welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thanks for sharing your day with us. president trump lashes out at his former white house counsel disputing a key finding of the mueller report, but don mcgahn is hard lit only top trump aide who under oath detailed presidential efforts to stymie the special counsel investigation. plus, evangelical pastor franklin graham labels mayor buttigieg because he is gay and

is married and vice president joe biden is in joining the race for president calling trump a threat to american values. >> if you are the best choice for the democrats in 2020, why didn't president obama endorse you? >> i asked president obama not to endorse and he doesn't want to -- we should -- whoever wins this nomination should win it on their own merits. welcome to delaware. >> and we tin the hour right there. joe biden is running for president. the former vice president made it official this morning and made an interesting choice in doing so. his announcement video makes no mention of jobs or healthcare or middle class stress or eight years of barack obama's side. all will be big biden themes, but he decided to binge with a broad values question and a

direct assault on president trump. >> if we give donald trump eight years in the white house, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation, who we are, and i cannot stand by and watch that happen. the core values of this nation, our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made america america is at stake. >> president trump took quick notice tweeting welcome to the race, sleepy joe. i only hope you have the intelligence, long in doubt, to wage a successful primary campaign. the president going on to say but if you make it, i will see you at the starting gate. biden's immediate worry is his 19 democratic primary rivals and years of doubt about his own presidential prospects. this is his third try. efforts in 1988 and 2008 fell flat, and the candidate knows he needs to show flash out of the gate this time. two sources telling cnn biden rallied his allies in a

conference call yesterday asking for help so he can deliver a strong showing from day wunchlt the former vice president telling supporters he knows that he, quote, would be judged by his early fund raising performance. armette saenz joins us live on the trail from delaware. >> reporter: we saw joe biden at the station that bears his name in wilmington answering those questions about not only president obama's endorsement, but i asked him the fact that he took on donald trump, president trump directly in that video, that message relating to the clashes in charlottesville. i asked in order to get to president trump in the general election he still has to make it through the crowded and diverse democratic primary field, and i asked him why are you best choice for democrats? he simply said that's for democratic voters to decide, so we're going to hear from biden over the coming weeks about that message that he's going to try to sell to democratic and also

general election voters. you heard in that video that he was trying to make this campaign, base it around that idea that this is a battle for the soul of the country and that the nation's values are at stake. the campaign also says that that's just one of three pillars that he's going to wrap around his campaign. he's also going to talk about rebuilding the middle class as well as uniting america. john, one thing that i want to point out is as you noteed this has long been in the making. joe biden's been hearing that he should be president or run for president since his early 30s, and i was actually here in wilmington pack in 2012 on election day as he was investigate for himself and president obama, and i was here when he was asked whether that would be the final time that he's voting for himself. he said no, so maybe he thought that that was going to be back in 2016, but ultimately now we're in 2019 and he's making that run in 2020. >> a big day one for joe biden. appreciate the live reporting from wilmington.

with she in studio to share their reporting, julie pace, manu raju, matt visor of "the washington post" and "the times ""molly ball. >> was that the right question when armette asked him, why you? and he said it's up to the voters on democratic side. should biden say more? >> he didn't want to answer the question. perhaps he'll late for the train. perhaps he'll have to answer it more. what was striking about the video i thought is the that he tried to make the case very directly that he would take on the president directly, because we've seen all these democratic presidential candidates, a lot of them side step going after the president, talking about the issues, talking about democratic values, not necessarily taking aim at the president, and biden is trying to tell the voters that he is the person who can take the fight to the president, and that's what a lot of voters

want to see, so will that work? that's still a big question. >> two reasons biden is doing that. one, through our reporting talking to people around him, he really does see this as a consequential moment for the country. he does think that trump is a threat to democracy. he worries about what happens to the country if there are eight years of trump as opposed to just four year, but i also think tactically it's a way for him to try to get past some of these real debates over the direction of the democratic party. he wants to be able to say to voters, look, this isn't about an election about whether we do medicare for all or address climate change. he's trying make this more about a bigger, more fundamental question. >> again, it's interesting. he always says i'm the scrappy kid from scranton i'm about the middle class. i'm blue collar joe. decided to do that for another day. recalls the horrible events in charlottesville a couple of years ago. the white nationalists and the neo-nazi protests, joe biden

going after what the president said at the time. >> very fine people on both sides? those words, the president of the united states, assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it, and in that moment i knew the threat to this nation was unlike any i had ever seen in my lifetime. >> it's an interesting choice, to go big, if that's the right word. >> i think julie is exactly right, and the other thing is we talk so much about the name i.d. that joe biden gets but other thing he gets from having been vice president for eight years is a certain amount of salt you're and that also enables him to make that argument and that's something that a lot of democratic primary voters are looking for can i imagine this person going toe to toe with president trump? is this person big enough, right, to be president and i think by turning -- turning this argument towards the general

election he's being sincere, but he also is playing more to a hunger for leadership than a hunger for any particular policy agenda. >> i think also that they have this multi-day and multi-week rollout where i think monday in spectacular a big day for him in a union hall where he's going to start to outline the middle class joe sort of argument that frankly they could have gone to today, and, you know, there was some debate about going there with the campaign, and i think we'll hear a lot more from him about appealing to the white middle class voters that democrats lost to donald trump in 2016, and that will be another debate within the party over whether that's the right course. should the party focus on winning those people pic back, or has the party shifted so dramatically that the base of the party is not a obama/biden party anymore. >> and the benefit that you mentioned, the benefit of having the gravitas and reputation is we'll see if they vote for him

in the primaries. democrats love him and democrats treasure and know him. the curse of that is will he be given the grace of some unfortunate younger candidates, when a younger first time presidential candidate has a gaffe in a town hall or gives an inarticulate answer, will they recognize that and grow? joe biden 27-ins monmouth poll, bernie sanders 20%, pooegt buttigieg, kamala harris. that's a national poll. don't pick nominees by national polls and bernie sanders followed by joe biden and pete buttigieg and warren harris booker, it's different for him though, right, in the since that he starts geronimo gil down, a warren or a harris or buttigieg going up or down a little bit. >> the target son his back, for sure, which is a unique position. every other time he's run he's been an underdog.

we've been in a phase of this democratic primary that's been pretty friendly. his candidates have not really taken shots at each other. they have avoided direct confrontation. i do think that biden's entry in the race in, in this front-runner position will start to change that. there are going to be candidates who have to take aim at him if for no other reason they need to get themselves out there a little bit more. they need to get name recognition and start chipping away at that lead. they have a while to see that but we will see a shift. >> and his 36 years in the senate provides ample ammunition for any of these democratic candidates. there are votes after votes that occurred in the '90s, financial issues. elizabeth warren has made reference to some of his votes without naming them by name. i'm sure he'll start to be called out by name. things that are very prominent in his past like his role in the anita hill hearings and his role in the crime bill in the clinton era. those, of course, will come up and also lesser known things and

he'll have to continue to defend them which is why he tried to make the broader argument about going after trump rather than about specific policy ideas. >> the president took notice and conservatives took notice. there's generally criticism of all the democrats when they get in but biden good in more because of the stature and gravitas. in "the daily call," joe biden gets in by praising anti-fa-. joe biden by spreading charlottesville fine people hoax. it wasn't. go back and look at what the president said that. in its own way is a little bit of shade. this is interesting from the chairwoman of the reason can national committee. biden will have his first rally in pittsburgh. he's the first democrat to understand why all those voters

flipped. rona mcdaniel trial to lay down a marker, one of the people around the president trying to get focused on the good story the president could be telling rather than lark out angrily. pens person, one of the defining tests this year. >> and democrats fared well in the mid terms. democrats see a sea change happening in states like pennsylvania that joe biden feels best able to capture, but you're right that the president goes at, you know, sleepy joe biden, you know. trying to come up with a nickname for him. kind of highlighting maybe his age, even though the president is of a similar generation. but they -- i think pennsylvania is going to be a key component of joe biden's campaign. you can see that in his initial day. but another distinction i think with other democrats is the way that joe biden is raising money. one of his first events tonight is at david cohen's house.

executive at comcast, to raise high dollar donations, a recognition he can't compete with other candidates in the online fund raising, but also for biden an upside is a lot of high-dollar money is still available. >> and that likely will become one of the other places candidates poke at him. we'll come back to this story. a reality that the new candidate tries the to explain by the guy he worked forks the president in the united states, not in his corner on day one. we'll be right back.

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so call now. joe biden will campaign as an obama/biden democrat, but he will not campaign with the endorsement of his former boss. the former president's plan is to stay neutral in the democratic primacy. cnn's jeff zeleny is here to take us inside the former president's thinking. jeff? >> reporter: john, there's no question that four years ago, let's start there, joe biden was really thinking about running for president. at the time barack obama and some of his advisers essentially

helped guide him towards a different decision. of course, it was in the wake of the death of his son beau biden and barack obama had given his -- signaling his support to hillary clinton. this time around barack obama did not try to stop or talk sdwriden out joe biden out of running at all. they had few conversations but the conversations they did have barack obama was acting more of a close friend, a listener, a sounding board, asking how it would impact the biden family, but, again, they did not talk about specifics of the rollout, but one thing barack obama did, he's never talked ill of joe biden's presidential ambitions. one friend, john, told me this. it was pretty instructive. he would never tell joe not to run. does he think biden will win the primary? he doesn't note answer anymore than the rest us do, so that's something that a close friend of barack obama's told me explaining the dynamic here, that the former president is going to stay on the shrines and

watch this play out. he does not think an endorsement would be helpful would work even if he gave one, but he's watching this play out. he thinks very highly of joe biden. hopes it ends well for him, but don't expect him to put his hands on the scale this year. the question though if that primary stretches out next year, if joe biden is still in the race, does he try to impact it at that point? john. >> interesting question. save that one. we'll put it in the file. jeff zeleny. joining me is david axelrod, a top adviser in the obama white house after serving as the chief strategists, of course, for the 2008 obama/biden campaign and is host of cnn's "the ax file." president obama is not sure if it would be helpful if he endorsed. come on. it would be helpful if he did, right? >> it might help, but i also think that he's very sensitive about not dictating to democratic voters.

he believes that it is healthy to have a democratic primary process and that the candidate, whoever the candidate will be, if it's joe biden or someone else also, emerge stronger for having gone through that process, and it isn't for him to try to short circuit that process or influence it at this point. ive suspect if the thing becomes very acrimonious, vituperative and if what is happening will destroy the chances of the nominee to become president, that he will then speak out, but i don't expect him to be an early entrant into this -- into this campaign. >> all right. from your experience with president obama and even before that, you have experience with joe biden. it's his third time, as you know. i want to go through a few things. there's no question as we look at joe biden as he knows this race right now. universal name recognition which helps the president. strong polling, i'll give him a why for now. ahead in the national polls, ahead in iowa last time i looked. second in new hampshire.

maybe that's strong, maybe it should be a little bit better and here are the question marks and they have always been the question marks for joe biden. can he put together a strong organization and build a ground game? can he build a clear message and have the money? with your unique insights into that man, walk into the challenges. >> the organizational challenges are real. he's never gotten out of iowa before when he was running for president and part of it that he has a very close-knit group of advisers who tend to reflect him, and it's a very bad thing when you're running a national campaign to be so reliant on yourself and a group that reflects your -- your strategic and tactical thinking, so he's going to have to broaden out that group. fund-raising is going to be a challenge because he doesn't have or at least could be a challenge because he doesn't have that social media base that has become so fundamental to raise money. bernie sanders, 10 million on the first day. beto o'rouke, 6 million on the first day. you can see he's set up a series

of traditional fund-raisers early here so that he can show some fund-raising strength, so, you know, and then there are his own issues. you get the good with the bad, and the bad with the good. joe biden is utterly authentic, speaks his mind. oftentimes that can go sideways on him and create stories that he doesn't intend to create, so so i thought the video that they put out today was real, really strong and a good message trying to bypass the primary and give people a preview of what they believe is his strength, that he would be a great candidate against trump, but he'll still have to go through all of the tests that candidates have to go through, and he'll have to show more discipline than he's shown in the past. >> you understand the discipline question as well as anybody. i just want to show you joe biden's instagram page. barack obama stays on the shrines and joe biden was his vice president. you look at the images on there.

you have barack obama in there a couple of times, so president obama stays on the sidelines, but how should joe biden take advantage of the fact that he for eight years served at the side of a president who is still incredibly popular with democrats and especially popular with a critical african-american base of the party? >> well, i think that last point is the most important. you know, a quarter of the primary vote are african-americans, and they are aggregated in some key states. south carolina being the first. the relationship with obama has given biden a special status, and i should say parenthetically he deserves to claim some credit for the obama legacy. he was a strong partner in the president. they are close friends, so he's not stepping out of bounds by claiming that, but it is an important way to reach african-american voters who are going to be very important in this race. no one has ever won the nomination without doing well with african-american voters. it's why hillary clinton beat

bernie sanders. it was helpful to obama himself obviously in 2008, so this is going to be a big calling card for him. >> so if you're the media adviser in the room and joe biden is about to get out of there and do one of the big town halls he's having and he'll probably get an anita hill question and get a question of why were you against forced busing in the '70s question? he'll get some question where he was in a employs 10, 15, 20, 30 years ago that the democratic party is not today. what would your advice be? >> my advice is to get to where we are today very, very quickly. as long as he's living in the past, it's going to be problematical for him, so he needs to articulate where he would lead the country in the future and the values that he believes in and not get into sort of an apology tour for every vote he's ever cast, and that's going to be difficult. look, his experience is a

strength. it gives people some confidence that he can restore some ballast to washington, but, on the other hand, 45 years of comments and vote is a burden he has to care knee this, and if he gets caught in a perpetual cycle of explaining and apologizing, that's going to be a problem for him going on -- going forward. >> david axelrod, appreciate the insights here today. >> thanks, john. >> 20 canned days. you sure you don't want to get back into the game? >> i'm happy to be here with you. >> that was a good honest laugh. i like that. appreciate it, david. let's go back in the room. there aren't that many people who have run successful presidential campaigns, especially, you'll remember barack obama was first to be beaten by hillary clinton first. a pretty honest assessment of joe biden, and i appreciate this. you see that's the former vice president there. like many of us he's hungry and

unlike many of us he's had a chance to pick up some food in wilmington, delaware and he's going to his favorite pizza place to get a pizza. if he comes back we'll take you there live. when you ask about the past, to try to get as quickly as you can into the present. is joe biden nimble enough? one of the tests of a presidential candidate especially in a live town hall or debate is being nimble. >> this right now is the really crucial period for joe biden. i think more than any of the other candidates he needs to come out strong out of the gate because there have been so many people whispering, including the other candidates, that his best day is going to be the day that he announces, and it's all going to be a downhill slide from there as more and more voters hear things that disenchant them or if they find out he's not the person that they thought he was. he's got to show energy. because the president is calling him sleepy joe and he has to prove what he's got what it takes to be out there on the trail and because he starts as

the front-runner and he has to build grass roots and enthusiasm, the guy that is doing the high-dollar fund-raising. >> it's real early. i'll tell you what, not only who can win this, but who is the best person to lead the country, and that's what had a it's going to be all about and from the voters will decide that. >> there's been suspense in your decision. took a couple of months to get there. is this your view that the other democrats in the race don't have what it takes to get there? >> it's what i told you a long time ago. this is a long, long campaign. the starting campaign back in january, february, early in my view and we're putting together i think a pretty good staff and capability and websites. hey, man, how you doing? how are you doing, man? and i'm going to go get some pizza. >> we'll see you inside, sir. >> i'm valerie. >> are you exciting about your brother's run? >> oh, gosh.

as a -- >> excuse me. am i excited? >> are you excited about your brother's run? >> oh, yes. >> you've been running a lot of his campaign. >> i ran every one of his campaigns, and this time i'm not going to be in the office and run it and worry about everything else. i'm going to be out with him and be in the public which is what i like to do. >> you think he'll fare bet they are time around than the last two campaigns in. >> yes, of course, he is. of course he is. yes. he did -- he's going to do that for sure. that's not the direct parallels. >> i was teasing you about when you said that. hello, jack. >> we're going head inside, guys. >> that's the wonders of live television. we have two cameras and two microphones. you were listening to the vice president's sister talking to arlette saenz who has been very active in the past campaigns. this is gianni's pizza.

joe biden walk around wilmington is like clip kline walking around little rock. let's listen for a second. >> 2020. >> joe, 2020. >> well, it's not going to stop me from coming, guys, you know what i mean? you guys want to do a picture. >> my name is john meeks. >> mozzarella cheese on the top of that pizza if my eyesight is, would go today and he says it's not going to stop him from cutting it up and eating it. >> we're watching this and why are you staying with these pictures? this is wilmington, delaware, where he's very popular. this is his test when he's in manchester and nashua and so on. a, the stamina, does he have the stamina and the rigors of the campaign and when you're in these settings when you're asking by trying as voters can

you stick to the disciplined script. >> one of the things that biden will say, his authenticity will work to his advantage. the question is when he gets into the town hall formats, is asked specific questions about the issues, does he connect to voters at that point? >> this is biden's strength, glad handing, having the sort of casual conversations. he's done this literally for decades and he's quite good about it and as to your point about the stamina. one of the things that i'm told from some of his advisers is that he's aware that this is a question. had that question about himself, and that's part ever why he used a very aggressive strategy during the 2018 mid terms. >> let's listen. he's being asked about president trump's tweety. >> everybody knows donald trump. >> what about the mueller

report, mr. vice president? >> we're going have plenty of time to talk about all of these things and i'm -- i'll be available to you, but i'm just coming home to get some pizza before i head up to pennsylvania. >> you want the pizza here or to go? >> to go. >> no problem. >> anything that they want, on me. on me. >> mr. vice president. >> do you think you can win the money race? >> okay, guys. let's go. come on, you guys, let's go. >> let's go. >> the former vice president and for his staff on day one. first couple of hours of the presidential campaign. >> come on, you guys. >> shofgt reporters out of the room. he was questioned about president trump calling him him

sleepy joe. and he says i want you to remember he's donald trump and on this day you take a pass. >> i think if you're the advisers you like him in that setting. his video released is a scripted joe biden and not veering off. but other thing to note there. you saw biden in his element, but given the past two or three weeks when there's been questions over the tack time politician and the touchiness that he's had with women that have made some feel uncomfortable, that's going to be a question i think how he handles that. he says he hears what people are saying and he's going to change. in those settings, that's him, you know, and you saw the biden that we sort of know and touching people, and, you know, being familiar with them, and in that setting i think people like it. it's a question of going forward how does it go? >> and this kind of scrutiny is the downside of being the front-runner, right? all of the other candidates are not getting their rollout on live television with people following them around, seeing what they are going to say as they go into the pizza

restaurant, but he gets that because he's on top of the polls and everybody knows him so as much of an advantage as that is, it gives him more opportunities to slip up in that way that we all know he has a tendency to do. >> we were talking earlier about joe biden and how he handles questions about the past and one of the things that's going to be a challenge for him is that actually part of his argument is about the past. it's about maybe not three decades 'ago, but it is about the obama era, trying to recapture that moment in time, trying to roll back what has happened under president donald trump, so how does he both harken back to those moments and then also try to show this party that he has a vision for the future, that he's got a forward looking message, that he understands his party is different than it was even four, eight years ago when obama was in office. >> and he's by no means unique among politicians, but politicians are proud and stubborn and a lot like the 1990s crime bill joe biden thinks he was right at the time to do that, that he was

responding to outrage including from a lot of mayors of a can american cities when they had a tough crime bill, so hard for someone who is proud of it today saying, i get it without defending himself. don't try to defend it. say that happened then. here's where we are and it's hard at times for all politicians. >> we've seen that in the run-up to his announcement, acknowledging that he could have handled the anita hill hearings differently before he was a candidate. times are different now. that's what he'll have to continue to do. certainly not, you know, he'll be asked about all the votes that he's taken over the years, but explain how he will deal with things now. it was interesting for him to say we'll have time to talk about the mueller report. doesn't want to get involved in the nitty-gritty. focus on the high, happy images of shaking people's hands and as matt said let the video speak

for itself because that's the message they want to push today. >> set the tone day number one. >> obama has been relatively void from the democratic debate so facts and circumstances and if anything elizabeth warren criticizes some of the financial policies or beto o'rouke criticizes some of the immigration policies of the obama administration, kind of quietly, you know, they still speak well of president obama himself and biden will introduce a new element of running on the obama administration's policies and that will create an interesting debate among this current democratic field. >> a, first and foremost biden as the candidate how he hand tlgs and whether another smart, stubborn politician can stay silent. when david action rod makes into the point and see if this drags into next year and biden is the candidate, the question then becomes biden and who, if it's biden and two more and you're seeing the picture of the selfie in front of gianni's pizza show,

biden and who? if it's biden and bernie does obama jump in? >> obama's advisers have been careful in the language that they use. they are not ruling ought an endorsement and that's the thing. we don't though where it's going to go. if it's bide ebb and a candidate that obama doesn't think can beat trump, would he weigh in? obama does i think sort of really want this to be a process that's in the hans of the voters, but i wonder if it got down to that scenario. >> he's the only person that would have that clout in the party right now. whether voters will listen to him, we'll see but at least he'll have the megaphone that nobody else would have if he were to actually going to stop berens. >> report first time obama ran, everyone thought, you know, impressive young guy, rising star in the party, no way he'll

beat hillary clinton. there was an abc. our alouette saenz is outside of gianni's pizza and making us all very hungry. i hope you get a slice. give us a flavor of this interesting moment. >> reporter: yeah. joe biden is here at gianni's pizza in wilmington, delaware. sitting at a counter with his sister valerie biden owens who has run many of his previous campaigns and also just, you know, shaking hands and talking to the people here. these type of retail spontaneous stops that he makes are part of the biden brand that his team is hoping to kind of capitalized on going for. you get a lot of authentic moments with joe biden at stops like this which could be good but could also cause problems from time to time. the one-on-one interaction is something that's really unique to biden. he does bring this personal

interaction with folks when he's out on the campaign trail. of course, you have seen recently the allegations that he did make some women feel uncomfortable in their interactions with him, but this is something that he's just going to have to figure out how to naff get during this campaign system. i don't expect -- trying to find out if he's coming out sonner or not but expect to see joe biden make these stops, and he'll also have impromptu one-on-one close encounters with people. at the moment it looks like he's waiting for the pizza and we'll come back to you, arlette, as you keep your eye on the vice president. also, the current president in a war and a stare-down with the congress. drivers just wont put their phones down.

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it can to keep our eye on former vice president joe biden to see if he's going to speak anymore to reporters on day one of his campaign, and now that joe biden is officially a candidate, we know both of these statements are true. the democratic field of 20 is the most diverse in history, and three white men lead the pack. biden, bernie sanders and pete buttigieg are the top three in

the latest national and early nominating state polls. that doesn't sit well with some party activists, including several african-american women who are involved in wednesday's she the presidential forum in houston. the organizer roxie hall williams says i know we're cultured to say only the white man can save us, and i just don't feel like biden is the answer. biden's entrance doesn't turn her view and another who thinks while biden is great and was a great vice president he'll not get her vote. this is one of the problems for senator biden and bernie sanders and congressman ebb wentz. how did democrats sort this out? >> those were quotes from my colleagues at the she the people

forum yesterday and they spoke to a lot of women in the audience and there's a disconnect between where a lot of the energy is in the party, with black women, i mean, they have been a driving force in this party for years and the candidates that they see at the top of the field. they have a lot of influence to change, that and i think that you're going to see some of these candidates like a joe biden trying to find a way to show these black women in particular that he hears them, that he wants to reflect their concerns. he just hired a former cnn league of yours, symone sanders to serve of as his adviser. she's a young prominent economic adviser and others will try to staff up, but there's question of adding some staffers around you and going to some of the forums to try to say the right things is going to pete what motorers are looking for.

can these people, listen to. if you rook at the polling, for example, if they are looking for or woman why isn't jitden, pete buttigieg, bernie sanders, it's all media attention and they all deserve a chance so where's the cart and where's the house, for example? >> you look at particularly african mesh voteers have been a strength for joe biden in the early polling in part because of the affiliation with president obama, and in any political process there's a disconnect between the activist base and the sort of rank and file vote, hand that's quite pronounced in the democratic party these days because you have this increasingly forceful and loud left wing of the party, but that does still not necessarily speak for the median democratic voter who is older and moderate, and -- but they are influenced by the actions of these activists, and the activist are the ones who get the chance to ask the candidates questions and

take them to task and guest quoted by reporters on something like is this okay with you to have another old white dude on top of the ticket, and so this is -- they have dis-poe martialate influence and these are the kinds of questions that the candidates will have to answer. what i've spoken, to for example, rank and file african-american voters in south korea think saying this isn't necessarily a litmus test. we're not saying we'll only vote for another african-american candidate but we need a candidate who respects our place in the party and listens to us and speaks for ourish use. >> it will be interesting to hear if biden feels the need to say my running mate is going to be a woman or a minority. we saw cory booker say that he's going to pick a woman, clearly an effort to try to -- to deal with the fact that that's what a lot of people want is a female candidate. will biden feel to make that clear? and perhaps he will to defray and push back from the criticism here's hearing already. >> and gets back to the question

of nimble in that can you keep good relations with activist interest groups in your party without alienating some of the more moderate rank and file candidates? how do candidates strike the ball? let's listen to some of the democratic candidates at the she the people forum. >> because of my track record my entire life of focusing on women of color, i would stake my reputation in terms what have i will do going forward based on what i've done and i believe you can judge me that way. >> i can't pretend to be in your shoes. i'm in one of your shoes as the first woman in many of the jobs that i've, and i know what it's like to be in that room when people aren't taking you seriously. >> my campaign is not just about running the nomination and beating trump. it's the understanding that we cannot transform this country also millions of people stand up. >> women of color can trust me.

>> let's listen in on vice president biden as he leaves the pizza shot. >> do you have a message to sleepy so. >> >> america is coming back to like we used to be, ethical, straight, telling the truth, supporting our allies, all those good things. anyway, i've got to go. >> thank you. >> thank you guys. >> thank you guys and have a great day. >> how are you feeling? >> good to see you. >> where did he get? i'll catch you later, bud. >> president of the naacp and my buddy. used to be -- sir, thank you. >> love, man. >> how does your family think about it? >> everybody's for t.

>> thank you. >> god bless them. i hope this doesn't hurtyour reputation. >> great to see you. >> congratulations. >> great to see you. >> tell him i said hello. he was so good to my beau. >> we loved beau. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you >> see you guys. keep the faith. >> take care, joe. >> thank you. >> i miss you, man. good to see you. >> thank you. >> rut best candidate? >> that will be for you all to decide.

ready. >> why public events for a fund raiser, mr. vice president? >> nice to talk to you guys. you're a wonderful crowd. >> how was the pizza? >> i got it to go. >> the soda was good. we're going to take the pizza home. >> hey, guys, can you get out of the street so you don't get hit. sorry. can you get out of the street, please. >> i can hear the story now. biden runs over the press or something. >> i'm trying, sir, i'm trying. >> the former vice president pulling away there from gianni's pizza in wilmington. gotten a few good plugs in the hour. every candidate is a little different and has their own threshold and triggers, full. he would not take a question at the end there. he's going to a fund-raiser tonight at the corporate executive comcast ceo. wouldn't take the question there. somebody said isn't bernie sanders the front-runner? didn't take the question there. the one time he stopped and paid tribute, the wife of a general, i don't know her name or the general and he said say hello to the general. he was always god to my beau and

he was asked in the reporter scrum, wouldn't take questions from international networks and he was asked what about america's place in the world? that's where the former vice president and chairman of the senate foreign relations committee saying america will be back and telling the truth again. we'll be straight again. we'll be good to our allies so every canned skate a little different. young reporters out there, want to get joe biden a stop, ask a foreign policy. >> which has not been part of the debait. >> yeah. >> that's another thing of biden being introduced into this race changes a little bit the issue complexion or what animates him, you know. foreign policy is now something that i think will be much more part of the debate because joe biden is in the race. >> and i do think, and i was in south carolina most recently, i talked to a bunch voters, they didn't have a singular foreign policy concern. it's not afghanistan or terrorism necessarily, but i did hear from voters america's role in the world. democratic voters don't

necessarily feel like we're respected and don't feel like trump is representing america well on the world stage and i do think joe biden will really try to tap into that concern among democrats. >> it can be, if he hand tls for him. it's a double her him. on the one hand you're making the case against president trump but on the other hand you're sending the message that i'm the president and in a crowded democratic field, a lot untested on the international stage. he went on to become president. donald trump was untested n on the intertest stage. he is now the president. when people look at joe biden, if you close your eyes you can say, okay, that's a president. >> and it also -- you know, the themes that he laid out in that video about values and about american goodness, i think that is a big component of it, right, as julie was saying. the feeling that the democratic voters had is that the american ideal is being trampled upon by trump and that he's changing what america stands for, and so the more biden can make himself the sort of standard bearer for the projection of american

idealism and this sort of -- you know the jfk style, the lofty rhetoric, the -- the idea. he talked about america being an idea, and that is something that democratic voters have a lot of angst about under president trump. >> i think also -- >> let's talk quickly but two questions he didn't was asked about bernie sanders, bernie sanders is a front-runner, i don't know if we want to use that term front-runner in a crowded race. is joe biden going to say that's a bad idea. let's fix obamacare. i was at president obama's side. >> that will be interesting how he navigates that. the green new deal, does he say we're not a socialist party because that's clearly how the republicans are trying to brand the democrats heading into the general election. he's going to have to deal with that, and will he confront bernie sanders directly? my sense is he'll probably wait to go into that, but he'll be asked this on the campaign trail. what was remark right there is joe biden, we talked about whether or not he has discipline or not, he tried to -- he bit

his tongue. there were many opportunities to -- to take a whack at his opponents or say something. he decided not to despite his -- despite perhaps his best instincts. he wanted to weigh in and is trying to show at least to voters that he can bite his tongue when he needs to. >> on the other hand, he got in that car with the window rolled up. >> and then he rolled down the window. >> classic joe biden. >> he was tempting and trying, okay, we're going to end the show on a personal note. come on over here, it's bring your child to work day. come on up here. can you read a teleprompter. >> come here. >> this is my little dude. thanks for joining us on i-poll six. brianna keilar starts now. >> read the teleprompter, be ron burgundy. >> a great day. there's little rest for a single dad,

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♪ i'm brianna keilar live from cnn's washington headquarters. under way right now. up first, former vice president joe biden officially jumps into the 2020 race framing it as a battle for the soul of this nation. in his online video announcement, biden took direct aim at president trump and his response to the white supremacist rally in charlottesville, virginia. he rebuked the president for saying that there were very fine people on both sides, and at a stop in wilmington, delaware, just a short time ago, biden also talked about the long primacy campaign ahead. >> i'll tell you what the issue is going to be who -- not only