Me. But we start with Vice President s campaign barely 24 hours old, democrats criticizing his donors and his record. President trump criticizing bidens age. Yes, you heard correctly. The former Vice President s biggest problems though, two women whose stories undercut the positive image the Vice President and his team hope to broadcast. Lets start there. We have our resident biden whispering. And also with us, ashley parker, msnbc senior political analyst. I will start with you, back from the train station in delaware. Joe biden taking heat from two sources today, anita hill as we understand it and the mother of the woman who was killed in charlottesville, virginia whom biden mentioned in his announcement video. Walk us through these two controversies. In some ways yesterday was a very good rollout, sort of a classic joe biden day. It starts with this direct to camera very emotional determined appeal about his candidacy, the battle for the soul of the nation. Of course he was on that sell la up to wilmington, we had that day on the tick scene, the retail scene, joe biden mixing it up with some of his supporters. But a classic joe biden day also involves some of the ghosts from the past and of course it didnt take long before the name anita hill emerged. The campaign was trying to get ahead of the story just simply mentioning the two had spoken and then anita hill in the New York Times saying yes, he apologized, but she did not view it as an apology but she believes he still have more to account for. We havent heard too much from joe biden since then. We know he is doing his first interview in the coming minutes. So well be listening to see how he addresses that. As it relates to the charlottesville and innovation of Heather Heyer who lost her life, there was . Initial controversy when her mother did say that she was a little bit offended perhaps that the Vice President hadnt reached out ahead of time. The Vice President last night at a fundraiser did reveal that he had in fact reached out in an interview today, Heather Heyers mother did say yes, they connected, she understands why he didnt mention it didnt reach out to her ahead of time and that they bonded during the conversation talking about the shared loss of life of their own children. And he is also catching flack from some of the other 2020 candidates including Bernie Sanders. What was the criticism from bernie . We know one of the other events that joe biden had last night was a high dollar fundraiser. We expected this. Some of the other candidates immediately piling on, one of his first acts as a candidate money from special high donor interests perhaps. But Simone Sanders was a former Bernie Sanders adviser, now on the joe biden team, she tweeted yesterday you would think folks would put their energy into figuring out how to win a roomful of black women as opposed to what you all were doing. Of course a liability for Bernie Sanders, he has not demonstrated his ability win over black women. Joe biden thinks he has an appeal to them in part because of his close relationship with barack obama, his partnership with him for eight years. And meanwhile trailing the Elizabeth Warren campaign there in the hawkeye state. She has not been quiet about her criticisms of bidens connections with the finance industry. Reporter yeah, that is true. And i think what you saw from Elizabeth Warren was in a different way than what Bernie Sanders did which was differ im going to cut you off because were having a bit of an audio issue. Well hopefully come back to you in a moment. Ashley parker, ill come to you in the in the meantime. President trump perhaps unsurprisingly laying in to joe biden again this morning. That listen. I am a young vibrant man. I look at joe, i dont know about him. I dont know. I would never say anyone is too old, but i know they are all making me look very young both in terms of age and i think in terms of energy. So ashley, we know that the president fachncies his nicknam for his political ryele values. Is he poll testing sleepy or not too intelligence and old, is that what were seeing . He has ruled out sleepy. There has been some chatter about creepy. He sort of seems to have settled on some nicknames, but he may yet change them. But were also seeing here this kind of vaguely amusing frankly testosterone fueled battle between these two accept ga theirian grandfathers about who is more youth testimony and energetic. When you are in your 70s, neither one of you can plausibly be called youthful, but i think that we will see sort of a fair debate about who has the energy and the stamina and the vigor to go against each other. And i think for bolts of these men and the way that they started their rollout, takes point of personal pride. So not just a case for the electorate, but something that the president who we recently saw him in reading glasses sort of threw a sneaky photo tries to demonstrate a young image of himself. And as someone who spent some time with the Vice President , he is out there. Even folks who dont necessarily agree with his politics have used the term infatiguable to describe him on the campaign trail. And id also point out to our listeners on radio, please send your emails to Ashley Packer if you are north of 70 and you consider yourself youthful. Dont send them to me. This announcement yesterday, ashley, came with some big name Recognition Media coverage, the whole shall we say show of force strategy. And in less than 24 hours after that, youve got criticism from rival, you have criticism from anita hill, you have criticism initially at least from Heather Heyers mother. What did you make of that . Did that surprise you at all . The criticism . I mean, it is not that surprising in the sense on the one hand as mike said it was a classic joe biden day in both ways. And it was very good and there were also some sort of not quit past. And biden very early on, the white house saw as the biggest threat to President Trump if he got the nomination. Then the intervening months, that faded a bit, but i think one thing that is interesting is the campaign, the Trump Campaign generally wants to paint the democrats as sort of an amorphous blob of liberal socialists. So the fact that he goes after biden by name is a sense that he does view him as someone who needs to be addressed and a potential threat and i think when someone is viewed as a threat, you get a lot of backlash from the democrats and from the president. Ashley parker, thank you. Mike, as well. Joining me from iowa, congresswoman gabbad who announced that she is also seesking her partys nomination. Thank you for your time. Lets start with the Vice President here now that he is in the race. How does not affect your strategy . Were continuing to drive forward because ive got an Important Message that i think is resonating with people across this country. You know, im a soldier. Ive served over 16 years in the Army National guard. And that is actually how i got to know have not biden was through his son, beau biden, who was also in the national guard. Through my experiences in that service, deploying twice to the middle east, serving in congress for over six years on the Armed Services and fofrn affairs committees, i know how important the responsibility that the president has to be the commander in chief, to make sure that our country is safe and secure. And i know firsthand the cost of war. So as president and commander in chief, i will end the regime change wars, the new cold war and Nuclear Arms Race, work to end these things so that we can take the trillions of dollars that weve wasted for far too long on these regime change wars and invest it in serving the needs of the American People, help to provide health care for all, to rebuild our infrastructure, to improve our education, to serve these needs that people all across this country are very much struggling with. You mentioned the regime change wars and youve talked about this a number of times on the trail. You did two tours as i understand it overseas. Yes. There are roughly 14,000 Service Members who are still in afghanistan today, there are another 5200 in iraq right now. What is your plan for them if you were to be elected . Would all of them immediately be brought home and if not, how long would they say . Lets look at afghanistan because afghanistan and iraq have been different situations. In afghanistan, we do need to bring our troops home. Were in the 18th year of this ongoing war that when we really look at it, what has been accomplished other than the tremendous and unfortunate loss of thousands of american lives, cou countless afghan lives, how many have been wounded and are dealing with the suffering because of the ongoing war that really hasnt gotten us anywhere. Were in a position today where the taliban is negotiating with the Afghan Government to broker an agreement to go forward. Really what weve got to look at and how our troops are being used to serve this country is they need to be sent on missions that will keep the American People safe. That is the purpose of our military. And that is why we need to stop these regime change are wars that have gone on for far too long. And unfortunately, that this administration wants to continue. You see these regime change efforts being pushed by people like john bolton and mike pompeo and President Trump in places like venezuela. And iran. Where they are beating the war drums getting ready towards that eventuality, something that they have beened a vow indicating i time. They take a tremendous toll on our troops, on our military families who see their loved ones deploying over and over and over again. And it takes a toll on the American People. Every time they are told we dont have enough money it make sure that there is clean water for people in flint, michigan or other parts of the country, we just dont have enough money to serve the needs of the American People when in fact we do, it is just a matter of getting our priorities straight. Another familiar and popular face in this race of course, Bernie Sanders. You endorsed him during the last president ial run back in 2016. You actually left your post at the dnc to enforce him. What is different this time around . Because based on what ive heard and read, you and senator sanders are very similar in terms of your politics. I made my decision to run for this seat long before bernie had made his announcement. And i did so for some very important reasons. Back in january of last year, there was a huge wakeup call in this country and especially in my home state of hawaii when we got a text alert that went across over a million phones in our state, im sure you remember this, you guys reported on this, it said missile incoming, seek shelter immediately. This is not a drill. That was a terrifying incident causing families and loved ones to wonder where could they be safe from a Nuclear Missile coming towards hawaii. There was a father who contacted me after this whole thing saying, you know, i was in the middle of the island of, one child on one side of the island and another on the other and i have just minutes to live, which do i go and spend the last minutes of my life with. An impossible question to answer. But what this brought home even though that alert turned out to be a false alarm, the reality is the threat is real. The threat of Nuclear Attack or some kind of Nuclear Catastrophe or incident is real. And that is why im running for president , to bring the expense that i have of both serving as a soldier as well as serving in congress for over six years on these Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees to work to bring about an end to this Nuclear Arms Race and work towards keeping our country safe and once again taking the money that weve been wasting on these regime change wars and weapons and investing it in serving the needs of our people. Congresswoman, as you they senator sanders said this week that all prisoners should be able to vote including, quote, terrible people. A number of the other 2020 democrats disagree with that. Where do you stand . Yeah, i disagree with his statement there for a couple reasons. I think it is important as were seeing some of the states make changes now to allow people, felons and others who have served their time, to regain their right to vote. But one thing that weve got to look at as folks are incarcerated or serving their time is the dangers of power being abused, whether it be by Prison Guards or wardens or others to try to influence or direct the votes of those who are in prison within way or another. So i think that it is important for us to focus on making sure that i dont understand that. Help me understand how that could be a thing. Well, youve got people who are in positions of incredible power telling people when they can eat, when they can go to the bathroom, when they can go outside, when they can do this or that, access, taking away access, giving them access to certain things when they are in prison. And with that power comes room for abuse. So if you are saying okay, it is vetting day today and you allow for that power to be abused to say this is the way that youll vote, i dont think that is right. So youre opposed to restoring the Voting Rights of folks who are incarcerated in part because of concerns over Corrections Officers using that as a tool . Yeah. Okay. Lets talk about the campaign so far. As i understand it, according to the most data we have, you raised just shy of 2 million. In the first three months of this year, there was just one fulltime paid campaign staffer. A lot of folks watching and listening might think that does not appear to be a president ial campaign that is being run with a great deal of seriousness. The reports youve read are misrepresenting our strong, yes, lean and mean team who are working very hard in different part of the country. So you have more than one fulltime paid staffer . Yes, we do. We have some who are working parttime. We have many amazing volunteers who i want to give credit to who are working tirelessly in places like iowa and New Hampshire and california and across the country as we continue to focus on bringing our message of really putting service above self to the American People. That is really what we need to do to get to the heart of the challenges that we face in this country. Why havent you been afbl to raise more money . Were continuing to raise money and im grateful for the supporter supporters who have stood up, both those giving five bucks or ten bucks or those giving contributions in larger amounts before people giving what they can because they believe in the kind of change that were seeking it bring in this country. I just got an email from someone yesterday who said that he is in his late 70s, he is dieing from cancer, and he is giving whatever he can to our campaign in the hopes that he can play some part and some role in changing our foreign policy, to bring about an end to these wasteful wars that have cost us so much. And lead us down a path towards a peaceful and brighter fuft. As you know, the Mueller Report made clear in no Uncertain Terms that russia interfered in the 2016 election. Nbc news reported earlier this year that several experts who track websites and social media linked to the kremg lynn halin believed what they believe is the russian came pain paign of for one Tulsi Gabbard. There was a higher number of stories about joe biden, Bernie Sanders, other candidates. Why does Russian Media seem to enjoy Tulsi Gabbard so much . Look, i think some of those reports have been debunked every on the last several months. I think what is most important is the message that im bringing to the American People. So there are all these other different distractions and i want to say im bringing a message of peace, ending wasteful wars, making sure our country is safe and investing in serving the needs of our people. Second secondly, it is important that as we talk about interference in our elections that we recognize the actual vulnerabilities that exist, whether it be from a foreign country or some rogue actor to come in and actually try to manipulate and change the outcome of our elections. Hacking into our systems. Trying to change the votes that are cast. Ive introduced legislation called the securing americas elections act that would make sure that we have either paper ballots or voter verified paper backup so that we have an auditable paper trail that exists should there be any question about interference and manipulation of our elections. There are still a number of states in this country who do not use any kind of paper backup or paper ballot. Leaving those things leaving those election systems highly vulnerable. This is something that we have to urgently address if were serious about making sure that no person or foreign country or foreign actor is able to threaten our democracy, by changing our election