seasons change, waters rise and fall, and some believe the secrets of cottonwood creek will remain a mystery forever. this sunday, what kind of president will joe biden be? >> faith in our institutions held, the integrity of our elections remains intact. >> we take a look at what joe biden has said through the years and on the campaign trail, on foreign policy. >> someone said to me in another interview, do you want to own afghanistan? i said, no, but we've got to rent it for a little while here. >> domestic policy. >> we've always moved forward as a nation when the middle class grows. when they grow, the poor have access and the wealthy get wealthier. >> and on governing a divided america. >> when we beat donald trump, you're going to see a great impediment taken out of the way. >> our look back and ahead at the man who's been running for decades. >> i announce my candidacy for

president of the united states of america. [ cheers and applause ] >> are you running for president? >> i am running for president. >> you don't want to become president? >> i didn't say that. >> also, saying good-bye. >> people ask me sometimes, when do you think it will be enough? when will there be enough women on the court? and my answer is when there are nine. [ laughter ] >> our annual tribute to those we lost. finally, an american tradition. >> he will be our president and we'll work with him. >> whatever our differences, we're fellow americans. >> the concession, the one speech we did not get to hear from president trump this year. welcome to sunday and a special edition of "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is a special edition of "meet the press with chuck todd."

good sunday morning, and i hope you are all enjoying a safe and happy and healthy holiday break. joe biden has been preparing to be president for most of his adult life. he was 29 years old when he was first elected in 1972 to the u.s. senate in delaware, and he has run for president in 1988, in 2008, and of course, again this year. at the beginning of the campaign, biden was largely dismissed as the pastest prime centrist democrat flailing in an increasingly progressive party. biden finished fourth in iowa and an even more embarrassing fifth in new hampshire. but roughly three weeks later, he lapped the field in south carolina and then all but swept the super tuesday contests en route to the nomination. he beat the democrats by running to their right and then he beat president trump by running to his left, winning more than 81 million votes, by far the most ever by any candidate for president.

so, what kind of president will this most prepared president make? we've brought together nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker and former republican senator john sununu of new hampshire and former democratic senator claire mccaskill of missouri, both of whom have served with biden. we're going to look back at many of the 50 times that joe biden has been on "meet the press" and on other nbc news broadcasts over the years, including 2020. we'll hear his thoughts on domestic policy, foreign policy, and we're going to begin with what he said about governing a divided nation, including a "meet the press" appearance not long after george w. bush won the controversial 2000 election. >> the vote was certified. george w. bush will be the 43rd president. senator biden, let me start with you. house democrats protesting the vote in florida. and if they had gotten a senator to join in their protest, they could have had a challenge, if you will, to the electoral college vote. why wouldn't any democratic senator join with those democratic congresspeople? >> i'll tell you the truth, i

wasn't asked. number two, if they had, i wouldn't have signed it. the election's over. it's time to move on. but i think it reflects a reality, a reality that george bush has to deal with. the president signaled from even before the election began that he thought that, he implied that it wasn't going to be fair, you know, his absentee ballot things, his mail-in ballots, things with the post office. but i was confident the american people would speak. i must tell you, i wasn't confident the president would accept the voice that they sounded. >> your other hat, chairman of the judiciary committee. have you found one of the new woman senators to serve on your committee? >> i have found one for certain, and i intend on having two on the committee. come hell or high water, there will be women on that committee. >> how about the idea of appointing the first hispanic in history? >> i think that's a great idea, but it shouldn't be a limiting idea. if he has someone that he likes, he's someone he thinks would foot the bill, and all other

things being equal, pick the hispanic because we should look like america in the court, but do not suggest that you should only pick a woman, a black, hispanic or whatever. >> i hear so often people saying, you know, the president should get his picks. well, if that were the picks, there wouldn't be the thing called advise and consent in the constitution. there are certain circumstances that the president shouldn't get his pick. one is if he picks someone for a job who wants to do away with the job. i'm not going to pick somebody who says i want to be head of the department with the purpose to get rid of the department. number two, if you have someone for the job who communicates to the public at large that they are not likely to, in an even-handed way, apply the law, whatever it happens to be, whatever department, then that's a reason not to be -- i don't speak to interest groups anymore. ever since the board came, which is referenced where i sat down, met with the civil rights groups, told hem how i was going to run the hearing, they walked out, held a press conference, said we told joe biden how to run the conference, i don't meet with them anymore. i don't give a damn about those

groups. it is important that my administration, i promise you, will look like america, both as from vice president to supreme court to cabinet positions, to every major position in the white house. it's going to look like america. not a single decision made -- didn't ask me my view. whether i'm the absolute last person, i can't guarantee that, but i know that i am one of the last people that gets an opportunity to make the case to him, and when he has a tough decision, and if he's abroad and i'm here or vice versa, he picks up the phone and he calls. i think the american people are sick of the president's self-indulgent acts, sexual acts. they're also sick of our self-indulgence acts of us in washington, of liking this process, we're keeping it going. there's nothing you can do in history. this guy is condemned in history for the acts he committed. everyone knows what they were. they're there. they'll be in the history books. >> watching president trump over the last couple weeks, what lessons do you think he has learned from impeachment? >> that, in fact, he's been

released of any shackles that are on him called the constitution. i've never seen anyone -- and i've been chairman of the judiciary committee for years and years -- no one -- no one, including richard nixon -- i was there at the end of his term -- no one has weaponized -- i mean, weaponized -- the department of justice. >> some democrats want investigations to go forward against president trump after he leaves office. do you support that? >> i will not do what this president does and use the justice department as my vehicle to insist that something happened. there are a number of investigations that i've read about that are at a state level. there's nothing at all i can or cannot do about that. well, i got here and a lot of old segregationists were still here, yet, we did not engage in arguments about motive. we engaged in arguments about policy. and all of a sudden, in the mid-'90s, it became, if you're

not with us, you're not a good christian, if you're not with us, you're not moral, if you share a view, you are unpatriotic. the whole nature of the debate changed. you had senators talking about the president of the united states on the floor calling him bubba. and we wonder why that doesn't percolate through the entire society. there's not a single democrat or republican who's ever worked with me that will not look you in the eye and say biden has never, ever, ever broken his word. so, that's why i'm able to go up there. i don't always succeed, but i like these guys. they're my friends. i've got a lot of these republicans are my friends. >> do you think that there is a modern right-wing conspiracy that has aligned against this president? >> no. i don't think there's a modern -- i think the republican party's been taken over by the tea party. it happens. those things happen. my party was taken over by the far left when i got elected in 1972. we need a strong republican party, a party that there's two or three or four people when they're not in office or if they have a president when he's in office, can speak for the party,

can make agreements. that's what we need. when we beat donald trump, you're going to see a great impediment taken out of the way. we need to heal the red and the blue here, man. the red states and the blue states. >> i want to begin with the hits on your family, the attacks from the president, from members of congress, the fact that that's what we spent three months publicly having to deal with this. how's it impacted you? >> well, you know, first of all, it initially made me angry, but i realize that whomever was likely to be -- whoever he most feared was going to be the victim of his affection, no matter who it is, they're going to go after. and secondly, what i determined was -- i know this sounds -- i don't know how it sounds, i'll just say it. you know, a president can't just fight. the president has to be able to forgive. i've got to focus on the future. i've got to focus on how do we

end this era of -- i mean, how do we literally -- i wrote about it -- restore the soul of this country? i mean, it's just being eaten out. it's being eaten away. the cruelty, the viciousness, the way he pits people against one another, the way he goes after people of color. my entire career, i've been able to bring democrats and republicans together, and now people say, well, that was the old days, joe, things have changed. well, the only thing that's changed is the way in which the politics that has been moved by some in the party have just gotten really ugly. >> give me a line from your inauguration speech. what do you tell the american people? what do you tell those people on the far right, the people on the far left? >> i don't tell them very much. i tell the 80% of the people in the middle that, in fact, we have to pull the country together, and we can. >> kristen welker, claire mccaskill and john sununu, welcome to all three of you. and just so you know, we're going to have three chances to talk here, and so i want to focus this part of our conversation on sort of joe

biden's governing style. kristen welker, here's what barack obama wrote about meeting with congressional leaders in his recent memoir -- "i became accustomed to the ritualistic quality of our joint meetings. the four of them would take care not to show their cards or make firm commitments, their comments often sprinkled with thinly railed recrimination directed at their counterparts, all of them unified only in their common desire to be somewhere else." he's writing of that those four people at the time. one can't help but wonder, kristen, if president obama, himself, didn't enjoy those meetings. that is the exact opposite tact of joe biden. >> i think that's a great point, it is the exact opposite of joe biden, who enjoys those meetings and he enjoys reaching across the aisle. he's talked about the good working relationship that he has with senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. that, of course, is going to be critical. mitch mcconnell and joe biden have now acknowledged that they have spoken and that they are

going to move forward and try to get things done. that's going to be a real challenge. and biden knows that his first and biggest challenge is going to be unity. so, i think you're going to see him try to focus on trying to get some legislation passed that will have bipartisan support, like a stimulus bill, chuck. >> you know, claire mccaskill, going back through our recent presidents, there's not been one in my lifetime that actually likes congress. they love -- every one of them explained about it. you have to go back to lbj, who seemed to love working with congress, right, knew how to -- loved the senate. biden is more like an lbj in his love for the senate. can he use that to actually get things done? >> well, he knows how it works, and he enjoys the personal relationships. and keep in mind, chuck, there are going to be three democratic senators from states that trump won handily, and there's going to be somewhere between three and five republican senators

from states that biden won handily. that group of senators is going to be where joe biden has his opportunity to put together a 51 margin that could go around mitch mcconnell, if he is leader, in terms of getting things to the floor and actually getting a bipartisan deal done. that's what he'll be focused on. >> john sununu, we've seen it already, washington's favorite new odd couple is going to be joe and mitch. you could see these headlines here. it is going to be the most important relationship in washington. it was interesting. here's what mcconnell put in his book about why he preferred working with biden over obama. and he wrote this -- "the reason we could get a deal done and that i could work with joe, was that we could talk to each other. i could tell him how far we could go and how he would reciproca reciprocate, unlike obama, joe made no effort to convince me that i was wrong or that i held

an incorrect view of the world. he just simply took my politics as a given and i did the same." i've heard this critique before from some senators, even democratic ones, regarding president obama, regarding president bush. senators want to be taken at face value, do they not? >> well, if they're going to be effective, their word does have to mean something, and you've seen in your personal experience how much it means to joe biden. love him or hate him, he's committed to that. it's not enough just to know the senate, but he's actually chaired important hearings, he's negotiated important deals. i mean, he really has participated in the process and done so effectively because of the characteristics you described. and you cannot overemphasize the importance of this relationship between mcconnell and the president-elect, because the only way anything will get done is if the president-elect --

then president-elect joe biden, negotiates with mitch mcconnell, comes to an agreement, that agreement moves through the senate and then is accepted by the house. 51 votes means nothing in the senate, to disagree a little bit with claire. it will take an agreement with mitch mcconnell, a majority of republican and majority of democrat votes, more than 60 votes to beat any potential filibuster. that's the agreement that has a chance of getting signed into law, nothing else. >> kristen welker, what does the incoming biden administration -- how do they view -- obviously, the georgia runoffs, you know, could change the trajectory, but are they assuming that, no matter what, mcconnell's going to be a hurdle, so they've got to figure out how to work with them? >> they are, chuck. i think that's absolutely right, no matter what happens in georgia. obviously, biden's been campaigning in georgia. he'd like to win those two senate seats there, but he is banking on the fact that that might not happen. and so, how is he going to move forward with his agenda?

how's he going to get it passed? look, there's going to be pressure on mcconnell, too. this is obviously a country that needs economic relief. and so, that could be a pressure point for mcconnell. their relationship, though, chuck, does go back, as we've been discussing, mcconnell talking about the fact that he trusts joe biden, but the question is, how do you move beyond the areas of bipartisanship? okay, if they can get a stimulus deal done, how do they get infrastructure done? is that a potential other opportunity? i think that biden is going to be looking for those openings, particularly in the first 100 days that he is in office, chuck, to try to set the tone, because remember, he's got to also answer to thez progressive base as well, and there could be complications with legislation there. >> i was just going to say, claire, what is going -- you know, he got criticism for giving mcconnell too much back when you were in the senate during one of the deals that he cut. how does he strike that balance without getting progressive

coming after him? >> well, first of all, progressives are going to want to get something done. they're going to want to get something done on infrastructure. they're going to want to get something done on a stimulus, a serious economic package moving forward, past the pandemic. and the reason i talked about 51 votes is just look what happened on this last covid aid. a group of bipartisan senators got together, and mcconnell got worried that there were 51 of them, it could force a vote on the floor around him, and then he finally moved. i'm talking about 51 senators as leverage to force mcconnell to allow something to get on the calendar and get on the floor for an actual debate and vote. >> all right. well, i'm going to pause the conversation there. don't worry, john, you'll get a chance to respond as well. but we're going to also take a look at what joe biden has said over the years about domestic policy, starting, most importantly, with health care. >> will the president sign a bill that does not include a public plan as an alternative to

private insurance? >> again, we've made it clear that we think there should be a public plan. so, the question is, what is the public plan? is the public plan just medicare? is that the public plan? you add everybody on to medicare who is going to need help? or is a public plan something further down a continuum? this idea that i'm not the progressive in the race -- i mean, my lord. if i get elected president of the united states with my position on health care, my position on global warming, my position on foreign policy, my position on the middle class, this will go down as one of the most progressive administrations in american history. but what you're up against is things that are almost fanciful, like you know, medicare for all. part of being president is not just the idea you have -- can you get it done? have you ever done anything big? have you ever been able to put together coalitions? the american public is really strong and tough. the first thing we should do is listen to the scientists. secondly, we should tell them the truth, the unvarnished truth. the american people have never shied away from being able to

deal with the truth. the worst thing you can do is raise false expectations and then watch them get dashed. then they begin to lose confidence in their leadership. so, we should just tell the truth as best we know it, as best the scientists know it. we should let them speak. and we should be doing all in our power right now to deal with being able to confine the spread of this disease. for example, we need significantly more testing kits across america. the attorney general and i sat down and actually wrote the crime bill. we got to sign on line by line. and i think, quite frankly, there were a lot of meetings in the white house, in the oval office, in november with me and senator mitchell and others, indicating to the president that unless he got personally involved in, it was not likely to move through the house, because we passed this crime bill, the so-called underlying biden crime bill. we passed this way back last year and we still don't have a bill to his desk. parts that the president put in place are working. he put 100,000 cops, started to put those on the streets, the

prisons. he's done that. the interdiction program. all of the parts that deal with adult populations are working. the vast, vast, vast majority of police are honorable, decent men and women who risk their lives every single day when they put on that badge and walk out that door. they have a right to come home safely. but there's bad apples in every profession. there are lousy commentators. there are lousy presidents. there are lousy senators, docs, and they should be, in fact -- i can think of -- i don't know any police department around that isn't happy to get rid of a lousy cop, because it just reflects on them. and by the way, the same with the protesters. it's a right to protest peacefully, but once you pick up a bat and start smashing windows, once, in fact, you light something on fire, once you engage in violence, you should be arrested and held accountable. we have to start by addressing the excessive use of force by police, banning choke holds, overhauling no-knock warrants. that's why i'm going to set up a national commission where we bring in police and the community to talk about what we have to do. we had this whole thesis, it

seems to me, from the other side, that if you concentrate more and more and more wealth and success in the very top, somehow, something positive's going to happen. we've always moved forward as a nation when the middle class grows. when they grow, the poor have access and the wealthy get wealthier. i am going to make a commitment in the first 100 days. i will send an immigration bill to the united states senate with a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people. the chairman of the board of general motors, when i told her my climate plan, said, i'm all in, i'm in, as did the ibw and other folks there, because they figured out it's a way to create jobs. >> what's your message to other businesses who -- >> well, across the board, this is the way we can create significant economic growth for people. >> when you came to the senate, you believed that roe v. wade was not correctly decided and

that you also believe that a right of abortion was not secured by the constitution. why did you change your mind? >> well, i was 29 years old when i came to the united states senate, and i have learned a lot. look, tim, i'm a practicing catholic, and it is the biggest dilemma for me in terms of comporting my religious and cultural views with my political responsibility. and the decision that i have come to is, roe v. wade is as close to we're going to be able to get as a society that incorporates the general lines of debate within christianity, judaism and other faiths, where it basically says, there is a sliding scale relating to viability of a fetus. >> considering the new supreme court nomination of amy coney barrett, what are your particular plans to protect women's reproductive rights in the u.s.? >> number one, we don't know exactly what she will do, although the expectation is that she may very well move to

overrule roe, but the only thing, the only responsible response to that would be to pass legislation making roe the law of the land. we already have a law, the defense of marriage act. we've all voted -- or i voted and others -- said look, marriage is between a man and a woman and states must respect that. nobody's violated that law. there's been no challenge to that law. why do we need a constitutional amendment? who do you love? and will you be loyal to the person you love? and that's what people are finding out, is what all marriages at their root are about, whether they're marriages of lesbians or gay men or heterosexuals. >> you're comfortable with same-sex marriage now? >> look, i am vice president of the united states of america. the president sets the policy. i am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and

heterosexual -- men and women marrying other -- are entitled to the same exact rights, all of the civil rights, civil liberties, and quite frankly, i don't see much of a distinction beyond that. >> well, let's bring back our panel. kristen, i want to start with you. you're covering the biden team very closely. i know they won't say this publicly, but look, you get one shot at doing something big in that first term, and other than covid being, i think, priority one, covid and the vaccinations, what is the one big thing they hope to get done, this administration? >> i think you have to look at health care, chuck, first. i mean, i think that's one of the big reasons why he got elected, his promise to build on obamacare, his promise to lower premiums, and his promise to have a public option that people could buy into. now, of course, that's going to be, i think, a big battleground, that area. progressives are going to want that in any big piece of

legislation, and you're going to have conservatives who are going to fight against that. so, i think that that is one of the big things he's going to be pushing for. if i could just have two, chuck, i'd say climate change. he has a $2 trillion climate change bill that he wants to get through. it's big. he has a climate czar in john kerry. and so, i think that's the other big piece of legislation he's looking toward. >> you stole my thunder a little bit there. i absolutely -- that was basically the second big piece i wanted to go. john sununu, where are republicans, in your mind, obligated to work with biden on the domestic side of things? >> well, i don't think it's a question of where they're obligated, it's where are the opportunities? and the opportunities are on executing and completing the work that needs to be done on the pandemic. infrastructure was mentioned. taxes are mentioned because there are tax provisions that are going to expire and result in significant tax increases in the next couple of years if they're not extended. those are opportunities, and

they're actually quite important economically. quite frankly, if he decides to spend all of his time on health care or try to legislate climate change, they're going to waste time, they're going to instill division, and all of that talk about unity is going to go right down the drain, because that is simply not the way to do it. the good news is, as your clip showed, joe biden has never really been bound by any rigid ideological principles. you know, one senator's flip-flops are another senator's evolution. and that can be a strength, because that provides real opportunity for the kind of negotiation led by mitch mcconnell through the senate and enables you to get things that you can send to the house that can get to the president's desk. the biggest challenge for him is going to be the hard left of his own party, because he needs to distance himself from the crazy ideas of defund the police and medicare for all and the green new deal. and if he's unsuccessful, if the

left in the house feels empowered, they can prevent anything from happening, because they're going to have to accept a lot of compromise. and i was, you know, a republican in the house when we had the majority at a time when we had to suck up a lot of compromise that came our way from the senate, but it's the only way to get things done. >> claire mccaskill, respond to john sununu there. he said, look, if he goes and targets health care and climate, it's going to be a fight and it's going to be hard, and i'm sitting there going, okay, let's say joe biden's running for re-election and the convention in atlanta in 2024. what is the accomplishment he's got to have, both on health care and climate, to feel good about having a successful domestic agenda? >> well, i think it's to be determined. but let's keep in mind one thing, chuck -- that is, we've just had a president who's used executive powers beyond all realm of one's imagination

before the days of donald trump. and i don't think that joe biden will ever go as far as donald trump went with executive power, but trump has shown that you can do things as radical as taking money from the pentagon to build a domestic project without congressional approval. he tried to wipe out all kinds of immigration law just with the stroke of a pen. so, that is in joe biden's back pocket, and i know the republicans will scream executive power abuse, just like they're probably going to scream deficit, even though they were quiet as a mouse about deficits and executive power over the last four years. >> no, i do think that a lot of people are going to have to change their outrage talking points on different channels. we shall see. let me pause here. we're going to do a little foreign policy for the next round here when we come back. what we might expect from joe

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welcome back. we can expect president-elect biden to reverse many policies president trump put in place, which, themselves, were reversals of obama/biden administration policies, as claire was just noting on executive power. but mr. biden has promised to rejoin the paris climate treaty, re-establish the iran nuclear deal, and put an end to coziness with russia. so, let's take a look at some of what the president-elect has had to say on foreign policy from all the way back in 1980 to this year. >> ted kennedy said yesterday, voting against the war in iraq was the best vote he ever cast in his 40 years in the u.s. senate. is voting for the war the worst vote you ever cast, in your mind? >> i don't think so. i think misunderstanding this administration is the worst miscalculation i've ever made in my career. i acknowledged it was a mistake to trust that he wasn't going to

go to war. >> yeah, was that on him or was that on you? >> well, i took his word for it. i took his word for it. and i acknowledged for a long, long time, it was a mistake to have given him that authority that he abused. he wasn't supposed to do that. so, that was my fault for trusting his word. one lesson out of my generation -- and i'm 36 years -- now 37 years old -- so-called vietnam generation -- is that we cannot conduct foreign policy in a belligerent manner without the full, total backing of the domestic population in this country. >> he's in kabul, afghanistan, has spent the last four days in the war zone. >> someone said to me in another interview, do you want to own afghanistan? i said, no, but we've got to rent it for a little while here. this government needs at least two years in order to be able to put together an afghan army. >> ten years, mr. vice president. can't you just say straight whether we're winning or losing? don't the american people deserve to know something about

where we really stand? >> the one thing i've never been accused of is not being straight. we are making progress. are we making sufficient progress fast enough? the answer remains to be seen. the answer is that i think as it goes on week after week, the prospects increase, not diminish, that we will successfully gain the release of the hostages. i think the president is acting precisely the way he should. i think there's a logical progression, and i think it will result in the release of hostages, but i have no crystal ball. god only knows. >> is this president going to be the one who allows iran to go nuclear or is he the president that stopped it? >> the president that stopped it, god-willing. we are not going to allow iran to go nuclear any more than the rest of the world is going to allow it to go nuclear. what we were able to do is bring together the world to see to it that iran would not be able to get a nuclear weapon, period. we had the most intrusive inspection regime that existed ever in an arms control agreement, international inspectors on the ground in all the places where they could

either reprocess or do anything to move toward a nuclear weapon. what i'm worried about is that this totally isolated regime with a guy who doesn't seem to understand anything is going to do something very, very stupid that ends up in a shooting war in the korean peninsula where they have 30,000 pieces of artillery -- or 10,000 pieces of artillery that can take out a significant chunk of south korea. john kennedy, quoting a muscular democrat -- john kennedy said we should never negotiate out of fear, we should never fear negotiation. we're so big and so strong, data that we're not sitting down having a come to the altar call with the leader of north korea in a private meeting and saying, jack, let's taell you what the deal is here -- >> one on one? >> one on one. i called for that three years ago. that's not borne out of weakness. i spent more time with the soon-to-be president of china, vice president xi. i have never failed, including when he was hosted at the state department, to say, human rights, human rights is critical. >> i think russian president

putin is trustworthy? >> i think russian -- the answer is no, i don't. >> sort of like in baseball, you throw a high, hard one to send a message. why haven't we sent a message yet to putin? >> we're sending a message. we had the capacity to do it, and the message has -- >> he'll know it? >> he'll know it and it will be at the time of our choosioning and under the circumstances that have the greatest impact. i've taken on the castros of the world, i've taken on the putins of the world. i've taken on these dictators. i haven't coastiedied up to them. i've been straight forward with them. i let them know, it stops here, it stops with me, it stops with me as president. >> we're going to get our panel's take on all of that, plus what the biden administration's foreign policy is likely to look like, right after this break. likely to loo after this break

why is it too early to announce, to decide? >> well, you're going to have to ask my wife, who's here in the audience. >> you told the capitol newspaper you're thinking about running for president. >> no, i'm not thinking about president. i'm absolutely not. >> are you going to run for president? >> i haven't made that decision. >> but you're thinking about it? >> yes. >> which way are you leaning? >> if we had to make it today, since my family hasn't made that decision, i'd make it no. if i can raise the money, if there's somebody out there who thinks i should be president, then i'm going to run for president. if not, i'm not going to run for president. >> are you running for president? >> i am going to run for president. >> you're not going to run? >> why do you say that? >> is your goal to be the presumptive front-runner -- >> yes. >> -- at the end of march? >> yes. >> welcome back. that, of course, was joe biden running, and not running, but mostly running over the course of the last 32 years. let me bring back the panel, and i want to first start with foreign policy. i do want to ask everybody's opinion about how does he handle the second-term question and when does he do it? but claire mccaskill, how do

you -- how would you describe what kind of foreign policy you expect joe biden to enact? like, how would you describe it? and is there a model president to compare it to? >> well, he's inheriting a crisis, this hack that has occurred from russia that has still traded a number of federal agencies and even indications into some of our most secure systems as it relates to nuclear power. he's got a crisis on his hands, and it will be an opportunity for him to send a strong signal to russia, either on front street or behind the curtain, where they can feel the impact of a new sheriff in town when it comes to putin and russia. he will no longer coddle bad guys and he will immediately try to strengthen our alliances around the world. those democracies that believe in the same values we believe in. because that's really the national security of our country is how strong that alliance is. and it's been frayed over

trump's irresponsibility over the last four years. that's what he'll get to right away, and i think that will be the cornerstone of his foreign policy. >>sununu, i expect there is a lot of opportunity here for bipartisan work by joe biden, at least when it comes to china, russia, alliance building, nato, things like that. i separate out iran from that. is that a fair way to describe it? >> yeah, i think that's fair. look, what's the model? i think the model is george h.w. bush. i think he wants to have a foreign policy ideally that's tough, but engaged, tough, but consistent, and honestly, consistency has been a shortcoming of the trump administration. i do think he has some really strong frameworks to work from. you know, setting aside trump, the personality, i think the framework he has in china, a strong tariff regime, strong enforcement regime, a china that knows we're serious about enforcement of intellectual

property and other issues, willing to engage on human rights, that's a good starting point for this administration. a free trade agreement with mexico that's been renegotiated, includes labor and environmental provisions for the first time, has better enforcement mechanisms than the original nafta, that's really a good framework for this administration to build on. you know, in russia, you suggested, oh, it's been too cozy with russia, but the facts are that we have sanctions on the nord stream gas project coming out of russia, that we've pushed back on russia's alliance with assad in syria, constantly. we've sold armaments to ukraine to defend themselves, armaments that the obama/biden administration wouldn't sell to ukraine. so, i think, again, even with russia, there's a strong pushback and a strong framework and even sanctions that are in place that they can build on. so, you're right, the iran

nuclear agreement, i think many people -- certainly many republicans -- but many other people who aren't republicans think it was a failure. iran continued to develop its program. the only thing that's held it back has been some incredible espionage and some daring effort on the part of israelis and others to hold back that program. so, i think there's too many other opportunities to get bagged down in taking sanctions off iran suddenly and trying to re-establish or renegotiate that agreement. >> kristen welker, how much political capital do you think biden's going to be willing to expend on iran? >> oh, i think he sees iran as one of the top threats. and so, he is going to be willing to spend quite a bit. and i do think that it is an area where he can find bipartisan agreement. and he's made it very clear that he wants to re-enter the iran nuclear deal, and the question is going to be, what are the details? how does he do it?

when you think more broadly about his foreign policy and that relationship-building, really reversing the america first foreign policy, i think, look, that's going to be a challenge. he knows that he's going to have to rebuild some of those bridges that have been broken. and when you think about russia, for example, what claire mccaskill was just saying i think is absolutely right. i think that what will be different from the start is going to be the tone. yes, there have been tough sanctions against russia, but i am told in speaking to transition officials that the tone is going to be very different from the top, from the start. >> right. >> and they think that's going to make a difference. >> okay. >> it's impossible for the tone not to be different. that's a good thing, but that's impossible -- >> on the issue of running for re-election. go ahead -- no, i hear you. on the issue of re-election, how does joe biden avoid the constant, well, will he or won't he, and also avoid being a lame duck? >> he'll probably avoid doing a lot of shows where people will be focused on that.

i think he's going to really just refuse to even go there. i don't think it would be very smart for him to even discuss it. he's got two years of work ahead of him where he's got to get some stuff done. there's plenty of time for that later. by the way, chuck, the american people this year of all years are really sick of politics. >> oh, yes. that i get. i won't be asking the question for two years. that, i promise you. thanks to all of you. hope you have a happy and healthy new year to my panel. when we come back, some of those we lost in 2020. >> you must find a way to get in the way. you must find a way to get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble! ble, good trouble, necey trouble!

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>> people ask me sometimes, when do you think it will be enough? when will there be enough women on the court? and my answer is, when there are nine. [ laughter and applause ] ♪ >> we did not have one problem we can't solve. there's nothing too big for us. they're all solvable. ♪ >> i liked what i was doing.

i liked work. i liked stars and the stories we were telling, and it was a joy. ♪ >> i'm jim lehrer of "the prbs news hour" and i welcome you to the first of the 2012 presidential debates. ♪ >> sometimes you need to get knocked down before you can really figure out what your fight is. ♪ >> i'm running for president of the united states, and i'm not

running for second! ♪ >> here is the host of "jeopardy!" alex trebek! ♪ >> we do not want our freedom gradually, but we want to be free now. >> you must find a way to get in the way. you must find a way to get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble! incare products

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welcome back. when we look back on the trump presidency, one of the things we see, for better or for worse, is a trail of shattered norms. among them, the president's refusal to even make a concession speech. it's a shame, because concession speeches can begin to heal our wounds and remind everyone that what unites us is greater than what divides us. concession speeches have become a staple of american democracy, dating back to 1896, when william jennings brian sent the first known concession telegram to william mckinley. over the years, they have morphed from public polite courtesies to public displays of peaceful transitions of power. the first televised presidential concession speech was in 1952.

>> it is traditionally american to fight hard before an election. it is equally traditional to close ranks as soon as the people have spoken. >> since then, every losing major party nominee has delivered some sort of televised remarks. >> we didn't win, but we made history, and that fight has just begun. >> america must always come first, so we will get behind this new president and wish him well. >> i so wish that i had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction, but the nation chose another leader. >> some have done it early on election night, before some polls even closed. >> i promised you four years ago that i would never lie to you, so i can't stand here tonight and say it doesn't hurt. >> in close races, they happen the day after election day. >> i would not give up this fight if there was a chance that we would prevail. >> this loss hurts, but please, never stop believing that

fighting for what's right is worth it. >> or even over a month later, after the 2000 florida recount. >> let there be no doubt, while i strongly disagree with the court's decision, i accept it. >> the speeches usually preach unity. >> we've got a president-elect. he's going to have my help. >> he will be our president, and we'll work with him. >> whatever our differences, we are fellow americans, and please believe me when i say, no association has ever meant more to me than that. >> with occasional comedy. >> tomorrow will be the first time in my life i don't have anything to do. >> gerald ford suffering from laryngitis had his wife give most of the speech on his behalf. >> the president asked me to tell you that he telephoned president-elect carter a short time ago and congratulated him

on his victory. >> the speeches are not limited to general elections. >> the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die. >> and can even be used to set up a losing candidate's political future. >> i'm as inspired, i'm as hopeful as i have ever been in my life. >> or to attack one's perceived enemies. >> you don't have nixon to kick around anymore. >> although not required by any law, the speeches represent the end of a campaign. >> we now bring it to an end tonight. >> and often a career. >> as for what i'll do never, i don't know the answer to that one yet. >> i plan to get very active in the grandchild business. >> i have been blessed, as only a few people ever have, to help shape the destiny of this nation. >> not yet january 20th, so president trump still has time. that's all for today. thanks for watching.

we'll be back next week. next year, actually. because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." after days of legislative chaos, president trump has reversed course, signing a massive deal that combines coronavirus relief with government funding. the question is, when will americans get the aid they desperately need? plus, authorities identify the man believed to be responsible for the christmas morning explosion that rocked downtown nashville. the question remains this morning, what was the motive behind the bombing? and dr. anthony fauci says he believes the worst is yet to come in the coronavirus pandemic, thanks to holiday travel and ga