SUMMARY: One of the goals of this year’s Democratic National Convention is to unite a divided party. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was former Vice President Joe Biden’s biggest challenger during the Democratic primaries, and some of his supporters have vowed not to support Biden. Sanders joins Judy Woodruff to discuss working with Biden on policy proposals and progressive representation at the DNC.
SUMMARY: Former Vice President Joe Biden has spent decades in public office. On Thursday night, he will finally accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for President. We look back at Biden’s personal story, fraught with tragedy and resilience, and his long political career as he arrives at this professional milestone. Lisa Desjardins reports.
SUMMARY: The Democratic National Convention will hear Wednesday night from two figures critically important to Joe Biden, the party’s newly minted presidential nominee. One chose Biden to be his Vice President, and the other is now Biden’s selection for that job. Amna Nawaz looks back at Tuesday’s DNC highlights and ahead to appearances by former President Barack Obama and Sen. Kamala Harris.
SUMMARY: As the Obama years come to a close, Vice President Joe Biden sits down with Judy Woodruff to discuss his thoughts on his tenure, the election and the future of the country. They discuss the fate of the Affordable Care Act, evidence of Russian election hacking, President-elect Trump's critique of the intelligence community, the Obama administration’s legacy in Syria and more.
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week's news, including Donald Trump's veep pick, Mike Pence, who may not be the attack dog the candidate was said to have wanted. They also weigh in on what type of convention the nation should expect in Cleveland — and how many Trump relatives will speak.
SUMMARY: In his last State of the Union address, President Obama tapped Vice President Joe Biden to lead an effort to boost and streamline national cancer research. What would such an initiative look like? Judy Woodruff gets insight from Dr. Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society and Katie Couric of Stand Up To Cancer.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): For a look at what an initiative might look like, and who would be involved, and how it might go forward, we turn to three people with long ties to cancer research.
Dr. Otis Brawley is chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society. Dr. Francis Collins is the director of the National Institutes of Health. And Katie Couric, in addition to being the well-known journalist and author, she is also one of the co-founders of Stand Up to Cancer. It’s a charitable group that supports collaborative research.
And we welcome all three of you to the program.
Dr. Brawley, let me start with you.
Is it realistic for the president to say, let’s cure cancer once and for all?
DR. OTIS BRAWLEY, American Cancer Society: Well, I think the cure analogy is fine.
What’s really going to happen is some cancers, if we intensify our efforts, will be cured. Many cancers are going to be stalled out to where they become very chronic diseases, like diabetes. But the end result is, people are going to be better for it.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Francis Collins, Dr. Collins, do you agree? I mean, we know there are, what, over 100 — maybe hundreds of types of cancer? What are people to think about this?
DR. FRANCIS COLLINS, National Institutes of Health: Well, I hope they will be inspired and excited about this.
Yes, there are hundreds of types of cancer, but we are at an inflection point in terms of things we are learning about what causes this disease, where good cells go bad, and what could we do about it? And by bring together immunotherapy, the new way of activating the immune system to tackle cancel, genomics, and making sure that everybody is sharing the data they’re developing in those kinds of studies, the Vice President, a man of great passion and principle, is determined that this is not going to be a tweak on the system.
This is going to be a major acceleration of the effort to discover how to treat and cure, in many instances, cancer. And goodness knows, we can all get excited about that outcome.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): This Saturday marks the 30-year anniversary of the nomination of the first woman ever to run for vice president on a major party ticket. She was New York Democratic Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro.
A documentary by her daughter titled “Geraldine Ferraro: Paving the Way” tells the story of her mother’s trailblazing career and the effect she had on American politics and culture.
We begin with an excerpt from that film, inside the Democratic National Convention hall in San Francisco where Ferraro was formally nominated by her running mate, Walter Mondale, on July 19, 1984.
WALTER MONDALE, Former Presidential Candidate: I have had many people tell me it’s the best national convention we have ever had. People were thrilled. The crowds were building up outside the hall to be close to what was going on.
WOMAN: I nominate Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York to be the next vice president of the United States of America.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
GERALDINE FERRARO, Former Vice Presidential Candidate: It was as emotional as I had ever seen at a convention, thunderous, the response and emotion. To talk about it, it was so spectacular.
WOMAN: The floor of the convention was virtually all women, and women who had fought so hard for women’s rights. And, oh, my God, it was such a wonderful moment.
COKIE ROBERTS, Journalist: Standing up there all in white, looking like this tiny little figure, but looking beautiful and looking female.
