busy week, and i have a programming note. i'm going to be anchoring live coverage at sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. you can see all of our folks anchoring live all day, and that starts at 8:00 a.m. i'll be in the 8:00 p.m. eastern slot. you can also find me online @arimelber on social media. we have a lot of the extra vice president harris memes. we have been posting those, or you can go to arimelber.com. www.arimelber.com, and sign up for my free newsletter, and if you're not into the internet, that's fine. keep it locked on msnbc. i'll be back sunday and monday, and "the reidout" with michael steele starts now. tonight on "the reidout" -- >> we called to say michelle and

i couldn't be prouder to endorse you and to do everything we can to get you through this election and into the oval office. >> oh, my goodness. michelle, barack, this means so much to me. >> vice president harris continues to build that momentum with that big endorsement and some promising new polls. meanwhile, trump is back on his heels, backing away from debating harris. >> also tonight, the veepstakes, as the vetting gets under way, who might have the inside track to be kamala harris' running mate. plus, reforming the supreme court. president biden has made it a priority for his final months in office. how it might affect the presidential race. i'm michael steele, in for joy reid. we begin tonight with the state of the race. a race that feels so dramatically different than it did a week ago. you know what that felt like, right? you couldn't script it any better for tv. that race, of course, is between

donald trump and vice president kamala harris. the historical nature of the race wrauz noted by none other than michelle obama who joined former president barack obama to endorse harris today. >> i can't have this phone call without saying to my girl kamala, i am proud of you. this is going to be historic. >> oh, my goodness. michelle, barack, this means so much to me. i am looking forward to doing this with the two of you. doug and i both. and getting out there, being on the road. but most of all, i just want to tell you that the words you have spoken and the friendship that you have given over all these years mean more than i can express. so thank you both. >> nothing like an obama endorsement to fuel that democratic momentum. it's momentum like nothing the party has seen since, well, obama. it also means we could see a very different debate

performance, something donald trump has said he's ready for. >> oh, yes, absolutely. i would want to. i think it's important. i would be willing to do more than one debate, actually. as far as her as a candidate, i think it's probably similar. i notice the polls are virtually identical. she's the same as biden but much more radical. she's a radical left person. and this country doesn't want a radical left person to destroy it. she's far more radical than he is. so i think she should be easier than biden because he was slightly more mainstream, but not much. >> easier than biden, he says? hmm. but now the trump campaign says it will not commit to debating harris until she's formally nominated. prompting accusations from harris that trump is back pedaling on the deal, posting on x, quote, what happened to any time, any place? got an answer for that, trump. what's he so afraid of? perhaps the fact that harris can seize on her background as a

prosecutor to forcefully make a case against trump. maybe. there's another thing trump should be very afraid of. that's the polls showing harris narrowing the gap. in the latest "new york times" sienna college poll, trump leads harris 48% to 47%. well within the margin of error among likely voters in a head-to-head match. a marked difference and improvement from democrats when compared to the same poll earlier in july that showed biden behind by six percentage points following the debate. still, trump is giving off optics that he's the guy in charge. lately, he's welcomed a series of foreign leaders at his doorstep, including hungarian prime minister viktor orban. today, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. netanyahu reportedly requested an in-person meeting with the former president while he was here visiting the u.s. this week. netanyahu spoke with biden and harris in separate white house

meetings yesterday, which touched on israel's right to self-defense and concerns about the war and humanitarian crisis in the gaza strip. here's what trump had to say about vice president harris' remarks following his meeting with bibi. >> no, i have no remarks. she's a radical, left person. san francisco. destroyed san francisco. she's really a destroyer. she hasn't had a bill. i think her remarks were disrespectful. they weren't very nice. pertaining to israel. i don't know how a person who is jewish can vote for her. but that's up to them. but she was certainly disrespectful to israel in my opinion. >> joining me now is mara teresa kumar, and terry set meyer, cofounder and ceo of the seneca project and a former gop communications director. welcome. we have some fun unpacking this

one tonight. so, maria, let's start with you. when we look at, for example, the september, trump's september calendar, for all of the braggadocio that he has and that he's putting out there, he's got september 10th, the abc news debate. that's scheduled. september 18th, hush money trial sentencing. so i think he's got some -- i think he's got a few things to be concerned about here. how do you seize on this moment and look at it if you're trump? and how do you appreciate -- how much do you appreciate the way the vice president is leaning into the moment? >> first, netanyahu could not look more comfortable in that conversation. don't mention -- couldn't be more uncomfortable. this is what's really interesting. we just came out of focus groups yesterday. and one of the things we learned

was that the latino community went from, in august of 2020, in the same moment, biden was at 50% among the latino community. as of yesterday, in our focus groups, kamala is starting at 67%. >> wow. >> we had folks that were saying 17% of latinos before were saying i'm going to vote third party. as of this week, it's less than 8%. the biggest challenge, though, for the latino community and america is we like her, but we don't know her yet. so right now, these two candidates and their campaigns are in the battle of how do we define kamala harris? for the democrats, it is a gift. it is a blank canvas. because one of the challenges that hillary clinton faced was decades of the other side defining her. >> 30 years of people knowing who she was. >> and defining her. but kamala doesn't have that. and that's one of the reasons why you're seeing trump saying she's a radical leftist. you haven't seeb her policies. you don't know. one of the things we're seeing

specifically that if the votes were going to be today, it would be close. but trump is not going to win any more voters. his base was always going to come out. >> nothing to actually win more voters. >> anecdotally again, vota latino, before sunday, we were registering 100 voters a day. today, we registered over 8100. >> 8100? >> 8100 in a day. we're literally investing close to -- it's a marketplace, right? at the end of the day, it's a marketplace. do voters want what the democrats are selling sphnot only do they want it, but they're hungry and we can't keep up with demand. >> that is a very important point, tara, when you look at where the democrats were and where they are. and the difference that has evolved around the vice president and her ability to just pretty much hit the ground running. just, there was very little, you know, sort of hesitation moving

into this moment once it became clear where the president was going. and so what, you know, maria is talking about is an important aspect of this. how voters are also moving in this moment towards the vice president. how are you seeing it? in fact, the work you guys are doing at seneca sort of stands up some of that energy in your recent ad that really is attracting a lot of these voters. let's take a look at what you guys are doing. >> in the 6:00 a.m. practice to the away game pickup, from her first goal to the state finals. from the big wins to the big lessons. we take care of all the little things. we do these little things so our daughters can achieve big things. >> we do all of this for their

future. and this fall, that future is on the line. >> that's a powerful ad, and i think it speaks a lot to how women have also moved into this space in such an important way that it has really thrown the republicans back on their heels a bit. >> oh, it has. you can just see by the way that donald trump and his maga cohorts have just been flailing. what have they been doing all week, calling kamala harris, to teresa's point, to try to define her. a dei hire, she's a liberal. she's the destroyer, the lying kamala. trump couldn't even come out with a new nickname for her. they were in such shock. and they're going to spend about $100 million, trump's maga groups in the battleground states to try to define her in the next couple weeks. so it's really important that all of this enthusiasm that we

have seen in the last couple days, i mean, it hasn't even been a week, and we have seen record-breaking fund-raising. we is seen women galvanizing and motivated. we have seen this incredible burst of energy where people are just looking at this and going, we don't want to go back there. i mean, that ad, that olympics ad, very proud of it. my cofounder, michelle kinney, came up with the concept, and the idea that women do all the little things for their daughters. they do the little things for their families, so that those daughters can grow up in a country, in a safe place where they can do big things. big things like, i don't know, maybe run for president one day as a woman. and then, we have this threat, and it's maga, and it's donald trump, and it's jd vance, and it's this regressive going back to a time where women were treated as second class citizens. the end of that ad says we have one more thing to do, that's to win for them. for our future generations. that's what this is about. it's what is the future vision

we want in this country? it's clearly donald trump's vision is dark and regressive. and kamala harris represents a vision that is progressive in moving forward and positive, and something to aspire to. and we're seeing that enthusiasm all over the place from the financing, right, the fund-raising, to now voter registration. this is, i think, going to be a spectacularly interesting race from now until november. >> it is. and i think there's something to be said for, you know, what do they call it, the kamalame nrbs tum that is out there that is creating a lot of energy here, so much so that you have got, maria teresa, the grillo headline, white women answer the call for kamala harris attracting nearly 200,000 attendees and raising $8.5 million on zoom. that was not in response to but

in alliance with the call that took place over the weekend among some 40,000 african american women that then grew even more so. what does that tell you, how do you -- because you have touched on it a little bit and we were talking before about the difference between the hillary clinton energy and this energy. and the fact that you didn't see this kind of galvanizing around hillary, partly was part of it was maybe the politics and people knew her, they defined her. but this seems to be something more than that. how do you look at that? i mean, white women, hispanic women, black women, women of all ethnicities and parts of the country coming together around this moment. >> so, i'm on the board of vota pac, which we tried to elect latina women for federal office. we did within 24 hours, we had never done a call like this. ours, we're still learning, but

within 24 hours, we were able to get over 3700 women to jump on a call to stay there for two hours, 409 volunteers. we raised close to $150,000. and that was just one call with literally tweets. that was it, we didn't even have a mailing list. it's because all these women are coming together and they know the assignment. she has been on the campaign trail supporting the president, saying we want to headache sure that we have access to voting and in order to protect our reproductive rights. every single woman knows that if they right now in this moment have more rights than their daughters, and that's unacceptable. and we talk about who are we voting for, we're literally ancestoring for the children that are in elementary school. and it's very clear that there is regressive policies on the right that don't want us to have full agency over our bodies and ourselves and our self determination, and kamala says not on my watch. what is really beautiful is that for the very first time, coming from immigrant roots, people miscalculate this mass

deportation rhetoric from the right. the largest cohort of children in america today are multiracial. go tell a father who is moderate that their asian american presenting child is not american. >> yeah. >> i'm multiracial. i'm one of those biracial people here, right? >> there you go. >> unfortunately, tara -- >> okay. >> look, i could keep it going, but unfortunately i have someone in my head telling me. maria teresa kumar and tara, thank you both much. i appreciate you coming on. >> coming up, as speculation grows over who kamala harris will pick as a running mate, trump is facing a major likability problem with his own pick, jd vance, who today doubled down on his attacks on childless women. we'll get into that next.

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so, it probably came as no surprise to anyone when the harris campaign announced publicly today the vetting process for a vice presidential pick has, quote, begun in earnest. i would hope so given a source directly involved in the process has told nbc news that vice president kamala harris plans to make her pick in less than two weeks, by the august 7th date to beat the state ballot certification deadlines. as that vetting continues, many

of those potential vps, however, are not being shy about talking to the cameras. >> she's articulating a message that isn't about just about herself and certainly isn't just about donald trump, although she has that contrast down. it's about us. and that's the kind of campaign that wins. it's the right kind of campaign. >> this is about the future of our country. we don't want to go back to 2017, to 2021, where donald trump was in the white house, where all of our alliances around the world were diminished. where there were significant tax cuts, tax giveaways for the richest americans and the biggest corporations. and where everyday working people got nothing. >> the contrast is so great that it is stunning right now. you know there's something wrong with people when they talk about freedom, freedom to be in your bedroom, freedom to be in your exam room, freedom to tell your kids what they can read. that stuff is weird. >> this all comes as donald

trump's own choice of a running mate, senator jd vance, has not proven to be the breakout star that trump was hoping for. or as trump would say, perhaps vance did not come straight out of central casting. joining me now is april ryan, white house correspondent for the grillo and an msnbc contributor, and rachel wilson, managing director of alliance for securing democracy and u.s. elections at the german marshall fund. she's also a former communications director for the late senator john mccain. welcome to you both. so, i want to start with you, ms. wilson, because i think it's interesting. you and i are both familiar with the internal processes typically within the republican vetting process. you're very familiar with the john mccain effort back when he ran for president. what happened here? can you put a little light on

what went wrong in this selection process? this fella, jd vance, doesn't seem to understand that you can't double down on the whole women negative narrative thing. how do you see it in. >> yeah, i mean, it was a confusing choice at the beginning. if i can take you back to a little over a week ago after this awful assassination attempt right before the convention when the vp was announced. you had a real opportunity, i think, for trump, who had been trying to moderate some of his most controversial positions. he was calling for unity. there was this moment where there were all sorts of choices they could have made on the vp front to underscore moderation and unity. and then he chose jd vance. and that was a real doubling down on the maga side of the republican party. and it didn't quite, you know, flow with where i think things were headed. now, fast forward to a week and a half later, two weeks later,

it feels like a lifetime. but it's still confusing. i don't know who his audience is. the last time i kind of checked -- >> i think it's donald trump jr. and eric at this point. >> but like, it is about successful campaigns bring people in. and so that would be -- that should be the goal here. >> so -- i know, i know, april. i want to play for you, since rachel brought up the doubling down thing, let's listen to a little bit of that doubling down. >> obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. i have got nothing against cats, nothing against dogs. i have one dog at home and i love him. this is not -- people are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what i actually said, and the substance of what i said, i'm sorry, it's true. it is true that we have become anti-family. it's true that the left has become anti-child. it's simply true that it's become way too hard to raise a

family. >> so vance makes the claim that, i'm not criticizing people who for various reasons did not have kids, but i'm criticizing the democratic party for being anti-family. that's the explanation. >> okay, i'm not going to try to assume what he is thinking. all right. but let me tell you what i'm thinking. >> what you're hearing. >> in my mind, yes. what i'm hearing is donald trump part two, when donald trump said you can grab a woman by the p, while eating a tick tack and then coming back trying to explain that. that's what it sounds like to me. a different day, a worse version of a man that this nation is trying to grapple with one way or the other. it makes no sense to me. he's got a lot of book smarts but not common sense to say something like that. it's offensive. it's not democrat or republican to be a childless woman. it's not democrat or republican to have a cat or a dog.

but it's rude, it's insensitive. he is a yale graduate. and he does not boast the idea of thinking, critical thinking, common sense. and to be quite frank with you, i don't understand why donald trump is not upset at this point because it's making him look very bad. >> right. on that point, how do you see that playing out with trump right now? because you have heard, i have heard, and a lot of folks around this town have heard the sort of chatter that only they do well here in washington, where they think nobody is listening but they want everybody to hear. they're not happy with this pick. there are a lot of republicans who are not happy with the jd vance pick. they warned against it. and advised against it. in fact, you know, there was a lot of conversation around, to your earlier point. so what -- how do you think they clean up on aisle nine here with this, if that's possible? >> yeah, i mean, if you look at

the clip that was circulated from a couple years ago, i think the campaign needs to buckle up and expect more of those. you know, as my old boss liked to say, politics ain't bean bag and there's an opposition research file. there will be strategic releases of that, and i'm sure there are more comments where that came from. so there needs to be a campaign strategy around that, and they can try to address it as best they can. >> how do you think the harris campaign utilizes this moment now, because as we were talking before we came into the segment, this does not get better. i mean, there's a lot of energy right now. >> there's momentum. >> but you know at some point, there's going to be that reckoning from the republicans. >> so, the harris campaign is loving it. let him talk because he is the gift that keeps giving for them. and they're coming out with these very fresh, young ads saying oh, and they said this,

and this is not the truth. they're doing what is it, live tweeting in realtime and fact checking. >> counterprogramming. >> yes, and it's working. i guarantee you, again, going back to the point i said earlier, donald trump is not happy about this. he is very scared of kamala harris. and i guarantee you, jd vance would not have been his pick if he would have known it was kamala harris that he was going to be running against. i guarantee you, it would have been maybe tim scott or who else? byron donalds. >> yeah, i don't know if he would play that card. >> i think he would have. >> i think he had his heart set on burgum. i think he wanted an older stately guy who could write him a $100 million check. for trump, it's all transactional. rachel, help us wind it down a little bit. you have headlines from nbc news saying republicans see governor josh shapiro as harris' super strong vp contender. if true, what does that mean for

this race with a jd vance and a governor shapiro? or even pick somebody else if not shapiro? >> i think shapiro is a good one because they both kind of appeal to the same section of america. you heard the campaign's trat strategy was to park jd vance in pennsylvania and the rust belt for most of the campaign. and shapiro really flips that on its head. he's incredibly popular in pennsylvania. i think it's like the eighth most popular governor in the country or something like that. and so, you know, i think he is very popular. and he allows her to be extra competitive in one of the critical states. >> frees her up a little bit to play elsewhere around the country and he can handle that pennsylvania rust belt gig. this is going to be fascinating, folks. april ryan, rachel dean wilson, thank you both. >> andy beshear is mine. >> got to watch him. he's got some momo.

up next, joe biden made it clear in his oval office address this week that he's willing to take big action on supreme court reform. one of those possible reforms, holding justices account wbl an enforceable ethics code, got a surprising endorsement yesterday. we'll get into that next. l get t

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supreme court has fallen to an historic low. much of that has to do with their perceived lack of impartiality, which is fueled by a raft of ethics scandals involving mostly two justices, clarence thomas and samuel alito. who have accepted millions of dollars in luxury gifts from republican donors. last november, the supreme court announced an unenforceable set of ethics standards that they had adopted. but at a legal conference in california, one of their colleagues. justice elena kagan, said though standards don't have teeth if they can't be enforced. kagan noted that having an enforceable system would make sense because it protects justices both in terms of enforcing the rules against people who have violated those rules, but also in protecting people who haven't violated those rules. on wednesday, president biden announced that he was going to

call for supreme court reform, including term limits and an enforceable ethics code in what would be a sweeping change to the high court. and the way it operates. joining me now is joyce vance, former u.s. attorney, professor at the university of alabama school of law, and an msnbc legal analyst. and rick wilson, cofounder of the lincoln project and former republican strategist and an all around good guy. welcome to you both. so joyce, this is a different space we're talking about now, where you have the administration, president biden, unencumbered by re-election, actually leaning in to some real reforms with respect to the supreme court. what do you think of this reform of term limits and enforceable ethics code that the president is talking about? >> so look, it's clear that the system that currently exists doesn't work.

we have a supreme court that has failed to enforce its own ethical rules and that means something new is required. along that spectrum, there are a lot of things that make sense, term limits is definitely one of the easier ones to approve and to get through congress, which is ultimately where this has to go. limiting the number of years that justices are on the bench makes sense. because people live a lot longer now than they did when these rules were written and this might correct the of the incentives. joe biden early in his term as president put together a committee of scholars and practitioners who looked at possibilities for supreme court reform. and that sort of fizzled. it really went nowhere, but he has a rich body of proposals, of study, of ideas from that group. i suspect he will go back through some of that material now and we'll see some robust solutions that even if they don't pass in this term, can begin to be socialized and talked about in a much more serious manner than they have

been talked about up until now. >> rick, you know, there obviously is inherent politics in this as well. it's not just the very important aspect of what joyce just laid out in terms of i think needed long overdue and appropriate reforms. but when you're looking at the political landscape, you also have the reality that the next president will likely have the opportunity to slekd two justices with two retiring, alito and thomas, for example. but also, when you look at project 2025, and you read between the lines, you kind of get the feeling that the idea of sort of bulking up the court with conservatives, maybe putting four additional seats on the bench after pooh-poohing liberals and democrats talking about this could also be in play to extend the conservative supermajority well into the rest of this century. how do you see the politics here of this action by the administration? and does it have some viability

to it? >> look, i think the republicans are going to fight tooth and nail, michael, to protect the current composition of the supreme court. i think they're going to do everything they possibly can. they will keep clarence thomas, they will weekend at bernie clarence thomas for 100 years if they have to. they're not going to give up this governing majority under any circumstances, and mitch mcconnell in the senate as long as republicans are holding a majority in the senate or a decent minority, mitch mcconnell will lay down in front of a train to stop any reform of the supreme court. that's his magnum opus. so look, i think all these reforms are absolutely necessary. i think the ethics reform question has really been the source of why the supreme court has fallen so far in the estimation of the american people when you see the lavish corruption of people like clarence thomas. you understand that if we have a separate or a coequal branch of

government that is easily corrupted by buying people rvs and paying off their houses and stuff like that, you're going to end up with a court that cannot keep the faith of the american people in its impartiality. that was always its greatest strength. i think the court should welcome these reforms. the court should be asking or doing this on its own, but it clearly cannot make it -- it clearly cannot get to the point where it will reform its own behavior. >> so joyce, very interesting development in the last few days where nbc is reporting justice department alumni endorse kamala harris and warn of additional scotus picks. quote, the former justice department officials wrote in their letter endorsing harris that in his first term, trump put in place extremely conservative supreme court justices who reversed long standing precedents and legal protections, stripping women of reproductive rights, gutting environmental protections, and granting trump vinchual immunity for his official acts. and then it laid out more than

40 former department of justice officials, signing that, and i note, i note one joyce white vance, united states attorney, northern district of alabama, 2009 to 2017. you and your colleagues were making a very important statement about actually some of what rick was just talking about, the viability of this court. and in protecting it from a second trump term. >> you know, this is not a group of people who are letter signers. and what this group of former doj officials doesn't usually do is weigh in on political issues. and this letter is not about donald trump. you'll notice that this is a vote of support for kamala harris based on an urgent concern about the future of our democracy. and what it would look like based on some of the decisions we have seen out of this supreme court and what we know donald trump intends to do in a second

term. so i hope people will read this letter seriously for the warning it's intended to be. this is a bipartisan letter, by the way. this has doj officials from both parties included among the signatories. and i hope it's something that people will read. it's not a lengthy letter. >> so rick, we have about 30 seconds left. i want to get your thoughts on how this story line plays in this upcoming election when you have big issues like women's reproductive rights, you have got other issues that are top of mind for a lot of voters, economy, for example. where does this fit? >> look, it fits in the context particularly of project 2025 and the trump plan to fundamentally change american democracy into something you won't recognize. and right now, we still depend on the courts and the court system to protect the rights of individuals from authoritarianism in the form that trump represents. so this does become a very, very significant issue.

it does become a pressing issue as we look at the kind of future the country will choose coming up in about 101 days. >> all right, joyce vance and rick wilson, thanks for coming on tonight. so folks, it's been absolutely a wild few weeks in american politics. have you noticed? and our favorite historian, michael beschloss, is here to put it all into perspective. we'll be back with the professor right after this. if you have chronic kidney disease you can reduce

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well, folks, i don't know about you, but it has been an historic couple weeks in american politics. okay, settle in for this one. believe it or not, it was just one month ago today when we were getting ready for the first presidential debate of this election cycle. a debate that was so disastrous for president biden that it sparked a weeks-long democratic meltdown with several members of the president's own party calling for him to end his bid for re-election. there was then an assassination attempt on the republican nominee, donald trump, followed by a republican national convention that was just downright bizarre. the month ended with president biden doing what once seemed unthinkable, ending his re-election campaign and endorsing his vice president, kamala harris, to be the democratic nominee. a move that sparked perhaps the most successful campaign kickoff

ever. one that almost instantaneously unified and energized the democratic base and completely changed the state of the race with just over 100 days to go. joining me now is michael beschloss, nbc news presidential historian. michael, that's a heck of an arc. heck of an historic arc. >> don't need to make up drama tonight, michael. it's all there. this was really the month that changed history, don't you think? >> i agree. put it into context for us, because when you look at all these events separately, at any moment in time, they take history in a different direction. >> right. >> but when you put them all together, you wind up here. it's amazing. >> the tectonic plates have been shifting, and just to even make your excellent point even sharper, did you know that five days ago, five days ago this morning, joe biden was the nominee of the democratic party,

and he had yet to pull out. so this is how quickly this has all happened and we're all processing. but i think if we're looking for historical parallels, there are really not too many. you go back to 1968, you and i were children at the time. but we both studied it. and 1968, that was a year of riots and terrible assassinations. martin luther king and robert kennedy and anti-war violence. especially at the democratic convention in chicago. but what made 1968 most consequential probably in terms of american politics is that at the beginning of 1968, there probably wasn't very much chance that richard nixon would be elected. maybe nominated, probably not elected. the fact >> so, if you change any of

those events, the result could've been different. and i think you and i would've said the same thing about the month that has just passed. you did say it. that is you change one piece of the puzzle, and perhaps there is a different result in november. so, 1968, the result was nixon gets elected, brings us four more years of the indochina war, and a watergate scandal. but i would say, and i don't want to speak for you, but i think you won't find this too different from what you would say. if donald trump was elected over kamala harris in november, the result is going to be, i will put it as politely as i can on this friday, the strongest presidency in american history, i would say, verging on dictatorship with the help of a very complicit supreme court. that is what is at stake. so, if any of these events change a few votes in those battleground states, and one or another of these candidates

wins this fall, that is the consequence. that is why we got to keep watching every single minute between now and november, and sadly, perhaps beyond that. >> so, i want to get your historic perspective on an aspect of this campaign that is emerging around the jd vance narrative, and his seeming, seemingly interesting view that childless women somehow are less than. you have the new york times noting the attack on kamala harris for not having kids will backfire, quote, if elected, harris would not be the first american president with no biological children. there were five others. george washington, james madison, andrew jackson, james pope, and james ugandan. and it is important to note that george washington did raise martha washington's two children from a previous marriage, so there was that, too, jd. your take here on this story line that is emerging about

childless presidents? >> well, george washington the first, just like you said, he was childless. but, just as you say, he did have stepchildren. but you know what his supporters did? they put up signs saying americans, president washington's children are all of you. you are the ones he is taking care of. and the fact that he did not have biological children does not mean that he was in any way impaired in being, perhaps, the greatest national father in american history. >> that's the thing, you know? i am glad you framed it that way, because it is important for people to understand that that has nothing to do with anything. running for president has nothing to do with whether or not you have a child or don't have a child. it is what you plan to do for the country. at least that is what i think it should be. and, in history, given that we have had five presidents that tells us that. don't go anywhere, michael is sticking with us for a moment

to play our favorite friday game , who won the week? we will be right back. hi, i'm janice, and i lost 172 pounds on golo. when i was a teenager i had some severe trauma in my life and i turned to food for comfort. a friend told me that i was the only one holding me back from being as beautiful on the outside as i am the inside. once i saw golo was working, i felt this rush, i just had to keep going. a lot of people think no pain no gain, but with golo it is so easy. when i look in the mirror, i don't even recognize myself. golo really works.

we have made it to the end of the week, which means it is time to play who won the week? back with me is michael brushless. so, mr. historian, who one of the week? >> that's easy, kamala harris.

you know, you were talking about how quickly this month went, well, she has been the campaign for five days, anyone who would like to see what kind of a leader she is, well, let's begin by taking a look at what i think is the most commanding and almost flawless rollout of a presidential candidate in modern times, especially someone who did not know that she was going to be a presidential candidate only five days ago. if i could end by quoting the political philosophers, the kicks, anyone who has been disheartened by this month, follow all the doubt and sadness, i know the better things are on the way tonight. >>, my friend, the perfect way to end it all, with the kinks. for me, who one of the week with her partner, her friend, joe biden. i think joe biden, beyond displaying the grace and the humility and the presidential nature of his action in

stepping down, i think, lifted up an important lesson for the country. and that was how a public servant serves. it is not about self. it is about the country. and for that, i am grateful to him. thank you so much, michael, thank you. and that is tonight's reidout. on sunday, 100 days out from election day, be sure to join me, simone sanders townsend, alecia menendez, and the team to break down what comes next in this historic election. that is all day sunday beginning at 8:00 a.m. eastern here on msnbc. and we read returns on monday for a reidout special report, project 2025 exposed, breaking down that 900 page document piece by piece