For joe and willie and me. Thank you so much for joining us Lawrence Odonnell picks up the coverage now. Good day. Its my honor to announce to you that nbc news is projecting joe biden as the winner of the president ial election. Joe biden as the president elect who will be inaugurated on january 20th. Nbc news is projecting joe biden as the winner. The state of pennsylvania giving him those 20 electoral votes that enabled nbc news to make this call this morning. That puts joe biden that win will put joe biden above the 270 electoral votes that he needs to win the electoral college. Joe biden now has 273 electoral votes for president. Donald trump has 214, as of this hour. Five states have yet to be called. President elect joe biden will address the nation tonight from wilmington, delaware. He will be joined by Vice President elect Kamala Harris. She tweeted this video of the moment she called joe biden to celebrate their win. Caller we did it we did it, joe youre going to be the next president of the United States [ laughter ] celebrations are already happening across the country, including outside the white house where cheers erupted in support of joe biden and Kamala Harris. President trump is not there to hear it. The president is at his golf course. Here are supporters of president elect joe biden celebrating his victory. We believed in our hearts that biden was best for the United States we made history [ cheers and applause ] short time ago, president elect joe biden released a statement saying im honored and humbled by the trust the American People have placed in me and in Vice President elect harris. In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a Record Number of americans voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of america. With the campaign over, its time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. President trump released a statement saying, this election is far from over. Thats not true. This election is, in effect, over. Nbc news correspondents are stationed across the United States. Well go to states capitol in harrisburg. Chris, it was pennsylvania, joe bidens home state, the state of his birth, that put him over the top. Reporter yeah, one of the first texts i got was he did it pennsylvania, of course, the place joe biden is from but its also the place he came to more often than any other state during this campaign. Ive been getting reaction from people who worked hard to see that he got elected from Union Leaders, from activists, one texting me scrappy win for a scrappy kid from scranton. They described jubilation, sweet victory. Union members saying how proud they are and can they can finally breathe again. Its been interesting how quickly they made the turn to recognition about the road ahead for joe biden, which, in some ways, is epitomized by what is behind me. I think you can see a celebration that is going on. Those are folks who have been on the steps of the capitol every day since weve been here since the election day saying every vote has to be counted. But just minutes ago, there was also a large group of trump voters. Those folks were asked to move to the other side of the capitol by police because they were blocking traffic. But i have to say, even though both sides were very lively, it was peaceful. Thats what, when i talk to people, again, who have been following joe biden, who have been friends with joe biden for years, if not decades, are saying they want to hear from him tonight. They want to hear about reconciliation. They want to hear about how hes going to unite the country. As one of them put it, hes a decent, empathetic, nice man. All the things people said he was that were the reasons people thought he could not get elected to president are exactly the reasons why hes the perfect man for this time. I should also say that im also hearing from these people who, again, who have worked so hard on the campaign. Many Union Members who have gone door to door about Kamala Harris. One of the Union Leaders i talked to said she actually worked for geraldine. They thought they were moving into a new era it was going to be a breakthrough for women. Of course, it didnt happen. It didnt happen with hillary clinton. Now, as im hearing from a lot of women elected, theyre saying to me, there are girls all across the country who are now looking and saying this is what is possible for me and, finally, i would remind you, lawrence, about what happened on election day. Joe biden made four stops in his childhood city of scranton. He went to his childhood home. On the wall of the living room, for the new owner of that home he wrote from this house to the white house with the grace of god. Signed it and wrote 1132020. Four days later, hes the president elect of the United States democrats in pennsylvania are thrilled they are celebrating that it happened here. Lawrence . Chris jansing, thank you. Were joined by a special guest who has been leading our election coverage all week. Rachel maddow, of course, the host of the Rachel Maddow show. I was so sure you were going to get to make this announcement to the nation of the projected winner of the election. What was it like at home when you got the word . Im at home. Im in covid quarantine. Everything is bizarre. Ill tell you i had accidentally up ended my threehole punch i used to make my Research Binder for Election Night all over my bedroom and i was dust busting up the little holes that fell out of the threehole punch when it happened. And i thought im not sure this is the way i imagined i would learn that donald trump was a oneterm president but ill take it [ laughter ] so i was dust busting at the time. [ laughter ] rachel, i have to tell you, rachel has threehole punch paper. I could have sent you. You dont need it anymore. You were guiding us through this coverage all week. This unprecedented week of coverage in this election. Youve had to quarantine because you were exposed to covid but have tested negative so far. Thats right. Expecting you back soon. You look great and healthy. We saw this coming. It was a slow march. It was a test of patience all around, in a way. A test of media patience as people started to wonder why are they taking so long to count the votes. And why are they taking so long to project what seemed inevitable. Yet theres something in this period that feels somehow necessary. It feels like the ramp the country needed to get to here. Yeah. Ive been thinking about that myself, too. Theres been so much frustration and as time went on, there was increasingly public lobbying including by influential people that the calls should be made. I find it comforting that, you know, at nbc news, just like all the Major Networks that make the calls and the associated press, they are not susceptible to lobbying. They dont listen to people like you and me and they dont listen to people harping at them when they think the decision should be made. Its a deliberate, rigorous, independent process and nobody can mess with it. Thats the way it should be. Thats what the count is like. To see those, i mean, for tv purposes, those boring shots that we had of the counting going on in philadelphia and the counting going on in detroit and the counting going on every place else we had a static camera in the corner of some big warehouse room while the poll workers did the boring work. Thats the way its supposed to be done. Election administration is tech karatic. Its not susceptible to threat, intimidation, bluster, can junior hi or pleading. Thats right. And i wanted it to go faster, just like everybody else did, but i take comfort in the process. And, you know, the republican governors in some of the states that were late to be called or yet to be called, for the republican governors in those states to come out and say, listen, the count will be the count. Well defend the integrity of the voting process in our state and dont mess with us and dont mess with our election workers. To hear it coming equally from democrats and republicans, even as the republican president went off into alice in wonderland territory. If youre an american, i think its heartening and gives you confidence. Rachel, if this were what we might call a normal election, which is to say a campaign between a real tuffly standardissued democrat for president and a relatively standardissue republican for president , but Kamala Harris was on the Winning Ticket as Vice President. That would be the lead of what were talking about in American History today. This elevation of the first woman Vice President. Yeah. And, you know, in history, when history rolls around, whatever o clock that is. That may be what today is remembered for. I think it depends on forgive me for putting this way, i think it depends on how much lasting damage the disastrous Trump Presidency is seen as having done to our country. If the Trump Presidency caused damage both to our civic ethos and our nation in a way that is hard to repair and, therefore, goes down as a historic wreckage, then, you know, donald trump getting turfed out of one term will remain headline one. If biden and harris can undo and render to the dust bin the worst of the trump legacy, then this might be seen down the road as the day that a woman was elected to National Office for the first time in this country, if you can believe it. The time that a woman was a woman of color was elected to National Office for the first time in this country, and the first time weve ever had a person of color as Vice President. I mean, all of those things nobody can ever take those away. And how they stack up on this day, you know, when we look back at it, i think it depends a lot on what the Biden Harris Administration is going to be able to do to get the country back on a normal on a nondisastrous track, the one were on now and will probably continue to be on until this is resolved and weve got a new inauguration. We always say that happens to be true is a president ial nominees choice of running mate is the first president ial choice that person makes. I was thinking today, rachel, thinking back on the Vice President ial selections made by men who were Vice President themselves. I think of Richard Nixon in 1968 and when he makes his Vice President ial choice, he chooses agnu. The next one to do it is George Herbert walker bush who chooses dan quayle and brings him into the white house. Here we are with the next version of a former Vice President choosing a Vice President and its a different choice from those two that have proceeded him. Yeah. Thats a scary set of historical parallels, mr. Lawrence. Please let this be the exception that breaks the modern rule on that. Listen, i think that, you know, there were so Many Democrats who were running in the president ial primary this year because trump did seem like he was ripe to be a oneterm president. He seemed like a vulnerable incumbent. Every democrat who had a shot ran in the primary. You and i both interviewed most, if not all of them, certainly all of them between us. The thing about senator harris is that, remember, she got out of the running to be potentially president herself even before the first votes were cast in iowa. She peaked very early then her president ial hopes started dimming. She was down Single Digits in states where she wanted to be doing well. She cut it. She cut bait and she did not stay in there straggling and letting it go for a long time. She was out in december. At the same time, though, maybe it was because she left early but i think more likely because of her inherit characteristics, she never seemed like somebody who was out of the running for being in the white house. I mean, she even when she cancelled her president ial campaign, i dont think there was a day when she wasnt talked about as a potential Vice President ial nominee. Theres a perception she has what it takes. She has not just the wisdom and the experience, but the heft and the charisma and the character and the raw ability to do the job. You talk to anybody who ever had to make the decision about who their running mate should be, they will tell you with grave seriousness, the most important thing they can do the job. People who have great regrets about their job, they said we didnt pick somebody who can do the job. I think on the mccain biden team. We heard regrets they picked sarah palin and mccain stayed loyal until the end, the team knew she wasnt up to it. Thats why they regretted the choice. I dont think that anybody thinks Kamala Harris couldnt do the job. One of the ways i watched all the democratic primary debates, especially at the beginning when joe biden was the frontrunner, was i was looking at that stage and saying has anyone ruled themselves out from the Vice President ial nomination at any point in this process . And i never saw that happen. The only one, really, on the stage was ruled out was joe biden himself who was not going to be chosen by any of the other nominees as a potential Vice President and wouldnt have wanted it, of course. But think back to New Hampshire and joe biden with those two devastating successive losses iowa and New Hampshire. I remember being in New Hampshire, rachel, and going into a High School Gymnasium and seeing joe biden with a crowd of less than 100 people. This is the former Vice President of the United States. Theres Bernie Sanders down the road packing in giant audiences. Theres Pete Buttigieg with lines going as far as the eye could see packing those halls. What i saw in joe biden was this persistence. He was the only person in the room in New Hampshire during the Biden Campaign who didnt seem to know that the Biden Campaign was over. He was the only one who hadnt gotten that memo. Forget about it. Its over. And here he is today. Yeah. And, you know, our colleague nicole wallace, i think, has put it well. It was a little bit of a tortoise and the heare situatio for joe biden. Perhaps in the general and all though in the primary. All though more so in the primary that he, not only knows who he is and knew how he wanted to run, but was confident that the whole country knew him, too, and there didnt have to be a get to know joe biden moment. His most effective sort of repetitive speech lines, to my mind, he would say you know me. And somebody would try to throw something wild at him trying to hang something from the Democratic Party that wouldnt hang on him. He said youre not running against those other people youre running against. Im joe. You know me. That confidence is boring for having been in public life and having been Barack ObamasVice President for eight years is something that is priceless and that gave him such a firm footing for running an absolutely steady, confident, unwavering race from the beginning. There were no, you know, tonal shifts or strategic shifts from biden. Right. Once he got that big boost from jim clyburn heading into the South Carolina primary and ran off with it and then ran off with the rest of the primary season, the way he was going to approach the general election is win back the upper midwest. He won back the upper midwest. But he knew he knows who he is. He knows we know who he is. He knew how to run the race. I mean, hats off. Rachel, i want to discuss one other very important woman in the Biden Campaign and that is jen omalleydylan who has entered the hall of fame of american politics. Shes the least famous person in it. I think very few people know who she is. The Campaign Manager of joe bidens campaign. People dont know who she is because she refuses to do Television Interviews with people like us. Shes not in it for the glory. Shes a mother of three who has been running what all professional observers have called a flawless campaign for president for joe biden. She has been doing it in a way that never asked for attention to herself. And, again, this itself is one of those giant stories that lives underneath the much bigger story of the biden victory. Yeah. Its a very, very good point. And i will say that one of my favorite things about her and her leadership on the Biden Campaign is she did not care at all whatever the prevailing narrative was in main stream media, on cable news, on twitter, among online academic activists. She