on and on, the higher consumer prices matter but this is much more than that. >> yeah, thank you very much. i think worth pointing out to everybody as in any war, any conflict you can get to a point where you can't pull back and could end up with a very big problem. thanks so much for joining us. anderson starts now. good evening, we're coming to you tonight from el paso, one of two cities where the pain of loss is raw and fresh as it is in dayton, ohio, as well. people are starting out on a journey of darkness and the best that can be said they are not alone. they are not walking alone on this road. we've seen this before and it's happening here whether in a small town or big city, people coming together to form a kind of extended family to do the things even little things that can help light the darkness if only just a bit. which is not in any way to da finish the hurt around us tonight or the welcome presence

of kindness erase the need for answers to why this happened on all levels, including the very top. president trump tweeted this morning then in prepared remarks spoke from the white house his words comforting and hard to reckon sioncile time and time a. president barack obama weighed in with democratic candidates. i spoke with joe biden and tonight we'll play that interview for you. he spoke about the president about his views on what to do and he spoke about the people here in el paso and dayton who died and those grieving tonight. >> it matters the stories of these people for the public to understand that this is not just a statistic. this is -- this is who we are, who they are. i mean, it's a -- it really is about, you know, reweaving that

social fabric that holds the society together. honesty, decency, hope, leaving nobody behind giving hate no save harbor. that's who we are. that's who we are. it's the thing that holds us together. >> giving hate no safe harbor he says. this hour tonight, we begin with the brave actions of one man we want you to know about his name david johnson. present for tomorrow and with them when the shooting began. david johnson new guns grew up with him and above protect katy and kate wlin, his niece wrote on facebook he protected them from that murder and haven't been there, they were there.

david johnson was 63. he was one of 22 people murdered hear in el paso. an hour ago i spoke to kimberly and stephanie melendez. they want you to know their dad died a hero. first of all, how are you holding up? >> doing okay for right now. >> i don't even know how to answer that. just making sure everybody is okay. >> does it even seem real at this point? >> no, i keep thinking we're going to wake up. >> he's going to walk through the front door, i'm back. just that he's at work. i had his phone this morning with me and all his work alarms went off. >> so you have his phone? >> yeah. and so all his work alarms went off so i just keep thinking he's at work. >> how is your car doing? how is caitlyn? >> she's being super strong. she's -- i was expecting i don't

know what i was expecting but that little girl is laughing and playing. she's excited to go to school. she wants to go to school, and -- >> she's 9. does she understand what she saw, obviously? >> apparently, according to my mom she knew just what to do in a situation, i guess, from school. i don't know. but she exactly she knew what was going on. >> do you know exactly what happened at this point? >> just when i called my mom, i was just checking up on my daughter at my lunch, and they were still being -- they i guess it just happened and they were being evacuated. from what my mom told me over the phone, she just said he shot and i just heard my daughter crying, that they were at walmart and it was so -- there was no full sentences. there was -- it wasn't real. i even asked her if she was

joking because this stuff doesn't happen. it happens on tv but not here. >> now do you know the full story of what happened? >> from what we've been told, like what my mom said was that he pushed them down, my niece and my mom and he covered them -- >> your dad pushed them both down. >> and he covered them and he got shot. >> when they were shooting, he got on top of them. >> uh-huh. >> he pushed them and made them hide. >> my mom's memories, they are coming. it happened all so fast, so. >> all she did say was the gunman was two feet away. >> that close? >> my daughter talks about the smoke. that's what she remembers. but other than that, they still haven't really and i'm not pushing right now. >> sure. >> yeah, i mean, in a situation like this, how do you proceed with your 9-year-old? >> i don't know. i'm reaching out. a lot of people have reached out to help. i've already taken her to her

doctor and they have given us numbers and referrals and people to help her. her school has reached out and agreed to help her and she has so many people behind her right now, and me and my husband, we're just there for her. we're staying there for her, and letting her know it's okay to talk. >> when you heard what your dad had done, did it surprise you at all, that he sacrificed himself like that? >> no, he is that kind of man 100%. i mean, he's been around guns his whole life. he used to hunt, i believe. he knows what to do. him saving my niece and my mom, that is him. absolutely. >> that's great testament to him. >> yes. like no one was surprised. they are his number ones. so he would do that for any of us. >> what do you want people to know about your dad? >> he's a hero. that he saved my mom.

he saved my niece, and he was an amazing man. >> how about you, stephanie? >> the same thing. i mean, i could have lost my daughter. i was so close to losing her, but because of him, she's still here. and my mom, my mom is still here, and if it wasn't for him, she'll -- his legacy will be forever with us and i want -- he was just a hero. i couldn't -- i wish he was here for me to tell him how thankful i am because i could have lost her. >> and he saved her. >> yes. >> is there anything else you want people to know? >> just what a wonderful man he was. he did so much for all of us, and sometimes we didn't deserve it, but he was the best dad that anyone could ask for.

>> and he loved his grandchildren a lot. caitlyn had him wrapped around her finger. >> she was the first, so yes, absolutely. >> he would sit in the kitchen and do little chemistry experiments with her, and sit and make her little potions and no matter how tired he was from work, he'd be there. no complaints. he'd be smiling. >> well, again, i'm so sorry for your loss. >> thank you. >> thank you.

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i'm tom foreman in washington. we're having technical problems with anderson's feed in the field but we've been talking to more and more people connected to a witness in that this trage. gary tuchman spoke to a mother and daughter in different locations when the shooting began. >> reporter: she's recovering after being shot twice at the el paso walmart. she heard what she thought was

firecrackers but saw the gun and gunman. she tried to run away. >> when i threw myself, i saw him reloading the gun. >> and what was the demeanor? was he doing? did his face look like? >> normal. >> normal? >> normal. >> not yelling. >> with all the time in world. >> she heard the gunshots ringing out. she ran and didn't realize right away she had gotten shot. >> you have a bullet that hit you here near your elbow and a bullet -- do you mind, that hit your foot. >> no. >> when were you shot? before you put yourself down on the ground or after? >> i have no idea. >> she was at the walmart with her 10-year-old daughter may lean and several members of her soccer team. they were selling lemonade as part of a fundraiser but her daughter was outside a different part of the store. she didn't know if maline was alive and the gunman was still shooting outside as she hid.

>> i saw him walking towards us. at that point i said what do i do? >> she says she played dead. >> and he shot eight more bullets. i counted them because i said one of these is going to be mine. >> were you afraid that your daughter had already been shot? >> because i don't know if he was by himself or he have other people. >> horrifying minutes went by. the shots stopped. she went in the store, out of the store, back in the store and finally found her daughter in the other girls on the soccer team. they were all okay. what was the first thing you did and she did? >> i ran. i ran towards them and i yelled her name. they were all in a little ball just shaking and holding each other. [crying] >> she saw me, and she saw me like mom, i see you and at that

moment, her face changed and she got scared, and that's when she realized that i was bleeding. >> she realized two of her daughter's soccer coaches that were there were also shot. one of them on the right is in critical condition. maribell says he step in front of other members of his family. >> he sacrificed his self-for h son daughter and wife. >> she hasn't been able to see her daughter in person since the shootings because of the measles outbreak, children aren't allowed in the hospital. when you see your daughter in person for the first time since she's not allowed in the hospital to see you, what will happen? >> we're going to cry. [crying] >> i'm going to hug her so hard. and she's not going to tell me mom let me go. she's not. she's going to hug me right

back. >> that was our gary tuchman reporting. president trump spoke from the white house today. he vowed action to prevent further mass killings and called on americans condemn racism and white supremacy. >> the shooter in el paso posted a manifesto online consumed by racist hate in one voice our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and wipe supremacy. these sinister ideologies must be defeated. hate has no place in america. hatred warps the mind, ravageds the hard and devours the soul. >> the president did not however address any of his own statements, which have been called racist. however, former president obama did without naming president trump. he said in a statement quote, we should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or

normalizes racist sentiments. anderson spoke with joe biden and this notion dominated the conversation. >> you entered the campaign saying that this is in your opinion a battle for the soul of the nation gaiven the violence f the last couple days, who is winning the battle? >> the white supremacists are winning the battle. this is domestic terrorism. when those folks came out of the fields in charlottesville, their veins bulging and coming out from under the rocks carrying torches with anti semitic bile. tell what you think, he said there is very fine people on both sides. for god sake. no president ever said that. he continued it. >> you talked about

charlottesville being a defining moment. do you see this as another defining moment? >> absolutely. you know, it's a continuation. i mean, this is the president who continues to speak in ways that just are completely contrary to everything who we are. i mean, referring to immigrants as, you know, mexicans as rapists and talking about, you know, the rats in baltimore. the way he talks about people. >> do you blame the president in part for what happened in el pa paso? >> what i do is his rhetoric contributes to this notion that it almost legit mates people coming from the rocks. this is white nationalism. this is terrorism of a different sort. but it's still terrorism. >> beto o'rourke believes the president say white nationalist. do you? >> whether he is or not, he sure

is using the language of and contributing to the things he says. the idea that this guy in el paso said he'll keep paraphrasing, keep these folks from south america, these latinos and mexicans from polluting america and over taking our society, wiping out, you know, who we are, it's just the kind of thing that the president contributes to and for the first time today, the first time i've ever heard him say he condemns white supremacy, white terrorism. >> when president trump today said, you know, we have to defeat white supremacy, bigotry, hatred, you don't believe he -- >> this is our third -- show me something then. from this point on, show me something. can you imagine if you had children in a school where the principal after a terrible shooting or after what happened

in charlottesville or el paso or ohio in dayton, stood up and said there is fine people on both sides or said you know, there are a lot of bad people coming across the border to pollute our system. all those things he said, paraphrasing him, what do you think would happen? parents would be asking for that principal to be fired and if anything happened to that school, would they say he caused it? maybe he didn't cause it but he sure in fact did not do anything to make it clear it's reprehensible conduct that will not be tolerated. >> so you don't go as far as beto o'rourke to say that the president is a white nationalist. i think cory booker said that the president is to blame for this because of the rhetoric and his lack of action on guns? >> clearly, his actions have done nothing to do anything other than encourage the behavior. that going to whether he's -- i'm not sure what this guy

believes, if he believes anything, this is not just opportunity. an opportunists to be able to maintain the base and divide the country. >> that may behind the rhetoric, an effort basically to disstoke white supremacists or nationalist to give them a dog whistle. >> they do have a dog whistle. they do have a dog whistle. look, this is a president who has said things no other president has said since andrew jackson. nobody said anything like the things he's saying and the idea that this contributes to or legitimizes or make it more racial for people to think we in fact can speak out and be for straightforward and we can make this an issue, we've been through this before. we've been through this before in the '20s with the ku klux klan people walking down pennsylvania avenue in their hats and robes because they didn't want catholics coming into the country.

we went through it after the civil war in terms of the ku klux klan and white supremacy. this is about separating people into good and bad in his mind. it's about making access to power. it's a trait used by charlottesville all over the world, divide people. divide them. put them against one another. >> if that's the case, it's a very dangerous game he's playing. >> no, no, no question it's a dangerous game. there is no question that his rhetoric contributed to at a minimum at a minimum of dumbing down the way in which we as a society talk about one another. the way we have always been -- look, we've always brought the country together. we've never -- you know, we the people, we hold these true self-evident. he flies in the face of basic things we never abandoned before. he looks like he flat abandoned the theory that we are one people. >> in terms of the actual things he talked about today, in terms

of action, early in the morning he tweeted about the idea of linking background checks or stronger background checks with immigration reform. he -- that -- he never mentioned it after tweeting about it, i guess maybe -- >> there is an example. why do we have background checks for the guys who in fact do these terrible things? they are not immigrants doing this. they are american citizens doing these things. >> does the idea of linking action on stronger background checks to immigration reform make sense? >> well, no, but makes it sound like the reason why we need background checks is because of those immigrants. let's get immigration reform period and let's go after the notion that these background checks should be universal, period. let's go and make sure that we in fact do not allow like what i was able to do with dianne feinstein's help eliminate the ability to have an assault weapon, eliminate the ability to have a clip with more than ten

bullets in it. who the hell needs 200 rounds in a gun? and in a weapon. >> that is not -- the president did not really talk about anything relating to gun -- >> no, no, i know he hasn't. that's my point. >> yeah. he focused on he talked about video games. he talked about mental health, the idea of red flag laeg sla legislation, identifying them ahead of a crime and involuntary confinement with somebody with a mental issue that seems to be a danger and he went on to say that it's not, it's not -- it's mental. it's someone with a mental illness or hatred that pulls the trigger, not the gun pulling the trigger. >> come on, man. look, how many times i heard that, here is the deal. hatred is not necessarily sick but it's not a mental illness to confuse that with a certifiable mental illness, wipe sehite sup

is wrong. it is not a mental illness. it is hateful behavior. it is the way people are raised and encouraging to take out their venom on people who they don't like because of the color of their eyes or the color of their skin or the way they walk or where they are from. that is not mental illness. that is a fact, hatred. >> there is much we don't know about the shooter in dayton yet but indicates like he had some mental issues or at least some emotional issues early on and obviously -- >> by the way, we -- i've always argued that in fact, there should be people denied the ability to have weapons if they have a mental illness. they should be made aware, the police should be made aware of someone in the background check if they have been treated just like what happened down in virginia, virginia tech and a whole range of those things. we've been talking about that for a long time but up until

now, our friends, friends, i use that too lightly, the folks on the right have argued that no, no, no, no that's not anybody's responsibility. they should be able to own a weapon. look, why don't we call this for what it is? this is pure and simple white nationalism, terrorism, domestic terrorism. period. >> so do you in the biden administration, would you want to see the fbi able to prosecute domestic terror -- >> absolutely -- >> -- in the same way they do internationally. >> absolutely. >> as of right now it's a not a crime but a weapons charge or something else. >> there is domestic terrorism. white supremacy is domestic terrorism. >> so you would like to see a change in law to have domestic terrorism basically become batted the same way that international terrorism is by the fbi? >> what's the difference. there is as many -- there is more acts by domestic terrorists

today than -- in the past years than there has been by foreign terrorism even though we are being recruited -- >> chris wray from the fbi testified they had almost as many arrests on domestic terrorism in the first three quarters of this year than with international terrorism. >> yeah, what's the difference in terms of the lives of american citizens? innocent people. >> you're in support of stronger background checks, universal background checks. >> universal background checks. >> you're in support of an assault weapons ban. >> i was able to get one passed. >> in 1994 the assault weapons ban. the final studies on the assault weapons ban that people point to say it basically was inconclusive, so many assault-type weapons on the market that it didn't really have an effect on the reduction of crime which occurred. there was reduction of crime but they can't point at the assault weapons.

>> but look, here is a simple proposition. that's absolutely accurate. do we want to continue it? does anybody think it made any sense that someone is able to walk into a gun store, buy an assault weapon that has multiple rounds or buy an assault weapon that has 100 rounds even though it may not -- you can't point to the fact that it in fact had stopped it before, do you want more of them on the street? do we want to do that? >> so to gun owners out there who say well, a biden administration means they will come for my guns. >> bingo, you're right if you have an assault weapon. the fact of the matter is they should be illegal period. look, the second amendment doesn't say you can't restirict the kinds of weapon people own. you can't buy a bazooka or fire

maker. we need an f-15 for that. you need something beyond whether or not you have an assault weapon. >> would you -- how would you deal with all the assault weapons already out there that people have? >> what i would do is try to -- i would institute a national buy back program and move in the direction of making sure that that in fact was what we tried to do, get them off the street. >> that's not confiscating. >> that's not walking into their hope, walking through their door and going through the gun cabinets. >> so people could keep the weapons they have. >> right now there is no legal way to deny them the right if they legally purchased them but we can in fact make a major effort to get them off the street and out of the possession of people. >> the kamala harris, one of the things she says is within the first 100 days if congress didn't act on gun control efforts or background checks, she would act by executive order. >> you can and we did that in our administration act by executive order on 30 different

executive orders. the problem with that is if it's just an executive order, when the next guy comes along and wipes it out, which the president did. now you can't -- i can't -- we didn't figure out a way to buy executive orders saying you can no longer purchase this particular weapon. you can no longer have a clip with this many bullets in it. you have to get legislation to do that but to say that you need to eliminate the gun show loophole to define what constitutes, i'm the guy that pushed the brady bill through the united states congress when i was chairman of the judiciary committee on background checks. you can in fact do those kinds of things but cannot as a matter of executive order say this is what we're going to do relative to this particular weapon. >> you said you -- i read you said in the past that you had two shotguns. do you still have two shotguns? >> i do. the only time i used them when my son was alive skeet shooting. they are locked up. every person that has a weapon should be required to have them

under lock and key. they should be responsible. if you left your keys in an automobile in the street and a 15-year-old kid gets in it and gets in an accident, you can be held responsible. >> you're not for a federal license for firearms, which some of your democratic to phone innocen -- opponents are. >> we have to act now to make sure we do the things within our power. let's get these things off the street now. being able to be sold. let's move now to deal with thorough background checks. let's move now and the difference is when the president asked me to put together -- the former president asked me to put together background checks and exec i've the orders. >> in the wake of sandy hook. >> sandy hook, i was able to do that. the problem was that we ended up in a situation where those executive orders even the ones that got passed that were useful

that were implemented were wiped out. >> some say president obama put you in charge of this commission, you came up with ideas. they didn't pass congress for more expensive background checks didn't pass. if it couldn't pass then, why would it pass under a biden administration? >> because the world has changed. people are now aware what was clear is that you had over 55, 56% of nra members agreeing with the things we put forward. there is two -- we have two real problems. we have the nra and we have the gun manufacturers. right now, we're able to make possible technology to make a weapon that only your bio met trick on your finger can pull the trigger. >> you have spoken out in favor of smart weapons or smart guns. >> what happens now? they develop some of those in terms of pistols. so you have gun stores selling them and what happened?

the manufacturers came and said we boycott those. they bought those stores and took them off the market. we have to take on the gun manufacturers, as well as the nra. all they are interested in is selling a weapon, not about safety. >> do you think president trump is afraid of the nra? he called in members of congress and he was making fun even of some members of congress saying they were scared of the nra. he said he would take it on and then -- >> the first thing he did showed up at the nra and spoke to them internationally, what do you need? >> you think he's beholding to the nra? >> i think he's beholding to his base. he's beholding to the nra because a significant forportiof his base is made up of people he identified as being, you know, dividing people into those who are good guys and bad guys, those who in fact are, you know, he preaches division.

that's what it's about. look, he speaks to his base, which is somewhere about 35% of the american people. a president should speak to everybody. everybody, the base should be democrats, republicans, independents across the board. that's not who he is. he's focused on his base and that's one of the ways he's able to intimidate republican colleagues. >> that's part of the conversation i had with vice president biden earlier today. we'll have more of my exclusive interview with the former vice president after a short break. we apologize. we had technical problems here from broadcasting from el paso. we're back in the next segment, vice president biden talks in very personal terms about what it's like losing a loved one and what his advice would be for families here who are coping with grief. we'll be right back. this is the couple who wanted to get away

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as you'll see in a little bit during my exclusive conservation with vice president biden, we'll talk about enduring loss and what gun owners he met said about gun control and whether he thinks mitch mcconnell would let anything substantive get in the senate and we discussed that violent video games are a big part of the problem. here is more from the conversation with vice president biden. the president talked about video games today as being part of the problem, i saw you kind of

rolled your eyes. it's something people have talked about for a long time. >> i've talked about it, too, but it is not healthy to have these games teaching kids that, you know, this passionate notion that you can shoot somebody and just, you know, sort of blow their brains out. >> popular in japan -- >> they are. that's my point. but it's not in and of itself the reason why we have this carnage on our streets. >> do you think the president's response to el paso would have been different in terms of what he was calling for if the shooter was muslim or an undocumented immigrant? >> are you kidding. the fact of the matter is he would be calling for -- anyway. >> you think it would be? >> i think it would be. and i think what we're talking about here is look at the way he talks about muslims. look at the way he talks about immigrants. look at the way he talks about people of color. look at the way he talks about them. he talks about them almost in

subhuman terms. he talks about people of different racism backgrounds as if somehow we were -- look, you can't define what an american is based on ethnicity, on race or religion or background. there is only one thing that unites us, one. an agreement on the basic formation of government. we hold these trues. all men are created equal. it's the notion, that notion that holds it together. how else do you define an american other than a commitment whether they talk about it in terms of a constitution or not, the idea that everybody has a chance. everybody should have an equal chance in the country and given a chance they can do something. that's who we are as a nation. we -- america is an idea. it's an idea. it's bigger than any ocean or more powerful than any army. the only way to undermine america is america itself.

>> you don't hear that shining sitting on a hill -- >> it can't. how can it talk about it when the language use sd always about pitting one group of americans against another. whether it's based on based upon the man or woman or based upon your origin or where you come from. >> mitch mcconnell has not allowed the legislation to get to the senate. he's done the same on election security just recently. why do you think he is doing that? >> i'll make an analogy. nobody knew what the affordable care about was until it was taken away. i went into 24 states campaigning for 68, 69 candidates republican areas we won back the house and senate. you didn't hear republicans running around the end of this last election saying let's take

away preexisting conditions as being covered. let's take away. the american public unfortunately is getting exposed to just how deeply and badly this nation is divided by this president. they absolutely said attack on the character and they are feeling they are seeing it. it a different place. i met with every one of the families in sanity hook. i met with the families down in the nightclub and the kids down in florida and school was victimized they marched and came up to washington. these are people who in fact have, you know, you have to put this in human terms and now as american people hearing the stories, they are seeing like i said up in sanity hoody hook, i with the state police. they needed help.

mental help. you know what they talked about? this guy piled babies on top of one another in the classroom and shot them again. people should understand, people are beginning to understand the depth of the depth of the damage and how this is scarring, scarring the country. >> rhetoric and leadership matters. >> it matters a lot. it matters. what a president says matters. our kids are is llistening but public will listen. too. they understand if you mean it. they understand most of the public needs to know there needs to be a background check to own a gun period. number two we limited type of weapons you own. number three, you have to be in a position where you let them have a responsibility when you

own a weapon, yo u hau have to for it and make sure no one else has access to it. have to lock it up and have trigger locks and put it in gun cases and if not, you can be held responsible for that. we talk about the damage and people are require ever quid t t certain precautions and kept away. they are basic, basic things that the american people deal with and know that in fact are -- and then when you do have the right to purchase a gun because you had a background check, you shouldn't be able to buy certain weapons. because they have no rational other than. when i was campaigning i would go through southern delaware. a lot of gun owners because of duck hunting and fishing and the eastern shore there and they said joe, why would you take

away my shotgun? i would show them a picture of an assault rifle. do you need this? how many deer, you need 30 rounds? you shouldn't be hunting. >> no, no, no, i don't need that. so people, when you expose them to what is going on, they understand. there is a movement occurring in america where finally i think we'll get to the place where there is a rational position on gun ownership. >> if i could ask one more question, it's personal if you don't want to answer, that's okay. you've experienced losses that no parent should ever experience. going to el paso from here will likely we'll talk to family members whose child or sister or brother or mother or father has been killed. as someone who has been through that and live through that and lives with that every day, what would you -- what do you say to the people who are grieving right now. >> you understand it.

you lost your brother. you understand. it's -- it literally -- it really takes a part of your soul. it is -- what i tell people is that it's going to take a long time but the person you lost is still with you, still part of you and that i -- when it happened to me, when i got a phone call when i was in washington after i was he educated before i got sworn in that my -- they put a first responder on the phone, god love her and said you got to come home, there has been an accident. what happened? a tractor. i said -- they are dead. your wife and daughter are dead and your sons. i remember thinking to myself, my god, i mean, i didn't -- i just remember being so angry. angry at everything. i shouldn't say it but angry with god. just angry. and i remember and people would come up to me and say meaning well, after that, i understand. you feel like saying you have no

idea. you have no idea. you know they mean well. but the people who in fact have been through it, you know they understand. it gives you solace that they made it. you just want to know, can i make it through? and i had an older gentleman 35 years my senior, a former elected official in the state of new jersey call me, former governor and said i understand. i all most said to him, he said i was walking home from lunch. i was the attorney general and my wife came, a woman who helps out came running across the mall saying she's dead. she's dead. your wife just died. and i said -- and i realized he did know. he said you know what i did? my advice that helped me anyway is two things. one, he said get a piece of graph paper. and mark every single day how you felt from one to ten that

day. because you know you lost your brother when a thought would come to you after awhile, you would be down, just as down as the moment it happened. he said don't look at it for six months, mark it one to ten. the downs will be just as far down but you know you will make it when they get further and further and further apart. still, get down. >> never goes away. >> it never goes away. but, but, that's when you know you can make it. that's when you know you can embrace the family members that are left. that's when you know that you can make a contribution. it's like when i lost my son beau, i remember him saying to me, you know, i wrote a book about it unfortunately. it was harder than i thought it would be but i wanted people to know what he was like. and he looked at me when he -- we would go home and on fridays to have dinner with him shs , h

lived about a mile from us and he asked his wife to take the kids upstairs and my wife had gone home to change before she came back we got right off the train and he said dad, look at me, dad. he said i'm going to be okay no matter what happens. he knew he only had months to go, and he said but promise me, dad, promise me you'll be okay. i said beau, i'll be okay. and i know people make fun but we have a thing in our family, dad, promise me as a biden, give me your word as a biden you'll be okay because that's the sacred thing we do. i said i will. he said dad, don't do what you want to do. you want to turn inward and wall yourself off. you don't want to be part of it all. he just wanted me to make sure that the things that animated my life my whole life i didn't walk away from. he knew i'd take care of the kids. he knew i would be there for the family. but it's the thing, the other

thing i would strongly urge, they can't do it now. they can't think through the fog right now but eventually, what will take you through is purpose. find a particularly something connected to the loss you just had. and so -- i'm being too personal. i get up in the morning and i think to myself every morning, is he proud of me? am i doing what he wants? and i'm sure that it's the same way with you and a whole lot of other people. and -- but at a moment there will come a time when you think of the person you lost, and it takes a long while, you'll get a smile before you get a tear. and that's when you know you're going to make it. and so many people have gone through what i've been through without the help i had.

think of all the heroes out there walking the streets every day. they put one foot in front of the other and they nemove. >> my mom used to say a saying, be kind, because everybody you meet is fighting a great battle. >> that's exactly right. and faith sees best in the dark. sometimes it's really dark. but there is hope. and think about what it means for those family members you have left, they need you. they need you. look, that's why i think that it matters the stories of these people, for the public to understand that this is not just a statistic. this is -- this is who we are,

who they are. it's a -- and it really is about, you know, reweaving that social fabric that holds a society together, leaving nobody behind, that's who we are. that's who we are. and it's the thing that holds us together. and i don't see much of it coming from the far right and the breitbarts of the world and this administration. it's a -- it's uniqueness of america. >> mr. vice president, thank you very much. >> sorry, i didn't mean to get so personal. >> i appreciate it. it helps. >> i just -- it's just amazing how -- it's a -- everybody knows who donald trump is.

we got to let him know who we are, man. even his supporters know who he his. and i think -- i think sometimes he thinks that we talk about this thing that we talk about other people, like we're being suckers. take care of yourself. i don't know. i don't -- we let him know that we choose hope over fear, you know? unity over division. and maybe most importantly, truth over lies. it's a -- it's -- but you got to make sure that -- not because i'm running. we got to make sure that the american people understand whoever you're trying to lead,

that you mean what you say with some authenticity to it and it matters. and you know as well as i do, it really matters. >> vice president joe biden. his message to america and the victims' families. chris cuomo is going to join me. he'll have an interview with beto o'rourke, the former congressman who represents el paso. we'll be right back. ng the futu. so, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. the united states postal service makes more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. e-commerce deliveries to homes at vand look great. guarantee you'll see great "guarantee". we uh... we say that too. you gotta use "these" because we don't mean it. buy any pair at regular price, get one free. really. visionworks. see the difference. if you have moderate little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla.

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just a quick note. we brought you the story of david johnson who was killed protecting his wife and granddaughter. we had some technical problems. his family has started a gofundme page. we're going to put it on the screen right now. you can check our "ac 360" facebook page and our twitter

page. it's to help with funeral costs. chris is joining me now. how are you doing? >> we've been to many of these situations. i think this community is uniquely driven by what happened here. this goes to the heart of inclusion and exclusion for them and may have come out as you see behind us, these are not all latino people. this is this community in el paso coming out to say they are better than the man who came here to try to kill them. i've never had more people of a community to say this will not beat us. but it's a manifestation of us versus them. >> and this man came from far away, drove here for hours in order to come here to -- many of the people here it's very important to point out, he's not of this place. >> you're right. he's not sick, he's not deranged.

he wasn't out of his mind. he's a hater, he's a white nationalist, and he should be treated as the terrorist he is under law and prosecution. that's an important message. the president made it sound like today this is mental health, this is nothing to do with mental health. it has to do with our law and policy. thank you very much for bringing us these amazing stories. we have to connect with the people who are here today. that's the focus of "prime time." i'm chris cuomo and we are good to have you here with us in el paso. 22 dead now here. dozens more hurt. we were at the hospital today. people are struggling. they've done amazing work here in el paso. the first responders, the citizens in that moment of crisis and now the community coming out and saying this is who we our. don't define us as legal or illegal, come out and see our community and see what el paso strong is all about. tonight we're going to talk about what the problem is