10, whenever, when he was giving eight checks to Hillary Clinton or when donald trump was giving money to Anthony Weiner or donald trump was contributing to you just name it charlie rangel. Go down the long list. But he actually gave in 2013 i think ivanka did, too. Yeah, ivanka did, too like i said, the trumps are big fans. And they dont just say it with their words. They say it with checks that they write. They put their money where their mouth is. Last month, President Trump said she would be a fine choice. Hes changing his mind this morning. Good morning and welcome to morning joe. Its very interesting. It is wednesday, august 12th. Along with joe and me, we have White House Reporter for the associated press, jonathan lami lamire, nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of kasie dc, kasie hunt, host of msnbcs politi politicsnation and president of the National Action network, reverend al sharpton, and nbc news and msnbc contributor Shawna Thomas is with us. So, after weeks of speculation, joe biden has announced senator Kamala Harris as his running mate for the 2020 president ial election. In texts and emails to Campaign Supporters shortly after 4 00 p. M. Yesterday, biden broke the news, writing in part, ive decided that Kamala Harris is the best person to help me take this fight to donald trump and mike pence and then to lead this nation starting in january of 2021. And shortly after that, he posted the announcement on twitter, calling harris a fearless fighter for the little guy and one of the countrys finest public servants. Bidens announcement comes more than a year after he and harris, a former president ial rival, clashed over bidens record on race during the first democratic debate. Ooh. As will ferrell it was tough. Would say, that was rough. That was rough. If elected, harris would become the nations first black, first female, and first Asian AmericanVice President. Her father is from india, her father. Harris was a prosecutor, San FranciscoDistrict Attorney, and later, California Attorney general. Bidens Campaign Says the news of his vp pick ignited the Biggest Online fundraising hour of his campaign. Ironically, donald trump was also a financial supporter of course. As we mentioned, of Kamala Harris. A couple years ago, actually. Yes he contributed twice to her campaign. Twice . Not once, gut twice to her campaign for california he thought she was so nice, he contributed twice. Well, he believed in her. Yes, he did. He invested in her. Would be a good pick, he said a couple weeks ago. He did. Giving 5,000 in 2011 and 1,000 in 2013. Ivanka trump also invested in Kamala Harris, was one of her financial backers its a family thing. I had her at the know your values San Francisco event. Yeah. The crowd went wild. They did. And she really connected with the women in the audience. Extremely, not just likable, as they talk about as people cover campaigns and talk about temperament, but she cares about womens issues. She cares about equality deep within her soul, from her own experience. Weve had a great time knowing her so far, and its kind of exciting, this pick. And joe, you always have a saying in politics that really applies to the choice of Kamala Harris for Vice President. What is it . Stay out of the spotlight . No. No. The saying is, you know, i have a couple sayings. One of them is yes, you have a couple. Just a couple. One of them always is, though, they never stop you when you go 90 miles an hour. That doesnt apply here as much as what i always tell politicia politicians over the past 25 years, when they come up with a great idea, and its this never sneak up on the press. Do not try to surprise the press. Let them know whats coming. You get no extra points in the long run none. For a big, exciting announcement. It usually blows up in your face. If youre going to select dan quayle, Geraldine Ferraro, or sarah palin as your Vice President ial pick, what you do a month before is you say to somebody, hey, im thinking about picking dan quayle. Im thinking about picking sarah palin. Thinking about picking Geraldine Ferraro as my Vice President ial pick. What do you think . And the media and the activists love drama. They love to be surprised. They love to say, who . Who did he pick . Who did she pick . No. Dont surprise. Dont sneak up on the press. It never ends well. And ive been saying this when i was a politician, i say it now. Whats so interesting about the kamala choice is that joe biden is getting the positive effect of a landmark choice. And a lot of people were saying before, well, Kamala Harris, that would be a boring pick because well, thats good, if thats true. Everybody knows that, you know, shes a frontrunner. Theres no excitement. Wrong. Its a landmark pick, regardless. And the best thing is, it was also the selection that made the most political sense, that was the most expected. And it will most likely generate an awful lot of support among contributors to joe bidens campaign and also among the black voters that saved joe bidens campaign in South Carolina and across the deep south earlier this year, and also the same black voters that didnt show up as much as expected during the 2016 campaign, which was really the difference between Hillary Clinton being president of the United States and donald trump being president of the United States. Lets bring in reverend al sharpton. Reverend al, whats your take on kamalas selection . What does it mean in 2020, especially at this time . And we have to also ask, does she move donald trump closer to leaving the white house, or does her selection somehow give him second life among those, quote, which the media would say, the angry white voters in wisconsin and michigan and pennsylvania and florida . The press says that, not me. I think the choice of Kamala Harris is the wisest choice for joe biden and for right now where we are in politics in 2020, because she brings a perfect balance. We are dealing with a nation that is going to have to deal in this pandemic time with how regular people survive. She has a background of having grown up with a single mother and her sister. She knows the struggles, she knows what it is to live in a community that has problems with police but also problems with gun violence, and she was a prosecutor and dealt with that. So, she brings real life into this. She also, for those that consider ourselves progressive, she was the one that brought the race issue to joe biden during the debates, so we would feel she will bring to him the kind of advice that will not be watered down as Vice President , if theyre successful. And when we get beyond the pandemic and we try to build this country out of a huge deficit, you need somebody in the room that understands what it is to know how to make ends meet and to know how it is not to be able to pay the bills. She would be in the room. She would be in the situation room when were dealing with a global kind of politics. So, i think it is a good political choice. She will galvanize a vote that wasnt there, as mika said. She went to Howard University, the akas and others, that have been marginalized. We keep talking about the marginalized like theyre just the latte liberals. There are a lot of us that have never been excited that are excited about somebody that has had our experience, black and white, latino and asian, that have had to struggle in this country now being on the ticket. Shell bring that out. Historically, i think it is great. I started as a teenager working for Shirley Chisholms campaign for president 72, i became 18, first year i could vote. Shirley chisholm dreamed of being president and breaking that ceiling. In 84, when Jesse Jackson ran, he talked about a woman should be on the ticket. We got Geraldine Ferraro that year. He helped set that climate. And now, to be able to see a black woman on the ticket is historic, and it comes in a trajectory of people that came before her, and she will live up to those dreams. And i think she will make america better. I think donald trump, if he thinks this is good for him, the angry, White American voter that he thinks is there, is there, and theyre angry at him for putting us in the pandemic. Hes right about that anger. Hes wrong about what theyre angry about. All right, so thats correct. Lets talk about Kamala Harris, though. And you brought up the debate, so lets talk about the fact that a lot of people thought she demagogued the race issue with joe biden. Seemed like she was calling for a return to bussing. She flipflopped on medicare for all. She corrected herself during the campaign, but after a great launch, her campaign faltered and it never really took off. Youve tukd Kamala Harris. You know her. Is she someone who learned from those experiences . I think from those failures . I think she learned. I think shes very, very clear that she can make mistakes and correct them and shes not arrogant enough to be selfrighteous. I also think she spoke from her heart at the debate. I was at the debate that night, about she was the girl that was the victim of bussing. But at the same time, she had to deal with a policy that would work. And that is what you want in someone that leads, someone that can go for what they believe in but correct themselves if they misstep. And we do not need someone like we have now in the white house, that they cannot admit a mistake, even when someone shows a better way or a better point, and shes proven the maturity and the security to be able to do that. By the way, just let me just say this and ill say this with you, rev, off the top, and if you have any corrections, you can tell me. But were at the beginning of a process now where a black womans going to be running for Vice President of the United States. And i just said, did she learn from the mistakes that she made during the campaign . And there may be a temptation by some out there to tweet or to write or to Say Something about, oh, dont talk down to a woman, blah, blah. You know what . Were not going to engage, as jeb bush would say, in the soft bigotry of low expectations. Were going to treat Kamala Harris, a black woman, just like were going to treat mike pence, a white man, just like were going fog treat anybody white. And when she screws up, were going to call her out, not because shes a black woman, but because shes running for Vice President of the United States. And can you speak to that, reverend al . First of all, ive got to say, yesterday was a landmark day. You had a black National Candidate and i didnt hear one person talk about how she was, quote, articulate, which, poor barack obama had to hear about a thousand times during the 2008 campaign. Oh, hes so articulate. And im sitting there looking at these people going, what are you talking about . I did not hear articulate once yesterday. So, weve moved past a certain landmark. But can you just talk about that . As we move through this campaign process, the best thing for Kamala Harris, the best thing for black women is that she is treated like everybody else and the woke latte liberals dont try to put a bubble around her, because thats going to do nobody any good, certainly not the democratic ticket. The most biased way that you can operate is to patronize us and act like were really not qualified to be Vice President , so dont treat us like a real Vice President ial candidate. Kamala harris, who i know well, wants to be treated like anybody else that ran for Vice President because shes tough enough, and shes shown that during the campaign. Treat her as you would anyone else, as you would joe biden. Dont forget, joe biden was one that said that he could understand when he was in the 08 primaries against barack obama. Well, i can understand theyre excited about an articulate, clean, black candidate like those of us that ran before obama were not clean and articulate, and he was challenged on that, and he grew. Treat him treat her the same way. We beat up on joe biden. Obama selected him anyway and ran with him and won. Right. She wants to be treated that way. Dont patronize us like we cant handle ourselves. Kamala harris can handle any attack coming her way. Im sure shes ready for it right now, probably up working out because shes tougher than you would give her credit for. Were not looking for break. Were looking for equality. Come on with it. Whatever youve got, come on with it. Exactly. Exactly. Kasie hunt, why dont you give our viewers insight into kamala . Mika and i have been fortunate enough to know her. Ive noticed personally i was very surprised personally, the first time i met her several years ago. She is very warm very engaging, has a winning smile, a great laugh, a wonderful conversationalist. She puts people around her at ease in person. But she was, i think early on especially i noticed like bob dole was always that way behind the scenes, but sometimes when bob dole got on tv, he could be a little more stiff, a little more strident. And i noticed with kamala, sometimes that winning personality did not project itself onto the tv screen in certain circumstances. I think the 2016 campaign changed that a good bit. I think she learned a lot during that campaign, just like, you know, Ronald Reagan learned through his two campaigns that he lost. Im wondering, though, about your interactions with her on the hill, your insights on who Kamala Harris is. Yeah, president ial campaign is a crucible. Theres no way around that. And i think that fact that she went through that crucibles a big part of why joe biden chose her. And i think you make a series of great points, and these are not about gender. This is about thank you, kasie. Political talent. I agree with you, she is warm, she is she comes across in a room, and there are men, women, democrats, republicans who have this kind of talent you want to get to know her. She pulls attention just naturally by the force of her personality. And when she came to washington and ive covered her since basically the day she arrived, because she arrived at the same time as donald trump in 20162017, and it was very clear from that very day that she was going to run for president. And her team was very careful, and i think she you saw this, i think, the learning curve playing out in real time, when she ran for president. And i saw a smaller version of that as she figured out the senate and how to build a national profile. It doesnt happen overnight. And when you come from california, where its pretty far away from the east coast here and the decisionmakers here, so she set up kind of private dinners with reporters where we had a chance to get to know her off the record. She had meetings with strategists. She laid all of that groundwork very carefully. And i remember when she first started in the hallways of the senate, she wouldnt necessarily come up and talk to us. You know, we were always chasing her down the hallways. If youre somebody like her, with her kind of profile, you are likely to get chased by reporters. And she was pretty wary initially. But with time, she got more comfortable with it, and you could see her staff kind of helping her navigate that until she was comfortable with it. And i think you saw a similar trajectory play out on the Judiciary Committee, where she evolved into a very sharp, highprofile questioner of President Trumps nominees. And thats a big part of how she built her profile. And my question, when she launched her president ial campaign, was always, did she have enough runway to learn that challenge in the same way that she had attacked the other challenges that i watched her go through . And i think we saw the answer, because she did make some mistakes. Ultimately, her campaign didnt work out. But the president ial campaign is an incredible crucible, and i have no doubt based on my observations from before that she has learned from that. And i think the biden team must be pretty confident that she certainly can stand up to the cleglites on the stage like mike pence, for example, and its invaluable. Theres really no other way to learn it except to run for president. It is the hardest thing to do in politics. And while she did not succeed, at least shes done it once. Well, and again, you dont sneak up on the press. Scrutiny. Shawna, you dont sneak up on the press. Shes been vetted. This morning, if you look at what the Trump Campaign has been saying about her over the past 12 hours or so, they dont really know how to attack her, other than saying she was too mean to joe biden during the democratic debate. I dont know that thats going to i dont know that thats going to be a winning argument. There are, of course, some on the left that are suggesting that