biden has purchase. and then you have this liberal purchase, leftist per chase with warren and sanders kind of seeming to be in some kind of equilibrium fight where there's 45%, 40% of the vote that one goes up, one goes down and that's solid. i don't see that as this kind of elemental battle within the party, and remember, trump isn't saying -- trump's saying, i'd like to run against biden because he's -- he's tired and weak and mentally unfit or something like that. but that is the kind of thing that might make democrats who are not simply activists feel defensive of biden. >> yeah. i think that's probably right. i think the thing to remember, a poll will show you where support is, but it doesn't show you who shows up to the voting booth and the democrats need to turn out their base. they did not do so, you know, in 2016, and so joe biden may have majority support at the moment, but i think that, you know, you have to turn out the liberal base and there are -- maybe he's able to do that, i'm not, you k

joe biden. trump goes after biden all the time. but for biden to call the president an existential threat to the united states, do you think it's effective? >> i think it's drawing attention to biden, by the president, it's drawing attention to his campaign for the democratic party. i don't really see any downside in the democratic primary for a candidate to go after donald trump. and trump is at the same time accusing biden of being obsessed about him, because allegedly he mentioned him 76 times in his speech. but trump can't keep biden's name out of his mouth. every day he's talking about him. so the inconsistency and hypocrisy is stunning there. >> and trump claimed that he has a great relationship with farmers. that's exactly where biden's going try to target him tonight with an attack line he just previewed for voters. take a listen. >> he thinks being tough is great. well, it's really easy to be tough when someone else absorbs the pain. farmers, manufacturers, automobile industry. >> what

tied with biden. just yesterday we had 19 democratic candidates. nobody got a story out of that yesterday and today joe biden is well thanks to donald trump. >> this is john harris of politico. he says trump mocks his leading opponents because that's what he's always done, giving no more thought than a shark does whether he prefers to bite first in a swimmer's thigh or torso. can he operate any other way? can he help himself? >> he can't. as is usually the case with trump, psychological analysis might be more relevant than political analysis. and i think a lot of trump's obsession with biden is he is the democrat talking about trump the most and the fact that he's talking about trump the most means trump is paying attention because he pays attention to people who talk about him and he feels the need to respond, not understanding politically that he is playing right into biden's kind of sit on the lead frontrun i was talking to a trump advisor when this all was taking off who told me the night before h

i mean i'm -- i love joe biden. i think a lot of people love joe biden. joe biden stood by barack obama and defended him and made his case to people who didn't want to listen to him, and that's who joe biden is to us. but this -- there's something else going on, and i think nia-malika was correct and whe said maybe he already thinks he's woex, he's already there and doesn't have to keep learning and growing. we all have to keep learning and growing on women's issues, racial issues, immigration issues. that's the whole point of the country. we try to become a more perfect union together, and we need joe to lead us there, not be drug there. this is a bad night for joe biden. it's a bad night for democrat zblsz i think it's a bad night for his surrogates too because there is this way in which joe biden is sort of using the "i have a black best friend" argument by his continued invocation of barack obama. and i think he's got to figure that out. this was a really bad night for him. i think it's a bad night for his surrogates. you could see the look on cedric

slow joe biden. give me -- i mean, this is like out of alness wonderland. >> moments from now trump and biden expected to take the stage. according to prepared remarks. baden is going to mention president trump dozens of times tonight and he has been talking about him all day. he appears to be doing it for an audience of one. >> apparently, he had my speech on air force. one et cetera fascinated. >> of course if you listen to trump it's biden who is fascinated with him. >> when a man has to mention my name 76 times in a speech, that means he is in trouble. now, i have to tell you he is a different guy. he looks different than he used to. he acts different than he used to. he is even slower than he used to be. so i don't know. but when he mentions my name that many times i guess i should be complimented. >> okay. trump obviously trying to portray biden as slow and aging every second he can. which is surprising given that biden is 76 and trump turns 73 friday. but trump trying to turn this into a an is

biden tried to do some cleanup today. explain where he went and what he had to say. >> reporter: joe biden was here in chicago speaking to the rainbow push coalition, a group that was founded by jesse jackson and it was there in front of a crowd of largely black voters and activists where biden made his case and defended his position on school busing. this all comes after those comments that he made last night in that exchange with senator kamala harris at that debate. and take a listen to what joe biden tried to say earlier today as he tried to more eloquently explain his position compared to last night. >> i heard and i listened to and i respect senator harris. but, you know, we all know that 30 seconds to 60 seconds on a campaign debate exchange can't do justice to a lifetime committed to civil rights. i never, never, never, ever opposed voluntary busing. >> now there are several instances in the past from decades ago where joe biden was on the record criticizing and laying out his opposition to federally mandated busi

biden advisers i spoke to this afternoon said the key is for biden to be biden, that he is going to use -- if another candidate wants to use their one minute to go after him, he is going to use his 30 seconds as they say to talk about his transformational vision for the country, a country that they say is open to bipartisanship, something that really puts him at odds with some of the other candidates on the stage. it's interesting, brian. we saw last night the discussion about whether this is elizabeth warren or bernie sanders's party. the biden campaign is based on partially on a bet that for their voters care more about beating donald trump than your position on the issues. and also, frankly, that the party is not as far left as we in the media and people on twitter tend to believe. so he is going to welcome this opportunity to plant himself more in the center where they believe most of the voters are in the democratic party. >> mike, we talked a lot last night about how donald trump's name was not invoked, but neither was president obama's. does biden view it as essential to his abil

is trump afraid of biden or not? would he rather run against someone to biden's left or face biden? biden is the safe nominee people think. who knows. who knows. he is portraying himself as the safe bet. as i said in the beginning, the best bet to beat trump. does trump think he's the best to beat trump? >> i think that president trump at this moment probably does think that joe biden is the biggest threat to him. a bigger threat than someone he can portray as a socialist like bernie sanders. >> let's start there. >> joe biden has both experience in the office next door as vice president and aligned with a popular former president, barack obama. and he has an appeal to white catholic voters, voters in the industrial states. i think the calculation is, he is the strongest candidate. not every democrat is going to agree with that analysis, but it's likely the analysis we are hearing in the whoutite house. >> susan hit it out of the park. that's right. it's very evident that joe biden of all the 23 candidates on that stage in a couple of weeks is the most inside the president's head. t

joe biden. >> democrats can no longer turn the clock back to the 1990s than republicans can return us to 1950s and we should not try. >>> good day. get your popcorn ready for a clash of the titans this afternoon in iowa. first, joe biden, the former vice president unleashing a new line of attacks against president trump. in three separate stops and he's not the oldest. bernie sanders is a month or so older. biden calling the president a scared leader with his tail between his legs in his prepared remarks if he sticks to them. adding mr. trump is setting a standard for crude language and embarrassing behavior. that's a quote. president trump is not shying away from a political fight with the front-runner who may have the best chance of beating him in 2020 if the polls hold up. we'll hear from the president in two stops and later this hour from the white house south lawn as we leaves to go to andrews air force base. joining me now, peter alexander peter, first to you. we're going to expect to hear

joe biden has a different plan. he says you've got to bring back the aca and make it what it was always supposed to be before the republicans said they'd never help work on it. which one of those works best with voters? we're going to have our political pros break down the policies and the promises next. , weeds are lowdown little scoundrels. don't stoop to their level. draw the line with the roundup sure shot wand. it extends with a protective shield and targets weeds more precisely. it lets you kill what's bad right down to the root while guarding the good. roundup sure shot wand. got bugs too? roundup for lawns bug destroyer kills and prevents them, even grubs. roundup brand. trusted for over 40 years. hi. maria ramirez! mom! maria! maria ramirez... mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs... prof: maria ramirez mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! to help more employees achieve their dreams. they're america's bpursuing life-changing cures. in a country

joe biden is inviting them and then wallowing in them. great day for joe biden. after last week i would say arguably the worst week any candidate had on the democratic side in the campaign so far last week for joe biden. today, arguably the best day any candidate has had in the 2020 cycle for any individual candidate. everything worked for biden today, including the poetry of 76 assaults, making me think of 76 tropical bones from the "music man." what city in iowa? >> river city. >> mason city, iowa. river city was the fictional city based on mason city. >> okay. >> in the caucuses in january, it's a very nice town. >> partial points for correct answer. a.b. agrees. hey, garrett, i want to put polling on the screen. i'm hoping you can share in it with us the numbers in iowa. this is the q-pac poll. it just falls off a cliff. >> well, i think to go back to the quote that you gave from our colleague, mike memoli, it's not just joe biden that benefits from the assumptions about his strength. the democratic voters are looking for a winner. strength begets strength. i

he was trailing not just biden but several other democrats but he sees biden as the front runner right now. he is not waiting to cut him down to size. >> can you imagine president bush taking on the front runners in the 2003, the stage we're at in this race? >> no, but trump you know does things his own way. you know trump is an unattractive person. i read the whole speech that joe gave. i thought it was very good but that speech is not going to get us to the victory line. he has to say what he is going to do, not just trump is an idiot. not everybody hears donald trump, is reminded why they don't like donald trump. joe doesn't have to do that. he is going to say what he is going to do, what are we going to do about healthcare, for the economy for all those people who trump didn't give a tax cut to, which was the vast majority of the american people. so this is sort of phase i. trump is not going to rise above this. he can't rise above anything. joe biden was the vice president of the united states, he can. when we get into this, when he is the nominee, we want to see him acting presid

joe biden is a dummy. >> sabrina, it didn't take very long for biden to strike back. listen to this. >> i believe that the president is literally an existential threat to america. he found time to go after bette midler, for god's sakes, in the middle of the d-day ceremonies. for real, not a joke. and instead of repairing the relationships with our allies, he's continued to damage them. four years of donald trump will be viewed as an aberration in american history. eight years, eight years will fundamentally change who we are as a nation and how we're viewed around the world. he says, let's make america great again. let's make america america again. >> what's your analysis? >> well, i think that any day that donald trump is talking about joe biden is a good day for a joe biden, because it certainly gives a preview of what could be a hypothetical general election contest. now, we know that since launching his campaign, biden has very much been squarely focused on the general. and what's interesting about that strategy is that unlike bernie sanders or elizabeth warren or

the alternative is to let biden be biden, the biden who tosses the script aside, who walks away from the podium, who speaks his mind unfiltered. that's the joe biden who got himself in trouble this week but it's also the joe biden that some people like. he brims with energy, he stirs the crowd's passion. he can bow a very effective communicator. that has always been the reality with joe biden. he makes ms. share of gaffes but he also makes his share of command performances. he went nowhere back in the 2008 primaries but debate after debate he did steal the show. remember the line about rudy giuliani, a noun, a verb and 9/11. it was those debate performances that helped him land on barack obama's ticket as the vp. that joe biden, the strong and effective communicator, is linked to the joe biden who talks his way into trouble. and for his campaign, that's a tough choice because you can't give up one without giving up the other. that's "hardball" for now. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. >>> tonight on "all in" -- >> we had something ready to go subject to my approval. >> abo

joe biden, joe biden body man, garrett hake and joe biden is mingling with the youngs, using cell phone cameras and taking pictures at the edge of the stage. at some point he's going to have to get up to a standing position. we could be witnessing that point right now. our thanks to our friend and colleague, rachel maddow, who i am guessing is in the mood to leave the venue and do something else not related to a debate. there are more photos to take for the former vice president. this has to end at some point. they are going have to vacate the venue. >> they are candidates. >> it's coming up on curfew. >> garrett is going in for the move. >> mr. biden, kamala harris mischaracterized your position? >> on which subject? yes, she did. >> how, sir? >> i don't think she intentionally did it. i supported the segregation -- it's turned around. >> the jury segregation? >> thank you so much. >> sir, i think it's an important point to clarify. she made the argument that it was personal to her and the government should have a role interacting in the local space. >> for should have a role by breaki

that candidate was then senator joe biden. if we are going to solve the issues of automation. >> reporter: the president weighing in moments ago tweeting i am in japan at the g 20 representing our country well but i heard it was not a good day for sleepy joe or creepy bernie, what is exhausted, the other is nuts. so what's the big deal? on the biden front the former vp did not talk to reporters afterward but his team says the exchange with harris didn't hurt his campaign. harris is widely regarded as the big winner of the night, pete buttigieg scored points with the liberal wing on gun-control. >> we lose as many as were boston parkland every 2 or 3 years in my city alone. common sense matters like universal background checks can't seem to get delivered by washington. i can tell you there are weapons that have absolutely no place in american cities or neighborhoods ever. >> another big take away this morning, all candidates say they would provide healthcare coverage to undocumented immigrants. you better believe that topic wil

what did tonight mean for joe biden? let's bring back cenk uygur, jennifer granholm, who helped biden with debate prep but has not made any endorsements, and chris cillizza. cillizza, plus/minus for biden tonight? >> minus, minus. on that point, i don't understand. joe biden of all people, he's been involved in more debates probably than anybody on the stage combined. what are the moderators going to do if you go over your time? turn off your mic. just talk. >> it must be how he was prepped. look at granholm. >> a shot at me. >> i don't think voters say oh, well, he talked 65 seconds. only supposed to talk 60. on that point. on the minor point, he just looked rusty. now, that may change, right? he's going to do more of these things. cnn's debates are in a month. but he looked rusty to me. he should be the fulcrum of that debate and he felt at times secondary and at times like a punching bag. he very rarely looked like he was in command, at least to me. >> you know, sometimes as a metaphor, jennifer, you need to get woken

what about biden? well, he opposed bussing, botched the handling of anita hill's testimony about clarence thomas according to liberals, not me and supported a crime bill that many minorities feel was too harsh. that does and sound so good. joining me now is dr. cornell west, professor of philosophy at harvard and candice owens, conservative commentatcommentat. dr. west, should african americans maybe look twice about their support for joe biden given some of these past issues? >> well, i think one that brother biden is mo dummy. he has fine energy. his big problem is he is a dying in the wool, backward looking liberal with little vision and less courage. so in that sense, he represents a past. i know he has the obama halo, but that is going to decline. i don't see barack obama. i don't see brother barack break dancing in support of biden either. so i think we really have to take a look at my brother. take a look at bernie sanders. vision, courage, consistenccons. you'll see albert einstein, hell hen ke

as i said, i am joe biden, jill biden's husband. she has taught her whole life in public school, teacher for a long time. we joke teaching is not -- >> neil: i promise you what i would be fair and balanced and therefore the same time for both in this show. now to the president of the united states speaking a couple hundred miles away from joe biden in council bluffs. we had a big fight in omaha and we won that one pretty easily. a certain person spending a lot of money against us. they didn't work out so well for him. many other state and local leaders, want to thank you all for being here. thank you. thank you very much. i also want to think the ceo of southwest iowa renewable energy, mike. i will tell you i met mike a long time ago and i said let's do this. other candidates also know, were not going to support ethanol, and i did. is that a correct statement? and look what you built. great job. thank you very much for hosting us today, along with two other great energy leaders, the president of the renewable fuels association. ceo

he sees biden against him. he is going to focus on joe biden. i don't think the president really -- i think the president is struggling on how to define joe biden. joe biden is such a known entity, certainly in america and the democratic party. donald trump has an easier time talking about people who are out in the public sphere. >> he is not going to -- i don't know why his campaign is second guessing him so much. this is the one thing that he actually has shown some -- >> he has a little gut instinct. >> a good feel for it. he is after biden now. he will be after whoever is next when the time comes. >> it's interesting how he is very dismissive of kamala harris and pete buttigieg. i don't understand why he is that dismissive right now.

joe biden is a dummy. joe biden thought china was not a competitor. china made $500 billion over a short period of time against obama, biden and for many, many years in all fairness to them. china is a major competitor, and right now china wants to make a deal very badly. it's me right now that's holding up the deal. >> mr. president! >> and we're going to do a great deal with china or we're not doing a deal at all. right now china is paying us billions and bill yongs of dollars. they never gave us ten cents and china ate our country alive during obama and biden. they ate us alive, and then biden has some kind of relationship financially or his son with china. tell me about that, because china ate the united states alive economically and it's a shame. >> so mr. president, how do you respond to the democrats -- >> no, no. pelosi attacked me. she was here. she made a horrible statement that i'm sure she wished she didn't make. she made a horrible statement while i was with the queen of england, while i was -- while i was with the president of france, an

and again, joe biden has been around for a long time. i know joe biden. i'm not going to support him. but i consider him a good guy and it will be an interesting race. >> let me ask you about some of these comments that we just heard from president trump as you know, he's been criticized for saying that he would accept information from a foreign power even one of his biggest allies. lindsey graham saying that those comments are a mistake. do you agree that those comments were a mistake, congressman? >> i think he could have articulated it better. first of all, as president, i think he's entitled to take any information he's given and to absorb it. not necessarily the purpose of a campaign but to see if there's a security issue. >> congressman, was it a mistake because in 2016 our election was interfered with by the russians. that has been widely proven. then the mueller report. was it a mistake for president trump to say that? >> yeah. he could have articulated it better. he should have said as president, i'm entitled to look at information for the purpos

i think that trump is a little bit afraid of biden, trump could beat biden it would be a harder match up than some others. >> that is why i think that buttigieg is a bigger threat, this is when debates come in biden could get sauteed in the debates, he really could have a hard time. >> people like him, they know him. kennedy: from what they know. but if they view him and context of people who are moving the party forward even if it is moving left, that will be problematic, but i think that pete buttigieg also somewhat of a moderate can handle both laning comfortably, she in territory that's biden -- he is in territory biden does not understand. >> you talk about josha -- socil media biden tweeted a friendship bracelet, like an 8-year-old girl, that is you you want to negotiate with north korea. kennedy: he is like, this is such a good idea people love me, and love you and we love this and this bracelet, it national national best friends day. >> he says, i asked him to with hole on endorsement. >> digging -- >> imagine him giving a bff bracelet to putin or kim jong-un, i would tariffs.

biden: thank you, reverend. well, i am here to introduce another biden who is going to become president of the united states, my granddaughter, finnegan biden. [cheers & applause] mr. biden: if anyone will make it, this one will. by the way, i lost a daughter, i have one daughter that survived, and i have four granddaughters, and let me tell you, they are incredible. how many of you have a granddaughter out there? how many of you have had a daughter as well? here is the deal -- daughters always are wonderful. we have an expression, "a son is a son you get to wife, a daughter is a daughter you have the rest of your life." but here is the deal, when your daughter is 12 and a half years old, you put a butterfly, you kiss her good night. the next morning when you walk in there is a snake in her bed. "daddy, daddy," and they all come back between 19 and 21, and the congresswoman said you're not hydrating enough. i have to take care of you, dad. she is a social worker. but here is the deal. granddaughters not only alw

is this a fair hit on biden? >> so joe biden has made this comment or something very similar to it many times in the past. he is always going back sort of to the hay day to his career partly during the 70s and '80s where people who disagreed with one another could somehow come together and for the good of the country and for the good of moving things forward could put aside their differences and do that. so, fine, that is an effective talking point for joe biden and for many voters who think that that's what we need to be able to do in order to get something done in washington. the point is why point to that in the year 2019 as the example of bringing up those mens' names and saying look how great i worked along with them. and, in fact, he said he didn't call me boy, they called me son. he brought up the fact that the problematic nature of this relationship with these folks. so, the fact that he chooses to bring this up on his own is indicative of the fact that he's missing something here. he's missing how americ

biden jr. of delaware. >> reporter: his first presidential debate came in the 1988 campaign. >> as we debate these issues, let's put them in concrete terms and understand that when we talk about these statistics, we're talking about people. >> reporter: during the 2008 campaign, biden debated candidates like barack obama and hillary clinton and he unleashed this zinger about an opponent not even on the stage. >> rudy giuliani, there's only three things he mentioned in a sentence. a noun, a verb, and 9/11. there's nothing else. there's nothing else. >> reporter: but tonight's democratic primary debate marks his first debate in seven years. after he tangled with republican vice presidential nominee paul ryan in 2012. >> with all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey. >> reporter: before that he faced off against the 2008 nominee sarah palin. and showed his emotional side. >> with the notion somehow because i'm a man i know what it's like to raise two kids alone, i know what it's like to have a

they have to decide if they will let joe biden be joe biden. that means you have to take the good with the bad. but if you bubble wrap him and you don't have him out here, something like this then gets to fester for two, three or four days and campaign aides out doing cable television will never be able to clean it up or address something as folsomly as the candidate himself. >> that's such a good point. it highlights both of their strategic and you called them tactical vulnerabilities, that he's so limited in terms of our access to him that everything sticks. this is the second day we've been talking about it and he's doing a trump-like tactic without a trump-like campaign. garrett, will you come back tomorrow from south carolina? you said you're heading down tonight. >> we'll make it happen. >> thank you for spending some time. >>> when we come back, did the controversy around joe biden create the opening at least one of his rivals have been waiting for? small things. big things. too hard to do alone things. day after day, you need to get it

>> the biden, bernie debate. it will be interesting to see how closely biden will defend the obama legacy and the obama economy. this is something that bernie sanders has been attacking, going after predonald trump. this is something i will be paying attention to. how closely will biden defend the affordable care act, in terms of medicare for all, what bernie is pursuing, both these candidates unlike last night have run for president before. this isn't their first rodeo. watching these two, specifically joe biden, and whether or not he stays alive with the obama legacy is something that i think will be key. i think the biggest set back that joe biden faces tonight is joe biden. >> we didn't hear obama's name mentioned last night. i bet you're going to hear it tonight. >> probably hear it mostly from joe biden, right? >> i would think so. i would definitely think so. remember, there are friendship bracelets. maybe he will be wearing it. >> trump said it was embarrassing, obama hasn't come out in support of biden.

joe biden was against it. when asked whether busing caused more harm than good, biden replied "absolutely. it implies that blacks have no reason to be proud of their inheritance and their own culture." in 1975,nt interview biden wrote -- "we've lost our bearings since the 1954 brown v. school board desegregation case. to 'desegregate' is different than to 'integrate'." he went on to say -- "the real problem with busing is that you take people who aren't racist, people who are good citizens, who believe in equal education and opportunity, and you stunt their children's intellectual growth by busing them to an inferior school." "those are the words of joe biden. notion that a school in which black and white children -- or children of multiple ethnicities sit together in a class is doomed to be an inferior school, is what i find most offensive. and ignorant. it is simply not so. his concern for the stunting of selective.ren is the stunting of black children in badly underfunded, often physically decrepit, disgust

not a single biden sign, biden table. they just opted out. nobody from biden world was even out there talking to this gathering of iowa democrats this weekend. >> when you talk to democrats, the folks were in iowa this weekend. state leaders in washington. it's almost less about ideological moderation and does he want the ball. is he going to get there and fight for this. voters may not see if he's a click or two to the center of pete buttigieg on that. if you are running as the guy who can beat donald trump you've got to look like you want to take on a donald trump. look like you want it every day. >> you have to have it in the pairing that we are told he likes. thank you very much. >>> now to this. they could face the death penalty for joining isis. now former british terrorists speak to cnn offering an unprecedented apology about why they did it. introducing the first of its kind lexus ux and ux f sport, also available in hybrid all-wheel drive. lease the 2019 ux 200 for $329/month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. yo

biden 53%. is there a sense to what joe biden is arguing? >> joe biden needs to be out there. my opinion needs to be out there a lot more than he has been. he needs to talk to voters and needs to engage more with voters. i will give you an example. last weekend here in the state of california was the state democratic convention. joe biden decided to skip that. not sure why. he needs to show up as much as humanly possible. >> we know he wants to punch up and he wants to be seen as the presumptive nominee. >> he needs to act like it, right? no more playing from the side lines and giving a strong punch. show democrats and democrats by getting off the sidelines and getting in there. >> cornell, what do voters want? what does the polling indicate in terms of targeting trump and not really engaging with your other nominees. the other people seeking the nomination. >> thanks for having me on. if you go back in 2008 and when we were on the campaign against hillary clinton who her early primary number numbers were bigger than joe biden. voters wanted someone who could win. they were ta

on june 30th, 1977, biden wrote dear mr. chairman, i want you to know i very much appreciate your help in this week's committee meeting in attempting to bring my anti-busing legislation to a vote. and again in 1978 biden again asked eastland to put the bill before the senate writing your participation in the bill would be welcomed. four decades later biden stands by his opposition to busing arguing it did not address institutional racism. most busing programs in america were later abandoned after bringing more hardship than equal opportunity to all students. >> so the bottom line here is, look, everything i've done in my career, i ran because of civil rights. i continue to think we have to make fundamental changes in civil rights. >> reporter: jeff zeleny, cnn, miami. >> let's get some perspective on how biden's past positions are playing into the current presidential race. and to do that we have an excellent panel of guests here. we have tiffany squaut. she's the co-founder and manager editor of the beat d.c. we have joshua

said i found that shocking clearly that was because eastland was a racist and biden is white biden's ability to reach across the aisle had nothing to do with not being called boy why was this not clear and biden's mine it's a mystery to me i don't believe that biden is anything close to a racist himself he has a strong track record in favor of civil rights but it's remark was ill considered and betrayed a thoughtless ignorance of those terms so i could hear you trying to get in there can you see where this is something that's ripe for people to jump on and say you're out of touch. i muchly not sure because i think one of the things the democratic party has to deal with is political correctness i think a large majority of voters have simply had enough with being told that this although that it can't use this kind of language and while joe biden's language may have been in correct and perhaps he was right that he was called out i think there's a sense among the voting public that enough with all this political correctness let's just get on with talking about policies let's talk about h

so what does the biden campaign say today? joining me right now is kate bedingfield, communications director for the biden campaign. thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> biden has a chance to clarify, if he wants, what he said last night on the stage when confronted about bussing by kamala harris. is he going to address this? does he have more to say about this before he speaks before the rainbow push coalition? >> look, you're right, he's speaking to the rainbow push coalition today. he's going to talk about his long record on civil rights and he's going to talk about his vision for building a middle class that's inclusive and everybody regardless of race, of gender, of parents income, gets to come along in the deal. that's something he was planning to hear before the debate and address it today. >> specifically address what happened in last night's debate? >> i'll let him speak to that but make a broader case about his record on civil rights. he was somebody who passed the 25 year extension of the voting rig

joe biden and now dr. jill biden on stage. chris matthews has senator gillibrand. chris? >> thank you, brian. senator, thank you. you know, you raised an interesting challenge i think to the president tonight. is he taking us to war with iran? >> i'm concerned he is. he has been saber rattling, destabilizing the middle east, and to not only be on the brink of war but now iran is on the brink of breaching themselves and beginning to create the nuclear materials they need for a nuclear weapon. it is unconscionable what he's done. he has no strategy at all. he's somebody hell bent on war with iran. and i'm running for president because i believe we need to stabilize the middle east. we need to get our allies back to the table and get iran back to the table and have a negotiated agreement over 20 years and have actually a path for peace in the middle east. >> do you believe that as a candidate if you don't get elected or you could be elected in the next year, but as a candidate as a voice for women, do you think you could kill the hyde amendment. i just wonder if those in the

it makes biden the guy. in trump's mind, biden is the guy. the other democrats are saying, what about us? can we be the guy? >> iowa is an interesting case study. 32 counties in iowa in 2016 flipped from having voted for obama to voting for trump? when biden goes after trump, i don't know if he's appealing to those voters who went for trump. he's going after him so full throttle that i can't tell yet if the swing voters like it or not. >> david is right. the calculation right now is that any time biden can be in the headlines thanks to trump, that's a good day for biden. you're absolutely right. when the president is going after one of the democratic candidates it sends the message to anyone tuning in this early in the campaign that this is a guy to watch because this seems to be the guy the president is taking seriously. we have talked a lot on the set. when we are talking to voters in the country, the issue that comes up the most when you ask about biden's qualifications and why someone may be remotely interested in biden now is because the

biden is trying to do both here. i think it is very designed, especially in iowa, a state that the president won pretty handily. >> 9%. >> right. in a state that obama won twice, you know. to try to persuade them that they've been suckered by this guy. now, the president is going to say, 3.2% unemployment. what's wrong with that? why do you want to turn back from that? it is not going to be an easy argument to refute. that's what he is trying to do. >> biden is going to say, where did the 3.2% start from? where did it originate? >> he uses the obama name. >> it started from the obama administration and the recovery the obama administration made years before from the greatest financial crisis since the great depression. >> the meager jobs numbers could help biden's case if he says, because of the tariff threat, et cetera, things are accelerating. >> look what we're seeing replicate. going back to his own father, which he talked about before, inheriting $200 million, which he squandered, and now doing the same thing wi

>> well, the most important thing for joe biden tonight is to keep being joe biden. he is going to layout his plans. he's rolled out progressive plans on health care, on climate change. he's going to make a really aggressive case directly to the american people about his vision for leadership in this country. but, you know, in addition to talking about his progressive plans, he's also going to do something i think is sort of unique in this field, which is he's really going to make the case for a government where consensus and compromise are not dirty words. and he's going to make the case that we can do that without compromising our principles. because at the end of the day, running for president is about helping people and getting things done. and if you're not able to do that, well, then, what are we even doing? so i think you're going to hear him make a case that the american people are really hungry for which is that we can get past this hyper partisan moment in our politics and get back to government that actually has people's backs and that gets things done. >>

today, respond directly to biden today. i haven't seen anything on twitter but i haven't looked down in 30 seconds. is this what his campaign wants today? >> that could be part of the strategy of releasing this speech 12 hours before joe biden is even scheduled to give it, because of course, he mentions the president dozens of times by name in this speech, if you just search through that document. so that, of course, has been the headline on cable news all day, which we know the president watches. we know he's been watching this morning because he's been tweeting over a dozen times within a span of a few hours, and of course, he's going to take a ride on air force one over here to iowa. so there is certainly a chance the president is going to be made aware of those comments, and he is eager to get this fight started. even though aides say, hey, look, the election is so far away. you don't have to single joe biden out by name yet, the president is eager to have a foil, and his campaign has been delighted by what david was no

this was not the way joe biden wanted the first debate to go. this is from the hill newspaper -- and this from the wall street journal -- plenty of twitter traffic focusing on the vice president's performance. this is from a former top aide to hillary clinton. this was his thoughts last night. said you have two hopes, one if the poor reviews convince your principle that he needs to listen and come to the next debate, better prepared tter pret round of polls does not register a new just some of the tweets from some of the news media. this is from a correspondent from "new york magazine." o in the told camp saying his staff her they are freaking out about his poor performance. following up with that tweet saying the source said field staff say the campaign organized debate watch parties in early voting states had been "awkward" and biden is not playing well. according to biden's staff, he is not listening to his debate rep and he is set in his ways. some response to her reporting in her tweets from the biden camp, this is kate who is deputy campai

joe biden is a dummy. joe biden thought china was not a competitor. china made $500 billion over a short period of time against obama, biden, and for many, many years, in all fairness to them. china is a major competitor, and right now china wants to make a deal very badly. it's me right now that is holding up the deal. and we are going to either do a great deal with china, or we are not doing a deal at all. right now china is paying us billions and billions of dollars. they never gave us $0.10, and china ate our country alive during obama and biden. they ate us alive. and then biden has some sort of relationship financially, or his son, with china? tell me about that. because china ate the united states alive economically, and it's a shame. >> reporter: mr. president, how do you respond to the democrats saying -- >> president trump: policy attacked me. she was here, she made a horrible statement that i'm sure she wished she didn't make. she made a horrible statement while i was with the queen of england, while i was with the president of france, and

what about joe biden? he is one of your biggest losers of the night and use it bernie sanders. >> the facts artifacts, joe biden, so many people had high expectations for him. doesn't mean it is over. it wasn't a complete disaster but people expected him to perform better. same with bernie sanders repeating the same millionaires and billionaires line over and over repeatedly just won't work. he repeated the same thing from 2016. he can no longer just blame this on the system being rigged. you have some tough aggressive young, polished professionals who are going for the top seat so he has to do better, he can't take anything for granted. i put him in the losing category. certainly williamson and eric were entertaining so they get honorable mentions for being entertaining. >> he didn't get her first question until 30 minutes in to the debate so i wondered if they even saw her at the far end and then as far as swalwell went, i did know how well that would go talking about passing the torch. >> passing the to

i think the toughest job tonight is joe biden. everyone in the world knows joe biden. but you just had the mayor of new york city on your show and he has the attack that everyone's going to make tonight, which is your yesterday's policies. what do you now stand for? biden has to not take those moments, he can't worry about people hitting him. he's got to look at the american people and lay out a very clear agenda on what he wants to do as president and associate himself with the future and not just the past with barack obama. and i think it's going to be really hard when you're going to have at least bernie wailing away at him. he's got to stay really focused. >> and rick tyler, what about bernie sanders? you expect he'll be going after joe biden? >> i think it benefits both bernie sanders and joe biden to be essentially debating each other and ignoring everybody else. that gives really the advantage to both representing their respective wings. biden represents the establishment wing of the party. there's no one else in the race that's challenging him right now on that