the following is a cnn special report. he's gone from a young politician with swagger. >> they said we think you should run for the senate. i said i'm not old enough. >> to a young father, suffering great loss. >> my brother looked at me and said she's dead, isn't she? >> he is an irishman with a life story that reads like a greek tragedy. >> how can you experience the worst thing imaginable, twice, in one lifetime? >> his career has been long, and often controversial. >> do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? >> i do. >> that now has a new twist. >> i think joe biden is a person who should be elected in november. >> a senator. a vice president. finally, his party's nominee, on

his third try. >> character isn't on the ballot. compassion is on the ballot. >> tonight. >> do you see yourself as the polar opposite of donald trump? >> i hope so. >> a cnn special report. fight for the white house joe biden's long journey. >> it's a good night. it's a good night and it seems to be getting even better. >> reporter: more than 30 years after his first run for the presidency -- >> joe biden with a lead tonight and a lead overall in the delegate race. >> reporter: on his third try for the white house. >> we are very much alive! >> reporter: it was the sweet super tuesday that joe biden had always dreamed of. setting a clear path to the

nomination, finally, at age 77. >> it was like, okay, let's buckle up. we're going to go. >> it was a really good feeling. it was glorious. >> reporter: glorious and unusual, to say the least. >> fact. no one has ever come in fourth in iowa and fifth in new hampshire, and gone on to become the democratic presidential nominee. >> to do as poorly as he did in the first two contests. >> where i come from, that's the opening bell. >> to have the day he had on super tuesday was highly, highly unusual. defied the laws of politics. >> reporter: it's a day joseph robinette biden jr. has been waiting for, for decades. how long has joe biden wanted to be president of the united states? >> i first met him in 1972. and clearly, he was not ruling out the possibility. he was 29 years old. >> there was also a story about the non-holding up of paper that

little joey wrote when he was 12 years old, saying that he wanted to be president. >> well, if a nun said it, it has to be true. >> reporter: and still is. but the brass ring has some big strings attached. >> if he becomes president, he is likely to inherit a country facing the worst infectious disease crisis we've seen, since 1919. the worst economic crisis we've seen since the great depression. the worst racism crisis we've seen since 1968. it's a triple threat of crises, all at once, all combined. >> reporter: biden has described himself as a transitional candidate. but a triple threat could require drastic, urgent action. >> the economy cannot survive, if we don't get control of covid. that's going to be the thing that's going to affect every single thing that gets done. >> reporter: from the beginning, when he was just joey from scranton, pa, biden wanted to be

the one to get things done. >> joe biden was always the lead dog. he had to be number one. he was in the number one position. >> reporter: a natural leader, his friends say. >> we always followed joe. >> reporter: and a natural talker. >> an old joke about joe that if joe biden were standing next to an electric light pole, he'd strike up a conversation. >> reporter: his family was large, tight-knit, and irish catholic. >> big, boisterosuboisterous fa >> the children's maternal grandparents lived there, too. along, with an aunt, sometimes an uncle, and their parents. joseph r. biden sr. and katherine finnigan-biden. >> my mom was fierce in her

commitment to family. she told us, growing up, that there's family and there's family and there's family. >> i remember growing up, my mother once -- i guess, i was in fifth grade, saying mom, i love you more than anything. and she said, joey, i know how much you love me. but remember, you're closer to your brothers and your sister than you are to me. i said how's that, mom? she said you're the same blood. you are closer to them. they're -- they're with you, all the time. never forget that. >> mom said that we were a gift to one another. and, you know, we believed her. >> well, let me ask you about your sister, who's been incredibly supportive to you. what role has val played in your life? >> she's been my best friend, my whole life. she's been on the handlebars of my bicycle. i guess it -- excuse me. since she was 3 years old, i never went a place i didn't take her. taught her how to play ball. did everything with her. >> to this day. >> to this day. and -- and all the way through.

>> there is all these sayings that joe and i have for our mom and dad. dad said to us, it's not how many times you get knocked down. it's how quickly you get back up. and dad was all about resilience. >> reporter: especially, after losing his job when biden was young. >> they were forced to move away from their childhood home, to find opportunity in wilmington. they had to reinvent themselves there. it made him very close to his family, as families often become much closer during adversity. >> reporter: faith helped, too. >> family and faith were the bookends, and we were an irish-catholic, middle-class household. our family values of taking care of one another, treating people with respect, being resilient. those values coincided with the catholic social doctrine that we learned, every single day, at school. there but for the grace of god, go i. you are your brother's keeper. so it was a seamless way of life.

>> reporter: a seamless way of life for a determined, young joe biden. >> richard ben kramer writes about your brother as a child. and he said joey was always quick, with a grace born of cocky self-possession. he didn't, like some kids his age, double think himself. once joey set his mind, it was like he didn't think at all. he just did. >> the more serious version of what he said is he stuttered terribly. and he really couldn't string more than three or four words together at a time. and he determined that he was not going to be defined by his stutter. >> teenage boys can be pretty harsh, even cruel. and he used to get teased a lot. they would, hey, b-b-b-biden. they'd call him stut for short. >> so the summer before joe

biden's senior year, poetry. >> make men grow up in libraries. >> that was emerson. >> yes. and the reason i did it was to try to get a cadence to how you speak. when you are able to change the cadence of what you do and say, it seems you'll be able to overcome it, somehow. >> i think all of us were surprised in late august and september when we went back to school, that he wasn't stuttering anymore. >> reporter: the high school was an elite catholic school he worked hard to attend, because he viewed it as a gateway to success. he was on the football team. >> he's a halfback. he made some key plays in some of those games. >> reporter: off the field, friends remember a time he stood up for a buddy. it happened when he wept tont t diner with some classmates, including the only black kid in the class. >> the restaurant's policy, that we don't serve -- they didn't use the word black at the time,

they must've said negroes. frank says, listen, i'll leave. joe says, sit down. if they're not going to serve you, they're not going to serve any of us. and this is 1961, before the civil rights act, before the voting rights act, and before there was much sensitivity, i would say, at least for teenage boys, white boys, about civil rights issues. >> reporter: biden says he learned about the reality of race relations, here, while lifeguarding in a black neighborhood in the early 1960s. when delaware was very divided, racially and culturally. >> the polish neighborhood. irish neighborhood. they had a black neighborhood. >> reporter: he stood out but worked hard to fit in. >> once you come in the neighborhood and somebody like you, you become like brothers. you become friends and stuff. that's how joe and i came. >> i was about, probably, 9 when i first met him.

i was one of the honorary kids in this pool. they called me dennis the menace. >> he would grow up to become mayor of wilmington. >> joe saw an opportunity. the door was open, and he was going oh get in. he was going to make friends and he was going to talk to people. and he was going to know this community, and have this community trust him because i know joe had aspiration and going places. >> long before biden went into politics, he was already politicking and planning his surprising, next moves. up next, success. >> i will never, ever think anything's impossible again in my entire life. >> followed by tragedy. >> i remember looking up and saying, god. i was so angry. so angry.

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by early 1964, joe biden was a student at the university of delaware. still, full of confidence, but low on cash. when he and two buddies decided to head to ft. lauderdale for spring break. >> the first day we wentd on t

beach, it was like 10,000 guys and like 20 girls. the odds did not look good for us. low and behold, a plane goes by with a sign round trips to nassau. joe, what do you think? got to go. let's go. >> they arrived to discover the college women on private hotel beaches, which they couldn't afford. >> we found some hotel towels on the fence. we grabbed them and put them around our shoulders or waist and walked in like we had been standing there all along. >> they were there just a few minutes when they spotted a young woman they all wanted to meet. a 21-year-old senior at syracuse university. >> i'm saying, well, let's do flip a coin. or one potato, two potato. and while i am trying to figure it out and talking to him. i'm looking at my hands and everything. he just takes off. he's got a 50-yard dash on both of us and by the time we get over there, he's already sitting there chatting her up. >> when i met melia, god's truth, i knew i was going to

marry her. i really did. she looked at me and said, i think so. >> so we get on the plane coming home. said, fred, i've decided i'm in love and i'm going to law school. >> just as planned, biden made it to syracuse law school and married amelia hunter a year later, in the summer of 1966. after graduation, he returned home with his wife to work at a law firm. national guardsmen were still patrolling the streets of wilmington in the wake of rioting that followed martin luther king's murder. >> wasn't good at all. we looked like a city under siege by the military. >> he saw a country torn apafrt ov apart over race. a city that was literally, literally on fire. the national guard occupied wilmington, delaware, and it was in that moment that a young joe biden said i can help. >> reporter: biden was a believer in his own ability to convince anyone of anything. but no amount of self-confidence

or ambition was big enough to deliver a senate seat at age 27. so, he ran for the county council. as usual, he enlisted his sister. >> so how did you get involved in all the politics of it? >> he always picked me first. it was just a natural thing to do. he was going to go into politics. i was going with him. we asked everybody we knew to help us. and we asked them to ask ten people to help us. and this is where we deliver -- we knocked on every door. >> he won. and then, a year later, biden found his real opening while attending a political convention in delaware. >> i went back to the motel to shave for the evening. and i got a knock on my door. and in walks four people and they said we got to talk to you, joe. i had a towel around me. i was just shaving. and they said we think you should run for the senate. and i said, whoa, i said i'm not old enough. >> reporter: a judge in the group set him straight. >> said, joe, you obviously didn't do very well in constitutional law. it says you have to be 30 to be

sworn in, not 30 to be elected. >> reporter: it was audacious, if not arrogant, for biden to run as a 29-year-old underdog candidate of change, against a well-liked republican senator, named kale boggs. >> what is your last name? >> miller. >> i know the miller family. >> he had been governor of the state for two terms. he had been a member of congress for three terms. and he was running for a third term in the united states senate. kale boggs was loved. i mean, he was loved. >> once again, biden asked valerie to run the show. >> i remember saying to him, joey, i don't -- i can't run a statewide campaign. i don't know how to do that. remember, he's 28, 27. i'm 25, 26. he said, don't worry about it, val, he said we'll figure it out. >> reporter: she reached out to a local democratic party activist, ted kaufman. >> so i went down and talked to him and said you're running on civil rights. you're running on environment. you're running on -- on -- on tax reform.

and those are really good issues. then, silence. and i said but i don't think you have a chance at winning. >> you said what? >> i don't think you have a chance of winning. you don't have a chance. kale boggs is like -- kale boggs is incredible. like, you've been in this for two years. you look like you're 25 years old. this is a race to run in order to make issues that you care about and i say you do that but there is no chance you're going to win. >> and his reaction to that was? >> well, just come and help. just come and help me. we'll see. we'll see. >> reporter: biden was confident he could talk his way into voters' hearts. but what kaufman saw was bleak. >> on labor day, we did a big-time poll. know what the number was? 47% for boggs. 19% for biden. >> but it was also the first year 18-year-olds could vote. and young voters saw a candidate who was promising that he understands what's happening, today. 50 years later, this time as a

political elder trying to connect with young voters, it's still his mantra. >> they have this funny feeling that kale boggs. just, his heart wasn't in it. he had been talked into running, one more time, by richard nixon. >> joe wants to talk to you for a few minutes. >> reporter: and then. >> we snuck up on him. boggs. this was the nixon landslide year. everybody expected no democrat to win and that was the truth. >> we won by a rousing 3,100 votes. >> on election night, i remember as if it was yesterday. i stand on the floor. i said, i will never, ever think anything's impossible again, in my entire life. >> he turned 30. the eligible age to serve. three weeks later. he and neilia already had a picture-perfect, young family. a baby named naomi and two

toddler boys, beau and hunter. the quintessential young family was moving to the nation's capital. >> for six weeks, we were on top of the world. i mean, he was the dragon slayer. we were the bright, young hope of the democratic party. and it was completely joyful. >> reporter: on december 18th, neilia was supposed to go with her husband to washington. but decided to stay behind to buy a tree and christmas gifts. >> i went with joe to washington to interview staff. senator byrd told my brother, offered joe to use his office, which we did. >> reporter: and then, came the phone call. >> it was jimmy biden. and i picked up the phone and jimmy biden said, come home, now, there's a terrible accident with neilia and the boys and the babies. all three. >> and you flew back and didn't -- >> we didn't say a word. i just -- we just -- it was a bumpy ride. i remember that. it was a tiny plane.

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one week before christmas, 1972, joe biden and his sister traveled to d.c. to hire staff. his wife, neilia, stayed in delaware with their three children toe b buy a tree. >> the memory that i have that's most vivid is walking in the russell building with the echo of just our shoes. >> i remember looking up and just saying, god. i was so angry. i get a call from a first responder and i said what happened? said, well, there was a tractor trailer and your wife and daughter are dead. >> neilia and the biden's baby, naomi, were killed when a truck

hit their station wagon. >> the boys were very badly injured. they were hospitalized. hunter, with a fractured skull. and beau with literally, he was in a body cast. both arms. both legs. you had to pick him up, you know, carry him this way. >> reporter: biden thought their bedside, not the senate, was where he ought to be. >> your brother is, clearly, considering not being sworn in. he doesn't want to be a senator. >> yeah. he spoke to the governor and to have the governor replace him. >> reporter: but the senate majority leader, mike mansfield, changed biden's mind. >> he said your wife worked really hard for you to get elected. cared a great deal about it. get sworn in. and just stay six months. >> if, in six months or so, there's a conflict between my being a good father and being a

good senator, i promise you that i will contact governor as i had earlier, and tell him that we can always get another snootena but they can't get another father. >> and they sent the secretary of the senate to the hospital room to swear me in, so i couldn't change my mind. >> so help you god. >> i do. >> congratulations, senator. >> thank you. >> the family and a few close friends were there. hunter, holding on to beau's hand. it's heartbreaking. >> reporter: the biden family was devastated. but they had to move on. so vallerie moved in. >> they were such a gift to me. the whole family was brokenhearted. and we just, you know, the big thing, take care of one another, not because it's your responsibility. but because it was a gift. >> reporter: and while valerie subbed in for mom, her brother

also changed his plans. >> the reason that joe started to commute. he said they've lost their mom, and they lost their baby sister. i cannot take them away, and lose mom mom and dada and uncle jimmy and frankie and aunt val. so, he will commute. after the accident, i mean, the -- the bond was like steel rods among the three of them. >> reporter: steel bonds with his boys and molten anger over the loss of his wife and baby. >> you said you went around, kind of looking for fights. >> i did. >> and you wrote that you even understand why people consider committing suicide. >> i thought about what it'd be like just to go to the memorial bridge and jump off and end it all. but i didn't ever get in a car and do it. never even close. what saved me was, really, my boys. >> reporter: on capitol hill, he found support he didn't expect

from senate elders, of both parties. >> these old bulls, all, took him in and helped buffer him from that grief. helped him carve a path towards real meaning and value in that experience. he saw their humanity, before he saw their politics, in many respects. >> reporter: biden's senate was a much less polarized place. and in a 1974 interview, he recoiled at being pigeonholed by special-interest groups as either liberal or conservative. his political connections were always personal. >> he'll talk about a republican opponent, in private, with a great deal of empathy and compassion. >> those relationships were built by a series of just quiet moments, sitting down next to someone, without any particular point to it. just to see how you're doing. what's going on.

>> reporter: he kept the personal close and, over the years, became the unofficial eulogizer of the senate. even, delivering a final tribute for a conservative, republican segregationist. >> i tried to understand him. i learned from him, and i watched him change, oh, so subtly. >> he delivered strom thurman's, too. >> yes, he did. at strom thurman's request. >> i think that when you can hold on to your own political beliefs, and have the respect of people, whose political belief is totally different, that says something. >> reporter: over time, biden developed an almost pastoral habit of consoling others. in public, on the campaign trail. >> someone who's been through it and says i know how you feel. you kind of look and you say, i

guess i can make it. they made it. >> reporter: he did it privately, too. >> in the middle of his campaign for the presidency, my dad had passed away. joe was the first one to call. he's running for office. you know, you can leave a voicemail. >> right. >> yeah. he's a good man. >> one evening, i heard some crying and i went out to see what was going on. i heard the vice president's voice. and i heard him consoling somebody. he was still in the west wing working. and had bumped into a staffer, who was giving a tour to a widow who had recently lost her husband. he was walking down the hall. and that was his instant reaction. >> people talk about your empathy and your pastoral nature, when people are suffering. did that begin after the accident? >> i think it really began, in

an earnest way, with my stutter because it is the most humiliating thing in the world for someone. how do you walk up to the girl to go to the 8th grade dance to say, would you go to the -- the -- the -- and there's always a bunch of chumps out there that would make fun. that's how i learned to kind of fight. >> he found himself in the middle of a political struggle in the 1970s and '80s when he took a controversial stand against court-ordered bussing. >> i happen to be one of those so-called people or labeled as a liberal on civil rights but opposed bussing. >> if you are a biden, that's going to be a tough issue for you. because that big empathy. that big heart. is this good for kids? is this the right way to get kids to get along? to get parents to get along? is there another way? >> and i am going to now direct this at vice president biden. >> reporter: that decades-old decision became fodder in the democratic debates, raised by his now-running mate. >> you also worked with them to

oppose bussing. and, you know, there was a little girl in california, who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools. and she was bussed to school, every day, and that little girl was me. >> if you go back and look at the polls, back then, the vast majority of black people were against bussing. i was against bussing. >> you were? >> yes. the first real, serious discussion i ever had with my wife was over bussing. and it's because i thought court-ordered bussing put too much of a burden on the students. i believed in neighborhood concept schools, rather than being bussed. and when i expressed that, publicly, my wife took me to the woodshed, in such a way that i would never forget it.

>> reporter: while biden's political life was tumultuous, back at home, he was trying to get his personal life in order. >> i had a thousand, you know, everybody had somebody for me. and they were very nice about it. >> reporter: by 1977, he had found someone he wanted to marry. jill jacobs. >> i had to ask her five times to marry me. five. five times. she would say no, every time i asked her. >> i knew what the boys had been through. they lost their mother and they lost their sister. i had to be 100% sure that this marriage would last until death do us part because i loved the boys so much that i thought, they can't lose another mother through a divorce. >> two years later, they have

ashley. she not only married joe. she married the boys. she married the biden family. and she married the state of delaware. >> reporter: and she may have saved his life. >> i said what do you mean giving him last rights? he's not going to die. i'm a performer. -always have been. -and always will be. never letting anything get in my way. not the doubts, distractions, or voice in my head. and certainly not arthritis. new voltaren provides powerful arthritis pain relief to help me keep moving. and it can help you too. feel the joy of movement with voltaren.

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and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. delaware, joseph r. biden. >> reporter: by the mid-'80s, joe biden was a senator going places. >> he was young. he was dynamic. and people said this is the next kennedy. this is a guy who will be president of the united states some day. >> reporter: but was biden really ready? >> i've never said this to anybody. i wasn't sure how much he really wanted to run. >> was he conflicted? >> i think he was conflicted. it was a full-time commitment, and joe really was, you know, joe who took the train home at night to be with his kids. and you can't do that when you're running for president.

>> reporter: but what senator can resist the presidential lure? >> he didn't get up, in '88, and say i'm running for president. it was so many people came and said you've got to -- you got to think about this. you got to do it. >> reporter: and so, amtrak joe moved on to the presidential track in a wide open and competitive race, announcing his candidacy at the wilmington train station. >> as, today, i announce my candidacy for president of the united states of america. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: just a few weeks after his announcement, some unexpected news took him on a detour. >> it is the surprise retirement, this summer, of swing vote justice louis powell. >> biden was chairman of the senate judiciary committee, and would lead the confirmation hearings to replace justice louis powell. the crucial swing vote on the court, key to major decisions, like roe versus wade. >> abortion, along with other women's and civil rights issues

are what many supreme court watchers say president reagan's appointment will have a strong opportunity to influence. >> reporter: president reagan took the opportunity to nominate an icon of the right. >> i, today, announce my intention to nominate united states court of appeals judge, robert h. borke. >> reaction from the left was swift. >> civil rights groups promise all-out efforts to block his confirmation. >> the campaign was pushing us to come out against bork early. we knew if we did that, all we would end up with is the 45 in the senate. and we wouldn't win. >> two campaigns. one, against rob rert bork, another, for president. and they were pulling him in different directions. >> my name is joe biden. i'd like to be the democratic nominee for president of the united states of america. >> in iowa, an early caucus state that mattered most, biden was bunched with others near the top of the polls.

but his attention was split. >> there was a mismatch between the expectation of joe, and what was going on in the campaign. the sort of basic stuff wasn't getting done. >> reporter: but that was nothing, compared to what unfolded next. >> live from the iowa state fairgrounds in des moines. election 88. >> reporter: at the end of a key debate at the iowa state fair, biden used some of his stump speech, which included a populist life story but it wasn't biden's life and it was delivered without any attribution. >> why is it that joe biden -- >> in a thousand generations. >> the first in his family to be able to get to university. >> ever, to go to a university. >> i mean, he had given that

speech 25, 30 times. and in every case, he'd attribute it to him. he didn't plagiarize. >> i don't think anyone in the campaign saw it as a major thing when it happened. >> reporter: but it was. especially, after a staffer from the ducocus campaign. >> democratic presidential candidate, joe biden, finds himself on trial charged with political plagiarism. >> how did it feel to have your integrity challenged in such -- in such a direct way? >> other than losing my family, the worst thing to ever happen to me. >> the controversy fed the narrative that biden was more show than substance. all, as the bork hearings began. >> i honestly believe, judge, i think i've read everything that you have written. >> reporter: biden zeroed in on bork's controversial opinions, like his critique of the supreme court's decision to strike down a state law banning contra se

contraceptives. >> does a state body or any legislative body have a right to pass a law, telling a marry kie couple or anyone else, telling them they can or cannot use birth control? >> i don't know what -- what rationale the state would offer or what challenge the married couple would make. >> the problem with bork is he would never admit that there was a right to privacy, under the constitution. >> reporter: biden may have been swaying public opinion on bork. but his own presidential campaign was imploding, with more charges. first, there came reports he had lifted the phrases of other speakers, without identifying them. then, new charges that, as a student of law at syracuse university, he used five pages from a published law review article, without quotation or attribution. >> i knew i had one of two choices. leave the bork hearing and go out and save my campaign, if i could, by going out and making my case. and i thought that what -- i

don't want to go down in history as the guy who, to save his political life, let bork get in the court. >> reporter: so he was out. >> all of my energy and skill is required to deal with president reagan's effort to reshape the supreme court. i have concluded that i will stop being a candidate for president of the united states. >> i can remember how devastated i felt and how devastated joe felt. i mean, no one had ever assailed his character before. >> it was a big blow to him. some people, they'd never come back from that sort of ending of a campaign. >> and lest i say something that might be somewhat sarcastic, i should go to bork hearing. >> he was about to go into the -- into the meeting room. and i said, joe, you have to go in and win.

you have to win this one. >> if you look at the next paragraph of that talk. >> bork was pummeled by biden and others, and left to fight largely on his own by president reagan. >> he thought he was smarter than biden. and he thought he could beat biden and he was wrong. >> the yeas are 42. the nays are 58. the nomination is not confirmed. >> reporter: in a 2008 interview, four years before his death, bork told cnn that, quote, as a whole, biden wasn't fair. >> the democrats, including biden, spent time making the most -- charges about me. >> democrats praised biden. but others blamed him for permanently politicizing judicial confirmations. >> well, he really presided over the inauguration of the politics of personal destruction in the judicial confirmation process. >> now, the ideology of the judge is front and center. it's about how you going to vote

on these things? >> reporter: for some, bork became a new verb. a shorthand for getting railroaded and destroyed, and remains, to this day. >> it was just a good, old-fashioned attempt at borking. >> what's your response to them when they say, well, it's just was all about his ideology? >> well, it -- it was about his constitutional philosophy, which was totally legitimate. nothing i did went after bork's character or anything in his background. >> reporter: so biden won one fight and left another. and his family, now, sees it as a lifesaver. >> maybe, this is rationalization but his pulling out probably saved his life. you know, he never would've stopped. >> reporter: right as the campaign would have been in full gear, biden collapsed after an event in new york. he made it home, and jill rushed him to the hospital. >> he looked so gray. and i thought, oh, my god. >> my brother had an aneurysm. and an aneurysm didn't have any calculation whether joe was

running, or not running. the aneurysm was in his brain and it erupted. >> reporter: there were two aneurysms. both, extremely dangerous. >> there was a better than even chance i was not likely to make it through the first operation. >> reporter: the situation was so dire, a priest came to give the 45-year-old biden his last rites. but was interrupted. >> i ran into the room. the priest was at the bedside. and i said, get out, because he is not going to die. and the priest, i think i just shocked the priest. and he just ran out of the room. >> reporter: biden had two surgeries and a tough recovery. seven months later, he returned to the senate and more controversy. >> coming up. anita hill on a possible president biden. >> would you be willing to work with him?

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anita h it was terrified. >> do you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth? >> i do. >> it was really scared because something that had not happened before and the stakes were so high. >> a seat on the supreme court for clarence thomas. >> the man in charge sent the judiciary, joe biden. >> i expect joe biden to have a fair hearing. >> joe biden's leadership was not very weak. >> almost 30 years later, thomas sits on the supreme court. biden is the democratic nominee for president. anita hill has made a decision. >> i think joe biden is the person who should be elected for november. >> you are going to vote for joe biden? >> yes. >> would you be willing to work with him? >> i am more than willing to

work with him. >> is it just about the fact that he's running against donald trump or is it about joe biden? >> it is about -- >> hill, an attorney is a gender politics. she was 35 when she was testified before joe biden's committee accusing thomas sexually harassing her when she worked at the commission. her testimony was graphic. >> he referred to the size of his own penis and being larger than normal. >> her motive dissected. >> additional witnesses who may have corroborated her story were never called to publicly testify. >> the idea that anyone who had

to say is going to be heard of this window because the republicans were in control and joe biden lost control. >> trump said you let the republicans take over. >> i don't think i did. i wish i could have done it differently. certain rules you can't call people out of order for asking questions that are related to the issue. i wish i could have done better for her. the truth is i believed her and i believed he should not be in court. >> sexual harassment is a serious matter. any person guilty of this offense is unsuited to serve. >> biden let the floor fight against thomas and lost. >> as a black american, as far as i am concerned is the high-tech legend. >> denied this accusation. >> with the hill allegation, he

said i will be the biggest defendant. quite the opposite. he repeatedly was saying one thing and talking on one side of his mouth in one group. >> what does it tell you about biden? >> he's someone i think like wants to try to plea everyone. >> everyone whn hill received a from biden last year, she rem n remained unsatisfied. >> i heard a phone call was an apology that says i am sorry if she felt she was not treated fairly. an apology to be real and sincere has to take responsibility for harm. that was what i wanted to hear. that if i had done better, maybe there would be less harassment

in the workplace today. >> but, hill watched the vice president talk more about the hearing on tv and she says it is encouraging. >> she did not get a fair hearing or treated well. it is my responsibility. >> what it says to me is that maybe the next staff is. these are the things i am going to do to make it good. >> but the story of biden and women's issues is not just about him. when the thomas' hearing ended. >> i was determined to do two things. one, make sure never again knocking a woman out of the committee. diane feinstein, they unionjoine judiciary committee if they got elected and they did. i was determined to continue.

>> it was an idea born one year before the thomas' hearing to beef up protection for women including a provision allowing to sue in federal courts. >> some in the legal academy who decided women in the 1950s were basically making up breaks. there were fancy lawyers liberal and conservative who would say domestic violence is as american as apple pie. >> biden held senate hearings for victims to share their stories. >> in 1983, my husband stabbed me 13 times and broke my hips. i knew he died and i am very permanently paralyzed. >> they all had the same story. >> what was the story? i don't believe you. this does not happen and they

said they did not believe it was a crime. biden believed it was and spent four years pushing the bill. but, it would ultimately take more than violence against women to get enough senators on board. biden and president bill clinton looking for a win combining the issue with a comprehensive crime bill. >> at that time there was a large amount of concerns about growing violent crimes in the country. >> violent crime rates have been steadily rising for a decade and there was political pressure to do something. >> democrats felt they needed to show they were tough. >> as a matter of fact -- >> it was as good political issue. >> no, it was as real gaudanger. >> his solution was a big bill.

>> they had the drug courts in it. >> the bill passed with bipartisan support in 1994. but times have changed while biden worked with the police union to write that bill, he's promising to reform policing. he wants to fix other parts of the measure that democrats charged led to further mass incarcerations harming community of color. >> tough on crime. they got a lot of people elected but to destroy communities like mine. >> this is tough on crime meant tough on medium who looks like me. the core of the bill was to criminalize behaviors that really should have been addressed through addiction services or employment services. >> i have the responsibility for what went right and wrong.

>> biden says the obama administration works to reduce mandatory minimum sentences and he wants to do more. >> we have to change the prison system from one from punishment to rehabilitation. is this a change of heart? >> is it a true evolution? >> we have this kind of weird thing where we really want the person to be believing in what they are doing. >> that's not what politicians do. politics on this have changed. he's political enough to read the country at this moment and deliver on the team we want at this moment. >> with a career that spans more than five decades. biden has found himself apologizing and rethinking during his campaign. not only on the crime bill and not only to anita hill but to a group of women who said he made

them uncomfortable by being too handsy. i get it and i hear what they say and i understand. i will be more mindful. >> anita hill decided that biden has changed. >> do you find some irony here that i may vote for justine soe and i want to vote with him. >> do i think this is ironic? this is not just about me or joe biden. it is about millions of people in this country and around the world that will we can bae model for and i would love to be apart of that. and if it means voting for joe biden so be it. >> up next, joe biden changes his mind. i can't wiat to share at&t's big 5g news...

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political purchase in washington. >> even before he was chairman, he spent decades traveling the globe, becoming a student of armed control and personally connecting. >> reporte >> the focus he brings to it is how do i put myself in the other person's shoes. >> he also delivered blunt talks. one example in 1993. >> i pointed out a genocide attack. genocide. >> i had a couple of you know what meeting with him in office. in 2008 to the president in afghanistan. >> we had a private dinner. during the dinner he leads into

the united states and biden looked at him and came down the table with his hand like that. he said this dinner is over. >> that's it? >> that was it. he walked out. it is over. >> well, it is over. >> that was 2008. biden's clear signal to that president was shape up. back in 2001 after 9/11, biden had backed karzai and supported george w. bush in afghanistan. a year later, biden supported the bush administration when it turned to a new target looking to terrorism. >> by seeking weapons of mass destructions, this regime posts a great danger.

>> why did biden voted for the resolution? >> he did not vote for war. the best way to deal with it is to get inspectors in iraq. they were doing their job and bush went to war anyway. it is a hard thing to say when you are getting a authorization. diplomacy is soft power. i don't buy that. >> there were no weapons of mass destructions. >> joe biden, the first senator into baghdad and after a couple of years, it became clear to him that this was going nowhere. the iraq was a mistake. >> it is a vote that dogged him for years from both sides. >> i did everything i could to

prevent it. >> why do you think he changed that mind on that vote? >> the same reasons that others did. >> if it had been a huge success then nobody would be regretting it. >> can you explain who people when you would use force? >> yes, when there is a violent case at stake. conversely i am not going to send my kids or anybody else's child to a place where our interest is not essential and where we kacan't get it done. >> the man who voted against the first iraq war in 1991 and changing his mind of the second iraq war and decided it was a disaster ran for president in 2008. i wanted him to run. the kids said "dad has to run," i felt that joe could be the

only one ending that war. >> i am going to be joe biden, and i am going to try to be the best b best b best biden i can be. >> that was once obama caught on, there was not a lot of track. it was not just joe biden. we were doing so well. >> collectively we had 2%. >> but, it was not just the competition in sideline biden. even on day one talking about barack obama. >> it was unfortunate because his announcement day and he was

simply trying to compliment senator obama. >> it did not come off that way, putting him into full damage control mode right out of the gates. >> i spoke to barack today. >> i bet you did. >> to this day, his words can be cringe-worthy. >> if you have a problem figure it out. you ain't blind. >> biden apologized for that off the cup mistake. when you talk a lot that's bound to happen. >> does he talk all the time? >> yes. >> all the time. there is no ability to affect that. so you kind of go with it. >> on the floor of the senate he would go on for long, long periods of time. sm >> why is that a steady critique

of you? >> because i talk too much sometimes. after biden's campaign collapsed, he took a backseat as obama considered him as a runniru running mate. >> obama came with little experience experience and here with joe biden with 36 years in the united states senate and 36 years of being his own boss. >> he was a senate man, he loved everything in the senate. >> when he asked me would i do it, i said no. i didn't want to be vice president. i thought i can help him more as chairman relations committee. he called me. oh my god, it is so great. i don't know, joe, i will call the kids and we'll talk about it. >> i went home and got the family together. my mom looked at me and - joe, the first black man in history got a chance to be president and he wants you to run with him and you told him no, honey?

game set, all over. >> that was it. >> ladies and gentlemen, my friend barack obama, the next president of the united states of america. biden was all in as long as he can have weekly meeting with the president and serve as his chief advisor. >> biden said i don't want a portfolio. when you make the big decision that i am going to be in the room and obama joked, well, i want your advise, i want just 10 minutes increment and not 60 minutes increment. for decades he brought change to washington. the man of the senate, the two-time presidential also ran finally became a winner alongside a partner who was at the top of the ticket.

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in january 2009, joe biden swore on his family's bible to defend the constitution. biden was obama's top advisor without portfolio. his job began with one huge assignment. >> economic recovery. >> 2.6 million jobs lost in 2008. the largest one year drop in 1945. our economy was sinking. >> our economy was just going straight down. >> the obama administration proposed a massive stimulus bill. massive by 2009's standards.

>> in the senate, it faced phil filibuster. it really fell on joe biden's lap. we got 60 votes right on the nose. on behalf of the country, let me presume to say thank you. we owe you a great deal. >> four weeks after the inauguration, the administration pumped $700 billion into the economy. it was risky business. some democrats complaining it was not enough and republicans arguing it was too large >> we have no insurance that'll create jobs or reviving the economy, it is short and we are taking an enormous risk with other people's money. >> the with the of the united states. >> vice president biden to lead

a tough, unprecedented oversight because nobody messes with joe. >> to implement the stimulus, it had to be free of any problems, scandal. and it had to be fast and furious. >> he had to move unbelievely fast but no problems. >> over the next seven years the economy grew slowly. unemployment dropped and millions of jobs were added. >> good morning, folks. the following year biden was on the hill again. this time to help find the vote for the affordable care act. >> patient protection and p affordable care act is passed. in the end biden may be remembered as much for what he whispered to his boss when the legislation passed. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states america, barack obama. [ applause ]

then it was the time biden jumped the gun on the president announcing gay marriage on a sunday show. >> i am comfortable the fact that a man marrying man and woman marrying woman. obama tasked him to handle assignment in afghanistan. >> the president-elect says why don't you go to afghanistan or iraq to get the most possible information. >> that's what they did. biden returned from the trip, leaving afghanistan a complete

mess and told the president. there was not a unity of purpose. the first thing we need to do is make sure we have a clear set of objectives and strategies that everyone agrees on. >> one point of agreement was the first order of business was sending 25,000 additional troops to afghanistan to ensure the country's upcoming election would be fair. >> then came a request for even more troops. >> based on the assessment, the new commander of afghanistan came back to washington and asked for additional 40,000 u.s. troops. >> the military broadcast wewer but not biden, who never stopped raising questions and got on their nerves. >> the vice president is saying to that vast array of

experienced people, wait a minute, we need to rethink this. >> i think he was saying slow down. there is no rush to judgment here. the vice president claims that -- he would be the bad cop or the one pressing the military and why do you need that many choices. i don't believe that. explain that. i would be the one taking them on. >> the president was new. they knew he did not have foreign policy experience. if they went after him and there was a mistake, it would be a costly mistake. >> it became total complicity with president obama. the president would say joe, it would be great if you focus on this. that allowed the president to not show his cards and sit back and hear everyone out. >> the debate in the situation room grew more and more chance especially with the military brass. >> there is always an attitude

that you know we are the ones who put our lives on the line. we are the military experts. we expect that you know when we make a recommendation that you will get deference to those that have military experience and the vice president is not one to do that. that's why it is critical of joe biden. >> one source of the tension was biden's notion of a much smaller presence aimed directly at the terrorists. >> fundamentally, the reason we are in afghanistan in 2009 and frankly today, ten years later has to do with al-qaeda and terrorists could reach out of afghanistan strike us or our allie allies. >> how many boots on the ground with that? >> more on the line of 10 or 15,000 in that range. >> biden lost the fight and

unaebl u unable to convince obama. the president committed 30,000 troops and told the brass to get 10,000 from allies. robert gates wrote this about biden in his memoir. "i think he has been wrong on major policy and national security issues over the past four decades." when asked that, gates chose to stir it over a policy dispute. >> i had a lot of disgreems wag with the former vice president. one thing is the character of the two contestants. >> in 2010, biden was looking for r a way to end the iraq war. >> barack obama and i, who do

you turn to the war? me. we are committed to building an enduring partnership between iraq and the united states. >> biden's goal convinced iraqi prime minister that the u.s. be allowed to leave a small u.s. military presence behind but he refused. >> did biden push hard enough on that? >> he didn't push at all. >> they said they pushed and pushed. >> they did not push with any conviction. president obama ran on ending wars. they did not push hard. >> your dreams of an independent and sovereign iraq is now a reali reality. in december 2011, the obama administration stuck to his

schedule and agreed to biden/bush and the breakthrough. >> ultimately, we paid the price for that. >> notice that isis fighter are less than 40 miles per hour from the capital of baghdad. that forced the united states to go back in iraq in order to make sure they didn't take over the entire country. >> so u.s. troops returned to fill the vacuum temporarily. the controversy over the growth of isis still remains. up next, the biden who returned from iraq to face another battle. >> they say 1% of people survive and we kept thinking why can he be the 1%? what makes you, you? your cells. trillions of them. that's why centrum contains 24 key nutrients to support your energy.

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it was a monday in may just like any other until it was not. >> i will never forget it. >> vice president gone out for the week. he was supporting the president's nomination. >> we are joined by joe biden. >> suddenly there was a comot n commotion behind us. something is happening. >> oh, it is down. >> the vice president rushed to the hospital and his son, 41 earlier beau has died. >> i remember the moment in the hospital looking at the vice

president and jill biden holding hands with unbelievable grief on their face. it is so unfair of this happening to him after what he had been through. a week later when bo left the hospital. it was not. the real problem was hidden for three more years. >> can you describe biden's relationship with bo? >> he was more than just a father/son. they were almost alter ego. you can see the love and the pride. quiet and unspoken between them. he was such a humble, decent

person. >> the natural person to - >> please join me welcoming, my friend, my father, my hero, the next president of the united states, joe biden. >> the attorney general saved him. it was the attorney general of delaware c delaware contemplate running for governor. >> i thank you for the bottom of my heart being there for hme. >> he was an incredible natural who you just had to get out of the way and let his father

shine. >> i knew he's going to follow his footsteps, did you think he's going to run for president? >> absolutely. >> by 2013, bo biden was married with two young children. >> then he had this incident where while he was traveling to his family and ends up at the doctor's office and it was after that initial visit with the doctor that we heard from the veterans hospital th vice president that he needed to see a specialist. m.d. anderson a top cancer hospital. >> did you remember when biden called you? >> yes, i do. >> you can tell from his voice that they have had a challenging conversation with the doctor. >> the diagnose was deadly. an aggressive brain cancer. the chances for long-term

survivor? >> zero. >> it was hard. >> it was hard. we just kept hope that he was going to make it. you know they say 1% of people survived and we kept on thinking why can't he be the 1%. >> after the workday i would head to the hospital and joe would head to the hospital and he would be there. he would come home and grab a couple of hours to sleep. he would sleep by bo's bedside and shower. >> i said to him i find it remarkable how you are able to deal with this. >> the reality is i have dealt with this before. i know how this story unfolds. >> friends and family say, during this time, he leaned heavily on his faith. >> i have seen in meetings.

>> i know he's praying for. >> joe on occasion would come in and shake hands and he could in after mass and start and just slipping in the back and be there. they would leave before that. >> i remember looking back. >> biden also got support. >> the only person i told of how bad bo was was barack. >> for years the president and vice president had a weekly lunch appointment. when bo got sick, the struggle became their share of conversation. >> they did became closer? >> they absolutely became closer

as people do right when they experience great life events together. >> so close when the vice president mentions he may sell his home to save his son. i said i worked it out. jill and i will sell the house. he said don't sell the house. promise me you won't sell the house. he said i will give you the money. while the vice president tried the help his son, the son tried to help his father. >> i absolutely -- what he's most afraid of is the impact how he dies. that takes it out. >> did he tell you that? >> oh yeah. all the time. >> something the vice president wrote about in 2017 in his book.

>> bo made a promise. >> look at me in the eyes, dad. >> are you okay? >> i am. i know what he meant. he knew i would take care of him. he never wondered about that. he didn't want me to walk away. beau biden died on may 30th, 2015. he was 46 years old. >> beau biden was original.

he was a good man. a man of character. a man who loved deeply and was loved in return. >> is it true you keep beau with you all the time? >> i keep it all the time. he had it when he passed away. . >> that was 2015 and forever in joe biden's life. will he run for president again in 2016? >> we had a talk. should i think to run for president? it turns to talk about beau. >> when you left that meeting,

did you think he was going to run? >> i thought he was going to really wrestle with it. i thought that he was not in a place where there was a force. there was this moment where we started talking and you can just see, there was just this hole. >> the decision was not just about beau. it was getting late in the race, the democratic nomination. hillary clinton captured support and big money. >> have you made your decision yet? >> and as biden wrote in his 201 memoir, it was not winnable. obama was not encouraging. and so -- >> as my family and i worked through the grieving process, i have said all along that it may very well be that process by the

time we get through it closes the window on our real estate campaign for president. i concluded, it has closed. thank you. thank you all. >> joe biden was 73-years-old and it seems like the presidency was out of reach for good. >> did he think over that? >> yes, then the president gave biden another job. >> last year vice president biden says with a new moon shot, america -- obama gave biden his moon shot. so tonight i am announcing a new national effort to get it done and because he's gone to where we have not done, i am putting

joe in permission of mission control. >> i am pleased to award the highest honor. nearly 50 years of public service under his belt and the nation's highest honor around his neck, joe biden thought his time in washington was over. up next. be strong. beat trump. how we come up with new ways to serve our customers... and deliver our products.

but no matter how things change, one thing never will... you can rely on the people and the network of at&t... to help keep your business connected. on day one we'll implement the national strategy i've been laying out since march. we'll develop and deploy rapid tests with results available immediately. we'll make the medical supplies and protective equipment that our country needs. we'll make them here in america. we'll have a national mandate to wear a mask, not as a burden, but as a patriotic duty to protect one another. in short, we'll do what we should have done from the very beginning.

our current president has failed in his most basic duty to the nation. he's failed to protect america. and my fellow americans, that is unforgivable. as president, i'll make you a promise. i'll protect america. i will defend us from every attack seen and unseen, always without exception, every time. i'm joe biden and i approve this message.

everybody. >> reporter: as the curtain dropped on the obama administration. >> joe biden was beloved by everyone in this chamber. even those he drove crazy, from time to time. >> reporter: republican senators who didn't want to talk with us

about joe biden heaped praise on him. >> i do trust him, implicitly. he doesn't break his word. he doesn't waste time telling me why i'm wrong. he gets down to brass tax, and he keeps, in sight, the stakes. >> reporter: a retirement party, senate style. where the compliments flowed freely because biden would never run again. even biden believed it. >> then, along came charlottesville. these people coming out of fields with torches and contorted face, their veins bulging, spewing hate. >> but you, also, had people, that were very fine people, on both sides. >> he said there were fine people on both sides. and i thought, god. >> so he wouldn't be running if it weren't for donald trump? >> absolutely not. jill and i would've tripped him. >> that's why, today, i'm announcing my candidacy for

president of the united states. >> reporter: it was april, 2019, and joe biden, then age 76, had come full circle. from one of the youngest men ever elected to the senate, now seeking to become the oldest person to take the presidential oath. donald trump, clearly, saw biden as a threat. so much so, that he was impeached by the house. >> article 2 is adopted. >> reporter: over a phone call he had with the ukrainian president, asking him to investigate biden and his son, hunter. >> what biden did is a disgrace. what his son did is a disgrace. >> reporter: at issue was hunter biden's five-year stint on the board of a ukrainian energy company, burisma, which began while his father was vice president. >> biden and his son are stone-cold crooked. >> reporter: president trump claimed joe biden used his considerable influence to force out a ukrainian prosecutor, whom

trump says, was investigating hunter. >> he said is that he wouldn't give, i think it was billions of dollars, to ukraine, unless they fired the prosecutor, who was looking at his son. >> reporter: there is zero evidence that this is true. biden did want the prosecutor fired, but that's because he was widely viewed as corrupt. and biden was leading an anti-corruption campaign, backed by the u.s. and western allies. >> there was this ongoing relationship between hunter biden and the board and joe biden and the country of ukraine. and there are those who would say that just, on itself, is a conflict of interest. you shouldn't do that. >> reporter: last year, hunter biden told abc news he made a mistake. >> did i make a mistake? well, maybe, in -- in -- in the grand scheme of things, yeah. but did i make a mistake based upon some ethical lapse? absolutely not. >> do you ever think you should have told hunter to get off the

board, even if it was only a matter of optics? >> optically, had i known earlier, i wish -- you know, we -- we both wish it hadn't happened that way. but the fact is all the people testified under oath in the -- in the impeachment hearings acknowledged that there wasn't a single thing biden did, either one, that was illegal, inappropriate. there's no evidence of that. but it would've been easier. would've been a lot easier. >> reporter: the attacks, clearly, got under biden's skin. >> you're selling access to the president just like he was. >> you're a damn liar, man. that's not true and no one has ever said that. >> reporter: and ethical questions continue to be raised by republicans. >> there's no way, as a vice president, that i would let my son do that. no way. and i would -- i would make a point to make sure that it didn't happen because i just think that that's wrong. >> reporter: by february, democrats were heading to the polls. and biden's fate was up to the voters. >> 15.6 is a disappointment for biden, currently running fourth.

>> reporter: fourth in iowa. fifth in new hampshire. soon, came south carolina. >> and did you think that it was looking pretty bleak? >> yeah. i thought that. >> reporter: and so, just days before the primary, influential congressman, jim clyburn, hoping to give biden a boost, endorsed him. >> i want the public to know that i'm voting for joe biden, south carolinans should be voting for joe biden. >> it worked, big time. >> 46 counties in south carolina. 46 county victories for joe biden. >> my buddy, jim clyburn, you brought me back! >> he won by 29 points, and he wouldn't have done it without you. >> man of enormous integrity. >> there -- there's no doubt about that. >> well, some people say that. >> reporter: the decisive results in south carolina,

quickly, collapsed the democratic field. >> they don't call it super tuesday for nothing. >> reporter: so biden, who started the race as the front-runner, was back at the top of the heap and the world. but the next week, covid forced him and everyone else down to earth, and back inside their homes for months. >> travel restricted. schools shuddered. sports seasons just cancelled. >> the death toll mounted. then, came racial tensions, after the death of george floyd, at the hands of minneapolis police. >> i know what it means to have that black hole in your chest, whe being sucked into it. >> empathy is joe biden's superpower and he applies it to everything. and i think he fully intends to

apply it to the country, and to the challenges that we're facing, right now. >> reporter: as biden continued to rise in the polls, trump's attacks dug deeper. taking on his opponent's acuity and age. >> they're going to put him into a home. and other people are going to be running the country. >> reporter: trump and biden are contemporaries. both, born in the 1940s, and biden is less than four years older than trump. >> he's almost -- he's approaching 80 years of age. i don't know of anybody that hasn't lost a step when you're approaching your 80th year. you do and he has. >> i think it's ridiculous. i mean, if you follow joe, on the campaign trail, i mean, he's usually the last one to leave a rally or rope line. and then, when he comes home, he's on the phone. he's doing briefings. >> compare him to the alternative. when i saw the current president coming down the steps the other day, he's lost a few steps.

>> what do you say to people who watch you on tv and say he's not the whole biden i knew, and he's lost his step after all these years? and it worries me. what do you say to those folks? >> watch me. i say watch me. good evening. >> reporter: more than 21 million people watched joe biden accept the democratic nomination. >> so, it's with great honor and humility, i accept this nomination for president of the united states of america. >> reporter: with his historic running mate, kamala harris, by his side, biden saw a ticket that looked like the future. republicans were quick to paint harris's part of the left wing, pulling her silver hair to elder in that direction. drawing a caricature of biden as an empty vessel, captured by radicals. >> he's a trojan horse with bernie, aoc, pelosi, black lives matter, and his party's entire left wing. >> biden is a trojan horse for

socialism. >> reporter: at his convention, biden saw himself as the man to lead the way out of the pandemic, by believing in science and understanding the pain it has caused. >> i know how mean, cruel, and unfair life can be sometimes. >> reporter: and he made the case for a resilient america, by hope and decency. >> the calls for hope and light and love. hope for our future. light to see our way forward. and love for one another. >> reporter: two conventions. two alternate universes. two very different men. >> are joe biden and donald trump polar opposites? >> 100%. joe biden, in character and in policies, is the polar opposite of donald trump. >> and is that a good thing, in this election? >> 120%, yes. and i think i'm shaving 10 or 15% off. it could be 150%. >> polar opposites. >> joe doesn't read his compassion off a teleprompter.

>> do you see yourself as the polar opposite of donald trump? >> i hope so. the following is a cnn special report. president donald j. trump. the unconventional, unpredictable businessman was no different in his first term. >> proud of the extraordinary progress, over the last four incredible years. >> reporter: shattering norms. >> it is completely disruptive and different than anything you've ever seen before. >> reporter: breaking boundaries. >> he would turn on them, in a really aggressive way. in a way that i've never seen or

heard of presidents doing, before. >> reporter: and demolishing expectations in behavior for a president of the united states. >> does working for president trump, ultimately, mean you have to agree with him, all the time? if you want to keep your job? a president, who seems to thrive in division. whether those who hate him or celebrate him. a look, now, at the moments that defined president donald j. trump's first term. the issues he vowed to tackle. >> build that wall. >> repeal and replace obamacare. >> these massive tax cuts will be rocket fuel for the american economy. get ready because you're going to be working your asses off. all right? >> reporter: the crises he has