hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in the east. just like that, thanks to one sunday in july, everything we thought we knew about the most important presidential election

of our lifetimes burst into a million pieces, gone. so much of what we will address this afternoon, that is exactly what happens next is still uncertain. there's one thing that's still crystal clear, even now, something we should state as fact out of the gate, and it is this. in an arena so often lacking selflessness and honor, the man who has already pulled our democracy back from the brink once is showing that he is willing to do whatever to do to do it again. today following president joe biden's noble, albeit difficult decision to bow out of the 2024 presidential race, a party seems completely reinvigorated, confident and firing on all cylinders, transformed. still restless, perhaps. many upset about exactly how the last 3 1/2 weeks went down, but that party is ready, nonetheless, to unite and to

fight and to win. like a steam locomotive picking up speed, vice president kamala harris is, as we speak, effectively consolidating support ahead of the democratic national convention, which is now just weeks away. we know she has a meeting with chuck schumer and hakeem jeffries on the hill, and a campaign staff meeting in wilmington today. since president joe biden made his announcement sunday, nearly all of vice president harris' potential party rivals have rallied around her, endorsing her, clearing the way for what could be an uncontested nomination. today on the south lawn of the white house, the vice president delivered her first public remarks since president biden endorsed her for president. while she didn't speak at all about her candidacy, as this was an official white house event, she did address president joe biden's accomplishments. watch. >> 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 am firsthand witness that nearly every day our president joe biden fights for the american people and we are deeply, deeply grateful for his service to our nation. >> attention shifts now to what could be the other half of the harris ticket, but to the other side, right, the opposition, trump's team. a team that appeared not just eager for a rematch but completely redesigned and built for a rematch with one man, president biden. questions about debates and age and cognitive abilities and elect ability will continue to swirl, but they will all be on the republican side.

this much is certain, it is a brand-new day for the democrats. perhaps for the country as well. that's where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends, democratic strategist, professor at columbia university, plus co-host of msnbc's how to win 2024 podcast claire mccaskill is here, joining us political strategist, msnbc senior analyst matt dowd, and host of the podcast, msnbc national affairs analyst, jeff heilemann. let me thank you because on and off tv, your wisdom and calm and faith help me take this chair every day at 4:00 for the last 3 1/2 weeks. first to all of you, thank you. john heilemann, i want to start with your reporting from late last night and the three words you said everyone was texting you. i probably said at least one. take us through what you were able to report.

>> a couple things. i think the immediate -- the immediate reaction, you know, when the surprise announcement came yesterday at 1:46 p.m., you know, there was a wave among everybody in the democratic political class of some combination of the following things. one of which was people were sad. another is they were grateful. third is they were relieved. and i think -- that doesn't obviously speak for everybody in the whole democratic, broad democratic tent, but for the last three weeks there have been a lot of people who are involved in politics professionally in the democratic party. by that i mean elected officials, congressmen and women, senators, mayors, governors, donors, strategists and staffers. by staffers i mean staffers on capitol hill, staffers on campaigns and staffers in the biden campaign orbit who had been, as you well know, reporting and talking about for three weeks, had been in a state

of panic, a state of fear, some quarters resentment, anger, all of that melted away the moment when president biden did what he did, took the selfless path and did what he did and in the end concluded what was best for the party and the country. you suddenly had people who were, even people who had been screaming over the last three weeks, screaming, why is joe biden so pig headed? why won't joe biden do the right thing? why is he so this and that? again, i'm not on their side. i'm just telling you as a reporter, we all heard this. people who were angry, frustrated, freaked out, all of a sudden they were, as i said, sad. the science of like grief in some sense watching this very good man do this very hard thing, i think hit people, even people who had been desperate for him to leave two minutes

earlier, were suddenly hit with a sense of grief over seeing what -- that this was now effectively a guy announcing the end of a long and storied and valiant political career, and also this sense of gratitude for what he was doing, the selflessness of it, and i will say, you can see it on the faces of people all over tv today, from hakeem jeffries on down in the democratic political world, a sense of relief. this great weight of the last three weeks kind of lifted off people's shoulders. at least even if you thought joe biden should have fought it out, to suddenly have clarity about what was going to happen, to no longer be sitting here in a state of suspense, will he stay, will he go, will we continue to tear each other apart, suddenly that weight lifted off their shoulders, and i will say lifted even further off their shoulders as they saw their party rally in such a decisive way around vice president harris. >> from working on campaigns, i

always thought campaigns get too -- there are often other wins and other factors and this campaign cycle has been rocked three times in three weeks by extraordinary events. this debate performance that started this conversation, an assassination attempt on former president donald trump, president joe biden's decision to leave the race. two things have been through through all of it. vice president kamala harris was sort of the first and the calmest voice out of the gate after that debate saying -- not telling us what we thought we saw, not saying i'm going to have 90 minutes shape 3 1/2 years. her events on the trail, which have always been excellent. she's an excellent politician became -- you could just tell that she put the biden/harris campaign on her back and carried

it over the last three weeks. the other thing that happened was that trump gave a speech in which everyone was reminded that, of course he lost in 2020. he's the opposite. he has a loyalty and a bond between his supporters and in the end is something people will study for the next 200 years. as a figure on the stump, he is beatable and defeatable and i think we'll see a contest that makes that very, very clear in the coming days. >> i think that's absolutely right. going back to john's point, the word he used is clarity. i think over the past 25 days it's been excruciating, trying to understand, you know, what's going on in the minds of some of these leaders. what is joe biden thinking? how is a party going to move forward? and what you, among other things, is this clarity now.

it's a change in the narrative of this race in many ways. just consider the fact that last night almost 50,000 black women got on a call and raised $1.5 million. that's double the capacity of madison square garden in one night. in case anyone's asking, the brothers are getting on a call tonight, so there's that. but it's important to note that what voters are feeling is an inflection point. not just in the campaign cycle, but in our country. we've often talked about young voters and where they might be in this election. young voters can see a lot of themselves in kamala harris. and so it feels different. there's an enthusiasm there that may not have been there a day ago and we can see that also with the fund-raising totals that have been reached in a day and the record setting totals there. just as a quick moment to say

about joe biden, president biden, we've often talked about republicans not putting country over party. in one moment he did more than most republicans have done on the hill in the last 20 years in terms of that very point, putting country over party. so now as it looks like kamala harris, vice president harris, is poised to get this nomination, this presidential nomination, it is gratifying and a sign of strength that you've seen so many come out and support her so early. that's critical. it helps with the fund-raising, it helps with the ground game, it helps as governors are being called to be sure their delegates are also engaged as we approach the convention. i'm impressed by the speed with which her campaign turned all of this around in their ability to

sort of get on the ground running and really have a sprint. not just to the convention but to the end of this cycle. so every moment is going to be really important for them. and, you know, i just think about pride for so many voters that are going to look at her and see themselves in her. this is a long legacy that in many ways started with shirley chisholm. we talked about getting on the chisholm trail. and it included everyone from, yes, hillary clinton, my former boss, but geraldine ferraro and so many others. it feels like a big inflection point. it is an inflection point. and you'll see that in everything that's been done over the last 24 hours. >> claire, one of the places where voters make up their mind is deep, deep, deep in their

guts. and i know most of this from matt dowd but i also know this from being on the campaign. and one of the most extraordinary contrasts that joe biden has given the democratic side, it's not about me. it's not about any one person. it's about our country, our democracy. and you could have written the most beautiful speeches and told them every day until election day, but by doing what he did, voters can understand that at a real gut level. >> yeah. this is -- we have been saying now for months that this is a campaign about contrasts. and what a contrast joe biden has provided to the american people. you have a selfish jerk on one side of the equation that clearly is more focused on himself and his image and people adoring him, and he is the people of this country, and then you have joe biden, who has done

something that will make his legacy legend, literally legend in the history books. it is without precedent that someone at this point in a campaign has taken such a bold step to protect the country. and i think that's how most -- i know that's how the democrats view it. i think most americans will view it the same way. and that single act has unleashed what my colleagues have called clarity. i would say it is really unity and a level of enthusiasm that i don't think our party has seen in some time. and it is -- my phone has been just as busy today, almost as busy as it was yesterday, but i sense from those elected officials that are on the ballot this fall, they're like, okay,

let's go. we can do this. this is all good. and they're very excited to get out there and campaign for this woman. you see her there hugging and kissing chris coons, who is such a good man and was -- is and will always be such a loyal friend to president joe biden. >> we should tell our viewers, the vice president is visiting the biden/harris campaign headquarters in wilmington, delaware, which today becomes the harris campaign headquarters in delaware. an important piece. matt dowd, you and i have worked on presidential campaigns. you leave it all on the field. you pour everything into your candidate and your campaign. this has been a wrenching 3 1/2 weeks for them. i heard another word, though. john heilemann talked about

grief. i heard that from a lot of people. i also today heard from a lot of people, operatives, advisers, lawyers, donors, who are happy, who are so happy and so excited and so ready to execute a campaign and to sort of get about the business of drawing these contrasts to defend where the democratic side needs defending around some of the attacks that have gone unanswered in the last couple of weeks, and to prosecute a case against donald trump's record, against donald trump's act of ending the tradition of a peaceful transfer of power, against project 2025, which is the blueprint for a second term, and against his incredibly radical vice presidential pick, jd vance. >> you think about this race now. it's fascinating to me, as having done the 2000 bush campaign, which was a challenger race against an incumbent party

and the re-elect, is a defensive race, which you and i did. this race right now had felt before like two incumbents, a former president, incumbent democratic, both aged politicians running against each other. now i think kamala harris actually in reality, even though she's the incumbent vice president, she actually is running -- is going to run a challenger campaign because she is basically going to say, i'm going to take on the big, bad guy over there and we don't have to worry about the liability and baggage we had 24 hours ago or 48 hours ago. that for campaign people is a much more exciting campaign as a challenger race that makes history, that will fundamentally make history in the united states of america. and i think this race, every poll that was done prior to

today, you can throw out the window. even the polls that people say, well, we put kamala harris in the poll, blah, blah, blah. none of that matters right now because the race has been fundamentally reset. but it's been reset on -- on two things we've been talking about for the last 15 minutes. two fundamental things reset the race. one, kamala harris is now the nominee who could make history by getting elected president of the united states in the course of this. and it's almost going to reframe the race from 2016 that happened that people -- so many people were disappointed. that changes the landscape of the race fundamentally, and the trump people know this, which is why they're scrambling to figure out what they do, why donald trump seems to be running against joe biden in the course of this. that changed the race. but also as claire and john mentioned, what joe biden did reframed the race. his act of selflessness sort of woke people up, woke me up

because i was getting very cynical and seeing, does anybody put the country before themselves, like our soldiers do, like other people in america do, do we have political leaders that do that. joe biden did that. and the quote i thought of when i heard what he had done yesterday was the quote from willy wonka, the movie, which is when he puts his hand over a piece of candy and says, so shines a good deed in a weary world. that to me is what joe biden did. it's basically all our assumptions about selfishness and ego, in one instance he proved out that, no, there are people that put the country first. there are servant leaders that do that. this is in direct contrast to donald trump and the republican party. and that's why i don't think they expected this. they thought -- they thought we all, joe biden and others, think the same way they do. which is you don't put country first. you're a sucker if you're a

soldier. you don't ever do anything that's not of self-interest. i didn't think they ever thought joe biden would do this because that's not how they think. those two things, kamala harris, historic nominee, could be an historic presidency, and joe biden's act of selflessness reframed this race completely. >> no one is going anywhere. there's much more to come. we haven't even scratched the surface of the news. we have fund-raising totals, endorsements, so more to come on this expanded three-hour edition of "deadline white house" including the race shaping up in a little over 100 days. the harris campaign starts today. and every second counts. one eye getting the party behind her and the other eye on making a plan of attack against the trump/vance ticket. we'll talk about that over the next three hours when "deadline white house" continues after a quick break. nues after a quick break.

our biggest challenge? uncertainty. hidden fees, surcharges... who knows what to expect! turn shipping to your advantage. keep it simple...with clear, upfront pricing. with usps ground advantage®. ♪♪ knock, knock. #1 broker here for the #1 hit maker.

thanks for swingin' by, carl. no problem. so, what are all of those for? ah, this one lets me adjust the bass. add more guitar. maybe some drums. wow, so many choices. yeah. like schwab. i can get full-service wealth management, advice, invest on my own, and trade on thinkorswim. you know carl is the only frontman you need... oh i gotta take this carl, it's schwab. ♪ schwaaaab! ♪ have a choice in how you invest with schwab.

team usa is back! in how you invest let's see that enhanced 4k from xfinity. wow. everything you'd want is right here when you say... “olympics” so, what if your favorite athlete is... "grant hollowa”" nice. or you can't get enough... “swimming” definitely adding that to favorites. now let's check... “medal coun”" and when is gymnastics on? “olympic schedule” it's that easy. find it, see it, count on it with the best seat in the house. get the fastest connection to paris with xfinity.

i spoke to the vice president yesterday shortly after i spoke to the president. you know what we focused on? defeating donald trump. i'm not going to engage in hypotheticals. this is a deeply personal decision that the vice president will make, she will make it on her own timetable and own timeline. she needs to choose someone that she's prepared to govern with, campaign with and someone she feels most comfortable with. that decision should be made free of any sort of political -- >> are you injured in the job? >> i'm focused on doing my job here in the commonwealth of pennsylvania. >> pennsylvania governor josh

shapiro, one of the handful of names on everybody's short list. the decision for running mate will with vice president kamala harris' and hers alone. claire, speaker pelosi also out with an endorsement of the vice president today. just tell us a little bit more about how this happened and your understanding of the final hours and the final days of conversations between chuck schumer and nancy pelosi and leader jeffries and president joe biden. >> well, i think chuck schumer and hakeem jeffries and even nancy pelosi, to some extent, were really working quietly behind the scenes just to make sure joe biden understood what it felt like to other democrats that were going to be on the ballot. these are people that are facing the electorate, and i think from

the senate side there was particular concern about the gap between democratic senators in swing states and where joe biden was about a week and a half, two weeks after the debate. so, they brought that data respectfully to him and asked him to think about it. they were merely forwarding the concerns of their members, which is their job. and then i think what really happened over the weekend was the campaign itself had asked for data, had actually gone out and done polling. and i think his two closest aides, sat down with him with that information on saturday and over the weekend, they looked not only to see that they were losing ground in the battleground states but the other states were actually seeing movement that was very troubling. states that had gone from being slightly purple to blue over the last few cycles.

places like new mexico, new jersey, colorado, minnesota, virginia. these were all -- new hampshire. these were all places that, frankly, the biden campaign had seen as safe. and all of a sudden it appeared they might not be. i think that's when the president realized, i need to do this so that the values that our party cares about and the country i love so dearly is led by someone who will do the right thing instead of someone who has demonstrated over and over they only know how to do the wrong thing. >> and with that understanding, let me show you what joe biden was able to turn that, what had to be painful moment or moments on saturday into. this is leader hakeem jeffries today. >> let me say this. vice president kamala harris has excited the community, she's excited the house democratic

caucus, and she's exciting the country. in terms of my republican colleagues, former president donald trump and extreme maga republicans are having a meltdown right now. a complete and total meltdown. why? because their presidential nominee isn't popular, the extreme maga republican policies are unpopular, including trying to impose a nationwide abortion ban on the american people, and their project 2025 is unpopular. they're having a meltdown right now. all we want to do as democrats is have a debate about moving the country forward and continuing to put people over politics. >> so, i -- there are a lot of things that are extraordinary about kamala harris, all indications are that she will be the nominee. one is the bumper sticker writes

itself but prosecutor meet felon, here we go, day one. >> here we go. for years, for years since she became vice president, i had been concerned, upset that, you know, there were a lot of digs taken at her publicly, in print, and some ways diminishing her, diminishing her credentials, and i railed against that. i said, when you do that, you diminish her and also the future of the party. i would like to -- i did feel that there was going to be a moment in time where, you know, the ticket needed to be elevated in a way that, unfortunately, it meant -- and in many ways was being attacked. i've talked about it, written about it, but what is gratifying is that everybody, and everyone

on this -- everyone today has talked about this, that there was such a rallying around her and that all of the things that people may have talked about as being potentially negative, her being a prosecutor, is now front and center. that talent, that skill set is now front and center in being able to prosecute a convicted felon, a recidivist, who will be standing across from her, and it changes the whole dynamic. i want to say this quick point. sheets going to be attacked on policy, and migrants and crime and all of these things, but we also have to be careful and be mindful, i should say, of the fact that there are going to be two levels to this criticism. one is going to be a policy criticism, but one is just below that. if they're going to attack her on migrants and immigration, but they're also going to start attacking her on her own ethnicity, being a child of

jamaican and south asian parentage. she's going to be attacked on the economy, but in sort of underneath that. she's going to be attacked on whether or not she earned the job that she has. and is prepared to get the job she's campaigning for. we've already seen those attacks. the new york post called her the dei president. we have also seen attacks on her gender, if you listen to the way some are talking and some of the social media that's talked about the way she laughs, the way she dresses, i've seen that before up close working for hillary clinton. these racialized and gender attacks are coming, and have already started. and i have always been concerned those who were asking joe biden to step down, i hope they use that same energy to defend kamala harris should that time come. the time has come. and so everybody is unifying

politically and as the money is coming together, just remember there has to be this really strong offense -- defense of her and of the ticket coming. >> say more about what that defense -- i saw that. i think elon musk amplified that smear about dei. can you say more about -- because i think the people that smear are on the other side. the people that want to defend may not know exactly how to do that the most effectively. can you give your thoughts on how that's done? >> the most important thought in my view is the one defense that covers all of it. when people say, i'm not sure if a black woman can win, you stop it right there. the biggest challenge is the doubt. that doubt as to whether or not the country is ready. i don't know if the country is ready, but i'm going to cast my ballot. you have to cast your ballot. she's ready, you have to be ready. if she didn't think she couldn't do it, she probably wouldn't. to me the first defense against

all of this is the ceding of the doubt and to get rid of that. very quickly, i think this country has already proven it can elect women to top offices, new york, michigan, elsewhere, even her home state in california where she was elected senator. claire mccaskill is a shining example of women being able to get elected to higher office, so we've got a precedent, we have a history, we just have to point to each other, and engage and organize together. that is the strongest defense. >> can you also turn it around? i would say, i don't think the country is ready to elect its first convicted felon. >> i hope not. i think you can turn it around, but i also think if you're going to turn it around, just be sharp -- just be sharp and pointed. i don't think we have time. i don't think democrats have time to not talk just about democracy, although that's important. you have to go right at donald

trump. you have to go right at jd vance. this is not a time for the gloves to be on. they have to be off. you have to hit them hard and directly. we just don't have the time to be explaining. when you're explaining, you're losing. 108, 109 days left. this is a time for a hard, hard hitting campaign. as was said before, donald trump was not ready for this. so if he's knocked on his heels, just continue to knock him down. >> i love this conversation. no one goes anywhere. up next we'll add to our merry gang, a congressman from vice president harris' home state of california. we also expect to hear from vice president harris again shortly as she makes her way to wilmington campaign headquarters. we'll be right back. when you shop all the brands your pet loves. with selection for any pet, with any diet, chewy has a taste for every tummy. all right at your fingertips. all the brands they love to devour.

at prices you love to pay. delivered fast, right to your door. with chewy, make meal-time delicious every time. for low prices and fast shipping. for life with pets, there's chewy with everything. (husband) we just want to have enough money for retirement. (wife) and travel to visit our grandchildren. (fisher investments) i understand. that's why at fisher investments we start by getting to know each other. so i can learn about your family, lifestyle, goals and needs, allowing us to tailor your portfolio. (wife) what about commission-based products? (fisher investments) we don't sell those. we're a fiduciary, obligated to act in your best interest. (husband) so how do your management fees work? (fisher investments) we have a transparent fee, structured so we do better when you do better. at fisher investments, we're clearly different.

i always wanted to know why i am the way i am. my curiosity led me to ancestry. it was amazing to see all the traits that i've gotten from my mother in my dna. it's a family thing. with cascade platinum plus,

i have upped my dish game auntie, in that dishwasher? watch me platinum plus gives you the highest standard of clean, even in your machine. clean enough for you? yeah! scrape. load. done.

cascade platinum plus. and as we embark on this campaign, i will tell you this, i am not perfect. lord knows i am not perfect. but i will always speak with decency and moral clarity and treat all people with dignity and respect. [ applause ] i will lead with integrity and i

will speak the truth. >> that was then senator kamala harris announcing her run for the white house back in january of 2019. five years later that message of hope and honesty and integrity certainly feels like a breath of fresh air in a country that has -- and a party, frankly, that has spent the last 3 1/2 weeks in crisis mode and a country desperately looking for a voice to defeat a wannabe dictator. now a member of congress, robert garcia of california. he knows her well. they spoke yesterday. thank you for joining us. tell us what vice president harris' sort of to-do list looks like on a day when not just the political world was up-ended in a single letter but potentially the future of our democracy. >> first, she's already doing it.

i just spoke to the vice president last night, actually. she feels great. she's motivated. she's focused on uniting the country. she's going to do what she's always done, which is prosecute the case against her opponent. she understands that donald trump is a danger to democracy. she's taken on big banks, corporate polluters and she's going to take on donald trump. what you're seeing the party do right now is coalesce around a candidacy and is a person who represents the future of our country and the future of our party. and what you're seeing also is a vice president going out, as you noted, to delaware today, meeting with campaign staff, organizing delegates. her team is out, as you know, raising enormous amounts, ground breaking amounts of money. it's really important right now for democrats, the country, people that want to keep this democracy strong, to rally around the vice president. she is going to defeat donald trump. >> we covered her campaign, i

remember covering that event, i think john heilemann was at that event. she has always been electric on the campaign trail but she seemed to have turned it up a notch over the last 3 1/2 weeks. do you have a sense of what the last 3 1/2 weeks has been like for her? >> she has been nothing but loyal to the president. she's been defending the president, standing by his side. she has been strong. i had a chance also to commute with her during that time. and i know that her main focus was supporting joe biden. and she's done that the entire time. if you look at the record she's been able to build with him on infrastructure, on lowering the price of insulin, on supporting students, on fighting for women's reproductive health care, those are the issue she'll continue to focus on as president, while also adding what we all know to be the core of kamala harris.

she's always focused on her campaigns being about for the people. she's in this for the people. she used to say when she was attorney general that her main client was always the people. she did the same when we got her elected to the u.s. senate in my home state of california and she'll continue to do that work on this campaign. we have 100-plus-day sprint. we are all in. you better believe the state of california, i was home this last weekend. people are fired up. just seeing folks yesterday, folks that know her well, that have worked with her for years, for decades, we are all in and excited for the rest of the country to get to know the kamala harris that we know. to get to know her kindness, her brilliance, her toughness, and we're excited for her to take on donald trump. >> knowing her personally, how do you think she'll approach sort of her first, most important decision and that is

her pick of a running mate? >> i am confident she is going to pick, first and foremost, someone that is ready to be president and someone that is a good governing partner for her. i think obviously because she has been vice president, she understands the seriousness of this choice and how important having a governing partner and someone that is ready to step in is critical to a team. she's also learned from the best. she has had joe biden, who's also been vice president. she was able to serve for him. i'm sure that not only will she seek counsel from president biden, but she will use her own experience as vice president to make that selection. we have incredible candidates and folks across the country. i'm very confident that whoever she picks is going to be the right choice and we will unite behind that ticket. >> congressman, thank you for spending some time with us and joining us today. please don't be a stranger.

>> happy to. >> we'll be covering her around the clock. john heilemann, let me bring you in on this, which has become sort of a back of the napkin list. everybody has their list. i think everybody on the list has endorsed vice president harris, with the exception of gretchen whitmer, governor of michigan, hasn't ruled out considering serving if tapped. you've covered -- am i right, were you at that event? i feel like you cover that for sh -- >> yeah. >> you were there, right? go back to the event, the last campaign she ran and how she's approach this pick of a number two. >> wow. well, look, just injecting -- look, i've known vice president harris for a long time. i've known her long before she was vice president. i knew her in california on the rise as a politician there and eventually became attorney

general. i've seen her in a lot of different settings, to start with. i would say that speech, if we're honest about it, the speech that began her campaign for president in 2020, which was an extraordinary event in oakland and 30,000 people were there. it was a vast turnout. she killed it that day. and i think that most people who were involved in that campaign, and i think probably vice president harris would say, that was the high point of the campaign for her. she -- she was a troubled presidential candidate. she never actually got a single vote. she dropped out of the race before the iowa caucuses. and i think that has been part of her evolution, has been to have looked back and studied that race and tried to learn from it. and so i think, you know, look, there's nothing like the choice. she's learned, i think, a lot of things, first of all. let's put pause on that. this is a person who's learned a lot from each of her races she's gone along. that failure in that campaign, which is what it was and a lot of people point to say she's not

a great political athlete when people want to criticize her, i think that's wrong. i think part of the reason why she's grown in the way she has in the vice presidency is politically on the political front is things she learned from, the mistakes she made in that campaign. so to your question, i think there is only -- i think vice president harris and the people around her recognize this. there is only one criteria that matters for the selection of a running mate. that is, is the person ready to be president on day one and will they be perceived to be ready on day one? that's the substantive and the political are the same. if you fail in that, it's a disaster. and you know, you know from your experience on the mccain campaign, what happens if you pick someone who is not perceived from day one to be ready to be president. that becomes a horror show. so if you get that right, you are 95% of the way there.

you have talented democrats here, some in battleground states like governor shapiro in pennsylvania, like senator kelly in arizona, you have a bunch of people to pick from. i don't want to leave anybody out. there are others, cooper, whitmer, others, but there are a bunch of democrats who were in important strategic states but the most important thing, and i think she knows this, you have to pick someone you can credibly make the case, this person could be president tomorrow or the day after i become president if i'm incapacitated, they could step in and run the country. you have to convince voters of that. if you can do that, you're 95% of the way home. >> people who have been vice president usually nail this part of the job. i want to bring claire and matt in on something else john heilemann said.

let's take a little test together: which looks better — this? or this? this... ...or this? seems clear to me. saving cash wins every time. which is why you'll love the wise buys sales event, going on right now at america's best. get two pairs of single-vision glasses for just $69.95, or two pairs of progressives for just $129.95. both offers include a comprehensive eye exam. that's not just a better deal, it's america's best. book an exam online today.

the promise of america is freedom, equality, but right now, those pillars of our democracy are fragile and our rights are under attack. reproductive rights, voting rights, the right to make your own choices and to have your voice heard. we must act now to restore and protect these freedoms for us and for the future, and we can't do it without you. we are the american civil liberties union. will you join us? call or go online to my aclu.org to become a guardian of liberty today.

your gift of just $19 a month, only $0.63 a day, will help ensure that together we can continue to fight for free speech, liberty and justice. your support is more urgently needed than ever. reproductive rights are on the line and we are looking at going backwards. we have got to be here. we've got to be strong to protect those rights. so please join the aclu now. call or go to my aclu.org and become an aclu guardian of liberty for just $19 a month. when you use your credit card, you'll receive this special we the people t-shirt member card magazine and more to show you're part of a movement to protect the rights of all people. for over 100 years, the aclu has fought for everyone to have a voice and equal justice. and we will never stop

because we the people, means all of us. so please call or go online to my aclu.org to become a guardian of liberty today. what qualifies you to be commander in chief? >> first of all, let me just say i love my country. i love my country. and this is a moment in time that i feel a sense of responsibility to stand up and fight for the best of who we are. i am a career prosecutor as you said. my entire career has been focused on keeping people safe. it is probably one of the things that motivates me more than anything else, and when i look at this moment in time, i know the american people need someone who will fight for them, see them, care about them, will be

concerneder their experience, and put them in front of self-interest. we're back. claire, not only is she going to be facing off against a felon, but she's been leading the biden half of them since the overturning of roe v. wade. talk about her skill set as well. hello to the dog, whoever said hi. >> yes, hello to the dog. she is well, well, well suited for what i think will end up being the issue of this campaign, and you can tell it's the issue of the campaign by the way the republican party treated it during their convention. they want this to go away. they think women of america and the men who care about them are going to forget that a basic freedom was stripped from them, that women are facing health

crises because of what donald trump did, what his supreme court did that he is very proud of, and she gets this. she gets it in her bones. she knows that this is something that is motivating. she knows it motivates republicans as much as it does democrats, as much as it does independents. you know, the contrast here, nicolle, jd vance had a chance a few months ago to vote to protect ivf and to vote to protect contraception in the united states senate, and he voted no on both. he voted no on protecting ivf. that's how warped the republican party has become around this issue. so she's going to take this to the streets and she's going to hammer it and she's going to do it well, and one thing about being a prosecutor, when you're in this a courtroom, there's no

script, folks. you don't know what the witness is going to say. you don't know what issue is going to come up. she knows how to think on her feet. i watched her do it in committee hearings time after time where she could take what information she was given and turn and pivot and punch in a way that made the point and landed it clearly and cleanly. that's what she's going to be able to do. that's whey i predict donald trump will look for an ecuse not to debate her. >> in donald trump's mind, his whole brand is about projecting what we all know to be phony strength. how does donald trump not defy debates? what is he afraid of? afraid of kamala harris? >> yeah, he is afraid of kamala harris. >> he should be. >> well he should be. i think this is such a fundamentally -- i don't think donald trump has any idea what to do right now in this regard

for a couple of reasons. one, i'm going to defeat joe biden because he's not going to run and he's old in age. the other thing is i think he thinks, oh, this is -- this is not going to be like hillary clinton because the world has fundamentally changed, and that's one thing i want to say to all those people i know out there, democrats who have ptsd from 2016 and are worried that somehow they don't believe that a woman can get elected president in the united states in the course of this and then they point to hillary clinton, and they still suffer from all of the trauma that existed from that, first, hillary clinton won that by 3 million votes. more importantly, the democratic party is much more unified in what they have to do than they

were in 2016 a after the bernie sanders race. people forget how divided it was. donald trump could appeal against that. more importantly, what's happened with choice and abortion and the ability of kamala harris, the landscape is fundamentally different. the threat of donald trump, the supreme court, and the gop, while warned by hillary clinton has now become completely apparent in reality. it's different for voters to listen to a warning, this is what he's going to do, than it is to say, this is what he did. that's why i counsel people. i know they have doubts. i know they're worried. but this is a fundamentally different race that 2016 and kamala harris is a fundamentally different character. it gives me hope, gives me optimism. as i say, the land has

fundamentally changed. >> thank you for spending the first day of the rest of the campaign season. we have two more hours to go and much more news to come. we'll look at what folks have been talking about, some of the instant classics. then senator kamala harris taking down the likes of bill barr and others. we'll look at how the shake jupp has left donald trump's side, absolutely flatfooted and scrambling. we'll talk about that. we're still expected to hear from vice president harris within the next hour. much more to come. don't go anywhere. ch more to co. don't go anywhere. ♪ but those cords weren't me. ♪ ♪ so he switched to t-mobile. ♪ ♪ home internet, with 5g. ♪ ♪ what a feeling! ♪

♪ i have wi-fi now! ♪ ♪ i need home internet from t-mobile to fulfil my ♪ ♪ li-i-i-i-iiiiiiiiiiife! ♪ get home internet from t-mobile now. just $50 bucks a month.

our biggest challenge? uncertainty. hidden fees, surcharges... who knows what to expect! turn shipping to your advantage. keep it simple...with clear, upfront pricing. with usps ground advantage®. ♪♪ my name's trevor. i've tried other diets in the past with usps ground advantage®. never lasted before too long my cravings came back especially my sugar cravings and i fell off the wagon. release worked fast. my sweet tooth is gone. i'm so happy with my progress and now i love myself.

a democracy is on the ballot, truly. >> democracy? incredibly fragile. it will only be as strong as our willingness to fight for it. >> we have more on the line now than we have had in recent memory in terms of fundamental rights. >> do we believe in opportunity? >> yes. >> do we believe in the promise of america? >> yes. >> and are we ready to fight for it? >> yes. >> hi, again, everybody. it's 5:00 in the east. president joe biden may have stepped back, stepped away from the 2024 presidential race, but

what is at stake remains exactly the same, american democracy. president biden's endorsement to succeed him, his vice president kamala harris, has for years now articulated and stressed the urgency to protect what americans hold dear, the fundamental idea that the country is governed for the people, by the people, that each person has a voice to be heard. it's a stark contrast from the gop's now official presidential nominee, the twice indicted criminal ex-president who has openly broadcast his desires to govern as an autocrat, quote, a dictator on day one. he wap plans to weaponize the justice department and use it to go after his enemies. says he wants to terminate the constitution, and he has stacked a supreme court that granted him full immunity, practically making him a king. yesterday's campaign shakeup left candidates feeling

invigorated and hopeful and optimistic and left republicans in a position they long feared as has been chronicled in the "atlantic." the trump campaign must completely now reinvent itself. quote, for a campaign that went to bed saturday believing that it would dictate the terms of the election every day until 5, sunday brought a feeling of powerlessness. for the first time trump does not control the election in 2024. >> vice president heir's endorsements have increased. win with black women held a call last night. a whopping 45,000 people joined. our friend reports we'll convene on a call. harris's newly launched campaign

raised $81 million in its first 24 hours. that's the highest 24-hour fund-raising total of any candidate in history. vice president harris is right now greeting staff at campaign headquarters in wilmington. she's expected to make remarks this next hour. we'll bring them to you in their entirety as soon as they get underway. a brand-new era of the presidential campaign is where we begin the next hour with some of our favorite reporters in france. mike schmidt is here. miya riley, and also host of the bulwark podcast tim miller is here. miya, you can take it in any direction you want, but i've been dying to hear your thoughts on not just the history that president joe biden made but the history that kamala harris quickly made right alongside him in galvanizing the party behind her, exciting the grassroots

with these fund-raising numbers. where do you see the race today? >> well, i just want to start with the outpouring of establishing his legacy, president biden's legacy that began the discussion. it was a recognition that this has been a deeply impactful president, leadership conference on civil and human rights. we put out a statement cataloging the amazing amount of work that has been done that is for democracy, for every single person in this country that this administration has accomplished if all of its people. even that process of recognition, of gratitude, is as much a part of the story than we fast forward to kamala harris, but i just say that because at a party that was very divided in

the lead-up to this, what we've seen is a role that a powerful player who has extensive experience on all of the victories of the current administration but also on the principles that go directly to what we have to do to ensure that we're protecting democracy and taking care all of our people, that we've seen this tremendous outpouring of unity, and i mean tremendous. i would say it has been a seismic shift and a game-changer. i say that based on the conversations. you point out win with black women, a call i couldn't get on last night. couldn't get on the call. i say that as someone who was able to get on the call in the past. the amount of energy, the amount of collectively coming together, the amount of clarity that has been an energy from people far and wide and also with a breadth of diversity that really is what

this country represents, it's what we the leadership call we the majority because it really is the majority of this country that is seeking the sanity of leadership that calls us together and focuses on our problems and their solutions. this historic moment is one that says we will recognize just as president biden did that kamala harris is not just qualified, but she is the future of the party. >> mike schmidt, you and your colleagues did some reporting on thursday. i think it broke right about the time when donald trump was taking the stage for his convention, but it really chronicled the journey that president joe biden traveled between his debate performance and the meetings that democratic leaders had with him privately about kamala harris's political strength and that in the performances she turned in in those three weeks on the campaign trail, and i don't know

if there was data that he saw, but just talk about how he became completely convinced not just of her ability to be president on day one, which is something i think he always stated, but her ability to defeat donald trump. >> in the days after the debate, i had been told biden had still been telling people he thought he alone could beat trump and he had a far better chance than harris of doing that. one of the few things his advisers had to convince him of is her viability. what you saw over the last three weeks is not only was biden facing this revolt from his party, but harris was really finding her footing. she was really taking the lead on the campaign trail and was very on message and sort of seemed to not only convince the president that she could do this but convince the party because there had been questions in the

party about whether she could be at the top of the ticket, and i think these past three weeks were really important to showing the base that she could be the tip of the sphere, and i think she was very effective at that. she was able to make the argument, to focus it back onto trump, this outcry from democrats at biden, and, you know, by the end of the three weeks, trump was attacking her as much as he was attacking biden. so as biden's political viability went down, hers went up, and ultimately the president was convinced this was one of the things his advisers thought he had to be convinced of, was convinced that she could win. >> tim, let me ask you to weigh in on this nikki haley instant classic. well, i ale let it speak for

itself. let me show this to you. we're looking for it. i also want to show all of you some of what was in the public record. kamala harris seemed to set hess in a different category when she questioned bill barr as well as when she questioned brett carve gnaw. to mike's reporting, it's not just what she did as a senator. it's some of what the attacks that were landed on her in the first couple of years that were maybe adequately defended against, and people hadn't really seen her on the trail. the performances she turned in in the days after the debate, i think she was the first surrogate to go on tv with the spirit and obviously heartfelt defense of joe biden and turn it around and tell people they had. seen what she thought she had seen. she said i'm not going to let the conversation of the last 90 minutes shape the last 3 1/2

years. there's speaking on experience versus putting it on your back. the surge and enthusiasm and support and money for kamala harris. >> yeah, it's game on, nicolle, huh? it feels like eons ago. when was it? thursday? >> it was friday. >> it's absolutely game on for kamala harris. she has galvanized the party in the meantime, and she's done it by demonstrating. i go back to when she was in new orleans at the essencefest. she developed the most compelling contrast with donald trump, with the project 2025 agenda and the threats to women's democracy and women's freedom on the ticket all year. she really demonstrated not only that she was up for, you know, this campaign and obviously the

former president had already said she was up to the job of president, but that she was up for taking on trump in a way that was absolutely needed, and i think that that period of time, that three weeks where she was out there doing the work is a big part of the reason why people galvanized around her so quickly. you know, we had -- we don't need to dwell on the past, right, but there are all of these worries during that three-week period, that if there were a transition to the vice president, that there would be chaos, that the republican boogie men would disorient democrats by filing these lawsuits against them, and it's like number of that's happened. it's the republicans that are disoriented. the republicans are now lost. they don't have a strong message against kamala harris. the whole core message they've had to this campaign don't apply to the vice president, so they're out there today throwing stuff against the wall, hoping something will stick. some are talking about plastic

straws, there are people out there saying there's a conspiracy about biden's covid. they're in total disarray, and you see this moment and lining up behind the vice president. so all of those concerns about what might happen in this hand-off, i think, have proven to be unfounded, and she's on steady turf. obviously, there's a long campaign ahead, many days ahead, but today i think she starts in a really good place. >> mike, to your reporting, let me show you what nikki haley had to say. >> most americans do not want a rematch between biden and trump. the first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that's going to win this election. >> i would expect this video will find its way into the

living rooms of many swing voters in many swing counties. this is sort of the stated political reality from 24 hours ago that the trump campaign has to recalibrate to now. >> yeah. and, look. by -- i think i've been a little surprised by how much the democrats have fallen into line behind harris and not only has that helped them in sort of getting their footing as they try and position themselves here against trump, but it has also distracted in taking, you know, the attention away from the past three weeks, which was a really ugly story that played out. i mean this was -- for either weeks or months or years, the president's aides have been working to conceal this from the public. at first out into the public in a very dramatic way. the president seems to rae volt from his own party and basically, you know, when pretty much every elected leader except

the top leader of the party was screaming for him to get out, he finally gave in. before talking about that story today, they're much more focused on harris's viability as a candidate and the amount of money that has been brought in in the past day, and what this means for positioning the party, you know, and harris against trump. but there are still a lot of questions that we really don't have answers to about how we got to this point. how was it that biden ended up, you know, in the shape that he was in coming into that debate, and, you know, what really went on over the past three weeks that drove the president to make this extraordinary decision that he made even as he was insisting that he was going to stay in and going out there on, you know, these different public talks and such or press conferences and trying to show the american people that he could still do this. and that was -- if many

democrats, most democrats, a pretty ugly thing to watch. and they seem to have been able to turn the page here pretty quickly. >> you know, maya, maybe it takes sort of ex-republicans to find what mike describes as glorious. republicans were privately disgusted by lining up behind a candidate who bragged about grabbing women between the legs. his position today as a standard republican barrier is you can grab women between the legs because when you're famous, that's what they've done for a million years. all of those gienld behind him doing something that wasn't public and wasn't painful represents absolute rot at the core of the party. the democratic party, everything they did was painful. it leads to more questions.

the vice president, now most likely the presumptive nominee, will have to field those questions, but i think it is far preferable and some of that agonizing process represents the far healthier and the far more functional party why they did all that, right? why we did that to the most successful president in the u.s. history because the stakes are so high. >> well, i think in the end what we'll be talking about is the fact it was president biden who made the decision. no one else made it but the president. he's not only a grown-up. he is a very esteemed and extremely experienced politician and leader and he made the call. you know, there was a lot of consternation as you know within the parts and from a lot of regular folks who said wait, wait, wait. i showed up in a primary, i registered my vote, what are we talking about here, and what is the hysteria trumped by the media, i still see a very

credible leader. i think to your point, the healthy process is in the end it was president biden who made the choice, and in the end it was president biden who actually pointed out to the party this is my vice president, this is the qualified person, this is the ticket. you know, frankly people have already voted for the ticket and that's one of the reasons why you saw the rallying, and i think to your point about the message and the difference between rot and the messiness of democracy, much, much, much better to have a messy democracy than none at all. >> tim miller, the bulwark writes about this phenomenon as well, this somewhat painful public airing of concerns about the nominee as preferable to falling in line behind a wannabe dictator. last week, there was nothing to

stop the republican party from forcing trump off the ticket. the party elders and elected officials could have demanded that trump step aside. donors could have closed their wallets. but the plain fact is not one single republican called for trump to step aside. not one. the democratic party is a functioning institution with checks and balances, constituencies, a and power structures. like any institution, it is amorphous and its decision-making is mostly organic. the only thing democratic is the will of the leader. >> it's hard to say it better than my colleagues. i'll add to what maya said. in the end it was president biden's decision to step aside, but just look at the way the people around him behaved in the party. i want to shout out one particular contrast. look at how speaker nancy pelosi

acted. she acted responsibly. she didn't want to go out and embarrass president biden, of course, but she understood that for the party and for the country and for the democracy that the path that the democratic party was on was not a winning one, was not a hello the one, and she behind the scenes in con very sausages with joe biden, in conversations with other people in the party helped nudge this toward the right direction and good on her for doing that. contrast that with mitch mcconnell or paul ryan or mike kevin who never had the you-know-what to tell donald trump the truth. that i were never able to nudge him aside or do anything but shine his shoes. they had so many opportunities to get rid of this guy. he was impeached twice, also by nancy pelosi with the democratic house. they could have galvanized just 17 senators, 16 senators, 16

republican senators together and they could have gotten rid of trump. they could have kuhn victsed him for an attempted coup on the capitol. and when he did it a third time, he didn't debate. no one challenged him. he won almost every state by acclimation. the contrast between that behavior and the ferris of a wannabe autocrat has every flaw you can think of that's a criminal and their inability to stand up to that versus the democrats who just had to deal with a guy that was, you know, aging, and how they behaved in those two circumstances given the nature of the threats, i think it tells you a lot between the two parties and which one is healthy and which one is not. >> just an extraordinary story to take to the country, hopefully the ultimate deciders,

the kahunas. thanks very much for reporting on this extraordinary moment. much more to get to as the freak-outs on the right for lack of a better word rachet up against president biden and the vice president and the strong performances o every the past few weeks. also reaction on capitol hill as top named democrats continue to line all all day long behind vice president harris and later, prosecutor versus the felon. what does that look like? kamala harris will take the fight straight to the ex-president. the special edition of deadline white house will continue after a quick break. don't go anywhere. tinue after a quick break. don't go anywhere. making hard to reach. so easy! swiffer, [wow!] the mother of all cleans! ♪♪

life, diabetes, there's no slowing down. each day is a unique blend of people to see and things to do. that's why you choose glucerna to help manage blood sugar response. uniquely designed with carbsteady. glucerna. bring on the day. hi, i'm david, and i lost 92 pounds on golo.

uniquely designed with carbsteady. my life partner connie and i were in really rough shape regarding our health. and our doctors told us that we needed to lose weight. i saw a golo commercial and i thought, "we really need to try this." as the weeks went by, the weight came off. we learned to make healthy choices and be supportive of each other. together, we've lost 170 pounds. golo worked for us. since losing weight on golo, i'm feeling grateful and hopeful about the future. (energizing music) sure, i'm a paid actor, and this is not a real company, but there is no way to fake how upwork can help your business. search talent all over the world with over 10,000 skills you may not have in house. more than 30% of the fortune 500 use upwork because this is how we work now.

the moment i met him i knew he was my soulmate. more than 30% of the fortun"soulmates."work soulmate! [giggles] why do you need me? [laughs sarcastically] but then we switched to t-mobile 5g home internet. and now his attention is spent elsewhere. but i'm thinking of her the whole time. that's so much worse. why is that thing in bed with you? this is where it gets the best signal from the cell tower! i've tried everywhere else in the house! there's always a new excuse. well if we got xfinity you wouldn't have to mess around with the connection. therapy's tough, huh? -mmm. it's like a lot about me. [laughs] a home router should never be a home wrecker. oo this is a good book title.

has the president or anyone at the white house suggested or asked that you open an investigation of anyone, yes or no, please, sir. >> the president or anybody else. >> it seems you'd remember something like that and be able to tell us. >> when black women are three to four times more likely to die in connection with birth in america when they're going to die more because of gun violence, the question has to be, where have you been and what are you going to do? >> can you think of any laws that gives the government the power to make decisions about the male body? >> i'm not -- i'm not -- i'm not thinking of any right now, senator.

>> i will not sit here and be lectured by the vice president on what it means to enforce the laws of this country. i'm the only one on this stage who has personally prosecuted everything from child sexual assault to homicide. >> sir, sir, i have -- >> you let me qualify it. i'm not able to be rushed this fast. it makes me nervous. >> you make me nervous. those are just a few. we could have gone on for the rest of the program. those are just a few of vice president harris's highlights, if you will, and her time as the united states senator. let's bring in communications director for vice president harris. thanks so much for being here. >> thanks so much for having me. >> you know, we've seep the vice president in recent years as the vice president as a lot of folks have spoken to especially in the last 3 1/2 weeks as the most loyal and really electric surrogate for the campaign, but

when she was in the senate, she was her prosecutor self, prosecuting the lights of bill barr, brett kavanaugh, jeff sessions. i wonder how those two public-facing pieces fifth together in the final 100 days of a general election. >> what you saw was a kamala harris i know behind closed doors and that's the kamala harris she's going to present on the national stage as the nominee for the democratic party. that's going to give her the advance going up against donald trump. the one thing that unhinges him more than anybody else is a woman challenging him. there's no doubt that she's going to do that and she's not going to, you know, allow him to continue to mislead the public and take us down this dangerous path that he actually has us on. so i think she's going to bring

all that we've seen there in those videos to bear in the next stage of the election. the other thing that i think makes her a standout leader today in this very moment in our nation suffering through all this turmoil that will matter and will have resonance with those key con state gincies and the need to win, and that is that she actually sees people. when we were working in the white house, she used to tell us all the time, when you go into the oval office or roosevelt room, make sure you bring people to the table who don't know those rooms exist. so she was able to expand the table of people being considered and seen in those places and spaces, and it's not just par of her ethos but also how she actually configured and thinks through legislation, how to solve big problems, and how to practically deliver for the american people. that's the kamala harris i saw

in the white house. she's all of those things. she's tough, she's brilliant, and she really knows how to deliver. so i'm really excited to see her really put that on full display for the american people, and i can't wait to see how trump is going to react to that. >> you know, there were some concerns about how the rest of us act, right? if you're in the pro-democracy coalition, she's the only person running for president now who is committed to keeping up the american experiment, right? >> right. >> for everyone interested in living in a democracy, there's something that you owe now, this ticket. the president has done this extraordinary thing of stepping aside at the urging of his own party. his vice president is stepping in with all of the accomplishments of the agenda, and there's a unique brand of hatred and racism and misogyny that will be thrown at her if it

isn't already. i've been on air for an hour. and a half. i don'tet know what trump or his allies have been up to. what is it that has gone route or wrong in terms of defending her from the sort of cards played from the bottom of the deck, the lows, the smears, the things that are so indecent i hate to talk about, but she has been on the receiving end of vitriol and racism and misogyny, and now that everything is riding on it, i wonder your thoughts on how best to defend against those attacks. >> well, i mean, i think the vice president has been the first at every job she's ever had, so she's not new to being criticized and being a victim of sexism and racism. so and that sort of fortified her in a lot of ways. it's built this armor of. i think you need that when you go into this next phase. you're going up against our

global enemies. they'll bring to bear beyond things that are more toxic than racism and sexism. i will say one thing. i believe the attack lines from the republicans are actually going to be to her advantage and that's two things. one is that she's a woman. i don't know any sort of environment that's more ripe for a woman to win than today. you've got the republican party who has an all-out assault on women. they've reversed and undermined roe. you've got the head of the party who's a convicted rapist. their agenda only get ms.er extreme by the day. that's going to work to her advantage of the 1% to 2% of the population, the suburban women, if you look at the internal polls, from the biden campaign, those are going to be the voters who are already starting to have -- resonate toward her and are already starting to show some

appreciation for her policies. so i think that is going to -- so her being a woman is going to work to her advantage. i also think her being a woman of color is obvious lu going to work to her advantage. we've seen in poll after poll there's a lack of enthusiasm among african americans. that's not the case any longer. i was on a call last night with a grassroots organization. 50,000 women on the call. they raised $70 million in a matter of three hours. there's a lot of enthusiasm. those attack lines, sort of preying on her gender and race are only in this current environment, not like any other time before is going to work to her advantage you're a communicator as am i. it feels good, feels great, but she's going to have to define herself before the republicans get the opportunity to do it. a lot of people don't know the

vice president, especially that 1% or 2%, those disaffected republicans. they only really know her caricature. it's going to be very important that they get ahead of this thing and it aggressively started to define her before the republicans have an opportunity to. >> you alluded to his record. he's been found liable for sexual assault and been convicted of 34 felonies. the prosecution and felony just writes itself. talk about that part of her skill set. >> you know, when she ran in the primary, being a prosecutor wasn't seen as a badge of honor. you know, that was a different environment. now it's a different time. as you said, you can imagine seeing the bumper sticker, vote for the prosecutor, not the felon. this is going to work to her advantage. i was talking to some of my republican friends. those are the nikki haley voters

who are not sure where they're goinds to land. a friend made this argument to me. he said, what i really like about her is she's a former prosecutor and she can go through the law and message. that's incredibly smart. i had. thought about it. he said, there are people left in the republican party that believe that this direction that donald trump is taking the country down from the supreme court to his -- you know, to the coup, to the coup attempt, it's not consistent and an i threat cal of who we are. the frame-up to me is her being a prosecutor creates the opportunity for her to attract and bring in the 1% or 2% that are looking for a home right now. >> you raise a great point. nikki haley voters were still voting for nikki haley for months and weeks after she was out of the race. >> now there's a voter pac that's come out and voted for

the vice president. >> i saw that. i checked to make sure that was real. that's incredible. there are a lot of voters, center right women who felt like they don't have a place to go. you're right. what better place than a former prosecutor and woman. >> definitely. >> thanks for calling in. >> thank you for having me. talk soon. when we come back, we're expecting the vice president kamala harris at campaign headquarters in wilmington. we'll bring you those remarks when they happen. don't go anywhere. remarks when they happen don't go anywhere. (man) mm, hey, honey. looks like my to-do list grew. "paint the bathroom, give baxter a bath, get life insurance," hm. i have a few minutes. i can do that now.

oh, that fast? remember that colonial penn ad? i called and i got information. they sent the simple form i need to apply. all i do is fill it out and send it back. well, that sounds too easy! (man) give a little information, check a few boxes, sign my name, done. they don't ask about your health? (man) no health questions. -physical exam? -don't need one. it's colonial penn guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance. if you're between the ages of 50 and 85, your acceptance is guaranteed in most states, even if you're not in the best health. options start at $9.95 a month, 35 cents a day. once insured, your rate will never increase. a lifetime rate lock guarantees it. keep in mind, this is lifetime protection. as long as you pay your premiums, it's yours to keep. call for more information and the simple form you need to apply today. there's no obligation, and you'll receive a free beneficiary planner just for calling.

i think kamala harris is actually a great person for the role. i think it a is going to make a big difference in who the running mate is. i think she's got experience. >> i think it might bring some life to the race. >> i was kind of really interested to see who the new nominee was going to be, and i was kind of excited when he threw his bag behind kamala. >> it makes me much more happy that there's a greater chance trump won't win. >> i think kamala is going to be strong and get things done. straight from the mouths of the people who matter most, the voters. let me bring in vaughn hillyard. we had a chance to speak briefly

with ashley etienne. she described trump as being a rapist. he is not. he's a convicted felon. you tell me how the trump campaign is preparing to run against a prosecutor. >> i got to take a break from covering trump world and i was actually assigned to cover kamala harris's bid until she dropped out. i watched her candidacy up close shefrm had this ideological lane she was never able to wholly fill. bernie sanders and elizabeth warren were in one lane. she talked about gun control orders, closing the gender wage gap. this was kamala harris who the thought was she could perform

really well in a general election against donald trump. she predicated her entire campaign that she could pros indicate the case against donald trump. back in 2019 when i talked with voters, they said, we don't know what she believes on key democratic issues. she had a hard time coming up with a health care policy in the first months of her candidacy. but folks were telling me they were opening up the door and waiting because they wanted to see her go toe to toe with donald trump. five years later it looks like she's going to have the taumtd to do exactly that. for donald trump, his campaign senior adviser suggested to me, in fact, that i do intent to have a debate with kamala harris, potentially in september. we're elsie what comes to fruition here. for donald trump, he's been prepared for the last 20 months a debate in a general election campaign against joe biden, really predicated on the idea of strength versus weakness. the other day he was calling joe

biden old and feeble, and, frankly, that is not an attribute he'll be able to assign to kamala harris who is 19 years his junior, is somebody who's served in the united states senate and now in the capacity for 3 1/ years as vice president. for donald trump and his campaign team, there's the understanding they're going to try to make the case it doesn't matter who the messenger is, joe biden, kamala harris, gretchen whitmering but it's the actual message. but that's what they're focused on. if i may, just in the last few minutes, in a lot of ways i hate to repeat the words of an individual personally attacking another, but in this case, for three months out from a major election and in a social meade ka post a few minutes ago trump called harris dumb as a rock. he called her, quote, crazy. he called her nuts. there was one donald trump in

milwaukee on the convention stage with a little more subdued tenor. but based on the rally in michigan, there's no way donald trump is going to campaign against kamala harris in any other way than what we've been accustomed to over the last nine years. >> wow. i'm going to stay off the low road and let donald trump's third grade insults just hang out there and speak for themselves. i would like to press you on something that the harris campaign is responding to, vaughn hillyard, and that's an elected official from ohio introducing jd vance, the most radical person ever elected to serve as a vice presidential nominee and his politics that alluded to several war, the campaign responding and drawing attention to those comments. your thoughts on that. >> yeah. nicolle, we've talked over the

courts of the last year, those are sentiments we often hear from voters who have suggested, number one, they don't believe there's any way donald trump does not win this election in nosh and the civil war or political violence is something we have repeatedly heard on the ground, and now this individual helping introduce jd vance today saying that explicitly into the make row phone. my biggest concern here, if i may, from a contextualized reporting level of this after the attempted assassination of donald trump, where was america going to head from there. and i can tell you, you know, donald trump did have an opportunity to throw matches onto this, ignite political violence in response. and he delivered a much more, i think, measured response to the attack on his life. the question is does that hold up, and, number two, to what extent do his supporters who willingly, thousands of them, attack the u.s. capitol to try

to keep him in power, do they ignore what the -- some others would, you know, in pushing back against political violence and take action on their own. they were proud boys outside of the grand rapids rally the other day and we hear from secret service and the local law enforcement they're ever more intensifying security measures around political events. at the same time, we're less than 100 days away and this is not just one political action that puts this country in jeopardy, but this is over a period of years now, rhetoric in this country and a willingness and belief that political violence may justify the ends for one side. i think it leaves us in a very precarious and dangerous place based on conversations i've had over the course of the last two or three years, nicolle.

>> you know, maya, you and i have talked about banning hust in its broad endeavor over the last eight year. jenna bush hager at the "today" show had some really distinct commentary about president joe biden withdrawing from the race and she has perspective as being the daughter and granddaughter of the two bushes. she says, you forget they're human beings. you have sexualized smears against harris. you have reporting about -- let's listen in to president biden calling in to this campaign event. that out of people's hair for the next three or four days, but i'm going to be on the road. i'm not going anywhere. it's kept me away a little bit. but, you know, i want people to remember that what we have done

has been incredible, and we have so much more we're going to get done. i want to say hello to kamala, if she can hear me. she's going to be speaking shortly. i want to say to the team, embrace her. she's the best. i want to call on everybody. i know yesterday's news was surprising and it's hard for you to hear, but it was the right thing do. i know it's hard because you poured your heart and soul into me to help me win this thing, help me get the nomination, help me win the nomination and then go on and win the presidency, but, you know, you're an amazing team, but we've got a great, great -- i think we made the right decision. i know how hard you've worked, how many sacrifices you've made. so many of you uprooted your lives for me and the kinds of commitments you people make or anything these days, you've made it. i'm honored and humbled.

this is from the bottom of my heart. i thank you for all you've done for me and my family. we've built the best campaign in all of history. i always kid, i know i'm only 40, but i've been around a long time. i domino of a better organization, grassroots campaign. we have over 230 offices opened, o every 2,000 paid staff, and we have literally several thousand volunteers on a regular basis, thousands of them. they've been relentless and tireless in reaching out and contacting voters. julie, quinn, michael, tyler, rob flaherty, rufus on raising money and so many more. they built this team and you brought them together. you've brought us together, you've inspired them and you do what leaders do. now we've go to -- the name has changed at the top of the ticket, but the mission hasn't changed at all. by the way, i'm not going anywhere. i'm going to be on the campaign with her, working like hell as

the sitting president, getting legislation passed, as well as campaigning. you know, what we still need to do is save this democracy. trump is still a danger to the community. he's a danger to the nation. just satisfied foreign policy, my counterparts at the other end of the world is home. e hope you give every bit of your heart and soul that you gave to me to kamala. i want you to know, i won't be on the ticket, but i'm still going to be fully, fully engaged. i've got six months left to my presidency. i'm determined to get as much done as i possibly can, both domestic policy and other prescription drugs and climate, climate is still an existential threat we face, and if we don't win this thing, it's all in jeopardy. and we got to keep working for an end to the war in gaza.

i'll be working very closely with the israelis and with the palestinians to try to work out how we can get the gaza war to end in middle east peace and get all those hostages home. i think we're on the verge of being able to do that. and we've got to keep our alliances together. it's critically important. it took a while for me to build these alliances. most of my colleagues have acknowledged that, but it's critically, critically important for our safety and security. and i know i'll be doing whatever kamala wants or needs me to do in addition. so let me be real tleer, we're still fighting in this fight together, i'm not going anywhere. you've always had my back, and i promise you i will always have your back. and i'm anxious as you all to hear from kamala. so thank you, thank you, thank you, julie, you're the best. >> well, thank you so much, mr. president. >> thank you.

i'm sticking around. i'm going to listen. >> all right, thank you so much, mr. president, again, for taking time to join our call today. and you know, as the president said, we are full steam ahead in supporting the vice president, and we are seeing incredible enthusiasm already from our supporters, from democratic governors to senators to house members to mayors to folks across the country, you know, our democratic party is really uniting around our nominee. and we just announced that we raised $81 million in 24 hours. so now i'm incredibly honored to bring up the second gentlemen to be able to mark an historic day with us today. with that, i'd like to introduce second gentleman doug emhoff.

>> wow. julie, thank you so much. i've known julie a long, long time going back to her days working in kamala's senate office. and we put a lot of time together out on the road on the last campaign, and i can't think of anyone better to be leading this campaign. so thank you so much, you're the best. i was just very emotional listening to president biden just then. i was emotional before i heard that because of who he is and what he represents, the dignity, the empathy. he's had my back personally, some of my toughest moments as second gentleman. one, leaving the career i loved. it was the president who came up to me and said, look, kid, you're a great lawyer, this must have been tough.

but what better way than to leave that to support your wife that you love so much and your country that you love so much? and it's hard to believe it was about four years ago the first time i came to wilmington is when she got the call from president, then candidate, biden to be on the ticket. and we came here the next day. we went to their home. and he said with dr. biden, welcome to the family. you're now bidens. and they made us cookies. and they called our kids. and they called my parents. this was day one four years ago, and now look where we are now. to have been able to serve as second gentleman with him as our president, dr. biden as our first lady, unbelievable.

now, now i get to support my wife, kamala harris, running for president of the united states. let me tell you something, we are going to win this election. we are on the right side of every single issue, and we have this team right here and thousands of others all around the country. how do i know? because i've been traveling all around the country, and i met them. we have an amazing team. you have done an amazing job, and you're going to continue to do that so we can elect kamala harris as the next president of the united states of america. so let's hear it for kamala harris. thank you.

>> the first gentleman of the united states. hey, delaware. >> kamala, kamala, kamala. >> thank you, guys, thank you. thank you, thank you. thank you all. thank you. can we just give it up again for my husband? it is so good to hear our president's voice. joe, i know you're still on the call, and we've been talking every day. you probably -- you guys heard it from doug's voice, we love joe and jill, we really do. they truly are like family to us. >> so do we.

>> everybody here does. >> it's mutual. >> i knew he was still there. you're not going anywhere, joe. >> oh, i'm watching you, kid. i'm watching you, kid. i love you. >> i love you, joe. so joe, i'm going to recognize some of the people here and then get back to you. so let me do please acknowledge some extraordinary national leaders who are also dear friends, both to the president and to me. governor john carney, where are you? there you are. and his wife, they are here. senator tom carper, my former colleague, and his wife is here. chris, my dear friend. attorney general kathy jennings. the mayor is here, where are you? there. and the next united states

senator from the great state of delaware is here, lisa. and i know everyone here has seen these elected leaders in this very campaign office on a regular basis, and i know joe is so thankful to them for their lifelong friendship, but i want to thank them also, because you guys have really been carrying some heavy water from the first days of our campaign. so thank you all, this truly is a delaware family. thank you. i want to thank general o'malley dylan, where is she? going to talk to her in a minute. julie chavez rodriguez. sheila nicks. there you are. and the entire team that is here. i want to thank all of you. and those who are joining from offices across our nation. so doug and i wanted to stop by

today to thank everybody and to express just what we know to be true. you all have been working so hard. the people in this office have been working so hard. and you have given so much of yourself. long days and nights. what you are sacrificing in terms of the time you could be spending with other friends and other family. and you're giving yourselves to our country because you love our country and you love joe and you love me. and we know that. and so today just right after joe made his announcement it was important for me to continue with his role of leadership in this office. like him, who has said for many, many months, and i say it today, thank you all so very much for what you are doing and for what you will continue to do. so let's applaud.

and i know it's been a roller coaster and we're all filled with so many mixed emotions about this, i just have to say, i love joe biden. i love joe biden, and i know we all do. and we have so many darn good reasons for loving joe biden. and i have full faith that this team is the team will be the reason we win in november. you all who are here. and as julie always says, and i will quote the great julie, we are one team, one fight. one team, one fight. and she's been an extraordinary campaign manager. she's going to continue in this role and see us to victory in november. and we are all here because we love our country, right? and we believe in our foundational principles. we believe in freedom and opportunity and justice, not for some but for all. and so we have 106 days until

election day, and in that time we have some hard work to do. and as jod always reminds us, well can do hard things. i have just asked her to run my campaign, and she has accepted. and of over the next 106 days, we are going to take our case to the american people and we are going to win. we are going to win. and so now i'm getting back to you, joe. i will tell you all, it has been one of the greatest honors of my life, truly, to serve as vice president to our president joe biden. joe's legacy of accomplishment just over -- a lifetime, but just over the last three and a

half years is unmatched in modern history. in one term he has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who served two terms in office. think about it. and i know everyone here in the campaign, we have -- we know, but if we don't know, we got a problem, but i'm going to repeat some for those who might be guests at the moment. joe got the covid-19 pandemic under control. remember those days? he has created more than 15 million new jobs. he brought together republicans and democrats and passed historic legislation. i'm going to tell you on the fisthand we've done all this work. i would sit with joe in the oval office while he would bring members of both sides of the aisle and talk and listen and help them see what they may have in common and how we can actually work towards solutions. and because of their confidence

in joe, these accomplishments occurred. joe has stood up for democracy at home, and he has stood up for democracy abroad. and he has always stood up for what he believes is right. and many of you may know, i first came to know joe through his son beau. beau and i worked together as state attorneys general. and back then beau would often tell me stories about his dad. and he would talk about the kind of father and the kind of man that joe biden is. and he would talk about the qualities of his father, and the qualities that beau revered the most are the same qualities that i see every day in our president. his honesty, his integrity, his commitment to his faith and his family, his big, big heart, and his deep love of our country.

and i don't need to tell you all, you know joe's background, right? i mean, he grew up in a middle class family in scranton, and he has never forgotten where he comes from. and so again, i am a firsthand witness from being with him in the oval office to the situation room and seeing him on the global stage with world leaders, president joe biden fights for the american people and we are deeply, deeply grateful for his service to our nation. joe, are you watching? do you hear this clapping? can you see it? >> i'm watching. i'm watching. >> i knew it. >> we love you, joe.

>> you're the best, kid. >> and let us be very clear, joe is not done, far from it. he knows there is still more work to do and our nation will continue to praise his bold and visionary leadership as president. thank you, joe. >> thank you. >> and it is my great honor to have joe's endorsement in this race. >> you sure do. and it is my intention to go out and earn this nomination and to win. so in the days and weeks ahead, i, together with you, will do everything in my power to unite our democratic party, to unite our nation, and to win this

election. you know, as many of you know, before i was elected as vice president, before i was elected as united states senator, i was the elected attorney general, as i've mentioned, of california. before that i was a courtroom prosecutor. in those roles i took on perpetrators of all kinds. predators who abused women. fraudsters who ripped off consumers. cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. so hear me when i say i know donald trump's type.

and in this campaign i will proudly, i will proudly, put my record against his. as a young prosecutor when i was in the alameda county district attorney's office in california, i specialized in cases involving sexual abuse. donald trump was found liable by a jury for committing sexual abuse. as attorney general of california, i took on one of our country's largest for-profit colleges and put it out of business. donald trump ran a for-profit college, trump university, that was forced to pay $25 million to the students it scammed. as district attorney to go after polluters, i created one of the first environmental justice

units in our nation. donald trump stood in mar-a-lago and told big oil lobbyists he would do their bidding for a $1 billion campaign contribution. >> boo. >> during the foreclosure crisis, i took on the big wall street banks and won $20 billion for california families. holding those banks accountable for fraud. donald trump was just found guilty of 34 counts of fraud. >> guilty. >> guilty. >> but make no mistake, all of that being said, this campaign is not just about us versus donald trump. >> preach. >> there is more to this campaign than that. our campaign has always been

about two different versions of what we see as the future of our country. two different visions for the future of our country. one focused on the future, the other focused on the past. donald trump wants to take our country backward to a time before many of our fellow americans had full freedoms and rights. but we believe in a brighter future that makes room for all americans. we believe in a future where every person has the current not just to get by but to get ahead. >> that's right. >> we believe in a future where no child has to grow up in poverty. where every person can buy a home, start a family, and build wealth. >> amen. >> yes.

>> and where every person has access to pay family leave and affordable child care. that's the future we see. together we fight to build a nation where every person has affordable healthcare, where every worker is paid fairly, and where every senior can retire with dignity. >> yes. >> yes. >> yes. >> all of this is to say, building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency. because we here know when our middle class is strong, america is strong. >> that's right. >> and we know that's not the future donald trump is fighting for. he and his -- he and his extreme

project 2025 will weaken the middle class and bring us backward. please do note that. back to the failed trickle down policies that gave huge tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and made working families pay the cost. back to policies that put social security and medicare on the chopping block. back to policies that treat healthcare as only a privilege for the wealthy instead of what we all know it should be, which is a right for every american. >> that's right. >> america has tried these economic policies before. they do not lead to prosperity. they lead to inequity and economic injustice. and we are not going back. we are not going back.

they're not taking us back. our fight for the future is also a fight for freedom. generations of americans before us have led the fight for freedom from our founders to our framers to the abolitionists and suffragettes, to the freedom riders and farm workers, and now i say, team, the baton is in our hands. we who believe in the sacred freedom to vote, we who are committed to fight to pass the john lewis voting rights advancement act and the freedom to vote act, we who believe in the freedom to live safe from gun violence, and that's why we will work to pass universal background check, red flag laws, and an assault weapons ban.

we who will fight for reproductive freedom knowing -- >> yes. >> -- if trump gets the chance he will sign a national abortion ban to outlaw abortion in every single state, but we are not going to let that happen. it is this team here that is going to help in this november to elect a majority of members of the united states congress who agree the government should not be telling a woman what to do with her body. and when congress passes a law to restore reproductive freedoms, as president of the united states, i will sign it into law.

>> we the people. >> indeed, we the people. so ultimately, to all the friends here, i say, in this election we know we each face a question -- what kind of country do we want to live in? a country of freedom, compassion, and rule of law -- >> yes. >> -- or a country of chaos, fear, and hate? >> no. >> no. >> you all are here because you as leaders know we each, including our neighbors and our friends and our family, we each as americans have the power to answer that question. that's the beauty of it, the power of the people. we each have the ability to answer that question. so in the next 106 days, we have work to do. we have doors to knock on.

we have people to talk to. we have phone calls to make. and we have an election to win. so are you ready to get to work? do we believe in freedom? do we believe in opportunity? do we believe in the promise of america? and are we willing to fight for it? and when we fight -- >> we win. >> god bless you all, and god bless the united states of america and joe biden. >> that was the first speech

given by vice president kamala harris since joe biden stepped off the ticket. it's also the first time we have heard from president joe biden himself. it is a stump speech similar to the one she's been given with all of the bells and whistles of a fully functioning campaign. she made some news there. actually, let me deal with the love first. one of the most emotional moments there was when president joe biden came on and addressed his campaign staff. he said about his decision to leave the race, quote, it was the right thing to do, but he thanked his campaign staff. campaign staff doesn't always get a shout-out, but from president joe biden they did. he said, quote, you've poured your heart and soul into my campaign. so many of you have uprooted your lives for me. we built the best campaign in history with 2,000 paid staff, thousands of volunteers. and then he literally and figuratively turned it over to this new ticket. vice president harris was introduced by her husband who

had some of the most emotional grace notes toward the president and first lady, dr. jill biden. doug emhoff saying, quote, i was emotion al listening to the president, the dignity and empathy of this man. and then he told a story about what the president said to him when he first moved to washington. president joe biden saying to doug, quote, i know, kid, you were a great lawyer. it was an enter duction of his wife, again, this was vice president kamala harris's first speech as the presumptive democratic nominee. and again, the love and affection that she has for president joe biden, the way serving as his vice president has shaped her as a leader and as a candidate impossible to ignore. listening along with us and watching along with us this history in the making our friends maya wiley, still here, tim miller still here, joining us, the president of the national action network, the

reverend al sharpton. rev, your thoughts? >> i thought it was very heartwarming to hear from joe biden. >> yeah. >> and i also thought that it showed a lot of the real fire and energy in vice president harris because her speech, it was not only what she said but her delivery that was, to me, so reassuring to the american people that were watching and to that staff there. she called me last night and i sensed that she's very comfortable in her own skin as a candidate now. and i think donald trump is certainly going to have a real fight on his hands. she took him on categorically, went down on the things that he had been found guilty of and that she's prosecuted people like that. this is not what donald trump thought he was going to have to deal with in a campaign. i thought it was a very good outing for her and for president biden. >> this was the line, this was

the setup, tim miller, she went through her ownby yogfy, something she's going to have to do for the voters who maybe haven't paid as close of attention to politics as we all have, but she explained how she was a prosecutor, and she took on perpetrators of all kinds, she said, predator, fraudsters, and cheaters. and then she said this, quote, i know donald trump's type. wow. >> yeah, nicole. bear with me, i'm jumping out of my seat over here watching this. people have been thirsting for this. people have been thirsting for this in two ways. i just want to focus on the back half of her speech that she gave contrasting donald trump and talking about the future. in two ways people have been thirsting for somebody to stand up to this bully and to make a compelling argument for why we will not accept somebody that is a felon, that is a fraudster,

that is somebody that commits sexual assault. she knows how to stand up to those people because she did it and she delivered a compelling message that i think will resonate with people, and it will galvanize democratic supporters to her side to knock on doors, to donate. i thought that part of the message was extremely important. but the thing i think people have really been thirsty for and just desperate for was someone at the top of one of these tickets that can talk about the future. and that was just the problem with having an 81-year-old against a 78-year-old, and a 78-year-old who only cares about himself. it was articulate messaging about what our country is and what it could be. that part at the end of our speech, looking forward, you know, to who we are as a country, how we can make this a better country, i think there's a lot of people out there that are ready for it that have been made cynical by politics of the

trump era, and i was extremely encouraged by what we heard from her right there. >> maya, before we went into this event -- and i'm so happy we got there in time to hear president joe biden's voice. the first time anyone has heard from him public since the history he made about 27 hours ago to step off the ticket. the love between president joe biden and vice president kamala harris is so evident, and the gratitude -- i mean, i've worked on campaigns, and i was fortunate to always feel appreciated by the candidates, but that is not what you always experience. the gratitude and the love that this president has for his campaign staff and the affection that is very, very evident between president joe biden and vice president kamala harris is in and of itself this startling, vivid contrast between the

democrats and the republicans. >> yeah, and i know this is something rev sharpton and i have experienced together actually being in the white house either with the president or with the vice president. this is who they are. these aren't people who just show up for the public to put on a show, this is what you see behind closed doors. this is not just graciousness for political expediency, this is graciousness because grace is something that matters deeply to these two leaders. and i was tearing up when kamala started talking about beau and that introduction for her to her relationship with president biden, knowing what that means to him, knowing what that means to her, those are intimate moments that actually give everyone in the public sphere the opportunity to see who these people are as people. and they're both exceptionally loving people. and i'll just say this, you

know, and i'm with tim -- tim, i'm jumping out of my seat higher than you, my brother. i'm just going to say that. because, you know, you were starting to ask me before we broke, rightly, to this speech about the attacks on kamala harris that are personal and wrong and ugly and actually the measure of the person who levels them, but let's just go back to the fact that this human being, this leader, this experienced person that we just heard for -- from that is calling us to a we, to be a we and not an us and a them is also the person who is joyful, who is showing up with her full self, and by the way, has already demonstrated that she is the one who is not going to be afraid to call them out, even when a sebastian gorka, a right hand to president trump,

tries to disparage her by calling her a woman, tries to disparage her by calling her colored, that is a proof point to her very point which is that what we're facing is a question about what is our future. and that is exactly what we want to see is voters in terms of who's going to show up and represent us, and i think she has just demonstrated how she is going to run and how well she's going to run. >> i mean, rev, i've said this so many times over the last three weeks, i have benefitted enormously to have had many of her events take place on my air, in my time slot. i also covered her very closely in 2020, and i have always been incredibly impressed with her as a candidate. but i think what maya's getting at is this sort of -- this capacity to do what all of us

strive to do in our personal lives, to love out loud. let me share the story she told about beau biden. and i wrote it down as quickly as i could. she talked about first getting to know president biden through his son beau. and she said these were the things that i knew through beau. he revered his father's honesty and integrity and commitment to the truth. i am a firsthand witness of basically seeing all those things in motion on the world stage in his fight for the american people. her ability to weave the personal through the professional through the mission is, in my view, singular at this moment in terms of public people on the sort of public stage and in the arena. it is a special, special gift. >> it is a very special gift. and it is sincere. you know, i remember just a week

before last i was with vice president harris in -- at the essence festival in new orleans, and we spent some time backstage. and she was saying then, reverend al, you got to stick with the president. you can't get out there and try to say he should move to the side. she was defending why he should stay in when many people were saying he should get out and make way for her. and she advocated for him out of a genuine sense of he's a good man. and she went down categorically, you came -- in terms of civil rights leadership, he did this, he did this, he did that. we should give him his dignity and let him run his race. and she was with him until he said that he was not going to run. that's the kind of person she is, but as maya wiley said, that's the kind of relationship

they had. if you're sitting in the roosevelt room or oval office meeting with the two of them, you could tell there was a genuine warmth and regard for them. and to see that contrasted with this guy that has a fifth avenue penthouse with another guy writing a book about hillbillies that are going to try to replace this in the oval office is, frankly, frightening to me. >> there's the mike pence of it too, tim miller. i mean, these two -- and again, whatever you think of democratic policies, that's fine, that's over here -- but these are two human beings who govern -- ran together and governed together during covid, this period of absolute terror, unprecedented isolation in american life and politics, that governed together, they formed bonds, their spouses clearly formed bonds. donald trump is running with jd

vance because he left his last vice president for dead literally. he sent his supporters to, quote, hang mike pence. so the idea of vice president kamala harris at the convention taking the stage with whomever she selects as her vice president and joe and jill biden being there as well, i mean, just this -- i mean, unity gets overdone and overwrought, but this unified mission of saving democracy has so many people showing that that's their commitment in addition to saying and articulating the contrast, what do you make of sort of this coalescing on the left? >> yeah, well, look, our cup overfloweth with contrast options now. i'll have plenty of times to talk about that. i think from a character standpoint how deftly she managed and loyally she managed an extremely tough situation -- i would also point out, you

know, i guess -- and reverend al can vouch based on a personal conversation, i just read the newspaper. and i've been on a lot of campaigns. you can imagine a lot of situations where that's turned out differently, where there were people around the vice president, the vice president herself, her family angling, leaking, and there just wasn't any of that. there was a loyalty, there was a commitment to the person that chose her to be the vice president. and as we've been saying, meanwhile also going out there and doing the campaigning and doing it in a compelling way to demonstrate, you know, that she was ready for this fight. when you think about that and compare it to literally donald trump sitting around eating hamburgers off of the oval office while a mob of people that he sent charged the capitol to attempt to kill his vice president. and the fact that his vice president wasn't even there last week on the convention stage and they had to replace him with,

you know, this guy that's out here at his campaign event today talking about a split screen with vice president kamala harris, jd vance is saying people call him racist because he drinks diet mountain dew and having someone speaking about civil war before him. you couldn't get a more dramatic split screen, and i think it says a lot about kamala harris's character. and it certainly says a lot about trump's lack of it. >> all right, maya wiley and tim miller, who both stayed overtime to watch that speech with us, thank you both so much for doing that. joining our conversation, the host of the fast politics podcast and special correspondent for vanity fair, molly jong-fast is here. also joining us, the host of the podcast donny is here. donny, your thoughts on all of it. >> wow. i -- you know, there was a twinkle in her eye. there was a kick in her step that, you know, when you're vice

president, you know, i don't -- you're not loose. you can't -- you know, there's somebody above you, somebody you don't want to overshadow them. and this was quite the coming out. i got chills when she said donald trump, i know your type. that was like, wow, she's going to prosecute this case. and you know, this is going to -- she only mentioned the abortion issue, not, you know, wasn't a big part of the speech, but this is going to be -- and i said this on the show before -- women are going to save this country. we have a choice between an assault on women, assault on their bodies and their freedoms and the first female president. and i think women are going to drive the ship. and i was blown away. i was like i kind of fell in love with her. i thought she was smart, engaging. she's funny, feisty, twinkle in your eye, punch you in the gut. i mean, everything you kind of want. and i just thought it was a great, great opening act. >> you know, molly, she -- she was there with joe biden. i mean, literally, he was on the

phone. and you cannot fake the bond that was just showcased to the country. and in a lot of ways they are -- joe biden the one sort of helping everybody turn the page with his grace and his gratitude and his paying it forward and his lifting her up. i want to read the line, though, of the speech that donny's talking about. she said that she was talking about her biography, the things she did before she was vice president, and she said, as a prosecutor, i took on perpetrators of all kinds. sort of building the tension. she talked about sexual predators. she talked about fraudsters. she talked about cheaters. and then she landed it right here. quote, i know donald trump's type. i mean, look out. >> yeah. i mean, she did a really -- that was a really great speech. and you know, i've interviewed her a bunch of times, and i've talked to her, and people who know her know she's actually really good. and she's gotten better and better. and we've seen that, you know, the last two years have been

amazing for her. she's been out there a champion of roe. but more importantly, this speech was forward facing, right? she said we will not go back, right? we will not lose those freedoms. we will not go back to trickle down economics. so she delivered a really concise message, and that's really important. what we saw there was a candidate who really knows how to run and a political speech that galvanized but also spoke to the base, which is what needed to happen. lock, i think she has a real love for joe biden, and i know that to be true. and i know that one of the reasons why it was hard for people to make the case that joe biden needed to step down was that the vice president really supported him and really wanted him to stay in if he felt he could. and so i think that's really important. and you can tell the, you know, the feeling they have between each other. and then the other thing i would say is that doug is really -- i mean, anyone in washington knows that doug is really out there and talks to everybody and is

her secret weapon, so i do actually think she has a very good team there. >> she made a little bit of news, rev. she's keeping the campaign team, jen o'malley dylan will be her campaign manager. it's just a continuity move and another grace move. i want to play, though, again this part of the speech that we keep talking about. let me play that for you, rev. well talk about it on the other side. >> -- before i was elected as vice president, before i was elected as united states senator, i was the elected attorney general, as i've mentioned, of california. before that i was a courtroom prosecutor. in those roles, i took on perpetrators of all kinds. as a young prosecutor when i was in the almada county district attorney's office in california, i specialized in cases involving sexual abuse. donald trump was found liable by

a jury for committing sexual abuse. >> that is, nicole, the reason that i'm saying that donald trump's going to try in every way he can to get out of debating this person. because if you have the prosecutor and the felon standing there and she can methodically go down not only what he's being accused of in the remaining cases but where he's already been convicted of felonies and found liable in other situations. how does he stand there and answer that? he can just poker face all he wants. and she's coming as a skilled prosecutor. it is going to be the disrobing of donald trump in front of the world. and i think that this is something that he greatly and rightly fears. you couldn't have a better adversary seen in kamala harris. >> let me bring into our

coverage and our conversation democratic congresswoman barbara lee of california. congresswoman, thank you so much for being here. it's been a roller coaster of a 28 hours. i wondered your thoughts and whether you've talked to vice president kamala harris today. >> yes, nicole, nice being with you. i haven't talked to her today. i talked with her yesterday, but let me just say a couple of things. first of all, she's prepared, she's experienced. she's been part of the biden/harris team and has delivered for the american people. and i was listening to your conversation earlier, and i thought, boy, here we have a prosecutor who's running against a convicted felon. and let me tell you, when she ran for the attorney general of california, i endorsed her early. and there were some who were kind of waiting. and someone -- a high ranking official came to me and said, barbara, do you think that california's going to elect a black woman as its top cop?

he said, i don't think so. well, look, she won and we her record, her experience, her clarity, her instincts, her understanding of how to bring people together. and so i'm excited. she's unifying the party. she's going to work with young people as she has in the past to make sure that voters who haven't voted before now have a candidate that they can be excited about and we just have to make sure that we all do our job and get people to get engaged and voters to the polls. and she'll beat back donald trump who wants to dismantle our democracy and establish a dictatorship. and this is what it's about. >> there is the, excuse the language, but there's the bad -- side. we've played the clips of her as a senator dismantling bill barr's ridiculous nonanswer, and jeff sessions actually said you're making me nervous, you know. but there is also -- and you saw it today with her husband -- there is the joy and the love and there are not a lot of

politicians in any party of any gender that combine those two things. i wonder if you could just speak at a personal level of sort of what, you know, what drives her and what gives us what we see on stage. >> listen, she was very close to her family. she was very close to her mother. and i've had many conversations with vice president harris about her mother and my mother. and let me tell you one small story. when she was running, i believe it was for the united states senate, i endorsed her early for united states senate as well as when she ran for the presidency, but my mother had just passed, and we were backstage and i was about to introduce her. and she came up and hugged me. and i just started boohooing, i starting crying. and then she said in the vice president harris traditional way of talking to her friends, and she hugged me. and she said i should have known. she said, it's too raw. she says, this is what happened when my mother passed also, but i just wanted to let you know.

but she said this was a moment i probably should have waited on, but i'm glad i'm here with you so you can cry with me, you know? it's those kinds of moments that so many people have had. and so she's a phenomenal woman. she's a phenomenal vice president. but she's a human being who knows the pain and suffering of so many people. her mother had cancer. she's very clear on women's health and what we need to do to make sure that we actually address women's health and the disparities in healthcare. and so she's a woman of all seasons, i say, and we just have to unify and we have to make sure everybody in the country gets to know her. she's an expert in national policy and foreign policy. you have somebody who is a total human being and who can lead our country in the way it needs to be led. >> the confidence that president joe biden has in her in that category you just mentioned, on the world stage, came through, obviously, in his endorsement

but also on this call. and it was echoed in her remarks, you know, that she's been in the room. and she's seen him fighting for america and americans not just in -- with legislators of both parties but on the world stage. that is one of the sharpest contrasts as we head into the heart of the general election. i wonder what your thoughts are about whether that influences or shapes who she might be more drawn to as a running mate. >> you know, i know her from experience how well informed she is and how world leaders value her wisdom. i was with her, for example, at the munich security summit a couple of years ago. and she was brilliant bringing world leaders together. she knew all of the issues. she knew which issues to highlight and who to talk to and what the united states position was on every single issue. and the munich security summit is a very important world

security summit. and president biden, i just have to say, first of all, it's time that we all say thank you to president biden. and we owe him a depth of gratitude because he has done so much for the american people in terms of just the biden/harris agenda. and we need to really take a moment during this process to say thank you, mr. president, for everything you've done for the american people and for people who have been shut out for so long. and this is a continuation of what the biden/harris administration has begun in terms of making life better for everyone. >> the base of the party is so tied to joe biden, and i wonder if what you just articulated, this debt of fwrattude that is owed to this man who did the unthinkable, this extraordinary act of self-sacrifice, political self-sacrifice, i wonder how you think that shapes the next 109 days. >> well, let me tell you.

i stuck with the biden/harris ticket from day one, and i think what president biden has done in terms of his decision is remarkable. he put country over self. and i know it was a very difficult decision. and i think we need to learn from president biden and how he made this decision and how he sacrificed so much for the country and recognize that and continue to lift up his legacy. because vice president kamala harris is so much a part of what has been taking place throughout the biden/harris administration, creating 15 million new job, reducing the cost of insulin, $35 cap. the cost of living is still too high, we know that, but he's been fighting to make sure inflation comes down. he appointed the first african american woman as a supreme court justice. i mean, this administration led by president biden has charted a

new course and his presidency has been transformational. while everyone did not agree with every decision he made, it's still a major deal. when i remind people of the fact that when he took over he saved lives, he and vice president harris, they dealt with saving lives and livelihoods because we were in the middle of covid and thousands of people were dying each and every day. so we have to be thankful and show some gratitude. >> congresswoman barbara lee, it's always a privilege to talk to you, but especially on a day like today, history in the making. thank you so much for spending it with us, we're grateful. >> nice being with you, nicole, thank you. >> a little bit of news we've learned about vice president kamala harris has tapped former attorney general eric holder to assist or oversee the vetting process for whomever she selects to be her vice president. joining our conversation now, presidential historian, professor of history at rice university douglas brinkley is here. you and i spoke, i'd say, at the

middle of this period between the debate and yesterday. i wonder your thoughts about the arc this chapter in history took yesterday at 1:46 p.m. >> well, this was just a great moment we catch, nicole. really, really important. i mean, the roll out matters. today kamala harris was -- gave the, you know, with all the -- the visual of the young athletes behind her. and giving the generational spin, the names they're going on now. there's a kind of kamala harris mania going on online. all these people are flocking back to the democratic party. i mean, president biden is so important to the democratic party. it was so warm hearted to hear him on the phone there passing the baton that you could feel through the television on your show the love coming from everybody working there. and i thought vice president harris was pitch perfect, brilliant. and she's so comfortable in her

own skin, in many ways it reminds you of barack obama when he started getting going because -- and then suddenly she turned formidable, as she had mentioned, talking about being attorney general, talking about busting cons, mentioning trump university scamming young people. with all the talk of breaking the glass ceiling for women and all the talk about race, it's the youth of america, young people, that now have somebody that's not 80 years old, and she's going to be -- she is the rage of the country now. and if i were donald trump, i would be a bit afraid about harris, because when she's on fire, she can out debate, out litigate anybody out there. >> well, it's an interesting point, right? i mean, the debate now must happen because donald trump's entire purpose for existing is to project what we all know to be phony but to project phony

strength, phony machismo, there's no predicate to cancel the debate, and i think that vice president harris could handily raise the stakes and say, what are you afraid of, let's do five. >> exactly. perfectly said. and keep in mind i do think women's reproductive rights is a seminal issue for the democrats. it matters. but president biden due to age and president trump both could not talk about this issue. men in general fumble with it, but they both haven't been able to talk about it. kamala harris will be able to prosecute the people that dare to tell women what to do with their body. and she's a pro at it. and that will put trump on a defense instead of an offense, and that's when he struggles. i do think how that debate, where it will be held, it's supposed to be at abc, trump is

trying to switch it to fox news. if i were harris, i would say, let's do three networks and see how the trump campaign responds. it's time to put trump on the defense. >> the issue of roe and dobbs is, when harris talks about it, she's very skilled at weaving in the trump supreme court and really bringing to bear something that republicans relied on for five decades. and that is making the supreme court a voting issue. she is, again, uniquely qualified to weave those things together. josh shapiro did it in his candidacy, his ability to sort of tie reproductive rights to democracy. she's very, very effective at that. and i wonder in what other ways do you think the race has fundamentally changed in the last 24 hours? >> well, it's -- it reminds us of why, as much as history is going to look at president

biden's accomplishments, which are many, and he will be talked about with linden johnson's great society and what he was able to do, first off, beating trump handily, killing trump when he ran, that's -- that kind of came the authoritarian mood of the country. people got comfortable with biden's more relaxed style and not the manic tweeting of trump. but there's been a lull. i mean, when i thought when president biden didn't do the super bowl 15 minutes, didn't do it two years in a row, there's something wrong with that. because that's free media time. but then he nailed it on the state of the union. so people -- democrats are confused where to be. kamala harris is now lasering in, and it really is a compliment to biden that he had the fortitude to pick somebody that talented a woman of that breadth, her husband doug is this amazing person who i've gotten to know, and that they're going to -- at least if the democrats lose to trump, they're

going out of it instead of kind of fumbling and mumbling, it's going to be laser and i think we have quite an interesting election now. i would say an advantage could come to the democrats very soon and a lot of the momentum of the trump attempted assassination at butler. and i think most americans agree the secret service botched that. i felt for trump and for anybody that had to be there for that, but he got a rise out of that, and he pulled it off at the convention. i think now this game shift of kamala harris is going to really help the democrats start equalling or superseding trump in the polls in the coming weeks. if she can be the loose self and then go tough like like we just saw there. >> douglas brinkley, thank you so much for being part of our coverage. it's great to talk to you. >> thanks, nicole. >> donny, let me come back to

you. this ability to prosecute a case was the sort of private despair of many democrats, and it seemed to peak when trump took the stage thursday night and just bombed. i mean, i think everyone is so glad that he's safe and well and was interested in seeing his health, but i think everyone that has ever covered a trump speech knew this wasn't even a good one compared to other trump speeches, because it was two speech, right, there was something on the teleprompter, and then there was the full trump experience of a rally speech. and it was incoherent and it was meandering. a trump supporter said this to me, he said, he lost the room. and i was like, you so i'm not . i mean, all these things were happening at the same time. this sort of crisis in the democratic party, and this reminder that trump should be

very handily defeated by someone who can mount the kind of argument against him that kamala harris just did. >> i kept hearing the same words. he looked beatable. there's something about trump when trump is on and you can loathe him and criticize him, but there's a strength about him. a virility that comes through. there's a mojo, and it wasn't there. and it wasn't because he was just trying to talk slowly. it just wasn't there. i was leaning out, where usually i lean in. i keep coming back to kamala, like, she can prosecute this case. the fact before this, what did he say, she's dumb as a rock, or vicious? you can see the contrast already, and for some reason, with her, it's going to really not sound -- it's one thing to go after biden, a guy who's your age and it's like rock 'em sock 'em robots. now there's a younger woman, prosecutor.

it's not going to play the same way. i think she's going to keep coming at him with a smirk on her face but a punch to the gut. i can't wait to see this. i think he's going to do everything he can to avoid debates. he's scared. and he's not going to want to be on the stage with her. we saw what she did to bill barr. you played clips. that's where she's at her strength. he does not want to be up there. so i would not be shocked if he somehow does not do everything he can to avoid it, it has to be here, i'm not going to do it, because this is going to be a real contrast that the american people are going to see. >> maya, your thoughts on how -- i mean, molly, i'm sorry, how does trump get out of debating? there was a plan. trump was into the plan. trump agreed with the plan. the plan was to have another debate. now, he is the oldest person ever i think to run for president, ever, ever, ever. and he doesn't want to debate?

i don't think that's tenable, even in trumplandia. >> the last week has really been about mental acuity and is joe biden too old to run? and you know, he's making this agist case against joe biden. and now he's running against a 59-year-old. right? i mean, it was like kind of sort of a terrible coincidence for trump world, and look, he is the oldest person to ever run, and the underreported story from that debate as i watched that debate is that, yes, it was a terrible debate for joe biden. but also, donald trump is not the donald trump he was eight years, six years ago or even four years ago. he is tired. and you know, he's 78 years old. so i mean, i'm tired and i'm 45. so like, it makes sense. you know? i get it. i have aged like 40 years in the last three. >> we're all so tired. we're all so tired.

>> someone tweeted at me that i look tired. i wanted to write back, yes, i am tired. no, it's such a good -- we're allowed to be tired. you know who didn't look tired, though, is kamala harris. and i was just looking at at a tweet from matt dowd who sent out the data which he always does which i love. he tweeted in 2016 after the republican convention and before the democratic convention, hillary clinton had 85% support among democrats.emocratic support. today, kamala harris has 94% support among democrats. you know, her margins, and again, it will be a tough campaign. the country is actually on issues not as divided as the media would have you believe, but culturally, the country is still divided. but she's going at this from such a position of strength, rev. >> she's going at it at such a

position of strength and with such passion that it has awakened the party and awakened the country to what we ought to be engaged in. that is real political discussions about real issues. and i think that this is the kind of president she's going to bring. and yes, donald trump is going to try to street fight because that's all he knows. but that doesn't work when, one, you don't have someone who is intimidated by you, and someone that has prosecuted, as she said, people like you before. she already knows the type of person he is. and i think that that is why i agree with donny. i think he will try every way he can to get out of the debating her because he knows the last thing he wants is to get up there and to be prosecuted in front of the world. how does he answer 34 convictions? how does he answer that?

how does he answer he was found to have sexually assaulted a woman? how does he answer that? i think that you don't think he's going to talk foreign policy. he doesn't know it. he's not going to talk domestic policy. he doesn't know it. so you're not going to say you're going to have nobody that can go to the other points of a debate. he knows no content. he's going to try to get out of it, i said earlier today, i'm from brooklyn, he's from queens. we used to call people names like he's a political punk. he won't show up for the fight. >> you guys are the best. molly jong fast, donny deutsch, the reverend al sharpton. thank you for spending the hour with us. these are days that will forever be remembered and it's an honor to be talking with all of you about all of it. thank you so much. coming up at the top of the hour right here on msnbc, my friend joy reid will be joined by a very special guest, maryland governor wes moore will be live on "the reidout." stay tuned for that. we need to fit in a quick break.

we'll be right back. [sniff] still fresh. still fresh! ♪♪ with downy unstopables, you just toss, wash, wow. for all-day freshness. an alternative to pills, voltaren is a clinically proven arthritis pain relief gel, which penetrates deep to target the source of pain with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicine directly at the source. voltaren, the joy of movement. hi! need new glasses? voltaren, buy one pair, get one free at visionworks! how can you see me squinting? i can't! i'm just telling everyone!...hey! buy one pair, get one free for back to school. visionworks. see the difference. shop etsy for classroom staples under $40

that are anything but basic. find everything from personalized apparel & accessories to gifts for teachers. when you need back-to-school supplies under $40 everyone can agree on... etsy has it. subway is offering 20% off any sub, any size whooo! 20% off subs is fun to say 20% off subs are fun to eat you'll love 20% off subs the point is, any sub any size. 20% off at subway the all new godaddy airo helps you get your business online in minutes with the power of ai... ...with a perfect name, a great logo, and a beautiful website. just start with a domain, a few clicks, and you're in business. make now the future at godaddy.com/airo with absorbine pro,

pain won't hold you back anfrom your passions.s. it's the only solution with two max-strength anesthetics to deliver the strongest numbing pain relief available. so, do your thing like a pro, pain-free. absorbine pro.

thank you so much for letting us into your homes and for three hours during these truly extraordinary and historic times. i'll be back in one hour as rachel maddow and our primetime friends pick up our special coverage. it's time for "the reidout" with joy reid. this is so fun, i get to say hi to you. >> i love this so much. howdy, neighbor. it's so good to be beside you on the television. >> i'm going to go up and watch your interview with wes moore, governor wes moore. >> thank you very much, my friend. i'll see you soon on the special. have a good one. all right, everybody. welcome. "the reidout" --