long friendship with him. >> and how grateful. yeah, and grateful for that relationship and for his service. >> i want to bring back mike memoli, sorry about, that i didn't want to interrupt you there. want to bring back mike memoli and april ryan. going forward now, the vice president has a very intense schedule to keep. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, and it will start as soon as she's finished with these remarks, as you read the tweet

earlier, she is planning to head about 90 miles up the road from where i am right now to wilmington, delaware, where the campaign headquarters is. it's an important moment. there are a lot of members of the biden campaign who are now part of the harris campaign who didn't even know the announcement was coming yesterday until it was already public. it was that closely held a secret. but the campaign infrastructure that has been built over the course of more than a year now is so critical to keep fine tuned, to keep motivated toward the task ahead, and this is going to be an opportunity for the vice president to speak to those campaign workers to make sure that they feel empowered to continue on this effort. the campaign leadership yesterday speaking to members of the staff made it clear that everyone who is on this campaign still has a job, that they are still -- they were built to defeat donald trump, they were built to defeat donald trump and that's still their goal moving ahead. we do expect to see the vice president getting out on the campaign trail very soon. jose and ana, i thought it was

interesting to hear what the vice president had to say in the brief comments, acknowledging president biden and his legacy of accomplishments. there are multiple audiences at this moment, knowing that the country is tuning in, looking at her as not just the vice president, but likely a future president should he be elected this november. she wanted to speak to that audience, of course, but she was speaking to an audience of one, speaking to the audience of president biden, talking about the fact that, yes, he may only have one term in office, but he has a record to rival even two-term presidents. even more important, perhaps, maybe that deeply personal connection, which is so valuable to president biden, who is a family man as long as i have covered him. i've seen that so often, talking about the key bond that brought them together, which is beau biden. he was the attorney here, at the

same time she was attorney general. they worked together. he went to the convention in 2016 when she was running for the senate. that was really one of their first opportunities to spend time together ultimately, spending time when she was sworn into the senate. president biden swore her in before he left office, and then from that point forward, rivals in the 2020 campaign, but ultimately coming together as one ticket. one of the questions is what harris will be doing as she moves forward, but don't overlook the question of what president biden will be doing as well. we understand when he gets back to the white house, of course his first and foremost priority, as he wants to speak directly to the country about his moment, about his decision. as he said in 2015, when she said he would not run in 2016,

does not mean he's stepping away from a role in the public discourse. he may be potential more busy to support the democratic ticket and to support down-ballot candidates as well. >> this is our first chance to hear from vice president harris. april, what was going through your mind? >> well, first of all, it wasn't just you heard, the optics of it. unfortunately president biden is convalescen from covid. she's in a backdrop, she looked very regal and presidential, mostly the optics of being presidential. that's the first thing that struck me. as she is now running for president a second time, this time against donald trump, again, if you will.

that was the first thing that struck me. she's also keeping align with what the democrats are saying, giving president biden his flowers, for over 50 years of service to this nation. that has to be the marker for everyone, as he has decided to step away, to make room for her. he gave her a full-throated endorsement. even idea when i talked to minority leader hakim jeffries, and greg meeks, congressman from record, reverend al sharpton and tish james in new york, all of them celebrated president biden. it was mostly about president biden, as everyone was trying to figure out what was going on. the dust was not even starting to dust up. we heard about it about 2:00 in the afternoon. everyone was trying to figure out. they didn't want to go in right away and see what was happening

form hakim jeffries was still getting calls, in and out of the event, but you know, did get the full endorsement from greg meeks about kamala harris. we're still waiting to see. she is definitely a force in this moment. i believe some of the force from kamala harris is because she was omitted at the very beginning of this call to president biden after that presidential debate. scherr name was omitted. so many people said, wait a minute, she's next in the line of succession, and now people are seeing this woman stoning at the podium in front of the white house being presidential. that is an optic that people need in this historic moment with a sitting president of the united states withdraws and throwing an endorse month for his vice president to run for

the next again donald john trump. >> the massive amount of work that's required in a very short period of time, from the vice president, essentially getting that biden reelection organization, campaign organization, and then making it the harris election campaign organization. >> it's more than updating a bio online, right? there's a lot happening behind the scenes. in some ways it's easier, from sources i talked to, if she is to become the official party nominee, to just shift all of those resources, right? because it was going from biden-harris to harris-tbd. i don't want to get ahead of where we are right now. we know the dnc rules committee will meet on wednesday and we'll

get a better sense of moving forward, but i've been told logistically behind the scenes it's a bit easeiers with her. the other concern, in the conversation of will he/won't he, was that this is a short period of time of timeline in which the next potential nominee would have to introduce them to the country. they don't have that problem with the president. i do think it's worth pointing out, as much as she carries forward the strengths and selling points, she also has the challenge of its vulnerabilities, people unhappy with the economy before will still be unhappy with the economy. people worried about immigration before will still be worried about immigration. the next big thing to watch is who she picks as her running mate. that's a whole other conversation we'll have in the days ahead. >> much more to come. the conversation to be

continued. thank you all, mike memoli, ana nawaz, and april ryan. >> thank you for the privilege of your time. chris jansing picks up our coverage, next. s jansing picks r coverage, next ♪♪ fastsigns. make your statement.

good day, everyone. i'm joined by my colleague and friend chris jansing?