responding to criticism after praising his successor the current vice president mike pence. biden s quick walkback, though, could be a sign he is inching toward a presidential run. our jeff zeleny explains. reporter: apologies come often in politics, said him for calling someone a decent guy. a guy the a decent guy. our vice president. reporter: hardly an ugly slur, former vice president biden s words about successor mike pence sparked a telling reaction from the left. our vice president who stood before this group of allies and leaders and said, i m here on behalf of president trump and there was dead silence. reporter: but there was not silence from cynthia nixon. joe biden, you called america s most lgbt leader a decent guy.
a selfie. that s the only thing they honestly that s true in many cases. i really just talked about what activism means to me and how and trying to encourage people to engage in their communities on a local level for their families because i think as soon as people engage, they start to feel how powerful that is. the risk of losing something has awakened people. so again, what do you do with that awakening? one of the things that came out of this and it s already in play here in california and in other states is that groups that had their silo, so to speak. lgbt leader as we saw there or somebody who helped to fund plaque liv black live matter, they are working together. is our strength in numbers? what is our messaging? these things are in the early stages, but there is a will to work together to come together to see what they can do, whether it s a blue state or one of those blue states that turned
national headlines. there s still fallout over governor pat mccrory s controversial bathroom bill that regulates which bathroom the transgender can use. now lgbt groups use it to get out the vote. nbc s steve patterson joins me now from raleigh with that story. steve, good morning to you, sir. reporter: good morning to you, craig, from beautiful downtown raleigh. look, as you mentioned, this is a key battleground state. 15 electoral votes up for grabs and both sides energized in the battle for hb 2 that means you have to use the bathroom assigned based on the gender in your birth certificate. that leaves out transgender people so we wanted to talk to kupec this morning. you re an lgbt leader. can you talk about as a transgender woman what it felt like when you heard this was going to be a law? i was shocked and saddened. i think it s really crushing to
and visit our website to learn how you may be able to get every month free. minutes from now, pope francis will make history during a visit to paraguay. he will be the first pontiff to meet with a gay rights activist. shasta darlington is there live. you spoke with the lgbt leader who was happily surprised that he was invited to meet with the pope. what did he tell you? reporter: that s right, poppy. he has a very clear message that he would like to deliver to the pope and it s not what you might expect it to be. gay marriage for example, isn t even on the radar screen here in paraguay. what he wants to talk to the pope about is families rejecting their own children and throwing them out on the street. take a look at this.
dialogue. it comes from open debate. the only way we ve gotten as far as we have in the state so far is the fact that we ve had lgbt leader stand up. we ve had straight allies who stand up with them. they say you know what? this is wrong. so this law is discriminatory here in russia. it only condones closet. it only condones homophobia. so the more people that speak out about it, the better. well, it s going to be a heck of a pageant. olivia, do you have a favorite to win? i do, but i can t tell you. alex, i ll tell you. want me to tell you who her favorite is? i do actually. okay. as long as it doesn t come out of my mouth, i m fine. it is always appointment tv. so much fun to watch. you kind of i look at all of you and think no way. but anyway, i m awfully glad to talk to you both. and it s going to be a great pageant tonight. everyone can watch it on nbc at 9:00 eastern time. best of luck you guys. break a leg. thank you.