. >> presidential historian and pulitzerst prize-winning authorg john meacham. i value talking to you anytime i can, but particularly tonight. thank you so much. ca >> thanks, rachel. >>> it is not just after 8:00 p.m. on the east coast, 5:00 p.m. in vice president harris's home state of california, with only four months until the presidential election, president joe biden has droppedi his re-election bid and endorsed vice president kamala harris for the democratic nomination for president. in the hours since that announcement, there has been a steady stream or a flood of endorsements for vice president harris, endorsements of her from democratic organizations, democratic members of congress, democratic governors, democratic attorneys general several democratic governors who had, themselves, been considered possible contenders for eethe presidential nominati should president biden make this decision including roy cooper, gavin newsom and josh shapiro, in just the last few minutes, pennsylvania's bob nu casey became the latest democratic senator to endorse kamala

that was the best possible conversation i could hear between rachel and john meacham. one thing i would add, this would be, for almost every other politician, the worst day of that politicians life. this is not the worst day of joe biden's life. this is down the list. this is someone whose wife was killed. then his son who survived that incident later died too young. joe biden has had much more difficult things to process and to get through and to get the family including grandchildren through. he has managed to do that. he is now doing everything he h possibly can to get the country through this. there is no model for it. the lyndon johnson case isn't even close. he is trying to find as much stability as the party can find by immediately endorsing, harris. you can see how supportive the party is. not just of kamala harris but also of joe stbiden's judgment and his judgment in choosing her four years ago. it has been validated. as i listened to and read about various imagined scenarios that would come into play, if this were to occur, one of the things that i found abs

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bit and co-written with some of his aides including mike donald and bennett ready and historian john meacham. he's tucked these lines that he's done a great job and in an alternate reality he would have done a great job in a second term. an absolute frenzied three or four days, john, that led to this -- only a week ago you and i would have been talking about biden's absolute steadfast insistence on running. >> he was running until he wasn't. certainly it was said probably no adult in america has spent more time, dedicated more in his life to seeking the presidency. hard to give it up after that decades long quest. as you mentioned the president still does have six months left in office. give us a sense of the top priorities of the administration between now and inauguration day. >> one nugget that jumped out yesterday they're confirming some sort of attempt at supreme court reform. we expect this to be ethics reforming with some of the stories recently about justice clarence thomas and others, that sort of pops out. it remains unclear what teeth that would happen or they're attempting to ena

john meacham is accomplishing up remarks for him. joe is not resigning.will not endorse harris, according to mark halperin. they want an open convention with harris and about three others. super delegates will not be allowed to vote on the first ballot and harris' vetting at least four running mates, including andy beshear and possibly governor shapiro. >> pete: i have seen that reporting as well. could be true. i heard reports of also an announcement coming. we will wait to see if that does come about. they are in an impossible position. either he chooses harris with an endorsement and then they're accused of being antidemocratic the party of democracy or open it up. it sounds like they would be open-that will be an absolute. >> ainsley: what about the money the money they have i se raced? >> pete: head start. wanting to beat trump i'm your gal. i don't see her reason nation that much in the rust belt of wisconsin, ohio and michigan. >> lawrence: how does he get out of race and stay as president. democrats have confessed he is unfit. too old. they still

check joining us is presidential historian pulitzer prize-winning biographer, john meacham.e's an adviser to president biden and worked with him on several important speeches. it's a pleasure to have you with us tonight, particularly given your relationship with this president, but also because of your history's perspective. thank you for making the time to be here. >> thank you. >> let me ask you first for a historian perspective and then i like to talk if i can about what your communications have been like with the president and what you understood about this process. with a history's eye, we have been saying this is one of those moments where you will remember where you were when you heard. it's something that is happened very rarely in american history. it's never happened under the circumstances before. it feels like a profound and perhaps unique act of personal and political sacrifice by a president who didn't want to do this but felt it was everything to do for the country. let me ask if those resonate with you in terms of what you understand about the american presid

meacham, as always, we're so grateful. thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you. >> john heilemann, as we talk about how, time and again, joe biden's career was almost over, i can't help but go back and think about richard ben cramer writing about joe biden. so many beautiful things about his '88 campaign which ended very early. it was a terrible campaign, a flawed campaign. at one point, when he was -- he was speaking, after a speech, his head was splitting so hard, hurting so hard, he had to run outside and literally stick his head in the snow to try to dull the pain. of course, that was because he was about to have an aneurysm. time and again, he had a political collapse and then a rebirth. he always asked, after the '88 campaign, he could never -- he could never figure out why it ended the way it ended. he believed that it was god's will, that one day he'd be president of the united states. that happened in '87, '88. his life, of course, saved famously with that operation. but it would be another generation before he fulfilled that dream, against all odds, i must say, after iowa and new hampshire, fulfill