legalzoom. legal help is here. hey there, everyone. i'm alex witt here live in philadelphia at the independence mall visitor center. just two days before the democratic national convention kicks off just a short distance from here. but the big story this hour in miami, we're just moments away from the first joint appearance of hillary rodham clinton and her vice presidential pick, virginia senator tim kaine. bringing you a live picture from florida international university, where the new running mates are going to be taking the stage very soon. we at nbc have kristen welker in miami, and andrea mitchell. and by my side here in philadelphia, joy reed, host of "am joy." and former naacp head, ben,

illustrious crowd, all four of you. how will this roll out, kristen? >> reporter: hey there, alex. we anticipate they will take the stage soon here in miami. again, as you point out, the first joint appearance with secretary clinton and senator tim kaine, since she picked him to be her vp nominee. and i can tell you i've been talking to campaign officials, they feel really energized heading into today. they're hoping this will really be the kickoff of some fresh momentum heading into next week's democratic convention. i think part of today will be the rally the base to energize folks, but also to introduce this crowd to senator tim kaine. i was just out talking to the folks here, alex. i can tell you a lot of them know who tim kaine is, a lot of them are familiar with his resume. but not everyone here. so this is going to be an introduction of tim kaine. a 58-year-old father of three from virginia. also served as former governor

of virginia. he served as the dnc chair also. campaign officials say he's one of those who checks all of the boxes. hillary clinton thought he would be a strong governing partner. there are some progressives who say they're not quite ready to get onboard. those senator sanders supporters who say he's not progressive enough, he's too pro-trade, not tough enough on wall street. clinton campaigners were ready with a whole host of endorsements from progressive groups like the brady campaign, among others, who are praising this pick. and i can tell you that the campaign's going to really focus on the fact that a governor tim kaine pushed for stiffer gun laws, the fact that he is going to come out against tpp. the trade deal that progressives don't like. i think that's some of what we're going to hear today, alex. but this is going to be a big rallying event to energize

voters in the critical swing state. tim kaine speaks spanish, so you can bet he's going to speak some spanish here today. that's going to be important to rally some of these voters here in florida. alex? >> well, i've got to tell you, kristen, if this is just a precursor, we're listening to debbie watterman-schultz there. andrea mitchell joins me now. andrea, i know you have some word on how this whole thing came about, this choice of tim kaine. tell us about that. >> reporter: it all started in april when john podesta was managing this process, brought binders full of names, almost 30 names to the house in chap equau, the clinton home. they started going through them. i was in annendale, virginia, a

week ago thursday for the first time when tim kaine was campaigning at the side of hillary clinton, and did speak in spanish. there was a lot of latinos in the audience. after that there was about a 90-minute meeting at the white house in d.c. she met with a lot of the others. that was a critical meeting. they really did click. he was an obama supporters in '08. so it was not a natural fit from the beginning. but the fact is, he's been on the foreign relations and armed services committee. she wanted someone who could step into the office. once mike pence was chosen by donald trump, it became more evident that they wanted that contrast, to show someone who had a big resume on foreign affairs who could step into the job, show confidence. there was, of course, a sentimental favorite, back to

her college years, 1974. his brother-in-law actually shared an office with hillary clinton. they've known the vilsacks for a long, long time. that said, tim kaine moved higher up on the list. and there was a meeting in chappaqua at the clinton family home that saturday, a week ago exactly from today, a lunch with him, that included chelsea and bill clinton, of course, and the families all got together, and ann holton who is the education secretary in virginia and tim kaine's wife. a little about ann holton. she was in politics for a long time, in fact when i was a local reporter in the '70s in the area. her father was the republican governor of virginia during a very tough period. he came out in favor of the law of the land, the supreme court, school busing. virginia was really a hotbed of

opposition. also, the home of the nra. and so he lost the governorship in virginia by supporting integrated schools, but supporting busing, by sending his daughter ann holton, of course, now the wife of the presidential nominee presumptive, and she was sent as a child to integrated schools in richmond, virginia. which was a majority black city. tim kaine was also the mayor of richmond. he has supported all kinds of civil rights movements coming out of harvard law school. he took time off to be a civil rights lawyer for the first couple of years. in some big celebrated cases. in between college and law school, he went to honduras and ran a spanish language high school as a christian missionary. he pushed back against left democratic criticism.

it's going to be that he's devoted his life to progressive issues, even though he has been more of a centrist democrat in terms of his votes in the senate. there's going to be a lot of back-and-forth on this, and what is really interesting that we still have not heard as of the moment i walked up on this platform, from either elizabeth warren or bernie sanders. it could be because we're going to hear sanders' position on "meet the press" tomorrow, which would be a great coup for me"me the press" and chuck todd. we're still waiting to hear from bernie sanders as to whether he can support tim kaine, even though kaine has not been at all on the same page as bernie sanders on wall street issues and, of course, on trade deals. alex? >> i'm probably going to get an inkling of that which we may see from bernie sanders on "meet the press" tomorrow. as we all stay in place, because we're certainly awaiting tim kaine and hillary clinton to taj the stake, joy, the lack of

unity, or unity, will that cool off? >> i think that you're definitely seeing among progressives a disappointment. a sense that this was not a pick that affirmed the energy, the excitement, and really the anxieties of people about things like trade, the banks, about wall street. tim kaine feels like, number one, an obama-clinton merger pick. he was definitely an obama guy. i think it brings what hillary clinton's been doing the whole campaign sort of to fruition, that she's running this avatar for the obama era. i think it does that. i think it brings a stable, sunny, optimistic, competent, experienced person to the ticket. something that was clearly important to hillary clinton. so i think in that sense it's a good contrast to donald trump. he created sort of this world of instability. that's the image he created. i do think democrats should be a bit concerned about the fact

that the initial reaction among progressive voters is not enthusiastic. yes, they're going to make the sale with his biography, but you need voters of color to be excited. you need black voters who put hillary clinton, let's just be honest, where she is right now. if black voters had gone to bernie sanders, bernie sanders would probably be the nominee now. but he waste abn't able to pull over. this is a big nod to the ethnic voters or to the left, and they have to make the case somehow that it really is. >> knowing she was obviously going to be the person accepting the democratic nomination for the presidency, it was suggested by ed rendell, he said hillary clinton chose someone who would be able to step in and govern should something happen to her. that would be the most important thing to her. we're talking about the vice, number two position here. history would suggest that is the most important role. >> absolutely.

there are two ways, you know, as people think about it, to pick a vice president. one is you pick for november. you pick somebody you think could help you win a state or constituency. the other is you pick a january pick. meaning someone who can govern. that is certainly a responsible thing to do. it doubles down on the notion that hillary clinton really is running on, which is she has stability, competency, and putting country first. and that's what this was. it wasn't a flashy pick. she didn't go with the elizabeth warren sizzle. >> she can still get out there and sizzle. >> and she will have all the surrogates. but it's a governing pick. they're going to have to sell it, quite frankly, to the base. >> you heard me say in response to andrea, quoting bernie sanders on "meet the press" tomorrow, that we might get a preview of how you think he might interpret this pick for vice president. can you give me an idea of what you think he's going to say? >> i'm not sure what bernie is going to say tomorrow.

the reality is, the pick has been made. we've got move forward. we've got 100 days and we've got to win this. trump is a much bigger threat than most of us realize. the reality is, that tim has a couple of strengths. one of them is that he's a civil rights lawyer who was mayor in a predominantly black city. the other is that he speaks spanish. the only way to make use of those is to really invest in turning out the black and brown vote. the concern right now is i don't see that commitment in the force that it should be at this point. back in 2012, 1 million new voters were on the field for obama to help make sure -- there's a certain amount of energy that should be happening right now. you have to be concerned about that. tim might be able to help, but there's got to be money out there, you know, to invest, and getting all the organizers in place, to push these folks to the polls. >> how much do you think, though, this is going to depend

on bernie sanders himself making the case to get out there and do that. how much enthusiasm can he still inspire in his supporters and say, well, you said at the beginning, we've got 100 days, we've got to win this. >> bernie's critical. hillary's got to -- if she wants his help, you know, in the midwest, you've got to help us help you have. tim kaine being bad on trade and bad on wall street doesn't help. we know tim kaine is somebody who's capable of changing religion on issues. we've seen him on the women's right to choose. he's got to catch up quickly on trade and wall street, on where the base is, if he's not going to hold her back. we'll have fights for ohio and pennsylvania. they're going to be much more difficult than people realize right now. >> do we not have a fight rye now for virginia? >> kaine is a popular politician in virginia. the fact that he ran the dnc, knows the politics, very popular as governor, i think he puts

virginia pretty far out of reach for the republicans. in that sense, it's a great solidification for support in virginia. >> i'm not so sure. the reality is, that trump brings out something called the unlikely white voter. you saw him turn out for schwarzenegger for ronald reagan. these are folks that are typically not in play. the only way to really combat that is to turn out your base. again, it's not clear -- people like tim, but it went from him, to republican, to democrat. it's not clear he really is a base guy. so he's going to have to step it up. but they're going to have to give him something to work with. they have to make investments and turn out now if it's going to bear fruit in 100 days. >> we know, at least the reporting that tim kaine is going to come out and change his position on tpp, that he's actually going to come out against it. he did vote for trade promotion authority, that put him on the wrong side of the issue for a

lot of progressive voters. but he's going to flip that position. that could be something they could use to sell him. >> that would be very important, solidify that position there. we're keeping a close eye on things. and we're told it still is a few minutes before hillary clinton and tim kaine take to that stage together. we're going to take a very short break, pay a few bills, and we'll be right back. my business was built with passion... but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. with it, i earn unlimited 2% cash back on all of my purchasing. and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... which adds fuel to my bottom line. what's in your wallet? but my back pain was making it hard to sleep and open up on time. then i found aleve pm. the only one to combine a sleep aid

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take the free home energy checkup. honey, we need a new refrigerator. visit pge.com/checkup and get started today. and here we are in philadelphia. but with all eyes trained on miami, and that is where the democratic presidential candidate, hillary clinton, although it isn't official, it will be official in a couple of days, but she will be there with her pick for vice president, tim kaine. the senator from virginia. that announcement made last

night over twitter. this will be the first time we get a good look at them together, the way they campaign together, their chemistry, which everyone says is really about the best of the bunch from what she went through with all of her picks. we've also listened to donald trump earlier today really pouncing on clinton's vp pick. he did that with several tweets. let's go to katy tur who has more on that for us from new york. what is he saying now? >> reporter: he's saying a lot. is this the one who took hundreds of thousands in gifts and didn't get indicted like bob mcdonald did. and he said bernie sanders supporters are furious with the selection of tim kaine. tim kaine has always been owned by the banks. bernie fought for nothing. and there's a few others about elizabeth warren that i won't repeat. he said he is not the

progressive pick that the bernie sanders supporters wanted. but instead, the opposite of that. somebody who supported tpp, somebody who has his own personal views of abortion, that don't align with hillary clinton's, or the party's. they've also called him somebody who has, as donald trump said, taken gifts while he was in office. about 160 grand worth of gifts. it was all legal at the time. but the trump campaign and rnc want to paint him as perhaps corrupt, the way hillary clinton is. not out for the american people. this is a narrative they're trying to paint so far with this tim kaine pick. but as of now, donald trump is just going on a tweet storm about it. we don't expect to see him on tv today, at least. although he will be on tomorrow on "meet the press." >> all right. katy, thank you for standing by for us. i want to go back to the arena before it gets too loud, and bring in andrea mitchell again. andrea, weigh in on what you

know about the african-american vote outreach. something i discussed here with my colleagues here in philadelphia, ben and joy. tell me what you know about the clinton campaign, how they will fold in tim kaine to reach out to african-americans and latino voters out there. >> reporter: they're depending on it. because it's key to winning pennsylvania. i used to be a local reporter in philadelphia, and in pennsylvania, covering statewide elections, and i know very well that they have to make up that gap with an overwhelming turnout in philadelphia. that's how they did it in '08. hillary clinton won the primary, but barack obama was obviously magic in pennsylvania, in the general election. the fact is, that hillary clinton's longtime support in pennsylvania, joe biden being from scranton, clinton's father being from the scranton area, there are a lot of roots there. but they are not competitive enough, according to the

democratic politicians that i know, in pennsylvania. unless they do something. that's why there was a lot of hopes that cory booker, or somebody with diversity would be on this ticket. now they have to figure out how to explain that a white guy from virginia who's going to send his democrats really has roots. and he has to explain his place in the civil rights movement. one of the things they're going to really try to do is turn him into a hero with the hispanics. again, they didn't choose tom perez or any of the other latino possibilities for the ticket. but they're counting on the fact that he has enough diversity because he's fluent in spanish. he's done interviews live on telemundo, the first speech live on the senate floor in 2013 entirely in spanish. so he's completely fluent. on the press plane coming in

here this morning from tampa, there was a rolling pool going as to how long it would take when he hits the stage for tim kaine to start speaking in spanish. and my bet is, from word one, it will be buenas dias. this is a heavily hispanic university. we think he's going to be speaking a lot in spanish when he hits that stage. >> unfortunately, i don't speak spanish. so that's going to be a problem. but we'll see what happens with that. >> reporter: nor do i. >> andrea, my question about president obama, and his overt support. i mean, very heart-felt support for tim kaine as this nominee. how much will that buy this ticket in the minority community? >> reporter: that is going to be the key. barack obama is going to have to

be the validater for this ticket. i think what they're hoping is that they have a contrast now with donald trump and with mike pence, showing the experience level that mike pence doesn't have very much foreign policy experience. even though he was on the foreign affairs committee. there's also going to be a lot of pushback about the trump criticism that katy tur is referring to on the gifts. because they really vetted this. and by non-virginia standards maybe it doesn't look great, but the fact is it's perfectly legal and it was completely disclosed, and even went overboard in computing the stays at friends' houses and vacation retreats. it doesn't look great from a bernie sanders perspective, and from other critics of the way the system works, but from senate ethics rules, he would prorate the days he was traveling and multiply it to put a big number on it. he disclosed everything.

disclosure is the biggest ingredient, and second, he, they say, never did anything for the people with whom he was friendly and with whom he traveled or took gifts. that is the virginia law. the supreme court unanimously overturned even the nondisclosed gifts of the current governor, or the former governor in that celebrated case. so that's their explanation. they're going to push back. but as you can see already, with trump, the team is going to paint him as ethically challenged. >> yeah. all right, andrea. thank you very much for that. again, very loud, enthusiastic boisterous crowd behind you. we'll take another short break. >> reporter: i hope you can hear me. >> we can hear you loud and clear. it would seem that the clinton campaign is running on clinton time which means they're running a little late. we'll speak with a former obama speechwriter about what he hopes

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see what the power of points can do for your business. learn more at chase.com/ink welcome back, everyone. all eyes trained on miami. that is florida international university's arena. by the way, home to the golden panthers there. and they are awaiting hillary clinton and tim kaine. the first time we see them together since she named him as her running mate just last night via twitter. i'm back here in philadelphia, as we keep our eyes on miami. i'm joined by joy reed, the host of am joy, and former director of naacp, ben. we'll get to all of that. but before i hear from you guys, i'd like to bring into our conversation the writer and producer, former speechwriter for president obama. david, with a welcome to you. i'd like to get your take on what you want to hear from

hillary clinton today, and tim kaine. >> well, i think this is a chance to both rebut not only donald trump's speech, he laid out a vision of a dark, dangerous country. but say we can solve our challenges, and do it together, we don't have to throw out our entire history and what's made us great so far. >> it sounded like evening in america rather than ronald reagan's morning in america. >> it was tough to watch. >> yeah. let's dissect a little bit of the convention speeches. imagine if they had tried having more than one well-written speech. what was the well-written speech and why do you think so? >> i those ivanka's speech was well written. it had some pace to it, nice terms of phrase. it also had a lot of policies that hillary clinton supports, and those got a big round of

applause. so i think that was one thing she had on her side was borrowing some policies. we're likely to hear more of that next week. i think the speech was very well executed. >> when you have an acceptance speech like that, what is the goal, and do you think mr. trump hit that? notwithstanding the tenor of things that we discussed, the darkness of it. what was the goal of his speech? >> well, i think the goal of the speech working backwards is, he wanted to consolidate the people who already have the same sets of fears and anxieties that he has. and i think he probably did that. i mean, i think if you were -- if you had shared his concerns about america as it is, and about the president and about secretary clinton, then you probably think donald trump is your guy. i don't think he really thought about people who are on the fence. i think that they may agree with his diagnosis of some of the problems we face, but he clearly didn't offer any solutions to those problems. it makes me think he wants this to be a base election. he thinks he can win with that.

>> so, david, i'm curious about your experience when you were writing speeches for president obama. before the speech, what do you do? you go in and talk to the president, you get his ideas, and then you try to incorporate them? i'm curious how the process works, because when you look at what happened and what de involved with the melania speech monday night, how did that happen? >> well, for a big speech, like the first lady's speech at convention, or big presidential speech, absolutely you're getting opinions and ideas and language from the principal. it sounds like the breakdown was not in the speech writing process, but the sort of quality control that should come afterwards, where every speech we wrote for the president, and for anyone else at a convention, was fact checked. it was looked over by several people. and so there's a level of competence that maybe we did not see last week. but i think we will next week. >> david, i mentioned that i have joy reed and ben on the set

with me. joy has a question for you. >> thank you, david, appreciate it. my question to you is on tim kaine. he's somebody that has sort of had just a moniker of boring. people don't know that much about him. there are some interesting things in his biography. how much do you think tim kaine needs to front load his biography into his speech today? or is that something that is better left to the convention? >> well, i think any good speech, especially when you're introducing yourself, it's about mixing your personal story with america's story. and that's something you should be doing all the time. you know, especially in big moments like this. so i hope he will do that. not because he has to, but because that's how you connect with people and makes it clear, why should you be one of the leaders of this country. >> so david, if you're working with someone like donald trump who is clearly more comfortable going off script, i mean, just

speaking whatever comes into his mind, how do you work with someone like that? >> you know, i don't plan to. i think that the -- i think it's a challenge. i will say, you know, obviously it's pretty clear who i'm voting for this november, but they did a very good job of getting donald trump to stick to the teleprompter and stick to the script during his acceptance speech. i don't know how they did that, but that was pretty impressive. if they can keep doing it all the way through november, i think that will give him a better chance to win. >> david, we've been given the green light we can take another commercial break quickly because the clinton camp is running late. i thank you for your time and insights. we appreciate that. we'll take a short break. when you talk to ben about wikileaks today, and the reaction from all the activity from the dnc, from the bernie sanders camp. n't you dare follor dreams. think big. or demand your own space.

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appearance of hillary clinton and tim kaine together for the first time as the democratic shal running malts for the presidency and vice presidency. they're on the campus of florida international university inside that arena. they're running a wee bit late. we've become accustomed to that sort of thing, back to the bill clinton years. i'm here with joy and ben. we all went, yeah. it's 12:30, 12:25. we understand all that. so my question to you, ben, talking about the wikileaks leak earlier today. and which they talked about the unfairnesses perceived by the bernie sanders campaign, which you were affiliated with, and how really there was active discussion of the mess that bernie sanders had created, and they wanted to try to push that forward as a talking point. >> that's just the beginning. the reality is, i want to think for a second about last week.

all this talk about the speech that was plagiarized. and the star of david being on this graphic. here we have the cfo and the ceo of the dnc conspiring to beat up bernie on his faith. we don't do that in our party. we don't do that in our party. >> right. >> it is outrageous. they should go. >> we should tell people not familiar with what happened, they said there was a discussion back and forth with someone who was in communication saying, let's get him to talk about his faith. we know he's jewish, but i hear he's an atheist. >> they were talking about, yeah, they were talking about getting reporters to zero in on a rumor that bernie is an atheist. first of all, he's not an atheist. and the dnc spreading that, saying we'll try to needle the candidate on his faith, and saying amen is outrageous. we're supposed to be coming together. this is a time when, frankly,

shannon can say, look, this is unacceptable. we're going to move forward. and on top of that, you find out here is our party that's supposed to be the unbiased facilitator of our primary process, and what are they doing? they're trying to discredit the most viable challenger to the front-runner. it's outrageous. >> it's perplexing as well, to either of you, the why behind this. why? >> because they were biased. because they saw themselves as an extension of a campaign. if you're the ceo and cfo of the dnc in a primary, and you're confused like that, you've got to go. because you cannot help us unify our party. you've got to go. >> and i think what we saw was from the bernie sanders supporters, was the sense from the beginning that they felt that the dnc was against bernie sanders and was trying to help hillary clinton below the radar. but i think you have to realize, this is what happens in a sense, in a party when somebody who isn't a member of the party

comes in and runs. >> no -- >> just a minute -- just let me finish this off. i think you did have, the dnc never wanted to acknowledge it. but i think that you did have at some level a sense that this was a democrat and an independent. and that they were -- they certainly were -- their emotional lean was on the side of the person who had been a democrat for a very long time. i think while there was a lot of denial of that, of the sense that people who were dnc people, democrat people, i heard it from people who were dnc members saying he's not a democrat. we want a democrat. that doesn't justify what's done. but i think you have to acknowledge that there is a sense that democrats, and i spoke to the dnc members, just at large, who said we want a democrat. they said anything they did to invade the process is certainly not justifiable because they're supposed to be neutral. but i think that's where a lot of this bias for hillary clinton came from. >> bernie was bringing millions of people into the party.

he had caucused with the democrats. the ranking member on the banking committee. and the reality -- i was a democrat when i was 15 years old, coming off the jesse jackson campaign. i had my question by chris matthews attacking us, we aren't democrats. why? because we're not supporting hillary clinton. the bias there came from the hillary clinton camp. the folks in the dnc behaved in ways that just simply cannot -- the ceo, the cfo, talking about a candidate's faith and how we're going to go after them on that, talking how we'll discredit his campaign, so far outside their lane, and at this moment we have to unify this party in a hundred days. >> unifying the party in a hundred days, talking to jeff weber, the campaign manager, is going to look into this, take issue with this in some sort of a way. is that effective? or has the ship sailed?

>> the reality is -- the issue isn't me. the issue is millions of people who supported bernie sanders who just found out that the very -- that the top staff in their party were fighting against them. were fighting against activists in our party across this country. >> let's remember, too, this fight wasn't just one way. this was not a one-way firing line here. you do have a lawsuit that the sanders campaign filed against the dnc. these two entities were at war with each other -- hold on -- throughout the -- they were at war with each other throughout this process. i think you have to acknowledge that this was the -- the negative sentiment on the part of the sanders campaign was also clear. i think it is true there were dnc members, you can't say it came from the hillary clinton campaign, they weren't making the dnc do this -- >> but people who were biased inside the dnc. >> right. it came because hillary clinton has been a democrat for 30-plus whatever years. i'm telling you that when i spoke to the dnc members who had

an issue with bernie sanders, part of their issue was, this is a person who is coming from outside the party and dictating to us what the party should be. now, that sentiment does not justify the dnc acting in a nonneutral way. i'm just trying to explain what the sentiment of longtime democrats was. >> do you think the dnc didn't look at bernie sanders -- some members in the dnc -- >> i've been a democrat for 30 years. >> but do you think that some looked at bernie sanders as not being a candidate who could win? i mean, surely mistaken potentially. we are where we are today, but that said, this is a guy who all those people he brought under the tent, the fervor with which he excited, do you think that they didn't see him as a winning candidate? >> there were journalists and analysts who felt that way. bernie sanders was an unknown commodity as to what he would be in a general election. he really wasn't litigated. if you look at the stats, he got much more positive press. there wasn't as much delving

deepg into bernie sanders. so he was an unknown. i think democrats are creatures of the known. they're creatures of the safe. and that is something that the democratic party has been for a long time. >> well, no, come on, jesse jackson -- >> but the democratic establishment -- >> you were just talking about democrats. >> i'm saying the party itself. >> the party establishment. >> that's right. jesse jackson -- i get that. what i'm telling you is the democratic party has always been creatures of the safe. >> the establishment. >> the party apparatus did not embrace jesse jackson. he was fighting that party the same way that bernie sanders was. >> the establishment. >> that is right. >> as a member of the party. >> that is what i'm saying. >> what i'm saying is we have to respect our activists as members of the party. we cannot tolerate the ceo and the cfo of the dnc deciding that

they are now partisans acting in a partisan way, inside the party, to kill one of the campaigns, to attack, you know, the candidate on his religion. >> i understand that. >> i think everyone agrees. >> they have a responsibility to be ethical and they were neither. >> for this to erupt right now while they're trying to unify the party around a candidate that the sanders voters are not in favor of, it's a very -- >> it can be a big problem. we're going to take another short break. we know hillary clinton's a few minutes away. andrea mitchell, she's on the floor in the miami arena. we'll get to andrea after a short break. when heartburn comes creeping up on you. fight back with relief so smooth and fast. tums smoothies starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue.

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i'm alex witt here in the city of brotherly love. just two days until the democratic national convention kicks off here. but right now all eyes are on miami, the arena of florida international university, home to the golden panthers. but most importantly right in the center of that large american flag, you will see hillary clinton and tim kaine take the stage very shortly. continuing our conversation before they get there, we're going to bring in andrea mitchell who is on the floor there of that large rally. and andrea, i know you wanted to weigh in a bit on our conversation about the wikileaks from this morning, and how they were talking about what the dnc has done, some accounts to sabotage, really, the candidacy of bernie sanders. give us your interpretation of that. >> reporter: well, i haven't obviously gone through all of them because we've been on the road, but it's been very clear there was a preference, an establishment preference for hillary clinton. the alliances were well known. and sanders is correct to feel that the democratic party was,

if nothing else, putting its finger on the scale in relationship to the candidate that they thought was going to be the presumptive nominee. this is not going to make it any easier, and it could well be why sanders has been silent, sanders and his allies have been silent about tim cakaine, other than yr guests, prominent sanders surrogates have been critical about kaine. i want to look at the contentious times, back when the whole issue of candidate files, and the argument between jeff weber and debbie wasserman schultz, though i haven't been frankly myself look at what happened that weekend. remember, i was hosting "meet the press" that weekend, and they were guests. so i can imagine that there were a lot 6 behind-the-scenes preparations. there's also the whole nevada

caucus period. that was one of the critical times that we had a passion al disagreement among the two factions. and when joy was talking earlier about jesse jackson, and we think back of how he tried to challenge the party establishment, i remember 1988 in atlanta, during that convention, when i was covering jesse jackson, and there was an intermediary between the two camps. ron brown, the late ron brown was the intermediary. i was doing the back-and-forth with ron brown. he was trying to keep jesse jackson happy with his role in the convention. there were always better communication, i should say, between party activists and minority activists and the party establishment. and i don't think the dnc has handled that very well in this go-around. >> you know, andrea, joy brought up a really good point, and ben complemented it as well, talking

about the timing of this. i can imagine that those in the hillary clinton camp are a little annoyed by all this. they thought they were past the controversy around bernie sanders. do you have any insight into their reaction to this? >> reporter: well, the sort of annoyance factor has been pretty high all along. you can recall we were in new hampshire at the joint appearance, the much-expected and anticipated, and then delayed joint appearance with bernie sanders, he opened his speech talking about how much he has achieved. and how many delegates and how much money they raised, and how many primaries and caucuses he's won. and he talked really more about him than about her. so it was kind of a tense moment. she was kind of standing there with her teeth feeling like there was sort of a smile pasted on her face and teeth clempnchea

little bit. those who know her well detected somewhat an annoyance. but they need bernie sanders' supporters to be onboard. they're hoping that just fear and loathing of donald trump is going to motivate them, that probably isn't enough. that and the supreme court and all the other issues that we've heard them speaking about. they need passion. they need to get people registered and voting in places where people tend not to vote in great numbers. >> yeah. >> reporter: they need to get people excited and passionate about this ticket. that's why we're going to be waiting to see the chemistry, how it looks on stage here today. >> yeah. well, your reporting there, you're in lock step with ben and joy. they expressed the same sentiments. we'll take a short break as we thank you, andrea, from the floor of the florida international university. we hope to time this just right. on the other side, get to hillary clinton and tim kaine. we'll be right back.

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it is breaking news as we approach the top of the hour here on msnbc. we're coming to you live from philadelphia. i'm alex witt. all eyes, again, trained right there on that podium in front of that gigantic american flag on the campus of florida international university in miami. that is where we know hillary clinton and tim kaine will be taking to the podium any minute now. but we're going to just bring in nbc's kristen welker who is follow the clinton campaign from start to finish these days. kristen, so my question to you is a little bit about the selection process. but actually, can i ask you timing? when are they going to get there? they're running an hour behind. >> reporter: they are very behind, aren't they, alex. we anticipate they'll be here within the next 10 to 15 minutes. they were, of course, supposed to start at 12:00. not unusual for these events to run late. this one is running particularly late. i can tell you the crowd really fired up for the appearance of

hillary clinton and senator tim kaine since she picked him to be her number two. in terms of the selection process, i know you talked to andrea about this as well, it goes back to april. that's when john podesta, her campaign chair, gave her a binder of potential vp picks. about 30 names in that binder. so that's when this process really began in earnest. she started picking through all of her potential prospects. i can tell you, tim kaine has been at the top or near the top of that list since this process started, alex. he has been a front r-runner th entire time. a senator from virginia, served as dnc chair, also speaks spanish as we've been talking about all hour long. the two appeared at a campaign event in virginia, and secretary clinton and her campaign watching very closely for the optics of that event. and they felt as though it went very well. she in particular was really impressed by him, i am told.

so they had an impromptu meeting after that event. and then that following saturday, she invited his family to her home, so that they could talk further. and that's really when this decision, i think, started to become solidified. but of course, it wasn't official until last night at about 7:30 when she placed that all-important phone call to tim kaine and offered him the job of her number two. he, of course, accepted. as you all have been talking about, one of the potential challenges with tim kaine, as a progressive, some of the sanders supporters not quite ready to get onboard. so i think today you're going to start to hear a little bit of a defense of his record. they'll try to paint him as someone who has been a progressive all along. the question is, will they be successful. alex? >> okay. kristen, what are they all shouting there in unison behind you? >> reporter: i believe they're chanting "hillary." i can tell you, they have broken out into various chants as we've

been waiting throughout the hour. one person took to the podium and started chanting, fired up, ready to go. it reminds you of obama in 2008, the familiar chant. so i think that what you're seeing here is democrats really starting to come together, particularly as they head into the dnc. the timing of this very strategic, to that very point, they wanted to wait until the rnc was over, so they could have this big event, this rollout of tim kaine. the clinton campaign hoping that's going to give them added momentum heading into their own convention. i've been talking to a lot of the folks gathered here, many of them familiar with tim kaine. when i asked, what do you like about tim kaine? they said his resume. because he's so qualified. but there are others who say the reality is, they're not familiar with him. so they're eager to hear more about who he is and what he's going to bring to the table. the risk, of course, is he is soe