A Difficult and Historic Decision
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It's Monday, July 22nd, right now on CNN This Morning. A difficult and historic decision. President Joe Biden is not seeking re-election, becoming the first president to do so in over 50 years and upending the 2024 race. Now, Vice President Kamala Harris hoping to make the move into the Oval Office. How she plans to earn and win the vote of the people. Plus this.

I do think she's the best candidate. I'm here for Kamala because Kamala has been here for the American people. Several top party leaders backing Harris. One big name hasn't given an endorsement just yet, though, and that is Barack Obama. Plus, could Senator Joe Manchin be preparing to challenge Kamala Harris? I'm going to talk to him live. We'll ask him directly coming up. All right. 6 a.m. here in Washington. A live look.

At the White House on this historic Monday, the race to earn the right to live there, to run the country, completely upended this morning as history has unfolded fast and furious over the course of the last 20-some-odd days. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

Years of history unfolding in just 24 days. On Sunday, President Joe Biden stepping aside. Vice President Kamala Harris stepping in. That moment coming 106 days before Election Day and over half a century since the last time a sitting president decided to end his bid for reelection. That was President Lyndon B. Johnson in March of 1968.

I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president. President Biden's decision coming less than one month after he faced off against Donald Trump at that debate right here on CNN, a debate where Biden started off like this.

Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with. Look, if we finally beat Medicare.

Biden's performance seen live by over 50 million people. And it's so alarmed Democrats that conversations about replacing him began before he even stepped off that stage. And within weeks, they were becoming impossible to ignore until a man with a gun climbed atop a building in Pennsylvania. Something that said, take a look at what happened. Wait, wait, wait.

That assassination attempt, the first time an American president or candidate had been injured since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981, a harrowing historic moment that led to this battle cry at the Republican National Convention just days later. I raised my right arm, looked at the thousands and thousands of people that were breathlessly waiting and started shouting, fight, fight, fight.

DEJECTED DEMOCRATS WATCHING AN ECSTATIC RNC AND AT THE SAME TIME LEARNING THAT THEIR MAN WAS LEAVING THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL, BIDEN SIDELINED BY A COVID DIAGNOSIS. AS THE PRESIDENT ISOLATED AT HIS HOME IN DELAWARE, WE LEARNED THAT HE BEGAN TO RETHINK HIS PLACE ATOP THE DEMOCRATIC TICKET. AND NOW, JUST DAYS LATER,

Biden put out this letter yesterday. This is what he wrote, "It's been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down." History made repeatedly, an election radically transformed in weeks.

And so we watch and wonder together, what is history's next turn? Our panelists here, Alex Thompson, national political correspondent for Axios, Elliott Williams, CNN legal analyst, former deputy assistant attorney general during the Obama administration, Kate Bedingfield, former White House communications director for President Biden, and Jonah Goldberg, the editor-in-chief

of the dispatch. Thank you all for being here on this momentous day. Kate, I want to hear your reflections in a second. But Alex, I just want to start with you on the reporting, how we got here, how the president got here, because this was a very long, very long time coming. Yeah, I mean, it

And while a lot of people are praising his decision today, let's be clear, this was not something that Joe Biden wanted to do. This was a reluctant ceding of power that happened because the fact that Joe Biden decided to do that debate early, the fact that whether or not you believe the reasons of the travel schedule was the reason for the bad performance or something else,

that basically led to a panic in the party, that Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders basically decided that this is not our guy. As someone in the White House basically told me, this was a the party decided situation. And Joe Biden, who has long been a party man, has basically been in some ways the median Democrat for his entire career, basically said the party does not want me and came to the conclusion that there was no path forward.

Kate Bedingfield, a very difficult day for a lot of people that have worked for Joe Biden for many years. You are among them. But it did become clear in the final days that there really was no path.

for President Biden to win reelection. What do you know? What have you heard? How are you understanding everything that's unfolded? Yeah, it is a really difficult day for the people who work with him and who've worked with him for a long time and who believe in what he was able to achieve in defeating Trump in 2020 and what he's been able to do in the first four years as president. So it's an emotional time. But I think he ultimately looked at the lay of the land and said,

I accept that I can't win. And I think actually the fact that he didn't want to make the decision in some ways means he should get more credit for it, that he put country ahead of self, that he said...

I'm not the best standard bearer to defeat somebody who I think poses an existential threat to our country. And so I'm going to do something I don't want to do, and I'm going to step aside. And there aren't that many moments, at least in modern political history, where a candidate, you know, a political figure says, I

I don't believe that I am the solution. That's a really rare, that is a really rare thing. And so I just, you know, as somebody who worked for him for a long time, cares about him personally, knows how hard this decision is and also just how hard the last three and a half weeks have been. I mean, this is somebody who, you know, as Alex was saying, has been a loyal Democrat his entire life and has had to watch as,

You know, a lot of people that he's worked very closely with have been very critical in a really sometimes personally humiliating way over the last three and a half weeks. That is a really hard thing for anyone to have to endure. Jonah, you're a student of history. What do you see? First of all,

we have to, for the rest of our lives, we can't just glibly say, as I normally do, debates don't matter. Right? I mean, that's over. And I kind of regret it. Possibly the most consequential one in history. Oh, sure. Yeah. I think it's the most consequential 15-second moment in debate history, that sort of moment that we saw. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think his cumulative performance was...

And I think the sort of argumentum ad John Meacham to try to find historical parallels here kind of gets overdone. I mean, like, I mean, we're going to go back to Rutherford B. Hayes or something, which actually is a good historical parallel. See, this is why I asked you. So, no, I think that, you know, one of the problems we deal with in this age is that there's sort of a rule of thumb that says if you don't know how something works, you think there's a conspiracy going on.

And this is true about people's theories about the media, theories about all sorts of things in politics, theories about a presidential assassination attempt. I think there are a lot of legitimate questions about how this whole thing rolled out. And I agree that the party decides thing, which is, for viewers, is a big insider poli-sci term.

That applies here, but it's sort of like Hemingway's bankruptcy. The party decided very, very slowly and then suddenly, right? Because this is not something that Biden wanted to do

voters were telling elites in Washington and the party for two years, this is a real problem. And then it was only in this cascade effect at the very end. And that's going to be studied for a long time. To your historical point, and just think about two, it's almost a tale of two speeches in August. Imagine if President Biden had stayed in.

And the speech he would have given on the final day of the convention, just think about how everyone in the country would have picked that speech apart. Every flub he made, any mistake, even though the substance might have been perfectly defensible. And even if it were the same substance that Kamala Harris or whoever else might have given, it would have been eviscerated that speech. Compare that to Joe Biden on the first night of the Democratic National Convention. In a sense,

essentially giving George Washington's farewell address, saying, for the good of my country, I am stepping down and handing over to a new generation. Even if it's painful for people who are around him to watch, that is a historic moment that we are never going to forget as a country, whether you like Joe Biden or not. He created here something that might have been personally difficult, but it's going to create a moment that will be in the highlight reels forever. Yeah.

We are. It's just a remarkable morning. Now, I will say we have done this serious history coming up here on CNN this morning. We're going to go with a little bit of art imitating life. I'm not leaving. POTUS is leaving. He's not going to run for a second term. I'm going to. I did not see that coming. Kamala Harris hoping to be the next Democratic nominee. Top leaders already lining up behind her.

Plus, later on this hour, Senator Joe Manchin joins me live for his first interview since Biden announced this news. Will Manchin throw his name in the ring? So it's your help that I seek first, as today I announce my candidacy for president of the United States of America.

I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. What are some of the social service agencies that have supported you and your family growing up? That's Dr. Robert Waldinger. He's a psychiatrist, a professor, and a Zen master. What kind of relationships actually help us maintain happiness? And what should we do in those moments where we have setbacks and things that don't work out? Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Gary? Yeah, yeah. Of course you are. I mean, there's always hope, ma'am. We've got plenty of hope in this world. No, no, no. I mean, it's kind of a sign.

aren't imitating life. Kamala Harris, the current vice president, waking up this morning to an entirely new reality in the presidential race, one that could put her on the path to become the first black woman and first Asian American to lead a major political party ticket. Now, America has gotten to know her over the past four years as she has served as President Biden's number two candidate

But many were first introduced to her when she ran for president against him in the Democratic primary in 2020. Just a little flashback to that. I stand before you today clear-eyed about the fight ahead and what has to be done. I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the United States.

So, of course, to all of you, Kamala Harris has been very busy working. The phones behind the scenes, her statement said very clearly she wants to earn the Democratic nomination, Jonah. And I think that says a lot about the fears in her camp. I mean, they have been very kind of careful as they have approached this not to show that they are entitled to it. What kind of job do you think she's doing around that so far? Do you think this is locked down? What's next?

Yeah, I think she's going to be the nominee. We've seen this. I think it was very smart to come out to leak, which clearly they did, the list of potential VPs. And all of a sudden, that kind of changed the game theory for a lot of people who said, you know, I'm probably not going to win this, but I should come out early so that I'm in consideration. And there was sort of a galvanic effect about all of that.

I think it would be good for her, and I think they kind of know it, to have some sort of competitive process here, even if it was a kabuki theater kind of thing. You're going to talk to Joe Manchin about this. I don't know what that looks like at this point. Joe Manchin's not going to be the guy. So I don't think Kamala Harris is the best candidate for the Democratic Party, but she is the path of least resistance candidate, and she's going to be the nominee.

Well, I think, look, I'm not sure I would just define her as only the path of least resistance candidate. There's no question this is going to be a close race. I mean, this is I think this has sort of been the delusion that has hung over this conversation over the last three and a half weeks. This is going to be a close race regardless of who the Democrats have at the top of the ticket. And so, you know, yes, Joe Biden had what was probably a fatal wound. And I think he made the right and selfless decision to pull out.

But I don't think Democrats should delude themselves that there's somebody that they can slot in at the top of the ticket, given the way Trump motivates his base, given the calcification of polarization in this country. So I think we should just stipulate that at the top. I do think she has done a really good job in this last 24 hours of showing that she is

reaching out that she's trying to earn support, that she's not sort of sitting back and saying, well, it has to be me, and so therefore it will be. And she's had some important support, including some of the state delegations, which remember, at the end of the day, what she's trying to do here is lock down the delegates. And she's had state delegations come, I think North Carolina, I think maybe Louisiana, double check that, but who've come out and said they're with her. So she's doing the work.

Yeah, all right. Well, we're going to talk a lot more about Kamala Harris coming up next here. Now that she's running, who might she pick to be her vice president if we get there? Plus, Democrats lining up to support Harris less than 24 hours into her bid. This country needs a leader, and leaders change attitudes about people. The choice we make this November is going to decide the future of America for a very, very long time.

And I had a great choice, great opportunities. I had a great choice, but I have no doubt that I picked the right person to join me as the next Vice President of the United States of America, and that's Senator Kamala Harris.

Fast forward four years and now Vice President Kamala Harris will be making that same choice as the likely Democratic nominee. Who might she choose as her running mate? Already, speculation is swirling over a list of names that include swing state governors, popular senators, and administration officials. This is a little bit, this graphic is too big. We'll shorten it for you in a second. Just this past week, Harris offered her praise for two of the rumored contenders, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper.

I'll tell you it's good to be back here in Pennsylvania with the governor who's been a great partner to the president and me. It is so good to be back with so many incredible leaders, including my dear friend Roy Cooper. You know, Roy and I served together when I was Attorney General of California and he was Attorney General of North Carolina. I've known him for almost two decades and he is an extraordinary leader.

All right. Panel's back. Elliot, there really are four names, it's my understanding, on the list right now. Mark Kelly, the senator from Arizona. Andy Beshear in Kentucky. Roy Cooper in North Carolina, who you heard Harris talking about there. And Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. I didn't ask my team to produce it because I kind of thought better of it, but there it is.

Look at those faces. What do those faces have in common? Four beautiful white faces. No, but beautiful, boring white faces. And I think part of the exercise here... Look at those punoms. Shane, a punom. You want to squeeze it. But no, but there's something to that. And I think...

Throughout history, vice presidents have very rarely flipped a state for their candidate. Other than, I think, LBJ in 1960, it doesn't really happen. What the VP does is sort of launder some aspect of the president or the nominee's background.

helps the Democrats here and potentially Vice President Harris to have someone that, a boring white guy on the ticket that can perhaps attract voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, whatever else that may be. This is all the most bizarre election in our lives shaping up already. And it's hard to know if any of the conventional wisdom on any of this stuff will play out. But those are likely obvious faces that I think we end up with.

Alex, do you think there's anyone higher, high, low at this point? I mean, I think those are the choices, are the main candidates. Kamala Harris has often been a risk-averse politician, but there is definitely a line of thought within some parts of the Democratic Party that, yes, you're completely right. Usually the VP is a balance, but occasionally you double down, right? Like Clinton, Gore, both Southern Democrats in 92, just recently Trump, J.D. Vance, you double down. Maybe you actually pick another woman

You pick Gretchen Whitmer. You basically say, OK, you're going to have Hulk Hogan and the chair of the UFC introduce you right before your speech at the RNC. OK, we're going to go full like boys versus girls here. But it's very quick. And frankly, for you both, you know, I do ask the question of is America ready to see two women on a ticket?

And I think it's a fair, particularly when the top candidate is a black woman, I just, it's a simple reality about the sad America we live in. And I just wonder if deep down when people go to pull that lever, if they're ready to do that. I had somebody who used to work for Donald Trump also say that Kamala Harris being a black woman is going to bring out the worst in Donald Trump as well, which would raise the specter of more ugliness there. All right, Elliot, thank you. Always great to have you.

All right, still ahead here on CNN This Morning, a wave of elected Democrats supporting Kamala Harris following Joe Biden's stunning decision to leave the race. We're going to talk to one of her supporters, Congresswoman Annie Custer from the maybe swing state of New Hampshire. Plus later, Senator Joe Manchin joins us live. Will he choose to challenge Kamala Harris for president?

Harris pulls well against Trump. I think she has a real shot at winning. It feels pretty hopeless at the moment. It's exciting. However, I still don't know. I would absolutely vote for Kamala. I don't think she's going to win. It's too late. As you know, by the Senate rules, we don't

trust an operation where there's no Democrat present. That's a joke. We totally trust the distinguished senator from Maine. It's just that I need the experience, Judge. That's what it is. That's what he's trying to say. Wow, there was a lot in that clip. Kamala Harris quickly racking up support for many key Democrats in the hours following Joe Biden's announcement, including dozens of governors, senators, and representatives from across the country. I do think she's the best candidate

best prepared candidate at this particular juncture. I think the American people will see that in her and they will compare her to the alternative. Just as Joe Biden often asks people to do with him and Donald Trump, she gets that opportunity.

Vice President Harris has been working the phones with groups on Capitol Hill, reportedly making more than 200 phone calls on Sunday alone. One of those calls reportedly to Congresswoman Annie Custer of New Hampshire. She leads the New Democratic Coalition, which represents members in swing districts across the country. She joins us now. Congresswoman, so grateful to have you. Can you tell us a little bit about that phone call?

Sure, great to be with you. Very exciting to hear from Kamala Harris. I was one of the first out of the gate to endorse her as soon as I heard the news. And then I was making my own calls to the New Democrats. We're 100 center-left Democrats, pragmatic people. People often call us the Biden Dems. We had the Zoom last weekend with the president.

And then a number of our members had been coming out asking the president to step aside, and our members were very, very excited about Kamala Harris. So when she called, I said, "We're all in for you. We'll be there for you. We'll campaign across the country. We're very, very excited to have you at the top of our ticket."

Congresswoman, you're from New Hampshire, which is one of the states that when President Biden was still in the race, many Democrats were starting to worry might be in play for Donald Trump in the fall. It's obviously been blue in most of the recent elections. Do you think Kamala Harris will win New Hampshire now?

Yes, I definitely do. And I think it's the energy that's been lacking on the ground. People are very excited. Getting young people back into this race, I think, is critical. I've been hearing from young people, my own sons and people across the country, across

throughout my district at getting women energized. Kamala Harris will be able to bring the Dobbs decision, our reproductive freedom to the fore. Not just that, but just the understanding of what's happening across our country. Donald Trump takes total credit

for overturning Roe v. Wade. And people's lives are at stake, their pregnancies, birth control is at stake. You know, IVF, these are very important personal decisions. Kamala Harris has been fantastic out on the trail motivating voters.

And then, of course, people of color. You know, that's not such a big issue in New Hampshire. People care a lot. Barack Obama did very, very well here. I expect she'll win handily here.

Congresswoman, one emerging criticism from Republicans already and one that my sources tell me may be something when they look at polling data that could be a challenge for Vice President Harris, assuming she becomes the nominee, if she becomes the nominee. And that's the idea that she may have had more knowledge than the American public about the state of President Biden's health ahead of that debate. How do you respond to people who are going to criticize her and say she knew she was in on it the whole time?

I mean, look, this is what's challenging for all of us. And I'm just being very honest with you and with the viewers. This is what was difficult for us, particularly over the last three weeks since the debate. I spent time myself with President Biden back in the spring. I had the opportunity to fly with him on Air Force One. And I could tell that he was aging. It's not. I think he has acuity in aging.

his thought process. I'm not worried about that. It's not about his memory. I think it was the burden of campaigning and governing at the same time. And so there was never any doubt, nor is there doubt now about his ability to continue his term, finish his term. But, you know, she was being very loyal to the ticket. I'm not concerned about that

Criticism, I think that's going to be gone within the week in terms of moving on, the excitement of having her at the top of the ticket, and just where we go from here. Frankly, the Republicans are going to throw a lot up. They have a flawed candidate. Which would you rather have, a prosecutor or a felon? And they're very, very nervous about how strong this blue wave is going to be. We've got fantastic

We've got battleground candidates now, members that are going to win their seats. We've got recruits that I've been out campaigning for and raising funds for all across the country. We're going to win the House. We'll hold the Senate, and that means the Supreme Court for an entire generation. And we've got a great shot now at the White House, and I think we're going to get it done. All right. Congresswoman Annie Custer for us this morning. Congressman, so grateful for your time. Thank you very much. Great to be with you. Thanks, Casey. See you soon.

All right, everyone is rallying to action here to try to support Kamala Harris, shall we say, including the Lincoln Project, which is a group of moderate conservatives and former Republican Party members who oppose Donald Trump. They've unveiled this new ad thanking Joe Biden for his service, endorsing Kamala Harris for president. Let's watch. But time and the burden of the office means it's time to step aside.

to put a warrior into the political arena, ready to take on Donald Trump, to face up to the un-American plan Trump and Project 2025 will impose. Vice President Kamala Harris is ready, experienced, and as a tough prosecutor, Kamala Harris dealt with men like Trump all the time. Rapists, conmen, frauds, criminals. She's used to guys like Trump.

All right, panel's back. We're joined by Isaac Dever of CNN. Isaac, this group, of course, is one that formed while Trump was still president. We also saw Nikki Haley, a group supporting Nikki Haley, representing Nikki Haley voters, come out and endorse Kamala Harris. Is her profile one that offers an opening to these kinds of voters, Republicans who don't want Donald Trump to get elected, or is there...

Does she have more specific challenges? -Well, look, this is one of the questions that was looming over the last couple of weeks of whether Joe Biden, for all of it, would be able to make a better case to those kinds of voters than Harris would be. If it comes down to the question of, "Do you want Donald Trump to be president, yes or no?" then those voters and those groups

presumably will move toward Harris, but she is not a person who has been seen as, you know, the moderate, middle-of-the-road white guy that Joe Biden was, right? Right. I mean, some of it's like, is it policy or is it presentation? It might be a little of both. Jonah, what do you think about this question? Yeah, it all depends. I mean, some of it depends on forces outside of her control, but a lot of it depends on how she decides to run.

The previous conversation we had about whether or not she should double down with another female, you know, running mate, I think that would be a bad idea solely in the sense that she should... The identity politics will speak for itself. She should not lean into those kinds of arguments. I think that turns off a lot of middle-of-the-road voters. And she has not been willing to lean into her prosecutorial record for a very long time. There was a... There used to be the case that, you know, Kamala's a cop was this argument that she was actually a tough law-and-order candidate,

After BLM riots and all that kind of stuff, she kind of walked away from all that. It'll be really interesting to see if she can kind of reconstitute something. That's the plan, actually. Her team has been working on this, actually, for even before the debate. And I've got some new reporting up this morning about this, that it is prosecutor versus felon. That's the plan here. But what you hear from people is not just let's go up against the guy who was accused of rape, had the settlement against him, versus the woman who locked up rapists.

the big banks versus the person who went after the big banks, but is about whether she can push back on the progressives who want to move her in that direction and did successfully move her campaign in 2019 away from being the prosecutor. Yeah, well, and some of it, I think, is just about bolstering the case for her as strong. I mean, part of what Biden, you know, had struggled with in the contrast with Trump is Trump was presenting this notion of strength and power

Biden because of age and what we saw unfold over the last month in particular was being received by voters as weak. And so, like, you know, what the Lincoln Project ad is doing is it's, you know, it's almost less about the specifics of her record and more about just doing everything in their power. You know, everybody who wants to see her win and Donald Trump lose.

you know, to bolster her as strong. Well, that's why this first week is so critical for her, because she's consolidated a bunch of the party, but not all the party. Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama have not explicitly endorsed her. And the fact is that I have some new reporting this morning that part of the reason that Joe Biden hesitated is he had himself and his senior aides had serious concerns whether or not she was more electable than he was.

And they saw the 2020 primary. Kate remembers the 2020 primary. Kamala Harris didn't even make it to the Iowa caucus. There are some serious concerns about how she can do this campaign. This first week is really critical to trying to assuage those people. - So where is Jeffrey Palmer?

He's the guy who won American Samoa. He's the only other person out there with delegates and like he deserves his shot. This is why we love you, Jonah. Who? Oh, right. All right. Coming up next here, could Senator Joe Manchin be preparing to jump into the race? I will ask him. He is here next. Plus, President Biden becoming just the third sitting president in the last 75 years to decide not to seek reelection. We'll talk about what history's taught us about this moment.

I'm stepping down, I'm not running for president. Sorry, what? One last time. Mr. President, they will say you're weak. No. They will see we're strong. Your position is so unique.

Men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying women are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly, I don't see much of a distinction beyond that. In a second term, will this administration come out behind same-sex marriage, the institution of marriage? Well, I can't speak to that.

That was then Vice President Joe Biden in 2012 and what became one of the most famous moments in his long career in politics. And now, 12 years later, much of the Democratic Party coalescing around his vice president, Kamala Harris, following Biden's exit.

But there are wild cards that remain, and one of them is West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat turned independent, now weighing whether to re-register as a Democrat and challenge Harris for the party's nomination. Manchin is a centrist retiring from his Senate seat this winter. He never endorsed Biden and is considering his own presidential campaign. Here's what he told me back in the fall when I asked him about the race. I'm not going to be a spoiler. I've never been a spoiler. I've never run to be a spoiler. Whatever I run for, I intend to win.

So my game plan would be, how do you win the whole darn thing, whatever you're involved in? Right now, being 14 months out or 12 months out, 13 months out to the next election, is that just ludicrous?

Senator Manchin joins me now for his first TV interview since Biden announced he's dropping out of the race. That was a lifetime ago, Senator. Good morning, Casey. How are you? Good morning. I am well. Thank you for doing this. So, Senator, are you running for president? Well, let me just put it this way. The calls and everything that's coming in is not quite sure unless they see a process where they really are. Things changed in it all. And a coordination doesn't always basically produce results.

I think the strongest, if you will, the strongest team.

very well common could be that person. And I think going through some sort of a process would have been very enlightening to everybody. So I'm pursuing the process. I really believe strongly along with, I think, former President Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi both think there should be a process. They spoke out about that. And, you know, you're going to find out as number two,

You know, you have your own views, but you're basically part of that team. What's her own views on some of these issues? And it's going to be whether the border, you know, is going to be a hot, contentious situation. Is anyone taking serious the debt that we have, the educational opportunities or a lack of educational opportunities or student basically performance, things of this sort. These all need to be talked about. And we seem to be basically co-conspirators.

People who are opposed to Donald Trump is thinking that's going to carry the day. It's not. People want issues. You said, I'm pursuing the process. Are you going to... I'm just continuing to push this process. You're going to push the process. Are you considering running? I haven't. The people are pushing in that direction, and it's something if they're pushing in that direction. I've said, let's pass the torch to a new generation. There's an awful lot of people that you've shown on the screen that now they're considering as vice president.

Nobody's been through a process knowing really where they stand. Joe Biden went through a process in 2020 against an awful lot of left parts of our party. And the party went with someone centrist that I thought they could win. Are we in that same category right now? Are we in a centrist category or are we in the far left category? Think about this, Casey. I'm an independent now.

51% of people participating in an electoral process are registered independents. Only 23% are registered Democrats. Only 25% are registered Republicans. If either side can't capture that middle, which is where the center of this country, where the common sense is,

And, you know, they just want to tap it down a little bit and not push on to me, even though you think that's part of the policy and you're playing to the base. Is that where the country is? I don't think. Why is there 51 percent like me? How do they win back Democrats like me? Do you think you could win the nomination at a Democratic convention? It's almost impossible for anybody at this point in time once it's been anointed.

First of all, I want to thank the president, President Biden. I've known him for a long time. I've considered him a friend. And I truly, I said with heavy heart yesterday. But here's a person that can put every minute of his remaining term into

towards doing the job of president trying to bring peace in the middle east trying to basically secure our position with ukraine to defend itself and fight for the freedoms that we want them to have and they they want and then make sure that we show with grace and dignity how you transfer power superpower of the world he can do all of that and have the greatest legacy i thank him for everything he's done i haven't always agreed he knows that but we've worked through our differences

I haven't worked with Kamala any at all, to be honest with you, so we'll see what happens. Would you consider being Kamala Harris' vice president? No. No, I'm not. It's a new generation. You don't want a 76-year-old vice president right now. Well, do we want a 76-year-old president? Well, if he feels like he's 50, maybe. Do you feel like you're 50? Let me just say this. The process for the Democrats, try to win back that center.

Joe Biden became president because the center believed that he was in the center. He always had been. If there's going to be a process, somebody's got to run against Kamala Harris. Is that going to be you? Well, I don't think that. I don't know. I just will say we'll just have to say the system. You would like to see some sort, you know, have some debates, have something. There's plenty of time. We act like there's no time at all.

European countries or UK, they have them within two or three months and do very well. Six weeks, basically. Yeah. Would you run as an independent? Well, Bernie tried that, but they said he couldn't be an independent, so he had to be an independent Democrat.

A socialist independent Democrat is what, you know. And I respect where Bernie came from, and he's still an independent. And if I was going to do that, you know, would I change back to a Democrat? Those are things that have been talked about. It just came about so quickly. I haven't really processed that or gone through it. I have been very humbled by people calling and asking, would you be considered? Would you consider? Would you talk about? I said, my main thing is that we have a voice. I want the middle to have a voice.

I want the center of this country to be able to say we have a voice. We're not extreme left. We're not extreme right. I don't run my life that way. Why do I have to only have two choices of a party that basically have taken extremes? You've mentioned, Bernie, have you explored the process, what it would take for you to be able to put your hat in the ring? I haven't gotten into any of that right now, no. Are you willing to re-register as a Democrat if you need to? I haven't. I haven't given that serious thought right now. I can tell you why I left and not becoming...

No, because of this. I was raised as a Democrat, lifelong Democrat. Nothing but that. But I was always fiscally responsible and socially compassionate. I was willing to give people a hand up, and I believe they had to earn it.

and basically not being given out. I believe in John Kennedy. That's not what your country can do for you, what you can do for your country, and not the premise now, how much more can my country do for me? We've gotten off course, and we need to get back on course, and the country wants to get back on course, and I hope people have enough courage to do that. Is Kamala Harris going to keep us on the wrong course?

course? I have no idea. You don't know that because there's no process to go through. Is this basically full steam ahead? Is it basically some adjustment? I think it would help Kamala to have a little bit of a process to where she could explain, articulate, you know, and have a dialogue. All right. Senator Joe Manchin, always grateful to have you. Always good to be with you, Casey. Never dull. That's unbelievable. And it just seems to keep happening. It does indeed. All right, Senator, thank you so much for coming in.

All right, as we've been discussing all morning, this is the first time in more than half a century that a sitting president is giving up a run for a second term. I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office.

The last time we all saw this was 1968 when Lyndon B. Johnson stunned the nation, vowing to spend the remainder of his time in office focusing on ending the Vietnam War instead of running for re-election. Johnson's vice president, Hubert Humphrey, went on to win the nomination during a contested convention in Chicago

but ultimately lost that race to Richard Nixon. Joining me now to offer her perspective, the Pulitzer Prize winning presidential historian Doris Covens Goodwin. She's also the author of An Unfinished Love, Personal History of the 1960s. Doris, I am so grateful to have you. Just walk us through, I mean, as we all kind of experienced this stunning moment unfold yesterday, what it means to you in terms of the long arc of history and what you think we may see happen next.

Well, what it showed to me was what happened with Lyndon Johnson as well. The hardest decision a president has to make is whether to relinquish power or not, and particularly to run for a second term. They all want that second term to endorse the first term. That's what Lincoln said. It was more important to him to win the second than the first, to show that people had cared about what he had done.

For Lyndon Johnson, it was even more dramatic because he knew he was making a speech to the nation on March 31st to say he was hoping to wind down the Vietnam War. After the Tet Offensive, it would prove that it had to be wind down. It couldn't be won the way it was. A stalemate was all that was possible.

So he had written a speech where he would talk about stopping the bombing, negotiating with the North Vietnamese, and then he had tacked on an ending, which would be the withdrawal that we just saw. And even the people closest to him were never sure he'd reach that withdrawal part, because he had been known to do that before. Lady Bird said all day she was watching the clock. She watched the tension in his face, however, kind of release as he went up to give that speech. My husband was up in New Hampshire, and he was watching it with Teddy White, the great journalist,

And Teddy White said something was up even before he said it, because he could see the last time he'd seen him five days before, there was such tension. His voice was so soft it could hardly be heard. His eyes looked terrible. He was weary. Now he looked composed. And I think maybe that happened with President Biden as well. Once you make that decision,

so hard to relinquish it, but you think it's for the good of the country, then the tension comes away and there's a composure to him. And then the accolades come, as they did for Lyndon Johnson. It was putting sacrifice

going for his ambition for the greater good rather than himself, doing the things that he had never done in 37 years. His disapproval rating was at 57%. All of a sudden, it was 57% approval. I think that combination will happen for Joe Biden as well. And it'll be interesting to see how he looks the next time we see him, having gone through that betrayal and the sense of anger and desire. And he'd come back so many times before and thought maybe he could come back again until it seemed like age

and health are something that you can't just will to come back from. - They are not something that you can just will to come back from. Doris Kearns Goodwin, I'm so sorry that we are out of time. I'm so grateful for your reflections this morning. I wanna thank our panel and I wanna thank you for joining us. I wanna leave you with this moment. I'm Casey Hunt, don't go anywhere. After this, CNN News Central will start, but let's remember together. - 15 years ago, we said that the key to restoring confidence in our traditions

and our institutions was public officials who would stand up and tell the American people exactly what they thought. And to paraphrase what I said that day in 1972, I mean to be that candidate, and with the grace of God and the support of the American people, I mean to be that kind of president.

I'm Oprah Winfrey, and I am delighted to introduce you to my podcast, Super Soul Conversations. You can listen to some of the most universal, powerful life lessons. I hope these conversations will help illuminate your path to all that you've been meaning to be and all that you were meant to be.

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