and that will do it for this hour of "msnbc live." i'll see you tomorrow morning on today. >> i'll see you tomorrow on msnbc at 2:00 eastern. andrea mitchell is here, we spent what till 1:00 in the morning. quality time in the spin room. andrea? >> thanks so much, great show, chris. right now on a special edition of andrea mitchell records, live from miami, round two. the biggest names in the democratic fields step into the ring as joe biden and bernie sanders are set to go toe to toe on night two of the presidential primary debate. this after a spirited performance on opening night. >> who here would abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government run plan, just a show of hands to start off with. >> if you did your homework on this issue you would know -- >> and i don't think we should

conduct foreign policy -- >> your time is up. >> it's very plausible you'd be elected president with a republican senate. do you have a plan to deal with mitch mcconnell? >> i do. >> and spin doctors. some of the candidates rate their own performances as they try to break out from the oversized field. are you an imitation of bernie sanders? is there room for both of you? >> this work is the work i've been doing pretty much all my life. >> i'm glad that several of the people on that debate stage tonight agree with me that if we want to end family separation, then we need to go back to the way things were before and make border crossing a civil violation. >> we are not even having a serious conversation about how and why we go to war. i wanted tod make it personal. coming up, bill de blasio joins us fresh off the debate stage. citizenship fight. a big defeat for the trump

administration as chief justice john roberts joins the liberal ring. >> this is a big victory for those states, primarily democratic states led by new york that challenged the government decision and also immigrant rights groups that this question will not be on the census form. and good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell at the performing arts center in miami ahead of a big debate now. joe biden will be front and center. flanked by his chief rival bernie sanders on one side and mayor pete buttigieg on the other. mayor pete doing his walk through now on the debate stage right behind us. and surprisingly, joe biden was never mentioned, not even once by the ten candidates who

appeared here last night. in fact, they barely even focused attention on donald trump during that lively two hour debate. who stood out? who fell behind enjoining me here in florida, steve kornacki and nbc news correspondent mike nemally. and michael steele, a former republican national committee chairman. in washington, former democratic congressman donna edwards. welcome all. first of all, let's talk steve kornacki, about the strategy of not mentioning joe biden. not at all. not once. >> yeah, i guess i wasn't particularly surprised only in that i wonder about the word optics of that. if he's not on stage, if you go after him in some way and he's not there to defend himself and he hasn't spoken in one of these settings yet, i'm wondering much more though tonight, particularly when it comes to bernie sanders, but also potentially to any of the other candidates on the stage. particularly the candidates on

the edges of the stage who are looking to get attention. biden's presence on that stage tonight, is that going to make for an inviting target. when i say sanders, too, i'm th thinking about last night about would you abolish private health insurance. elizabeth warren said she would. that's something we'll hear potentially tonight. that's an area where she and bernie sanders are competing for voters. if sanders were to try to make a stand like that, is there a potential for him with biden standing right next to him, does that become the issue that could be a flashpoint in some sort of a biden versus sanders contrast. that's one thing i perked up when i saw that issue raised last night. >> right here with me, mike, you've covered joe biden forever it seems. bernie sanders was taking a shot at elizabeth warren last night on twitter right after the

debate. join me tonight -- i'm paraphrasing -- basically the original bernie sanders, not the imitators. >> people are still very conscious of the leans. bernie sanders worried about a candidate encroaching on his leftist lane as it were in the field. it's interesting as it relates to joe biden. steve wasn't surprised the candidates were attacking him last night. i think the biden campaign was surprised they weren't attacking him. they had a roundup of all the positive things the candidates have said about joe biden in the past ready to deploy as they were expecting those attacks. it's interesting what we heard fr from the biden campaign, we know the vice president flew down today. what his aides were saying was he wants to use tonight, not necessarily to introduce himself to the country. the country knows joe biden very well. but they want him to begin to lay out his agenda, what they call a transformational agenda. they think they need to show

him -- his place on the issues and forward looking candidacy, not necessarily one tied to the past. we know the other candidates will be going after him. a lot of questions from the moderators as well about his record. >> what you have is not only the divisions within the party, the progressive so-called wing. bernie sanders trying to really gain -- regain strength against elizabeth warren. viewing her as somewhat of a rival, an interloper. and also whether or not the party is more centrist or more liberal as we move forward. certainly last night people were trending towards the more liberal progressive side. i asked elizabeth warren about that. if she or bernie or someone from that wing become the nominee, going into a general election, does that weaken them against donald trump. >> all around this country, we are building a grassroots movement to take back our country, to take back our economy.

to take back our democracy and make it start working for the people again. we have a real chance to do this. >> michael steele, is the party potentially moving too far to the left with now two more candidates jumping in and talking about medicare for all? >> i think on the healthcare side there's no doubt the preponderance of evidence says let's go this way, as far as left as we can. you had two of the folks on the stage say, no, not there yet. but that's where the party's going. it will be interesting tonight, mike to your point about joe, how they recalibrate knowing that's probably going to come up. if not the first question, in that first round on healthcare. which seems to be the fault line. a lot of democrats ran on it in 2018 rather successfully. here's the rub. they didn't run necessarily saying i'm going to take away your private health insurance. they didn't run saying we're going to liberalize the healthcare marketplace such that

you have less of a say or role in it as a consumer in that space. and that's going to be an interesting transitional argument for joe to make tonight. to say, wait a minute, and join klobuchar and beto by saying i'm not there. >> speaking of beto, he really did seem to be on the defensive. especially because of the rise of julian castro who makes the point he hasn't gotten a lot of attention as the other candidates and he did really strike a chord last night. >> some of us on this stage have called to end that section, to terminate it. some, like congressman o'rourke have not. i want to challenge all the candidates tonight to do that. i think it's a mistake. >> i helped to introduce legislation that would insure we don't criminalize those who are seeking asylum and refuge in this country. if you're fleeing desperation i

want to make sure you're treated with respect. >> you said recently the reason you didn't want to repeal section 1325 was because you were concerned about human trafficking and drug trafficking. but let me tell you what, section 18, title 18 of the u.s. code, title 21 and 22 already cover human trafficking. >> if someone is a known struggler or trafficker we're going to make sure they're deported. >> if you did your homework you would make sure we repeal this. >> a good night for julian castro, donna edwards? >> a really good night for julian castro. i think he stood out. he stuck to something that was viewed to be beto's strength which is immigration. where you saw fault lines with democrats was both on healthcare and on immigration. and i think that's going to continue, but julian castro, i think, put in a really solid performance. if anybody hurt themselves, i think beto hurt himself last night. >> and steve kornacki, as donna

was pointing out, these fault lines on immigration and on healthcare and also very strong performance from cory booker on guns. >> yeah, i think we're pointing to, there's a common thread between all of those. the tone. the tone that this reflects is markedly more liberal, even compar compared to where the democratic party was a couple years ago. i remember in the 2016 campaign we can all remember bernie sanders trying to campaign on the idea of medicare for all. and the response that came back from the clinton campaign that meant you would be gutting obamacare. his opposition -- his support for single payer was taken as an insult to the presidential legacy of barack obama. a couple years later here, the climate i think maybe has changed. we've shown a lot of data about the democratic party and in particular white voters in the

democratic party moving to the left on cultural issues. on issues that touch culture, on issues that touch race. and on issues that touch celebration. specifically in the trump era. i think specifically in response to how they're perceiving the trump era. i think when you look at that exchange between castro last night and o'rourke, castro is calling for decriminalizing border crossings. that's a dramatic break from the recent consensus that's existed in both parties. not a lot of democrats are willing to go with him on that. i think there might be a more receptive democratic electorate out there for that message than there was two tlooer, three, fos ago. >> michael steele, the man who wasn't there was donald trump. and our friend, john allen, has written on msnbc and nbc.com that that actually made him a winner that he wasn't attacked as forcefully as you might have expected by these democrats.

was that a good strategy for the democrats? >> you know, i think it's probably more mixed in many respects. i think at a certain level the expectation will be tonight. because, the quote, front runners, the heavy hitters, the sanders and the bidens. i think there was a missed opportunity for the folks last night as well to clearly delineate and give some comfort to base democrats that when you make me your nominee, i'm the guy or gal who is going to be able to stand in the crucible with this president and take him on directly on both policy as well as etiological fault lines. i think that's -- you always want to contrast yourself with the guy in the job. you just don't want to leave that hanging. in a lot of ways they did. it may come back a little bit later on when they try to play catch up and go after trump.

he's going to be swatting them away. >> amy klobuchar was the only one -- >> only one who kept referencing, yeah. >> at the heart of the joe biden candidacy are two bets. one that the democratic party has not shifted as far as to the left as many would like to believe and that democratic voters care first and foremost about beating donald trump. the president is overseas. we saw the vice president say he would not attack the president when he's overseas. we'll see how that factors in tonight. >> we'll all be there as well. thank you so much. micha michael steele, donna edwards and steve kornacki, thank you all. the supreme court deliver as blow to the trump administration after a key ruling on the census. pete williams breaks it all down next right here on "andrea mitchell reports." with fordpass, rewards are just a tap away.

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and we have breaking news right now from the supreme court. in a surprising decision, 5-4 decision, the court has ruled against the trump administration's efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. deeming it unconstitutional. chief justice john roberts siding with the four more liberal justices in the unanticipated ruling. pete williams is at the supreme

court with the latest. let's talk about this first and then we can talk about jerry ma -- gerrymanderings. take us through their decision making and the opinions on each side. >> reporter: the census decision is a setback for the trump administration but it isn't over yet. what the chief justice and the four that voted would him, the liberal side said is the reason the justification that the commerce secretary gave for wanting to add this question to the sensicensus form is a prete it's not the truth. the commerce secretary said he added the question after getting a request from the justice department that said it wanted the data. that can't be true the supreme court said. it's clear from the evidence that the commerce department, the commerce secretary started thinking about this way before. so what the court did is sent the case back to the district

court in new york, which ruled against the government. that court in turn had sent it back to the census department. census bureau. what the supreme court has done today is, okay, the reason you've given us so far, that doesn't wash. you have the opportunity to try again. the question is, if the census bureau comes up with some other reason for wanting to have this question on the census form, will there be time to get this thing back through the courts in time to get the census forms printed? the government had said several times you've got to hurry up and decide this case because we need a decision by the end of june to start designing the sensing forms and start the printing process in time to get them ready for next year because this is such a massive undertaking. if the government was serious about that, that the end of june is a drop dead date but if there's wiggle room to get it done, at least the trump administration has another

chance. no guarantee of victory if he tries again and time is against the government here. at least it has another chance. it's not the end of the day, although it's bad news for the trump administration. >> and certainly a number of groups, especially the new york state appeal on this whole thing. it was considered a very important case for hispanic and other minority communities on the citizenship question. then on the gerrymandering decision. >> reporter: these are very, very direct. the court has basically said we can't get involved in the making a decision about when -- there's too much partisanship involved in what is a partisan political activity. that's the drawing of boundaries for districts by legislatures.

the majority party always tries to draw the map to benefit them. the question was, could that cross a constitutional line. where the majority party was making it hard for a minority party to elect enough candidates that it became unconstitutional. the court said we can't decide that question. we as courts do not have the tools to make what is essentially a political decision. so this is really the end of the road for at least the next decade or so for trying to get this partisan gerrymandering issue before the supreme court to decide in their favor. the court in the past has been tentatively open, saying, well, maybe there could be such a line. we just don't know what the test s. how do we evaluate when that line is crossed? today the court said we just can't do that. justice kagan said it was a huge mistake, that the court was leaving in place these sharply political decisions that are eroding the foundations of

democracy. it was a impassioned dissent. that was a 5-4 decision along strictly ideological lines. but the census question did not go that way. it was the only one of the decisions today that divided along the traditional dividing lines. >> pete, is that it for the court this term? are there a couple more to come? >> reporter: nope that's it. it was the last day. the court uphead lld laws in 28 states that suspected drunk drivers, when they're unconscious the state can collect blood to see if they're drunk even without a search warrant. the other case, a big question about whether indian tribes have control over a large part of oklahoma. the court ordered that case to be reargued next attorney general -- term. >> thank you for that.

first of all, on the census, this was a decision that went against wilbur ross, the commerce department. there was brief information that showed the commerce department was disingenuous. on the gerrymandering, kagan said it flew in the face of democracy. she said to even suggest that state courts should have -- states should make these decisions is laughable. >> it's politicians picking what districts look like. by definition, it's a political process that cuts people out of the process. both of these were anti-democratic if you ask the activists that were against them. on the census decision, the

activists got what they wanted but not the reason they wanted. talk to lupe in south texas said look at the data, the census says that if you put a citizenship question on the census it leads to an undercount. we're by millions undercounting latino and african-american citizens in this country. not just citizens, but people who live in the country. if you put the question on it will lead to a massive increase in the undercount. >> you came from homestead? >> i did. >> what did you see? what changes, if any? >> one of the challenges is that you can physically see the children walking and milling around and activists are dedicating their time to making sure we're bearing witness. the candidates were there. bernie sanders was there when i was there. he was asking question and talking and milling around talking to different individuals. >> asking questions of the authorities? >> he came out of the authorities when i saw him, but also of the volunteers.

it was interesting was while i was at homestead there was resounding cheer when they announced the census. it's because we recognize that if we're not counting every single individual in this country we can't have fair representation. we have receipts, the gop, there was a gop strategist who said we want a citizenship question to be sure we can carve out white districts. those are their words. it wasn't -- this is not an activist agenda, this is who are we as americans. >> the supreme court decisions go hand and glove, interestingly. >> they do. you kind of feel like they split the baby. they said let's take this back to the states. the evolution of roberts as well is that he's becoming increasingly the kennedy of the court. he's the one that's going to be the more moderate, the more swayable. i never thought we'd live to see that day. >> what we saw last night was that whether immigration was going to be part of the decis n

discushidi discussion, but that photograph of the family and the interview of the mother. that galvanized the candidates. >> absolutely horrific. there are no words to describe what it's like to look at that image. what i think -- first of all, how different was it to listen to that group of people talk about immigration than the man who sits in the white house. it was a different type of conversation. what we should remember and i hope we hear more about it tonight is that 7,000 people have died crossing the border since the late 90s. two of them have captured the attention of the world over the course of the last couple days. the enforcement policy is not just of this administration, but previous administrations have led people to cross in deadly ways. donald trump has made it worse than ever before. but i think this is the one opportunity democrats have to present an alternative.

>> i want to ask you another question. it was so affirming to me. you hear so much spanish on stage last night. sure we're broadcasting on telemundo and this is an appeal to hispanic voters. but it was also conversational and integrated into the conversation. >> it was much more nuanced. i think it was the idea of this is the fabric of our country and this is who we are. what i found fascinating was that it was speaking to an older latino generation. how do we start talking to the younger latinos where the opportunity to grow that base is. we have 15 million latinos that are unregistered. the majority of them are under the age of 33. they speak english. they're american. how do we make sure we're connecting with them. that's what was missing from yesterday. most democrats are going to go out and vote. the opportunity for the folks today on stage is how do you ignite a generation of folks that don't know if government belongs to them to bring them into the fold. >> thinks that government does not belong to him. is hostile to them. wonderful to see you, thank you sore very much.

thank you. and coming up next, fitting the bill. new york city mayor bill de blasio brings the big city energy to the debate. mixing it up with his fellow candidates. he joins me next here on "andrea mitchell reports." we're live in miami right here on msnbc. ami right here on msnbc

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and right behind me on stage, joe biden checking out the podium, looking at the microphone, talking to the nbc producers down there. he's just arrived here today in miami. was not here last night. he's done this before. he's been in vice presidential debates. he's got the experience. looking up at the rafters where i'm sitting and i am sit ing with new york city mayor bill de blasio. well, you're looking for, you had your moment last night. not getting as much attention as some of the other, you know, candidates front and center. but you really did your best to

punch through. >> you have to speak from the heart. and we are in a i think a fight for the heart and soul of the democratic party. and what i believe is we've got to be the party of working people again. we haven't always been that. and i really look at the 2016 election with tremendous pain and frustration. i know a lot of working people of all races do not feel the connection to the democratic party. this process here, these primaries, these debates are how we once again determine who we are, what do we really believe in, what do we really stand for. i know the status quo is broken in this country. that healthcare discussion we had, it was before the fact that for so many people healthcare is not working for them in this country. i felt like i was able to get out there and say let's talk about this plainly. people want honesty. they want candidates to take a position. they don't also have to agree you, but they want to know you stand for something. i hope i was able to show my heart. >> do you think that's a risky position to take, medicare for

all, get rid of private insurance. going into -- let's say you're the nominee, you're going up against donald trump. he can do what he did to demonize obamacare. taking away your doctor. >> he's going to demonize the democratic nominee under any circumstance. and the trick is -- i learned this watching donald trump over decades as a new yorker. i really know his tricks and his games. he's going to try that and the way to deal with it is to go back at him harder. one thing i was able to show on the debate stage is i know how to debate and i know how to mix it up. i'm not afraid to be aggressive. when you think about who matches up against trump, being able to take him on assertively, i feel like i have what it takes. on top of that on the issue, look, what we saw in 2018, why wasn't the dominant issue in that congressional race and that congressional election around the country? because for so many people, either they have health insurance, they're one catastrophic health condition

away from bankruptcy. they don't have health insurance they can really use a lot of times. you talk to a lot of americans, when you add up premiums, out of pocket expensives, did believes, co-pays, it's for a lot of people beyond their reach. worse than that, we're not getting quality healthcare. for a lot of people they get some healthcare, but it's not the kind of healthcare you'd like, the complete healthcare, the preventative healthcare. the positive approach to keeping people healthy. we can do better in this country. but we're not going to do better with a private insurance system that's about the profit of a few companies. >> let me ask you about tonight. you know, you're an experienced politician, you're running the biggest city in the country. but why isn't joe biden a better fighter to go up against a donald trump? he's been vice president for eight years. senator for years. >> i respect him. but he's out of touch with today's democratic party. >> out of touch meaning too old? >> it has nothing to do with age. go over the issues.

until a few weeks ago he was in favor of the hyde american, which is saying to millions of american women is you don't get to have choice if you don't have enough money in your pocket. his comments about senator eastland were worse than tone death. he talked about having a civil conversation with a segregationest. that's how visceral it is. for millions of americans, that comment suggested the lack of understanding of our history. and the problem is, if, again, i respect his public service, but joe biden is clearly the candidate of the status quo in a country that doesn't want the status quo. >> let me ask you about how personal you got last night. you've never talked about your father before. >> i've talked about him. you're right i haven't been as blunt about the fact he took his own life. and i thought about it a lot.

>> was it ptsd? >> it was ptsd, for sure. i watched his decline. he was an officer in the united states army. a lieutenant. lost half his leg to a japanese grenade. i remember i saw his physical struggles, but that paled in comparison to the emotional struggle. he spiralled downwards. he became an alcoholic. this is a guy who was a good man, a strong man, a man who served his country with pride. but there was not a medical system, a healthcare system and a mental health system there to catch him and help him. we have a long way to go. i have to tell you, i thought about it a lot and my wife inspired me in thought. she focuses on mental health issues and she's made it a point of saying we have to tell these stories so everyone else can feel they can come forward and not be ashamed. there's no shame in the fact that a main servn serviced his ,

came back and wasn't the same man. we have to be here for our veterans. there's people with mental health challenges all over the country that's not getting help. that's the point, a healthcare system that's missing so many of us. >> thank you, thanks so much for being with us today. thanks for explaining your motivation in public service. i appreciate it. >> thank you very much. and coming up, stealing the spotlight. what is the game plan for anyone not named bernie or biden tonight? two former top campaign strategists give us their playbooks for how to handle tonight. coming up next, stay with us.

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oral combination treatment for hr+/her2- mbc. tonight's debate could be the last chance for some of the candidates lagging in the polls to have a breakthrough moment. with nothing to lose we might see aggressive tactics from a few of the one percenters. tonight joe biden versus bernie sanders could be considered the main event. what about kamala harris and pete buttigieg? will there even be room for anyone else to break through? joining me now is nrick tyler ad 2012 obama reelection campaign manager, jim masina. you've been through this so many times with candidates. what advice would you give to bernie sanders and joe biden tonight? should they spar with each

other? how do the others get any kind of window to break through? >> last night's debate was instructive. the people who broke out are the ones who didn't address theer o other candidates. julian castro laid out his vision. cory booker's numbers are exploding this morning, neither one of them really took much opportunity to hit their fellow people. i think the toughest job tonight is joe biden. everyone in the world knows joe biden. but you just had the mayor of new york city on your show and he has the attack that everyone's going to make tonight, which is your yesterday's policies. what do you now stand for? biden has to not take those moments, he can't worry about people hitting him. he's got to look at the american people and lay out a very clear agenda on what he wants to do as president and associate himself

with the future and not just the past with barack obama. and i think it's going to be really hard when you're going to have at least bernie wailing away at him. he's got to stay really focused. >> and rick tyler, what about bernie sanders? you expect he'll be going after joe biden? >> i think it benefits both bernie sanders and joe biden to be essentially debating each other and ignoring everybody else. that gives really the advantage to both representing their respective wings. biden represents the establishment wing of the party. there's no one else in the race that's challenging him right now on that. there's probably only one other candidate on the stage who would even try to claim the establishment wing. everybody else is going for the progressive wing. so they may take it out on bernie to say, look, bernie sanders, you've had 30 years in the senate to get a progressive agenda passed. you have failed on that. if you look at his record, he has no substantive bills on the

campaign trail. and you are yesterday's news and they might want to work for the progressive party. joe biden, as jim rightly says, just needs to focus on what his vision is for the future. talk to the american people and maybe go at it with bernie sanders. but virtually ignore everybody else. >> cory booker showed -- jim, i wanted to say, cory booker was one of the people who had a good night. one issue was on guns. let's play a little bit of that. >> i think i'm the only one, i hope i'm the only one on this panel that had seven people shot in their neighborhood just last week. someone i knew was killed with an assault rifle. at the top of my block last year. for millions of americans, this is not a policy issue. this is an urgency. >> jim, that's an issue that is something that most of the democrats on stage could

certainly chime in on. booker had a particular authenticity on it living in the neighborhood in newark and having to deal with it as a governor -- rather as the mayor. >> it's really true. cory's campaign so far has been about kind of hope and love. last night was a night he can flesh that out a little bit and talk about the real ramifications of these policies and what's happening in urban america. as you know, andrea, there's a bunch of votes in urban america in these early states. they're asking for these candidates to take positions like senator booker did on an issue like gun control. and cory took that moment last night and really i thought had a big moment in one of those breakout moments. and the other thing that happened last night is you're seeing the extension of the democratic primary and not the retraction. lots of people are saying we need to winnow this field and get down to four or five candidates. instead what you saw last night was more candidates rising. castro had a good night, booker had a good night. i thought inslee had an

interesting night. so now you have more people talking about a bigger variety of candidates. i would bet coming out of tonight you might have one or two more people that take their moment while bernie's going after biden to look at the american public and say take a look at me, i'm here, too. >> thank you both so much. coming up, the front runner, how is joe biden prepping for his big night? one of his top surrogates, anita dunn joins me next. live from miami, only on msnbc. c geico makes it easy to get help when you need it. with licensed agents available 24/7. it's not just easy. it's having-a-walrus-in-goal easy! roooaaaar! it's a walrus! ridiculous! yes! nice save, big guy! good job duncan! way to go! [chanting] it's not just easy.

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ask your healthcare provider today about once-weekly ozempic®. walk through just moments ago in preparation for tonight's debate and with a large lead in the polls he entering this evening as the primary's front runner, but is the former vice president now up to the challenge that comes with that status? it's going to be a target for a lot of the other candidates. joining me now former white house communications director for president obama anita dunn who has been advising joe biden. you've been with him on debate prep, you just flew in with him, you were down there on the stage with him. first of all, how did the walk through go?

>> i think the walk through went very well. we have a small advantage over last night of having seen what it looked like and what the debate looked like, so i think it almost felt like going into familiar territory after spending two hours with your set last night, andrea. >> when you look at the lineup tonight, do you anticipate that bernie sanders is going to go after joe biden? >> i think what we saw in 2016 is that bernie sanders is a very skilled and extremely aggressive debater and certainly he has publicly said that he wants to make sure that people understand the differences and there are some policy differences there, but i think what most candidates on that stage will be trying to do is what this he tried to do last night, which is to lay out their plans for the american people. i think certainly vice president biden is looking forward to this opportunity to really speak directly with democrats and with the american people about where he wants to lead this country. >> he resisted either apologizing or explaining in his interview with al sharpton last

week in south carolina he was given a lot of opportunities to try to explain the analogy that he used and to my thinking having covered him for so many years, i know his record on civil rights, but you could think of other ways of describing working across the aisle, you could think of teddy kennedy and dan quayle, you don't have to talk about jim eastland which is an ancient reference of a virulent he go gags nist, a hater. >> and also somebody who happened to be chairman and colleague of his in the united states senate. if he was going to be able to work on different things in the judiciary committee he didn't have a lot of choice. >> technically doesn't that reinforce the concerns among perhaps some millennials, younger voters, that he is not of the moment, that he is the past? >> you know, i think when people hear joe biden tonight they are going to hear somebody who is relentlessly focused on what he thinks america's future can be and who is optimistic about what he believes that future can be for all americans and america

where we don't have the level of income inequality that we have right now and where people feel as though this is a nation that is united not divided the way it is under donald trump who of course has spent his administration picking groups to pit against each other. i think what joe biden has always been about in his career, his career as a civil -- you know, as you said, throughout his career, someone who has been dedicated to civil rights, someone who came out early for gay marriage, someone who believes in humanity and in what we can accomplish when we work together. >> was against school busing. >> you know, andrea, i think if you ask everybody on that stage tonight if they think that is the correct policy most of them would probably say there are other ways to combat systemic racism, which is what joe biden has always said, which is we need to combat systemic racism and he was a very vocal person when it came to fair housing, when it came to what the real

problem was, which is not to bus children for hours, but to actually make sure neighborhoods were integrated and that where there was systemic racism the government confronted it and we changed it and that attitudes need to be changed. you know, joe biden has a career of working in the senate and then as barack obama's vice president for eight years. you know, really trying to unite the american people, to move us together as a nation. >> will he bring up the president even though the president is at a summit on foreign soil? >> you know, i think it is very difficult to spend two hours on a debate stage running for the presidency of the united states without ever mentioning the person you are running against. >> enough said. anita dunn, we will all be watching tonight, of course, and i hope to be talking to you and we all hope to be talking to the vice president after the debate later tonight. >> andrea, thank you for having me and i look forward to chatting with you further. >> thank you very much, anita

dunn. of course, the first test of the 2020 presidential race continues. night two of the first democratic presidential debate all beginning right here on msnbc tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern with our live special pre debate coverage hosted by brian williams and nicolle wall laws. stay with us right here on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ere on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc

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and thanks for being with us.

coming up next, 2020 contenders john delaney and eric swalwell are up with velshi and ruhle. >> that felt like it was a very full hour you had there, a lot of big discussiones. >> take a deep breath. >> wrapping up last night, moving toward today and dealing with all of the supreme court decisions that are out today. have a great rest of it. >> you bet. >> we will see you later this afternoon into take a deep breath and a disco nap. >> welcome to velshi and ruhle. a major set back for the trump administration, the supreme court ruling that andrea was talking about and a complicated decision. td administration cannot add a citizenship question to the 2020 census at least for now. this is a 5-4 opinion written by the chief justice john roberts that says while the government has the right to ask the question, its explanation for doing so on the 2020 census was inadequate. >> the ruling does leave open the possibility that the administration could come back with a