this is cnn breaking news. >> welcome to "the lead." i'm pamela brown in for jake tapper. and we begin with big breaking news. any minute now, we will see a history-making moment. joe biden and his new runningmate senator kamala harris together for their first joint campaign event in wilmington, deleware. effectively launching the 2020 democratic ticket. their spouses, jill biden and doug emhoff are also expected to be there. and it comes as we learn biden long believed harris was the

strongest choice for the job. biden publicly acknowledged the close friendship that harris had with his late son beau that helped guide his decision. and harris, one source says, spoke at last about their friendship. jeff, as we wait for this event to begin, you're learning more about that intense ten days before biden made his final decision on senator harris as his running mate. >> reporter: pamela, we are. and it's clear that california senator kamala harris was anticipated and viewed by most democrats inside and outside the process as the person to beat essentially. this vice presidential search with the most experience, the national campaign experience. someone who had legislative experience, of course had executive experience as the attorney general. but, it was clear that aides to the former vice president wanted to give him a series of options. so we are told that behind the scenes of this, the last ten

days of this search certainly were very interesting. the former vice president met face to face, or in most cases, through a remote connection with all 11 candidates holding essentially job interviews for their vision of the job and what they would do in the job. but it was senator harris who had to sit there through about ten days or so when she finally got the call yesterday. she was feeling good about this because she did have that relationship with beau biden. there was no one who was closer to the former vice president than his late son beau biden. it was that that they discussed during their interview. but it was also perhaps more importantly, pamela, her experience on the campaign trail, the fact that she had been tested in a presidential campaign. she didn't win. in fact, she dropped out before the voting began. but so did joe biden back in 2007. he dropped out after the first contest of iowa. so she was tested in that

respect. that was impressive and important to joe biden. >> and you're also learning about biden's speech, what he's going to say coming up shortly and that he will note the tragic events in charlottesville three years ago today. >> it is exactly. this is the third anniversary of the charlottesville attack that had killed heather heier. which of course joe biden has talked about repeatedly. in his announcement video back in 2019 when he said this is what urged him, propelled him to run for president, it was to, as he says, restore the soul of the nation. so that is what we are told is going to be front and center in this speech. we can see from the pictures this is going to be the first democratic campaign event that we've really seen in five months or so. the last time we saw joe biden publicly was on the eve of the

michigan primary. it was scheduled to be in milwaukee but is going to be held virtually. she has secret service protection. she is going to be working with the biden campaign to join this campaign already in progress. so this is just the beginning of their debut here. of course, everyone is watching this including president trump. >> absolutely. it is a history-making moment as we've discussed, jeff zeleny, thank you so much for that. and i want to bring in cnn's dana bash, nia-malika henderson, and david chalian. great to see you three. we were just looking at that empty gymnasium with the two microphones standing there. and you're looking at this thinking in normal times there would be a large crowd eagerly awaiting the ticket, the candidates. and that's not the case today.

it's going to be very different. what do you expect and what do they need to project today amid these covid-era obstacles? >> well, first of all they need to project confidence, confidence in the ability to lead, which has been joe biden's whole calling card throughout this entire campaign, particularly since the pandemic broke. and also they need to project that they have some kind of chemistry, which is not easy to do when you have to be socially distanced. but i have to say just looking at that, and i'm sure nia and david and you also, pam, agree. it's such a sign of the times. i know it's maybe stating the obvious, but i am just going back in my mind to, for example, standing in a very, very large, very packed, very sweaty, you know, auditorium with john

mccain as he brought out sarah palin for the first time august 29, 2008. and the electricity in the room and certainly in the days afterwards for her for the ticket, for a number of reasons, was real, and it was palpable. you just can't have that in the time of a pandemic. they're going to have to find a different way, which they have been trying to do on social media, the video that they put out today. but to be able to project that in a situation like we're seeing them preparing to be in right now is just so, so different. >> yeah. it's history-making in more ways than one, i would say. and, nia, on that note, seeing the two of them campaign together, we're going to see them today, but it's not something we're realistically going to see a lot of normally they'd be surrounded by supporters right now.

the question is can they still gin up that excitement and momentum and electricity without the supporters surrounding them? >> you know, they are going to have to do it in different ways. dana touched on this a bit. this is a team, at least kamala harris i think very much understands the media in this moment and social media and how to go viral. if you look at the ways in which people start to understand her, it was through those moments she created when she was cross-examining cabinet officials. and so she is going to have to find ways to do that. and you saw them with that introductory video with joe biden calling her on zoom. and so that was a little, i think, preview of what the kind of videos they are going to have to try to create here. something that's new and different, kind of insidery. obviously, be it's completely staged and scripted. but those are the kind of

moments i think they are going to have to try to create. you're not going to see the electricity, dana talked about the sarah palin and john mccain moment. i was thinking in 2008 springfield, illinois, the obama/joe biden moment when joe biden runs out on the stage when it's announced that he will be barack obama's vice president. the thing about these tickets is you do have these moments where they are together and you want to see the story of this candidacy. and dana talked about leadership and showing confidence and showing chemistry. but then really they go their separate ways. the vice president kind of force multipliers to go places, maybe the top person can't go. so they'll go their separate ways, talk to different people in different ways. but, yeah, i mean, this is like something we've never seen before. and they are going to have to kind of make it up as they go along. the big moments will be next

week with these speeches. and then for kamala harris, the next moment of course will be the debate that she will have with vice president pence. >> of course. and, david, as we report out what led to this pick, sources are telling cnn that biden chose harris because she was a common sense pick. she was seen as someone who would do no harm. his allies also saw her as a symbol of change. what do you think she brings to the ticket, and how is her relationship with biden being framed right now? >> well, i think the way you're going to see the relationship framed off the top here is joe biden's confidence in her to take over as president at a moment's notice on day one if that needed to be the case. that, as you know, that's sort of the job description of vice president above all else. and they definitely want to frame this choice by boosting up that confidence that kamala harris fits that bill above all else. but, to your point about the

change agent, i mean, joe biden himself, pam, has talked about being a transitional figure. he understands he's 77 years old. he will be 78 when election day comes. and kamala harris is of the next generation of democratic leadership. there's no doubt that that weighed as a part of the consideration in choosing who to put on the ticket with him. what does that next generation of democratic leadership look like in america? and that is part of sort of the seal of approval that joe biden as the head of the party now put onto kamala harris by announcing her as his running mate. >> another key factor in all of this is of course joe biden's late son beau. i want to play this clip of how senator harris describes him. >> america is in crisis, and i

know joe biden will lead us out of it. he's a man of faith, decency, and character. he raised his family that way. i saw it first hand with my good friend beau. >> of course, the two of them were attorneys general together, nia. they did have a friendship. it's clear that beau played a key role with harris being the pick. >> that's right. joe biden talks about beau biden in glowing ways. a son he obviously lost very recently and tragically on top of the losses in his family years ago. and he talks about the ways in which beau talked about kamala harris and liked kamala harris, and the ways in which he admired beau biden, his son and took him at his word when he talked about kamala harris in the way that he did and talked about their friendship.

that was very important to him in terms of thinking about kamala harris as a partner. so that ended up being very key to one of the things that he did hear, which was to pick her, which was to trust her, which is to see her as a loyal partner and above all else as someone who could be president. >> all right. well, we are standing by for the first joint event with joe biden and his new running mate kamala harris. we will bring that to you live. plus, in making his vp pick, joe biden credited his late son's friendship with harris. and up next i'm going to talk to an attorney general who knew them both. how about poor fred wilson?

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will appear together as running mates. we are going to bring that to you live once it starts there in that gymnasium in delaware. and meantime, president trump is not wasting time before attacking senator harris, reverting to sexism and stereotypes calling her nasty, mean, disrespectful, and phony. >> reporter: today, president trump and his campaign fumbling for a response to senator kamala harris joining the democratic ticket. >> she was my number one draft pick. >> reporter: several trump campaign advisers telling cnn harris was actually the one candidate they hoped biden would not pick, referring to susan rice or karen bass, both more controversial. one source close to the trump campaign telling cnn, harris is, quote, formidable and will

inject much-needed energy into biden's campaign. advisers are also concerned about how trump's attacks on harris will play. >> she was very, very nasty. she was very disrespectful to joe biden. i thought she was the meanest, the most horrible, most disrespectful of anybody in the u.s. senate. >> reporter: those attacks play into racist and sexist stereotypes about black women. and polls suggest trump risks alienating suburban voters turned off by his racist and sexist rhetoric. but trump appears to be going for broke on that strategy, insisting the, quote, suburban housewife will vote for me because i ended the long-running program where low-income housing would invade their neighborhood, referring to his repeal of a rule aimed at combating segregation in housing. the president's campaign is also making race-based appeals. >> joe biden's campaign staffers

are donating to a group that's bailing out rioters in minneapolis. >> reporter: using mugshots of four black people released on bail in an attempt to tie joe biden to crime. "the post" channelling the racist 1988 willie horton campaign ad run by supporters of then vice president george h.w. push. the campaign is struggling to paint harris as a radical, unsure whether to hit her as too soft on crime. >> a lot of security that are all across this nation who are going to say i don't want someone who says that they are not going to be tough on criminals. >> reporter: or too tough. >> to keep inmates locked up in overcrowded prisons. >> reporter: the president and his campaign are now trying to brand kamala harris as part of the radical left. but the president and his daughter ivanka actually donated a total of $10,000 to kamala

harris's campaign for attorney general between 2011 and 2014. katrina pearson responded by noting that the president has donated to candidates on both sides of the aisle as a businessman, but by that time he had mostly stopped donating to democrats. and pearson also claimed that the president's donations were evidence that he's not a racist. pam? >> all right, jeremy diamond, thanks so much for the latest there. and we've just learned that joe biden and kamala harris have left biden's home in delaware. you can see the motorcade departing there. at least you could see the motorcade departing heading to the event site. there it is, right there, to the site nearby where for the first time they will speak together as running mates. when biden announced his pick, biden reveals he chose senator harris because she'd be ready to lead on day one. but biden also said there was no one's opinion he valued more than his late son beau who died

in 2015 from brain cancer. the younger biden and harris worked together closely during the foreclosure crisis in 2011. she wrote in her memoir there were periods when i was taking heat that beau and i talked every day, sometimes multiple times a day, we had each other's backs. joining me now is massachusetts attorney general mara heely to republic help us understand and illuminate this relationship that the two had. you worked with both of them when they were attorneys general. >> it's a special relationship, pam. when you're working as a state attorney general, you're really out there in the big fight, fighting for people, fighting for the most vulnerable in our communities. and that's what kamala and beau did. standing up to the big banks in wall street. they fought for health care, protecting students taken advantage of by predatory lenders. these are the fights and the

experiences that they bonded over, that we bond over as state attorneys general. and it's no surprise to me that joe biden has a fondness for kamala harris based on that really strong relationship with beau. they are both people of tremendous empathy. beau was a person of tremendous empathy. everyone liked him. and the same would be same of kamala. and it's not surprising to me she has performed so well in the senate taking that ability to fight, taking that ability to advocate and make a case to really make change and powerful change now of course on the national stage. she'll be ready to lead. >> and we're going to see her momentarily with joe biden in that gymnasium in delaware. but before we go there, i just want to get more on the relationship she had with beau. because after the primary debate when harris went after biden's record on man dated busing to promote school desegregation,

the friendship was the key reason that they felt blindsided. and senator harris took to twitter to write @joebiden, he was my friend, we were a.g.'s together and you couldn't find a person who cared more deeply for his family, the nation he served and the state of delaware four years after his passing i still miss him. so clearly there was a fondness there that senator harris had for beau. >> absolutely. i mean, they worked very closely together. and as she wrote they communicated regularly together. you can't help but really develop these friendships as they did when you're fighting over really, really important issues. that's why the closeness is there. and that's why i'm so happy, i think all of us in the a.g. community, particularly the democratic a.g. community are so

proud and so pleased to see the biden/harris ticket. we know what that represents. we know the values they will stand for. and we can't get -- we can't wait to get started in supporting this terrific ticket in the weeks ahead. >> all right, attorney general maura healey, thank you so much. any moment joe biden and his running mate kamala harris speaking in delaware. we're going to bring it to you live. stay with us. what happens when a wireless carrier

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we are waiting for a major moment in the 2020 campaign, joe biden and his running mate, kamala harris, about to speak together in delaware for the first time. i want to bring in cnn's mj lee who also covers the biden campaign. any minute now, we will get the first actual visual of joe biden with senator harris, the first black and south asian woman on a major party ticket. >> reporter: that's right, pam. we've been speaking over the last 24 hours about just how historic it is that the person joe biden ended up choosing in the end is, as you said, the first black and south asian person to be the vp nominee on a major ticket. but the fact that we are going to get that visual of her standing there and after the announcement has been made as the vp nominee, that is going to be an incredibly sort of powerful and striking visual for everyone.

and i have to tell you, you know, having covered female candidates in the past, whether it's hillary clinton or elizabeth warren in the 2020 race, it really matters to the women and girls who are watching whoever is behind the podium feeling like they are sort of reflected in the person that is taking the stage. so, i can guarantee you that there are going to be so many people who are black, women who are black, and women who are south asian or asian-american sort of seeing this moment of her walking out to the front of that room with joe biden as his chosen running mate and feeling like, okay, i see myself reflected in this person in a powerful position in a way that i never have before. and i think that is just going to be, again, an incredibly striking moment and a visual first for so many people who are watching. >> absolutely. and as we've been talking about, this is going to be very different in terms of it being in the covid era and those

supporters that you mentioned people who would look up to her. they can't be there in person because of covid. but it will still be a remarkable moment, a history-making moment. on that note i want to bring in cnn's dana bash, gloria borger and abby phillip along with senior adviser to president obama, david axelrod. and i want to start with you here, abby. as we await the two of them to make their first appearance as democratic running mates. i want to talk about the age factor at play here. because senator harris is 55 years old. if she's elected she will be the only member of the senior democratic leadership in the white house or congress under the age of 70. so, this really could be her chance to lead the next generation of the party. >> yeah. what an incredible statistic. i mean, washington is so, you know, far from, i think, what seems to be this whole sort of new generation, many generations of younger people who are rising up in to political power at the

local and state level who are activists out in the streets. that could very well be where kamala harris could try to be a bit of a bridge between those two kind of factions, generational factions, if you will. i do think it's critically important that she is someone of a younger generation than biden because he knows that he is not going to be around forever, and that this is not going to be his democratic party to lead into the future. he's really passing the baton acting himself as a bridge to his running mate who is likely to take that baton from him sooner rather than later, it could be within four years if he is elected as president in november. so, it's rare that we have these moments where i think everybody is very only talking about what is next, even before you've had the election in which someone might be elected. and i think at this moment in this country's history, when you see so many young people becoming activists in the climate change movement in the

social justice movement, i do think that having someone who can speak to those people is going to be important for the next democratic administration. because young people are such a critical part of the democratic party. and they do not want to be ignored. >> it's interesting because there are sources close to biden have said on one hand she was seen as a positive change, someone who would reflect positive change. but, on the other hand, she was seen as a safe choice. we're already seeing, dana, the relationship, the framing of the relationship playing out right now. biden was taken away, as we know, when harris rebuked him in the first debate because of the friendship that she had with his late son beau. she apparently according to "politico" was not apologetic during her screening interview. but yet biden chose her anyway. democrats are pointing to that as a major difference between biden and trump. >> and it's something that donald trump walked right into

when he spoke last night at the white house podium by saying how could you possibly pick someone as nasty, the word that he likes to use about women, as kamala harris, i would never do that, which was exactly the point that joe biden and his campaign were already intending to make as a way to bolster the character and leadership traits that they have been pushing and they have been framing around joe biden since the beginning of his campaign. you know, look, it is not as if we haven't seen rivals get together. i mean, everybody on this panel is too young to remember including david axelrod. but jfk and lbj, even ronald reagan and george h.w. bush, it happens throughout history that you get together to team up despite having really, really intense debates and adversarial

relationships. and by those standards, this isn't even that bad. the point in this first event that we're going to see together is to try to erase that as quickly as possible. >> and i want to congressman jim clyburn, what he had to say. because he's largely credited with helping turn the biden campaign around after that endorsement, held biden carry south carolina. let's listen to his thoughts on senator harris. >> she knows what it is to be different or to be the other. and bringing that in with the success that she has had breaking through in areas that no woman had broken into before. i think all of that gives joe biden the kind of aura around this campaign that will him to

the advocacy majority of the american people. >> there are even republicans saying it is time for harris to get an opportunity like this. >> kamala harris has friends in the senate. she is a woman of consequence. and she's very hard to swat at. just look at donald trump, pamela. donald trump, she has brought out the worst in him. as dana was pointing out, he couldn't think of anything else to say about her at first, except that she was nasty. and then now he's reverted back to his racist and sexist tropes in order to kind of counter her. and i think that doesn't work. and it doesn't work for a lot of republicans who were worried about suburban voters, suburban women and not suburban housewives, as the president called them. so i think she is somebody that is not very easy to characterize. the campaign itself and the

president have had a very difficult time, because on the one hand they say she's a california radical. on the other hand, they're saying, oh, liberals are revolting against the pick. well, which is it? >> yeah, which is it? the campaign and trump have been really scattershot in terms of how they've handled their messaging after she was selected. so, it's been really interesting to see that play out. but it's also -- you have to think in biden picking harris, is this also a way for him to try to bring in some of those voters that may be turned off by president trump? and also the need to get in progressive voters. the question is, david axelrod, will she be able to attract those voters as well, those more progressive voters? >> no. i think that she certainly will. and, look, one of the things that happened during this period, not just the pandemic, but the aftermath of the george floyd murder, has created a new

period of public awakening and awareness on issues of race. i think for those suburban voters, she is an extraordinarily strong candidate. they are looking for reconciliation. they are looking for movement forward. she is a great antithesis to the kind of racial antagonism that president trump, frankly, feeds off of. the other thing, pam, i just wanted to say, i'm just so fascinated by this because i was in the small group that onboarded joe biden as a vice presidential candidate. and this is not an easy thing. you have a woman in kamala harris who ran for president for a year. she had her own message, her own team, her own approach. now she is essentially an adjunct to the presidential campaign. and she needs to -- this is like a merger. she needs to learn a new message. she needs to adjust to a new organization. they will send staff, as we know, already reported to the

campaign, many of whom she didn't know before. so these are shotgun kind of weddings. these are not comfortable. and so how that comes off and how they appear, not just when they speak but when they do interviews together and how they speak about each other during interviews, all of this needs to evolve. it's really a process. but certainly this is an important point of departure here when they appear together for the first time and the words they use, which i guarantee the biden campaign has looked over carefully. >> yeah. [ laughter ] >> it's a real adjustment. >> they know that everyone's going to be sizing them up, right, gloria? >> yeah. and i think david raises a really important point here, which is that kamala harris now works for joe biden. and when joe biden accepted the vice presidency, david knows this much better than anyone. he was a little skeptical about it because he was used to being

his own boss. senate judiciary committee, et cetera, et cetera. she was used to being her own boss. now she is not. and it's not easy to go from being the top dog and the person who used to run for president to being the number two and saying, this is your message, this is your campaign, this is your staff that you've hired, and i will do whatever you want me to do. it's not an easy transition. >> all right, well, we will see them any moment, joe biden and his running mate, kamala harris. they are going to be speaking together there in that gymnasium in delaware. we are going to squeeze in a quick break. stay with us. shishito. burrito. raw kitfo. fried shiso.

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joe biden and his running mate kamala harris are about to speak together in delaware for the first time. the event will begin any moment. i should say the first time as running mates on the democratic ticket. i want to bring in cnn's jeff zeleny. he is back with us. and this is the effective launch of the ticket, jeff. but what might it look like, what can we expect in this age of coronavirus? it's going to be very different from similar roles in the past. >> pam will, there is no question about it. this is not going to be similar in terms of what we've seen in the past. if this was a traditional rollout, there would be all the families there, there would be hugging, there would be a large crowd. so this is definitely a different moment particularly on the democratic side. one thing the biden campaign and the former vice president himself has been trying to show that he is taking the pandemic in a much more serious fashion

than some would say that the president and vice president have been doing. this is going to be different in every respect. we can see the podium there. and there is a stool right behind. they are going to, we believe, share that podium. but they are not going to be essentially as close as before. more interesting, going forward here as the campaign moves along, i am told that senator harris, the anticipation is for her to visit swing states. it is for her to be out campaigning as much as she can. probably more so than joe biden. we've seen the similar thing on the republican side. vice president mike pence travels extensively. usually official visits but also mixing political visits in as well. and president trump has not traveled nearly as much. but this is very much a sort of a day-by-day, week-by-week situation. i'm thinking back to 12 years ago when senator obama and senator biden were in springfield, illinois. a crowded thousands were there. it was the same place that

senator obama launched his scho candidacy. we also know, pam larks today as we've talked about the third anniversary of the charlottesville attack. and this is something that both speakers today, biden and harris are going to dwell on extensively, i'm told. >> we know they're delayed right now. it was supposed to start earlier. and i'm just hearing in my ear that there's an issue with the power outage at the school. is that what is behind the delay? >> it certainly could be one of the reasons behind the delay. we also know that biden campaign events often are late. they were throughout the primary campaign. so there's no reason to think they wouldn't be now. we don't know the exact reason for the delay of this. we do know that senator harris has been in wilmington for several hours. and she has a lot of work to do. her campaign, the biden campaign has been bringing her into the fold here. so we do expect this momentarily. but, again, not probably the best roll-out that they had

planned. yesterday's announcement was choreographed perfectly. it didn't leak out at all. today's probably not quite as well. we also know tonight there's a virtual fundraiser that it will be the first time that both of them are together for a fundraiser as well. and of course that is a big part of the job for senator harris going forward, helping this ticket raise money. >> yeah. virtual fundraiser, sign of the times. all right, jeff zeleny, thank you so much. and i want to bring the panel back now. abby, first, we were just talking about sign of the times. we're looking at this empty gymnasium for the most part besides some journalists and others there who are socially distanced. what do we expect to see? everyone's going to be watching them. everyone's going to be sizing them. are they going to be wearing masks? are they going to hug, are they going to high-five? >> we are getting some clues because just a couple minutes ago, kamala harris' husband just tweeted out a few behind-the-scenes photos. everyone is wearing a mask,

kamala harris, joe biden, their senior advisers. they are in close proximity to each other. but they are wearing masks. and i think that you're going to see probably a lot of that because, as jeff pointed out, they want to demonstrate that they are handling this pandemic differently from this administration. and mask wearing is a clear and easy way to do that. it will be interesting to see whether they will hug or do anything like that. we all know joe biden. he is a hugger. he likes to hug. and, notably, kamala harris is as well. i covered her on the campaign trail. she was always quick to pull people into hugs on the campaign trail. these are two people who are known for being kind of big, you know, sort of outgoing personalities showing their emotions in a lot of ways in public. it will be interesting to see how that shows up at this event. i do think, though, that from everything that i've heard over

the last several months, they have been in communication pretty regularly over this period of time. they do talk. and even though they haven't been seeing each other physically, they've been keeping that relationship up. and i do think you're going to see some genuine warmth between the two of them when they come out here today. >> and we hope to see them very soon, dana. but that really is the question. can they still gin up that excitement, that momentum that these roll-outs are supposed to generate? but at the same time it is still a striking visual. kamala harris is the first black vice presidential nominee and the first south asian vice presidential nominee. this is history in the making. >> oh, absolutely. there is no question about it. and as we have talked about, they are already using social media to continue to gin things up. just as abby was talking about senator harris' husband tweeting pictures. you can be sure that some of

those are going to go viral. and he's a tweeter. so this isn't new. but it's certainly going to be a big benefit to this campaign as they try to keep sort of the energy going. >> and we just saw those pictures, dana. you probably saw it too. [ laughter ] >> but the other thing i just want to say is that as important as it is to have excitement for a ticket in any year in any scenario, the biden campaign still is on a track right now to, they hope, keep this a referendum on the president. and keep this a referendum on the president's leadership or, they argue, lack of leadership in so many ways. but most importantly right now during this pandemic. they definitely want people to vote for joe biden and kamala harris. but they also want to keep

everybody kind of zeroed in on the notion that donald trump should get fired. and they just want to make sure that these two are acceptable to be replacements for donald trump. it may be an obvious notion, but it's really different than we've seen in so many times in the past when you have an incumbent president. >> and we can see really quick, dana, if i can break through, they are placing their remarks on the lectern. so we are expecting them any minute now. and i want to put the picture back up from doug emhoff, who is kamala harris' husband. he tweeted this picture of joe biden wearing a mask backstage. you see senator harris wearing her mask. so that is a window of what we might see shortly when they walk out on stage. and doug emhoff, the spouse of kamala harris and jill biden, of course, the spouse of joe biden

will be with them as well. we don't know how it's going to play out where everyone will be. but of course we're going to be watching this closely, looking at body language. and as abby pointed out, there is going to be some warmth between the two as well because they have a relationship that goes way back. >> they were friends before they were opponents. and they have this tie because of beau biden and his relationship to kamala harris. i will say in terms of what is lost because of the period in which we are in, kamala harris is an exuberant campaigner. i'm sure if they had their druthers, the biden campaign would like to take full advantage of that out on the stump. she's also a good social media candidate. she's kind of hip, she's cool. and that will benefit them as well. but, that is one thing that i

was thinking is sort of a shame. because i was there when joe biden bounded out on the stage in springfield in 2008 and there was such energy there. there would be here as well if they were in a position to have such a crowd. they can't, and they're going to have to do the best they can with what they can do. >> they're going to have to get creative. that's the bottom line to try to show here we are, seeing them for the first time, making their first appearance. let's listen in. ♪ ♪ >> hello, hello. thanks for being here. i wish we were able to talk to the folks outside, but we're keeping our social distancing and playing by the rules. good afternoon, everyone. to me and to kamala, this is an exciting day. it's a great day for our campaign. it's a great day for america, in

my view. over the past several weeks, i have had the incredible privilege of meeting and spending a good deal of time with a group of talented women leaders, all of whom are qualified to be president. with each one, the more i learned about them, the more i talked to them, the more impressed i was. i want to thank each and every one of them for being part of this process. i look forward to working with them as we rebuild this country, to get elected and once we are elected, god willing. i approached this with a seriousness, a purpose, and of mind. because this is a serious moment for our nation. we're at one of those inflexion points. you heard me say that before in our history. a life-changing election for this nation. and the choice we make this november is going to decide the future of america for a very, very long time.

and i had a great choice, great opportunities. i had a great choice, but i have no doubt that i picked the right person to join me as the next vice president of the united states of america. and that's senator kamala harris. you know, and it seems americans all across this nation, at least at the outset here, agree with me. yesterday we had our best grassroots fundraising day of the campaign, more than double our previous record. in doing so, we set a single-day record for online political fundraising. and i think i know why. so, i hope that you'll join us as well, those of you listening today. go to joebiden.com today. $5, $10, whatever. kamala, as you all know, is smart. she's tough, she's experienced. she's a proven fighter for the backbone of this country, the

middle class, and for all those who are struggling to get into the middle class. kamala knows how to govern. she knows how to make the hard calls. she's ready to do this job on day one. and we're both ready to get to work rebuilding this nation and building it better. as attorney general of the largest state in the country, kamala took on the big banks over mortgage fraud and won. took on big oil when it wanted to pollute without consequences. she was a pioneer in marriage equality and tackled the gun lobby. you know, we've all watched the united states senate go toe to toe with trump officials, trying to hide the truth, asking the tough questions that needed to be asked and not stopping until she got an answer. and when none was forthcoming, it was obvious what the answer was. as a member of the intelligence committee and the judiciary

committee, she's been the center -- in the middle of the most critical national security challenges our country faces. well aware, well aware of all the threats that this nation and ready to respond to them. and as a child of immigrants, she knows personally how immigrant families enrich our country as well as the challenges of what it means to grow up black and indian-american in the united states of america. her story's america's story. different from mine but also not so different in the essentials. she's worked hard. she's never backed down from a challenge. and she has earned each and every of the accolades and achievements that she has gained. many of them often in the face of obstacles that others put in her way but never quit. and this morning all across the

nation, little girls woke up, especially little black and brown girls, who so often feel overlooked and undervalued in their communities. but today just maybe they're seeing themselves for the first time in a new way as the stuff of president and vice presidents. kamala often talked about what she referred to as the 3:00 a.m. agenda. while moms and dads laid at night awake uncertain about how they were going to take care of their families about how they were going to pay the bills, about how they were going to make it, simply make it. growing up in scranton and claymont, delaware, i saw that struggle with my family as well. kamala saw it with hers as well. and millions of americans are living that struggle as we

speak. especially in this moment of crisis, especially with so many jobs lost. kamala and i both know that all folks are looking for, as my dad would say, is an even shot. just give me a fair shot, a shot at making it. and it will be the work of our administration to make sure they get a fair shot. working families need someone on their side in this nation because they certainly don't have anyone in the president now on their side. that's going to change in a biden/harris administration. it's going to be gratifying to see the strong, enthusiastic reaction to senator harris as our next vice president. you know, it comes from people all over the country, it's already occurring all