edition of "morning joe." steve, i understand you may be getting results in from maricopa county? >> that's why i'm standing here awkwardly hitting repress. i told you maricopa is one place where when they say they're releasing votes at a certain time, they mean it. when they say 11:00 a.m. eastern, we're going to get a batch of potentially 70,000 votes. i'm going to stand here if you'll indulge me and keep clicking. there it is. okay. let me just write these down and get you what the numbers are here. biden, 1023516. trump, 977495. okay.

i just need to figure out what the percentages are here because the key here is that trump needs to be winning a lot of these. trump needs to be winning 60% or more of them to really be on page paes to have a chance to overtake biden statewide. so in this new release that came out right now, we're seeing 19,513 new votes for joe biden, and we're seeing for donald trump, 26,992. so others who are probably quicker at the math than me have figured this out. donald trump has just received 58% of them. so there it is. a new batch of votes just came in in maricopa county that. is the mother lode for arizona. it's not yet updated in our

system. it's drctirectly from the count. but in a few minutes you'll see joe biden's lead fall by 7,000. it will fall to 21,000 and change. there it is, 21,573. that is now joe biden's new statewide lead in arizona. this is because of the votes just reported in from maricopa county. it looks like that release is a little bit less in terms of the number of votes they reported out than we were expecting, maricopa coming in to today had about 90,000 votes left. maricopa is more than 60% of the population of arizona. they had about 90,000 left. it looks like they basically just released half of them right there. that's a little bit better than 45,000 they just put out. of that batch they put out, donald trump won 58% of them. he has to win the remaining

votes in arizona by a large margin. i would say 60%. it's a decent performance by trump. i think the basic trend in arizona, you could say now, you still have about 40,000, 45,000 votes left in maricopa county. you have about 20,000 votes left in pima county. that's where tucson is. and then a scattering in 50 other counties around the state. that biden lead over trump keeps eroding. trump, based on this most recent update we got. trump seems to be just under the rate he needs to be at to get that 20,000 vote gap all the way down to zero. he does keep chipping away at it. it's been a three-day story. it keeps eroding. i was looking to see in the latest update. i think if it had been over 60, you know, you'd be saying, oh, trump made a big gain there. he made a good gain. i do question whether it's enough at only 58%.

>> steve, i think i speak for america, we could watch you do back of the envelope lead on tv all day long. which way do you see it swing? more bind vote or more trump vote. >> you have pima county where tucson is. that's a democratic one. that will help joe biden. you have rural counties around the state that i think are going to help trump as they come in. and so, again, that's why when you look at maricopa county, which is, again, by far the biggest -- and we thought this update from maricopa was potentially going to cover just about all of their remaining vote. i think there is still -- again, i think there's still probably 40,000 votes that are still left to come from maricopa county. so, you know, again, there's the potential here for biden to gain in pima county, for trump again

to make a gain in maricopa county on par with the one you just saw. if the one you saw happens again with the remaining vote in maricopa, that could come down to 14,000 or so. again, it could go up a little bit with pima county. and with the rest of the state, you could see trump reducing it further, you know. it's tight. get it inside 10,000. does he get it to zero? >> i'm not sure. okay. stand by. let's check in once again with rich fitzgerald in pennsylvania. i don't know if you got results yet, but do you have timing at least, rich? thank you so much for coming back to join us. >> sure. i think we're going to be posting about a little over 7,000 votes within the next half hour. if things have been running like they should, it should increase

the lead for joe biden by about 4,000 or 4,200 votes. >> that's within the next half hour? you popped out with your mic. >> it should be in the next half hour. i think they're posting them momentarily. >> and you're looking at a biden gain just by looking at the trends you're seeing come in? >> yeah. if they're trending like normal. biden would pick up about 5,600 votes, and trump would pick up 1,400, somewhere in that range, if it runs the same way it's been throughout. >> for the viewers who may not have been with us a couple of hours ago when you gave us an update, which votes are these exactly? what are you looking at in the count? >> it probably would be the mail-in votes, not the provisional ballots. they'll not be looked at maybe

for a couple of days. >> how many provisionals do you expect, rich? >> around 17,000. >> okay. we'll get those in in a couple of days. rich is freezing up a little bit, mika, and we're losing his audio. we'll work on that and get back to rich. steve kornacki, what are you learning out of the votes out of allegheny county that we'll get in the next half our or so. what d l that tell us about pennsylvania? >> if what we're hearing here, he says biden would gain about 4,200 votes from the 7,000. that would be consistent with what we've been saying here just in terms of how the mail vote is breaking in allegheny county, 80% for joe biden, a gain of about 4,200 votes for joe biden if that were to be what happens here, would bounce the statewide lead up to 33,000 votes. he'd be at 33,000 with a gain like that. and i'm sorry.

i didn't hear the full interview here, but he was -- he was saying there are more mail votes to come after that. is that right? >> yeah. he's going to give a batch of about 7,000 votes in a half hour with more to come and 17,000 provisional votes down the line a couple of days. >> 7,000 mail. we've been hearing 20,000 total mail left, so this would be a third of the remaining mail vote coming in. again, that would be the same pace some of if biden got what we're hearing there from that batch, that would move his statewide lead to 33,000 votes. again, there would still be 13,000 of these absentee ballots left to be counted. so the potential at that same pace, he would still be on pace to bump the statewide lead to 40,000 just from the mail ballots left in allegheny county. >> that might be, steve

kornacki, a bar that allows the state to be called. i'm not sure. certainly a lead of 40,000 votes is significant. >> the other thing we're waiting on is philadelphia. if we're going to get allegheny county in the next 30 minutes, that's going to bump it up presumably. yeah, they're working in philadelphia. they've got the camera up. maybe philadelphia reports something out. again, you can expect something similar to happen there. between those two alone, you know, you've got the potential for this vote count to move north pretty quickly, this biden lead. >> right. as we look live where they're counting the votes in philadelphia, steve, you also have been tracking the patterns of their reporting. what was the time line in philadelphia? how many hours they took and how many votes?

like when might we hear from what we've witnessed so far from philadelphia? >> the only conclusion i can draw from that, we'll hear when we hear because, you know, there were a couple of times they were late on wednesday night, philadelphia, we were getting pretty steady updates from them. then we didn't hear anything at all. boy, my time line of these dates is all screwed up. we've had 12-hour gaps 2rks-hour gaps. we had huge reports early yesterday morning. that's the one that pud jt joe biden ahead. since then we've heard nothing. they've got a big bunch of votes still there. my experience with philadelphia this week is when there's these long pauses between vote reports, the next one out is big because it encapsulates a lot of ballots. i think it's maura who was reporting the next one may be very small. >> steve kornacki cannot report

when the votes come out, and they're not even on a schedule as steve has been telling us. can we hopper of the nevada? we've talked about pennsylvania for good reason. we just got the new totals out of maricopa county and arizona. nevada is a place the bind campaign feels very good, especially when you think of which vote is still out there and has not been reported. >> really. it's an election in nevada that's coming down to clark county, a big democratic area, las vegas area. biden goes into this decisive period of the vote counting already ahead by 20,000 votes, basically 2 points state wide. we know a big chunk of what's left to come in clark county is mail-in ballots. we know because they've been reporting them out in increments, biden has been winning them, 2/1.

you've clearly established what the pattern is in terms of how they're breaking. so, again, when the mail-in ballots get tallied up, you can expect the biden lead to grow significantly, and then you're going to be left with -- this is like pennsylvania. you're going to have this pool of provisional votes that i suppose he could erase the 35,000-gap, whatever he's left with. it's provisional in the same sense it would be in pennsylvania. but a big part are the same-day registrations in nevada, that's people who show up and register to vote on election day. again, there's preliminary evidence the secretary of state's office in nevada has released that just the party

idea, there's a lot of democrats. it's clarng county. that's not a surprise. you're looking at a situation where you don't look at that provisional vote and say, oh, wow. it's going to be 80%. that's, again, the level we're talking about where biden is already ahead. come down to democratic areas. biden is going to increase his lead as that democratic area in nevada finishes its mail vote and then you're going to be left with, okay, there is a big pile of provisional ballots here. could they theoretically all go to donald trump and change the election? that becomes the kind of situation we're in. >> steve, as we look at the map, there's five state, pennsylvania, north carolina, georgia, arizona, and nevada. right now it looks like north

carolina's most likely not going to change. pensacola -- excuse me. i keep saying that. pennsylvania is not -- donald trump's not going to find the votes to catch up in pennsylvan pennsylvania. georgia looks like it will have a recount, but biden will most likely stay ahead there. let's talk about nevada and arizona. they seem to be going in two different directions just because of clark county. 2-1 democratic area. it looks like nevada is going to probably break for joe biden. but arizona, like you said, that is getting tight. is it safe to say outside of maricopa and tucson, you've got some vote-rich republican areas

where donald trump could fair better, and if he comes in under the 59%, 6 07 in maricopa and tucson, he can make that up in the red areas across the state. >> well, rich in republican vote bus not population. that's the one thing. keep in mind, you've got almost 65% of the vote in arizona is just maricopa county. and then you could add another 20% just for pima county where tucson is. that's the balance we're talking about. we've got a lot of land but not a lot of population. the way i kind of look at it, you've got maricopa county. that's the county that exclusively -- that's the balance of power in arizona. i would say if you win maricopa, usually you can win statewide. if you lose, you usually lose state wide. you've got the democratic area, tucson, pima county, that could benefit biden what's left. then that's kind of counter ambulanced by the accumulation of republican areas around the state.

yeah, i think there's potential for trump to outsize gains. and then there's the potential to take a hit in pima county. and the thing that settles it as always in arizona to me at least is maricopa county. >> we're waiting for new election results out of pennsylvania, but let's do in arizona what you showed us in pennsylvania and also wisconsin. let's look at the changes from 2016 to 2020. why did joe biden do so much better in 2020 than democrats have in the past? >> this is a simple one. here's 2016. here's 2020. maricopa county. phoenix metro area, the suburbs. again, we wait to see where this is going to land because there are still, you know -- i'm seeing after this last update we

just gave you, 23,000, i believe, mail. there are still tens of thousands of votes to be counted in maricopa county. this is going to tighten to get trump over the top here in maricopa county, it seems unlikely. but, yeah, that's the change. in 2016 donald trump won maricopa county by three. i think he's on pace to fall a point short give or take in maricopa county right now some of that's your swing. that's the same story in the 2018 midterms. remember they picked up the senate seat in arizona. they made their gains in maricopa county. it's a sprawling gigantic metro area. it's where they think they have the most potential for gains in the trump era, and that's what you're seeing there. >> you know, willie, there were

so many changes that were going to take place. some missed mark. i will say a "new york times" article written on maricopa county a couple of weeks before the election talked about the great changes in that county and how they feared they could lose a presidential race for the first time since 1948. if the trend continues, it looks like that just may happen. >> yeah. and steve just laid it out in red and blue. it was a straight flip. that's latino voters. we've been having this conversation all week about the latino vote. obviously the biden campaign disappointed and surprised about what happened in miami-dade and florida, part of the reason they lost florida. they're quick to point out among the latina voters in general,

they did well and they did well enough perhaps in arizona to take that state for joe biden, which could be instrumental. obviously a couple of news organizations called it a couple of days ago. we have not called that yet. if you called it for joe biden, you'd put together the pieces and get to 270. really what we're watching right now if you're just joining us is the state of pennsylvania. we're expecting -- we just heard from the county executive in allegheny county, home to pittsburgh, that we're going to get a new vote, about 7,000 votes or so within the next few minutes which will add, expected to the vote total for joe biden, a come thousand, maybe 4,000 in rich fitzgerald's estimation. you see joe biden's lead is 138,000. that could bump him up to around 142,000, 143,000. again, joe, we're waiting on philly really at the end of the day. there's going to be a big vote

eventually that comes out of there. it may come peace meal is what we're hearing, a couple of thousand votes at a time. it should be soon, sometime today. i know we've been saying it for a while. it would put joe biden in a place that would be called for him and thereby the election. >> ending it. >> and we're expecting again -- we're expecting allegheny county to call their votes in. >> in a matter of minutes now. >> in the next 24 minutes or so. that could make the difference and finally put joe biden over the top. one other thing about maricopa county. john heilemann has been banging the drum all year. he spent a lot of time on the ground there and could see a real difference with what was happening in arizona four years

ago and what's happening now. >> yeah. there's changes in the demographics, but still it could be very, very tight in arizona. i think even the campaign is prepared for the numbers from biden to dwindle a little bit, for trump to erode his gain. that is not going to be a surprise to the biden campaign if that happens. again, all eyes right now are on pennsylvania because we definitely have word from allegheny county that numbers are imminent, numbers that could get closer to making this race call-worthy. and then, of course, pennsylvania -- i mean philadelphia, pennsylvania. those numbers will bring in a significant amount of votes rs probably more than enough to make this race in pennsylvania t state of pennsylvania finally in a position where it can be called. right now the biden campaign is very confident that it will be called for joe biden. >> but if it is not, you're

exactly right, willie. the numbers coming out of philadelphia have been so overwhelming for joe biden over the past three days that we can expect more votes out of philadelphia. and if you look at dave wassermann's analysis of those precincts left, he expects the numbers to come in even more strongly for joe biden than they have over the past three days, and over the past three days, it's been about 91%. i suspect if allegheny doesn't put joe biden in a position to be called the winner, then philly will. >> can we jump to steve kornacki real quickly? he may have an update either oven timing or numbers. steve? >> it was a small update.

2,700 votes. joe biden won 2,400 of them. you see what that's done. his statewide lead in pennsylvania from this small update from philadelphia has broken the 30,000 votes. he leads by 30,908. it looks like 2,700, 2800 votes just came in from philadelphia. biden winning 2,431 of them. so, again, just that pace of overwhelming, overwhelmingly the mail ballots especially in philadelphia going for joe biden. they have more to come. this is just a perfect example of what we're talking about. we have long, long delays between these vote updates. we have a big pool of votes left to come, but every time we get

these small, small incremental updates, they continue the fw overwhelmingly for biden, 2,000 votes here, 3,000 votes there, 3,000 votes there, and it sits at 31,000 basically. >> okay. >> once again, with the latest batch that came in from philadelphia, we once again have joe biden winning almost nine out of ten votes in that batch. that's been consistent with everything we've seen over the last three days. jon meacham, let me bring you in right now. judging by what the news agencies have said, what the networks have said, news networks have said calling this race, you get the feeling with votes coming in from allegheny

which are going to be -- we have an announcement to make. joe biden is president-elect of the united states. biden is being call ed with the pennsylvania votes that have just come in, biden has been elected, mika. tell us about it. >> well, the president-elect of the united states, joe biden, has run for president three times, and the third time has turned out to be the charm, not only the charm, but possibly the most consequential election of our lifetimes. he's 77 years old. he was born in scranton, pennsylvania, but calls wilmington, delaware, his home. at the age of 29 joe biden became one of the youngest people ever elected to the u.s. senate, and that is where he stayed for decades.

even, quite frankly, through tremendous tragedy that has struck his life. he has been witness and a part of some major moments in american history during his time as vice president of the united states under barack obama, and that is the passage of the affordable care act, and health care remains his top priority. >> willie, as we talk about this election, this race, we looked at joe biden in the eyes when we were in new hampshire. he knew he was going to lose that race badly in the democratic primary just like he had been embarrassed in iowa, and i must say it's one of the few times i've been around joe biden in my life where when he sat down, i had nothing to say to him. it was a moment where you could tell joe biden knew that he was hanging by a very thin thread in that race. he knew he had to perform well in the next race in nevada.

he came in second. that was good enough to buy him a ticket to south carolina. and then, willie, i must say, what happened over the next week in south carolina, what happened when jim clyburn endorsed him and black voters, especially women black voters across the state of north carolina came out en masse to support his candidacy, joe biden was on his way. we must say and we said at the time, we'll say it now, few of us have ever seen a candidacy turn around as quickly as joe biden's did over the next week or two. he went from being a man presume odd to be a three-spgs or four-time loser to a man rocketed toward a presidential nomination. now he's going to be the 46th president of the united states. >> an extraordinary election in so many ways, not the least of

which is that it was conducted in the middle of a pandemic, a campaign unlike we've ever seen before. j joe, you're right. i go back to that day. joe biden finished fourth in iowa. that night he finished fifth in new hampshire. that night as we interviewed him felt like a political wake, and if you go back and honestly talk to people around him, the mood was low. they didn't see a path forward and here comes south carolina. jim clyburn, congressman jim clyburn makes his endorsement, and african-american voters by and large step in to effectively save joe biden's campaign in late february, and now here we are on this saturday, yes, three or four days after election day at this point. we can say nbc news declares joe biden is declared president of

the united states of america. >> sri mika, this news from bbc. it's projecting joe biden has won the presidential election. the bbc projects he see coored enough electoral votes to defeat donald trump. >> as we give this context and talk about joe biden's incredible path to victory, it would be amis not to mention right now we're also in another moment of incredible transition in history where we're going to be witnessing the first woman vice president of the united states. >> speak of history, let's bring in jon meacham, pulitzer prize-winning presidential historian. jon meacham, this has been an extraordinary presidential race. it's been an extraordinary year, and forgive me for being poly an

issue it now. the fact that many were involved in the age of covid is remarkable, yes. joe biden got more votes than any whenperson who has won in the united states. second place, donald trump. this election has been one for the ages. >> this is on par with 1860, 1864, 193 2rks 1960, 1980, 2008. this is a moment where the country had to make a decision whether we would follow reason or whether we would continue to only be engaged in partisan passion. that does not mean that partisan passion is going away. there's an enormous amount of work ahead, but when historians

look back, when citizens look back on this moment, it may well be that this was the beginning of the end of an era of perpetual partisan warfare, and a lot of that will be determined by the character of the person we've just elected president of the united states. character is destiny. the greeks taught us that. and joe biden's character is such that it may well be that man and moment were made for each moment. >> you talk about man and moment being made for each other, i know there are a lot of people disappointed on both sides, that a democrat has been elected president and it looks like republicans will maintain control of the senate.

they've been complaining for long time that we continue electing people too washington, d.c., of both parties who are outsiders who don't know how to make washington, d.c., work. question talk about remarkable stories of joe biden. i'm reading here how joe biden was supposed to be on the operating table for four hours. ended up being on the table for nine hours when there was surgery on him. >> for a brain aneurysm. >> for a brain aneurysm. and the timing, the doctors said was appropriate. t.j., if we could, show joe biden as the next president of the united states.

it wasn't a minute too soon. the moment they cut into biden's head, maybe it was by a godly coincidence. the aneurysm was a gusher. it burst outward toward the outer skull. if it had gone the other way, joe biden would not have surv e survived. there were so many times in joe biden ee life where he was dealt one tragic blow after another. of course, the passing of his wife and his daughter in a tragic accident, mika, and then this -- finding out that he had a brain aneurysm. but also believing that he was guided by god toward a larger destiny, and that's what he said after his failure in the 1988 presidential campaign. he could not understand why he had come up short, why things

had gone so badly. and then his wife jill, joe biden, val, and all of those close to joe biden understood. if he had had the brain aneurysm while campaigning, he would not have come home and he would have been dead. when he woke up from that surgery, mika, he said he understood why he had lost that race so badly. he believed that god still had a plan for his life, and here we are, 40 years later. joe biden is going to be the 46th president of the united states. >> you talk about that brain aneurysm and that moment, that bedside moment when he told his sons that he didn't need to see them grow into men because he was proud of them. you would think it would end there in terms of tragedy. then there is beau biden. beau biden who served as delaware's attorney general after returning home from iraq where he seved as a captain with

the delaware national guard, beau biden died of brain cancer, and joe biden always talks about health care being personal to him because it is. but it brings out something else that has struck me about not just joe biden, but joe and jill biden and knowing them over the years. joe biden received the first brzezinski award after the passing of my father for a million reasons, but the one i looked to is how grounded they are. when you meet joe and jill biden, you do not look at them and see the seitz and sounds of people who are creatures of washington. you see scrantoning you see wilmington, people that are just like you and me, and that's everybody. they're people that never got changed by washington, and grounded by that hardship. instead of broken by it, grounded by it, and god bless them, they want to go back to

washington after serving there for decades and then those eight years serving under president barack obama. a lot of people after something like that, they'd want to go home, get a break. nope. joe biden wants to go back and serve. >> more news outlets calling this race saying it is over. the "washington post" declaring right now joe biden projected to be the nation's 46th president, elected to lead a divided country amid a deadly pandemic. and, willie, talking about beau biden, beau is a friend of our show like many democrats, many republican republicans. he came on the show many times. we always respected him. we were surprised he didn't run as senator of delaware. he could have run that. he decide to stay where he was because he was committed to the people of delaware. i remember talking to joe biden. he was on the show earlier this year with us, and we asked him

if he thought about beau every day, and he teared up and he told us that, in fact, beau he was running for. and as the boy who was in the front seat of that ambulance racing to walter reed hospital in the middle of a snowstorm when his father was dying, it made all the sense in the world it was beau pushing him forward because beau didn't want him to get out of the '88 race. beau wanted him to keep going, keep fighting. let's just tell it like it is. most democrats and the democratic establishment at the start of this process had very few kind words to say about joe biden's candidacy. they thought he was too old. they thought he was too shaken up by losing beau.

>> they thought he hugged too much. >> they thought life had delivered to many hard blows to him. they didn't think he could win the democratic nomination beat donald trump. but time and time over the past year, joe biden has exceeded expectations. >> yeah. i think lost in the failures of the trump administration and donald trump so controlling the airspace and the stage during this campaign is that joe biden and his team ran an excellent skplenlt campaign. now, it was a different campaign because we're in the middle of a pandemic. he didn't do the events he would norm will do or work rope lines the way he normally would, but he resisted some of the tug left that he was encouraged by some to visit position s that may hae hurt him. he was told, if you want to take this back, the central mission is to control the upper midwest, get back those states that hillary clinton lost to donald trump. mission accomplished in

wisconsin, in michigan, and now we can say in the state of pennsylvania. he grabbed back the three states, and he may not be done yet as you seton map, nevada, arizona, georgia, north carolina, alaska still outstanding. back to your point about beau biden, there was an incredible moment. joe biden visited st. joseph's on the brandywine, the roman catholic church he's attended for a long time in wilmington, delaware, and where his children are buried, and to go in and say a brayer and visit the graves of your children on the day you hope you may be elected president of the united states tells a lot of the story of joe biden's life that now culminates in this most when he's the president-elect and will become the 46th president of the united states of america. >> it's every parent's fear to have to bury their child, joe biden has had to do it twice. and he's had to bury a wife.

and if you ask him how he got through that, he will tell you only his faith in god moved him forward. and with the loss, of course, of beau, it was jill, the same jill biden that joe biden credited with helping him dream again. let's continue, willie, through the breaking news. t"the wall street journal" now declaring joe biden is elected president of the united states. he pledged, quote, no blue states and no red states but a united country. the "financial times" breaking news, joe biden wins u.s. election after pennsylvania triumph, and "the new york times," joe biden defeated president trump and has been elected the president of the united states. he clenched the electoral college with pennsylvania. willie. >> scranton joe clinches the

electoral college fittingly with pennsylvania in an era that began for donald trump in politics on an escalator ride down 5 1/2 years ago now ends on a saturday where he learned this news at his golf course in virginia where he is currently playing. let us not lose in this, senator kamala harris now vice president-elect, the first woman, the first black woman, the first indian american woman to hold that position. this is a memo momentous day. you've been covering joe biden for 13 years this. is a bit of a delayed gratification in a campaign that felt like a couple of days ago they had it wrapped up, but now they can officially say joe biden is the president-elect. what's the reaction there? >> reporter: well, just

incredible jubilation on the part of the biden team. they thought we were at this moment yesterday, of course, but when joe biden took the lead yesterday, but, of course, the slow pace of results, the lack of projection from the media organizations that he was, in fact, president-elect, put that on hold. but, you know, i've covered joe bide an long time. i've heard him very often quote irish poets, not because he's irish, but because they're the best poets. there's a particular poem he's fond of quoting from. i think it's particularly relevant. history says don't hope on this side of the grave but then once in a lifetime the longed for tidal wave can rise up in the hope and history of rhyme. the delay of yesterday means an upset victory over a popular incumbent republican, he is now the president-elect of the united states. he does this after winning pennsylvania, the state where he

was born, where he's campaigned more than anywhere else. this happens five years as you've been mentioning after the loss of his son beau. i want to call him the former vice president. i'm calling him the president-elect now. often during the course of this campaign about his son, he said at one point during the campaign he wakes up every day and hopes that beau is proud of him. he lost his son at the age of 46. joe biden will be the 46th president of the united states. it's also important to note, he's said and his wife, dr. bind, in that interview, they thought often during the curse of the campaign they should be campaigning for beau biden for president not for joe biden as president. when he lost his son and made the decision not to enter the

2016 presidential race, that was, of course, the sense that it was the end of his story, his career in office was over. but then donald trump happened. perhaps on the even of the 2016 election, trump had a better chance of reading than a lot of democrats wished to believe. on the eve of the election he was campaigning with tim kaine and while tim was almost in celebration mode expecting to become the vice president, joe biden told the crowd, god willing we're going to win this election, but a lot of folks are going to vote for the other guy and we have to ask ourselves why. why did we lose this connection with the type of working class voters that joe biden has always considered his base. when donald trump became president joe biden felt the moment was coming to him. a lot of democrats doubted whether he was the right candidate. he and his campaign had

unshakeable confidence that others didn't appreciate to the very voters that have now put him in the oval office. that blue wall he helped rebuild, the suburban communities as well, and that's now the triumph of the biden campaign. >> mike, you've been there covering every single day of this campaign. we'll let you go back and do some reporting, let us know when you expect to see the president-elect. i'm sure we'll see him at some point very shortly here. mika, fox news also calling officially this election for joe biden. >> okay. thank you, willie. to mike memoli's point about beau, if there's anything you need to know about joe biden, it's this. if beau biden could be on that stage right now winning the presidency, joe biden would happily step off. it's an incredible moment. his path to victory has been long, arduous, painful, and

decades long, by the way. let's bring in claire mccaskill. i know, claire, there's so much to say about joe biden's path to the presidency, but i have to say as i looked up, i think i heard something. wit as crack. a crack in the ceiling. i think it's worth talking about kamala harris in this as well, first black american woman of indian descent to be the first vice president of the united states of america. >> first of all, congratulations to america and congratulations to the biden campaign who stayed focused where they needed to be focused. and sincere congratulations to my friend joe and a double congratulations to cakamala. you need to look at her path. this is not somebody who was tapped on the shoulder of a preppy school. this is anything but someone that the other side would call

elite. this is someone who went to a historically black college and university at howard and then found her way into the very top levels of our government through intelligence, hard work, balance, listening, and an incredible ability to communique. she deserves this. she earned this the right way. and she's such a great role model for all women in america. i'm so prout of her and joe biden for selecting her, and they've got a very difficult job in front of them, but both of them together, i think, have the equipment necessary to navigate a stark reality, mika. and we can't forget this. donald trump is going to be a go king maker for years to come. he's incredibly popular. he's seen as their hero. and this country is very divided. and i think all of us in my party need to be patient and understand that we've got to try to do a better job of bringing people together or all we're going to do is sit on the

opposite sides of the room and yell at each other. >> well put. >> it's a great point, claire. there are many people who haven't worked in washington like you who think you can get your way. they've created checks and balances that require democrats and republicans work together. joe biden said he's going to do that. he's going bring people together. he's going to bring parties together, and he will be president of the entire united states. not just for democrats, for people who voted for him, but for everybody. jon meacham, i'm reminded. mike memoli talked about poets and joe biden's favorite poets. i'm reminded of when we spoke of beau biden's passing after it

happened, i quoted bobby kennedy from april 4th, 1968, something you've spoken beautifully about on your podcast, and kennedy's quote of eskalis, his favorite greek poet, and joe biden took this to heart. it's something we talked about on the show. he wrote about 500 years before christ's birth, he who learns must suffer, and even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair against our will comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of god. and joe biden knows that awful grace better than anyone, but when you see these moments on a campaign trail where he goes up

and he hugs somebody who has lost a father or who's lost a child, when he speaks to gold star parents, he has parents, h extraordinary connection, that almost super human empathy because he has suffered so much in his life. and he uses that suffering to apply that grace of god to others. >> joe biden is among the most empathetic men i've ever men, much less public figure. in that he's in the tradition of george herbert walker bush. they both have the capacity to put themselves in the other persons shoes. that is personal virtue. it's also going to be a political virtue that will benefit this country for at least four years to come and possibly far beyond.

because the deficit of decency, the deficit of hope, the ascendance of fear, the ascendance of selfishness that we have seen in this country will not totally end with any single election, but a single election can surely help. and what was on the ballot here was decency and democracy and empathy. and joe biden is particularly well-equipped for this moment. he's not perfect. he'd be the last person on the planet to tell you he was perfect. there are vices, but there are virtues here. and they are deeply human virtue. they are deeply american virtues. and i think it's wonderfully poetic that it was pennsylvania that has ended what president ford in another context call our long national nightmare, because

it was in philadelphia. that as benjamin franklin, a famous woman said what will it be, will you be a republic or a monarchy, and he said a republic, madam, if you can keep it. and a republic is being kept today. >> let's go back to steve kornacki. steve, we saw that vote come in from philadelphia in a couple of seconds after you touched your magic board the election was called for joseph biden. and it came in and more votes came in from allegheny county so you see now biden's lead grew further. again, i think that's going to

keep ticking up today. if you still want to follow this stuff and the vote count keep in mind trump's number in pennsylvania in 2016 he won the state by 46,000. maybe you want to see if biden can exceed that before all is said and done. that certainly seems possible here, but, yeah, it was everything we were talking about all morning, all night last night. it was just long gaps between getting new votes. and a lot of time in between to say the pattern here is clear, the pattern here is clear. and every time we got a new vote it just reaffirmed that was the pattern. and eventually i think this just got -- an accumulation of small updates it got to a point this is now 34,000 votes, this is now rising. the idea trump is going to overturn this with provisional ballots we can already see have quite a few democrats in them, traditionally extremely democratic. the idea trump is suddenly going to win 96% of that vote or something like that, the implausibility i think just finally reached the critical

threshold. >> so steve, you've been at that board standing for nearly a week interrupted. so we're going talet you go. but before we dismiss you, just give us one last snapshot of what else is out there in the country, what else we should be watching today? joe biden is the president-elect, but he could well add to that total today. >> sure, yes, absolutely. look, the place he's most likely immediately to add to that total would be nevada. we've taken you through the situation tlhere. he already leads in the state if he gets nevada that'll move up to 279. in arizona he's trying to hang on. we've taken you through it. he's got a lead. it's dwindling. it does not seem like it's dwindling at a rate that would actually get trump over the top there. so if biden can hang on in arizona that would push him up to 290 in the electoral college. there's georgia. that's going to take some time. biden's leading now. certainly possible he could get

georgia. if he wins that, that would put him up to 306. alaska, again i don't want to speak to the decision desk, i don't think he's getting alaska. north carolina, again i don't think he's get north carolina. >> let it rip, steve. >> i think his ceiling here and it's a plausible one is 306. i think biden could very plausibly land at 306 electoral votes, which by the way 306 was donald trump's number in 2016. so maybe there's some symmetry there and biden lands on that in 2020. >> steve kornacki, america has hung on your every word this week. we have hung on your every word this week. you have carried our coverage. you deserve all the praise you're getting, and frankly, buddy, we love you. great job. >> well said, willy. >> and let me just say as your agent two things. you go get some rest, and i'm going to make phil pay more for steve kornacki.

big pay raise, baby. a big pay raise. >> i like the way you're talking. >> thanks, steve. >> we really appreciate it. thank you so much. he really has done an extraordinary job at that board. and again, he's been driven by data not ideology. he's been talking about the numbers, and that's why people on both sides can trust him. you're looking right now at crowds that are building outside the of the white house. there are also crowds in new york city and across america that are building. we will be bringing those to you as well. right now, though, i want to bring in -- we've got a friend of joe biden's for quite some time, but i want to bring in reverend al first and then we'll get to mike. rev, i want to follow up on something i said earlier right after we made the call. you and i talked and we were less than pleased early on in this process because so many people were underestimating joe

biden. and time and time again you were talking about the latte liberals that voted against him in the first couple of contests. and you kept telling me, joe, just wait until south carolina. just wait until super tuesday. these people don't know what they're talking about. this is joe biden's race to lose. and he ain't going to lose. those were your words after iowa and after new hampshire. you must feel vindicated today. >> i do feel very happy. you know i'm here in harlem. and one of the people in the rally is one of the central park five. and for him to watch joe biden win when donald trump had taken out ads to have him executed, it is a real moment here at the house of justice. but i feel vindicated because joe biden really connected with people.

and if there's anyone that can heal this country it is someone that has been through the pain, has had to grow because we fought over the crime bill 30 years ago, and he's grown. and i think you have the poetry of him winning in his home state of scranton, pennsylvania, but you also have had the poetry of here was a man who was the vice president to the first black man who was president that is now bringing in the first black woman to be vice president. he is the bridge to bring this country together because he has served the black and now has a black woman that will serve with him. and this is the kind of healing we want. i was in the room and i think this is important. i was there when he met with george floyd's family, the day before the funeral in houston. and only joe biden could show the empathy and compassion and took george floyd's young daughter to the side and talked to her one-on-one like she was

the head of state. and she said to him, you know, my dad would have changed the world and he quoted that everywhere. that's the kind of country. we're not always going to agree but we've got to trust the one. and i think he's earned our trust because he understands pain. >> well, the president-elect of the united states joe biden just issued a statement reading, quote, i am honored and humbled by the trust the american people have placed in me and in vice president-elect harris. in the face of unprecedented obstacles a record number of americans voted proving once again that democracy beats deep in the heart of america. with the campaign over it's time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. it's time for america to unite and to heal.

we are the united states of america, and there is nothing we can't do if we do it together. i'll go to mike barnacle. i know you've known joe biden for decades, mike. and i'm thinking of words that apply to this journey right now. long, painful, arduous, tragedy filled, patriotic, patient, joyful. that's been joe biden's path to the presidency. and quite frankly the democrats could not have picked a more perfect candidate to meet the moment. >> you know, throughout the long arc of his career joe biden has been consistent with one thing above all. he's always gone home. nearly every night he went home when his children were sick and ill recovering from that accident. that's in the 1970s. but home is the metaphor for joe biden i would think