my son, beau biden. i know how proud beau was to serve on general austin's staff and i know that under your leadership, general, the department of defense will advance the security of american people in ways that always, always, always honor our highest values and ideals. so i thank you again, general, may god bless america and may god protect our troops and now i'd like to turn it over to general austin, secretary-designee for the department of defense. gen. austin: mr. president-elect, madam vice president-elect harris, thank you for your trust and confidence and for the opportunity to serve as the 28th secretary of defense. if confirmed by the united states senate, it will be my sincere honor and privilege to return to the department and to lead our great service members and civilians in accomplishing the mission of ensuring our nation's security. you know, back in 1877, a young man from the small town of thomasville, georgia, henry ossian flipper, became the first african-american to graduate from the

he is taking ona away —— beau biden.ition that he himself had under president 0bama in 2009 when he saw the distribution of the federal stimulus act money across the country and that is going to be potentially one of buttigieg's primary tasks hair if there is a stimulus bill passed around infrastructure, so this is a position where he will go across the country doing ribbon cuttings as highways and bridges are opened and restored. mr biden has made it clear that one of his key priorities will be the transportation infrastructure bill. very different from being mayor of south bend? south bend has an entire city budget of about $300 million, and the transportation department's budget is roughly $87 billion, so budget is roughly $87 billion, so he is really moving into a position where he is going to be over about 55,000 employees and a really sprawling federal department, so he is really stepping up in terms of responsibility. and of course it shouldn't matter that he is has husband of course gay and has husband of course

my son, beau biden. serve on his staff, and i know that under your leadership, the department of defense will advance the securitity of the american people in a way that always honors our highest values and ideals. i thank you again and may god bless america and may god protect our troops and now i would like to turn it over to general austin for the department of defense. >> mr. president-elect, madame vice president elect harris, thank you for your trust, your confidence, and the opportunity to serve as the 28th secretary of defense if confirmed by the united states senate it will be my sincere honor and privilege to return to the department and to believe that our great service members and civilians in accomplishing the mission of ensuring our nation's security. in 1877 a young man from the small town of thomasville, georgia, henry osian flipper was the first officer to graduate from the united states military expressway at west point. he was african-american. he was assigned to one of the army's all

march. >> beau biden died on may 30th, 2015. he was 46 years old. >> beau biden was an original. was loved in return. >> is it true you keep beau's rosary with you? >> got it in my pocket. >> all the time? >> i keep it all the time. he had it when he passed away. it was more gold. you can see it's worn. >> mm-hmm. >> that was the spring of 2015. and as ever in joe biden's life, another political deadline loomed. would he run for president again in 2016? >> we had a talk. he just kind of wanted, you know, do you think i should run for president? it inevitably turned into a talk about beau, you know, how would he get through it and how would he do it and how would it happen without him? >> so when you left that meeting, did you think he was going to run? >> i thought he was going to really, really wrestle with it, but i thought that he was not yet in a place where there was a floor. there was this moment where we started talking and you could just see there was no bottom. there was just this hole. >> the decision wasn't just about beau. it was getting late in the race for the democ

general austin knew his son, beau biden, of course. so, that is what we are seeing shape this cabinet pick. but, so, yes, it is a hurdle, no question about it. but senator jack reid, the top democrat on the arm services committee. he, of course, said he would never vote for a waiver again, back in 2017. he said, look, i am going to hear him out. that's what this process is for. so, he wants to hear general austin make the case, himself, for it. so, i think it's, very much, an open question if he gets through. but the history-making nature of this, i think, makes it pretty difficult for some democrats and others to vote against it, in the end, brooke. >> jeff, thank you so much. and just want to broaden out this conversation about this historic nomination. here with me, cnn senior political reporter nia malika henderson. barbara starr. and retired admiral, john kirby. so, welcome to all of you. and barbara starr, let me just begin with you. you know, why -- why did president-elect biden select general austin? can you take us back? how d

our concerns, and other neurological illnesses, or the cancer moonshot that was done in honor of beau biden, or the funding that was included to look at the impact of lifestyles on our health, all of the provisions of this landmark law will improve the health of the american people far into the future. and it will be lamar alexander who deserves the credit. as a close second i would cite the educational reforms he drafted to replace and improve no child left behind to give more autonomy back to the states and local school districts. that law, every student succeeds act, was a momentous bipartisan achievement, and lamar has already explained what it took to get the job done. it's not surprising that in 2016 the nation's governors named lamar the first recipient of the james madison award, to recognize members of congress who support federalism. and as we heard today the "wall street journal" called essa the largest devolution of federal control to the states in a quarter century. in addition to being a legislator, lamar is also a wonderfully talented musician, as both a a pianist and a sing.

think beau biden will be sworn in as president on january 20 -- joe biden will be sworn in as presidentcaller: i do. there was not necessarily sufficient numbers of fraud to overturn the election in those areas. but fraud is fraud. my desire would be out of this whole process and all the things exposed, we will have a much stronger system that absolutely validates the signatures and the voters and can provide results every single time and it was squash a lot of the doubt and help us going forward. host: mr. miller? guest: the caller makes some good points. there have been some examples and we have seen the attorney general expresses, there is no real evidence or credible allegations of fraud that was widespread enough to produce a different outcome. you look at the battleground states and the numbers for were muchelect biden higher in places like michigan and pennsylvania. we have seen recounts, numbers have changed, but they have changed in very small matters and in one case, to the benefit of president-elect joe biden. absolutely the cases should go forward and where there is evidence

beau biden could have more capacity to implement -- joe biden could have more capacity to -- that could a pretty sustained outperformance of esg related stocks. related tohat is esg maddox across the board. europe was going to be -- related thematic's across the board. investors like japan, certain parts of asia, also china, and certain parts of the u.s., but europe a little bit less than they did six months ago? kokou: absolutely. these are clearly questions in terms of short-term agreements, but i think that the trend is what investors care about. the european recovery fund really sets the scene of a fiscal --l, and not a or sharing losses with the periphery, but at least the intent is there. we don't necessarily need to have a recovery front driving it on the esg theme because even when it comes to corporate commitments to having a more social equal environment and priorities, the theme has already started and we can already see that green risk factor or valuation premium being protected in sectors. numberink we have seen, one, the flows being quite significant. this rotation out of

said all of that i think it would be smart for all of us to remain hopeful but still prepare as beau bidenr next president and that means staying laser focused on the elections in georgia and keeping the senate quite frankly. elizabeth: we have new jersey representative saying he will not vote to certify joe biden as president, is this it a growing ground or will this work is going to stand? what do you think. >> i think it will be a growing ground swell, we seem real angep from trump and people all across the country even independent who feel like there's a lot of unanswered questions aboutle the selection in many unanswered questions and allegation of outright fraud and it's funny and infuriating because the same people for the last four years have been telling us that trump was not our lid judgment president and he colluded with r russia despite having no evidence of that, they say this was a completely clean election how dare you ask any questions let's move on, i think were going to see this become more of a movement with our elected officials because the people and the voters want an

a young lawyer serving a year in iraq as a captain with his delaware national guard unit my son beau bidenaustin's staff, and i know that under your leadership, general, the department of defense will advance the security of the american people in ways it always, always, always honor, our highest values and so i thank you again, general. may god bless america. may god protect our troops. now i would like to turn it over to general austin secretary designee for the department of defense. >> mr. president-elect, and madam vice president-elect harris, thank you for your trust and your confidence and for the opportunity to serve as the 28th secretary of defense. if confirmed by the united states senate it will be my sincere honor and privilege to return to the department and to the lead our great service member and civilians in accomplishing the mission of ensuring our nation's security. you know back in 1877 a young man from the small town of thomasville, georgia, henry flipper, became the first african-american to graduate from the united states military academy at west point. and after his

there last spring when buttigieg endorsed joe biden and biden said that he reminded him of his son beau. biden was the highest honor that he could ever bestow on anyone, steph. >> you have been covering the biden campaign as well as the white house for as long as i've known you. pete buttigieg, once joe biden's rival. then his most impactf fuful surrogate. does it surprise you he would choose him for this particular role? >> it doesn't. as just reported, he wants to focus on infrastructure and a small city of south bend, it's still a city he understood how it was working out and how it was functioning. this seems like a position that pete buttigieg can have, but also grow into and bring experience into. so it's not very surprising. i will also say i was talking to a couple sources about the idea that, before this, joe biden hadn't picked any of his former rivals to join his cabinet. this now shows him really embracing the idea of bringing in people that he was once fighting against and running against into his inner circle. of course, he already did that with senator harris, vice president-ele

one of the only senate republicans, maybe the only senate republican to go to beau biden's funeral. while they will have significant policy differences, perhaps more pitch policy battles, especially if mitch mcconnell's relegated to minority leader again next year if democrats win the two georgia seats. he knows that biden is someone who he can negotiate with and who is going to stand by the commitments they've made so many times over the last four years we've covered situations up on capitol hill where mcconnell has held his cards particularly close, knowing that the possibility always exists to be undercut at the last minute by president trump. and he's once again doing it on his way out the door here in less than a month. >> pete, let's bring you in here. i'm not going to ask you about the long game, but i want to ask you about the pardons which are within the president's powers. these aren't the first controversial pardons a president has made. bill clinton certainly made some controversial pardons. how do these stack up against past presidents. >> fewer. president trump has used

biden worked with austin in iraq, attending the ceremony where and the vice president's late son, beau bidenwho died in 2015, served on austin's staff. in an article today, biden cal austin calm under pressure and praised austin's logistical success in withdrawing from iraq. biden says austin will use those skills to quarterback covid vaccine logistics. biden wrote they align strategically, and austin's nomination was a "milestone." >> this ally is historic. african-americans have served in higher numbers than theirf percentagee population in the united states. nick: dana pittard is a retired two-star general who served with austin in iraq when they fought isis. he's the author of the book, "hunting the caliphate." >> he had our forces with all of our coalion allies, fight isis on numerous fronts. it took strategic vision and an operational approach to be able to pull that off. and that was general austin. nick:al austi servein the pentagon, as the former army vice chief of staff. >> he ran the day in and day out staff business in the pentagon. so he has intimate knowledge of things, at leas

each other quite well and their relationship dates back to when austin was a command in iraq and beau biden's staff. ♪ >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news! >>> welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." >>> we are following breaking news. following what is being described right now as a near fatal blow to president trump's efforts to try to overturn the presidential election that he clearly, obviously, lost. only moments ago, the united statesup

encountered was then lieutenant general lloyd austin, whose first question to him was about his son beau biden. if general austin is to serve, he will need a congressional waiver. back in 2017, there were 17 democrats who opposed the waver that then-general jim mattis needed to serve as donald trump's pentagon chief. so there could be, and we don't want to prejudge it, but there could potentially be something of a fight over an austin nomination, chris. >> charlie, a political story is drawing parallels to president trump's policy of drawing on former military officials. quote, the moves have sparked concerns that biden may further undermine the delicate balance between civil and military authority after trump's norm-busting presidency including enlisting multiple officers to fill top civilian positions. already biden's transition team has appointed four generals or admirals, and an enlisted marine. charlie, is there a reason for concern with? >> there's reason why the law creating the department of defense said you needed to have a waiver in order to have somebody in the military to be the he

always said that buttigieg reminded him of his son, his late son, beau biden. so you -- you certainly thought that buttigieg was going to get a role here, but there was a long time before he was picked for something in the cabinet and a lot of people were wondering if he would be picked. and transportation will give him a lot of opportunities to expand his climate portfolio. i think we'll see him run for president again at some point. so. i think this is a pick that would be appealing and pleasing to most people in the democratic party. >> maeve, toluse, thank you so much for being with us this morning. appreciate your time. >> thank you. >>> listen to this weather news. the biggest snowstorm in years could dump more than a foot of snow on the northeast, on us, basically, is what our point is. we have the forecast for exactly when that is happening and what it looks like, next. some hot cocoa? mom, look! are you okay? head home this holiday with the one you love. visit your local mercedes-benz dealer today for exceptional lease and financing offers at the merce

joe p biden, and that was particularly pronounced to me with lloyd austin who was thexd commander beau bidenher a team of people he knows and likes and has worked together in the past successfully. he has not put in people he z( didn't particularly like or didn't particularly know. you see that as you see general austin, and he has the waiver of his recent service of the military service approved and you see that in dennis mcdonough who was the white house chief of staff when president-elect biden wase1 in the white house. you see susan rice who the president-elect considered as hise1 running mate, who spent a career in foreign policy now being shifted over to domestic policy counsel not because of her background, but this is a president that likes her and knows her and has worked with her in the past. f rivals, e1pae past. it's a team of buddies and there's not concern on the part of some democrats, that might make for an administration they might like, and they want to hit the ground running on day one, and go with a team he knows and trusts. >> and susan, on lloyd austin, there has been s

each other quite well and their relationship dates back to when austin was a command in iraq and beau biden, the late president-elect's son, was on austin's staff. ♪ >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news! >>> welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." >>> we are following breaking news. following what is being described right now as a near fatal blow to president trump's efforts to try to overturn the presidential election that he clearly, obviously, lost. only moments ago, the united states supreme court officially denied a request, the last-minute request from pennsylvania republicans, to block certification of the state's electoral votes, the election results, as the president has been aggressively pushing for, including today. the president and all of his lawyers have completely now failed in their effort to discredit the results of the election five weeks ago today. let's go to the white house first. our chief white house correspondent is joining us right now, jim acosta. the supreme court dealt the president a hug

i was thinking you could do the beau biden transition, like folks, let's head into a different topic. george bush didn't like that. >> we are all speech writers. not all speeches are the same. and not always that the president gets the message across is the same. if it's a union address, talking to reporters, something on social media, what do you think that president bush and obama were best and when you think they weren't as good at, any good stories about a good or bad example there? >> he was pretty good in all of the settings. the issue of authenticity comes up. nowadays you hear people say it's more authentic if someone just tweet something off the top of their head. or it is more authentic if they are doing something in a interview or something more off the cuff, town hall meeting, that kind of thing. you can be authentic yourself of course, but you are also authentic we are seeing what you want to say. in the best way you know how to say it. i saw ambassador eric middleman here in the conference and he's writing a essay on moscow state in 1988. that speech on the berlin wall,

you will rather that beau biden at the time was deployed to iraq. every deployed soldier as somebody's son, as somebody's daughter. and biden would end up chairing monthly principles meetings on iraq as vice president. he traveled to iraq twice in 2011 when he was the then u.s. commander of forces there. and so that, i think, helped drive this decision. we may see this decision announced as soon as today when we will also have a jarring split-screen moment when biden is unveiling his health team as the white house is holding this vaccine summit to in some ways take credit for president trump in getting to the point where we have a vaccine. biden is going to be introducing the officials who will be charged with actually making sure that vaccine is distributed to americans. and we are seeing one of those officials xavier becerra already get some push back from republicans on capitol hill. take a listen to what senator john cornyn of texas had to say about this yesterday. >> biden said that he was going to nominate xavier becerra it hhs. do you have an

fraud even as their attempts repeatedly fail in court and key states continue to certify wins for beau biden joe biden. much of the money is likely to go into an account for the president to use on clinical activities after he leaves office while some of the contributions to go -- will go toward what is left of the legal fight. danny is in mechanicsville, maryland on our republican line. go ahead. caller: yes. i watched this in real time. i watched all the states via the computer online. and yes, the states did stop counting. we all watched it. you can read it in wall street journal. just like my family, they are all divided because you have half of the family watching cna and -- cnn. then you've got the other half watching america's voice network and that stuff. the problem is we are not getting facts. you are sitting here pointing out all of these tweaks and things like that. morningr came out this and said he did not say that. he said he did not say there was no voter fraud. he came out this morning and said that he is continuing the investigating into the voter fraud. it depends on what

parkinson's, and other neurological illnesses, or the cancer moonshot that was done in honor of beau biden. or the funding that was included to look at the impact of life tiles on our health. all of the provisions of this landmark law will improve the health of the american people far into the future, and it will be lamar alexander who deserves the credit. as as a close second, i would cite the educational reforms he drafted to replace and improve no child left behind to give more autonomy back to the states and local school districts. that law, the every student succeeds act, was a momentous bipartisan achievement, and lamar has already explained what it took to get the job done. it's not surprising that in 2016, the nation's governors named lamar the first recipient of the james madison award to recognize members of congress who support federalism, and as we have heard today, "the wall street journal" called essa the largest evolution of federal control to the states in a quarter century. in addition to being a skillful legislator, lamar is also a wonderfully talented musician as both a

think beau biden will be sworn in as president on january 20 -- joe biden will be sworn in as presidenter: i do. there was not necessarily sufficient numbers of fraud to overturn the election in those areas. but fraud is fraud. my desire would be out of this whole process and all the things exposed, we will have a much stronger system that absolutely validates the signatures and the voters and can provide results every single time and it was squash a lot of the doubt and help us going forward. host: mr. miller? guest: the caller makes some good points. there have been some examples and we have seen the attorney general expresses, there is no real evidence or credible allegations of fraud that was widespread enough to produce a different outcome. you look at the battleground states and the numbers for were muchelect biden higher in places like michigan and pennsylvania. we have seen recounts, numbers have changed, but they have changed in very small matters and in one case, to the benefit of president-elect joe biden. absolutely the cases should go forward and where there is evidence, it

mcconnell was the only republican senator who went to the funeral of biden's son beau. i do think there was a relationship there, and i think we can get more done. the tip-off in the next few weeks is what happens with the cabinet nominees. if they go through pretty easily with one ror two hitting a snag it, that will be a good time we can get things done next year. david: where are we in that process? i saw earlier reports saying that janet yellen, the nominee for treasury secretary, my get confirmed as early as the day of the inauguration. greg: she is going to sail through. she is so popular on wall street, so popular on main street, so popular on capitol hill. there are a few others who will hit a speed bump or two. i would be shocked if every single one of biden's nominees got approved. we will go through a lot of that in january and february. we will know by mid february just what kind of an environment we have on the hill. is it contentious or conciliatory? david: thank you so much, greg, always a treat to have you with us. he is from agf investments. we will sta

great americans like your son, sir, beau, and also our future first lady dr. biden and her tireless work for military families. as the president-elect said, beau was one of the military lawyers on my staff in iraq. we stayed in touch and saw each other a few times after he returned home. as you too can attest, madam vice president-elect, beau was a very special person and a true patriot, and a good friend to all who knew him. over the past four decades, i have witnessed our service members and civilians' selflessness, patriotism, and the extraordinary lengths they will go to in support of the mission and in support of one another. i could not be more proud of them and their families. if confirmed, it will be the honor of my lifetime to lead them again with honor and integrity. thank you again, mr. president-elect and madam vice president-elect, for this opportunity and your trust and confidence in me. may got bless and keep safe all those currently serving in harm's way, and may god continue to bless the united states of america. thank you. >> good afternoon. presid

us athin a close relationship with beau bide when the younger biden was serving in iraq under austin'sall right, barbara starr, thank you. ten, is to hear more than what's being said... and offer the answers that make someone feel truly heard. i understand, let's get started call a dell technologies advisor today. or psoriatic arthritis, little things can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your w

of super tuesday, when buttigieg announced his endorsement of biden, and you'll remember he talked about how he reminded him of his son beau. and it was earlier in the campaign when biden was being attacked by the president and his allies about his son hunter that buttigieg actually spoke out very clearly defending the president-elect now, defending his family as well. that was a moment that was particularly significant to biden in building that relationship. and it's very important, as you talk about the amtrak role here, infrastructure and transportation, maybe not traditionally the biggest role in a cabinet, the most high profile, but for joe biden, something that is going to be absolutely critical as part of what he hopes to be a $2 trillion infrastructure program that includes a significant investment in rail. and biden, who doesn't often reveal things where he disagreed with president obama, has at times mentioned one specific break between the two, which was he didn't think they did enough in messaging about the recovery act at all, the great work they were doing across the country, very clearly in pete buttigieg he

there's no bigger compliment for joe biden, connecting anybody to his son beau. ortation is not typically one of the most high profile positions in a cabinet. needy remind you, and you can see it directly behind me, it's the joseph r. biden jr. rail station. biden has put transportation and infrastructure projects at the very front of his agenda. this summer he proposed a $2 billion infrastructure plan that included a significant investment in roads and bridges, expansion in public transit options, a number of proposals that clearly signal what he wants as a priority of his administration. it's also something he played a role in the obama administration. remember the recovery act included a number of infrastructure projects. biden, interestingly, had been critical at times of the fact that the obama administration didn't do enough to sort of sell their agenda, sell what they were doing across the country. he wanted to do more of that. putting pete buttigieg in this position, somebody who the biden team sees as a very skilled communicator among other qualities that

. >> schifrin: president-electrk biden with austin in iraq, attending the ceremony where austin received command. and the vice president's latede son, beau who died in 2015, served on austin'stitaff. in an e today, biden calls austin "calm under pressure" and praised austin's logistical success in withdrawing from iraq. biden says austin will use those skills to "arterback" covid vaccine logistics. biden wrote they align strategically, and austin's nomination was a "milestone." >> this really is historic. african americans have served in higher numbers than their percentagef the population in the united states. so it's-- it's about time. >> schifrin: dana pittard is a retired two-star general who served with austin in iraq when they fought isis. he's the author of the book, hunting the caliphate. >> he had our forces, with a of our coalition allies, fight isis on numerous fronts. it took strategic vision and an operational approach to be able to pull that off. and that was general austin. >> schifrin: austin also served in the pentagon as the former army vice chief of staff. he ran the day-in and day-out staff business in the pentagon.a

biden said. >> you asked was beau going to -- any of his family members going to be on any boards or jobs thatse me, hunter, not beau. but he answered very plainly and distinctly. >> yeah. nobody's going to do anything in terms of business deals, that's going to create even the appearance of impropriety. again, we'll see what happens. but, there just wasn't the, you know, attack that we -- we -- we, in the fourth estate, have been used to. so, that was unusual. look. he has a lot of ambitions and hopes, and he is very optimistic. i mean, he acknowledges it's going to be tough. but he -- he's optimistic about being able to get something done with -- with the senate. he did acknowledge. i said you think the fever -- he said it will be different after the electors vote. i said, you think the fever's going to break in terms of the fact that so many republican senators haven't even acknowledged the basic reality that he is the president-elect. and he said, it will with the republican leadership. i don't know about everybody. so, that was an acknowledgment. >> some had called and congratulated him.

give any man or woman, and that is that like beau, he has a backbone -- he has a backbone like a ramrod. i really mean this. think about it. >> so, governor, biden wanted to give buttigieg something big. what does that say, transportation secretary, about his priorities going forward here with buttigieg in transportation? >> well, i mean, you've got so many young and enthuse see as stick who wants a legacy, he's managed things and he knows how to organize. you have a guy who wants to get things done. you have an organization that have talked about it. there are a lot of shovel ready projects which is to bring the technology from japan to the united states. it's ready to go. it's shovel ready. there are a host of others out there that are shovel ready that this administration sat on. pete buttigieg is not going to let this go by. >> president trump is clipping to a job but the job itself, no. no public events, no questions from the president. nine days on the golf course, zero intelligence briefings that have happened since october 2nd. if he doesn't want to do the job, what does he want, do you think, governor kasich? >> i think christine's righ

and biden has publicly shown a lot of affection towards the former mayor, even at one point comparing him to his late son beauf the biggest compliments he could pay to somebody. >> and also there's a lingering question as to when they will be getting coronavirus vaccines. what are you hearing? >> zr anthony fauci said this week he thinks it's very important for joe biden and kamala harris to be vaccinated as soon as possible and it is pointed that will likely happen. an announcement on how that exactly will come about will be coming soon. in terms of biden making clear when this vaccination happens, he intends to do it in public. this gets to the public trust piece of this. this is a future administration that very much understands there are people across the country who have a lot of questions and are feeling wary about the vaccine, that's why we saw kamala harris saying in a new interview this morning she particularly wants to make sure she's reaching out to people of color because she knows there are people of color distrustful of even getting a vaccine at all. >> mj, thank you. >>> we also want to highlig

beau and hunt. >> i wanted to get home to see my boys. i commuted every day for 36 years. >> reporter: in washington biden would find an unexpected supportiants of the senate took the political newcomer under their wings. >> i was prepared to walk away in 1973 from that opportunity, but men like ted kennedy and mike mansfield and hubert humphrey -- they convinced me to stay, just stay six months, joe. >> reporter: in one early meeting mansfield instilled in biden a lesson he would account for decades. >> from that moment i tried to look past the caricatures of my colleagues and try to see the whole person. never once have i questioned another man's or woman's motive. >> reporter: it set the course for a career reaching across the aisle. >> he views his competitors as competitors, and he's been able to cultivate many unlikely friendships across the aisle with jesse helms, with strong thurman, with me. >> reporter: in the face of tragedy in 1972 and again in 2015 biden took on a new role as an ambassador of grief. >> you know it's going to be okay when the first instinct is you get a smile to your lips before you get a tear to your eye. >>

biden. when i president-elect about his brothers and his son. >> you asked about his family, was beau goingmbers. you brought hunter up -- excuse me, hunter, not beau. you brought him up. he answered it plainly and distinctly. >> nobody's going to do any business deals that create the appearance of inpropriety. we'll see what happens, but there wasn't the, you know, attack that we in the forth estate have been used to. so, that was unusual. look, he has a lot of ambitions and hopes, and he's very optimistic. he acknowledges it's going to be tough, but he's optimistic about being able to get something done with the senate. he did acknowledge -- i said you think the fever -- he said it will be different after the electors vote. i said, do you think the fever is going to break in terms of so many republican senators haven't acknowledged the basic reality that he is the president-elect. he said it will with some. >> even some have called and congratulated him but many won't do it in public, which we have seen over the last four years. they just won't say anything they think this president may b

biden about his son. >> any of his family members going to be on boards or jobs that may be in conflict. excuse me, hunter, not beauhe answered it, very plainly, and distinctly. >> yeah. nobody's going to do anything in terms of business deals that's going to create, even the appearance, of impropriety. again, we will see what happens. but there just wasn't, you know, the attack that we in the -- in the -- in the fourth estate have been used to. so that was unusual. a lot of ambitions and hopes. he's optimistic. he acknowledges it's going to be tough, but he's optimistic about being able to get something done with the senate. he did acknowledge. i think -- he said it will be different after the lelectors vote. i said you think the fever's going to break when so many republicans haven't acknowledged you're the president-elect. he said it will with the republican leadership. >> some called and congratulated him but many won't do it, in public. which we have seen, over the last four years. they just won't say anything they think this president may be opposed to. i want to ask you, jake, because when you are sitting do

beau and hunt. >> i wasn't much for sticking around, i wanted to get home to see my boys. i commuted every day for 36 years. >> reporter: in washington, biden an unexpected support system too. >> we had friends, people who didn't know him who were senator, who treated him as fathers. >> reporter: giants of the senate took the political newcomer under their wings. >> i was prepared to walk away in 1973. but men like ted kennedy and mike mansfield and hubert humphrey, fritz hollings, they convinced me to stay. to stay six months, joe. remember that? stay six months. >> reporter: mansfield instilled in biden a lesson he would recount for decades. after biden criticized a republican colleague. >> from that moment on i tried to look back at -- at the past caricatures of my colleagues and try to see the whole person. never once have i questioned another man's or woman's motive. >> reporter: it set the course for a career reaching across the aisle. >> he views the competitors as customers not enemies. he's been able to cultivate friendships across the aisle. with jesse helms, with strom thurmond. with me. >> reporter: and shaped his view of policy