Bonus breaking coverage: Biden steps aside, Harris ascends

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I'm Rachel Maddow. I'm joined by my beloved colleagues who I cannot wait to talk to tonight about what has happened today. Joy Reid is here, Nicole Wallace is here, Jen Psaki. You do not see Joy on your screen right now because there's some gremlin with the camera, but we'll have her in just a moment.

Joy is standing by as well. The four of us will be with you throughout the duration of this special coverage tonight. You know, we do special coverage for all sorts of stuff. This is not all sorts of stuff.

You will always remember where you were when you heard the news today. What a day in history. President Joe Biden making American history with an act of profound political and personal sacrifice. Three and a half years into his presidency, President Joe Biden stepping down from his reelection bid in favor of his vice president, Kamala Harris.

I've been processing this for five hours already and it still gives me chills to say it. In the instant he announced it at 1:46 p.m. this afternoon, everything changed. Everything changed.

The Democratic Party instantly ends its internal war, this emotional, intense, harrowing fight that has torn the party apart for the past three and a half weeks. That is over in an instant. The expectation among Democrats, which is being voiced more and more openly in recent days, the expectation that the Democratic Party was in for a historic wipeout in November with not just the White House in danger, but the House and the Senate in danger as well. That expectation evaporates also in an instant.

With President Biden voicing a strong and unequivocal endorsement of his vice president, Kamala Harris, with Vice President Harris confirming immediately that she is running, saying we have 107 days until Election Day, together we will fight and together we will win with no resulting ambiguity about who will be the Democratic Party's nominee and what is the task at hand for that nominee and for the party. The little scratchy papery sound you're hearing in the distance, that's every Democratic donor in the country writing the biggest check they have ever written in American politics. In an instant, the old era is over and the new era is here. It is go time.

Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020 in an election in which Trump refused to accept the result and tried to stay in power by the use of violent force. Trump has since been convicted of 34 felonies and is awaiting sentencing on those charges. He's facing up to four years in prison. He has been found liable for committing sexual assault.

He owes literally hundreds of millions of dollars in civil penalties for massive fraud at his business. His business has been found criminally guilty of business fraud, and he owes hundreds of millions of dollars in a civil fraud case. He is the subject of a felony RICO indictment in the state of Georgia. He is also facing federal criminal charges.

He is now 78 years old and gives speeches of such rambling incoherence that even his most ardent super fans start wandering off or checking their phones by the time he starts talking about sharks and shower heads and how beautiful you would think he looks if he were to take his clothes off. He just picked a 39-year-old running mate who most Americans do not know and who has basically no record in public service. As people are Googling Donald Trump's new unknown running mate, the first thing most of them are learning about him is that he is deeply committed to a nationwide ban on abortion, nationwide. He is the protege of an eccentric, eccentric right-wing tech billionaire who is against women having the right to vote and who says he's against democracy.

The right-wing groups that have championed this guy for Trump's running mate are the authors of the Project 2025 policy blueprint you have heard so much about. The policy blueprint for what the Republicans plan to do if they do succeed in getting Trump and now Vance back into the White House. A national abortion ban is just the start. Try cracking down on birth control and fertility treatment.

Try banning pornography. Try defunding the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Say goodbye to the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency and the FDA, really, the Food and Drug Administration, because who among us doesn't want to think we're buying aspirin, but it turns out to be rat poison. Republicans and Trump himself have been uncharacteristically disciplined when it came to commenting on this very difficult knockdown drag out fight within the Democratic Party over these last few weeks.

The concerns about President Biden showing his age. Republicans were being very reticent, very disciplined about not talking about that because they were crossing their fingers and hoping that President Biden would stay in. Expecting that President Biden was going to stay in, they were measuring the drapes, looking at the polls and bragging about their sure, absolutely guaranteed victory. What Trump's pollster last week said was between 20 and 25 different paths to victory in the electoral map.

He said after we got to about 25 different paths to victory, we stopped counting. They have been so sure. President Biden, perhaps cannily, waiting until the supremely self-confident Republicans had locked in their ticket, waiting until Trump picked the most radical, the most ideologically extreme and even eccentric choice for his running mate, waited until that was locked in. And then today, 1:46 p.m., boom.

Today, Donald Trump's remarkable recent run of political good luck came to an end with a crash. The old man in the race now is Donald Trump, 78 years old and only occasionally coherent, with a record as president that is viewed by historians as the worst in the history of the country, a tenure that ended in violence. And he refuses to promise that there won't be more violence to come from his supporters. He is the old man in the race by a mile, dragging that legacy from what happened the last time he was in office and now a national abortion ban and maybe his own prison sentence with him to the polls.

And as of today, we know that his opponent will not be a man older than him. As of today, we know his opponent will be a 59-year-old former prosecutor, attorney general, U.S. senator, and vice president to Joe Biden who cemented his legacy today with a decision that will go down in history as one of the most selfless, patriotic sacrifices of any sitting president ever. 1:46 p.m., Joe Biden changed everything today in an instant.

We have so much to get to here tonight. I want some initial reaction from all of you guys. Joy, you're here. I'm very glad.

We didn't have you for a second. Joy, let me start with you. First of all, where were you when you heard and what was your reaction and what have you learned over the course of the day? Well, I was actually sitting on my porch with my dog.

So Nala and I heard it together. Nala is on top of the news. She always gets the news very early. When I got a call from my wonderful executive producer, actually a text and then a call from Tinaurbanski, my wonderful executive producer.

So she broke the news to me on the phone. And then, of course, my phone immediately exploded with all sorts of people who had thoughts about it. And listen, you know, it is a very historic occasion. You know, the last time this happened, of course, was Lyndon Baines Johnson, who in March of 1968 opted out of running for reelection.

That, of course, resulted in an open convention and a disaster in which his vice president lost. So I think there's been a lot of anxiety among a lot of base Democrats about President Biden and the sort of campaign to push him out. But it became clear that that campaign was not going to end. There was an ad that was even set to run on our very own network on Morning Joe as early as tomorrow, increasing and ratcheting up the pressure.

Donors are ratcheting up the pressure. You had Speaker Emerita Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and, you know, and the donors. And it was just becoming so intense that it's not surprising at all. I will tell you that this date, I had been having my eye on this date, July 21st, because this was the original date when they were supposed to have that virtual delegate vote that now you are still tonight having delegate meetings across lots of states.

And I've spoken with delegates and one father of a delegate, one in South Carolina, one in Florida. They are having those meetings. And I can tell you just a bit of reporting that there's a lot of excitement among delegates, especially delegates who were pretty angry about the treatment of President Biden by his own party. And so the same voters who were really angry yesterday are less so now.

And the last thing I will say very quickly, Rachel, this election just changed in the way Nikki Haley said it would. He could pull us out of COVID or get the infrastructure bill done or do all the things he's done, but also he's a very decently good human being. And this sort of light chip on his shoulder he has and anybody who knows him or has worked with him as I have knows he has, also helps him connect deeply with people. So everybody I talked to had this, some felt relief, some felt anger because they loved him and they didn't want him to step back, there was a sadness, a shock.

There was such a tiny circle of people who knew about this decision. Rachel, I think obviously there was a lot of momentum from Democrats and others, but you know, it was really, it sounds like just his family, one or two close advisors, Steve Reshetty and Mike Donlan, who are very close long-time advisors and many, many, many people, most people, everybody I spoke with today learned of it as the statement came out. So I think there was a lot of shock and digestion for a lot of Democrats, a lot of people who love him out there. In terms of what's going to happen next, this is where it's quickly moving.

I think as we all have been talking to a lot of people through the course of the last couple of wild and historic hours. And, you know, it was a good sign, I think, that not only to the president, now short, not in the initial statement I'll note, but shortly afterwards, which I think is a signal of people who maybe don't think about those questions of what reporters may ask when they wrote the statement, that the endorsement of Vice President Harris ended up coming out about 15 minutes later in a follow-up. But now the DNC and the Democratic Party has to run, they're going to run a process, is my understanding. And the process is going to be, the goal of it is to make by the vice president look strong and be strong at the end of the process.

So that means that's what we're going to see over the next couple of days. We'll learn a lot more about what that looks like. What kind of a process? I mean, like a competition or a...

Well, I know, a competition. This is the thing that's a little, I'm going to say it's a little strange, and we'll see how this works out. But what I mean by that is, there has to be a process for the delegates to be able to vote to support, whether it's the vice president or someone else. Now I will say, the party is lining up clearly behind Vice President Harris, not just the president, but senators, virtually anyone who would possibly run against her, has endorsed her.

But a process would mean it allows delegates to be able to support her or another candidate. Now candidates have to meet a certain threshold. That threshold is about 300 delegates, only the maximum of 50 from each state. So any candidate who wants to compete with Vice President Harris would need to meet that threshold in a short period of time.

Could others get in? I guess technically, but it is all, the whole apparatus, the Biden apparatus, the Clinton apparatus, and I think largely, even though it's not publicly, the Obama apparatus, are all aligning behind Harris. But there is a feeling by some, including reportedly former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and former President Obama, that there needs to be an opportunity for delegates to be able to voice their view here, even if the outcome is very, very likely going to be Vice President Harris, as it should be. Fascinating.

While we have been talking, a little bit of news, not exactly along these lines, and also not exactly unexpected, but of course, here it is. Two sources telling NBC News that Senator Joe Manchin is considering running for president. This is according to two people who spoke with him. Senator Manchin, of course, is not a member of the Democratic Party.

He's an independent. He launched a nonprofit called Americans Together last year. He has long both invited and stoked speculation that he would be a presidential candidate at some point. If he sees this as his moment, again, to me, not surprising given the history of Joe Manchin.

I don't have any idea what that would do in terms of this process. Whether or not the Democrats in some organized way try to create some semblance of a primary rather than just endorsing Vice President Harris, we shall see. But at this point, it feels to me like the process is potentially nebulous, but the outcome is not. But we'll see.

Let's go down to outside President Biden's house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. NBC News White House correspondent Mike Mamelly is there. Mike, I know you have been reporting this story all day long today. Tell us how this decision was made today, what we understand about President Biden's decision-making process and expectations for what happens now.

Well, Rachel, there has been so much reporting over the last week about just how certain it was that President Biden would be making this decision, including reporting down to this day that it was going to be announced on Sunday he was not running for president. I've covered President Biden and his team long enough to know that there was never that element of certainty, even within the president, as we approached this decision. But it's very clear that over the course of the last 10 days, there had been something of a shift on the part of the president's own thinking. From June 27th, in the moments after that debate performance, when he knew he had stumbled and potentially stumbled badly, but his first impulse, as it has been so often throughout his career, was to fight, to try to fight his way through it, as he and the first lady had put it.

They weren't going to let a 90-minute debate performance determine what the future of his presidency would be or overshadow the previous three and a half years of his presidency. But as he was determined to fight and to try to make the argument to fellow Democrats that he could and still plan to win this election, that really came into opposition to some of his most respected fellow leaders in the party. There were some real tensions that were flaring up, even between the Biden team and his former running mate, President Obama. I received a statement on Thursday where they were pointing to him, to Schumer, to Speaker Pelosi, as people pushing him out of the race now who had also pushed him out of the race in 2015.

And look what we got then, Donald Trump. That, in retrospect, now speaks to, I think, the final throes of this decision, because as Biden considered the counsel of a very small group of advisors, but also, more importantly, the counsel of his close family, including the first lady, the conversation began to shift to what is your legacy going to be? What is in the best interest of the country as well? And they ultimately made that decision as a family and President Biden himself making that decision that the best course forward at this point was to put his support fully behind Vice President Harris, that he could not continue to fight this battle within his own party at a time when the party needed to be focused on fighting Donald Trump.

Now, it's so striking how small a universe of that decision making being shared was. There was one person very close to the family who told me even last night that the signals he was getting was that the president was still fully committed to this going forward and staying in this race. But over the course of the day, that circle of advisors began to expand who knew of what the president was considering doing. That included calls, multiple calls, we understand, with Vice President Harris to bring her into this conversation and to talk about the steps ahead.

There had been some question about this process, both the actual bureaucratic process, but also what would Biden simply do. And there was no other decision to be made other than to fully endorse his vice president for this office. And that is now the hope and expectation going forward is that the party will unite behind her. Biden, when he made the decision in 2015 not to run, just months after burying his eldest son, Beau, he said that you cannot run for this office unless you can commit fully 100 percent of yourself to that effort.

And ultimately, that was behind the decision the president made today. But just like in 2015, when he said that he was not going to be a candidate, but that he would not step aside, you can expect that in the remaining 100 plus days of this campaign and in the remaining 180 or so days before he leaves the White House on January 20th, 2025, that he will continue to put, I'm told, his full everything into both ensuring a Democrat wins in November and ensuring that his work, the work of 54 years in elected office, is finished right through the finish line to the very end. Mike, let me ask you about a couple of things that now seem like legitimately open questions. Obviously, the president settled so much of what has been uncertain in Democratic politics and in American politics with this dramatic decision today.

But there are open questions now, one more technocratic and one quite substantive in terms of the politics of it. The technocratic question is if, as you put it, President Biden is hoping that the party will unite now behind the candidate he has endorsed, behind his vice president, Kamala Harris, is there clarity about what needs to happen technically in terms of the delegates, in terms of ballot access, in terms of fundraising? We've seen filing with the FEC already noting that Kamala Harris is now at the top of the ticket for what previously had been their joint ticket. Is there clarity within the White House as to how technically this is going to happen?

And the other question, a very much open question, is who Kamala Harris will choose as her running mate. Is that discussion open and engaged at the White House at this point? I'll start with It's not equivocal endorsement from President Biden, including from men who may be candidates, maybe on the short list as a potential vice presidential running mate. Joy, over to you.

Thank you very much, Rachel. Really quickly, just a little tea on that score. In speaking with a delegate in the state of Florida at their meeting today, some of the names that were being circulated were the names that you just mentioned, Josh Shapiro, as well as Roy Cooper, the other names that was going around, at least on the floor down there, and people were sort of just gaming it out, was obviously the Kentucky governor, Beshear, is a popular name that ends up on those lists as well. So it's sort of the same list, I think, that are going to everybody at this point.

I want to very quickly bring in now Stephen Horsford, a Nevada congressman and the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Thank you so much for being here. And I have to ask you the sort of lead question I think that everyone is asking tonight. What was your reaction when you learned that President Biden will now not be seeking reelection?

Well, first, Joy, thank you for having me on. Look, President Joe Biden has given so much to our country, and today is no exception. He is a man who has provided so much public service. He has put himself out front time and time again, but today he's putting the American people first and the future of our country and generations to come, quite frankly.

I commend President Joe Biden, who I was with just last week in my district in North Las Vegas. I campaigned with him in my district talking about the economy and housing, taking him to local institutions in our community. And I know that President Biden cares deeply about people, and that is why he has selected, and I agree with his endorsement of the Vice President Kamala Harris to become our nominee, because she is the most prepared, qualified person to win the nomination, to defeat Donald Trump and to win this November, and most importantly, to lead our country forward in the next generation. I have a question just on those two parts, a couple of questions here, because the first thing I will say is just in talking with Black members of the Congressional Black Caucus members, as well as just with black folks, civilians that I've run into around the country as I've been traveling, there's a deep well, I think, that I've seen of support for President Biden, given his record, you know, the CBC, the huge investments in congressional, sorry, in historically black colleges and just a lot of his policies that they see as really good for the African American community.

And then just a lot of resentment about the way that he had been treated by members of his own party and the sort of anger at the party for the attempts to push him out. And what I've also been seeing is a residual surge in support and loyalty for Kamala Harris, or Vice President Harris, and a real suspicion that this push to evict President Biden from the ticket was also about evicting her from the ticket. I know that you have spoken with her today. I understand that you spoke with her today.

I'd like to first get you to tell me, you know, if you can give us any sort of news from that conversation and where she sort of stands and where she's at. And what did you make of the strong endorsement that did come from President Biden for her candidacy today? Do you think that is enough to head off any attempts to have someone other than Kamala Harris be the new nominee? Well, I did speak to the Vice President earlier today.

She wanted me to convey to the members of the Congressional Black Caucus and members of the House Democratic Caucus at large, as well as our constituents, that she intends to earn this nomination and to win this presidency. She was emphatic. And I agree with her. And I believe that the President, President Biden, his strong endorsement of her is because the historic wins that they've accomplished were together with Democrats in Congress working to advance the infrastructure investment act, the first comprehensive gun safety bill in 30 years, lifting 50% of children out of poverty, enacting the most aggressive climate action that any country in any place in the world has enacted, capping insulin costs at $35 a month.

These are wins that the Vice President, along with President Biden and Democrats in Congress, achieved for the American people. That is why she is the most prepared, the most qualified to win this nomination, to defeat Donald Trump, who is a threat to our democracy, and to win and to govern for the next generation. Very quickly, just a really quick follow-up on that. You just named the Biden-Harris accomplishments.

That's what any candidate would be running on, presumably, whichever Democrat becomes the nominee. So talk about what that means, earning this nomination. I spoke with Lanny Davis earlier today, longtime friend of President Biden. He's known him since they were 29 and 27 respectively.

And he also very much knows Vice President Harris. And he said, this isn't complicated. This is the quote, he said, I can quote him, that this is not complicated unless you don't want Vice President Harris to be the nominee. Otherwise, she's the most qualified.

She's the Vice President. She already has the second most powerful job in the United States and is the closest thing to, you know, besides the President, to being a President. So what does that mean for her to have to earn a nomination against presumably governors, people who are not in the same position she is, to actually be acting in the guise of a President? Well, to be clear, when I hear her talk about earning it and winning it, it's about putting the American people at the center of this debate and this election because they're ultimately going to be the beneficiaries of the policy that we are able to enact.

That's why I'm so proud to have been working with the Vice President for the last months on her economic opportunities tour to close the racial wealth gap, to center the issue of work, wages and wealth, which is a center part of the work that we're doing in the Congressional Black Caucus. Her reproductive justice focus to protect a woman's freedom to make her own health care decisions about her body, not some government person in Washington, D.C. or some bureaucrat. The fact that she understands the threat that Donald Trump and Trump's Project 2025 poses not only to women, but to people of color, to those in the LGBTQ plus community, to veterans, to seniors, to young people.

That is why this election is so important. It's about how we're going to move our country forward with Kamala Harris at the top of our ticket, not backward, how we're going to bring our constituencies together to build coalitions, not to divide us like Donald Trump wants to. Nevada Congressman Stephen Horsford. He's got his name there in the upper left hand corner.

That's a professional in the business of politics, making sure that the branding is always there and also the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. Thank you, sir. Much appreciated. Back to you, Rachel.

Joy, the news has been pouring in all hour just as we have been talking, just as you were interviewing the congressman there. We just got word from ActBlue, the fundraising platform that's been very effective in supporting the Democratic Party. Remember I said at the beginning, that sound that you're hearing is the sounds of pens scratching on checks. Quote, small dollar donors raised over $27.5 million on ActBlue in the first five hours of Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign.

$27.5 million just on ActBlue, just in the first five hours. ActBlue says, quote, grassroots supporters are energized and excited to support her as the Democratic nominee. All right, we've got much more to come tonight as our special coverage continues. I'm being told I'm not going anywhere.

Oh, very sudden. We just got word very abruptly from the control room that we have yet another endorsement of Vice President Harris for the presidency, this time from another high profile Democrat, is California Governor Gavin Newsom. While this internal fight was happening in the Democratic Party over concerns about President Biden showing his age, Governor Newsom in California is, of course, one of the high profile Democrats who is discussed as a potential nominee if Vice President, excuse me, if President Biden was going to leave the race. California Governor Gavin Newsom now endorsing Kamala Harris as the likely nominee of the Democratic Party.

OK, much more to come tonight as our special coverage continues. Senator Chris Murphy is going to be joining us in just a moment. We've got a lot to come. News is coming in hot and heavy.

Stay with us. And so while this country is brimming with enthusiasm for Kamala Harris, who is going to spark a whole new generation of interest and involvement in the Democratic Party, this is also a day where we're deeply grateful that we had Joe Biden for these four years, allowed us to save the ability to bring this country out of a pandemic to restart our economy, just an exceptional, exceptional leader who has shown this country how you put America first. And what does that campaign look like that melds those two things together? Because that feels like the other half of the history that President Joe Biden made to take what we owe him for doing this thing that no politician has ever.

It is a slogan. A lot of them actually believe it. I believe the people I worked for really believed it, but I've never witnessed an act where someone actually put the country and the party ahead of their own desire to serve the country and the party. So what does that campaign look like when the enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris sort of melds appropriately with the respect and what we owe Joe Biden for what he did today?

Well, the reason you see this extraordinary outpouring of support, all these low donor donations, the reason why people like me who served with her have so quickly endorsed her is because she is the best of both worlds. She carries into this campaign the Biden record. And it is a damn good record. The economy is humming.

There are safer streets and schools than ever before in the last decade. But she is also a new generation of leader. She will be a historic president, the first woman president at a moment when women's rights are under assault in this country. She is a prosecutor running against a felon.

And so in so many ways, she meets this moment. She is able to carry forward this record. We aren't abating what has happened over the last four years is extraordinary. Kamala Harris owns that record of success.

But she is also able to turn the page in a historic way and take the fight to Trump in a very unique way. So I'm excited for her candidacy. I think you see the party unifying around her as we speak tonight. And we're going to be ready tomorrow to take this fight to Donald Trump.

Joe Biden stepped aside because he put the country first because he saw the threat to democracy as grave. He decided that Kamala Harris had a better chance to win. That is an extraordinary thing to do when you are the most powerful person in the world and you had a shot at victory. But Kamala Harris has a better shot.

And this country is going to learn a lot about a pretty extraordinary woman in the course of the next few days and weeks. A lot of her events over the last three weeks have taken place between four and six eastern. So I've watched a lot of them. There's a real fire that she has brought to the campaign trail while I think everyone else has been focused elsewhere, particularly on prosecuting the case against Project 2025.

To your point about a prosecutor against a felon, say more about what that looks like. So I agree with you. I actually think that Kamala Harris has been better over the last two to four weeks than I've ever seen her before. And that is a test in and of itself.

Right. The stakes have been high. The spotlight has been on her in a different way in the last month. And she's been better than ever before, which tells you she is going to be ready for this race.

I've seen Kamala at her best. I would not want to be on the receiving end of Kamala Harris's best. That's what Donald Trump's going to get. But she has been highlighting Project 2025 because it is freaking scary.

This is a document that calls for a national abortion ban, that calls for the persecution of gay and transgender kids all across this country, and that basically is the playbook for how you turn a democracy into an autocracy. Now, this country is kind of exhausted with democracy. It hasn't been giving them what they need and want. They think that what the Biden administration has done is a good start, but they aren't ready to give up on it.

And the prosecutor in Kamala Harris is going to be able to effectively take this document that the Trump campaign has the call to put down on paper as to how they would get rid of our democracy and bring that fight to Trump and explain the consequences to the American public. Joe Biden was doing that, but Kamala Harris is going to be able to do it in a tremendously effective way. Senator Chris Murphy, it's always a pleasure to talk to you, especially on a day like today. Thank you for making some time for us.

Thank you. Rachel. Joining us now is presidential historian, Pulitzer Prize winning biographer John Meacham. John Meacham is also an advisor to President Biden.

He's worked with him on several important speeches. John, it's really, really a pleasure to have you with us tonight, particularly given your relationship with this president, but also because of your historian's perspective on these things. Thanks for making time to be here. Thank you.

Let me ask you first for a historian's perspective on this moment. And then I'd like to talk to you a little bit, if I can, about what your communications have been like with the president and what you understood about this process. With a historian's eye, we've all been saying that this this is one of those moments where you always remember where you were when you heard that this is something that has happened very, very rarely in American history, that it's never happened under these circumstances before, that it feels like a profound and perhaps unique act of personal and political sacrifice by a president who did not want to do this, but felt it was the right thing to do for the country. Let me ask if those things resonate with you in terms of what you understand about the American presidency and Joe Biden's role in it.

Absolutely. Very few presidents with the opportunity to continue to seek office, to continue to dwell at the pinnacle of power. John Adams, when he was vice president, said that the presidency would always be the object of all eyes and the focus of all attention. I, like you, Rachel, have never met a politician who did not seek to be the focus of all eyes and all attention.

And so that's part of the DNA of those who are in the arena. Only George Washington, who set the two term precedent the late 18th century. Harry Truman in 1952 could have, under the 22nd Amendment, have run for one more term. He decided not to in 1952.

And of course, President Johnson in 1968, though that's a complicated example. I think it's fairly well established. And our friend Michael Beschloss knows more about this than I do. That's true of many things.

But LBJ sort of expected that the Democrats were going to come calling when the convention came around. What President Biden has done is a remarkable act of giving up something that he spent a lifetime, much of a lifetime seeking. But I think the important thing to remember here is in President Biden's biography itself, he thought the story was over after he left the vice presidency. In many ways, I don't think I'm violating anything to say.

In many ways, he had passed the torch to his son, Beau, who was a very brilliant young politician in Delaware. I remember Beau was the first person I ever met who was my age or a little younger who I sat there and I thought, oh, well, he's going to be president. It was that kind of ambience. And so that's what President Biden thought this chapter of his life was going to be about.

He was going to be an elder statesman going to be helping Beau as Beau tried to serve the country. And then, as so often with Joe Biden, history and fate intervened. And Beau dies, of course, in 2015, agonizing decision about whether or not to run in 2016. And then, and I take President Biden absolutely at his word, Charlottesville happened.

And he's watching the television where neo-Nazis are protesting. Remember why they were there? They were protesting the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee.

And the torches and the chaos of that moment and the incumbent president's reaction saying that there were fine people on both sides brought a question to President Biden, which is, it can happen here. It has happened here so much, so often. And the forces that we have to contend with of extremism and racism and isolationism, protectionism, all those forces are part of the American character. They always will be as long as Americans are human beings.

And this is part of the human condition. The task of democracy, the task of the rule of law is to manage our appetites and our ambitions in a way that will enable us to get just enough right. And President Biden gave 50 years, has given 50 years and still is trying to get things just right enough with the rest of us. And I think he was re-engaged at that point.

Remember what happened when he was running in 2020. We were in the grip of a global pandemic. We were the rule of law under fundamental assault. And he stepped into the breach.

He stood up for democracy over autocracy. He stood up for the rule of law. And I know that history is going to treat him incredibly well because he deserves it. He has been a consequential president before today.

Today makes him a consequential president who courageously put country above self. This will be an exemplar. This will be an exemplar of what it means to be a politician who acts not in his own interest, but in the interest of the country. And we have lots of heroic examples of that from people that led to them becoming president because they demonstrated that form of heroism in some other way, in some other part of their life, whether it was in military service or whether it was some other way they in 2026.

I think we're at a place where we should all take a deep breath. We should all recognize the sacrifice of this man, not for nostalgia, not for sentiment. You know, I don't want to cue the kettle drums or the violins. But a real man did a real thing today.

And I'm not a great man. I'm not. Joe Biden proved today that he's a great man, because what great men do is they make tough decisions that other people can't. And I think that I think that's good enough for.

Presidential historian, Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Meacham, John, again, I do really value talking to you anytime that I can, but particularly tonight. Thank you. Thank you so much. It is now just after 8 p.m.

on the East Coast, 5 p.m. in Vice President Harris's home state of California. With less than four months until the presidential election, President Joe Biden has dropped his reelection bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination for president. In the hours since President Biden made that announcement, there has been a steady stream, you might call it 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 the presidential nomination should President Biden make this decision, including North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.

In just the last few minutes, Pennsylvania's Bob Casey became the latest Democratic senator to endorse Kamala Harris and her presidential bid. I don't know that I've ever seen a group of people coalesce as quickly around anything as we are seeing today, Democrats coalesce around Kamala Harris's candidacy just in the last few hours. Again, Democratic fundraising groups saying that this may be the largest single day of fundraising in the history of the Democratic Party. Vice President Harris has just released her first fundraising text as a likely presidential candidate.

She says, quote, I am running to be President of the United States. I'm honored to have the President's endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination in the coming days as I hit the campaign trail to meet with Americans and lay out the choice in front of voters in the fall. I cannot imagine two more starkly different visions for where we want our country to go. We can choose the dark path of Project 2025 with less freedom and more division, or we can choose to pull together and do the work for the people.

She says, quote, these are not ordinary times and this will not be an ordinary election, but this is our America and I need you with me in this fight. She says, so I have to ask, will you pitch in your first $20 today to elect me as President of the United States and defeat Donald Trump? Together, she says, I know we can win this election and save democracy. And she signs it, Kamala Harris.

Again, there may be some process, some proto-process, something that happens within the Democratic Party, but the coalescence around Kamala Harris as the nominee of the party feels to me both inevitable now once President Biden made his decision, but also unstoppable. Joy, over to you. Thank you very much, Rachel. And I will add just two little pieces of news.

It's not like huge breaking news, but I have to add to what you were just saying. I've now been texting with some delegates from South Carolina and Florida. They did have their Zooms tonight as scheduled. And in both cases, the party chairs as well as Biden campaign world people were in those Zooms urging full support for Vice President Kamala Harris.

In one case, one of the people from Florida said that was pretty much the Zoom. The Zoom wasn't about anything else other than, obviously, lots of praise for President Biden and a whole lot of support for Vice President Harris. And the Florida delegation, one of the quotes I got out of there is that they said as one of the largest and most important delegations, they want to see a show of full support for her. So that's kind of the vibe that I am seeing from two important states in the history of President Biden, obviously, South Carolina and obviously Florida.

So with that, I want to bring in the great Lawrence O'Donnell, our friend and colleague, because I want to start, first of all, just by getting your reaction. I will ask the the great Rachel Maddow's question. Where were you when you heard about President Biden stepping away from the race? And what do you make of that and his flex to say, I am going to name my own successor and I would like it to be my vice president?

I was on a boat in Massachusetts with very far from shore and so not with any cell service. When I finally got self-service, we tried to somehow make the wind blow even stronger to to get me to this landline that I've managed to get to to be able to talk about this. And so I'm coming to you knowing less about this than most of the people in our audience. And the first person who I heard talk about this publicly was John Meacham in these last 15 minutes.

And I have to say that was the best possible first conversation I could hear about it between Rachel and John Meacham. And one thing I would add that I know John Meacham knows and we all know and we all know it as soon as I say it, is that this would be for almost every other politician I've ever known, the worst day of that politician's life. This is not the worst day of Joe Biden's life. This is down the list.

This is someone whose wife was killed, young wife was killed with his daughter child at the same time. And then his son who survived that horrible incident later died way too young. And so Joe Biden has had much more difficult things to process, much more difficult things to get through and much more difficult things to get the Biden family, including grandchildren, through. And he has managed to do that.

And he is now doing everything he possibly can to get the country through this, something that we've never seen before. There is no model for it. There's nothing close to it. The Lyndon Johnson case isn't even close to this.

And he is trying to find as much political stability as the Democratic Party can find in this situation by immediately endorsing Kamala Harris. And you can see just how supportive the Democratic Party is, not just of Kamala Harris at this moment, but also of Joe Biden's judgment about this and his judgment in choosing her four years ago. It has been validated in what you've seen so far. And Joy, as I listened to and read about various imagined scenarios that would come into play for the Democrats to find a nominee if this situation were to occur.

One of the things that I found absent from the thinking of the people who were suggesting there would be a half a dozen prominent, highly electable Democrats who would rush to seek this nomination was the fact that no one proposing these ideas bothered to check with any of them. Any of the candidates they were dreaming about in articles they were writing or things they were saying on television. And even when Governor Whitmer said I won't do it, people continued to just plow along as if she would, as if she would try to take that nomination herself. And so it's not surprisingly that we do not have another Democratic candidate for president tonight other than Kamala Harris, who has it was both Joe Biden's choice and as the reporting is coming in, the choice of so many Democrats who are rushing forward to say so, including and this is important, colleagues who she's worked with closely in the United States Senate, the people who know her in government and in the federal government the best.

And so Joe Biden is someone who I'm sure I know, steers chaos in a situation like this, and he's done everything he possibly could to stabilize the ship as he tries to engineer what he would like to see as the way this party changes captains of that ship. And so he was actually working today as both party leader and at a very highly functioning functioning presidential level to make this welcome for Kamala Harris that we are that you're reporting on tonight work the way it has worked so far. You know, listen, it got so silly that people were floating Michelle Obama, who I don't know what that lady has to do to get people to understand she's not going to run for president. But yeah, the fanciful thinking was pretty far out there.

But I want to talk a little bit more about a little bit more about this. This president, because, you know, Joe Biden occupies this really unique space in American history. He was both the youngest United States senator and the oldest president. This is somebody who, as a longtime politician, whose history in politics dates back to the early 1970s, took a back seat to the first black president of the United States.

He stepped in to be his vice president, to be his second banana, you could say. As you said, he's had just tremendous tragedy on a level that most of us can't even fathom just as a human being and has had to live that in public since he was 29 years old. Like there's a lot in his life that is sort of apocryphal and kind of Shakespearean. I mean, he was the Senate Judiciary chair leader when Clarence Thomas came in, but also the president who nominated the first black woman to be on the United States Supreme Court.

He kind of done all of those things. You know, so he now has done this thing that we've seen Speaker Pelosi do, pass the torch to a new generation and sort of clip the wings of our gerontocracy in that way in the United States House. Now he's done it as president. What does that mean for his legacy in your view?

Well, it's fascinating for me because I got to know Joe Biden in the 1990 What do you make of this way that President Biden ultimately has sort of opened the door to create this very, very new change in generation? Yeah, I mean, you think about, I mean, you've been right on in terms of talking about the different sort of superlatives that you can attach to Joe Biden demographically, right, being the youngest senator, one of the youngest senators ever when he gets to the United States Senate, being the oldest president ever. But then you also have him as vice president to the nation's first African American president. You have him ably serving as Barack Obama's vice president, not only helping him get elected, but helping him govern, being loyal and supportive and effective in his own way as vice president, creating what was a phenomenally successful presidency of the first black president.

Then he chooses not only a woman, but a woman of color to be his vice presidential running mate. And in deciding today that he's not going to say in his reelection bid, instead, he is going to endorse her. We are in a situation where Joe Biden, this octogenarian white guy from Delaware, he's got one from Scranton and then from by way of Delaware, is going to be the man who delivers America the first African American president and the first woman president and the first woman of color president. Joe Biden will have played an absolutely instrumental, unique personal role in breaking all of those glass ceilings.

And you do that not because you're always putting yourself first, but because you're making good decisions. You are trusted. You are a good wingman. You are a good team player.

You're an excellent leader and you are not afraid to bring other people along with you. And it's just I mean, the legacy of Joe Biden here, it's still you know, he's still got more time left in this term in office, but he's going to get Kamala Harris elected president of the United States. And he is going to save the country from Donald Trump not once, but twice. And that is going to be the legacy of Joe Biden in terms of what his country needed from him and what he gave.

And it's just a I really am. I know we've been on the air for over an hour talking about this already. And I was on the air already talking about it, but I'm still just stunned by what he said. No, no, go.

I was just as I was listening to Lawrence talk and because I worked for him for a year and a half, I've just been thinking, as we all have been about the moments we interacted with him and the time we spent with him. And the thing that's so interesting about one of the things that's so interesting about his legacy and his career is as he was the youngest and then was the oldest president, he had spent so many decades building up to the moment where he became the president. And I remember when I started working for him, I had not worked on the campaign. I did not know him well.

I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to get him to know him well. And he has this just very down to earth style and nature about him, where I would go into the Oval Office to talk to him about things. And he would just say, pull up a chair, sit, sit right next to the resolute desk. And I remember one time early on the first couple of weeks I was there, I went in and I said, sir, you know, I want to go back and be able to tell the press, you know, how you're how the weight of what you're sitting with is sitting on your shoulders, how you're how you're adjusting.

Right. We were a couple of weeks in. It was COVID. It was after the Trump administration.

The country was incredibly divided. And he said, I don't know if you should tell the press this, but I feel very comfortable with the weight of the job. I've been here before. I've been in the Oval Office.

I've been in the Situation Room. I was the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. I was a chairman of the Judiciary Committee. But you know what?

I can't find my socks. And, you know, it's a funny story. Right. And what it tells you, though, about Joe Biden and what it told me when I was reflecting on it, is he was very comfortable with the responsibilities of the job.

He had been preparing for it for decades. And we saw that over and over and over again when he did things no one thought he could do. But he wasn't comfortable always with the pomp and circumstance of it, because ultimately he's Joe Biden from Scranton, from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Scranton, that's who he is.

And that always struck me as one of the reasons why he could keep that level of empathy he had and connection to people while still sitting behind the resolute desk and making the decisions that he made. I was just going to jump in on the politics of this. I mean, we've spent nine years covering what I think at one point looked like Donald Trump's takeover of the Republican Party. But he was only able to do it because it had rotted from the inside out.

And I think that what we've covered, we felt the animosity and the sheer terror and the disdain from our own audience. And it hurts, right? It stings. And we've watched a lot of the animosity and disdain for the donor class and the elected Republicans.

But what Nancy Pelosi did, it wasn't just an act of sort of political expediency. It was what needed to be done to save a democracy. And we don't know all the acts that happened behind the scenes. But the contrast of a party that doesn't rotate around a single figure, but that actually rotates around a universal principle, or at least what used to be a universal principle of preserving the democracy, is extraordinary.

It shouldn't be glossed over. And it should be the single most defining contrast between the two parties. As voters tune in, those voters that aren't paying attention 24-7 like all of us. I mean, there is only one party in the country that can say they will represent the democracy, even if it means making a different decision about who will lead the democracy.

There's only one party that can tolerate, that sort of has the frustration tolerance and the confidence to go about such a public high-stakes process like persuading or pleading with an incumbent president, a successful one, and one who's still close enough in the polls to make an argument, an argument that he should stay in and lead the party. It is the sign of a healthy party versus one that has rotted from the inside. There's an incumbent nominee, I guess we call him, in almost permanent incumbency, like a residency in Vegas, right? Trump is just sort of in residence as the guy who leads the party.

He essentially picked a bouncer to run with, a guy that's just going to push off anyone else and sort of be the protector for Project 2025. It's a party that rotted from the inside out and imploded. And to the degree that there's been discomfort and pain and anger caused by what the pro-democracy Democratic Party did, it's actually pretty glorious if you're sort of a refugee in that coalition from the other side. We talked about that, Nicole, throughout.

I mean, there's been so much consternation about the fight in the Democratic Party, but also the media coverage of the fight. We've talked about all of that. And we know that people don't want to hear about it. People had strong feelings on both sides.

People wanted some stuff done in private, some stuff done in public. But throughout, even as difficult as it was on the Democratic side, what you're describing is correct. It was a good faith fight. It was a good faith effort to try to do the right thing by the country.

And it was a disagreement about how to do the right thing, but not that the right thing should be done. And, yeah, I just I endorse. Speaking of endorsements, I have some news that has broken while we have been talking. We've got a whole bunch more endorsements for the presidential campaign of Kamala Harris.

First of all, governors. There are now six Democratic governors who have endorsed Kamala Harris's presidential bid. California Governor Gavin Newsom, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Governor Colorado, Governor North Carolina, the governor of Maine. And now the latest is New York Governor Kathy Hochul.

In the United States Senate. Here's an important one. Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. He's particularly important because he is seen in many ways as a potential as an important part of the future of the Democratic Party.

He's also potentially a running mate for Kamala Harris. If we're being honest about this, Captain Mark Kelly's Arizona senator says, quote, I couldn't be more confident that Vice President Kamala Harris is the right person to defeat Donald Trump and lead our country into the future. She has my support for the nomination. And Gabby and I will do everything we can to elect her president of the United States.

We also have an endorsement from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive firebrand, incredibly talented, lightning rod young congresswoman from New York. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying, quote, Kamala Harris will be the next president of the United States. I pledge my full support to ensure her victory in November. Now, more than ever, it's crucial that our party and country swiftly unite to defeat Donald Trump and the threat to American democracy.

Let's get to work. We also have a new endorsement of Kamala Harris from Brian Schatz, the progressive U.S. senator from Hawaii. He has also endorsed her now.

And just just moments ago, within the last five minutes, an endorsement from Elizabeth Warren, the progressive senator from a very influential senator from the great state of Massachusetts. We are going to be speaking with Senator Elizabeth Warren in just a moment as again, we are seeing just the floodgates open in terms of the Democratic Party throwing the full weight of its its influence and its money Hey everyone, it's Chris Hayes. This week on my podcast, Why Is This Happening?, cryptocurrency and the golden age of scams. Crypto markets operate 24-7, not like the regulated financial markets, and the gamify and all these things.

And so that small percentage of the population that developed gambling addictions, this stuff is like crack cocaine. It's really, really bad. That's this week on Why Is This Happening? Search for Why Is This Happening?

wherever you're listening right now and follow. Welcome back to our special coverage here on MSNBC. It is not every night when you need duct tape and a Sharpie to keep up with the news, but here we are. Look at this.

This is from Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. He has endorsed Vice President Harris, and he has also posted this photo of what used to be a Biden yard sign. Senator Heinrich says his neighbors have now tweaked the sign with duct tape and a marker. The sign now reads 2024 Harris, and then underneath that it says Vice President TBD.

I should also tell you that the influential and progressive labor union, large progressive labor union SEIU, Service Employees International Union, that had previously endorsed President Biden for re-election, they have now announced their own endorsement of the presidential campaign of Kamala Harris. Nicole, over to you. Well, I'm so glad to bring into our conversation the Reverend Al Sharpton, host of Politics Nation right here on MSNBC. I'm Rev, you're one of the people I've wanted to talk to on and off television about what's really been going on behind the scenes.

And I wonder, I know you're close to the President, and you're close to a lot of people. Your opinion matters a lot to him. You're close to a lot of the people whose opinion also matters a lot to him. What's your understanding of what happened in the last 48 hours?

My understanding is that President Biden did what was absolutely noble. He made a decision that he felt was best for the country. And that he made a decision that he wanted to see what he was standing for and fighting for would continue. I remember in January of 2020, Martin Luther King holiday, we had him speak at National Action Network's annual Washington, D.C.

breakfast. He came in the room as we were preparing to bring him out, Martin Luther King III and I. And he said, you know, I'm thinking about running for president because this guy Trump, what he did in Charlottesville was disgraceful. And that really was the impetus for him getting in the race late.

He did not do very well in Iowa or New Hampshire. And I was there in South Carolina after the day that Jim Clyburn was going to endorse him. We just had had a breakfast meeting of about 300 ministers with all of the candidates. It was the day after the debate.

And Clyburn said, I'm going to endorse Joe Biden. And it turned the whole thing around. So I was there for a lot of that. I've been close with Vice President Kamala Harris.

She's come to funerals with me for victims. And we've done things. I think today was interesting to me because I was in Brooklyn at a church. We were getting ready to have a service to celebrate the 90th anniversary, 90th birthday of former Congressman Ed Towns.

Ed Towns and I met when I was 17 and youth director for Shirley Chisholm's campaign for president. And when I was pulling up to the church, I heard the news about President Biden withdrawing, who I talked to last Monday. And when I got out, Hakeem Jeffries was there. I've known him 20 years.

He's been a member of the network. I couldn't help but think about, from 72 to now, Shirley Chisholm must be smiling tonight. And it was a guy named Joe Biden that helped make a Black president that now has opened the door for a Black woman to possibly become president and put a Black woman on the Supreme Court. But not just Blacks, but it fought for those that were denied and those that were marginalized.

And to come at a time where we've seen women's right to choose, affirmative action, voting rights, all harmed immeasurably by this Supreme Court, it couldn't be more appropriate than for Joe Biden to go out with his head held high and someone that was his partner in fighting for these things to make sure that we return the rights. We're talking about a battle between which way this country is going to go. Are we going to protect the rights won in the generations ahead of us? Or are we going to go back to the days of pre-1940 and under the facade of Make America Great Again?

And I think that this is going to be something historic. It couldn't happen without a great man like Joe Biden. You and I were sitting next to each other Wednesday during his speech. And his first line was, you know what I think of when I think of a black job?

Vice President of the United States, Supreme Court. You know, he had that great, that sort of great opening line, one that has even more meaning after what he did today in his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. I want to ask you about, you know, people cover politicians like it's static. And politicians, it's dynamic, right?

Especially that job of vice president where she was really treated with a lack of respect at the beginning of the vice presidency. She's always been an immensely talented campaigner. A lot of her speeches have happened while I've been on the air the last three weeks. She's electric on the campaign trail.

And I wonder what your recent conversations are like with her and your thoughts as she seems to move rather seamlessly into this spot, not just as the most likely Democratic presidential nominee, but pretty soon I would guess she'll be the front runner for president. Well, she's been, she's always been underestimated, but she always took fire with balance. She's never been rattled. I've known her since she was the DA in San Francisco through her being elected attorney general through the Senate race to vice president.

Each time they said she couldn't win and she kept fighting and she never lost her dignity. I was just with her a week before last. We spent a couple of days at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans. And she went out there on the night that young people were watching hip hop, 60,000 people in the Superdome, turned it around.

That's the kind of person she is. As I said, she went, she came to Memphis when black cops beat a guy named Tyree Nichols to death. She spoke at the funeral before I did the eulogy. She came to Buffalo.

She's been in the trenches. And if Donald Trump does not think this is going to be a tough race, he's underestimating it. He's going to have to come with more than slogans. He's going to have to come with trying, trying to dismiss her.

All of that will not work. This woman is prepared and this woman is someone that is used to fighting. And, and, and, you know, Joy knows I used to be like boxing matches. If it was a boxing match, I would say it is the prosecutor against the felon.

Who do you choose, America? The prosecutor or the felon? It writes itself. It's really amazing.

The Reverend Al Sharpton, it's great that we get to talk to you today. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you. Oh, I hope somebody first of all, is making t-shirts with that on it because those would sell like hotcakes right now.

I think that's pretty clear. But joining us now is Maryland democratic congressman Jamie Raskin. Congressman, thank you so much. We've had many conversations about democracy and this presidential race right here in the studio.

And I want to talk to you about Vice President Harris. I want to start first because you are a historian of sorts and you had a beautifully written statement about Joe Biden where you called him one of the handful of truly great presidents in American history and a patriot beyond measure. And I just want to ask you to reflect on this moment in history and his decision to step down. The first thing I thought about was President Biden's amazing speech he gave in January, I think January 5th of this year when he went to Valley Forge and he gave a speech in a Pennsylvania town called Bluebell.

And in it he talked about George Washington. It really struck me. He talked about how Washington resigned his commission as the commander in chief of the Continental Army, establishing the principle of civilian control over the military, which is a point people often make. But then he went on to make a point that I'd never seen anyone make before.

He said that President Washington also could have been president in perpetuity because of how much he was loved and adored in the country. But he also felt it was important to leave the office of the presidency to establish the principles of civilian succession. But also, I think that President Biden was telling us that great leaders make space and room for great leaders. Great leaders nurture great leaders.

And you see this outpouring love and affection for President Biden, who's still going to be our president for six months and will be the heart and soul of our party for a long time to come. But you're also seeing this electrifying effect in our party and even outside of the Democratic Party about him passing the torch. And how different from that is the autocratic dictatorial roadshow that we saw over the last several days in the mega cult around Donald Trump. It's a completely different culture and a completely different picture.

So incredibly uplifting. I can just tell you from my college text chain. So we were talking a bit before you came on just about how much incoming you've had from people in your district, from friends, from colleagues. And I know you've endorsed Vice President Harris.

I want to ask you about that, but also why you're so excited about her as as the nominee. Well If anybody that knows that policy, it is Vice President Harris, and I think it is. I've had so many people in the last 24 hours call and say, I don't know what I need to do. Tell me what I need to do.

And so I think that the time is actually really great for three things. One, there's a level of excitement. I think that the party did need a sense of energy and excitement, and I'm actually just very excited of the phone calls I've gotten from groups on the ground that are doing this work that are really excited about the possibility of really being able to support, to continue on supporting this policy that millions of people, 14 million in the primary voted for, but also the support of Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee for the ticket. You know, the second thing is that I think that people really know right now.

I think the best thing is to coalesce to literally hunker down and do the work because we don't need any confusion. We have to be unified. This is a unifying moment. And I think this is the best time that we're thinking about, like the timing.

This is the best time. I've often been saying this is the year of the woman. You know, abortion, reproductive rights, reproductive justice, that is on the ticket. Young people need to be reinvigorated.

All of those things that they care about and concern about, that is actually what I think that Vice President Kamala Harris does very well. And so I think that this is a moment that I'm hearing from the people that we work with on the ground. They're super excited about the possibility of this new shot of energy. And then many people have said, you know, that here it is, Vice President Harris is a prosecutor.

That we want to see the prosecutor go against the criminal. So I think that this is a really, really historic moment in this nation. And, you know, I want to stay on that for just a moment because we are seeing the post-Dobbs world is very different, right? I think if when Vice President Harris initially ran for president, we were just in a different world where people were taking for granted that Roe v.

Wade was going to be the law of the land forever. We're now in a completely different world. So in terms of organizing, you now have women running for the United States Senate against Rick Scott in Florida, Debbie McArsall-Powell. You have a woman, Gloria Johnson, who is one of the Tennessee three, running against Marsha Blackburn, who is against abortion rights.

You've got now this momentum on this issue that's even worked in places like Kansas. You've got abortion referenda in multiple states. Does having a woman nominee for president, does that fundamentally change the way the organizing looks? And I'm talking about the organizing on college campuses, across the racial divides, across even some of the party divides.

You even had a group that was supportive of Nikki Haley come out and support Kamala Harris for president. Oh, absolutely. I think this is a game changer. I think we're seeing a realignment of the landscape.

I think what we're seeing is, I think, oftentimes when we're looking at politics in America, we're looking at the politics of the past. If you look at the Republican ticket and you look at Trump and Vance, they are symbolic to the past America, the America that I think is long gone, that you have this racist trope that you're leading with this idea of white nationalist bravado. And that that in itself is supposed to be the symbol of America. What I think Kamala Harris, Vice President Kamala Harris represents is the current America, the new America, that this is a new America, the new America coalition of black people and white people and AAPI community, indigenous community and Latino community.

And then when you're talking about women and men and the LGBTQ community, I think she is a candidate that literally represents the swap of America and will be able to bring that coalition together. I also believe that because she has been working in the administration and people who have been supporting, we're talking about policies that support poor people and working class people and middle class people. She has that advantage. So if there's any time that we needed a woman to lead the ticket, it would be now against a ticket that is not that's openly misogynist and a ticket that is openly anti-women's rights.

Listen, let me tell you something. I have heard from more AKAs. There'll be a cardable now. Like as a member of the team that they just throw a car, like, okay, the AKAs are on fire right now.

We've heard from links. She's also links. She would be the first person from an HBCU to be president to the Howard University grad. So you're seeing just all of these new communities that really are never usually at the table and in the conversation.

Listen, the Indian American community have had some friends from that community. Very, very excited because she's in their community to Latasha Brown. It's going to be a very interesting year to be an organizer. So thank you very much.

I appreciate you being here. Let me send it back to Rachel. Rachel, I'm telling you, all the AKAs are in my phone. If you know any AKAs, you're going to hear from them in the next 24 hours.

They're very, very excited for the sorority. They're not a shy group at the best of times. Like this is not a group that that hides the light under a bushel, as it were. Let me tell you, there's been some news breaking while we have been discussing.

One of the things we started talking about right at the top, you guys, was the process and whether they're what needs to happen in order for the torch to be passed from President Biden to Vice President Harris as the next nominee of the Democratic Party. Well, a lot has happened along that front just since we've been on the air less than two hours. Now it is three state parties, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, where those state Democratic parties are now officially pledging all of their delegates to Vice President Harris. Again, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Those parties are pledging their delegates to Kamala Harris. We know that there was a meeting, a phone call of all the state Democratic Party chairs that happened earlier this evening. We're going to be speaking with the Tennessee party chair, both to talk about that overall meeting, but also the decision in Tennessee that all the delegates are now being moved to Harris. There's also some very interesting reporting.

The national finance chair of the Biden victory fund, which is the big one. That's the joint fundraising committee. That's the Biden for president campaign and the DNC and all the state Democratic parties. The national finance chair for the Biden victory fund tells NBC News that after a day of talking to Democrats, quote, I believe there will be enough pledges for Kamala Harris to be the nominee by the end of business on Wednesday on Wednesday of this week.

We're also getting new reporting from NBC. Two sources familiar with the matter say that the plan is still to expect a virtual roll call within the next two weeks so the nomination will be settled before the before the convention starts in a few weeks. All right, we're gonna take the quickest of breaks. Senator Elizabeth Warren is gonna join us on the other side as will the leader of the Tennessee Democratic Party whose delegates again met today and decided to support Kamala Harris.

It's a busy night. Lots still happening. Stay with us. Thank you for being with us on this historic evening as we continue to process and further develop the day's just stunning news.

President Joe Biden has ended his reelection bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee for president and to lead the Democratic charge against Donald Trump and J.D. Vance on the Republican side. Over the last few hours, endorsements of Vice President Harris have poured in from Democratic members of Congress and Democratic governors and state attorney generals and several unions, including the very influential Service Employees International Union, who have also had a statement from the executive council of the American Federation of Teachers. Fundraising has just exploded for Democrats today since President Biden's announcement.

Donations reportedly exceeding $30 million in less than half a day. That would be the biggest day for online Democratic donations potentially ever. It might be the largest Democratic fundraising day ever. Now, for Kamala Harris to officially become the Democratic Party's nominee for president, she will have to formally win the nomination.

She'll need to secure the votes of enough delegates who will be free to vote for whomever they would like. Now that President Biden is dropping his reelection bid and he is no longer standing in the election. Reuters reports that the Harris campaign has already begun calling delegates tonight trying to secure their support. Already this evening, Democratic Party leadership in the great state of Tennessee has pledged that all 77 Tennessee delegates will support Kamala Harris as the nominee.

We're going to be speaking with that state party chairman in just a moment for more on that decision. But it's not just Tennessee. The chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party also says her state party has unanimously voted to pledge all of its 168 delegates to Vice President Harris. And it's not just Tennessee and not just North Carolina.

In the state of South Carolina, the Democratic Party there has also now pledged its delegates to Harris. One state party chairperson tells NBC News that on the call that happened earlier this evening, among all of the different state party chairs, there were, quote, no objections to moving forward with being open with our support for the vice president and moving forward. Chairperson cautioned that there was no formal roll call vote of state party delegations or formal declarations of support. But the state chairperson said that the call, again, the call among all the Democratic Party chairpersons in the whole country, the call concluded with a strong call for unity in this moment and support for the president's choice, with the items in the administration's agenda.

On student loan debt, for example, she's been in there making those punches, helping people get the relief that they need. I think she's going to want to replicate that kind of experience, and she wants to be president to a vice president, that's someone she can depend on. And what makes somebody someone you can depend on? I think it's the shared values.

It's somebody who really does see the world the same way. It's somebody who believes that government is not here for the billionaires and the giant corporations. Government is here to work on the side of working people. Government is here to invest in Americans, to invest in education and health care and housing.

Oh, and a big one coming up, big fight that we're going to have, child care, because we need to get this done across the country. I think she's going to want someone who looks at government that same way, someone she can rely on. And I think she's got a lot of good people out there she can pick from. We got a deep bench, and that's good.

No question about it. And it is the person's partner. No question about it. The last person in the first person in the room, last person in the room, Senator Elizabeth Warren, thank you so much for taking the time to join us tonight.

Back to you, Rachel. Thanks. Great interview, Jen. That was fascinating.

Elizabeth Warren is a powerful communicator on behalf of her party. You think about one of the things that's happening in Democratic Party politics right now is as the party is consolidating around Vice President Harris as the nominee, you are getting sort of testimony not only from people who have worked with her as vice president, worked with her during the Biden administration, but people who know her from the Senate, people who ran alongside her in the Democratic primary the last time around for president, but also people who have experience with her in the Senate and seeing these endorsements come up and seeing that sort of articulated support from Elizabeth Warren. I think we're going to have a lot of that in coming days. One other piece of news that has just broken in the last couple of minutes.