Meet the Press NOW — August 22

Welcome to a very special edition of Meet the Press Now live from Chicago. I am Kristen Welker here in the United Center as we count down to the start of the fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention and what will be an historic evening. Tonight, Vice President Harris will formally accept her party's nomination for president just one month since becoming a candidate. And with just 75 days until the election, it will be the biggest speech of her political career and a deeply personal one as she becomes just the second woman and first woman of color to top a major party's presidential ticket.

Sources tell us that while the Vice President will acknowledge the history of the moment, her speech will focus on her qualifications to be president and her optimistic agenda. It comes after her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, introduced himself to voters last night emphasizing his journey to the nomination as a coach, a veteran, a teacher and a dad. He and other speakers like Oprah Winfrey leaned heavily into the Harris campaign's message of freedom. I'm letting you in on how we started a family because this is a big part about what this election is about.

Freedom. When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor's office, corporations free to pollute your air and water and banks free to take advantage of customers. But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love. Freedom to make your own health care decisions.

And yeah, your kids freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall. The work is not done. The work will never be done because freedom isn't free. America is an ongoing project.

It requires commitment. It requires being open to the hard work and the heart work of democracy. And every now and then it requires standing up to life's bullies. And in perhaps the most moving moment of the evening, Wallace shared a moment with his son and daughter in the crowd as he talked about his and his wife's struggles with infertility.

You can see his son there saying, that's my dad. While also building on the calls for unity we've heard throughout the week as the Harris campaign looks to broaden its coalition and maintain momentum amid a barrage of attacks from the Trump campaign. This is the part, clip and save it and send it to your undecided relatives so they know if you're middle class family or a family trying to get into the middle class. Kamala Harris is going to cut your taxes.

If you're getting squeezed by prescription drug prices, Kamala Harris is going to take on big pharma. If you're hoping to buy a home, Kamala Harris is going to help make it more affordable. And no matter who you are, Kamala Harris is going to stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead. Because that's what we want for ourselves and it's what we want for our neighbors.

Joining me now from the convention floor is NBC News Washington correspondent Yamiche Alcindor. Yamiche Pink is on stage right now and I think she's going to start a sound check. In fact, there she is. Yamiche, I'm going to go to you in a second, but let's just listen to Pink for one minute.

And Yamiche, as we are listening to Pink conduct her sound test here, I'm going to come back to you. Everyone here treated to a little mini concert. They're now cheering for her behind you. Wondering if there are going to be more surprises tonight, but let's talk about the main event.

Let's talk about Vice President Kamala Harris's speech tonight. I know you've been working your sources to get a preview. What are you anticipating we'll hear from the Vice President? Well, Kristen, I can just tell you that there is energy and enthusiasm on the floor.

As you said, Pink rehearsing here. But a lot of people, of course, waiting for the even bigger moment in political speak here, which would be when Vice President Kamala Harris is going to take the stage at the same place where Pink is rehearsing to talk about her vision for America. And I've been talking to a lot of sources who say she is meticulously preparing for this speech. She spent weeks going to Harvard for debate prep, but also for speech prep.

She's going through every column, every comma, every word I was told. And she really has three big things she wants to do. The first is she wants to really reintroduce herself and maybe even introduce herself to some Americans talking about her professional background as a prosecutor, the cases she took on, but also her personal background as a daughter from someone from a middle class family. Specifically talking about her mother who told her, you might be the first, but make sure you're not the last.

She's also talking about contrasting her vision for America with the vision of former President Donald Trump saying he's wrong for America. And she's going to be saying her vision is rooted in patriotism. Talking about the fact that she wants to be a president for all Americans. Now as you said, she's going to be leaning into the moment of the fact that she will be the first black woman, the first South Asian woman, the first woman of color to be on a major party ticket.

But her team is very cautious about race and gender. They want to make sure that people understand that she is qualified. She's going to be talking about her accomplishments, her background. And of course she's going to be praising President Biden, which I know we can talk a little bit more about that as well.

Yeah, talk about how much we will hear her reference President Biden, the Biden agenda. And will she be clear with folks tonight about how a Harris administration would look different than a Biden administration? Well, I was told by sources who was very familiar with the speech preparations that the early part of the speech is going to really be dedicated to praising President Biden. She feels a great loyalty to him.

She feels a great gratitude to him, of course, because she made him, I mean, she made her his vice president, but also, of course, he stepped aside just a month ago and made her, of course, endorsing her at the top of the ticket. So she really is going to say that she loves Joe Biden, that his legacy will live on in her administration. But she's going to be talking a little bit about policy and the ways that she feels like she can build on what Joe Biden and her accomplished through their administration, Kristen. All right, Yamiche Alcindor, thank you for sharing all of your great reporting with us.

We appreciate it. Joining me now is a co-chair for the Harris-Wells campaign and Delaware Democratic Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester. She is also running for Senate. Thank you so much, Congresswoman, for joining us.

Thank you for having me on this exciting night. Well, and Pink is getting things started, so we'll have to have our conversation over the sounds of Pink emanating through the air. But let's just start right there where I left off with Yamiche. What are you expecting to hear from Vice President Harris tonight?

What does she need to do to make this night be successful? Well, first of all, I have to just say how proud I am. I was really fortunate, and I want to pick up as well to talk about Joe Biden and how I remember when he had to make that very first decision about who was going to be his vice presidential pick. And he asked me to be one of the four people on the VP selection committee.

And so I came into Congress with Kamala Harris in 2016. She came into the Senate and I in the House. And we've had that relationship. But then to see her become our vice president because of her qualifications.

And so I think that will be one of the major things that has been talked about this week, but also that she will share. I think you will also hear about her vision, her vision for the future of this country. And I love the opportunity agenda, the opportunity economy, because for her, it's not just about people, you know, getting by. It's about getting ahead.

And so I think tonight you're going to hear about that. You're also going to hear joy. I mean, I think that has been a signature of this whole convention. You know, my speech was about bright hope, the church my grandmother attended for 70 years and last be freedom.

And like Tim Walz, who I had the opportunity to serve with, I'm got the best title of my life last year, which is grandmother. And it is because of IVF. So we're going to fight for reproductive freedom as well as our democracy. Well, congratulations on becoming a grandmother.

Thank you. The best thing ever. My parents would agree with you, by the way. You know, it's interesting because Hillary Clinton leaned heavily, you could say, into the fact that she was a history making candidate.

We saw that in 2016. She referenced that when she spoke here at the start of this week. But Vice President Harris so far has taken a very different tact. As you said, she may reference the fact and she'll acknowledge the fact that, yes, she is the first.

But as her mother said to her, you don't want to be the last. Do you think she should lean more heavily into the fact that she's a history making nominee? You know, I think that there's debate about that, but there really shouldn't be. She is all of it, you know.

But the most important thing, and I know this having been the first in Delaware to be elected to Congress and hopefully the Senate, that your real goal is to make an impact. That's the goal. The thing about being the first is that it helps to inspire others. For me, when I ran, I had never run for anything in my life.

I had just been widowed. You know, I was over 50. And so the first sometimes helps encourage other people and inspire other people Democrats, President Biden and his administration, Vice President Harris have worked tirelessly to bring peace to that region. So one of the things that I would say is that we are all unified, all unified in our desire to have an end to this conflict, to have peace in the Middle East.

And so tonight, I don't know if that will be referenced by the Vice President, because I haven't seen her speech. But I do know we have that bond in common. All right, Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me.

Really appreciate it. And I hope, I hope maybe we'll hear a preview of Beyoncé. I don't know. That would be lovely.

We're trying to report it out. There have been all of these... It's a lot of rumors. That there could be a surprise.

So far, everyone's saying there are no more surprises. Well, I'm a member of the Beehive, so if they need me up there, I'm happy to help. All right, well, thank you so much, Congresswoman. Appreciate it.

Joining me now is NBC's Washington Managing Editor Carol Lee and NBC's Chief Political Analyst Chuck Todd. Guys, thanks for being here. Appreciate it. I see the Beyoncé rumors.

I know. She's the campaign chair. That's good enough for me. We can go standard, right?

We don't have to go to this. She's coming? She's coming? So sexy.

Campaign co-chair for the Harris campaign. That's a rumor. Believe you me, if I knew, I'd be dressed a little differently. I'm just saying.

Okay, Congresswoman, thank you so much. Carol and I have been trying to report this rumor out. Carol, let's start right there just so we give folks a reality check. There are all these rumors that there's going to be a big surprise.

Maybe Beyoncé's going to come. We're being told so far that's not the case. No more big surprises. But obviously the Democrats are trying to use their celebrity, high wattage power to get the energy going here.

Yeah, we saw that with Oprah last night. And yes, even though people are saying it's not going to happen, it hasn't stopped the conversation. Everyone's still talking about it here. That's literally what everyone is talking about.

But I actually wouldn't do it. This one starts tonight. This one starts tonight. Kamala Harris.

You know, I mean, Wednesday night it might have made sense. Or tomorrow it could make sense. You actually don't step on the nominee. Right.

Okay, so let's talk about the nominee and the substance of what we might hear from her. Chuck, kick this part of our conversation off. What do you think she needs to do? There's this big question about how much detail she's going to get into.

Typically, we might not spend that much time talking about detail if she hadn't just joined the top of the ticket. But people are really hungry for answers from her. Do you think we'll get them tonight? I think she needs to directionally say who she is without getting specific.

Convention speeches are not. Marco Cuomo had a famous line. You know, you sort of you campaign in poetry and you govern in prose. And that is always good advice.

You don't want to make it. If she comes in with the Joe Biden speech on Monday night, huge mistake. Joe Biden basically sounds like his acceptance speech because I'm pretty. That's my understanding.

They sort of used a bit of that. It was very laundry. Now, he was running for a reelection and a reelection is slightly different. Even Barack Obama's acceptance in 2012 was a little more of the detail.

But Tim Walz last night never once talked about his time in Congress other than winning contests after shooting contests against Republicans. And he didn't talk about. He really talked about what he did as governor. It was more of a value speech.

Right. I'm on your side. And when I think about the successful when Democrats have had good conventions, it's when the nominee has done less substance and more values. Bill Clinton did it really well in 92.

How gory. People forget this. I mean, his campaign was was languishing until his convention. And he really sort of created a very populist speech that was a values.

Whose side are you on? And I think that the little things like talking about her days as a prosecutor is a way of saying, look, I'm not going to be soft on crime. I'm not going to you know, I know they're trying to paint me as a picture here. I don't think she'll do this, but I actually would confront.

They're going to say I'm this. Let me tell you the truth. They're going to say I'm this. Let me tell you this.

So I don't think she'll do that because I don't think she wants to sort of feed those. But in some ways, the speech ought to feel like it gives these delegates the responses they need when Trump says she's soft on crime. She's run San Francisco. The border is a mess.

You know, one thing I'd love to see them doing. They don't do is acknowledge we didn't get the border right for the first two years, but we're getting it right now. And I'm not going to mess this policy up. It's you know, to me, it's a way to lean into the middle to say, hey, we don't always get it right, but we listen to you.

And we learned our lesson. Right. Yeah. Carol, part of Chuck's talk about the narrative, the fact that she has this burden of reintroducing herself really to the American people.

One of the things that she's not leaning into, unlike Hillary Clinton, is the fact that, yes, she is the first woman of color to be at the top of a major party ticket. Now, again, she's going to nod to that. She'll acknowledge it. But talk a little bit about the strategy behind that.

It's very different from what we saw in Hillary Clinton. It's very different. And it's partly because of 2016, because Hillary Clinton did it and it's not as much of a novelty. But it's also partly because of the calendar, because she has a very limited amount of time to introduce herself to voters.

And they can see that she's a woman. They can see that she's a woman of color. Those are two things that they already know about her. They don't know what she how she grew up, what her background is, how she came to be, what she did as a lawyer, what she did as a prosecutor, her resume.

And those are the things and what she would do for them and how she may or may not be different than President Biden if she were to win the White House. And so she's got this challenge of really trying to tell a story about herself and who she is. And at the same time, you know what she's going to do for the country. And so saying, you know, dwelling on the fact that she's a historical candidate is something that others can do more than she needs to do.

Well, and so interesting, Chuck, because, you know, Carol referenced Oprah Winfrey was here. It wasn't just about Oprah Winfrey being here. It was about her talking about the fact that she's an independent. You talked about Tim Walz.

He said, I'm a proud gun owner. You know, I support the Second Amendment and yet I care about keeping kids safe. There's a real attempt to expand the tent. Well, this is sort of the Obama wing of the party.

For whatever reason, Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign constantly let people know which voter she didn't want supporting. It was a terrible way to message. She would constantly talk about, I want women for me. I want, you know, LGBT for me.

She never once asked for the vote of just sort of generic white guy, generic men in general. And it was sort of notable. You're like, well, why don't you want them included here? This, it's, you know, you could actually take Joe Klein in a subsect made this comparison.

I thought it was fascinating. Hillary Clinton's speech here was she wrapped her, she wrapped herself in Kamala Harris's history. Okay. And that's, you know, that's where her head is at.

Barack Obama didn't do that. What did Barack Obama do? He went and said, let me tell you about my, my black mother-in-law and my white grandmother. They didn't know each other.

In some ways they grew up differently and in some ways they grew up the same. Let me tell you how much, how similar they are. That is not just subtext, right? That is saying, look, I know we may look different, but we actually share a lot of values.

We may pray to different gods, but we share a bunch of these values. And I do, look, I don't expect, she hasn't been doing it. She doesn't. Again, I go back to that.

Maybe two others can do it. Right. Others can talk about the history. You know, her job is to do a good job so that she's not the only one in history.

Yeah. Go ahead. I was just going to add that she also wants to make sure that voters understand that she earned this, that she is standing on that stage because she put in the work and she did all of that. All of her background and history has led up to this moment.

It's not for any other reason. It's not because of her gender. It's not because of her race. Well, Carol, you know, as a part of the sort of similarities between the way that Harris and Obama, for example, have campaigned, the positivity that we are hearing in all of these speakers, the hope, the joy.

It's almost like they're trying to repurpose the hope and change message from 2008, an acknowledgement that Biden's message warning of the threat that Trump posed just wasn't resonating. It was also Political test. What does she need to do to come out successful? Well, it's such a reminder that vice presidents are known by name, but not very well known typically.

So everybody knows that Kamala Harris is the vice president. Now they're gonna find out who the nominee is tonight. And you've heard just speech after speech of incredible stories about her. Now it's her moment to look at the entire country and talk about how we need to fight for our freedoms and that she is going to be doing this with and together.

You need everybody's hands in and it is, you're right, a huge moment for her. I have no doubts that she is ready for this moment. Cornell, do you think, I know she'll give her vision. This is my vision if I were to be elected.

She will obviously touch on policy. She's not going to give us a whole lot of policy details likely. But does she need to say, this is how I would be different from President Biden? I think this entire convention has been laying out two dramatically different visions about America.

And one is dark, one is Gotham City. And one is, you know, America still a city on the hill. And I think the joy thing that Republicans make fun of, they can make fun of it all you want. But the joy is real.

And after some of the darkness and the chaos, Americans are just looking to be happy. Americans want to be optimistic. And once upon a time that wasn't a Democratic thing because I remember that was Ronald Reagan saying as well. Americans want to feel good about America and they want to lean into the optimism.

And I think that she's going to give them that today. I think this ticket is giving them that. And as I go out to Garrett, we'll take a look at what's happening on the stage here behind us guys. Maya Harris, the sister of Vice President Kamala Harris, is on the stage right now checking things out ahead of tonight.

She is one of Vice President Harris's closest advisors. Garrett, you know, when I was at the Republican National Convention, Republicans were hugely unified around former President Donald Trump. It was clear the Republican Party is his party. And the question we all had is, boy, will Democrats be able to match the energy and enthusiasm here?

Based on what we're seeing and hearing inside the convention hall, it appears as though they have met that bar. What are Republicans saying as they watch all of this unfold? Is there some trepidation that Democrats are more united than they could have anticipated just a month ago? Yeah, they're clearly more united than they were a few months ago when President Biden was still in the race, right?

You saw this across with polls in swing states, polls nationally. Democrats clearly do have energy now because they feel like they have a candidate who simply isn't in mental decline. The big question for Vice President Harris is, how does she define herself apart from the Biden administration when she's part of the Biden administration? You're talking about the two big issues for voters right now, the economy and inflation, and the border.

Former President Trump has a large lead on both of those issues. You're seeing him do that in Arizona now. So I think he's going to lead in. This is going to be a race for her to try and define herself apart from that and Biden's failures on a lot of these issues and try and tell her own story while at the same time Republicans try and tie her to a lot of the policies that voters just across the country do not like.

But they're clearly more united than they were a month ago. I think Republicans are equally unified. In the next really 80 days here, 75 days, it's going to come down to tens of thousands of votes in swing states. I think the debates are going to matter.

And who knows what's going to happen between now and the election? But I think if President Trump does focus on the border, he focuses on the economy, he focuses on inflation, the key issues that really drive his agenda, that is a strong contrast that should propel him to victory in November. Garrett, just to follow up with you quickly, what do you make of this counter-programming campaign that we've seen by former President Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance?

Do you think it's been effective so far? Do you think they're breaking through? Yeah, I mean, clearly we're talking about it right now. And it's been covered pretty extensively here, obviously, to try and contrast what Democrats are doing.

Now, Democrats, there is a lot of energy. There's a lot of buzz. There's vibes. But buzz and vibes don't solve inflation.

Buzz and vibes don't solve the border crisis. And so what you're seeing is here, Vice President Harris has not done one press conference. She's not done one interview in 30 days. And let's not remember, let's also remember, she's received actually zero votes from voters right now.

And so she has a lot to prove on the stage tonight. And we will see what happens in her speech tonight and going forward in debate and coming into the election. Cornell, what about that? How quickly does she need to start making herself available to do interviews?

Obviously, she's preparing for the debate. Listen, I'm not going to be able to press because I'm part of the press now. But the truth of the matter is, the regular voters actually don't care that much about her not getting interviews. All this time, we've seen her poll numbers rising.

She's taking a conversation directly to the people across these states and the battleground states. She's going to do more press because she has to. But right now, it's really, really important for her to be talking less to us and talking directly to those voters in those battleground states. And that's what she's doing.

Stephanie, do you agree with that? And do you think she's going to get a post convention bounce or has she already had her post convention bounce? Oh, no, we are bouncing really high. You think so?

OK. Because the truth of the matter is, is that the entire country and everywhere you go, there is a true feelings change. And maybe maybe folks don't think that's how it works. That is absolutely how this works.

So the way you win races is to be the campaign that folks want to be part of, where it feels good, where there's optimism, where there's hope, where she is going to talk with the people and about the people. And unlike Trump, not about herself. He talked about himself. The country wants to hear from a leader who is going to be with them and really understand what's going on.

And that's Kamala Harris. One quick thing, because I was gonna say, listen, I hear Republicans say, well, let's talk about the issues. The issues you've been doing this a while. They've actually done debates.

It's not like Donald Trump's a policy guy. It's not like an issue guy. And what I would argue is that be careful what you ask for, because I don't think a policy conversation is going to be the antiseptic for their for their falling poll numbers. Because when you look at the policies, when you look at reproductive rights, when you when you look at college affordability, there's so many issues that line up with her.

One quick note on the economy. Listen, I was around for Obama. And do you think Obama had an advantage on the economy over Mitt Romney? He absolutely did not.

What we did have an advantage on was who was going to fight for the middle class and working people. And that's where she's got to lean in. Garrett, respond to what Cornel is saying, because he makes the case that, look, Trump doesn't necessarily go from campaign event to campaign event rolling out his policy papers. He's weaving a narrative, right?

But I would push back on that pretty heavily. He put out whether it's agenda 47 and talks about the border company, talks about the economy. He talks about new policies. We've not seen any policy there.

And I'd say this campaign that Eric is getting very reminiscent of another campaign that talked about optimism and had celebrities. And her name was Hillary Clinton. And we saw how that turned out in 2016. When you don't talk about policies and you rely on celebrities and Hollywood to tell middle class people in Ohio and Michigan and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania who to vote for, they don't like that.

And if you want to get to talk about the policy, the two major issues in every poll in the last few years, whether it's NBC, Wall Street Journal, Fox, CNN, you can name it. It is the economy. It is the border. And Democrats are massively underwater.

President Trump has a lead on those issues. Stephanie's final point. We've been closing that gap since Kamala Harris has gotten the nomination on all of those issues. And I got to say, that's the first I've ever heard anybody say that Hillary Clinton didn't have a list of policies.

Not known for that. Garrett, you acknowledge she did. She did have pretty extensive details. The point I didn't make, the point I made was not on the policy.

She could talk about policies more than this. I'm saying it was heavily reliant on social media influencers, Hollywood, and that didn't resonate with the voters. All right, guys, thank you. Great conversation.

Really appreciate it. Garrett, thank you, Stephanie and Cornell. Great conversation. Thanks.

Up next, Trump hits the southern border as we were just discussing and hits Harris on the issue of immigration. We're live in Arizona where the former president just wrapped up a campaign event. But first, we want to show you another historic moment at the DNC when 40 years ago, then Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro officially became the first woman vice presidential nominee. By choosing a woman to run for our nation's second highest office, you send a powerful signal to all Americans.

There are no doors we cannot unlock. We will place no limits on achievement. If we can do this, we can do anything. As the day wraps up, get the scoop At a convention, I, Barbara Jordan, am a keynote speaker.

I feel that notwithstanding the crash that my presence here is one additional bit of evidence that the American dream need not forever be deferred. Welcome back to Meet the Press now, live from the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Joining me now is Maryland Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin. He spoke from the main stage at the DNC earlier this week.

Congressman Raskin, thank you so much for being here. Well, big night. What do you expect to hear? What do you want to hear from Vice President Harris tonight?

Well, our party is the party that believes that government should be an instrument of the public good for everybody, as opposed to government being the instrument for private self enrichment to the guy who gets in, which is obviously the Trump vision. So I'm hoping to hear from Kamala Harris what are going to be the top priorities for the administration moving into this period. Are we going to be talking about universal pre-K? What are we doing in terms of healthcare?

What are we working on to just the needs of the people? So you want to hear details? You want specifics? I would like some policy specifics, but of course, the critical thing is for her to elucidate the values and the principles of the party.

And I know she'll do that beautifully. But I would like to get as a member of Congress to see, well, what are they thinking about in terms of the policy thrust going forward? You know, there's a big question about whether she will enumerate the ways in which she will build on the Biden agenda and which ways she will maybe be different from President Joe Biden. Do you think that's going to be important as well to make clear that there will be some differences?

I don't think that's tough for her. I mean, the Biden-Harris administration has been one where the president and vice president have worked together super closely on a whole range of issues. So there clearly will be continuity, but there's no doubt with Kamala in charge as the chief executive, she will be the one deciding what are the new policy features that are going to be part of the administration. Are you clear on what those are right now, the ways in which she might govern differently?

I'm not. Everything has happened so quickly. And that's why I'm saying I'm hoping to hear about it. But look, this week has been, in addition to an experiment in sleep deprivation for everybody, it's also been a great synthesis of the values of this party from the past, the great civilizing movements of our time, the women's movement and the labor movement, environmental movement, and the principles that unify us in terms of equal rights for all and freedom to make your own decisions.

So all of that will be part of what we're going to hear. But also, I think then we need to hear what are we going to be fighting for in terms of policy to build on the successes of Biden-Harris. Let me ask you, because J.D. Vance responded to some of the comments that you made here when you addressed the convention.

You said that the job of VP was only available because Trump supporters, quote, tried to kill Mike Pence on January 6th. Here's how J.D. Vance responded last night. I can't help but laugh at what Jamie Raskin said.

These are people who somehow always make themselves the victims. I just don't understand a person in American politics in 2024 who's whining about what happened to them instead of using their leadership and using their influence to make the lives of American citizens better. How do you respond to that response? Well, of course, he was addressing Donald Trump directly, who is the professional whiner of American politics.

Every day, all we hear from his boss is how poorly he's being treated by the media and how everybody is dissing him. And so I do that as just an expression of J.D. Vance's frustration about the situation he's in. Everybody knows that they are the party of whiners and losers at this point.

But I was pointing out that the reason there was a vacancy on the ticket is because Donald Trump, who otherwise used to praise Mike Pence as a key sycophant in his administration, turned on him when he refused to follow Donald Trump's orders to step outside of his constitutional role and simply declare Donald Trump the winner. That's what he wanted. And when he didn't do that, Trump unleashed the mob on him. And these people set up a noose and a gallows outside, and they chanted, hang Mike Pence, hang Mike Pence.

And they wounded 140 police officers. This was no joke. And so if that's J.D. Vance's answer to it, it's pretty pathetic.

In fact, I heard he was attacking me. And I researched this morning to determine he had actually said before, and I'm going to elaborate on this, that he would have done what Mike Pence refused to do. He would have gone along with Donald Trump's orders. Yeah.

That was during an interview several months ago. I want to ask you about the overall tone, because there has been, it seems like an attempt to, to some extent, not focus as much on trying to paint Trump as a threat, more trying to say he's weird and to lean into this idea of joy and hope. There was a moment earlier this week, though, when a chance of lock him up broke out while Hillary Clinton was speaking. What did you make of that?

And is it discordant, do you think, with the tone that the Democratic Party should be setting? No, but there's a, there's a great tone of happiness and joy in the resurgent fortunes of the Democrats. And we are going to continue to bring out the best in America, the incredible, breathtaking diversity of our country. We're going to do that.

And we're going to be fighting for every person who lives in our country. But we're not taking any nonsense from these people anymore. The post-Trump Democratic Party is a very different party than the pre-Trump Democratic Party, because we lived through January 6th. We saw these people are capable of fraud, coercion, and violence in order to attack our constitutional order.

This is not your grandfather's Republican Party. Well, let me ask you about some comments that Donald Trump made on the campaign trail yesterday. He said, quote, our primary focus is not to get out the vote. It is to make sure they don't cheat.

When you hear those words within the context of what you're saying, what do you make of them? Well, he's the only politician in American history who's taken that position. Everybody else has set about a campaign saying, how are we going to expand our coalition? How are we going to bring in new voters?

How do we create a platform that will appeal to the vast majority of the people? That's what the Democrats are doing. We're the party of democracy and we're the party of the people. Meantime, he's already flagging that he is just going to try to challenge people's votes, block voter registration, prevent people from voting, and then try to overturn the result.

That is a signal characteristic of an authoritarian political party. All right. And it's a minority party and it's really operating like a cult of personality at this point. Mike Pence, he's the first vice president in more than two centuries to oppose his own president that he ran with.

And in the last time, it was Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. And, of course, we elected presidents and vice presidents separately before. It was just the runner up who became the VP. So it's really the first time in American history where you've got a VP who's saying the guy I serve with is so dangerous, he shouldn't be in office.

And that's what he said. Somebody who would elevate his own interests above the Constitution should not be president. That's what his own vice president said. And you have nearly a majority of Trump's cabinet also saying he's not fit for office.

All right, Congressman Jamie Raskin, thank you so much for being here. Great to be with you, Kristen. Really appreciate it on this fourth and final night. Well, we don't know the full lineup of speakers and performers on stage tonight, but we do know the programing will end with Vice President Harris accepting her nomination and a lot of balloons.

Joining me now from the convention floor is my ABC News colleague, Jacob Soboroff. So, Jacob, you're out on the floor. Tell us what the vibe is. What's going on right now?

Kristen, it is a very, very upbeat vibe. Somebody just handed me a friendship bracelet. People are handing out challenge coins, trading pins, not like the Republican convention, but it's entirely a different scene here. As you can imagine, I'm at the South Carolina delegation with a couple of new friends, all legislators in South Carolina.

Greg, tell me your name. I'm state representative John King. I represent the Rock Hill area of the South Carolina General Assembly. And yourself?

Anna Eve McDaniel, and I represent Fairfield County. Yeah, Chester and Richland County. Yeah, Dr. Ivory Thikpen, state rep, Richland County, current Black Caucus chair.

It's so great to be with you guys. And you were telling me you're a Morehouse grad, is that correct? I am. What is it like to be on the verge of having not only the first woman of color to potentially be the next president of the United States, but also an HBCU grad?

Well, you know, going to an HBCU, we are proud of every member of the HBCU community. Having the new president, who will be Kamala Harris, we are excited as a community of HBCU graduates to welcome her. But not only that, I'm a member of the Divine Nine, I'm an Omega. My colleagues are all members of the Divine Nine.

It actually brings goosebumps to me. Like, I get so excited about what this moment means to not only the