he's gone from a young politician with swagger. >> they said we think you should run for the senate, and 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 story that reads like a greek tragedy. >> how can you experience everything imaginable, twice, in one lifetime? >> his career is often controversial. that, now, has a new twist. >> i think joe biden is a person who should be elected in november. >> reporter: a senator, a vice president, finally, his party's

nominee, on his third try. >> character is on the ballot. compassion is on the ballot. >> reporter: tonight. do you see yourself as the polar opposite of donald trump? >> i hope so. >> reporter: 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 seems to be getting even better. >> reporter: more than 30 years after his first run for presidency. 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 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's a story about the holding up a 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. >> he becomes president, he is likely to inherit a country facing the worst infectious disease crisis we've seen since 1919. 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 translational 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. >> it's 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, boisterous family, constantly playing pracnks on each other. >> with at least nine of them in this modest home, joey was the eldest of four. then, came valerie, jimmy, and frankie. the 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 commitment to family. she told us growing up that there's family, there's family, and there's family. >> i remember, growing up, my mother once, i guess 5th grade, saying mom, i love you more than anything. and she said, joey, i know how much you love me but you're clos closer to your brothers and sisters than you are to me. and i said how is that, mom? she said they are with you all the time. never forget that. >> mom said that we were a gift to one another and, you know, we believed her. >> let me ask you about your sister who has 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's -- 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 all the way through. >> dad said to us it's not how many times you get knocked down, it's how quickly you get 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 are an irish-catholic, middle-class household. our family values, taking care of one another, treating people with respect, being resilient. those values coincided with the doctrine we learned every single day at school. there but for the grace of god,

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 kramer writes about your brother as a child and he says joey was always quick with a grace born of cocky self-position. 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 most serious version of what he set his mind to do was he stuttered terribly. and he really couldn't string more than three to four words together at a time. and he determined that he was not going to be defined by a stutter. >> teenaged boys can be pretty harsh, even cruel. and he used to get teased a lot. they would, hey, b-b-b-b-biden. they called him stut. >> so the summer before joe biden's senior year, poetry

helped him to lose his stutter. >> poetry make young men grow up in libraries. >> that was emerson. >> yes, that was emerson and the reason i did it was to try and get a cadence to how you speak. when you are able to change the cadence of what you do and say, it seems, you 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 academy, 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 was 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 went to a 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, must have said negroes, joe says, no, sit down. if they're not going to serve you, they're not going to serve any of us and this is 1961. this is before the civil rights act and before the voting rights act. and before there was much sensitivity, i would say, at least for teenaged 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, racial will i a racially and culturally. >> the polish neighborhood, irish neighborhood, the 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 deep 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 kids in this

pool, they called me dennis the menace. >> he would grow up to become dennis, the mayor of wilmington. >> joe saw an opportunity. the door was open, and he was going to 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 aspirations of going places. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: followed by tragedy. >> i remember looking up and saying, god. i was so angry. so angry. times like these, we look for control where we can find it. with flexpath from capella university, move at your own pace. you can even finish the bachelor's degree you started in 12 months for $10,000. capella university. don't just learn. learn smarter.

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guys and 20 girls. so, the odds just did not look good for us. low and behold, a plane goes by with a sign saying round trips to nassau, 20 bucks. let's go. >> they arrived to discover the 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 staying there all along. >> reporter: there were there just a few minutes when they spotted a young woman they all wanted to meet. a senior at syracuse university. >> while i'm trying to figure it out and talk to him, 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 chatting her up. >> when i met her, the second i

left, i said i think i'm going to marry you. i think so. >> just as planned, biden made it to law school and he married neilia hunter in 1966. 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 apart over race. it city that was literally, literally on fire. the national guard occupied wilmington, delaware, longer than any city in america after the riots following king's assassination. and it was in that moment that adoa young joe biden said i can help. >> reporter: 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 the all the politics of it? >> he always picked me. it was just a natural thing to do. he was going in politics, i was going with him. we asked everybody we knew to help us and we asked them to ask ten people they knew to help us. >> reporter: he won. and then, a year later, biden found his real opening while attending a political convention in delaware. >> i went back to the hotel to shave for the evening. and i got a knock on my car, and door, and in walks four people. and they said, we think you should run for the senate. i said -- 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. >> he had been governor of the state for two terms, he had been member of congress for three terms. and he was running for a third term in the united states senate. kale boggs was loved. >> once again, biden asked valerie to run the show. >> i remember saying, joey, i can't run a statewide campaign. i don't know how to do that. remember, he is a he 28, 27. i'm 25, 26. he said don't worry about it, val, we'll figure it out. >> reporter: she reached out to ted kaufman. >> so i went down and talked to him. i said so you're running on civil rights. you're running on -- on -- on

environment. you're running on tax reform. and those are good issues but i don't think you have a chance of 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. 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 these issues that you care about. and i say you do that but there's 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. >> you 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 he understands what is happening today.

this time, a political elder, trying to connect with young voters, it's still his mantra. >> they had 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. >> won by a lousy 131 votes. >> election night, i remember as if it was yesterday. i stand on the floor i said i will never, ever think anything is impossible again, in my entire life. >> reporter: 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 family was moving to the nation's capital. >> for six weeks, we were on top of the world of the he was the dragon slayer. the bright, young hope of the democratic party and it was complete completely joyful. >> 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, to buy a tree. >> the memory 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 got a call from a first responder, and i said what happened? they said, well, there was a tractor trailer and your wife and daughter are dead.

>> reporter: 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 and 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. h doesn't want to be a senator. >> 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. stay in six months. >> if, in six months or so, there is a conflict between my being a good father and being a good senator, i promise you, i will tell him that we can always get another senator 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 onto beau's hand. it was heartbreaking. >> reporter: the biden family was devastated. but they had to move on. so, valerie 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 a 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've lost their baby sister. i cannot take them away and lose mom mom and da-da and uncle jimmy and aunt val, so he will commute. after the accident, i mean, the bond was steel rods among the three of them. >> reporter: steel bonds with his boys and molten anger over the loss of his wife and by aby >> you said you went around kind of looking for fights and you wrote that you even understand why people consider committing suicide. >> i thought what it would be like to just go to the memorial bridge and just jump off and end it all. but i didn't get in a car and do it, wasn't 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 will 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 thurman's eulogy, too. >> yes, he did. yes, he did. at strom thurmond's request. i think that when you can hold onto 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 is 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 were always a bunch of chumps out there. that's where i learned to kind of fight. >> reporter: he found himself in the middle of a political struggle in the 1970s and early '80s when he took a controversial stand against court-ordered bussing. >> i happened to be one of those so-called or labeled as a liberal on civil rights but opposed bussing. >> if you are biden, that's going to be a tough issue for you because that big empathy, that big heart, is this good for kids? you know, is this the right way to get kids to get along? to get parents to get along? is there another way? >> 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 neighborho 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. >> everybody had somebody for me, you know, 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 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. >> few 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 rites? he's not going to die. get ready - our most popular battery is now even more powerful. the stronger, lasts-longer energizer max.

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senator from 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, someday. >> reporter: but, what biden really ready? >> you know what's funny about '88. i 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 are running for president. >> reporter: but what senator can resist the presidential lure? >> he didn't get up in '88 and said i'm running for president. it was so many people came and said you got to -- you got to think about this. you got to -- 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. >> 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 lewis powell. >> biden was chairman of the judiciary committee and would lead hearings to replace justice powell. key to major decisions, like roe versus wade. >> abortion along with many civil rights issues are what 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. bork. >> all-out efforts to block bork's confirmation. >> we knew, if we did that, all we would end up with is the 45 liberals in the senate and we wouldn't win. >> reporter: so, biden found himself running two campaigns. one, against robert bork. another, for president. and they were pulling him in different directions. >> my name's joe biden. i'd like to be the democratic nominee for president of the united states of america. >> reporter: 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 quotes from a populist life story. politically, compelling 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 the university. >> ever to go to a university. >> i mean, he had given that speech 25, 30 times and in every case, he attributed it. he didn't plagiarize. >> i don't think the campaign saw it as a major thing when it happened. >> reporter: but it was, especially after a staffer leaked the story right on the

eve of the bork hearings. >> 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 to lose my family, it was the worst thing to ever happen to me. >> reporter: the controversy for the narrative that biden was more show than substance, all as the bork hearings began. >> i, honestly, believe, judge, i think i have 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 contraceptives. >> does a state legislative body or any legislative body have a right to pass a law telling a married 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 phrases of other speakers without identifying them. then, new charges that as a student of law at syracuse university he used an article without attribution. >> i knew i had one of two choices. go out and save the campaign, if i could, by going out and making my case. and i thought that i don't want to go down in history who, the guy, to save his political life, let bork get in the court. >> reporter: so, he was out. >> all of my skill and energy is required to deal with president reagan's effort to reshape the

supreme court. i have concluded that i will stop being 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 the 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. >> reporter: 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 scurrilous charges about me. >> reporter: democrats praised biden but others criticized him. >> while he really presided over the inauguration of destruction in the judicial confirmation process. >> now, ideology of the judge is front and center. it's about how are you going to vote on these things? >> for some, bork became a shorthand for getting railroaded and destroyed and remains, to this day. >> it was just a good, old-fashioned attempt at borking. >> what is your response when they say, well, it's just about his ideology?

>> well, it was about his constitutional philosophy, which is totally legitimate. nothing i did went after bork's character or anything in his background. >> reporter: so biden left one fight. his family now sees it as a lifesaver. >> maybe, this is rationalization but his pulling out probably saved his life. you knowin, he never would have stopped. >> reporter: 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 that 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 shocked the priest and he just ran out of the room. >> biden had two surgeries and a tough recovery. seven months later, he returned to the senate and more controversy. >> do you swear to tell the whole truth -- >> coming up, anita hill on a possible president biden. >> would you be willing to work with him? (customer) hi? (burke) happy anniversary. (customer) for what? (burke) every year you're with us, you get fifty dollars toward your home deductible. it's a policy perk for being a farmers customer. (customer) do i have to do anything? (burke) nothing. (customer) nothing? (burke) nothing. (customer) nothing? (burke) nothing. (customer) hmm, that is really something. (burke) you get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. see ya. (kid) may i have a balloon, too? (burke) sure. your parents have maintained

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♪ ♪ it was terrifying. >> professor, do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god? >> i do. >> thank you. >> it was really scary because it was something that hadn't happened before, and the stakes were so high. >> at stake, a seat on the supreme court for clarence thomas. the man in charge? senate judiciary committee chairman joe biden. >> i expected for joe biden to have a fair hearing. joe biden's leadership was very weak. >> almost 30 years later, thomas sits on the supreme court. biden is the democratic nominee for president, and anita hill

has made a decision. >> i think joe biden is the person who should be elected in november. >> so you're going to volt for j vote for joe biden? >> yes. >> would you work with him? >> my commitment is finding solutions. 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 more about joe biden? >> actually it's more about the survivors of gender violence. that's really what it's about. >> hill, an attorney, is now a professor of gender politics. she was 35 when she testified before biden's committee, accusing thomas of sexually harassing her when she worked for him at the equal employment opportunity commission. her testimony was graphic. >> he referred to the size of his own penis as being larger than normal. >> her motives dissected.

>> do you have a modi complex? >> no, i don't. >> and additional witnesses who may have corroborated her story were never called to publicly testify. >> the idea that anyone who was saying what i had to say was going to be heard, was just sort of out the window because the republicans were in control and joe biden lost control. >> some say you let the republicans take over. >> i don't think i did, but i wish i could have done it differently under the rules. there are certain rules you cannot call people out of order if they're 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 the court. >> sexual harassment is a serious matter, and in my view, any person guilty of this offense is unsuited to serve, not only -- >> biden led the floor fight

against thomas and lost. >> as a black american, as far as i'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching. >> thomas denied the allegations and his supporters still seethe about the hearings. >> with the hill allegations, he said if these come out in the public, i will be your biggest defender. quite the opposite. he repeatedly was saying one thing, talking out his mouth one side to one group and to another group the other. >> what does this tell you about joe biden? >> he like wants to try to please everyone. >> even when hill received a call from biden earlier last year, she remained unsatisfied. >> what i heard on the phone call was an apology that went something like, i'm very sorry if she felt she wasn't treated fairly. and, you know, 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 -- and this is joe biden speaking. if i had done better, maybe there would be less harassment in the workplace today. >> but hill has watched the vice president talk more about the hearings on tv, and she says it's encouraging. >> she did not get a fair hearing. she did not get treated well. that's my responsibility. >> what it says to me is that maybe the next step is these are the things that i'm going to do to make it good. >> but the story of biden and women's issues is not just about hill. when the thomas hearings ended -- >> i was determined to do two things. one, make sure never again would there not be women on the committee. and so that year i went out and campaigned for two women, dianne

feinstein and carol mosley braun on the condition they join the judiciary committee if they got elected. and they did. and i was determined to continue and finish writing and passing the violence against women act. >> it was an idea born one year before the thomas hearings, to beef up protections for women, including a provision allowing them to sue their attackers in federal court. >> some in the legal academy who decided that women in the 1950s were basically making up rape, there were fancy lawyers, liberal and conservative who would say, domestic violence is, you know, as american as apple pie. prominent liberal lawyers. >> overall, the toll on women's lives and health is devastating. >> biden held senate hearings for victims to share their stories. >> and in 1983, my husband

stabbed me 13 times and broke my neck while the police were on the scene. i nearly died and i am permanently paralyzed. >> they all had the same story. and what was the story? i don't believe you, this doesn't 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. so biden and president bill clinton looking for a win combine the issue with a comprehensive crime bill. >> at that time there was a large amount of concern about growing violent crime in the country. >> violent crime rates had been steadily rising for a decade, and there was political pressure to do something. >> democrats felt like they needed to show they were tough on crime. >> no.

as a matter of fact, violent crime had risen exponentially, mainly because of the crack epidemic. >> it was a good political issue. >> well, no, it was more than that, it was a danger. >> his solution was a big bill. >> it was $30 billion. it had the assault women's ban in it, it had the drug courts in it. >> the bill passed with bipartisan support in 1994. but times have changed. while biden worked with the police unions to write that bill, he's now promising to reform policing, and he wants to fix other parts of the measure that democrats charge led to further mass incarcerations harming communities of color. >> that tough on crime phoney rhetoric that got a lot of people ee lek people elected but destroyed communities like mine. >> tough on crime meant tough on people who look like me.

the core of the bill was to criminalize behaviors that really should have been addressed through addiction services, through employment services. >> i will accept responsibility for what went right, but i'll also accept sporesponsibility f what went wrong. >> biden says the obama administration worked to reduce the prison population and reverse mandatory minimum sentences, and he wants to do more. >> we have to change the prison system from one of punishment to rehabilitation. >> so, is this political expediency or a true change of heart? >> we get into this false debate about is this a true evolution? or is this flip-flopping? we have this weird thing where we really want the person to be believing in what they're doing. that's not what politicians do. the politics on this have changed. he's political enough to read the country at this moment and deliver on the changes we want at this moment. >> with a career that spans more than five decades, biden has

found himself apologizing and re-thinking during this 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. >> and the boundaries of protecting personal space have been reason se-set, i get it, a understand it. and i'll be much more mindful. >> anita hill for one has decided to believe biden has changed. do you find some irony here that i'm going to vote for joe biden, and that i might want to work with him? >> do i think it's ironic? yes. but this is not just about me. it's not just about joe biden. it's about millions of people in this country and around the world that we can be a model for. and i would love to be a part of that.

and if it means voting for joe biden, so be it. >> i'll vote for this -- >> up next, joe biden changes his mind. >> the iraq vote was a mistake. ♪ whoa! ♪ i feel good ♪ i knew that i would, now ♪ i feel good ♪ get a dozen double crunch shrimp for one dollar with any steak entrée. only at applebee's.

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by the early 2000s, joe biden had one of the prime political perches in washington. >> chairman of the senate foreign relations committee is one of the best jobs you can have. >> even before he was chairman, he spent decades traveling the globe, becoming a student of arms control and personally connecting. >> the focus that he brings to it is always, how do i put myself in the other person's shoes? because if i'm asking for something that they can't possibly give, we're not going to get anywhere. >> he also delivered blunt talk. one example, he says, is what he told slobadan milosevic in 1993. >> genocide was happening. i had to come to a you know what

meeting with milosevic and said i'm going to try you as a war criminal. >> and president karzai in afghanistan. >> we had a dinner. karzai hosted it at the palace. during the dinner, karzai really kind of lit into the united states. biden looked at him and came down on the table with his hand like that, and he said, this dinner's over. >> that's it? >> that was it. and he walked out. and so everybody was, well, i guess dinner is over. >> that was 2008, and biden's clear signal to karzai was, shape up. back in 2001, after 9/11, biden had backed karzai in building a new government and supported george w. bush's invasion into afghanistan. and a year later, biden also supported the bush administration when it turned toward a new target, iraq,

looking to stomp out terrorism there. >> by seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. >> these weapons must be dislodged from saddam hussein or saddam hussein must be dislodged from power. >> why did joe biden vote for the resolution? >> yeah, so voting for the resolution is one thing, voting for the war is another. he didn't vote for war. he voted for tough diplomacy. he thought the best way to do it was to get inspectors back in iraq. investigators went in and bush went to war anyway. >> that's not tough diplomacy. that's hard power, not soft power. diplomacy is soft power. i don't buy that. >> there were no weapons of mass destruction. >> happy to see you. >> joe biden and dick luger and i were the first senators into baghdad. and after a couple years it became clear to him that this

was going nowhere >> the iraq vote was a mistake. >> it's a vote that has dogged him for years from both sides. >> i did everything i could to prevent that war. joe saw it differently. >> why do you think he changed his mind on that vote? >> the same reason that hillary clinton changed her mind. the same reason that others did. if it had been a huge success, then nobody would be regretting their vote. >> can you explain to people when you would use force? >> yes. when there's a vital u.s. interest at stake, or when we have a treaty obligation that we've committed that we would keep. now, conversely, i'm not going to send my kids or anybody else's child to a place where our interests are not essential and where we cannot get it done. >> so the man who voted against the first iraq war in 1991 and then changed his mind about the second iraq war, deciding it was

a disaster, ran for president in 2008 to end it. >> i wanted him to run. the kids said, dad has to run. i felt that joe would be the only one who could end that war. >> are you running for president? >> i am running for president. i'm going to be joe biden. i'm going to try to be the best biden i can be. >> it wasn't enough. >> we made a gigantic miscalculation. that is once obama caught on, there wasn't room on the track except hillary and obama. >> they locked up a lot of money and a lot of support. it wasn't joe biden. >> we were doing so well. [ laughter ] collectively i think we had 2%. >> but it wasn't just the competition that sidelined biden, although the competition was formidable. it was biden himself. even on day one, talking about barack obama.

>> he's the first mainstream american who is articulate and bright and clean and nice-looking guy. i mean, that's a story book, mitch. >> it was unfortunate because it was his announcement day and he was simply trying to compliment senator obama. >> it didn't come off that way and was classic careless biden, putting him into full damage control mode right out of the gate. >> let me tell you something. i spoke to barack today. >> i bet you did. [ laughter ] >> to this day, his words can be cringe worthy, and sometimes problematic. >> if you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or for trump, then you ain't black. >> biden apologized for that off-the-cuff mistake. his friends say when you talk a lot, that's bound to happen. does he talk all the time? >> yes, yes. constantly, all the time.

there is no ability to affect that. so you kind of just got to go with the flow. >> certainly on the floor of the senate he would go on for long, long periods of time. >> why is that such a steady critique of you? >> because probably i talk too much sometimes. >> after biden's short lived presidential campaign collapsed, long-windedness took a back seat as owe bomb a considerbama cons running mate. >> obama was coming with little washington experience. here was 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 about the senate. >> when he asked me if ieds 'd it, i said, no, i didn't want to do it. i thought i was a powerful united states senate. i thought i could help more as the chair of the foreign relations committee. >> he called me. i said that's great. he said, i don't know. i said, i'll call the kids and talk about it.

>> so at home i got the family together. my mom looked at me and said, joe, let me get this straight. the first black man has a chance in history to be president. says he wants you to run with him. and you told him no, honey? >> game, set, match, oliver. >> that was it. >> the hand of god. >> ladies and gentlemen, my friend barack obama, the next president of the united states of america! >> from that moment on, biden was all-in, as long as he could have weekly meetings with the president and serve as his chief adviser on all matters. >> biden said, i don't want a portfolio. all i want to know is that when you make the big decisions, that i'm going to be in the room, and obama joked, i want your advice. i want it in ten minute increments, not 60 minute increments. >> he brought change to washington, but washington hasn't changed him.

>> so the man of the senate, the two-time also presidential finally won alongside a partner who was at the top of the ticket. >> this is a moment so many people have been waiting for. >> i want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, the vice president elect of the united states, joe biden. [ cheers and applause ]

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i want to fight. you need us harry. what a goal! bockey ball, hockey ball, you name it ball. i'm gonna be ready. just say show me peacock into your xfinity voice remote or download the app today. i, joseph f. robert edward biden do solemnly swear -- >> in january 2009, vice president joe biden swore on his family bible to defend the constitution. >> against all enemies, foreign and domestic. >> biden was obama's top adviser without portfolio. his job began with one huge assignment, economic recovery. 2.6 million jobs lost in 2008, the largest one-year drop

since 1945. >> the global economy, our economy, is sinking. >> i mean, the view through the windshield was the ground. the economy was going straight down. >> the obama administration proposed a massive stimulus bill, massive at least by 2009 standards. biden's job? corral the senate republicans needed to get it done. >> recovery act passed the house on a straight party line vote. but in the senate it faced a filibuster. that meant we needed three republican votes to get it passed, and it really fell into joe biden's lap to go to capitol hill and persuade those three republicans to deliver those three votes. we got to 60 votes right on the nose. >> so on behalf of this country and its people, mr. president, let me say thank you. we owe you a good deal. >> so just four weeks after the inauguration, the administration pumped $787 billion into a teetering economy. it was risky business, with some democrats complaining it wasn't

enough and republicans arguing it was too large. >> we have no assurance that we'll create jobs or revive the economy. in short, we're taking an enormous risk, an enormous risk with other people's money. >> the president of the united states. [ cheers and applause ] >> i've asked vice president biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort because nobody messes with joe. >> to implement the stimulus, it had to be free of any problems, scandals, and it had to be fast and furious. so you had to move unbelievably fast but no problems and no slip-ups. >> over the next seven years the economy grew, though relatively slowly. unemployment dropped by half, and millions of jobs were added. >> good morning, folks, how are you? >> the following year biden was on the hill again, this time to help find the votes for the affordable care act.

>> the patient protection and affordable care act is passed. >> his role in obamacare was principally as an arm twister. >> but 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 of america, barack obama. [ applause ] >> and then there was the time biden jumped the gun on the president, announcing his own is support for gay marriage on a sunday show. >> i am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same exact rights. >> but biden's utility went beyond domestic policy. as obama tasked him to handle assignments in afghanistan and

also iraq where the administration had promised to end the war. >> during the transition, president-elect obama said, why don't go to iraq and afghanistan in january to get the freshest possible information to inform our review? >> so that's what they did. biden returned from the trip believing afghanistan was a complete mess and told the president. >> there was not unity of mission, unity of purpose. he said, mr. president, the first thing we need to do is make sure that we have a clear set of objectives and a clear strategy and that everyone agrees on it. >> one point of agreement was that the first order of business was sending 25,000 additional troops to afghanistan to ensure the country's upcoming elections would be fair. but then came a request for even more troops. >> based on an assessment by the new commander in afghanistan, stan mccrystal, he came back to

washington and asked for an additional 40,000 u.s. troops. >> the military brass were on board, but not biden, who never stopped raising questions and clearly got on their nerves. you had gates, mullen, petraeus, mccrystal, hillary clinton. the vice president is saying to that vast array of experienced people, stop, wait a minute. we have to rethink this. >> i think he was saying, slow down, there's no rush to judgment here. >> the vice president would play, as he liked to say, the skunk at the picnic. he would be the bad cop. he would be the one pressing the military. why do you need that many resources? i don't believe that. explain that. >> i would be the one taking them on. president was new, they knew he didn't have foreign policy experience. and if they went after him and it was a mistake, it would be a very costly mistake. >> and it became total complicity with president obama.

they would confer before the meetings, and the president would say, joe, it would be great if you pushed on this or focused on that or prodded on that. that allowed the president to kind of not show his cards, to sit back, to hear everyone out. >> the debates inside "the situation room" grew more and more tense, especially with the military brass. >> there's always an attitude that, you know, we're 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'll give deference to those that have military experience. and the vice president is not one to do that. that's why some have been 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're in afghanistan in 2009, and frankly today ten years

later, has to do with al qaeda, and terrorists who can reach out of afghanistan and strike us or strike our allies. so he was laser focused on the terrorism problem. >> and how many boots on the ground would that have required? >> i think it was more along the lines of 10 or 15,000, in that range. >> biden lost the fight, unable to convince obama, who opted instead for the pentagon plan. the president committed 30,000 troops and told the brass to get the additional 10,000 from allies. former defense second robert gates, who declined to be interviewed for this profile, wrote this about biden in his memoir. quote, i think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades. but when asked about that quote this summer, gates chose to steer the conversation to his assessment of biden's character over their policy disputes.

>> i have a lot of policy disagreements, frankly, with the former vice president, but i think one of the things that people will be weighing this fall is probably the character of the, of the two contestants. >> good afternoon, folks. >> in 2010, biden was still looking for a way to end the iraq war. >> barack and i -- first, who do you turn to to end the war? me. we are committed to building an enduring partnership between iraq and the united states. >> biden's goal? convince iraqi prime minister nuriel malaki, to leave a small military presence behind. but he refused. did biden push hard enough on that? >> he didn't push at all. >> they say they did. they say they pushed and they pushed and they pushed. >> no, they did not push with any conviction. president obama ran on ending wars.

they didn't push hard because what they wanted to do was skedaddle and skedaddle was what they did. >> your dream of an independent and sovereign iraq is now a reality. >> in december 2011, the obama administration stuck to a schedule agreed to by president bush and withdrew. >> ultimately we did leave a vacuum there, and ultimately we paid a price for that. >> in iraq right now, militant isis fighters, they are less than 40 miles away from the capital of baghdad. and that ultimately forced the united states to go back in to iraq in order to make sure that they didn't take over the entire country. >> so u.s. troops returned to fill the vacuum temporarily. but the controversy over the growth of isis still remains. up next, the biden who

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joining us from wilmington, delaware, is vice president joe biden. mr. vice president -- >> it was a monday in may just like any other. >> hi, harry. >> until it wasn't. >> criticism coming this morning about the choice of elena kagan to be the next supreme court

justice. >> i'll never forget it. >> the vice president had gone home for the weekend, and he was doing tv to support the president's nomination to the supreme court. >> we're joined now by vice president joe biden. >> we got back to the vice president's house, and suddenly there was this commotion behind us and fran person, who was the president's aide, body aide, stuck his head in the window and said, bo's down. something's happened to bo. >> bo's down? >> bo's down. we're like, what? the motorcade bolted behind us and took offer. >> the vice president rushed to the hospital where his eldest son, 41-year-old bo, had been taken. >> nobody knew at that point he was even alive. what happened? as the day progressed, the d diagnosis was a stroke. i remember a moment in the hospital waiting room looking at the vice president and jill biden sitting together, holding hands with just unbelievable anxiety and grief on their face

and thinking, this is so unfair. that this would be happening to him after what he's been through. gradually the news got better that day, and the stroke, what they thought was a stroke, resolved itself. >> it appeared resolved a week later when bo left the hospital. but it wasn't. the real problem would be hidden for three more years. can you describe biden's relationship with bo? >> incredibly close. it was more than just father/son. they were almost alter egos. >> you could just see the love and the pride, quiet and unspoken between them. he was such a humble, decent person, bo was. >> the natural person to introduce his father to the nation in 2008. >> please join me in welcoming

my friend, my father, my hero, the next vice president of the united states, joe biden. [ cheers and applause ] >> bo served in iraq with the national guard. >> the attorney general of the state of delaware -- >> and was the attorney general of delaware, contemplating a run for governor. he was bound for bigger things and not just because of his last name. >> and i thank you from the bottom of my heart for being there for me. >> he was the heir apparent, but there was no question he could earn it himself. here was this incredible natural, right, who you just had to get out of the way of and let him shine. >> i knew he would follow in his father's footsteps. i mean, he loved politics, even as a little boy. >> did you think he was going to run for president some day? >> oh, absolutely, absolutely, yeah. >> by 2013, beau biden was

married with two children. >> then he had this incident while he was trafveling with hi family and ends up at the doctor's office. it was after that initial visit with the doctor that we heard from the vice president that he needed to see a specialist at m.d. anderson in houston. >> m.d. anderson, a top cancer hospital. do you remember when biden called you? >> yes, i do. you could tell from his voice that they had had a very challenging conversation with the doctor. >> the diagnosis was deadly. gl glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. the chances for long-term survival near zero. >> it was hard. i mean, it was hard. we just kept hope that he was going to make it.

you know, they say 1% of people survive and we kept thinking, why can't he be the 1%? after the workday, i would head to walter reed hospital. joe would head to walter reed, and he would be there till 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, and then he would come home, you know, grab a couple hours of sleep or fall asleep, you know, beau's bedside, and shower and start the next day. >> i said to him, i find it remarkable how you're able to deal with this. he said, you know, the reality is i've dealt with this before. i know how this story unfolds. >> friends and family say during this time he leaned heavily on his faith. >> i'd see him in meetings fingering his rosery beads. i knew he was praying for him.

joe on occasion would come in to st. anne's or saint patrick's. he'd come in after mass had started and slip in the back with his detail and be there. then he'd leave before it ended so he didn't disrupt everything. i remember looking back and sort of stealing a glance at one point. he was praying. >> biden also got support from his boss. >> the only person i told about how bad off beau was, and he kept it confidence, was barack. >> for years the president and vice president had a weekly lunch appointment. and when beau got sick, the struggle became their shared conversation. did they become closer? >> they absolutely became closer. as people do, right, when they experience great life events together. >> so close that when the vice president mentioned he might

sell his home to help his son, the president made a stunning offer. >> i said, if beau resigns, there's nothing to fall back on, his salary. i said, but i worked it out. i said, jill and i will sell the house, we'll be in good shape. he said, don't sell the house. promise me you won't sell the house. he's going to be mad at you saying this. he said, i'll give you the money. >> and while the vice president tried to help his son, the son tried to help his father. >> i absolutely believe and i'll believe it till the day i die, that the thing that beau was most afraid of was not dying. what he was most afraid of is the impact it would have on his dad. that would really take his dad out. >> did he tell you that? >> oh, yeah. oh, yeah. all the time. >> it's something the vice president wrote about in 2017 in his book, "promise me, dad." >> beau just made me promise just before he died.

he said, dad, you have to promise me you're going to be okay. i said, beau -- he said, dad, look at me. look me in the eye, dad. give me your word as a biden, dad you're going to be okay. >> are you okay? >> i am, because it is still emotional, but i knew what he meant. he was worried i'd walk away from everything i worked about my whole life, the things i cared about. he knew i'd take care of the family. he never wondered about that. but he didn't want me walking away. >> forward, march. >> beau biden died on may 30th, 2015. he was 46 years old. >> beau biden was an 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's rosery with you? >> got it in my pocket. >> all the time? >> i keep it all the time. he had it when he passed away. it was more gold. you can see it's worn. >> that was the spring of 2015. and as ever in joe biden's life, another political deadline loomed. would he run for president again in 2016? >> we had a talk. he just kind of wanted, do you think i should run for president? it inevitably turned into a talk about beau. how would he get through it, how would he do it how would it happen without him. >> so when you left that meeting, did you think he was going to run? >> i thought he was really, really going to wrestle with it.

he was not in a place where there was a floor. there was this moment where we started talking, and you could just see there was no bottom. there was just this hole. >> the decision wasn't just about beau. it was getting late in the race for the democratic nomination. hillary clinton had already captured key support and big money. >> thank you all very much. >> have you made your decision yet? >> i can't hear you. >> have you made your decision yet? >> and as biden wrote in his 2017 memoir, obama's political team thought the race wasn't winnable. and obama himself was not encouraging. and so -- >> as my family and i have worked through the grieving process, i've said all along that it may very well be that that process, by the time we get through it, closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president.

i have concluded it has closed. thank you all very much. >> joe biden was 73 years old, and it seemed that the presidency was out of reach for good. did he think it was over then, the notion of running for president? >> yeah. >> you know, 2016? >> oh, yeah. >> then the president gave biden another job. >> last year vice president biden said that we have a new moon shot, america can cure cancer. >> owe bobama gave biden his mo shot. >> i'm announcing a new national effort to get it done. because he's gone to the mat for all of us over the past 40 years, i'm putting joe in charge of mission control. >> and then this. >> i am pleased to award our nation's highest civilian honor the presidential medal of freedom. [ applause ]

>> with nearly 50 years of public service under his belt and the nation's highest civilian honor around his neck, joe biden thought his time in washington was over. up next -- >> beat trump. beat trump. >> so, he wouldn't be running if it weren't for donald trump? >> absolutely not. joe and i would have -- ♪ whoa! ♪ i feel good ♪ i knew that i would, now ♪ i feel good ♪ get a dozen double crunch shrimp for one dollar with any steak entrée. only at applebee's. i'm a peer educator,... a fitness buff,... and a champion for my own health. i talked with my doctor... and switched to...

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thank you very much, everybody. [ applause ] >> 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. >> 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 tacks. and he keeps in sight the stakes. >> a retirement party senate style where the compliments flowed freely because biden would never run again. even biden believed it. >> then along came charlottesville. >> you will not replace us. >> these people coming out with torches, contorted face, 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 have tripped him. [ laughter ] >> that's why today i'm announcing my candidacy for president of the united states. >> 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. >> 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.

>> 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. >> president trump claimed joe biden used his considerable influence to force out a ukrainian prosecutor whom trump says was investigating hunter. >> he said 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. >> 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

say that is a conflict of interest. you shouldn't do that. >> last year hunter biden told abc news he made a mistake. >> did i make a mistake? well, maybe in the grand scheme of things, yeah. but did i make a mistake based upon some unethical lapse? absolutely not. >> do you ever think that you should have just 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 both wish it hadn't happened that way. but the fact is all people testified under oath in the impeachment hearings acknowledged there wasn't a single thing biden did, either one, that was illegal, inappropriate, there was no evidence of that. it would have been easier, would have been a lot easier. >> the attacks clearly got under biden's skin. >> you're selling -- to the president like he was. >> you're a damn liar, that's not true. no one ever said that.

>> ethical questions continue to be raised by republicans. >> there's no way as a vice president 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. >> thank you, thank you, thank you. >> by february, democrats were heading to the polls and biden's fate was up to the voters. >> this 15.6 is a disappointment for biden currently running 4th. >> 4th in iowa. 5th in new hampshire. soon came south carolina. and did you think that it was looking pretty bleak? >> yeah, i thought that. >> and so just days before the primary, influential congressman jim clyburn, hoping to give biden a boost, endorsed him. >> but i want the public to know that i'm voting for joe biden. south carolinians should be voting for joe biden. >> it worked, big time. >> sweeping blow-out win for the former vice president joe biden.

46 counties in south carolina, 46 county victories for joe biden. >> my buddy jim clyburn, you brought me back. [ cheers and applause ] >> he won by 29 points, and he wouldn't have done it without you. >> a man of enormous integrity. >> there's no doubt about that. >> well, some people say that. >> the decisive results in south carolina quickly collapsed the democratic field. >> they don't call super tuesday for nothing. >> 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, school shuttered, sports season totally canceled. >> millions of jobs were lost. the death toll mounted. >> black lives matter. black lives matter. >> 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 where your grief is being sucked into it. >> empathy is joe biden's super power, 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. >> 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 be putting him in a home. >> they're 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. >> all right, i got a --

>> i think it's ridiculous. i mean, if you follow joe on the campaign trail, he's usually the last one to leave a rally or rope line, and 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 they say he's not the old biden i knew and he's lost a step after all these years and it worries me, what do you say to those folks? >> watch me. i say, watch me. good evening. >> more than 21 million people watched joe biden accept the democratic nomination. >> it's with great honor and humility, i accept this nomination for president of the united states of america. >> 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 as part of the left wing,

pulling her silver haired 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. >> 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. >> and i don't mean cruel and unfair life can be sometimes. >> he made a case for resilience to america, moored by hope and decency. >> calls for hope and light and love. hope for our future. light to see our way forward. and love for one another. >> 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 a% 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. >> announcer: 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. >> shattering norms. >> it is completely disruptive and different than anything you've ever seen before. >> breaking boundaries. >> he would turn on that in a really aggressive way. in a way that i've never seen or heard of presidents doing before. >> and demolishing expectations and 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. >> donald trump. >> is a racist. >> whether those who hate him or celebrate him, a look now at the moments that defined donald j. trump's first term.

the issues he vowed to tackle. >> build that wall. repeal and replace obamacare. >> his massive tax cuts will be rocket fuel for the american economy. >> those miners get ready because you're going to be working your asses off, all right? >> the crises he has faced. >> we will defeat the virus and emerge stronger than ever before. >> hear from the people who were there. >> i was in the early meetings in the oval office. >> in the rooms where it happened. why does he seem to like putin? this is a cnn special report. "fight for the white house: donald trump's presidency." >> together we will crush the virus. [ applause ]

>> against the backdrop of a global pandemic, president trump was making his case for a second term. and from the looks of it, no real concerns about an extremely contagious and deadly virus. >> what the white house was trying to do was say, look, we believe that covid's gone. >> you saw donald trump try to put lipstick on a pig last night. >> we will defeat the virus, end the pandemic. >> i have witnessed him make some of the most difficult decisions of his life. >> but there might have been an accidental clue that this was not the whole story. >> thanks to advances we have pioneered the fatality rate. >> pioneered the fatality rate? in fact, president trump and his administration have been pioneers of a mishandled response and flawed leadership from the very beginning. >> new details on the deadly coronavirus outbreak in china and spreading across the globe.

>> as early as january, president trump was warned about the novel coronavirus, according to author bob woodward. in a january 28th briefing, national security adviser robert o'brien told president trump covid-19 would be the, quote, biggest national security threat of his presidency. president trump says he does not remember that briefing. there were also briefings with other intelligence and public health officials. "washington post" white house reporter and cnn contributor josh dossy. >> it took alex azar to talk about it, and the president soon moved the conversation to vaping. azar said he and others were quite frustrated. >> i was in the early meetings in the oval office. >> former white house counsellor kellyanne conway tells a different story. >> he banned travel from china in january. >> nobody thought we should do it. zero cases, zero deaths. >> it was not a full ban on travel from china.

tens of thousands of people were allowed to travel to the u.s. even after it was ordered. perhaps more importantly, president trump was publicly dismissing the threat, with cdc efforts to come up with a test botched, and no comprehensive effort to identify and isolate the virus nationwide. still, the president would continue to point to partial travel bans to argue that he was on the case. cnn's white house correspondent kaitlan collins. >> if you talk to experts, by the time that the president put those in place the virus was already circulating inside the united states. >> all of this was accompanied by a daily barrage of presidential lies. >> we have it totally under control, it's one person coming in from china. he with think we have it very well under control. >> the consensus among his own health experts was that we needed to shift to a strategy of trying to limit the number of illnesses and deaths instead of just trying to block it from entering the united states.

>> "the new york times" investigative reporter eric lipton. >> trump was unwilling to accept that advice. >> thank you very much, everybody. >> trump dismissed concerns the virus was worse than the flu, but it turns out privately he was saying something very different. >> you just breathe the air. that's how it's passed so that's a very tricky one. that's a very delicate one. it's also more deadly than your, you know, even your strenuous flus. >> trump says he downplayed the virus so as to prevent the american people from panicking, and he continued to downplay it in early march. >> it will go away. just stay calm. it will go away. >> a message at odds with health experts. cases kept increasing, and increasing. >> the coronavirus death toll that jumped again today. >> finally on march 11th, the day tom hanks and his wife rita wilson became the first high-profile americans to announce they had tested positive, and the nba shutdown its season, trump set out to reassure a very nervous nation.

>> my fellow americans -- >> the president was uncomfortable heading into it. >> "the new york times" white house correspondent and cnn political analyst maggie haberman. >> the president looked unfamiliar with the material as he was reading it. it contained at least three errors. that speech was probably the single-most important moment in the u.s. response to the coronavirus. but for all the wrong reasons. >> cnn's abby philip. >> it really highlighted that the administration was not prepared to deal with the crisis. >> it was an historic day on wall street. >> the next day the new york stock exchange halted trading for 15 minutes after the s&p 500 fell 7%. the white house scrambled to try to fix the errors about travel bans and insurance coverage. then one day later -- >> today i am officially declaring a national emergency. >> the country had lost two months, really, to ramp up testing and production of key

supplies, such as p.p.e. or ventilators. >> he had that at his fingertips. >> president trump says presidential historian tim naftali, could have nationalized the response and invoked the defense production act to immediately force companies to manufacture what was needed. >> he had an opportunity with covid-19 to use the enormous power of the presidency in a moment of national crisis. >> governors were left to fend for their states. >> it was just mass pandemonium. >> maryland republican governor larry hogan. >> it was a 50-state strategy. some states doing better than others. >> hogan secretly sourced half a million tests for his state from south korea. >> i asked the president about that at a briefing we had. >> could have saved a lot of money, but that's okay. >> did he need to go to south korea -- >> no, he didn't go to south korea. he needed a little knowledge to be helpful. >> the question was, well, if

that's true, then why is the governor of maryland having to go to another country? >> testing was lagging far behind despite the president's spin. >> anybody that wants a test can get a test. that's what -- >> that was a lie. >> i said earlier today that i hope we can do this by easter. >> trump then tried to pressure governors to open up their states and their economies. >> i really do believe a lot of the governors should be opening up states. >> what mistakes do you think have been made by the president? >> allowing some of the governors to make decisions skbh mayors to make decisions about whether and when to lockdown and how the lockdown also made this more fraught. >> it was not a health strategy. it was a political strategy. allowing the white house to blame the governors no matter what, and accept zero responsibility. this while the president also sought to undermine the nation's leading infectious disease expert, dr. anthony fauci for telling the truth, including

acknowledging the fact that the president's delay in action cost lives. >> obviously you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. obviously no one is going to deny that. >> the president tried to control the message, minimizing the risk. >> young people are almost immune to this disease. >> pushing unproven potentially dangerous drugs such as hydroxychloroquine. >> what do you have to lose? i'll say it again, what do you have to lose? take it. >> or this jaw-dropping moment. >> i see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in one minute, one minute. is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? >> the president's briefings ended for a while, and he let the experts take the lead. he pushed guidelines on social

distancing and wearing a mask. and he finally wore a mask himself. the trump administration did eventually invoke the dpa for key supplies such as testing swabs. progress has been made when it comes to treatments and the trump administration is optimistic about developing a vaccine. >> dr. francis collins who spent decades at n.i.h. alongside anthony fauci, jake, said that he's never seen vaccine therapies come together quickly in the way that they are. >> the facts sadly speak for themselves. the u.s., with less than 5% of the world's population has a much higher case count and death count than the rest of the western world. we wanted to ask president trump about ail of this and more, but he turned down repeated requests for an interview. recently the president seems to be back to undermining efforts to save lives, whether through holding events with seemingly no social distancing or required mask wearing. or frequently mocking joe biden

for wearing a mask. >> i don't wear masks like him. every time you see him he's wearing a mask. he could be speaking 200 feet away and he shows up with the biggest mask i've ever seen. >> just days after that comment, president trump himself was diagnosed with the virus. coming up, the quality donald trump values perhaps the most. does your deodorant protect you all day? we gave new dove men+care to mike who transforms homes for those in need. i feel comfortable and protected all day long. dove men+care 48h freshness with triple action moisturizer.

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you know, some of these people have like a 10% loyalty, meaning if they sneeze in the wrong direction, they're gone. loyalty. >> good morning. welcome to your new day. it is monday, december 19th. >> texas electors ceiling tseal deal for donald trump. >> donald trump's victory official today. >> it was the day trump's win was officially certified by the electoral college. the president ee electricity was reported the president elect was celebrating in palm beach. he turned to who he should hire.

th >> they focused on those who had been lloyd to him during the campaign and most republicans were trying to distance themselves from him. >> the dinner has certainly been consistent with everything we've seen from this president. he has been obsessed >> obsessed with loyalty. he always has been. here he is in 1980. >> i learned that there were some great loyal people and i've learned that there were some people that could have been more loyal, and those people i have discarded totally. >> and once donald trump became president, he didn't just look for it. he demanded it. >> it's a tradition that presidents bring a little clique with them, the boston mafia, jimmy carter. >> loyalty is not new in the white house. >> but trump's brand of loyalty was new. >> the trump people sadiid

essentially, if you post something positive about the president, you would likely get a position. >> i have never heard that kind of vetting of people for negative comments about the president in their past lives. >> his early hires were loyalists throughout the campaign and in the early months of the presidency. he did hire a few one-time opponents who have been loyal since. >> thank you, mr. president. >> including secretary of housing and urban development ben carson. >> our president, donald j. trump, he makes promises and he keeps them. >> and secretary of energy, former governor rick perry. >> mr. president, i know there are people that say you said you were the chosen one, and you were. >> but it would not take long for president trump to learn others' loyalty was fleeting. >> it is a very, very good idea who the leakers are, who the

senior leakers are in the white house. >> former white house communications director anthony scaramucci was hired six months into the presidency to weed out disloyal leakers. >> there were three or four people who were the biggest leakers and he wanted them gone. loyalty goes one way towards him. >> this demand for loyalty could be a problem when it seemed to supersede ethics. >> loyalty means you do what i need you to do, even if it's unethical. you work for me. that may be a good strategy if you run a small private business, but it's absolutely unacceptable for a constitutional officer in a republic. >> he immediately tests you to see if you are going to be on his side or if you're going to be his enemy. >> what do you say -- >> it was an unfamiliar situation for someone such as andrew mccabe, then acting director of the fbi. he had served four

administrations at the fbi for both republican and democratic presidents. >> as career government servants dedicated first and foremost to the constitution and to the rule of law, those folks are not going to simply accede to the president's will. >> does working for president trump ultimately mean you have to agree with him all the time if you want to keep your job? >> yeah, i think that's the case. they're going to do what they think is their job. and that is a very tough decision for people to make. and it's one that will likely bring you great personal pain and sacrifice. and so if you are committed to doing that work, you're likely going to run head long into a conflict with president trump. >> i have now decided to recuse myself from any existing or

future investigations of any matter relating in any way to the campaign for president of the united states. >> for instance, jeff sessions, an incredibly loyal guy, but made one decision complying with ethics suggestions from d.o.j. and that's it, he's dead to president trump. >> he could run you over with a steam roller at any time. i need you to do things, and i need you to be willing to take the blame for me when things go poorly. >> perhaps contributing to unprecedented turnover. 89% of his senior staff, trump's a-team, have left. that's more turnover than all of the past five presidents had in their entire first terms. and one more number. trump has had 40% of his top positions replaced more than once. former white house press

secretary sean spicer. >> there were a lot -- some people that weren't qualified, but they had been loyal to the president. >> and when people have left, several formers found themselves eventually speaking out against president trump. >> it was challenging for me to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn't read briefing reports. >> the only person in the military that mr. trump doesn't think is over rated is colonel sanders. >> the ultimate betrayal for president trump who resorted to name calling. former national security adviser john bolton, a whacko. jim mattis, the world's mostly overrated general. former secretary of state rex tillerson, dumb as a rock. >> he would really turn on them in an aggressive way in a way i had never seen or heard of presidents doing before. >> i think, you know, turnover is natural in any white house.

>> former trump adviser david urban. >> i think this administration may be more high pressure, more issues that are pressing. >> a demand for loyalty that trump relied on for what he hoped to be his first big policy win, repealing and replacing obamacare. >> we have so many unbelievable alternatives, much less expensive. much less -- >> i think donald trump believed that his iron grip on republican voters would get him all republican votes. >> two months after the trump inauguration, the republicans had a bill that would begin the dismantling of obamacare. >> the bill is passed and without objection. >> and while the bill did make it through the house, the senate posed some issues. >> i think the bill would have to be fundamentally changed. >> the senate bill was known as skinny repeal going into the vote in july of 2017.

trump's hopes for success rested with arizona republican senator john mccain. whom trump had attacked for years. >> he's not a war hero. >> he is a war hero -- >> he's a war hero because he was captured. i like people that weren't captured. >> senator mccain was sick and he was heading out to arizona. i made the suggestion maybe we should go out there and see him on one of these trips that we were making. and president did not want to do that. >> in the early hours of july 28th, 2017, mccain arrived to vote. a singular motion that left the senate chamber aghast, and the white house reeling. >> it was incredibly personal. president trump holds onto grudges. and like he wants loyalty, he probably will never let that moment go.

>> for the rest of mccain's life, and long after his death, trump would attack him. >> i was never a fan of john mccain, and i never will be. >> something that trump would do to any republican who turned against him. >> no, i'm not a fan of -- jeb bush is a puppet to his donor. >> he has effectively chased many of his critics out of the republican party. >> the president has defied political wisdom in bringing the party along with virtually everything that he has done. for over four years now since he was a candidate. and he requires that loyalty. >> loyalty that would carry trump through many issues and crises in his first term. >> we want lower taxes, bigger paychecks. >> from tax reform to judicial appointments to impeachment. >> the only good headline i've

ever had in the washington post. >> more on those later. >> but first when we come back, trump's economy. hey! it's me! your dry skin! i'm craving something we're missing. the ceramides in cerave. they help restore my natural barrier, so i can lock in moisture. we've got to have each other's backs... cerave. now the #1 dermatologist recommended skincare brand. (fisherman vo)ce) how do i register to vote?ential election... hmm!.. hmm!.. hmm!.. (woman on porch vo) can we vote by mail here? (grandma vo) you'll be safe, right? (daughter vo) yes! (four girls vo) the polls! voted! (grandma vo) go out and vote! it's so important! (man at poll vo) woo! (grandma vo) it's the most important thing you can do!

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we need a leader that wrote the art of the deal. >> donald trump came to washington based on a promise. ♪ ♪ >> i'm a great deal maker. that's what i do. i made a lot of money. i'm going to give it my best. ♪ ♪ >> we want lower taxes, bigger paychecks. >> and the president was determined to strike a deal on tax cuts by the end of his first year in office. >> there's never been tax cuts like what we're talking about. >> this is a tax bill. >> democrats railed against republicans for rushing a complicated overhaul of the tax system through congress. >> it is about 500 pages and they want us to vote on this thing in about an hour, an hour. >> some republicans, such as senator jeff flake of arizona, worried that a radical tax cut might inflate the national debt.

at first you were a hold out, one of the two key hold outs. what were your concerns? >> i would have felt there was a better option simply to lower the corporate tax and leave individual rates where they were. but mine was not a popular opinion. >> at the 11th hour senator flake reversed course siding with president trump. >> i thought it was a good package. >> the first major tax overhaul in three decades passed the house, then the senate in late december 2017. the bill promised to slash individual and corporate tax rates, increase wages, and boost business spending. >> these massive tax cuts will be rocket fuel for the american economy. >> some of that did happen. >> most americans saw a small increase in their take-home pay. some of them ended up with big tax bills at the end of the year. and many americans felt that they just didn't get a tax cut. >> i can think of no better

christmas present for the american people. >> experts say the tax bill was a much bigger present for companies. the corporate tax rate was slashed from 35 to 21%. >> i mean, really, what we got in 2017 was a big corporate tax boondoggle. >> cnn's global economic analyst. >> he sold this idea that, hey, these companies are going to save so much money, they're going to bring back investment now from overseas. we're going to see new factories, we're going to see hiring. well, some money did come back, about 700 billion or so, but the majority of it went into share buy backs. when companies go into the market and they buy back their own shares, it's great for the c-suite. it's great tort top 10%. but it doesn't change the story on main street. >> i would respond with a lot of disagreement. >> white house economic adviser larry kudlow. >> the biggest beneficiaries of that 2017 bill whose center piece was the business tax cuts, were actually middle income blue collar workers, main street

folks. they had the largest gaines in wages. >> economists say the bill probably did help lift wage growth for americans. overall momentum that began under president obama. but the bulk of the trump tax bill benefit went to the rich, adding to that success trump supporters say, near record low unemployment. >> we are in the midst of the longest positive job growth streak in history. >> and a booming stock market. the dow jones hit more than 100 new highs between the 2016 election and the end of 2019. with the dow peaking at a record breaking high of 29,551 points on february 12th, 2020. right before the coronavirus outbreak froze the u.s. >> the president lives and dies by the market. and so any time there's bad economic news, he does whatever he can to try and goose things. he's done that by tax cuts. he's done it by trying to encourage interest rates to be kept low, pushing the fed around

that. >> we've accomplished an economic turn around of historic proportions. >> in september 2018, president trump emboldened by america's economic growth and china's economic slow down ramped up his trade war with beijing. imposing tariffs on billions of dollars of chinese goods entering the u.s. >> there was a need certainly to right size the relationship with the united states. but what the president did was he disavowed the strategies that were put forth by trade experts. >> the tariffs are not being paid for by our people. it's being paid for by china. >> no, tariffs are being paid by american consumers who have higher prices on consumer goods that are being essentially taxed as they enter the united states. >> in retaliation? >> the chinese put pressure on iowa and nesh nebenzia. >> by placing tariffs on hundreds of american products such as soybeans, hurting american farmers. >> this great deal maker undermines american farmers by

going after the chinese. and in the end has to get congress to send financial assistance to farmers. >> i think that the chinese were at certain points ready to come to the table and actually make some changes, but oftentimes right when a true deal might have been about to be cut, you'd see the president really ramping up that really inflammatory rhetoric. >> to get all different names, wuhan, kung flu. >> the president escalated his tariff roulette with china. >> the president vacillates day to day between wanting to make a deal with president xi, saying i like him personally, saying need another phase. >> well, it's a tricky business. we're very cross about denying the freedoms in hong kong and breaking that long-standing treaty. the president is cross with them with their lack of human rights and the uighur problem, holding them accountable. >> but former national security adviser john bolton said president trump's recent sanctions on chinese officials

involved in the mass concentration of uighur muslims contradicts his stance. bolt enin his book says in his meeting with president xi last year, president trump said, quote, xi should go ahead with building the camps, which bolton writes trump thought was the right thing to do. president trump denied that accusation. >> i can't make sense of our policy where rhetorically tough on china, intermittently tough, but many years we've been missing in action and sent inconsistent or weak signals. more significantly, we didn't join the trans-pacific partnership. if we wanted to put pressure on china, what better way than to join our asia-pacific partners. trump wouldn't do it. >> they say the president's foreign policies with china are working. >> there is a widespread belief in many in china in terms of technology transfer, in terms of theft of intellectual property that this president's

concessions were able to get with president xi and the chinese by imposing tariffs. the long-term legacy of this president, similar to nixon, will be china. >> that's a harder case to make during a global health crisis. >> we're already in a recession. in fact, we're already in a depression, you know, technically. and the numbers are that bad. when you layer the problems of the pandemic on an economy that already had all these structural weaknesses, that doesn't add up to any kind of a good picture. ♪ ♪ >> during his acceptance speech at the republican national convention, president trump was painting a rosy picture. >> over the past three months, we have gained over 9 million jobs, and that's a record in the history of our country. >> what the president failed to mention, those gains followed a record 22 million job loss the previous two months. something the president didn't cover, caused by his bungled

response. >> we have seen the smallest contraction than any western nation. >> his calling card the entire first term. >> goodness, look at the numbers down 7%. >> a the covid crash on wall street is officially over. >> and even as coronavirus continues to grip the nation, the stock market has recovered. >> the s&p 500 closed at a record high tuesday for the first time since the pandemic began. >> i do think once we get rid of the virus, i think we're going to have a boom economy. >> in september a bombshell "the new york times" report on the president's own finances surfaced. the deal maker in chief is actually crushed by massive debt. and the self-proclaimed billionaire president who reformed the tax code actually paid $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017 according to the times. >> is it true that you paid $750 in federal income taxes each of those two years? >> i paid millions of dollars in taxes, millions of dollars of

income tax. i paid 27 million -- >> show us your tax returns. >> something president trump still refuses to do. up next, the reshaping of the federal judiciary. listerine® cleans virtually 100%. helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. never settle for 25%. always go for 100. bring out the bold™

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because why be like who'sgovernor gavin newsom. the governor says prop 15 is, "fair, phased-in, and long overdue reform", that "will exempt small businesses and residential property owners." join governor newsom. vote yes on 15.

who's supkamala harris.5? harris says, "a corporate tax loophole has allowed billions to be drained from our public schools and local communities. no more. i'm proud to support prop 15." vote yes. schools and communities first is responsible for the content of this ad. i've always heard actually that when you become president, the most -- single most important you can do is federal judges. >> ruth bader ginsburg, who is the supreme court justice, has died.

>> she led an amazing life. she was an amazing woman. >> that was president trump's public reaction to justice ruth bader ginsburg's death. but privately an insider says trump had been sal vindicating to replace ginsburg and now he had an opening, an opening to rally his base and remind some republicans who were turning away from him because of various failures including covid, that the future of the courts might be more important. >> article 2 of our constitution says the president shall nominate justices of the supreme court. >> all reminiscent of 2016, and another justice's passing. >> i have some very sad news. united states supreme court justice antonin scalia has died. >> antonin scalia served on the court since 1986 and it looks like president barack obama is going to appoint a new member of

the court, which would tip the liberal balance for the first time in years to the liberal side. >> cnn legal analyst joan biscupick. >> what sets in motion a series of dominos that produced the court we have today. >> though leading in the polls, trump was still considered a long shot. but he knew the world would be watching later that night. >> donald trump of new york. >> as the gop presidential debate took center stage. >> a moment of silence for justice antonin scalia. >> he capitalized on the moment, suggesting a couple of respectable conservative judges to fill scalia's vacancy, ceiling the deal with many conservatives. >> we could have a diane sykes or you could have a bill pryor. we have fantastic people >> just to be clear on this, mr. trump, you're okay with the president nominating somebody? >> i think he's going to do it whether it's okay with everybody or not. it's up to mitch mcconnell to stop it. it's called delay, delay, delay.

>> this nomination should not be filled by this lame duck president. >> president obama's nominee, u.s. court of appeals chief justice merritt garland never even got a single hearing. >> outside adviser to the president for judicial selection leonard, says you're the man to aspire to the supreme court. >> leonard leo, cochair of the federalist society, joined trump's team. >> he wanted to put out a list of individuals for the u.s. supreme court. >> one of the most important things we'll be doing, whoever the next president is, naming judges. >> he wanted first someone who was, in his words, not weak. what that did was it basically said to the american people, this is what i donald trump stand for in terms of judicial selection. >> many felt that judicial selection campaign helped pave trump's path to the white house. with trump now in office, and a

republican-held congress, legal adviser don mcgahn, leo and mcconnell wasted little time. >> today i am nominating judge neil gorsuch. >> the momentum did not stop there. when moderate republican and long-time jurist anthony kennedy retired in 2018, trump nominated young conservative u.s. appellate court judge brett kavanaugh. to try to swing the court even further to the right. but he was not expecting this. >> federal investigators will now be looking into a matter connected with federal judge brett kavanaugh as u.s. supreme court nomination. >> started off rather predictability. but then a woman by the name of christine blasey ford came forward. >> i told mcconnell and others i wouldn't advance his nomination unless we heard from dr. ford. >> i believed he was going to rape me. i tried to yell for help.

>> former arizona senator jeff flake. >> brett kavanaugh, he acted as if i think i would have acted had i felt that i had been unjustly accused. >> i'm here today to tell the truth. i've never sexually assaulted anyone. >> down the street at the white house, trump fired off a shot of his own. >> this is a big con job, and schumer and his buddies are all in there laughing, how they fooled you all. >> following a week long investigation that critics of kavanaugh thought was too brief -- >> charade. >> sham. >> bullies. >> we'll call the roll. >> kavanaugh was confirmed to the u.s. supreme court by a two-vote margin. >> the nomination of brett m. kavanaugh is confirmed. [ applause ] >> another victory for trump, another justice on the bench. while the supreme court confirmations grabbed headlines, something else was happening that largely went unnoticed by the public.

>> district courts and the circuit courts, it's one of those quiet things that folks across america don't perhaps grasp the gravity of these courts all interpret the lawes of our country every day in so many different ways. >> they identified 40 something conservative judges, and they jambed them through the senate with incredible speed. >> speed and strategy, because mcconnell blocked so many obama nominees, trump inherited 103 vacancies. astoundingly, the president has appointed almost one-third of all current appellate court judges. >> much of the law in america is set by the federal courts of appeals. >> that is probably one of the very few things that helps republicans justify why they support him, is that he got the judges they wanted, confirmed, and put in place. >> that means controversial issues such as abortion, gun control, health care, immigration, and racial and

same-sex discrimination, cases that could likely be ruled on by trump appointees, largely young, white, male conservative judges, serving lifetime appointments. but perhaps none of those issues will have the global impact such as the rulings we will see dealing with the environment. >> miners, get ready because you're going to be working your asses off, all right? >> a long-held republican belief. the message was clear. trump was going to roll back environmental regulations that he said hurt businesses. >> i am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on american energy and to cancel job-killing regulations. [ applause ] >> it was considered a slap in the face. >> former epa director betsy sutherland remembers trump signing an executive order to dismantle president obama's clean contract signed by the epa. >> it was absolutely a display

of sheer contempt for all the scientists, engineers and economists that have worked on that rule for years and years. >> and this would be just the beginning. >> and this would be just the beginning. >> the united states will withdraw -- >> i wasn't surprised we stepped away from the paris climate accord because the president had given every indication he thought it was ridiculous. >> reporter: christine todd whitman. >> it was in sync with his total denial of climate change. it's a hoax in his mind. >> warning shots to environmental agencies everywhere. deregulation had arrived. >> i think you can have clean water, clean air, safe skies, but do so in a manner that doesn't strangle business. rollbacks have not produced the gloom and doom that so many predict. >> every single man, woman, and child in this country has threatened drinking water, threatened fisheries, threatened air quality, and more contaminated land because of this administration.

>> donald trump's administration really doesn't want regulators in your life, in my life, in vin's life. so their philosophy is to diminish regulations. >> reporter: a philosophy and legacy that could very well be defined by the legacy of the judges he has appointed and still hopes to appoint. >> today it is my honor to nominate one of our nation's most brilliant and gifted legal minds to the supreme court, amy coney barrett. >> i don't have any doubt his greatest success is going to be the judiciary that has a lasting legacy that can extend well beyond a generation. >> they're likely to affect the law in america for our children and grandchildren long after donald trump is gone from this earth. coming up, trump's divisive stand on immigration. >> when mexico sends its people,

they're not sending their best. they're bringing drugs. they're bringing crime. they're rapists. ♪ ♪ i see you looking (uh) ♪ i see you looking (na, na, na) ♪ ♪ i see you looking (uh) ♪ i see you looking ♪ watch what i do (camera clicks) ♪ watch what i do ♪ i see you looking ♪ watch what i do! (camera clicks) ♪ watch what i do ♪ i see you looking ♪ watch what i ... do!

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we are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration. >> long before the rally chants during the 2016 campaign -- >> build that wall. build that wall. build that wall. >> -- donald trump believed immigration was the issue that would help land a republican back in the white house. >> they lost on immigration. they're going to have to do something on immigration because you know our country is a different place than it was 50 years ago. we'll see what happens. >> what happened three years later? donald trump entered the presidential election in 2015 with a harsh if not blatantly racist stand on illegal immigration. >> when mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. they're bringing drugs. they're bringing crime. they're rapists. and some, i assume, are good

people. >> it was an unscripted moment, says julie hirsch feld davis, coauthor of the book "border wars." it was so offensive, businesses started dumping trump. nbc discontinued the apprentice. macy's stopped selling his men's wear. >> it was a shock to americans and frankly a lot of republicans. >> but solidifying a base especially energized by the calls to build a wall to keep undocumented immigrants out. candidate trump also proposed one of the most shockingly bigoted policies modern politics has heard from a major party candidate, stark discrimination based upon religious observance. unconstitutional and hate filled. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states. >> and trump was clear once he got in the white house he would not back down. >> we have defended other nations' borders while refusing

to defend our own. >> he signed this executive order which was a travel ban on these roughly half a dozen muslim majority countries. and the idea was basically to catch people by surprise, to basically create confusion, to create mayhem. >> chaos has of course rippled from washington, d.c. to airports in foreign capitals around the world. today white house press secretary sean spicer was complaining members of the media are unfairly using the term ban to describe the president's action. >> not everyone was on board in different aspects of the rollout, and that makes it challenging to then communicate why you're doing it. >> after many months of revising, they did put in effect stricter vetting procedures for a large number of countries. so i think they saw it as sort of a qualified success. >> what was seen as an unqualified failure, the trump administration's family separation policy. >> if you cross the border

unlawfully, even a first offense, we're going to prosecute you. if you're smuggling a child, then we're going to prosecute you. and that child will be separated from you, probably, as required by law. >> a zero tolerance policy enforcing a law that had long been on the books but had never been enforced in a widespread manner. >> children were being held behind chain link fencing apart from their parents on the border of mexico. >> the policy led to thousands of children being separated from their families. nonstop horror stories of children crying for their parents, alone, and scared. >> immigrants are welcome here! >> when trump first started to hear the stories, he didn't want to be seen as the monster who would take children away from their parents. >> almost two months after it began, trump ended his own policy, one that his own white house pushed, with an executive order. >> ivanka feels very strongly,

my wife feels very strongly about it. i feel very strongly about it. >> a lot of trump supporters think that was one of the lower moments of his presidency. >> well, look, i think as a nation we can do far better. we owe people as human beings a better shake than they got. >> in the wake of this crisis, trump was looking for a way to turn the page and rally his base as he headed into the midterm elections. >> they marched for miles. thousands of migrants in a massive caravan. >> it was the summer of 2018 and it was the summer of 2018 and the president's hard line and president trump threaten today yank aid from central american countries and lashed out at administration officials for not stemming the tide. how frustrated was he? >> he saw this as potentially fatal politically for him. >> they want to throw rocks at

our military.