This virus, it has no eyes and yet it knows exactly how we see each other and how we treat each other. And lets be clear, there is no vaccine for racism. We have got to do the work for george floyd, for breonna taylor, for the lives of too many others to name, for our children and for all of us. Weve got to do the work to fulfill that promise of equal justice under law. Because heres the thing. None of us are free until all of us are free. So were at an inflection point. The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callusness makes us feel alone. Its a lot. And heres the thing. We can do better and deserve so much more. We must elect a president who will bring something different, Something Better and do the important work, a president who will bring all of us together, black, white, latino, asian, indigenous. To achieve the future we collectively want we must elect joe biden. And i will tell you i knew joe as Vice President. I knew joe on the campaign trail. And i first got to know joe as the father of my friend. So joes son, beau, and i served as attorneys general of our states delaware and california. During the Great Recession he and i spoke on the phone nearly every day working together to win back billions of dollars for home owners from the big banks that foreclosed on peoples homes. And beau and i, we would talk about his family, how as a single father joe would spend 4 hours every day riding the train back and forth from wilmington to washington. Beau and hunter got to have breakfast every morning with their dad. They went to sleep every night with the sound of his voice reading bedtime stories. And while they endured an unspeakable loss, those two little boys always knew that they were deeply, unconditionally loved. And what also moved me about joe is in work that he did as he was going back and forth. This is the leader who wrote the violence against women act and enacted the assault weapons ban, who as Vice President implemented the recovery act which brought our country back from the Great Recessions. He championed the Affordable Care act protecting millions of americans with preexisting conditions. Who spent decades promoting American Values and interests around the world. Joe, he believes we stand with our allies and stand up to our adversaries. Right now we have a president who turns our tragedies into political weapons. Joe will be a president who turns our challenges into purpose. Joe will bring us together to build an economy that doesnt leave anyone behind, where a good paying job is the floor not the ceiling. Joe will bring us together to end this pandemic and make sure that we are prepared for the next one. Joe will bring us together to squarely face and dismantle Racial Injustice furthering the work of generations. Joe and i believe that we can build that beloved community, one that is strong and decent, just and kind. One in which we can all see ourselves. Thats the vision that our parents and grandparents fought for, the vision that made my own life possible. The vision that makes the american promise for all itse r. So make no mistake the road ahead is not easy. We may stumble. We may fall short, but i pledge to you that we will act boldly and deal with our challenges honestly. We will speak truths, and we will act with the same faith in you that we ask you to place in us. We believe that our country, all of us will stand together for a better future. And we already are. We sit it in the doctors, the nurses, the Home Health Care workers and front line workers who are risking their lives to save people theyve never met. We see it in the teachers and truck drivers, the factory workers and farmers, the postal workers and poll workers. All putting their own safety on the line to help us get through this pandemic. And we see it in so many of you who are working not just to get us through our Current Crisis but to somewhere better. Theres something happening all across our country. Its not about joe or me. Its about you. And its about us. People of all ages and colors and creeds who are, yes, taking to the streets and also persuading our family members, rallying our friends, organizing our neighbors and getting out the vote. And we have shown that when we vote we expand access to health care and expand access to the ballot box and ensure that more working families can make a decent living. And im so inspired by a new generation. You you are pushing us to realize the ideals of our nation. Pushing us to live the values we share decency and fairness, justice and love. You are patriots who reminds us that to love our country is to fight for the ideals of our country. In this election we have a chance to change the course of history. Were all in this fight. You, me, and joe, together. What an awesome responsibility. What an awesome privilege. So lets fight with conviction. Lets fight with hope. Lets fight with confidence in ourselves and a commitment to each other. To the america we know is possible. The america we love. And years from now this moment will have passed and our children and our grandchildren will look in our eyes, and theyre going to ask us where were you when the stakes were so high . They will ask us what k was it like, and we will tell them we will tell them not just how we felt. We will tell them what we did. Thank you. God bless you, and god bless the United States of america. [ applause ] [ applause ] theres your democratic ticket and their spouses. No live crowds to react these days. Politics is about mostly empty rooms. Of course its a time of heavy hearts. You just heard the Vice President ial candidate Kamala Harris wrapping up her historic speech as the first woman of color nominated to a ticket of a major party. She also if you were watching opened tonights session with a warning about the threats to Voting Rights presently in our country. And before that we heard the sharpest attack yet from trumps predecessor, former president barack obama who spoke live from the museum of the American Revolution in the city of philadelphia. And from the woman trump defeated, hillary clinton, a dire warning to the electorate not to sit this one out. Brian williams here with you for the rest of the way, but we want to begin with what we have just witnessed with our friends Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, joy reid who remain with us and watching from our new york studios. Rachel, i want to get your thoughts on tonight and what we have just witnessed. And im tempted to say you think you know somebody, and i dont mean us and the business. I mean us as American Consumers and citizens who had a good number of barack obama speeches to watch over 8 years of his presidency. You think you know somebody, and then tonight someone and something altogether different. Yeah, and actually i would apply that analogous brian both to the culminating speeches tonight. Both to president obamas peasph and senator harris. Shes been a public figure to me for a very long time. Ive paid close attention to her as a president ial candidate. I really thought she was going to win the president ial primary this year. I was completely wrong. She did want even make it to iowa before she dropped out and ended up endorsing biden. But i felt like i knew her before i saw her give this speech tonight, and this was a different Kamala Harris. This was more like what she is like in person if you have the opportunity to meet her off camera, that warmth and that personal willingness to show you who she is and to talk about things that matter to her in a way that, you know, can soften your heart a little bit. And i think of her as a politician and a public figure as being kind of nails, as being tough. Its part of the reason i always thought she had be an excellent general election candidate against President Trump or in any election. To talk about her mother as the most important public figure in her life. Talking about that 25yearold indian woman who gave birth to me, to turn to that my mother taught me service to others gives my life purpose and meaning. Thats a side of Kamala Harris very accessible i think and kind and warming in a way thats been so tough as a public figure. She hadnt shown much of that. That to me was a surprise. President obamas speech tonight slayed me. His warnings we could potentially be at the end of american democracy scared me, and i found upsetting and hard to watch. But its powerful. Powerful stuff. Yeah, absolutely. First of all, id like to cosign everything Rachel Maddow just said because i agree. To go to president obama for a moment i was looking to to write book about his speeches. So president obama can be a poet. Theres a kind of speech he gives particularly his eulogies that are all poetry and take you through these emotional chords of american history. Hes a writer so he speaks as a writer and participates in writing his speech which is unusual for a politician. And he has this poetic and almost dramatic sort of sense. That was not the kind of speech he gave tonight. This was president obama saying i sat in that office and i want you to listen to me because im warning you because i know it from inside the job that theres a danger here. This was the speech that obama has given throughout all of the speeches ive read or watched that absolutely did feel like the most of a warning. And i think it was warning about the potential end of america. And that seems dramatic when people say it and people throw around if we have four more years of trump the country will end, but there is a fundamental sense that if you break every institution that made it possible for there to be a barack obama it will end. You know, itll be another thing. I think his speech was important. I think its one of the most important speeches ive ever heard him give. On Kamala Harris, again, i will agree with Rachel Maddow. She is extremely nice. So i think the hard charging tough person that were used to seeing rip apart bill barr is the kind of person were used to, but shes also capable of just being this. And her story about her mom was so poignant to me. Personally i lost my mom to cancer which the part i need a kleenex because losing your mom and not having a mom with you during these big moments in your life when youre achieving big things is so personal, that for a politician to explain that and to share that with the public its something barack obama also understands and dealt with. And i think the pain politicians brings to the table is what makes them empathetic and makes them real. Joe biden has exactly the same ability to channel the personal. Tonight she was lovely and loving. I also want to shout out the Elizabeth Warren speech psh and i will give the total credit to rachel who noticed the blm in the background, said black lives matter. Love that and the Gabby Giffords. The Gabby Giffords thing was incredible. A lot of emotion there, and obviously this was the allstar team of democratic women. Hillary clinton, nancy pelosi, Gabby Giffords. You know, it was an allstar presentation, i think it was one of the best prosecution of a sitting president that i think ive rel really ever seen. Let me jump in on the obama speech first because i actually think that these speeches went together in an interesting way, and i think president obama doing what he did allowed senator harris to do what she did, and i think that kind of coordination is not often executed the way its been executed this week. Thats a good point. Let me say this about obama. I have a hunch that every living former president would speak from the same deep well of despair. Obamas speech shook me because of his despair laid bare. And if you had been the president you probably feel, you probably have a well of theory that started the first day of the transition. When donald trump and his son tried to setup a back channel to russia to go around the Intelligence Community. By the way, there are a bunch of stars at the cia from members of the Intelligence Community that died protecting this countrys National Security. First thing that trump did when he won was to liken them to nazis. So we cannot fathom the fury and the despair and the rage that every former living president im going to out on a limb and say the dead ones, too feel when they watch President Trump. And ive not seen any living president tap that well of despair and be vulnerable enough to share it with the country, but is my theory of the case of what president obama did tonight. And the gift it gave senator harris, the Vice President ial campaign exists in three acts. The first is the announcement speech. The second is the convention speech. And the third is the Vice President ial debate. By obama doing what he did and being that vulnerable and sharing that urgent call to action and i would guess he wrestled with whether or not to do that she was allowed to do i see her attacks as really nice. I think the reason she slays bill barr is because she does it with this velvet hammer. I didnt see her as sort of putting aside the fearnewiercen be nice. I dont think any woman should have to compartmentalize herself. Im from the bay area, too, and ive grown up knowing her and watching her and watching all the women around her. So to see all them there it just let her tell that part of her story, but i think that this Convention Story telling is second to none. I actually think that the stories they have told have built this drama that is hollywoodlike in its tension, in its despair, in its pain. I mean to make the pain that we have all felt if you love this country to watch what donald trump has done do it has been searing. It has been gutting. And to make that part of the case to the country is risky, and, you know, we wont know until election day if it works, but it is big and it is painful, and it is raw. And i just think that this obama speech was one for the ages. And it let everybody else kind of go out and do what they be to do to tell the biden story, but i think its something well be talking about for a really long time, brian. Excuse me, brian. I was just going to say before we delve back into what we witnessed historians and we all read them and we all are lucky to be living in a time of great historians love president s and precedent. And think about a time when no prior president s support the incumbent. And nicolle, think about next weeks convention. The living surviving former republican president will not set foot virtually or no in that convention. This is an extraordinary night for those reasons. Well, and brian, so take that and put that exact frame around former living generals except maybe flynn, right . Youve got mattis who was who is a great and revered general who came out after Lafayette Square and likened Donald Trumps tactics and his penchant for division to the nazis. I mean, thats not just a general that wont stand with him as he, you know, stands for reelection but someone who has called the president he served similar in his tactics to the nazis. Youve got john kelly who i think called him an idiot. Youve got Rex Tillerson who was his secretary of state who called him a bleeping p p p p . And for the people who cover it this is instructive. Because the trump team rules by intimidation and fear. This was his cabinet. His National Security officials drew these conclusions, and theres only one president at a time. So president obama, former president s bush didnt see him up close, but Rex Tillerson did. John kelly did. Secretary mattis did, and those are the conclusions they drew. I think it is a moment of choosing for this country. I think thats what president obama came out and said tonight. And again, none of us knows what the country will choose, but i do think that senator harris and Vice President biden deprived donald trump of all of his ammunition from four years ago. Theyre not elites. I mean, donald trump ran as this sort of common man, but he isnt. He has gold toilets. Joe biden was nominated by someone he met in an elevator that did want endorse him. I mean, joe biden is sort of taking all the trumpy stuff away from trump. And i think senator harris helps make that case. I think president obama helped tell the story of why it matters so much. President obamas not emotion but his kind of there was a little bit of rage. We all know there has to be a saturday night live character create today be rachel obama, right i had told the control room i want today play number six, which i changed my mind about because im that terrible person but can we play number three of obama . So at this point he has made the argument that our democracy is at stake. He has talked about how a democracy withers until it is no democracy at all, when people are talked about the idea that our system of selfgovernance is what we can do to solve whatever problems that we have. But theres this moment where you see obama like kind of having to reel himself back in terms of how serious he thinks this is and what we have to do about it. Lets watch that. What we do echoes through generations. Whatever our backgrounds we are all the children of americans who fought the good fight. Greatgrandparents working in sweatshops without rights or representation. Farmers losing their dreams to dust. Irish and italians and asians and latinos told go back where you come from. Jews and catholics, muslims and sikhs made to feel suspect for the way they worshipped. Black americans chained and whipped and hanged, spit on for trying to sit at lunch counters. Beaten for trying to vote. If anyone h