Every state. Her cause to push for fair and free elections taking an urgency in coronavirus. We can have a democracy and elections at the same time correct the public health. All that, plus your questions this is a special edition of the last word, joe biden with Stacey Abrams. When joe biden announced his campaign for president just over a year ago, covid19 did not exist. But now the coronavirus pandemic threatens the lives of every man, woman and child in the United States. You have heard joe biden on all of the other issues that were raised in the several president ial campaign debates, now its time to hear from joe biden about the issues that will dominate the rest of the president ial Campaign Issues of life and death. If joe biden is sworn in as the next president on january 20th, your life and your childrens lives and your parents lives and your grandparents lives are going to depend on the work that joe biden starts doing that afternoon in the oval office in the cabinet room in the situation room. Were going to ask joe biden to take us inside those rooms with him tonight and tell us exactly what he would do on the afternoon of Inauguration Day if he is elected president. When i say we, i mean you will be joining in the questioning because we will turn this hour into a town hall of sorts with questions from you, our viewers for joe biden and Stacey Abrams when she joins us later in this hour. Stacey abrams is the head of an Organization Called fair fight, which is devoted to making sure that all voters will be able to cast their votes for president on november 3rd without any interference with their Voting Rights and Stacey Abrams now has the new mission of making sure that you can cast your vote safely in the age of coronavirus by mail, if necessary. Stacey abrams will join us later in this hour. We begin tonight with the numbers, as of tonight, there are now 1,422,824 confirmed cases of coronavirus and as of tonight, this country has suffered at least 86,179 confirmed deaths from coronavirus and there is a third number that would be the only number we talk about tonight if it were simply the result of changing Economic Conditions instead of it being the result of a deadly pandemic sweeping the world and that third number is the largest number of people filing for Unemployment Benefits in the history of the Unemployment Program with an additional 3 Million People reported filing today bringing the total to 36. 5 Million People claiming Unemployment Benefits. The Unemployment Rate is 14. 7 and going up from there. That is the highest Unemployment Rate since the Great Depression of the 1930s and when democrat Franklin Roosevelt beat an income wainku income want president roosevelt was sworn in facing a 25 Unemployment Rate but he was not also facing a deadly virus that was killing more than 100,000 people as the coronavirus will surely do before the next president ial inauguration. Joining us now is former Vice President joe biden, democratic candidate for president. Thank you very much for joining us tonight, mr. Vice president. Wepreciate you being here. Lawrence, thanks for having me. I want to go right into day one of your presidency and lets assume the conditions we have today because dr. Fauci, Anthony Fauci guarantees us and used its for a second wave. That second wave would surely be breaking in january combined with the regular flu season. You can imagine 1700 people dying a day, which is happening now. We can imagine hundreds of thousands more infections happening throughout the country and, and at the very same time you have this depression level Unemployment Rate. Your inauguration will be quick. It will not have a parade if the conditions are the same as today. It will probably take place indoors. Youll be able to get right back to the oval office by 1 00 p. M. You walk back into the west wing of the white house. Secretary of labor is waiting with the frightening unemployment statistics, dr. Fauci will probably still be there or will have been rehired by you if hes been fired. Where do you start . Who do you talk to first . Whats the decision sequence . Well, first of all, its going to depend on how much worse this president makes it between now and january the 20th of 2021. The fact is that it can get even worse than it is now. He has delayed, delayed, delayed from the very beginning his willingness to go out and deal with this crisis. Hes ignored it. He said it was going to go away. It was going to be a miracle. He wasted an awful lot of time and as a consequence, an awful lot of lives were lost in the meantime. He didnt cause the coronavirus but he has not reacted well. But one thing youre going to have to do is youre going to have to have by that time, between the time of being elected and the time of being sworn in have put together a team of people thats going to deal with this in a way that hadnt been dealt with up to that point, at least probably will not have been dealt with. One, detell the American People the truth. Look at the science. Put together a board, a pandemic board like we did in world war ii when president roosevelt put together a board that related to dealing with how were going to deal with world war ii. This is a requirement that we have the best people in the world sitting there advising me and the country as to what has to be done. In the meantime, its going to matter, lawrence, whether or not between now and then this president has used his powers and used the organizational ability that the white house had, that the president has to make sure we have enough ppp, those protective gear for this second wave. If there is going to be the second wave, which is predictable and to make sure well have in place all the tests that we need, all the tests we need and we are able to track and test. Test and follow on when there is an outbreak, where it was. Track and trace. All that requires equipment. It requires planning. It requires time. If thats been done, the task will be least easier and cost fewer lives. If it has not been done, it will be an absolute incredible disaster beyond repair. Mr. Vice president , one of the issues you have to deal with in this pandemic obviously is worldwide and international relations. China where this virus began is still going to be a major factor for you to contend with starting on your first day in the white house. Lets listen just for a moment about how donald trump has dealt with, described his view of china over the course of this pandemic, lets listen to this. The presidency loves the people of china. He loves his country and hes doing a very good job with a very, very tough situation. He is very capable. The country is very capable. It could have been stopped right where it came from, china. I started calling it the chinese virus. Could have been stop in china before it started, and it wasnt. Ask china that question, okay . So the president goes from saying china is doing a great job to its all chinas fault. How are you going to deal with china . You have to have some level of cooperation with then in terms of research and in terms of medical supplies, many of which originate in china but it clearly a difficult relationship to manage especially with the coronavirus. Well, first of all, the president got it wrong from the beginning, absolutely missed any opportunity to get ahead of this. You know, back in january, i think it was the 27th he said this praising china and talking about it not being a problem. We had put together in our administration an office within the white house to deal with future pandemics. They had been briefed on it. They meaning incoming administration. We had over 44, if im not mistaken, people from the cdc in china, in china to observe what was going on. The president brought home the vast majority of them and left four in place. I kept i wrote an article back in, i think, the 27th of january saying we there is a pandemic is coming. We should insist on being in china to see for ourselves what was happening to be prepared. The president said no, no, theyre doing a great job. All this is going everything is fine. The fact is that he has not been responsible at all from the very beginning. We lost at least three months of opportunity to get ahead of this, or at least to catch up with it, to catch up with the problem. And so the thing id be doing is resetting the Pandemic Office in place number one. Making sure we had the cdc like we did in our administration forward based around the world so we could see these things coming because there will be more coming. The truth is trump was praising the Chinese Government and down playing the threat to the American People as i said, as i was warning to get the people in china to see what was going on. The Chinese Governments word, we squandered critical time. I just dont and now hes trying to play this china card. I mean, i dont know what this is an unusual president. I want to go to the complexity of what youll be facing on day one with all those cabinet members there, obviously the secretary of state, if their nominations are pending, theyll still be there. The secretary of state will be concerned with not only the relation to china and all this but how a vaccine, once its developed can be distributed throughout the world because we know if we dont crush it throughout the world, it will come back to us. I just want you got it for one second Laurie Garrett who is an msnbc contributor and politzer prize winner and been writing about Infectious Diseases for many years. She was describing the complexities of administration of a vaccine once that vaccine is eventually developed. Lets listen to the way she described those international complexities. It requires creating a profit motive scheme of some sort that brings the industry to the table without imagining the profit returns they usually want from pharmaceuticals and that means coming up with agreements with the World Trade Organization and with the trade related intel lex well property agreements and all sorts of instruments of international law. Mr. Vice president , youre familiar with the instruments shes talking about, most of us are not. The vaccine, if developed, will happen at the earliest on the watch in the next president ial term, what would be your first president ial term getting that vaccine out in the United States and helping it get distributed to the world would be your job. How would you approach it . Well, look, id approach it like i did in our administration when we dealt with ebola and we organized the rest of the world. We got the rest of the world to come up with billions of dollars to deal with the problem. It wasnt a vaccine at the time. And now guess what is happening . There was an International Meeting of all those countries that are trying to work out and find an answer to a vaccine. Everyone showed up except us. The United States was not there. Not there. And we, in fact, the president said were the best, we dont basically we dont need anybody elses help. Were going to have to be in a position to be one of the leaders in the world to figure out how we can make sure that this vaccine is made available first and foremost in our case to the people in the United States of america access to it, rural, all people. That will be a difficult thing to figure out how to get it out around the country. In addition to that, there are a lot of nations that have no capacity to pay for any of this and not with standing the profit motive. So what were going to be in a position of having to do is get other governments to help fund, fund for the rest of the world these vaccines made available in other parts of the world because as you said, lawrence, we may square it away here but what happens if there is novak seen vaccine in central and latin america . As we learn by now, you cant built a wall high enough to keep out a virus. We should be leading the world and we are once again absent. Were not even in the discussion. Were not even in the discussion of whats going on in london right now. In cambridge, theyre on the verge, they think of moving forward. If we dont participate at all, what makes us think were going to be in on the deal . We must organize the world to deal with this so everyone has access and its going to cost all of us. If i can make an analogy. Its like we have the amazon burning and what is happening is its the greatest carbon sink in the world, it absorbs more carbon into the earth than we emit in a single day and its burning. What are we doing . The president is sitting around doing nothing. We should be organizing saying were going to raise 20 billion and go to the president of befo brazil and say here is the deal. Well make sure you dont have to burn the amazon to make a living in your country. This is what were going to do. Were doing nothing. The same way things will happen when you have Eastern European countries, the african countries that dont have the capacity to pay for it. The world is in their overwhelming interest of the rest of the world and the major nations of the world, the Major Economic powers to provide this capacity and has to be organized, organized. I want to open it up to our town hall component and get a question from a voter. This first question, mr. Vice president is from a voter in california. Let listen to this. Okay. Hi Vice President biden, i am from san mateo, california and thank you for allowing me to participate in this town hall with you. Thank you. The theme that you always recite. Face sees best in the dark. I find it so profound what is going on in America Today with so many families across this country going through tough times. As someone who lost a wife and a daughter and a son and knows what its like to go through loss, what advice would you give to a family who has lost someone to covid19 . Thank you. Well, first of all, you know, the folks who have recently lost someone to covid19 over 86, almost 87,000 of them now, they feel like theres a black hole in the middle of their chest, they are being sucked into it and frightened and scared and dont know what to do. All i can tell them is that it will take time. But in time, whats going to happen is youre going to find when you think of that son, daughter, husband, wife, mother, father you lost, youre going to get a smile on your lip before you get a tear in your eye and thats when you know youre going to make it and the way you make it, at least in my experience is so many people have gone through so much more than i have, losing a wife, daughter and son to cancer is you have to have a purpose. You have to have purpose. Purpose will drive you to be able to get, to control your life and the purpose will be many of these people, what do we do to headacmake life better, b for other people . How could we have avoided what happened. Are we going to do things like making sure First Responders that lost their lives and those are the remainder getting paid essentially minimum wage, get a fair deal . Theyre carrying us on their back. Theyre carrying the country on their back right now, and theyre not being treated with dignity and respect. I think the way theyll right now thats no solace to anybody that recently lost somebody. It of no solace. What i have to say is theyre still with you. Theyre in your heart part of your soul, who you are. You have to have faith the time will come, the time will come when youll get through this vail of darkness. You really will. But the best way to get through it is with a sense of purpose and realizing he or she is with you. Theyre in you. Theyre part of you. They never go away and theyll advice you and be there with you and youve got to move. You got to get up. As my dad would say, you know, when you get knocked down, you just got to get up, just get up. Think what would they want you to do . Would they want you to do . Theyd want you to get up and be safe and move on. Thats all i can really say, quite frankly. Its of no solace to anybody who has verecently lost someone and this is all recent. Mr. Vice president , before we go to a break and bring in Stacey Abrams. I want to ask you about the tara reade story. You were chairman of committees having worked in the senate myself. Im just in my head doing the numbers. You have to have had well over 1,000 Senate Staffers before the committee staff, the Delaware Senate staff, do you remember tara reade who worked there for about a year in 1992, 93. To be honest with you, i dont. Look, let me get something clear. When a woman makes a claim that she has been harassed or abused, and this claim has changed, seriously, she should come forward and taken seriously and thoroughly vetted and in every case, what matters is the truth. Truth is what matters. The truth of the case is nothing like this ever, ever happened. She has a right to be heard but then should be vetted and the truth ultimately matters. And i give you my word, it never ever happened. Let me ask you about a piece, an op ed piece by linda entitled i believe tara reade, im voting for joe biden anyway. She says this is an accusation with no witnesses and happened in a public place the way she describes it in the basement of the senate. That might sound like a private place but as you and i both know, thats a thorough fair a very busy area. There are no witnesses to it so it your word saying it didnt happen and now her version of it that it did happen. What do you say to women ready to vote for joe b