signed, gerry ford. >> i deeply appreciate the call from president ford and his gracious expression ofns and cooperation. i express my admiration for him and for the strong, well-planned, and effective campaign that he ran. i am particularly grateful for his offer of close cooperation during this transition period between the election and inauguration day, and also during the next administration. i look forward to working with president ford and others like him, who even though divided partisan affiliations, are united by common devotion for this country and for the well-being of our people. thank you very much. i deeply appreciate your confidence in me. [applause] >> that was jimmy carter in plains, georgia, in a sense accepting the duties and obligations of the presidency of the united states. but here in our studios, we want to talk now about what it was -- who was it, how was it that he got elected. who in the electorate supported him? who did not? if he owes anything anybody, personally, to whom would it be owed? i would like to start our discussion by giving a personal view which

but 1976 gerry ford, gerald ford was the president, who took over for nixon when he resigned, he was trailing his opponent by as much as 30 points that summer. and found away around the fairness doctrine, which is if a third party -- i think any '76 it was the league of women voters, later became the commission on presidential debate, but if the third party held an event and the networks decided to cover it, it wasn't networks giving the candidates a form, they were just covering him, you see how lawyers work, they find a way around it we can do these debates the way we want, major party candidates, without having 20 people on the stage. so being behind, ward was like more than willing toic that the chance and to debate. and so since 1976 we've had presidential and vice presidential debates every election season. usually three presidential and one vice president and one presidential debate. it used to be questions why a panel and -- panel of reporters, four reporters asking questions. more recently they've gone to a single moderator asking questions. and encouraging a lot more intera

there's going to be a massive schism and literally a civil war inside the party, worse than the gerry ford-ronald reagan schism. and then if they have a cleansing and a rebirth of that party they'll be fine in 2024. if they don't they're going right into the dust binn of history. and so we'll see what happens. this mirage of the 70 million people, chris, they're voting for themselves. i was a blue-collar kid. they're voting because they're economically desperate and they feel left out of the system. when you talk to them on the ground, they despise the president's personality and the bellicosity of his rhetoric. most of them do. and we can do better than this. he was the wrong messenger for their movement. and the real smart republicans know that. and i think the fight's going to start on january 21st. but just to david's point quickly, we've got to move now, though, david, because there's so much cowardice going on right now. if we don't move, none of the certification -- the certifications don't end until december 1st if you look at the certifying websites. we don't want to wait that lon

ford. >> gerri: -- let's go to what's happening in georgia.dent did say yesterday he will go to georgia on december 5th, a saturday. he'll campaign for david perdue and kelly loa loeffler amid the senate runoffs that will determine the balance of power. your thoughts on this? at this point, this affects everything. this affects stimulus, this affects climate change, this affects how we relate to foreign powers. if we have a blue president, we have a blue senate and a blue house, that could be very disconcerting not just for markets, but for the direction of the country. >> yeah. and so here's the problem, right. donald trump is going to go down there and, look, republicans are arguing, look, everything is on the line for all the reasons you just mentioned. the problem is and why republicans are concerned is that donald trump continues to say, look, even in georgia the election was stolen from me. there's argument that the election that took place on november 5th was bogus. david perdue and kelly loeffler are arguing it was stolen. why would vo

and the republicans and democrats came together, helped install the next president gerry ford and the next vice president gerry ford, the two of them becoming the first president and vice president never to have been elected. gerry ford and nelson rockefeller, first president and vice president never to be elected but to be appointed. and that's about the time i came to the senate. i remember hearing republicans and democrats alike saying we knew the government had to keep going and we had to show credibility to the rest of the world. so long as we pretend that we have a presidency by tweet, we don't show that integrity to the rest of the world. just as i was here for the inauguration of president trump, even though i had had a different kind -- voted for secretary and former senator hillary clinton, i was there as was secretary clinton and her husband, former president clinton. and outgoing president obama and outgoing vice president biden. to show the world that we have continuity, even though vastly difference of opinion. that's not the image we're showing now. with everything that