That about says it. Look at this by the way, were going to be speaking to amanda gormen exclusively. Here we are in the middle of a pandemic and such a historic day and such beautiful pageantry in a different way. And when you think back two weeks ago, the capitol was a crime scene. And today joe biden and Kamala Harris in a historic inauguration, she becoming the first woman and woman of color to be Vice President after this insurrection. And i want to make note of three american president s meeting today where george w. Bush talked about and we just saw it the institutional integrity of our country. And thats what today was about. And joe biden got in office, and think of it the senate changed hands today. And he couldnt have moved faster to turn the corner. And whether you agree with President Biden or not, it certainly feels like a new day. Oh, my goodness, this was not just a transfer of power, it was a profound change of attitude and as gloria said amid real suffering and fear and concern around the country from morning until now with these fireworks, he has hit and they have hit all the right notes. You know, the power of the presidency in many ways is the story that you tell about the country. And joe biden told today the story of the america that he believes in the north star hes driving to. And that is really, really important. Tomorrow reality hits because it always becomes more complicated when the details come into conflict or come into contact with the narrative. And the challenge will be to continue the momentum of today. But the good news is he had a wonderful, wonderful day. And now hes just got three years and 364 more days to closeout a triumphant administration. Also i think whats so powerful about when utthey chose to do is not pretend as though this is not a country suffering trauma and grief. They acknowledged the hurt and yet its our history. They acknowledged the pain, but they also acknowledged the grief, but they also embraced the greatness of america. And the two can exist at the same time, the pain and the promise. We went in the span of one day from watching in the morning the isolation of a president at the end of a term isolated from his own Vice President , isolated in many ways from the country, and we crossed the span of a motion, crossed the span of American Experience and background and the styles of our cultural life and we ended up with this encompassing display at the end. This is gesture of inclusion. I was reminded today something roosevelt said. He said only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment but he also did it while watching us on the kind of hard work and constructive projects that eventually got us where we are. Amanda gormen had a brilliant line in her poem. She said is more than a brilliant prize we inherit. Robert kennedy said the future is not a gift, its an achievement. And that is something we have to bear in mind. The project of democracy requires effort, constant effort. Weve learned that in the last few months. And when biden said his soul is into that effort and hes recruiting us to join in that effort, which is what leaders do. You know, im reminded four years ago on those same steps today the former president talked about american carnage. And the current president on those steps today said the politics doesnt have to be a raging fire. And he talked about unity. I mean, you want to think from one inauguration to another and the difference in tone and message. You know, and the thing about it is you wouldnt had we not gone through the dark part, the difficult part this wouldnt hit us hard, it wouldnt lift us up as much. The world is watching us and i think theyre also saying to the world this is actually the america that, you know, you believed in, that were still here, were even more beautiful, weve got more dance moves, weve got cooler music. The whole thing is here. And, you know, for me what youre saying is so important. They dont deny the pain but they dont let the pain have the last word, and thats the point. You dont deny the pain. You dont pretend theres not a pandemic. You dont pretend people arent suffering but then you dont let the pain have the last word because you show the incredible resilience of the American People, the genius of the American People and they showed it. They didnt just say it. The speeches were good, but its just showing all those faces. I didnt know who some of those people were, but i was with them. I was like hey, man, i never heard you before but i love what youre doing. Thats because were old. Its awesome. Symbols are so important and they were particularly important today. And all of the symbolism and all of the images were right. And weve said it before, biden is right for this moment. These fireworks remind me of the way he talks about this country not just in public but in private, when he would exhort the white house staff, all of us there. There was always a sense of this is the United States of america, we can do this. That is what he believes. Its giving us permission to be proud of what we can do by telling us the truth ability what we face. And i think biden today said, look, we are entering the toughest and deadliest part of the virus. Right there, right in his inauguration speech saying this is not going to be easy but telling you what you face. And thats all people really want to hear. I remember donald trump telling bob woodward, you know, i didnt want to tell the people about the virus because i dont want to panic the country. This was different. This was im going to level with you as biden says all the time, but heres how we get out of it and immediately went to his executive actions saying what were going to do on the pandemic and how theyre going to get vaccines in peoples arms. Right to work from all the pageantry and all the beauty we saw today and the three president s coming together. You said something, van, about how what weve gone through set this and we were talking earlier about how fundamentally different the world views of joe biden and donald trump or the philosophies of donald trump. Donald trump believes that the world is a jungle. He was raised to believe you are either a killer or no youre a killer or a loser. A killer or a loser. The world is a jungle, you know, and the survival of the fittest. Joe biden quoted st. Augustine today. Also you think about the three former president s that we saw gather together to speak about this moment in history, to speak about the new president merchandise the former president who just left office could have been among those three, could have been four. And forevermore now one considers when there are gatherings of all the president s will the most recent president who just left, will he be in there . Not a chance. Ive been thinking about this a lot. If two things had happened donald trump would have left washington in a much different way today. If during this pandemic he had leveled with people and just advocated from the beginning people wear masks, that would be one thing. And obviously if he had accepted the results of the election and he had done what all other president s have done in assisting his successor and leaving gracefully. As he praised barack obama for doing four years ago in his own speech, in his inaugural address. I think he would have left under he essentially destroyed what was left of his reputation in these last two months and he made himself a pariah by fundamentally waging war on our democracy. But hes always been the architect of his own demise. Hes always had selfinflicted wounds. Weve watched that for the last four years, and he couldnt admit that he lost. Educators. My mom was a teacher, my dad was a teacher and the fact that teachers who are on the front lines who want to be able to help kids and to lift up teachers. The ups worker, i mean to me that is the point. This was joe bidens biggest day and it wasnt about joe biden. Think about that. All hes been through, hes been trying to get there. And when he gets there he doesnt make it about joe biden. He makes it about the teachers and the workers and the hungry kids. That is a cultural shift not just a political shift. And also from what we heard from joe biden today none of it has been i had the biggest crowds, let me tell you about me. It was about america. He called himself during this campaign a transition president. And what he meant by that was i want to open the door for new people to come in. We heard a poet tell us things about ourselves we couldnt put into words. We are approaching a moment of which there is going to be a transition, a kind of we are trying to get two generations talking to each other. We are coexisting, living with one another and its not easy. Joe biden after all the oldest president coming into office is saying to people, i want to learn from you, i want to hear from you. In a way he did talk about himself as a transitional leader. Look at what hes going to be facing. He has no choice. Talking about generation and bringing in younger people, et cetera, hes going to have do more in so many ways than anybody in his first 100 days in office in a long time. And what was so interesting to me hearing these three former president s, the three amigos standing there talking to each other is they said to joe biden we are available to you in any way we can help. And can you imagine a previous president calling up these folks and saying, hey, can you give me some advice . I can imagine biden getting on the phone with any of these people, right, can you imagine him calling up barack obama or calling up george w. Bush and saying help me out. Amanda gorman is later in the hour. Anderson, thanks so much. And ill tell you we had a little bit of a view of the fireworks here a big view. From our perch with the white house right there. And ive been in washington now almost 30 years. And ive never seen the fireworks display like that ever. It was quite something. It was quite spectacular. Our friend wolf blitzer says all the time that our jobs are great because we get a front row seat to history, and we did that all day today, but we also got a front row seat to a really amazing fireworks display. I completely agree with you. Ive seen so many fireworks and nothing compares to this. It does help were overlooking the white house. Its nice to see the monuments being used in lou of other things. I mean under normal circumstances we wouldnt be talking about, you know, fireworks over the Washington Monument or Lincoln Memorial or tom hanks narrating. You did need a jacket, but it was a nice replacement for what we usually do. And i think that people at home would have found it to be just kind of a special moment and an opportunity to kind of see a bit of a normal life maybe they missed. A lot of people havent been going to concerts for months and months and months and so seeing a lot of their favorite stars and celebrities, this is the night for that. And look, i understand theres a real desire to feel good after a long time of not because of the pandemic and because of what the countrys been going through the last couple of months in particular. And certainly seeing president s clinton and obama and bush together speaking like fellow americans, speaking like colleagues if not friends is reassuring. But i have to say, you know, when bush said president bush said the fact the three of us are standing here talking about a peaceful transfer of power speak tuesday the institutional integrity of our country, there wasnt a peaceful transfer of power. People were kimmed because there was an insurrection incited by President Trump. Then it cut to tom hanks talking about how World Leaders were or people around the world were no doubt looking at the three president s and thinking how great it is. I dont know that we command that respect around the world after these last couple months. I take your point, but it was aspirational. It was, you know, showing just first of all the image, i kind of gasped when i saw the three of them standing there at that memorial because ive never seen anything like that. And the fact they came together obviously they all know each other quite well, but the fact they agreed to do this, to send a signal that despite what happened two weeks ago today that this is what america should stand for and is going to stand for again with joe biden as president. And yeah, of course there wasnt a peaceful transfer of power. I agree with that. Except next time it will work thats my concern. I think it was supposed to be comforting. I mean, look, what happened two weeks ago was really traumatic for a lot of people. Frankly, the last four years was really traumatic for a lot of people who didnt vote for donald trump. And i do think what they were trying to do tonight was give people just a glimpse of what the normal life might look like, what, you know, regular old former president s look like when they come together, and its remarkable only because the last president s was such an anomaly. But i think the goal here tonight was to just remind people that america is still america at the end of the day, and yeah, they were talking about a peaceful transfer of power. We didnt have one, but they were discussing that idea. And it was written that way cleverly, the fact the three of us are standing here talking about a peace for transfer of power, and all im saying is and im not trying to be professor buzz kill here is there are questions about the institutional integrity of our country, and if mccarthy had been speaker and not House Minority leader and 20 different officials out there whether its the governor of arizona or georgia or a couple of officials in michigan or arizona or whatever, had been of weaker character, i dont know what would be going on in this country right now. And yes, i want people to feel comforted. I want people to feel good. I want to enjoy this, but at the same time i dont want to paper over what happened. Youre absolutely right. The line that i thought really stuck out since george w. Bush was the only republican standing there was mr. President talking to joe biden, the new president. Im pulling for your success. Your success is our countrys success and god bless you. It sounds like was this his letter . Very closely mirrors his letter. The letter he wrote to president obama. And hes saying that again in public in this tribute to two other former president s now to President Biden. That was very telling especially given the fact they said he was the only republican standing there. He was trying to send a message. The fact they did this video is because they know the nation needs to see it. They dont do it this every 4 years or 8 years. Former president s dont go onto a memorial and do a little get well video to the nation. Let me bring in a historian and cnn commentator to talk about this video. Weve really never seen anything like this. And even though the three president s, clinton, bush and obama, didnt say it directly i have to believe that they felt like we need to do this because the country has been through this trauma especially in the last few months. Oh, absolutely. I think it was comforting. I understand your point, though, we cant be lulled into complacency to think that our democracy cant go through Something Like this again. Its fragile. And i think the last couple of weeks have shown that. But the thing that really struck me was when president obama said that his relationship with president bush was forged in those first few days, in that transition period when the bushes did welcome them into the white house twice in fact. Laura bush welcomed Michelle Obama once and once with her daughters to show her around the white house. And president obama said we can have fears, disagreements and recognize our common humanity. And theres no doubt there will be a lot of disagreements in the days ahead between republicans and democrats. But the idea that these three former president s will be there for President Biden should he need it, and i think he will probably be leaning on president obama from time to time, i think is a wonderful thing and something weve been sorely missing over the last four years. Absolutely. And the absence of donald trump in that group was notable and regrettable as well. Some of the actually most interesting postpresident ial friendships historically have been between actual rivals. I mean, on one level its easy for clinton, bush and obama all of whom are twoterm president s, none of whom who ran against each other to be friends. On one level even if they ran against each others legacies. But jimmy carter and gerald ford became friends. George h. W. Bush and bill clinton became friends despite having run rather tough races against one another. I mean its remarkable if you look back at these inaugural addresses, too. You had the incoming president praising the outgoing president in each of those cases. Jimmy carter actually, you know, thanked president ford for his service. Bill clinton thanked george h. W. Bush for his service and actually saluted him. I think we all miss that today just seeing President Trump there would have been, you know, very important. And its such an anomaly and so unprecedented. Obviously we havent had this since 1869 so its really difficult to kind of wrap your mind around it. But i think tonight was important, and like you said it was incredible to see those three former president s united together including a republican president supporting an incoming administration. I think they were standing at the world war ii memorial, three president s who are from postworld war ii generations. Kate, thank you so much, appreciate it. Let me throw it back to anderson. Sometimes its hard to put a moment like we as a country are right now into words. But today an extraordinary 22yearold poet did just that. She recited a poem she wrote for this day the hill we climb. First heres some of what she said today. When day comes we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never ending shade. The loss we carry a sea we must wade. We braved the belly of the beast. Weve learned that quiet isnt always peace. And the norms and notions of what just is isnt always justice. And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it, somehow we do it, somehow weve weathered and witnessed a nation that isnt broken but simply unfinished. We the successors of a country and a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one. If were to live up to our own time then victory wont lie in the blade but in all the bridges weve made. That is the promise the hill we climb if only we dare because being american is more than a pride we inherit. Its the past we step into and how we repair it. Weve seen a fores