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For Vice President Joe Biden Announces Presidential Candidacy; Joe Biden Presidential Campaign Announcement Features President Trump's Comments on Charlottesville Rally; Former VP Joe Biden Announces Run for President; Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) is Interviewed About the Biden Run. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 25, 2019 - 08:00   ET

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

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: -- division champs fail to make it out of the first round, Alisyn. Somehow the Boston Bruins are still in it, and because John Berman's teams just always win, they'll probably find a way to win it all. He wins everything except beard game.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I shaved my playoff beard.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: Coy Wire, thank you very much.

WIRE: You're welcome.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Coy.

Joe Biden, the big political story of the morning. So let's get right to the breaking news.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: Good morning and welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, April 25th, 8:00 in the east. And we do begin with breaking news. Former Vice President Joe Biden is running for president, or as he would say, literally running for president. He made the announcement just a short time ago and immediately becomes the frontrunner in the 2020 Democratic field, which is now the largest in modern U.S. history.

CAMEROTA: The video he released this morning goes directly after President Trump. It zeroes in on the president's response to the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville two years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: Charlottesville is also home to a defining moment to this nation in the last few years. It was there of August of 2017 we saw Klansmen and white supremacists and neo-Nazis come out in the open, they're 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, the former vice president is already building up a major base of support. He's gathering endorsements from a slew of lawmakers this morning. We'll speak with one of them straight ahead.

But first, let's get to CNN's Arlette Saenz. She is live in Biden's hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, with the breaking details. Arlette?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Hey, Alisyn, Joe Biden has officially been a presidential candidate for two hours now, and he is already gearing up a busy schedule to take that message directly to voters. Later today he'll be at a fundraiser in Philadelphia, and tomorrow appearing on "The View." Then Monday he is hitting the campaign trail with his first stop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a union focused event. And then he'll be hitting all of those early voting states over the next few weeks.

And the culmination of this rollout, this launch for Joe Biden, is going to be May 18th, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, his campaign pointing out that it's the birthplace of democracy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAENZ: Joe Biden making it official today, hoping his third run for the White House is the charm. It's the latest chapter in the 76-year- old Democrat's long political career. His life started in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Biden traces back his blue collar roots.

JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: Everything important in my life that I learned, I learned here in Scranton.

SAENZ: His family later moved to Delaware where Biden first took public office as a county counselor, then a long shot bid for Delaware's Senate seat, winning at the age of 29. But shortly after that victory, tragedy struck.

BIDEN: I got a phone call. You've got to come home. Your wife and daughter have just been killed, a tractor trailer broadsided them and killed them. Your sons may not make it.

SAENZ: A grief-stricken Biden considered not joining the Senate but was sworn in at his son's hospital bedside. The Delaware Democrat commuted to and from Washington each day, often by train. He later married a teacher, Jill Jacobs, and had another daughter.

BIDEN: No man deserves one great love, let alone two.

SAENZ: Biden went on to serve 36 years in the Senate. Ted Kaufman was Biden's chief of staff for nearly two decades, witnessing the highs and lows of his career up close.

FORMER SEN. TED KAUFMAN, (D) DELAWARE: He's got character. A lot of character comes with age, but a lot of character comes from being through incredibly difficult times. So he's very comfortable in his skin.

SAENZ: In 1987, Biden launched his first run for president.

BIDEN: As today I announce my candidacy for president of the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

SAENZ: But his campaign tanked after charges of plagiarism. Twenty years later, Biden made a second run at the White House, but after a poor showing in Iowa, dropped out again, later landing in a different spot on the 2008 Democratic ticket.

[08:05:07] BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: The next vice president of the United States of America, Joe Biden!

SAENZ: The oftentimes blunt Biden at President Obama's side as vice president for eight years.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: This is a big -- deal.

SAENZ: The two forged a close friendship, cemented even deeper when tragedy hit a second time.

BEAU BIDEN, JOE BIDEN'S SON: My father, my hero, the next vice president of the United States, Joe Biden.

SAENZ: In 2015, Biden's eldest son Beau died after a battle with brain cancer.

BIDEN: Beau was my soul, Beau is my conscience.

SAENZ: The grief ultimately impacted his decision on the 2016 race.

BIDEN: Unfortunately, I believe we're out of time, the time necessary to mount a winning campaign for the nomination.

SAENZ: Now after months of deliberations, Biden is giving a third run for the White House a go. His more than four-decades-long career is set to face a fresh look from legislative successes like the Violence Against Women Act --

BIDEN: I wrote that act myself with my own hand.

SAENZ: -- to his experience on the foreign stage. But other areas of his career will undergo renewed scrutiny, like his role in crafting of the 1994 crime bill, and his handling of the 1991 testimony of Anita Hill.

BIDEN: Professor, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do.

SAENZ: As he prepares to take his frontrunner spot in the Democratic primary field, those closest to Biden say he's ready for the challenge ahead.

KAUFMAN: When Joe Biden looks in that mirror, he's not going to stop, not do this because it is going to be hard, or he might lose, or anything else. He does it because he won't feel right about himself.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAENZ: Joe Biden has already earned some high-profile endorsements. His home state Senator Chris Coons from Delaware, he is endorsing this morning as well as Pennsylvania Senator Bo Casey. Just a few high- profile endorsements that they are going to be running out in these coming days. They're trying to show their strength for Joe Biden as he is currently the frontrunner. One big question is, will he be able to maintain the frontrunner status through these primaries and get to that general election matchup against President Trump. John and Alisyn?

BERMAN: Arlette Saenz for us in Wilmington, Delaware. Arlette, thanks very much.

Joining us now to talk about this big moment in the race, David Gregory, CNN political analyst, Jeff Zeleny, CNN senior Washington correspondent, Nia-Malika Henderson, CNN senior political reporter, and Jonathan Martin, national political correspondent for the "New York Times," also a CNN political analyst.

David Gregory, the news this morning not just that Joe Biden got into the race, we knew that was coming, but the way he got in and the message with which he chose to enter the race. We will not forget Charlottesville. He says the soul of the nation is at stake.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right, and I think that was using this iconic moment of Charlottesville as a cudgel against President Trump, saying to primary voters that this is who Trump is, that we have to take the fight to him, and that Trump is counter to what America is. So it wasn't about personal biography. People know who Joe Biden is and what he's been in politics. And it was also a message designed to reach out to the progressive wing of the party, to minority voters, to young, socially conscious voters, to say this is what matters, questions about race baiting, about immigration. That's where we have to define this race.

And even though he, Biden, doesn't represent the future, right, you always think about going forward in politics, not backward, he is essentially saying I am uniquely qualified to get off the bench and stop the madness of Donald Trump as president. And as David Axelrod said in the last hour, if there is a stature gap here, he wants to exploit that, to immediately become the frontrunner, to suggest, look, I can do this. It's me, Joe Biden, and then there's everybody else in the Democratic field.

CAMEROTA: So Jonathan Morton, there was reporting that behind the scenes his team was trying to debate what their first video would look like, what the message would be. And it seems as though they decided to go for the jugular with going right to the Charlottesville images.

JONATHAN MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: We had a story on Tuesday night reporting that one of his new ad people who is known for his creative spots, for example, he did the M.J. Hegar spot which you guys have seen, of course, on the air. Mark Putnam created kind of a Scranton Joe video, showing Biden at his old house in Scranton. It was more biographical in nature. That didn't go over that well with the Biden team and Biden himself. They wanted something more in this moment.

And Biden is passionate about the events in Charlottesville, and he's been consumed with this for the last couple of years, plugging Jon Meacham's book at every turn around the country the last year.

[08:10:06] And that's why they ran this spot, was created by Mike Donilon, his longtime adviser, that gets at what Biden is really passionate about, but that also doubles as something else, guys, and that is going over the Democratic primary nitty-gritty and focusing his party's voters on what they're most consumed with, which is Trump and beating Trump. And it also has the added effect of saying this is not a normal election. If it was a normal election, he wouldn't be an obvious candidate. His whole case is this is a national emergency campaign, and that's why you need me in this moment.

BERMAN: We need to win on the guy who can win. It's a pretty simple message. Jeff Zeleny, you got some fresh reporting from an interesting aspect of this. It was not in that video. Joe Biden didn't wrap himself in the Obama presidency, but it is an area where there are people thinking he can make inroads, saying it was the Obama-Biden administration. What is team Obama saying this morning.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: There's no question that Joe Biden is in this moment because he was Barack Obama's running mate for eight years, his partner for eight years. And he was indeed a very active vice president, in the room for every major decision, in charge of key pieces of the portfolio. One thing that we're not going to see today, of course, is an endorsement from the former president. For one, it probably wouldn't work, anyway. We saw in 2016 Barack Obama barnstorm the country for Hillary Clinton. That didn't work. So endorsements have limited value, and in this case perhaps even more so.

Barack Obama, I'm told, has had several conversations with Joe Biden. They know that he has to win this, Joe Biden has to win this on his own. But he did issue a statement through a spokesperson this morning praising Joe Biden and saying it was the best decision he ever made as a running mate. Now, as we go forward here, there is no question -- I was talking to

an adviser of Joe Biden who said what he's trying to do, as Jonathan was saying, is shake the conscience here and refocus the debate that there is one thing that this 2020 election is about. It's not about Medicare for all, not about the Green New Deal, not about inmates voting. It is about defeating Donald J. Trump. So that is what Joe Biden is trying to do today.

Of course, he can't hit the fast-forward button through this primary. But he's trying to reframe and refocus Democratic voters on the big picture here. And change comes in many ways. Change could be a younger candidate, a female president, or it could be change from what the current situation and station is. And that is what the Biden folks hope he can deliver for change. But for all the talk today about how he's going after Trump, he still has to go on the campaign trail, and Joe Biden's biggest challenge often has been Joe Biden.

CAMEROTA: And Nia, it's such an interesting time, right? So Joe Biden is going to be the change agent, he's 76 years old, people have known him for decades, and in this, the most diverse field we've ever seen. But who knows what voters want? Because in the polls, they often say that their top thing is who can win.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right, I think that is what they want. And the polls we've seen so far, and again, it's early, Biden has had a pretty steady lead there in the upper 20s, 28, 30 percent or so, and you've got Bernie Sanders in there as well. That, of course, comes from some name I.D., but it also, again, I think comes from what a lot of people think, which is that Joe Biden has the stature, he has the record, he obviously has the Obama connection as well to go toe to toe with Donald Trump.

And you see in that video, that's essentially what he's saying, that he has the character to go and make the case against Donald Trump who he's saying doesn't have the right character, doesn't embody the American spirit in the way that Joe Biden is arguing that he does. Jeff says there that his campaign feels like he needs to refocus and reframe the debate. I don't think that's going to be too hard, because that's where a lot of voters are. They're very pragmatic, particularly if you think about older voters which I think is a real strength of Joe Biden. There is no real need to refocus. There is a sense of urgency and even desperation among Democrats to figure out who is the person to be able to beat Donald Trump. And in many ways the idea is that there is somebody who can not only talk to white working class voters in the Midwest but also rally other parts of the base, particularly African-American voters in the south, to get through the primary.

BERMAN: Go ahead, David.

GREGORY: I think we should focus, too, on the nitty-gritty here, right, which is this focus on Pennsylvania. You're going to be talking about Casey, Senator Casey, who is endorsing him. That's western Pennsylvania. But where is his first fundraiser going to be? It's going to be in Philly with David Cohen, who is the general counsel of Comcast which owns NBC, who is a bigtime fundraiser for the Democrats. So it's a bit of shock and awe to say to other fundraisers in the party, this is where your priority needs to be.

[08:15:00]

I also talked to a Democratic strategist yesterday who said, look, Biden is like Trump in a crowded field as he was in 2016, which it's not a one-on-one race. He just -- it's who can be over 30 percent and Biden is likely to be over 30 percent all the time, and ultimately that's the key to victory.

But the urgency of stopping Trump is also an answer to progressives in the party who are not in sync with Joe Biden and he's not in sync with him. The argument is going to be, Medicare for all, free college tuition, other progressive priorities are going to have to take a backseat to getting Trump out of office.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Winning is in common though among those people, and that's how he can reach them. That's why Pennsylvania matters for sure. And if you look at the slate of endorsement he's already racked up, that's where they come from largely.

But there are other states that are interesting, Jonathan Martin, and you've been traveling around the country. South Carolina, which is a state which a lot of people are leaning to, Kamala Harris, and Cory Booker, among others, because it's a large American vote, is also a good state for Joe Biden.

JONATHAN MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. We have the schedule for next week, John, and I can tell you after he goes to Iowa, which, of course, is the first state, he's going not to New Hampshire, John, he's going to South Carolina, which shows his value and the value he places on South Carolina. It is the fourth state on the calendar, but for Biden it may be the most important state. It's where he has the deepest connections of all the early states, and to your point, it's the first state with a real presence of African-Americans.

And if Biden proves there that he has real appeal with that community, that is going to be an enormous advantage for him going into Super Tuesday, and it could be a real challenge for other candidates in the race. If he does not fare well in South Carolina, and other key leaders like Kamala Harris and Cory Booker steal his thunder with the black community, probably curtains for Joe Biden.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So, Jeff Zeleny, what do you think this does for the dynamic of the rest of the race. Do all the other candidates now have to respond to Biden, or do they just stay on the track they were on talking about their pet issues?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: I think for the moment, they will give him his moment. They have no choice, frankly. I mean, one thing that Joe Biden has done here is sucked all the oxygen out of this very large race.

So, for the moment, the race will be focused on him. I talked to a couple strategists for other campaigns this morning, and they said, you know, they respect Joe Biden, but they're going to allow this to play out a little bit. Again, Joe Biden, you know, what we've seen so far, has been a

prerecorded ad. He's not answered a question from a voter or reporter. He's not encountered a protester.

He, of course, knows how to do all of that. He's been at this longer in the field than everybody combined. But the question is, he's going to get tough questions from voters.

MARTIN: Yes.

ZELENY: When it comes to the unscripted moment of this, they are going to allow it to play out. But I do not think you're going to see, at least from the very beginning from most Democratic candidates, much heat or questions or skepticism or criticism of the Obama/Biden legacy. I do think that will come, that will come particularly from Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren pointing out specific parts of the Obama record that may not have been as strong.

But don't forget, Barack Obama is incredibly supportive. So if you take him on, his record on and Joe Biden, you're taking Obama on. So, it's tricky terrain here.

For now, I think people are going to give him a bit of space and see what he does with it. But this shakes up the race in no -- it hasn't been shaken up like this before. It changes everything. We'll see what Joe Biden does with it.

BERMAN: Nia, very quick last word?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, in any ways, the field is set now. This is the sort of final piece with Joe Biden. His record will certainly get some scrutiny. You saw Elizabeth Warren kind of deliver some shade his way in our town hall when she talked about that bankruptcy bill, something that he backed.

So, I think that, the crime bill, and as well as Anita Hill. So, all of these will be in the ether particularly with activists. But I think Joe Biden's bread and butter is those moderate voters who in some ways feel the conversation around the Green New Deal, whether it's black lives matter, that is something that can be sort put on the back burner with the notion that the most important thing is to defeat Donald Trump.

And they in some ways see that Joe Biden might be the best to do it.

CAMEROTA: All right, guys. Thank you all very much for all of the analysis on this breaking news morning.

OK. So, Joe Biden is already lining up endorsements in just the first two hours of his campaign. We will speak to Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania who was among the first to endorse. He's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:23:23] CAMEROTA: Breaking news: Former Vice President Joe Biden is running for president. Tonight, Biden will attend his first major fundraiser in Pennsylvania with many top Democrats in the room.

Joining us now is one of the first lawmakers to endorse Joe Biden, Democratic Senator Bob Casey. He will be at the fundraiser tonight.

Senator, great to have you.

SEN. BOB CASEY (D-PA): Thanks for having me.

CAMEROTA: You and fellow senator from Delaware, Chris Coons, are some of the first to endorse.

So, why is Joe Biden your man?

CASEY: Well, because I have confidence in his leadership, and I've known him quite a while. I know his character, I know his commitment to the country, and especially when you consider what's at stake in this race for the middle class.

Look, we just had a president sign a tax bill in 2017 which, in my judgment, is a corporate giveaway to the very wealthiest in America and multinational corporations and very limited relief to the middle class, which is a big middle finger to the middle class.

Joe Biden would never sign that kind of tax bill. He'll fight for the middle class. He'll work to raise wages for those struggling to get to the middle class. He'll stand up and fight for our kids. And I think he'll restore the world because we've suffered in how the world views America and how we can lead in a very dangerous world.

So, I have a lot of confidence in his leadership.

CAMEROTA: What do you see as his biggest challenge?

CASEY: Probably it's a long campaign, and this is a different campaign than we've seen on our side in a long time. They're not -- the prior two nomination campaigns were basically two-person races.

[08:25:07] This is wide open.

So there are a lot of candidates. But I think as time goes by, I think the American people who know a good bit about Joe Biden will once again see his leadership, see his commitment to the country and the middle class and protecting the vulnerable.

I think this launch this morning where he talked about Charlottesville, one of the worst moments in American history, maybe one of the worst moments in an American presidency where the president should have led. The president should have brought the company together and condemned racism and white supremacy and he didn't do it. He failed the test and his party failed the test after that.

So, I think his leadership is critically important and I think we're going to be able to see that in the campaign. But it will take a while, it's going to be a long campaign, and we're going to have a nominee at the end of this process. No matter who the nominee is, I think we'll be able to defeat Donald Trump, which is an urgent task. CAMEROTA: On that note, President Trump just tweeted about this. I

will read it.

Welcome to the race, Sleepy Joe. I guess he's already come up with a nickname. I only hope you have the intelligence, long in doubt, to wage a successful primary campaign. It will be nasty. You will be dealing with people who truly have some very sick and demented ideas. Not sure who he's referring there.

But if you make it, I will see you at the starting gate!

So, that's just one of the challenges that former VP Biden will have, dealing with messages like that from the president.

How do you think he will deal with those?

CASEY: Look, that's not surprising, but I don't think this election can be decided on what Donald Trump tweets. I think most people dismiss them. They're like the tweets of something -- an individual who is less than an adolescent.

But what I think most people are worried about are issues like health care. Joe Biden not only fought for the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and that was hard, but he fought to defend it ever since. To prevent the decimation of Medicaid, the program that makes sure your parent or grandparent can get to a nursing home, the program that takes care of people's disabilities in our children.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CASEY: He will fight against a corporate agenda and that corporate agenda is pretty simple. Rig the tax code for the very wealthiest among us, they've already done that, and then take away people's health care, and the protections in that same health care bill for more than 150 million Americans.

Joe Biden is going to fight against that and I think when people vote, those issues are going to be most prominent.

CAMEROTA: Speaking of the wealthiest among us, let's talk about the fundraising, because you're going to this big fundraiser tonight at the owner of Comcast's home. Joe Biden seemed to be sounding the alarm about that in his conference call with fundraisers. He said, this is from "Politico", here's their quote: The money is important. We're going to be judged by what we can do in the first 24 hours, the first week. People think Iowa and New Hampshire are the first test. It's not. The first 24 hours, that's the first test. Those early states are way down the road. We've got to get through this first.

So how much do you think he will be able to raise in the next 24 hours?

CASEY: I have no idea. But, unfortunately, our system is such that you've got to have the resources to be able to get your message out, and especially when you're running against an incumbent president. President Trump has that whole corporate agenda now. They're going to be -- those big corporations are going to be rewarding him mightily by giving them almost $2 trillion -- that's with a T -- $2 trillion over 10 years and giving a bonanza of tax relief, and I think it was an obscene tax bill, by the way, to very wealth people.

So, all of those individuals, raw corporate power that often runs Washington is going to be helping President Trump. I think Vice President Biden will be able to get the resources to get his message out about this make or break moment for the middle class, defending and fighting to prevent the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and all the protections for tens of millions of Americans.

CAMEROTA: Senator, let's talk about this moment in time. What makes you so confident that a 76-year-old white man, that this is his moment? In the moment of the most diverse field ever. And speaking of endorsements, I mean, thus far, you know, they come from lawmakers who look like you.

Do you know of any leaders of color who will soon be endorsing Vice President Joe Biden?

CASEY: Well, I'm sure there will be. Obviously, we're only in the first few hours of a campaign.

But, look, I don't think this campaign or the decision voters will make in the primary election or general election will be about age or some kind of chronological determination. People are going to make a decision about whether or not you want to stay on the path we're on, which is the middle class gets the short end of the stick, not just through the tax bill but through all kinds of other bad policy by corporate Republicans and this president.

END