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Joe Biden Declares Presidential Bid. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired April 25, 2019 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Joe Biden formally announcing his candidacy for 2020 today.

[05:59:32] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You'll see Biden at his best. He believes he's the best candidate to face Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in a party that loves the idea of a fresh face. That will be a challenge.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're fighting all the subpoenas. These aren't impartial people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Their strategy is to run out the clock. We haven't seen an attempt by any administration to defy Congress in this way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is partisan now. He's in a good position to defend with that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Thursday, April 25, 6 a.m. here in New York.

In major political news, breaking right now, or as Joe Biden would say, literally, right now. Any second, we expect to get official word that former vice president Joe Biden is running for president. He is releasing an announcement video momentarily.

Any second, we expect to get official word that former vice president Joe Biden is running for president. He is releasing an announcement video momentarily. We will play it for you as soon as it goes public.

Biden immediately becomes the frontrunner of the 2020 Democratic field, the largest field in modern U.S. history. We are told that a key theme of his campaign will be the soul of the country is at stake.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Biden is making a push for a big first day right out of the gate. CNN has learned that Biden rallied donors and supporters on a conference call yesterday, calling on them to rally their networks and contribute to his campaign.

How will Biden change the 2020 race? CNN's Arlette Saenz is live in Biden's home town of Wilmington, Delaware, with the breaking details -- Arlette.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn.

Joe Biden just released that video announcing his 2020 bid on his social media accounts. He is framing the campaign as a battle for the soul of the country, a message that he's really carried over the past year. Take a listen and a look at what he had to say as he officially announced his candidacy for president.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Charlottesville, Virginia, is home to the author of one of the great documents in human history. We know it by heart: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights."

We've heard it so often it's almost a cliche, but it's who we are. We haven't lived up to these ideals. Jefferson himself didn't. But we have never before walked away from them.

Charlottesville is also home to a defining moment for this nation in the last few years. It was there, in August of 2017, we saw Klansmen and white supremacists and neo-Nazis come out in the open. Their crazed faces illuminated by torches, veins bulging, and bearing the fangs of racism, chanting the same anti-Semitic bile heard across Europe in the '30s.

And they were met by a courageous group of Americans, and a violent clash ensued. And a brave young woman lost her life. And that's when we heard the words of the president of the United States that stunned the world and shocked the conscience of this nation. He said there were, quote, "some very fine people on both sides." Very fine people on both sides?

With those words, the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it. And in that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime.

I wrote at the time that we're in the battle for the soul of the nation. That's even more true today. We are in the battle for the soul of this nation.

I believe history will look back on four years of this president and all he embraces as an aberrant moment in time. But if we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation: who we are. And I cannot stand by and watch that happen.

The core values of this nation, our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made America America is at stake. That's why today I'm announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.

Folks, America is an idea. An idea that's stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, more powerful than any dictator or tyrant. It gives hope to the most desperate people on earth. It guarantees that everyone is treated with dignity and gives hate no safe harbor. It instills in every person in this country the belief that, no matter where you start in life, there's nothing you can't achieve if you work at it. That's what we believe. And above all else, that's what's at stake in this election.

We can't forget what happened in Charlottesville. Even more important, we have to remember who we are. This is America.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAENZ: So you heard Joe Biden there speaking directly, saying this is a battle for the soul of the country and drawing on those clashes in Charlottesville and specifically President Trump's response to that. He wants to frame this campaign as a campaign between him and President Trump, saying that he needs to defend the character of this country.

Now later today, we're going to see Joe Biden up in Philadelphia at a fundraiser, a private fundraiser that will be attended by many including in the Pennsylvania delegation, including Senator Bob Casey. This is showing that he wants to have a strong showing right out of the gate, especially with those fundraising figures as he's now officially a candidate for president -- Alisyn.

BERMAN: All right. Arlette Saenz, stick around with us right now. I want to bring in Alex Burns, "New York Times" political correspondent whose story on Joe Biden posted, honestly, seconds ago as he was getting here.

CAMEROTA: You were so excited when you got the alert. What has happened? How did Alex do that?

BERMAN: I have never had a news alert post with someone sitting next to me, by the author of the story.

CAMEROTA: It's an exciting moment here on the set.

BERMAN: David Gregory, CNN senior political analyst here with us, as well.

Alex Burns, that announcement video was very interesting. And I don't think it was what I expected. I knew that Joe Biden was going to come out, saying that he believes we're in a battle for the soul of the country. But he leaned into Charlottesville. Charlottesville was the common thread throughout that three-minute video.

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, going well beyond the kind of language that we have heard from him in his recent public appearances, where he has talked about, you know, restoring American values of different kinds. But the notion that he is saying that he sees the same forces on the march in this country as were on the March in Europe in the 1930s is really, really stark.

And it does convey in public what we know he has told people in private, which is that he sees this election as a national emergency. And he sees that as the rationale for his candidacy, that if there's one person who is capable, clearly, of defeating President Trump and capable of doing the job, that he's that guy.

CAMEROTA: Here's the website that they just got -- they just unveiled for his candidacy. Our best days still lie ahead. Couldn't say "are ahead"? Whatever. I'm not going to quibble on this morning.

David Gregory, what did you think? I mean, look, obviously, so many of the candidates are debating whether or not they ignore President Trump, mention him by name. Joe Biden has decided to go right to the heart of the matter and framed this as the contrast against President Trump.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, that's right. And to make the argument as bluntly and as powerfully as he can that this is an election about who America is and who Donald Trump is. Not the economy, not the stock market, not the country being at peace. All of those are strengths for President Trump. But who Trump is.

We know from 2018 and the congressional election that Republicans are hurting. That this question of Trump's negatives, mostly personal, how he's leading the country, the sense that people have about America today, are all negatives for Trump. And that's where Biden is going.

You talk about campaigning in poetry and governing in prose. This was a lot of poetry coming from Biden this morning. And yes, I think it's very interesting that he drilled down on Charlottesville to say this is a moment that says everything you need to know about Donald Trump. And now we can look and assess strengths and weaknesses of Biden. But he's going to get some attention with this.

BERMAN: And we have a chance over these three hours to really dig into that. Let's start, Arlette, in your covering, the now official Biden campaign.

What is it that Biden and his supporters think he uniquely brings to the table? What does Joe Biden have that they are proposing makes him the most likely candidate to defeat Donald Trump?

SAENZ: Well, I think the No. 1 thing that everyone points to is the experience factor. His supporters say that there is no better training to be a president than to be vice president. That Joe Biden was in the room for all of those major decisions with President Obama and also his career, 36-year career spanning in the Senate, eight years as vice president. He's been on the foreign stage with world leaders. He has personal relationships with these people.

And they really feel that he can restore some sense of order that they think was around during the Obama administration. But in that video you really heard very personal terms from Joe Biden about why he felt the need to enter this race, trying to bring back and trying to restore and maintain the character, he says, of the country. Biden has made it very clear that he is ready to take on Donald Trump

directly. You've seen him in recent speeches going after him when it comes to the tax cuts or treatment of working-class voters. And this is something we expect him to continue through in the coming months of this campaign.

CAMEROTA: Alex, in your article, you say that there are, though, big concerns about Biden running a competent campaign. Why? Why would -- I mean, he has so much experience. Why wouldn't he run a competent campaign?

BURNS: Well, in some respect, it's because past performance is a pretty decent predictor of future results. He's run for president twice before. Both times has sort of barely made a dent in the race in 1988 and in 2008.

He has never run a major campaign where he is the frontrunner from the start. Right? He was Barack Obama's running mate twice. But that's a supporting role.

[06:10:03] So now he is the starring actor in this campaign. And if you look over the last couple months, you know, Joe Biden's strengths have been really consistent all through his deliberation process, and what Arlette described.

You know, the other side of it is the indecision. He pushed back his deadline for entering the race several times. The leaks from his operation, you know, the ideas were sort of floated and discarded, like should they ask Stacey Abrams -- should they ask Stacey Abrams to be the vice president up front? Just in the last couple days, there was discussion about, you know, what announcement video was actually going to be posted.

Joe Biden is not a guy who is known for running a really tight and disciplined ship. And he's not been in this particular media and political environment out there on his own before. Right?

So I think we're going to learn pretty fast in the next week or two just how disciplined he can be.

BERMAN: Hang on one second, David. Because we just got more breaking news about what will be part of the Biden rollout. Because there was some question about what else he'll be doing publicly after releasing this video.

Brian Stelter says ABC is reporting that Joe Biden's first 2020 interview will be on "The View."

CAMEROTA: The first stop. That's fascinating.

BERMAN: "The View" tomorrow morning. That is fascinating.

Let me just show people, because we have it here prepared. On "The View," one of the hosts is Meghan McCain. Of course, the daughter of John McCain.

Joe Biden had a very close relationship with John McCain, and a relationship with Meghan McCain while Senator McCain was sick.

Let's play that clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: And one of the things that gave Beau courage, my word, was John. Your dad, you may remember when you were a little kid, your dad took care of my Beau. Your dad, when he was a military (ph) -- worked with me, became friends with Beau. And Beau talked about your dad's courage, not about illness. But about his courage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: David, interesting that that's where he's going first.

GREGORY: Yes. I mean, it's going to be powerful. See reports over the past day that the McCain family intends to endorse Biden, and they were thinking about the right time to do it. Perhaps it happens right out of the gate.

I think there was some concern about whether that hurts or helps him in a primary challenge. And, you know, the political brand of McCain for Biden in 2020 will be important. But we'll have to see just how important in this modern Republican Party.

But look, I think he's going go on "The View," not just for this McCain angle but also to speak to women who are in the party and to speak to those viewers.

Joe Biden understands that this modern Democratic Party is going to sit back and say, "Really? We want a 76-year-old white man to -- to lead us right now?" That's going to be a big question that he's going to have to face.

But the other side of that ledger, you say what are the immediate strengths? How about where he's doing all his business here right out of the gate? And it's Pennsylvania. The argument is going to be, he can win Pennsylvania, something Hillary Clinton couldn't do.

So Democrats are still really fighting this last war. Who can take the fight to Donald Trump? Who can win a state like Pennsylvania? And of course, who can raise money right out of the gate, which Biden said is so important?

I mean, I think all the things that Alex said are true about pitfalls and there's more to discuss with Biden. But it immediately becomes Biden against everybody else. That's the change that he represents.

CAMEROTA: I just want to hopscotch back to Alex for a second, because you talked about that video and about the back story about how there was still debate up until, like, this morning at 6 a.m. And it seems like they settled on this being their message.

And it's not -- it's not upbeat, necessarily, message. It is a -- a deadly serious message. And do you have any more on what else they were considering and how they decided to go with that one about Charlottesville and Trump?

BURNS: Well, there's always, when a candidate announces, a question of how much biography do you put in your launch, how much of a sort of forward-looking agenda do you put in your launch? They obviously decided not to do either of those things really here, right? Just to sort of give a crystallization of the moment and why Joe Biden, in the broadest terms, might be an answer.

The question is whether he's an answer to what Democratic primary voters are looking for. Right? If people want to restore a sense of normalcy or to go back to sort of what they see as the way America is supposed to work as of five years ago, there's no question that he's the best-positioned candidate in the race to do that. Right?

If they're looking for somebody who represents social transformation or who represents a daring vision for the future or a new generation, he's certainly not going to be that last one. And we'll see over the next week or two whether he does have a forward-looking vision of the kind that other candidates have put forward.

BERMAN: One of the strengths that he and his supporters think he has is electability in the general election.

GREGORY: Right.

BERMAN: Electability in a general election. And if that is something that matters to Democrats, what better way --

CAMEROTA: It seems like it might be the No. 1 thing that matters to Democrats.

BERMAN: In a lot of the polling it is. And if you want to make that urgent or you want to talk more about electability, what better way to make that seem important to people than putting the stakes in it, like he just did in that campaign video, to say this is what is at stake here.

[06:15:05] To me, that's what he was trying to do by making Charlottesville -- and I was struck by that. Really, it filled a big chunk of that announcement video. Not biography there. I think that's maybe what he was trying to do.

Arlette, talk to us more about what you saw and also we -- what we will see from Biden in the coming days.

SAENZ: Yes, that's right, John. We are getting some new details about what the next few weeks are going to look like for Joe Biden in this rollout.

So as I said earlier, he's going to be attending a fundraiser in Philadelphia later tonight. That's going to be kind of a show of force, he's hoping, when it comes to the money front.

And then he'll be on "The View" tomorrow. And then come Monday, he's going to be holding his first event, as David talked about, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It's going to be focused on middle-class, working-class voters.

And then we're going to see him do kind of this barnstorming across the country, going through all of the critical early states. I'm going to run you through the quick trips that he's going to be doing. First, he's going to be heading to Iowa. Then, South Carolina. That's over the next week.

In the following weeks, he'll be going to Nevada, California, New Hampshire. And then they are going to have their final rally of this entire launch in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They're pointing out the birthplace of democracy, trying to bring back and hone in on the importance and the critical nature of this current campaign -- John.

CAMEROTA: David, I want to get back to "The View" and what that symbolizes, because I do read a lot into that. And basically, it's synonymous with women.

GREGORY: Yes.

CAMEROTA: And with a bipartisan approach, or at least a duel partisan approach. You know, they have a lot of partisan squabbles on that show; and Joe Biden is seen as somebody who does reach across the aisle in this very divided time. So what do you think of that choice?

GREGORY: Yes, I mean, I think it's got a couple of layers to it. I mean, I agree with what you both have been saying and what John is saying.

This is about one message: stop the madness. Right? Get back to some kind of political normalcy. And Biden can represent that.

You know, there was talk out there of, you know, does he just commit to one term? Doesn't sound like we're hearing that today. But it's the idea of that kind of restoration.

The argument is not "I'm the leader for the future and I'm going to evolve the Democratic Party, and I am going to be part of this transformation that we're seeing in progressive politics." That's not going to be his strength. That will be perhaps his biggest weakness.

And I think going on "The View," again, this -- this -- aligning himself with the McCain brand, getting that -- that vote of support, if that's how it -- I don't know how it couldn't include that, if that's his first stop. Immediately separates him from anybody else and includes a message to more conservative Republicans in the McCain mold, who say, "This is the direction that we have to go to get away from what Trump has done to the Republican Party."

And of course, he'll -- he'll face some of the questions that we're going to talk about, which is you're a 76-year-old white guy. You know, how women are going to support you in the #MeToo era and among other questions about progressive transformation of the party. The view of minorities and so forth. All of that is going to come out in a kind of form that he feels he'll be able to handle well.

BERMAN: I think you can sum up what his campaign message is in that video messages in two sentences: "One, we need to win. Two, I can win."

It seems to be everything he's doing is framed around that. And David Gregory brings up the important point of Pennsylvania, Alex, which is so interesting. And so much of the rollout seems to be focused around Pennsylvania, including this fundraiser.

And we have a copy of this invitation, which I want to put up on the screen to this fundraiser which takes place tonight. And it is being hosted by a Comcast executive. But also, if you look at the Pennsylvania politicians who are on there already. Bob Casey --

CAMEROTA: Who will be on our show later.

BERMAN: Ironically. Or perhaps not at all ironically.

CAMEROTA: Intentionally, I think, is the word you're looking for.

BERMAN: Exactly, sorry. And then a number of the members of Congress, including some of the new members of Congress from Pennsylvania. They're so much focus on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But so many of the new members of Congress come from places like Pennsylvania that won in swing districts and are more centrist. And they're all on that invitation.

BURNS: And including women, including people who are from somewhat more liberal districts in the Philly area, as well, where Joe Biden is just sort of a huge figure in politics. Right? That he used to be the line; that, you know, when he was in the Senate, that he was the third senator from Pennsylvania, even though he nominally represented Delaware, and literally, as he would say, represented Delaware.

But I think this is going to be something to watch as he moves around the country over the next few weeks. The depth of his relationships in some specific places.

There are people in Iowa and New Hampshire and especially in South Carolina who have been for Joe Biden, one way or another, for 32 years now since he started running for president the first time.

So somebody like Bob Casey is not a guy who's coming in dry to this campaign, looking at his options and saying, "Joe Biden is my guy." He's someone who knows Joe Biden really well.

[06:20:08] So this is one of the assets that I think we have tended to, you know, underplay in the rest of this field, because they are a lot of new faces. But Joe Biden will be a display of, and a test of, the importance of that kind of longstanding deep relationship.

GREGORY: And just quickly, as Alex knows, what's also important, David Cohen, who is throwing this fundraiser, who is the general counsel of Comcast, which owns NBC, is one of the most powerful Democratic donors and most active in the country. So it's also a real show of force to other donors, which is important to Biden right now to provide a little shock and awe in -- in the Democratic field.

Because he never wants to run a two-way race. I think, as one Democratic strategist said to me yesterday, this is Trump. He wants to be Biden against a field of 20. And that it's always him against the rest of them. Not him one on one. And I think this is an attempt to show the power of the fundraising potential.

CAMEROTA: And to that point -- what were you going to see, Alex?

BURNS: I was going to say, I think -- I thought David was really right to flag David Cohen's role in all of this. And David Cohen's presence -- and not to pick on him individually, but the presence of him and a couple other folks in that room is going to be a test to the rest of the Democratic field. It's enormous bait for some of the populace in this race to have the guy who oversees a major media company's lobbying shop hosting the kickoff event for the frontrunner in this race. Right?

Does Bernie Sanders take the bait? Does Elizabeth Warren take the bait? Do people give Joe Biden a pretty wide berth, or do they make him pay a political price for raising money that way?

CAMEROTA: That's exactly my question. And Arlette, the -- the interesting thing is how the dynamic of the race changes right now. And so do the other 19 candidates begin framing themselves against Joe Biden? Do they just press on, as they had done yesterday and the day before that, or does everything get reshuffled now?

SAENZ: I mean, that's right, Alisyn. All of these campaigns and these candidates are going to be calculating, trying to figure out how do they now fill the space that Joe Biden -- he's going to be sucking up a lot of the oxygen in the room as the frontrunner. So are they going to go ahead and take him on directly?

We've already seen some tension that could potentially play out between him and someone like Elizabeth Warren. There's some financial policies where they may not exactly have seen eye to eye in the past. That is something that could quickly be raised.

But you know, I talked to a lot of Joe Biden's friends and supporters over the past few weeks. And what they said to me was they're looking forward to this frontrunner status. They have run these campaigns in the past. He didn't do very well back in 1987 or in 2008. So they know what it's like to struggle in a campaign.

And having this position as a frontrunner is going to be an asset to them. But he is fully aware, and his friends have said that he is prepared for all of those attacks that are going to be coming his way, not just from President Trump; but they're also expecting it from his Democratic primary rivals.

BERMAN: All right. The breaking news this morning, in case you were just waking up, former Vice President Joe Biden has officially entered the 2020 race for president and done it with a dramatic campaign video and a surprising campaign video, talking about the stakes for the country; trying to reframe the discussion. Let me read you one sentence: "If we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation, who we are. And I cannot stand by and watch that happen."

Why did Biden pick this message? How will it play? What's next? Stay with us. Our breaking news coverage continues after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:27:24] CAMEROTA: All right. We do have breaking news. Former Vice President Joe Biden has made it official. At 6 a.m. this morning, he released his campaign video. He has jumped into the race with both feet, I think it is fair to say.

And in his campaign video, you know, there was a lot of analysis about what his message would be. And it is a stark message. He basically talks about that this is a fight for the soul of the nation. And he immediately contrasts himself with the problem, which he identifies as President Trump and, in particular, the handling of what happened in Charlottesville.

Here's a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Charlottesville is also home to a defining moment for this nation in the last few years. It was there, in August of 2017, we saw Klansmen and white supremacists and neo-Nazis come out in the open. Their crazed faces illuminated by torches, veins bulging, and bearing the fangs of racism, chanting the same anti-Semitic bile heard across Europe in the '30s.

And they were met by a courageous group of Americans, and a violent clash ensued. And a brave young woman lost her life. And that's when we heard the words of the president of the United States that stunned the world and shocked the conscience of this nation. He said there were, quote, "some very fine people on both sides."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Back with us now to talk about all of this is CNN's Arlette Saenz, who's been covering the Biden campaign for the past half an hour. David Gregory -- officially, I should say, Arlette. David Gregory, our CNN political analyst. And Alex Burns, "New York Times" national political correspondent and CNN political analyst who has a big piece about Joe Biden this morning.

So again, that video is really notable, Alex. Just his message. You know, as you pointed out, he could have gone biography. He could have gone personal history. He could have done experience. He could have done a lot of things.

BERMAN: Moderate. He could have said, "I'm a moderate."

CAMEROTA: "I'm a moderate." And appealed to the sort of Scranton, Pennsylvania, base. But he went to what he thinks is the heart of the matter, where he thinks -- where he basically thought that America was losing its soul, he says. BURNS: He is trying to set up the question for Democratic primary

voters in a way that suggests the answer is Joe Biden. Right? That he's trying to make this primary about the gravity of the risks to the country in President Trump's administration and then the potential for his re-election and trying to make the case that, you know, electability and experience are the heart of what Democrats ought to be looking for.

The rest of what you just mentioned he really left on the table.

[06:30:00]