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 today. and that's what he wants to do

with the country, with the united states of america is to bring all of us home. i'm sure right now in the biden household as they prepare to travel to the convention center or the hotel wherever the speech is going to take place, there are tears, lots of tears because the entire family is gathered there. and there are tears of humility, which is really critical in terms of dealing with what's going on in this country right now. we've been talking an awful lot over the past 3 1/2 years and certainly over the past weeks about living in a divided nation, and there's no getting around it. we are a divided country. but there's a cause for this. there's a reason for this. and one of the biggest reasons is that every single day, every single hour of nearly every single day for the last 3 1/2 years we have been led by a president we has gone out of his way to create division in this

country. so it's going to be interesting to see what happens when you have joseph r. biden assume the presidency, a man directly opposite to the nature, the personality and the moral code of the incumbent president of the united states. i wish we could show it would be the clip of joe biden sitting vice president speaking with members of it parkland high school family that lost their husband, i believe it was an assistant coach. they have a special needs child, and the sitting vice president goes down the family line clearly moved thanking them. he turns to leave and the son, the special needs son off camera shouts, wait, and runs to joe biden, buries himself in the sitting vice president's chest,

he was my dad. and watch the vice president's reaction, surprised, unplanned, instinctively human. watch what he says. he hugs the young man and says we're going to be all right, you're going to be all right. that one clip contains the promise of the next four years. >> it is just past 12:00 noon on saturday, november 7th, 2020. joe biden has just been declared the next president of the united states. he will be the 46th president of the united states. a man who at the age of 29 was elected to the united states senate, but before he could even be sworn in lost his wife and a child in a tragic car accident right before christmas. biden did not want to go to the senate. he did not want to be sworn in.

he wanted to stay with his two boys who had also been severely hurt in that accident. ted kennedy talked him into moving forward with his life, told him to come to washington, d.c. it would help him move forward much like it was george h.w. bush who encouraged james baker to get involved in politics to move past the loss of his wife. joe biden took ted kennedy's advice. he went to washington, but as mike barnacle said, every night he would return home on the asella, and he would return home to make sure that nobody else was taking care of his boys. he happened to be the one that read them to sleep at night. he wanted to be the father they would wake up to in the morning. he wanted to be the dad he would play catch with them in the

afternoon. and joe biden kept making that train ride every day that he could back home to wilmington, delaware. and willy, as we sit here just past noon and we're seeing celebrations outside the white house, we're seeing celebrations across new york city and across the country, you look at this man who's been counted out so many times, who's been dismissed not only by republicans but dismissed by elites in the democratic party because joe biden after all didn't go to an ivy league school. in fact, he is the first president that we will have that has not gone to an ivy league school since ronald reagan was elected in 1988 and left the white house in 1980 and left the

white house in 1989. and so joe biden is a man who has stayed in touch with the american people. and he is a man who now will be leading the american people. and it will be difficult. donald trump will not concede the race. that's the word that we're receiving right now. but time moves on. history rolls on, and joe biden regardless of what donald trump does or does not do is going to be sworn in as president of the united states on january 20th, 2021. >> yes. and to your point about the sitting president of the united states, as you might expect he's not handling this well. i won't read his statement because it's so riddled with inaccuracies and conspiracy theories and assertions that already have been rejected in courts of law across the country this week. but the bottom line is donald

trump says, quote, the simple fact is this election is far from over saying he's going to fight beginning on monday in the courts. rev, i wanted to go to you as we sort of peel through the layers of this vacate for jictory for . and if you're just joining us joe biden is the president-elect. he's at 273 right now. at the party, rev, the democratic party and you know there's the oldest story of washington is dems in disarray. well, they weren't in disarray during this campaign. you know, when bernie sanders stepped away and suspended his campaign he backed joe biden. his supporters were frustrated that a centrist might be the nominee, but he said this election is too important. you have to support joe biden, elizabeth warren the same could be said for her. pete buttigieg, amy klobuchar,

kamala harris. of course earlier the party got in line because they knew the stakes were so high and, yes, as a centrist joe biden just might be the guy who could defeat joe biden. so the party who's often maligned for being disorganized it seems it me to be confident on this day. >> absolutely. i think it was an unprecedented kind of operational unity the party shows. bernie sanders and warren as well as buttigieg not only endorsed him, they worked tirelessly all over the country for him. i think the tone was set you must remember during the debates, and i'll never forget the night that kamala harris had really attacked joe biden in the debate around busing issues. and he turned around and asked her to be his running mate. he showed the tone of coming together and healing. when you cannot take a personal disagreement and even as your

running mate, someone that really did you a real shot during one of the debates. it shows the kind of leader he'll be, the kind of leader she'll be, and shows how this party said we're not going to be petty like the president incumbent. we can get past our disagreements for a bigger picture. >> and claire mccaskill, there are a number of ways in which many believed joe biden might be the man of the moment right now. his belief in the value of bipartisanship and the fact he has relationships with a lot of leading republicans right now, he has worked with them, that would be number one. and i think it's not too early to talk about our relationships around the world. he was chairman of the senate foreign relations committee as well as vice president, and there is work to be done on both fronts. fair enough? >> absolutely fair enough. first, let's acknowledge that joy is spontaneously breaking out all over america right now.

i predict that you're going to see large crowds all over the country celebrating what has just happened. and it's okay for us to wallow in that for a while. you know, my party stayed unified, and that's not always easy. there are very strong opinions within the democratic party. but we also have to stay focused on the fact that we did not have the victories up and down the ballot that we hoped for. and we've got to figure that part out, and we've got to figure out how we actually get things done. yes, joe biden will be able to do a lot by executive order just as donald trump has done. and nobody has stomped on the different branches of government more completely than donald trump. i mean, he has totally taken away the power of the congressional branch with the acquiescence i might add of republicans in congress. so now joe biden he'll be able to push the envelope on executive power also. but that will not fix some of the problems we've got to fix.

and that's going to require our party to stay unified and everyone not get irritated if we try to reach out to the other side and do better. >> that's a great point, claire. thank you so much. i greatly appreciate you being here. and as we look at jubilation from crowds, that is something that democrats and let's say we need to keep in mind as we look these cheering minds, joe biden will be president in a divided washington. in a washington with a republican senate most likely -- most likely. in a democratic house where the democratic house with a conservative supreme court and with a democratic president. does that sound like chaos to you? well, if so you probably should read the constitution of the united states and the federalist papers because what it's called in this system of government is a system of checks and balances.

there will be no rolling over republicans. there will be no ignoring mitch mcconnell or the republican senate because they are most likely going to be running the united states senate. and it's going to require that joe biden uses every skill in his toolbox, every skill he's learned went to the united states senate and got sworn in when he was 30 years old. and there are some who see that as a negative. i must say if they do that's unfortunate because that's the way our system has worked for quite some time. and i must say also it's a system that worked fairly well even though there was partisan rhetoric. david ignaceous when i was in congress and when bill clinton was president of the united states, i always made the joke

you could impeach bill clinton on tuesday and he would invite you to go golfing with him on a wednesday. and what that meant was that together bill clinton and a very conservative republican congress balanced the budget for the first time in a generation, balanced it four years in a row, passed welfare reform, saw the united states economy grow at a strong, strong clip. and it was bipartisanship that worked because bill clinton had been doing the same thing in arkansas for over a decade. this is something joe biden's seen up close for some time in the united states senate. >> joe biden has the political education for this moment.

he's been i think pitch perfect as it began to be clear that he was going to be the president-elect. he's talked about putting anger behind us. he's talked about healing, and he has the tools to try to make this system that you were talking about, a system of checks and balances, a system that often allows sometimes encourages division to make it work. i think the contrast between his comments generous, soothing about being the president for the people who didn't vote for him as much as the people who did is in such contrast to what we've been hearing from president trump. if you wanted a snapshot of what this change will be about just look at the two statements in the last hour. so i've sensed as somebody who covers foreign policy, sensed the world taking a collective sigh of relief over the last 48

hours really as it began to seem likely that joe biden would be our next president. the world has worried that america had changed in fundamental ways from the country that people thought they knew the united states was. and we still have a long way to go. our divisions are deep, but i think there must be a feeling around the world that perhaps these trump years have been a bit of an apparition. the challenge for biden now is to do what he's talked about in the abstract, to find a way to reach out to the people who didn't vote for him, to reach out to a country that's divided, to pull people back together. just say one more thing i'm struck by. when i think of the two key moments along with this story one is obviously the south carolina primary. joe biden was just dead in the road until john clyburn and other leaders especially from black communities said this is

the person we think can pull our party together and can win, can beat donald trump. the importance of winning was central in that moment. so that's really how biden came back from the dead as a candidate. and then the other moment really involves black voters and white working class voters in the so-called blue wall. the thing the next president needs to do pulling the country back together, taking those working class voters who are so angry that they voted for donald trump even when they knew that he was a person sometimes of low character. >> and that's the most powerful thing. and he's begun to do in his

victory what the country needs. >> and joe biden does recognize the anger that is out there. he recognized it in 2016. he recognizes it even now. in fact, he told us on set in 2016 in philadelphia that people were angry and that because they were angry that the democrats had lost touch with working class white voters. and that has been his goal. there are a group of voters out there that do not trust the washington establishment for good reason. they do not trust the democratic party. they do not trust the news media. and donald trump was a person that for them fought back against all of these people who they believed looked down on them. it'll be a challenge to make up for joe biden to show that he

understands the plight of what they're going through, and he understands why they've become disillusioned. one other thing, too, david ignaceous was talked about it. as we look at the vote tallies coming in, let's think about this. the morning after joe biden was losing wisconsin. and then the votes from milwaukee came in with a disproportionate of those votes being black voters. joe biden was losing michigan, and then wayne county came in, detroit came in. the disproportionate share of those voters who put him over the tom in michigan, black voters. we just called philadelphia -- we just called pennsylvania. you can say the same thing about philly and parts of pittsburgh. a disproportionate share of

black voters put him over the top in pennsylvania as well as georgia. so i expect for there to be great representation in the biden cabinet of black leaders and, no, we're not talking about housing or some other administrative branch. i think you're going to see not only with the vice president of the united states but another major cabinet positions black leaders put in a position of power who can really shape the future of the next four years. >> to david ignaceous' point about the concern that some voters had that america had changed in some fundamental ways, and to your point, joe. joe biden often addresses openly the people he knows will not vote for him. or today the people who did not

vote for him. he often talks about how he wants to be their president, too. and it sort of reminds me of elijah cummings. even during some of the toughest times in the trump administration when he was addressing, the empathy elijah showed to michael cohen, the empathy he showed openly about the road he'd taken in life. and also the question that elijah asked very fairly to everybody but to him that when you're dancing with the angels someday the question will be what did you do to save our dem augeracy. and reverend al sharpton, for the black community, i think they answered that question in their votes. fair to say? >> very fair to say. we lost this year john lewis who was beaten on the edmund pes bridge in selma, alabama, to

secure our protection of the right to vote. we lost elijah cummings. i think a lot of us by the millions had in mind that we owed it to john lewis and elijah cummings, we owed it to shirley chisholm who's the first black woman to be elected to congress. i was 18. i was a youth director when she ran for president, and talked to kamala harris she -- and all of that i think drove a lot of people that were the bedrock voters that joe just talked about that brought this victory to joe biden. we went in there knowing we were voting against one of the most racist, xenophobic and most misogynist president we've seen in our lifetime. so we had a reason to vote. but because of the john lewises we had the capacity to vote. we stood in long lines in those

places, but it wasn't as long as it was to get the protected in the first place. and that's why everybody's in the streets celebrating because they're celebrating not only a man and woman that won but celebrating an america that may get closer back to the track we want it to be on. >> and messages of congratulations coming in for president-elect biden and vice president-elect harris. this one from hillary clinton. she just tweeted this. "the voters have spoken and they have chosen joe biden and kamala harris to be our next president and vice president. it is a history making ticket, a repudiation of trump and a new page for america. thank you to everyone who helped make this happen. onward together," writes former secretary hillary clinton who of course lost to donald trump four years ago in her own bid for the white house. we can also add prime minister justin trudeau expressing his congratulations and the mayor of

paris tweeting simply welcome back, america. mike barnacle, let me go to you. we've talked about the issues, about the economy, coronavirus, how the new president might approach that if joe biden were elected, and now he'll have that challenge in front of mim. b but away and apart from the issues was something more visceral about the way the country felt every day for the last 3 1/2 years, in a state of perpetual combat and anxiety for some people and being suspicious of the person across the street or the person on social media and always feeling like we're at war with each other, political war with each other. joe biden sought over the course of the campaign to show he would turn down the temperature on some of that. you can go back to the first debate when donald trump interrupted him time and time again and joe biden would sort of just exhale and say come on, man, or shut up man or whatever he said that night. there are all issues joe biden

will face. there is the coronavirus pandemic sitting in front of us, but there's the sense of calm joe biden gives off and he tried to express over the course of the campaign i think a lot of americans probably voted for. >> his name is joe, joe biden. it's not st. joseph, so we should all be clear on that and he knows that better than most. he was vice president of the united states for 8 years under barack obama. but despite all those offices and all the privilege that comes with those offices, he remains one of the most grounded, normal human beings you would ever encounter, and that is still with him. that is still a part of him, always has been.

i just got a text message from a fairly substantial official, and it reads the arc of our childrens and grandchildren's life just changed. and i think getting to your question, i think that text message says a lot about why so many people voted for joe biden. and if we take away the weight and the watch we've all been engaged in here for the past four days waiting for that magic number of 270 to be hit and it does arrive finally, there's a larger number, and the larger number is the numbers, the millions and millions of people who voted and the millions of people who voted for joe biden giving him a significant electoral college victory. he now sits as president-elect of the united states. and i think again to what you just raised as an issue, what he's going to bring to this

office is a sense of compassion, a sense of responsibility, a sense of competence, a sense of humility. and the sense of he knows who you are because he is in part despite the offices you held even as vice president, united states senator, most saturday mornings in wilmington at home depot, you know, going through the aisles looking for a knob here for the bathroom or whatever. he knows our lives. and as jim clyburn once said he knows us. >> so mike barnacle has talked about the 74 million people who have voted for joe biden, the

most that have ever voted for any candidate running for president. 70,337,214 americans who voted for donald trump. we are a nation divided and have been a nation divided. and that's nothing new. you can go back to the election of 1800. it was perhaps more divided that year than ever before. our founding fathers at times loathed each other. that's why we have a system of checks and balances. while you and your family may be one of those 74 million, joe biden understands. at least he has said throughout this campaign he understands, that he serves the 70,337,214

people across america who voted for donald trump as well. and i say this because many of those -- well, not many of those people but most of my friends, most of my family members voted for donald trump. and while i don't understand why they voted for donald trump, i know that they did. i know that they love america. i know that they want what's best for america. and i know this. and this will be hard for a lot of people watching today to understand. i know that they are very scared for america right now because they stopped trusting democrats, people in the media and washington elites a long time ago. joe biden understands that. he's said throughout the campaign he understands that,

and it's going to be job number one for him to bring this country back together. >> it'll be hard to figure out. joining us now mayor keisha lance bottoms of atlanta. mayor bottoms, it's glad to have you joining us during this really incredible moment in history. measure the moment in your thoughts right now. >> oh, i'm getting very emotional that this day is here. looking at what i call my biden book, the last second i wrote in here of 19 that i'd endorse joe biden and i felt very vulnerable. and the reason i felt so vulnerable is it didn't make sense to support him at the time with what i knew, and i didn't know him well at the time that he was a good man. and looking at my children and the excitement and how they erupted when this was announced really just validated what i knew then that our kids were watching us, and they were

depending on us to get this right. and my children have -- and this is a man who has a heart who can help heal this nation, and i'm just so very proud of us as a country and very, very happy for joe biden. >> mayor bottoms, it's willy geist. it's so great to see you. i want to ask you about the vice president-elect, kamala harris of course the first black woman, the first woman, the first indian-american woman to hold in office that high in our government. what do you think about vice president-elect harris today? >> i am so proud that this is a ticket that represents who we are and even more proud that my mother gets to see this moment

and my daughter gets to see this moment. and representation matters, and joe biden has said to me repeatedly that he wanted a ticket that reflected who we are as a country, and that he wants his administration to reflect who we are as a country. and there is no better representation than kamala harris on this ticket. she represents the best of us in america, and this a ticket we can all be proud of. >> mayor bottoms, thank you for being with us today. let's talk about atlanta. you have been at the center it seems of so many events this year. we all remember the nights of the protests. we all remember you telling people to get off the streets and go home and stop causing damage to property.

we remember your forcefulness in that moment and we move on my gosh six months later and once again looking at atlanta and looking at the city that seems to have cracked the solid south, the solid red south for democrats. it is atlanta and the suburbs of atlanta that has done what it seems unthinkable just six months ago, put joe biden over the top in the state of georgia. tell us how it happened. >> also joe on that night i said to people if you want to see change in america then go and vote. and that's what we saw across our city and across our state. and this year we watched john lewis and joseph lowery to see the diversity in the lines and people just standing there with

confidence and resolve and such pride all across our state is what we work for. and even with the vote with joe biden there were swing voters who supported joe biden in the state. there were republicans who supported joe biden in the state. and so it is -- i'm very proud of our state that this has been a long -- decades in the making that we are here. but georgia represents the diversity of this country. we are a diverse state. we're trending younger. we've got 800,000 new registered voters on the roll, and we know that as georgia goes so will the rest of the south. >> we are looking right now of images in atlanta right now. we've also been seeing pictures from washington square and downtown new york city. and also i don't know, guys, can you bring up the shot of -- can

you bring up the shot of lafayette park? i think i saw an image from above. there we have the president's church, st. johns church. and crowded all around that right by lafayette park, and reverend al, i know you want to ask the mayor a question next. but i'm just being a political analyst here, and certainly i speak for no one but myself when i say this, but it seemed to me that june 1, 2020, was a defining moment in the presidency of donald trump and also in this campaign when donald trump cleared out peaceful protesters in lafayette

square with tear gas and then moved to hold up a bible in front of saint johns church, the president's church. and i think it was a significant moment, rev, because it was at that moment in the coming days on june 2nd and june 3rd that you had the united states military, first its retired leaders, its retired officers. and i remember, of course, many chairman joint chiefs who came out criticizing the president of the united states, also the admiral that helped lead the mission against osama bin laden speak out against the president in those coming days. and then you had the president's own chairman of the joint chiefs unequivocally say that he should not have been involved in that event. and he guaranteed the people of

the united states that the military would remain neutral. it would not get involved in politics, and he apologized to every active duty enlisted man and woman and officer. it seemed to be a defining moment, june 1, 2020. and i think one that historians will be looking at for quite some time as it pertains to the 2020 election. >> no doubt about it. it was defining not only how the military reacted but just decent americans. looking at how he would move nonviolent protesters and use a church and a bible as a prop. it offended americans in many ways that i think you're correct it was defining. but i wanted to ask mayor bottoms because as i said earlier i was at most of the debates, and i remember when she had endorsed joe biden.

and she had come to one of the debates immediately after. she was sitting there, in fact, when senator harris then got into it with joe biden. she was sitting there with dr. jill biden, and she took the heat of a lot even in the black community for standing with joe biden. and she ended up right, ended up vindicated and overwhelmingly blacks the voted for biden, voted in the primaries and general. is it your appeal now that the party on all sides come together and help bring the country together, not be purest and so judgmental, but we deal we're in a pandemic, we deal we're in a divided country and we've got to stop this antagonism toward each other you and others have endured to bring us to this day? >> absolutely reverend al, it's our spaubt to do that. when we look at the dnc platform

that was put together it was together with a diverse group of representation from the parties. so so many of the progressive issues that we heard spoken of joe biden has said that he supports $15 an hour minimum wage. he supports affordable housing. he supports the elimination of cash bail bonds. it doesn't mean we're going to agree on every single thing, but it means you have a man and a woman at the highest level of power in this country who will listen and who will be open to compromise and i think we would do a disservice to our entire country especially a party if we enter into 2021 divided. so there's going to be time for us to fight over the slices of the cake, but we've got to make sure the cake is baked first. and i know that joe biden listens because and i've said

this before, i sat around a table with him with southern mayors where he heard our concerns for our communities. and when he began to rollout his policies it incorporated so many of the things that we've elevated as concerns. and even when he rolled out his criminal justice reform policy and affordable housing policy, very progressive policies within our city, he came back to us and said how can i do more. so i know we have somebody in the white house who's going to work with us no matter what end of the spectrum we're on. >> mayor bottoms, thank you so much for being with us today. we appreciate it so much. and willy, matt lewis just posted an interview that he had with mitch mcconnell in 2016. and mitch mcconnell said that in the obama years the time that he really felt he was able to break

through with bipartisan compromise and get things done was when he talked with joe biden, the vice president of course for president obama. so there is hope that washington can work again and that democrats and republicans, conservatives, moderates and liberals can all sit down and do what's in the best interest of the country and not their own political party. >> joe biden was elected nearly 50 years ago to the united states senate. there's not a phone call in washington he can't make where there won't be a familiar voice on the other end of the line particularly as you say from his old friends and colleagues in the united states senate. let's go now to campaign headquarters in wilmington, delaware. that's where we find white house correspondent and of course the outstanding moderator of that third presidential debate 2 1/2

weeks ago, kristen welker. it's good to see you. i understand we now have a plan to hear from the president-elect and vice president-elect today. >> reporter: hi, willy. thanks so much and that's right some breaking news as you tossed to me. we've just learned that now president-elect joe biden is going to address the nation from where i'm standing, this stage behind me at 8:00 p.m. eastern. he will be joined by senator kamala harris. it's our expectation that she will speak first, and then we will hear from the president-elect. what are we going to hear from him? it goes back to the crux of the conversation that you and joe and mika have been having throughout the morning. it's about unity. it's about trying to reach out to the voters who voted for president trump that did not vote for him. let me read you a little bit of what we heard from joe biden earlier today, and i think it gives you a little bit of preview what we can anticipate here and later on this evening. he says with the campaign over it's time to put the anger and harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. it's time for america to unite

and heal. we are the united states of america, and there's nothing we can't do if we do it together. based on my conversations with campaign aides over the past several days when they felt as though this was in their reach, when they felt as though ultimately he would be named president-elect, they said that this is going to be his first and biggest challenge, how do you unify a nation that is so deeply divided? we've seen those protests that broke out in the wake of the death of george floyd. that is obviously something that is at the heart of joe biden's promise to this country, to address the core concerns of those protesters about racial injustice. he has said he needs to first fight covid before he can address the economy which is in crisis. before he can bring this country out of a recession, he wants to combat the virus. and so i think you'll hear about that as well tonight when we hear from joe biden. and he said, look, he's not naive, he knows this is not going to be easy but sees this

as his first challenge. in terms of thinking about joe biden in a broader perspective remember how he first launched this campaign. he said he got into this race because of charlottesville. he saw this as a fight for the heart and soul of this nation. that is his challenge how to restore that and bring this country together when it's grappling with so much. so we will hear from him tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern. the new president-elect and new vice president-elect, a history making moment for her, of course the first blam woman for vice president-elect of the united states. >> kristen welker in wilmington, delaware, thanks so much. joe, kristen underlines a point we've been making this morning which is that joe biden earned more votes than any candidate in the history of the country. he'll have about 75 million, but donald trump got 70 million

votes and counting at this point. he'll have the second most votes ever earned by a presidential candidate. this is in many ways a repudiation of donald trump but there's still a large, large portion of this country that went out and voted for him, and it'll fall on joe biden now to try and heal that and bridge the divide. >> listen, we're a 50-50 nation. the difference between what donald trump did four years ago against hillary clinton and what he did this year against joe biden really wasn't that great. he got more votes. joe biden of course got 4 million more votes. but, again, it is incumbent upon joe biden to reach out any way he can to the 70 million americans that did not vote for him, and that's what joe biden has said he was going to do throughout the course of this campaign. we'll see if he can do it and be sworn in on the 20th. but willy, we've been looking at

the map all morning. the associated press is now calling nevada for joe biden as well. we have not done that yet, but if we do follow the associated press' guidance, that will put joe biden's electoral vote number up to 279, i believe. and then of course we still wait for arizona and georgia and north carolina. >> and while we do that we can show you some shots from the michigan statehouse in lancing to the point of the divide needing to be bridged. there are trump supporters gathering there. that's of course the location where at one point they stormed the statehouse protesting covid restrictions. so joining us now we have senator amy klobuchar of minnesota.

and i want to ask you about just that, senator klobuchar. what do you know about joe biden and his chances at bridging that very deep gap? >> joe biden emerged from the primary because of that theme, because of the fact he wanted to bring the country together. and that is what he has shown not just during the primary presidential campaign but just the last few days such a contrast with donald trump. joe biden has used every moment he's had when he addressed the nation to say i'm going to be the president not just for the people that voted for me but the people who didn't vote for me. he is someone that naturally has that instinct. and when joe was talking about what the president will be doing in these next few weeks, i know what he's going to be doing and i think you guys do, too. he's going to be calling every governor, democrat and republican. he's going to be focused on the

senate, of course, the work that needs to be done as we await these recounts in georgia but with both parties. and i personally talked to a number of republican senators over the last few days. i think there could be some growing interest in doing a pandemic package now, which would set a much better stage if we are in a complete crisis when joe biden becomes president. so this is moment of celebration, but i know joe and kamala understand these major challenges ahead, and that weighs heavily. but it's also this big opportunity tonight and as we go forward for him to unite the country. of course there are protests of trump people out there. it doesn't surprise me. but there are also some people who voted for trump who say, okay, collective sigh, this is behind us now, let's move forward. >> senator, there are also some people who campaigned very hard for donald trump who have long

considered h considered themselves to we friends of joe biden's, and i'm thinking of lindsey graham and the video that surfaced when lindsey started tearing up saying that anybody that knows joe biden knows he's one of it most decent men he's ever met in his life. joe biden when negotiating with democrats on capitol hill and republicans on capitol hill obviously will carry much good will, will he not? >> yes. i was there in the room when he would come in for the obama administration. he was the one as you pointed out that was called in when the budget negotiations got tough. he was the one who had the credibility with people not just lindsey graham, susan collins and as you point out mitch mcconnell. we do have these runoffs in georgia, and as you just heard

from the mayor there's been major changes in georgia, so that is going to be out there. but at the same time we can't wait. he's going to start picking cabinet members especially in the area of health to get the covid team ready to go so that we can get through this on the other end. he'll start bringing those people around in i hope in the next few weeks so we can get moving. and we just have no choice. we have to come together as a nation, and i think he is the perfect person for this moment. >> senator klobuchar, it's willy. it's good to see you this morning. i invoked your name a little while ago as we were talking about how democrats came together. i had to remind myself of the date but it was early march when you suspended your own campaign and almost immediately got an a plane to appear with and support joe biden. can you speak to the way you and bernie sanders and elizabeth warren and pete buttigieg and all the leading candidates for

this office, kamala harris of course included among them immediately got behind joe biden in a way saying the stakes are too high, i know joe biden we like to see him be behind, but it's too important right now. can you talk to sort of behind the scenes maneuvering that allowed that to happen? >> i think people thought there was some big discussion between all of us. there actually wasn't. i think everyone came to their own decision. for me, it was actually it's never easy to end a presidential campaign but to be standing there with joe and jill and the joy in that room in dallas. you knew you were doing the right thing. it goes back to john mccain, whose name has been invoked many times over the last few weeks where he said there's nothing more liberating in life than fighting for a cause larger than yourself. and that's what happened here. and i would add that bernie, not only at the moment, and through

the campaign was helpful, even the last two weeks, the two of us worked together with a number of other senators in making sure people were ready to accept the fact it would take four or five days to country -- count the votes. that. pennsylvania didn't start counting until the end. i talked to bernie about this yesterday. i think it was really an important thing to do. not only for the nation but for his own supporters. and i thought that the way we work together in unity was really important and reflected the purpose and politics we're in now. >> senator amy klobuchar, thank you so much for being with us today on this historic day. >> thanks, senator. >> we appreciate it! mike barnicle, again, you've known joe biden for so long. can you talk about joe and his family. talk about val and the people closest to him. the very tight group of family

members and the impact they have on him. you were telling me a story how damn normal he is even in the most nerve-wracking of circumstances that joe biden is used to this and he's used to pressure. he even when the presidency is hanging in the balance, he remains grounded. he remains himself. >> yeah, joe. it was sort of a surprise birthday party for his sister val the other evening. wednesday evening, i think. in the middle of all the tension about waiting to see which state is going to come in, where the vote is going, and i'm told the then former vice president, now the president-elect you could never tell that he was in the middle of this tension-ridden week. that's how normal he is. and today, first of all, the

biden c biden -- family is a tribe. all of them together. they are one unit. including the president-elect. one unit. and they fight for each other. they feel for each other. they cry together. they pray together. as a family unit. and the president-elect knows a few things. he knows the turbulence, the cultural turbulence in this country will continue. he knows the divisions that exist now are not going to suddenly disappear. he knows that donald trump is not going away. here's what else the country ought to know, that joe biden is convinced through experience that healing, healing offers the promise of a better tomorrow. he, along with the help of his family, healed himself when he lost his son, when he lost his daughter and wife at the age of 29. and the healing comes, again,

when beau dies and it's a renewable thing. he's constantly healing. the sorrows he has lived with for nearly 50 years now. those sorrows, they don't just simply disappear. they stay with you. they cling with you. you hear a song on the radio, and it reminds you of something that happened when his children died when he was 29. you pass a little league field and he'll think about watching his boys hunter and beau playing baseball. they never go away. he knows how to make them work through healing and through healing comes his purpose. his purpose is to try to heal those divisions that exist in the country. to lower the temperature of the country. to stop the tweeting, to stop the cultural wars by just a calm, effective, competent job as president of the united states. >> i want to go to john meechum in a second.

mike, you referenced a moment from vice president biden . a young man with special needs lost his father in the parkland shooting. let's take look at that now. >> thank you for hugging me. are you okay? are you okay? you'll be okay. you'll be okay. you're going to be okay. >> mike -- let's go to joe, first. for all the moments of this campaign, you go back through a year and a half worth of moments and debates on the campaign trail and everything else, it seems to me a moment like that and another one where vice president biden went up to a young man who had a stutter and gave him a speech that brought

tears to your eyes of encouragement. those are the moments that breakthrough. those are the moments that remind you of fundamental goodness. >> you're exactly right. one of the moving moments there. i must say every time i see him speaking before gold star families and see a glimpse of that, it's so moving to have a leader explaining to parents that it hurts like hell and it will always hurt, but there will come a time when the memory of your child will bring a smile to your face before it brings a tear to your eye. mika, those would be hallow words if another politician spoke them, but it's something that joe biden feels because it's something that joe biden lives and as you look at joe biden and some of these pictures that we're showing, it was jill

biden who joe credited with helping him train again. >> my family has known joe biden for years. him and jill. i had a friend who i lost top to pancreatic cancer. in the process of that loss, joe biden reached out and hugged her children and talked them through the process and met them on the other side of it. he understands that he knows how to communicate empathy. it's instinctive and it's immediate for him. i'll never forget. he's a pro at it. he's so grounded by his loss and has not let him be broken by it and jill is a part of that. i remember noting how devoted and real jill biden, dr. jill

biden is and she's a community college professor. it's something she did while joe biden served as vice president. a lot of people didn't know that, as it was happening. her students didn't even know that. she worked as a community college professor while her husband was serving as vice president, and i remember she told me about a moment that somebody noticed her in a picture next to michelle obama and asked her why she was there. she loves her job. she loves what she does! i remember she told me that she'd even like to do her job if joe did win the presidency. that would be another first to have a working first lady of the united states. not just working as first lady but having her own career. so we're breaking the glass ceiling with the vice president and potentially the first lady here but this moment in history absolutely is about what many

believe is the empathy this nation needs now in the midst of a pandemic. >> joe meechum, we want to give you the final word with a minute or so to wrap it up before we pass on coverage on this historic day when joe biden has been elected 46th president of the united states. >> empathy, decency, and democracy were on the ballot this season. america has decided by a larger margin than we sent harry truman and john kennedy and about the same margin we sent ronald reagan to the pinnacle of power. we want empathy, we want decent decency, we want democracy. barack obama asked joe biden what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. now we know. >> all right thank you so much, john meechum. willie, thank you so much for being with us nonstop.

we know you hold down several jobs. it's been a fascinating week, hasn't it? >> it most certainly has. it's required a lot of patience from a lot of people who watch our show and a lot of people who support joe biden but i think joe biden and all those people would tell you they dance in the streets now it was worth the wait! >> and, mika, when you took your mother, your 89-year-old mother to vote -- >> don't make me cry. >> when she was voting she turned to you and you knew she was voting not only for herself but voting for your dad. >> yeah. i was proud of her. she hobbled into the polling booth and got that vote in. it's been great to cover this with you guys. we've had a long week. had a long four years, some would say, following this presidency and a new chapter begins now! that does