I don't know if you have it right there, but presumably it's on your phone.

If you didn't have it, maybe you could read it to our viewers.

Yeah, I've got it, Wolf.

We do have the first public statement from Vice President Kamala Harris in the aftermath of President Biden dropping out of the 2024 race.

She says that she was honored to have received President Biden's endorsement and intense to earn and win the nomination for the presidency.

This, of course, is the first time that we are hearing from him.

We did report earlier that President Biden and Vice President Harris did speak on the phone earlier today.

That is not surprising.

Just a little bit more from the Vice President's statement here.

She says, "I am honored to have the President's endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination."

And she also says, talks about how it has been a profound honor to have served as the President's Vice President, expresses her gratitude to First Lady Jill Biden as well, and talks about sort of the relationship that they have built over the years, including the relationship that she had with the President's late son, Beau Biden.

This, of course, is something that the President has talked about in the past as having been a factor when he was trying to decide who his vice presidential running mate would be back in 2020.

The Vice President also says in her statement, "With this selfless and patriotic act, President Biden is doing what he has done throughout his life of service, putting the American people and our country above everything else."

Wolf, all of the attention now is going to really be on Kamala Harris.

This has already been the case for the last several weeks, as we have been sort of in limbo, trying to see where the President was going to land in terms of his own decision.

But, of course, given that things seemed headed in the wrong direction for the President for a while now, there has been a lot of speculation about Vice President Harris and whether an endorsement formally would come from the President, which, of course, it has.

And so now we are going to be paying close attention to everything that she does just in the coming days.

How does she carry herself in public now that this news is out?

Does she sort of step up her campaign operations, which, according to our reporting, of course, is going to be the case.

We already know that in the last several days, we have seen her sort of step up as the President has been in Rehoboth, including at the last minute jumping on a call with concerned donors just several days ago, within the last 48 hours or so.

So this is something now that is totally a different situation for Vice President Kamala Harris than it was, of course, a day ago.

And all attention is going to be on her as the party now figures out how they are going to move forward with this nomination proccess, Wolf.

She's gonna be the leader of the Democratic Party and the Democratic presidential nominee. We will watch all of this very closely.

MJ Lee, we will get back to you.

Thank you very, very much.

Dramatic developments unfolding right now as well.

Caitlin, I want to go back to you.

Yeah, Wolf, obviously we're monitoring this.

Everything is changing by the moment here.

We just got that news from Senator Chris Coons a few moments ago.

That is the co-chair of the Biden campaign getting behind Harris as the nominee as well, saying that they will talk about in the coming days who she could select to put on that ticket with her as her running mate.

Obviously, a dramatic development to see Harris now in this situation.

We're waiting to see what other Democrats continue to say about this.

I want to go back to Van Jones, because, Van, you were just talking about what this day means and the significance of this in a personal level for President Biden.

But also, it's a real calculus now for Democrats of what do they do, given there are four months to go before the presidential election.

What do you make of Harris's statement where she plans to earn and win this nomination?

I think that's very politically astute of her to say that because, again, this is a party that runs by rules, and we take the rules very seriously.

Technically, Joe Biden can't just say, "You're now the nominee."

If Joe Biden stepped down from President, the Constitution says she's automatically President.

But this is not about the Constitution.

This is about the Democratic Party.

Under our rules, it's the delegates who make the decision.

It's not Joe Biden, it's not Kamala Harris, it's not Nancy Pelosi, it's not the Clintons, it's not the Obamas.

Our delegates make the decision.

So she's being very politically astute by saying to the delegates, "I am going to work to earn your support.

I appreciate the support I'm getting from the Clintons and from everyone else, but I understand that it comes down to you."

And by saying she's going to work to earn that support, I think that's very, very smart.

That gives the delegates the opportunity to feel that they have a job to do.

They have to make a decision here.

Also, I think that she's letting other people know the water's warm.

You want to jump in?

You want to get some?

You can try to earn these delegates' support as well.

She's not saying, "If you come against me, it's a problem."

She's not closing the door.

She's not saying, "I accept, Joe Biden. Therefore, I'm in."

No, no, no.

So that puts other Democrats in a very interesting position.

If you're a swing state governor, if you're a rising star in this party, if you're a celebrity, if you're somebody who wants to say, "I don't believe in Kamala Harris. I don't trust that she can win. I think I can win."

What are you going to do?

You're going to have to make the decision that, no, no, I'm going to raise my hand and I'm going to say, I think I could do a better job.

I think I can win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan.

I think I have a better shot.

And I want those delegates to listen to me.

So you're going to have to watch over the next 24, 48 hours.

Does anybody else raise their hand and say that they want to also earn the nomination?

What she's acknowledging is the nomination is not yet hers.

And that's a very, very big deal.

That's a true fact.

But in other parties, you might just have somebody just demagogue it, steamroll it, say, "Everybody get behind me. I am now going to lead this party."

She's not doing that.

Very politically astute.

But Ben, you've been involved in Democratic politics your whole life.

To see the Clintons, the President, top senators getting behind her as the nominee, do you think anyone else, if you are a governor or a Democrat who has a lot of star potential going forward, that they'd be brave enough to kind of get in this ring at this point with seeing who's lining up behind Harris so far?

It would take an extraordinary amount of self-confidence to belief in self to do it.

But are there doors that are still open?

Yes, there are doors still open. For instance, Pelosi hasn't yet said she's for Kamala.

President Obama, as usual, is staying very, very neutral, at least publicly to make sure that because he is the rock star of rock stars in this party, that he doesn't tip it one way or the other.

And so you do have some doors that are still open.

And so, but the grade just got steeper because Joe Biden gave the endorsement.

He gave it immediately.

The Clintons came out and it wasn't just, by the way, wasn't just Bill Clinton. Let's be fair.

It was Bill Clinton and it was Hillary Clinton, a beloved, powerful nominee.

The last time we nominated a woman, it was Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton came out immediately and said, "I'm with Kamala."

So the grade just got steeper for you.

But the door is not yet closed politically.

It's certainly not closed from a bureaucratic or technical point of view.

Kamala Harris wants to earn that nomination.

I guarantee you the whip operation is called a whipping operation.

She had people who love her, who believe in her, who work with her for years who are calling online personalities and other people trying to get people ready to stick with Kamala if the ball comes to her.

And so can you put together a whipping operation that's as strong as Kamala's in a short period of time?

You have to look at a lot of different challenges here.

But if somebody has the fire in the gut and say, "Listen, I don't believe Kamala can win at the top of the ticket. I don't believe this. I don't believe that. I think I can do it."

Kamala Harris just said, "Come on in. The water's warm."

You know what I thought about when I saw that both Clintons got behind her?

I was thinking of Hillary Clinton because she is a woman who knows what it's like to run against Donald Trump.

And that could be the position we see Harris in.

We don't know yet.

Obviously, we are keeping our power dry.

We're waiting to see what Democrats decide here.

But it does seem like that's a scenario the Trump campaign has been prepping for.

They have been singling out Harris.

I noticed it multiple times when you and I were in Milwaukee last week for the Republican convention.

And I just wonder what on its early basis, what you think that race would look like, a Harris versus Donald Trump?

You know, the prosecutor versus the person who got prosecuted.

I mean, you know, it kind of writes itself in some ways from our side.

Also, you have a younger voice.

You have a younger, more dynamic presence.

You have somebody who, you know, is we've never seen this before.

We've never seen a black female, an Asian female.

You've never seen that before.

And I think Trump's got to figure out how he wants to deal with it.

They love to demean women.

That's that's something that the Trump team does a lot.

They do it too much.

It actually goes against, you know, they put women in positions of power sometimes inside the Trump team.

But they still have this public thing of just demeaning women, demeaning women.

That's tougher to do when you've got someone like Kamala Harris.

Is Kamala Harris going to make the abortion issue a lot tougher?

You know, Kamala Harris, the first couple of years, she wasn't impressing a lot of people.

Her polling numbers weren't that good.

Her confidence inside the Democratic Party wasn't that high.

But you've seen her over the past year get stronger and stronger on the stump.

You've seen her get more and more self-confident in interviews.

You've also seen the party warming up to her, especially black voters who are so critical.

And so you've got a real matchup here because you've got somebody who has, you know, at times been a very, very strong in that prosecutor role.

Most people think about Kamala Harris, they don't think about her as Vice President.

They think about her being in the Senate, grilling nominees from the Trump administration, grilling CEOs, just going after people and putting them in their place

So that side of her personality gets a chance to come forward now in a very different way.

Kamala Harris won a lot of support from people when Biden stumbled.

Biden stumbled.

He didn't do well in the debate.

Everybody was freaking out.

And I was sitting right next to Anderson Cooper when Anderson Cooper brought Kamala Harris on.

She was cool.

She was calm.

She was collected.

She was strong.

There was no time for anybody to hand her talking points.

There was no time for anybody to write up a speech.

There was no teleprompter.

She had to just literally walk out there after her running mate had fallen, look in that camera and deliver.

And she delivered such a strong performance that it gave people in this party much more confidence in her.

So she's she's riding a little bit of a wave now of momentum and support.

But the door is not closed.

There is a process we have to go through.

There are still big donors and big figures in our party that have not yet said where they stand.

So if somebody wants to jump in, it is not a done deal yet.

Somebody could still yet challenge Kamala Harris.