Wrote a Virus Outbreak special coverage on. Hi im Steve Clemons and i have a question is the Democratic Party in the mother of all wars with itself lets get to the bottom line. So after months of debates about health care about whether a woman can be president about billionaires and about americas legacy of racism and social division about russia and its election meddling or about china now and the coronavirus the Democratic Party is finally getting closer to picking a candidate who will face off against republican President Donald Trump in november the process has been a battle for the soul of the party wait not really just the soul but the deep soul which now seems split between the establishment represented by former Vice President joe biden and the revolution championed by senator Bernie Sanders so which way will this all go and which candidate has a better chance of inspiring americans and more crucially getting them to the voting polls and leading his party to victory i emphasize his as a bunch of hers have already been knocked out of the race fortunately we have 3 people in the room who have the answers reverend Leah Daughtry who is the chief executive officer of the Democratic National convention not once but twice in 20082016 both were historic for the party michele gale a grassroots Democratic Party activist in chicago shes been canvassing for Bernie Sanders nonstop since his 1st run in 2016 and they erickson is the senior Vice President for social policy and politics at 3rd way a progressive think tank here in washington d. C. Great to have all of you with us here today to talk about whats all going to unfold in the next up months but i want to start with a clip from President Trump who sort of sets this up nicely going to hell is easier to be. How is easier for us. To be ready to crazy bernie. Have all our sleep. Oh i think crazy bernie has have let me pose president from squash into you has this come to be a race between Bernie Sanders and joe biden essentially is up are those the 2 choices we have well they certainly are at the front of the pack i dont want to leave out or dismiss senator warren who may have a 3rd way a path we have come through as the united between the 2 factions but you know i think its a challenge and its while the Republican Party has certainly been at the forefront of having its own battles and the Democratic Party is at an Inflection Point to the direction the tone the tenor that our party wants to take in terms of the issues and the direction that it wants to go see now lives with warrens folks have said that they dont even really see a path there and so im interested in this question where this is the time of women in need to gender equality pay equity its a time where race is more involved d in the politics of this country than there how is it you run these a couple of times that when when there has not been a time with this much. And animation around these issues that youve got to 78 year old white men carrying the flags on race and gender you know its a real challenge i think and its a mystery to me i think we cannot dismiss the impact of sexism and massage in this race in the coverage that senator warren has received as opposed to some of the men that have been in the race but i also think that the system itself is set up to benefit those who understand it and senator sanders by virtue of his 2016 run and of course senator Vice President biden have the experience of understanding how campaigns overall. Unfold and thats just something that the others who were newcomers to the president ial primary process just didnt have that kind of experience and so they were you know some foot missteps and some falls that others with more experience did not know michelle i know that you get a brief how do you feel about people to judge amy club with char and tom styer dropping out and each of indoor seeing joe biden i think its very interesting time you have to look at i mean none of them seemed all too keen on dropping out and once they did they immediately went and voted biden so i think it raises the question of what they have dropped out had they not been encouraged where they encouraged i know theres been a lot of talk on this and b. C. And c. And then. But its also an interesting question because it seems to have turned from being a whats best for the party whats best for the country into a stop Sanders Campaign and i just find that a little bit disheartening because we are in a very very very serious Election Year now your candidate describes himself as a democratic socialism are you a democratic socialist or youre democrat oh im a democrat and im a democratic socialist and youre both course but it raises the issue in question about how democrats see themselves and the party and Bernie Sanders spin it has been an independent congress has identified him in ways that are distinct from the Democratic Party how deep is the divide between well just let me just call it Bernie Lyndon by the way and for anyone biden and with all due respect to war and land and foreign land i think its on smaller smaller war and land i think its very interesting that we have to remember that were in the United States and the United States we have 2 Political Parties to cover an entirely you know a massive country full of people with lots of different opinions and so trying to box everyone into everyone who doesnt find themselves on the right into the Democratic Party and saying that they must all think this way or else theyre somehow outliers thats a dangerous assumption i think thats what risks this election and what cost us the 26000. 00 election i was here Ocasio Cortez said that in any other nation in the world she and joe biden would be in different parties but in this country theyre in the same party yeah you said healthy well i think its unhealthy that we have a 2 party system. Its completely irrational i mean every other country every other developed country in the world has a multiparty system let me let me ask you the same question with. The green party theres a well. How does it become pliable what we have is going to be if you have to have a different system where you have to make people have to vote for them in new york we have the working Families Party which has become viable the time in the energy that people have invested in building that party so you dont just because the working Families Party nominee. And state legislative races you pick their own right or they may pick a republican or they may pick a democrat on the ballot is a line called the working Families Party or you can choose to vote for their candidate when they can you help us here well i think we could all be helped if we did Something Like rank Choice Voting because i think we can all agree that. Short form but clear explanation of of regular voting means you say this person is my 1st choice this person is my 2nd choice this person is my 3rd choice and i sound like the iowa caucus no its actually more like an instant runoff because its not a room full of only the same people who can be there for 4 hours and you know not have a secret ballot it is a secret ballot but its essentially an instant runoff and i think you know its the reason why we and many others are very interested in reforming the electoral process because when you have so many candidates on the ballot and you have just an up or down vote on those candidates its a very you get very skewed the results and i think that some of what weve seen its some of why you know Bernie Sanders has a very vocal but minority within the party set of supporters and yet he has been getting a plurality of the support because his folks are for him in him 1st and for him every time and theyll show up and theres a lot of other folks who say oh i might like pete and i like amy and i like kamel i might like 7 other people who already dropped out but but im willing to go in multiple directions but they dont have the same level of strength in. Ill take candidate field as somebody whos supporters are just there and dedicated every single day but it means that you get outcomes where the person who is a front runner doesnt necessarily represent the majority view of the right actor and then they let me ask you the same question i asked about i mean i know you talk to the democratic establishment here in washington d. C. Good pals cocktail parties all of that does it bother them that their carrier in joe biden right now is one where black americans hispanic americans other minorities l. G. B. To you community etc lots of them not all of them and i want to go back to michelle here in a moment but but but many of the millennial millennial some of them are out there although lots of them were with bernie but i just interested in the fact that theyre choosing an older white man as their flag carrier in this race and hes not not disheartening after what weve seen with me too in black lives matter yeah i mean i think when we look at the options before us we have to choose from the hand that were dealt right and i have liked and donated to a lot of people that arent in the race anymore i wish they were still there but they were not actually able to get the support whether that was money or or voters that they needed to stay in the race so our options are what we have on the table and i think everyone within the Democratic Party wants to be donald trump so the fundamental question is who can do that and i think theres theres 2 theories one is in order to be donald trump you have to turn out voters that have never come to the polls before you have to energize people you have to really get the base of the party out and thats how were going to win the Electoral College and the other theory is we have to appeal to folks that are already going to be going to the polls and in fact voted for democrats in the midterms but didnt in 2016 those swing voters as well as also energizing the party and i think thats the debate that how do you hope it works i love joe biden i have worked with him on guns for a very long time i have not picked a candidate in this race. Also i think Elizabeth Warren is phenomenal and has a plan for everything i think that there are for every there were many other folks that as i said ive been really excited about as an american i was super excited about pete i do want to play a clip from joe biden commenting about why hes running talk is cheap false promises or just. Talk about revolution. We need rule changes right now the was back down the road the way it was crashing was. This an election to spend all our time in a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party this is a battle for the so over your not it states of america the was so i want to ask all of you is that those comments from joe biden about running for president or the about capturing the Democratic Party and stopping Bernie Sanders michel i mean hes clearly there hes clearly got how on stopping sanders but i think whats very very important is that were looking at a candidate who is as has been said a milk test candidate running up against a gangster this is not going to work biden is not going to be trouble biden is the milk toast and it cannot be trump i mean hes such such a sweetie and you here i watched i watched fox and you know an hour and a half last night but what im told i mean i mean i want to assume things are out there and of course i have i have a some going to play but from Bernie Sanders i was just going to play it but play the pretty centrist club and i was thinking hey we will pollute it was something that. Will take a look at the last 79 in the polls we will see why it. Was bernies comment there because you know joe biden was talking about sort of big concepts big challenges to talk about winning and i guess in this in this do you see Bernie Sanders as having a pathway to beating President Trump. I think all of the now 1st of all im not a big believer in National Polls because i think generally the sample size is too small for it to be relevant i just i just dont put much store in those but if you look at those any one of the candidates this on the democratic ballot beats trump if so you know i think thats thats a false it is if thats what they say now there are different margins you know to move to sit 2 percent 4 percent whatever but both biden and bernie. And warren and pete and all the rest depending on the national and usually above any of the above so i dont think and i really really take issue with this notion of somehow the establishment is conspiring to stop birdie people trying to win an election theyre all stunned trying to stop each other or because thats the name of the game each ones trying to be the nominee and so this is a contest and bernies trying to stop biden by and trying to stop bernie was trying to stop both thats what thats what the election is obviously youve got strong views on this you dont think by the mean are you raising the issue of polls here because joe biden is shown in many of the National Polls to be someone whos very strong pitted against donald trump and many people believe that donald trump has been harassing and trolling the Democratic Party to to to bring on bernie as well because he wants to run against barry so tell me what im getting wrong over the issue here is that youre going to the same situation as in 2016 and thats why im afraid i mean i stand says the definition of a no defined that situation for a walk into the exact same situation as having a candidate who is a moderate establishment candidate who is likable and has some good ideas but does not actually excite anyone and thats the problem is youve got a chunk of voters like you and he says that youve got a chunk of voters who you can count on to show up to the polls but what about those who either dont affiliate with the Democratic Party or dont show up to vote unless theyre excited for new excites them and they can count on the moderates however and if you cant get on the moderate count on the moderates then we have a real problem here with the soul of the Democratic Party but biden doesnt excite these people and thats really a danger im not just saying this as someone who does support Bernie Sanders im saying this is someone who doesnt want to see former years of trauma or 8 or. Well you know and i think though that we have to look to the case studies that we have in front of us right and 2018 we saw a huge spike in turnout we saw young people come to the polls in a way they never do in midterms we saw a fantastic new class of House Democrats you know that are that are new leaders of the party that all of us are really excited about be you know winning their elections and on the backs of that turnout that turnout was actually if you break down kind of who who actually delivered the victory to democrats the progressive data firm catalyst says that 80 percent of that was voters who flipped from trump that was not new people that have sat on the sidelines they were people who flipped and showed up and a lot of who are wheat or chance of flipping well a lot of those were suburban women and in the polling that ive seen of suburban women of all races right you know looking across the board most democrats are 10 points up on trump among suburban women and without suburban women we cannot win this election Bernie Sanders is tied and that i think is very disconcerting if he is turning off the suburban women that helped lead to the blue wave in 2018 then thats not a path for when they when americans get a chance to vote for president after the primaries are over they are going to get a chance to vote perhaps for Bernie Sanders versus trump but there are a lot of other choices senators house members governors mayors we call this the down ticket down ticket races what does Bernie Sanders do dizzee elevate and. It helps those down ticket races or does he hurt them my fear is that in the swing districts that we need to hold in order to hold the house Bernie Sanders hurts those candidates and i think you can see by the fact that not what it what about Bernie Sanders makes it hard for them to jump on his band went well i think hes taken some really unpopular policy positions and then when you actually run the time. Acts that trump is going to run from the socialism attacks that the senate and house races are already seeing to the medicare for all attacks hes going to take away your insurance those really damage his reputation donald trump also going to take away their insurance yeah well here it is but you know what thats actually why the Democratic Party has a 20 point advantage on health care right now and the only way we can lose that is by giving it away by running a candidate thats for medicare for all because once you actually litigate the details of medicare for all the support that might be initially there and the polls completely evaporates so once people know the details they do not like that policy and he has what it himself to that policy instead its his number one thing that he do if hes in the white house and that is really going to hurt those down ballot candidates why not a single front line candidate has endorsed Bernie Sanders which i dont you have to your point weve got to remember the party has to remember that this is not just a race for the presidency is a race for the senate and also the house one of the worst outcomes would be that we win the presidency and lose Everything Else or that we lose everything and we lose the house the senate and you have a donald Trump Presidency with a republican controlled house and senate so i think weve got to be very big picture about this and figure out how we can sweep everything and what was of what who is the candidate what candidates who can help us navigate that path so that you have run as c. E. O. 2 conventions youve been very close to these kinds of skirmishes before and i just want to get you out of your comfort zone for a minute lee and you know how 538 sometimes puts up a little you know barometer on how i want to ask you if Bernie Sanders is the candidate what what are the chances you would put the house and Senate Either one being lost well 1st i want to say that on have an endorser anyone i dont consider myself who revel i mean everybody sort of actually in. You know i think it would be really tough and some of the swing districts. Or to hold on to those because i think yes you do see a decline for the democrats in the house in the house and i dont think we would win the senate i just think im not convinced i havent seen the right lets put a list with war in their short form if she were the nominee is being respectful to you still in the race if you omit it she would have on the new Elizabeth Warren the nominee i think you may still have a little bit of a danger point but i dont know that its as big a risk i think right now as sanders and joe biden even odds even are even odds so youre that figure that michelle we want you to know as youre talking to me about your own barometers i want to raise this other guy whos out there so michelle how do you see Mike Bloomberg and ill give you an opportunity to do the same thing the barometer test where you see the house and senate of a Mike Bloomberg were to somehow come out on top of the ticket yeah i dont think bloomberg excites anyone and i think bloomberg is a spoiler for biden and i think it wasnt intended that way it is very concerning to see the level of excitement around a bloomberg candidacy because all the way up and down theres this you need it you need a candidate and ideally you need a candidate and a Vice President ial candidate who are both solidifying and bringing the entire Party Together not just the party but the nation and bloomberg doesnt do that he really doesnt. What do you think are the big roadblocks to Bernie Sanders winning it as you look at it right now i know youre an advocate but what do you think could get in the way of his win i think we have im really hopeful because im trying to restore trust in 26 and a lot of trust has broken across across the across the field but i think what im hoping for is that we have a transparent and fair process working our way towards the nomination and i think that there is a possibility of that im. Well you know we have rules and i think if we are russians playing by those rules well. No of course not of course not i mean i raise its not no its. Absolutely all right i mean meddling in the last election and they have done that i mean not only sanders just won 45000000. 00 you know got to win but earn you know attracted 45000000 dollars to support this last quarter and that is an enormous haul for him to take in at a very high you suggest and thats because of russian well no im not im just saying that the people out there are beginning to talk about the ways that russians whether its money whether its meddling i know that my lecturers owning im sorry. But you know people like me average day to day people who are donating 101520 bucks and i looked it right kid in the bin the news reports of russians meddling both in the Trump Campaign and in the Standard Campaign we dont really know because if we knew where it was coming from and how they were doing it we would be able to stop it so but i think the key thing for us is as we look toward convention is all this talk about a contested convention and you know this burn the d. N. C. And all this crazy talk im there about hope people who are going to shut the thing down is that the rules for the convention were established before there was anyone in the race and senator sanders before he was a candidate helped to establish those rules and was the only candidate who was involved in the establishment of the rules on the rules committee so i was. In conversation with his campaign folks about what would work for them including a superdense hulu so i mean i have to be like you know ive had women here personal conversation with his with his team about that and hes changed his position big. Before he was in they had a flip flop and when he ran 4 years ago he was in a very different spot so my question to the last couple of minutes we have and you know let me im going to start with you is just how deep is the mistrust of the uncertainty in the party that if Bernie Sanders was to win would you be able to support that candidate do you see structurally a problem for enthusiasm of coming out and i would say vice a versa i mean how do you think that problem gets solved how big is the divide how big is the mother of all wars within the Democratic Party i think all of us are really hyper focused on the task before us which is beating donald trump and it will be incumbent on whoever is our nominee to reach out to all parts of the party and make sure that everyone knows that they are welcome in that big tent of a party the thing about the Democratic Party is were a lot more diverse in every possible way but in the Republican Party and that i think is the source of our strength and you know when you have 80 percent of. Republicans being self described conservatives and almost all of them being white men at least in elected office at this point its a lot easier to get unanimity its harder to get you know many in our party and i think it makes us better at representing the entire country and so my hope is that we can all come together around whoever can win the majority of delegates because thats the rule and that means that youve gotten a broad base within the party to say this is our person we have same question i think that we cant we do want to win were focused on winning i think that the rules are in place to ensure that every part of the party feels heard it feels that the process is fair and so as my mother said rules are made for the young ruler so you know were going to come to a convention and theyll be some unruliness because were democrats and we like it that way but the votes already sanders wins youre not worried about some people saying im going to take my toys and go home you know i think in the whoever the nominee is i think the bulk of the party if its bernie will support them i worry quite frankly. On the biden side if the nominee is biden that there will be some discontented folks from the other wings of the party the independent party to send a spot right feel that the process was somehow rigged nobodys ever been able to explain to me what that means so we can tell you i want to give you the last word will will your bernie bro pals and your bernie other friends will be supported joe biden candidacy if he comes out on top so 1st of all the term burning perot is completely negates the huge huge huge percentage of bernie supporters like myself who are women or who are minorities they were from across the entire spectrum and so i just want to say its good i do think that regardless as long as the process is transparent whoever becomes the nominee transparent transparent transparent transparent like our lives do depend on it if that happens then yes we will be able to get unity because it likely some 26000 bernie did go out there and he did walk around to talk about hillary and try to get her elected and i think the issue a lot of hillary people dont think he didnt know well they need to look at the numbers and they need to hear how annoyed we were when he was doing that sometimes but the point is that a lot of us we most of us i would say the vast majority of us went out and supported hillary in 2016 the point is that the Democratic Party 2016 didnt understand that a huge percentage of bernie supporters were never democrats and they were going to be after the primary unless he became the nominee so thats what were looking at here we have to make sure that we have a transparent process and god willing everything will go well but thats why we have rules to super tuesday is here and this is been such a thoughtful conversation im very grateful id like to thank you all for being with us reverend Leah Daughtry former c. E. O. Of the Democratic National convention michelle gale Democratic Party activist in chicago and let me erickson a democratic strategist here in washington d. C. So whats the bottom line alexandria Ocasio Cortez some there were is a oh see is right in any other nation she and joe biden would be in totally different parties and Bernie Sanders and joe biden would be in different parties to there are huge differences of perspective between these 2 candidates on how radical to be on environmental policy or on immigration on their. Cation health care this is a rough tug of war between different camps all driven by different passions and grievances inside the same party in america what is clear is that when a democratic candidate is named whether its joe biden or Bernie Sanders whats going to unify them will not be what it is for but rather what it is against and that unifying call will be moving president dollars out of the white house and thats the bottom line. On the stand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world no matter what you will do with the news and Current Affairs that matter to you. This is aljazeera. Hello im compelled this is the news all live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes the top diplomat dashes to turkey to deal with the crisis triggered by on his decision to release syrian migrants towards its territories. Drastic steps to take on difficult times italy prepares to shut all schools and universities due to the fos breading coronavirus epidemic. The democratic president ial race transforms into a 2 man contest up to 14 states vote on who should face donald trump in the event