Spent the last four years burning democratic norms to the ground. Good evening, im joy reid, and welcome to the reidout. John lewis died after a life spent fighti ining and literall bleeding for the right of people who look like me to vote and for the right of every american to live free of violence. And then theres donald trump who this weekend openly teased that he might not accept the results of a democratic election. Looks like can you give a direct answer, you will accept the election . I have to see. Look, vvy to see. No, im not going to just say yes. I didnt last time, either. The context for that, of course, is trump spent the last four years aspiring to something other than democracy. He got elected with the help of a foreign adversary after asking russia to help find dirt on his opponent. And then he got impeached for trying to do it again with ukraine. Regarding former Vice President joe biden. Hes tried to ban muslims and refugees from this country. Separated Migrant Children from their parents. Stoked racism, division, and hatred, while coddling neo nazis and the far right. And now he has sent federal troops into American Cities to suppress protests for Racial Justice and police reform. He and his attorney general have meddled in the american justice system, commuting the prison sentence of his friend and of war criminals while musing that his political enemies should rot in prison. And, perhaps, most shocking of all, he has failed spectacularly to lead as the country faces a raging pandemic with more than 130,000 dead. Instead, he denies basic science and continues to peddle the fantasy that it will all just go away on its own. And now even some republicans who from day one made their bargain to follow donald trump to the gates of hell have concluded that they must work around him. An adviser to the republican governor of texas told the New York Times the president got bored with the pandemic so now theyre turning to the Vice President instead. And all of that has played out with just one 105 days until the next election. In a few moments ill talk with the woman who beat donald trump by 3 million votes in 2016 only to be denied the presidency by the electoral college, Hillary Clinton, but my first guest is the man who will face donald trump in november, former Vice President joe biden. Former Vice President biden, thanks so much for being here tonight. Thank you, and congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Its a big day. Thank you so much, sir. Thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it. Were very glad to have you on. I have so many questions for you, you know, the first one i have to ask you, you came into office with president obama at the heels of a massive recession. On the heels of a very unpopular war that ripped this country apart and separated us from some f o o of our allies. That was a tough entrance for the barack obama and joe Biden Administration. If you are elected, sir, you will face what i would argue is even a worse situation. We have right now paramilitary, federal troops on the streets of American Cities, have people crying out for police reform, and we have this pandemic that is catastrophic. So many people have died. You talked a lot about it and about the tragedies. I want to let you listen to donald trump this weekend talking about that very pandemic. And talking about other countries response to it and let you respond. No country has ever done what weve done in terms of testing. We are the envy of the world. You look at other countries, they dont even do tests. I said, its going to disappear. Ill say it again. Its going to disappear. Does that ill be right. I dont think so. How do you respond to that . I think hes right, no countrys ever done what weve done, walk away. Theres no leadership here. He actually hassurrendered. Y he talked about, remember early on, this is going away in a few days, it will be gone tomorrow. Wake up and it will be gone, talked about how we were going to be in a position where we were going to be able to lead the world, et cetera, he was going to be a wartime president , fighting his vir ining this vir. Well, he raised the white flag. He has no idea what to do. Zero. Only one thing he has in mind, how does he win reelection . And it doesnt matter how many people get covid and or die from covid because he fears that if the economy is strapped as badly as it is today, that, in fact, hes going to be in trouble. Thats what this is all about. Ive never seen a president who has been so selfserving in the conduct of the office. And, you know, one of the ways think he believes hes going to get reelected is going back to the playbook he used before to try to go after obamacare, the Affordable Care act, passed, of course, during the administration with yourself and president obama and go after immigrants again. I want to let you listen to what he thinks the Supreme Court decisions recently have given him the license to do on those two issues. Were signing a Health Care Plan within two weeks. A full and complete Health Care Plan that the Supreme Court decision on daca gave me the right to do. So were going to solve, were going to sign an immigration plan, a Health Care Plan, and various other plans. What do you make of a president of the United States whos threatening, again, to take Health Care Away from 20 million, 30 million, people, as his Campaign Strategy and, again, going back to the idea of kicking out immigrants . Look, this guy has no sense of empathy or concern for people. People are dying. Dying. Families are bereft. People are so worried about being able to see their grandmoms and grandpops for fear that they may get the covid. I mean, this is i dont understand it. He has absolutely zero sense of empathy. Have you ever heard a word, him talking about how badly he feels about the losses . About the emptiness . Those folks have lost somebody. Feel like theyve been dragged into a dark, deep, hole in the middle of their chest. They dont know what to do. Theyre scared to death. Whats the president do . He talks about taking away Health Insurance, completely. And he says hes going to replace it with what . Been talking about that forever. Zero. It is absolutely i dont i quite frankly dont get it. I dont think how i dont understand how he thinks it appeals to the American People. Overwhelming, the American People want us to keep obamacare and improve on it. Not get rid of it in the middle of a pandemic, with hundreds of thousands of people ill and dying and he wants to take away Health Insurance, my lord. Well, you know, if you become president , if youre inaugurated on january 20th of next year, it will be then your problem to deal with this pandemic which, you know, we have to assume will still be raging because not enough is being done to try to beat it back. Walk us through what you would do differently and assuming it actually, by then, will be worse. Well, first of all, you may recall, joy, i all the way back in january warned of this pandemic was coming. I talked about what we needed to do. I talked early on about the defense act that allows him to go and say to a company, manufacture the followi ining ts and so on. So i just i mean, he has made every, every serious mistake and he has he has absolutely bludgeoned people who disagree with him and republican governors and the like. So, number one, i dont know how bad its going to be. Its going to just be worse because hes doing nothing to deal with what he said was going to go away. Its going to get worse. I speak with docs every teletime tel teletimes a week, sometimes four times a week for an hour and 15 minutes. They predict, among them, that there are gong to be over 200,000 dead by the time we get to election day. They predict that this is just going to get worse and worse. So im already faced with the circumstance if im fortunate enough to be elected president where were going to have to take significant action to do a number of things. One, you need more testing. You need to basketball e able t trace. Be in a position where youre able to insist that everyone wear masks, everyone socially distance, that businesses do not open if they cannot do that. We need to make sure that people are in a position where they can, in fact, maintain their businesses through the stimulus thats been out that the congress has put out. We need to keep people on their feet. We need to make sure Health Insurance we have Health Insurance as well as making sure no one has to pay for contacting covid and or being treated for covid. Theres a whole range of things we have and must do and can do. In addition, i would suggest right now, i urge the president to do this, right now, there may be a vaccine, god willing, after the first of the year. We should have a command officer now. We should be spending 25 billion to put together exactly how that will be distributed to over 300 million americans. How will we do that . Where will it go . How will we get it done well . It needs planning. Planning. And without any planning between now and election day, now and a time were sworn in, its going to make ait incredibly more difficult to get anything done and thats why were going to need a Major Public Health corps provision, whole range of things i wont bore you with now, but its going to be very, very, very digit. The current president is planning to go back to do daily briefings, youll recall these are the briefings at which he suggested drinking bleaches of certain types in order to cure covid. Is this something youve thought about, curing that, by doing briefings of your own . I have and ive done a number of them, as you recall, joy, when he was doing it, but there still is this overwhelming preoccupation with the presid t president , and hes the president so i get that part, but the idea that we cover everything he says even when i never thought id see a time when senior and mayor repojor r, someone like you, watching the president , as he speaks i dont mean anybody whos progressive, i mean across the board, saying like Chris Wallace, thats not true, mr. President , thats not what happened, mr. President. There seems to be such a fascination with covering everything he says and, by the way, the words of a president matter. No matter how incompetent the president s the words of a president can raise make the market rise or fall, they can make they can take us to war, they can bring peace, that i can do a lot. As president of the United States the first thing im going to do is stand up and talk sense and be honest with the American People, level with them, tell them exactly what i know, take responsibility for whats happening. Its going to take an awful lot, joy. I dont know what im going to be left with assuming im elected president. In order to do all that, you first have to get elected. Thats right. One barrier is foreign interference. You issued a statement saying youre aware foreign interference is already happening and say if elected president , ill treat foreign interference in our election as an adversarial act that significantly affects the relationship between the United States and the interfering nations government. I have no desire to escalate tensions with russia or any other country, but if any other foreign power recklessly chooses to interfere in our democracy, i wont hesitate to respond. Donald truru. Donald trump has not responded. Are you prepared to fight an election with russia and china potentially involved and what can you do about it . Well, the only thing we can do about it is be prepared. We have a group of lawyers going out to every Voter Registration position in the states. Secretaries of state making sure they have a game plan as to how theyre going to allow the voting to take place. Were continuing to push what nn nancy pelosi and the democrats in the house did, passed money to allow for voting in place, to have have not only voting by mail but also voting in place by providing the necessary equipment for social distancing, sanitation. We have 10,000 people have volunteered. Were going to try to get them plugged in as poll workers, not for us, but running the mechanisms in the states that they work for the state operations because last time i dont want this excuse that the reason why we closed down, im making a number up, there are 30 polling places in a precodominantly minority neighborhood, now theres only five because there are not enough poll workers. Doing everything we can to headache sure were making contact with every governor and every person in charge of the electoral process in their states. I cant do anything about what is going on in russia except respond and putin knows i mean what i say. This is a violation of our sovereignty. Our sovereignty. And if, in fact, it occurs, there will be response in kind. It will not go unstated, unnoticed, or unreported. I want to show you a graphic, this is the german publication, der spiegel, their most recent cover. You can see there trump, you know, the fire devil, a president sets this country on fire. The iron issues going on in th country regarding police violence, the violence thats going on currently by police against protesters and, you know, to say nothing of the federal troops in unmarked gear dragging people into cars, people not even knowing who they are. You have a complicated relationship with the whole issue of criminal justice reform, but if you are then if you are president in january, this will then be on your plate. Walk us through what a bill that comes from a Biden Administration looks like in terms of reforming policing. A bill reflects what barack and i started in our administration. Thered be a National Rule set. For example, thered be a National Requirement that there are no choke holds, a National Requirement that we are able to track and trace what, in fact, happens in Police Departments. Its made public. Making sure that there is a National Provision that says that there has to be transparency in reporting those cases that occur. And, in fact, the vast majority of police are decent and honorable but the majority but the minority is real trouble. And theyre causing great difficulty for police and theyre also causing great difficulty for jurisdictions that, in fact, are still trying to have to maintain law and order. Every single community, black community, hispanic community, asianpacific community, muslim community, theyre looking to be safe. They do not want things to be reckless, but we have to have a circumstance where there are responsible Police Officers that are in charge with basic fundamental rules, that, in fact, are stronger than the ones that are being debated in the United States congress right now and being but in the house, provisions that are there. And im going to work with the ive already been working with leaders of the caucus in the house to provide for the minimum standards that are required for every Police Department and reporting from body cameras to be able to have complete access to whatever occurs in that operation. Making sure, for example, that the prosecutors are not the prosecutors that, in fact, work with the Police Department but another prosecutor department. So theres no nexus between i represent him most of the time or her most of the time but from a different agency, a different jurisdicti jurisdiction. Theres a lot of things we can do that in no way, no way, will damage the police in terms of their efficacy or fairness but theyre required. Let me very quickly, were running out of time with you, but i want to get one more question in. Most africanamericans that ive talked to on a daily basis are very concerned that, you know, black women, in particular, have been the heartbeat of the Democratic Party for a long time. Really shored you up in places like south carolina. Are you committed to naming a black woman as your Vice President ial running mate . I am not committed to naming any but the people ive named and among them there are four black women. So that decision is under way right now. And by the way, black women supported me my entire career. You all act like all of a sudden theres an epiphany in south carolina. I have had over a 96 94 rating in the state with the eighth largest black community in the United States of america, delaware, and so theyre the ones, as the old saying goes, that brought me to the dance. I have been loyal. They have been loyal to me. And so it is important that my administration, i promise you, will look like america. Both as from Vice President to Supreme Court, to cabinet positions, to every major position in the white house. Its going to look like america. Its critically important that be the case. I can guarantee you that. Have you narrowed down your choices . Well, i tell you whats happening. Were getting the Detailed Analysis that is done. Ive been through one of these vets, as they say. It takes about six weeks. You go into everything, like having a public physical examination. And that has just been finished. Im ahaving a twohour vetting rep