Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 11242019 20240713

We will begin with the current front runner in iowa and New Hampshire, Pete Buttigieg. He is rising in the polls and leading in those states. Give us a phone call at 202 7488000, that is our line for democrats. Foran 202 7488001 republicans. If you are an independent 202 7488002. You can send us a text message at 202 7488003, include your name and where you are texting us from. You can also tweet us or communicate on facebook. We want to begin with this story inside the Washington Post. Mike pence visiting with troops in iraq ahead of the thanksgiving holiday i welcome the opportunity to reiterate the strong bonds forged by the fires of war between the people of the u. S. And the Kurdish People across the region. From Vice President mike pence who was in the region and is now in germany. News on Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg, she has been hospitalized. Supreme court Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg hospitalized after experiencing chills and a admitted onas friday night into Johns Hopkins hospital in baltimore. She was evaluated here in washington, d. C. Before being transferred to Johns Hopkins for more about you wait and treatment of any possible infection. Earlier in the month 86yearold suffered a stomach bug and was absent from arguments on november 13 and returning on november 18. She has been held twice in the last year and has received visits for tumors on her paint a tumor on her pancreas and she also underwent surgery for lung cancer. That update from the Supreme Court says she could be released as early as today. News on justice ginsburg. Joining us on the phone is michael from politico focusing on Pete Buttigieg who is rising in the polls. Are yourine is this neighbors ready for president feed . President pete. The question keeps resurfacing, what does everyone else think . Think . Thank you for being with us, how do you answer that question . Different people answer different ways but a consistent thing i heard on the trail in South Carolina and iowa with this campaign was that many people say they are ready for president pete, more than ready, but they wonder about their neighbors. Members of about their own family, whether they are ready for president pete. The question becomes is their support going to be held back in any way because of their perception that other people do not support him. They will throw their support behind him and get excited about him only to be disappointed. In some way that is similar to how i think some of them felt about the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, the would have been first female president who was not. Something i heard in particular in iowa. In june of 2015 he announced he was openly gay and he said the following being gay has had no bearing on my Job Performance in business, the military, or my role as mayor. Or worseme no better at handling a spreadsheet, a rifle, a committee meeting, or my judgment in improving the city, the progress of our neighborhoods and city services. This is an interesting oped that he wrote in june of 2015. He came out quite late. Hisas already well into first year as mayor when he wrote that oped. There are two ways to look at it. Hewas quite risky in that was heading into his reelection effort when he decided to do that. Hurdle had cleared the of the democratic primary. How are people going to respond to this piece of who he is and the historic nature of his candidacy . There is only one way to find out, to run. Thatfers back to reelection effort in 2015 in south bend in which he won 80 of the vote which was a wider margin than the vote the first time around for him. The argument for him is that if you prove to people that you are more than capable of doing the job that you have or you are seeking, then your Sexual Orientation in this respect should not matter. Host lets look at the numbers. Leading in iowa and also the latest numbers from New Hampshire showing mayor Pete Buttigieg at 25 followed by joe biden, senator Elizabeth Warren both at 15 10 points back. Senator sanders at 9 . A state that Bernie Sanders won convincingly over Hillary Clinton in 2016. What do you attribute these numbers to . Guest it is quite remarkable the polling standing in iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states with a say in the primary process. He has prioritized those states. Something remarkable for me. It was the size and the fervor of those crowds. Going across increasingly conservative territory in the northern reaches of iowa. That sort of crowd turned out. Let me speak to what i heard from people on the ground in iowa from voters. Them are worried about joe biden, about his age and his debate performances, the lack of excitement surrounding his appearances in smaller venues in iowa. They are concerned about Elizabeth Warren and bernie ders they are standing for an alternative and that is the opening mayor pete is taking advantage of in particular in iowa and New Hampshire. People are looking for a fresh face. They are looking for somebody who is presenting as slightly more moderate than sanders and warren certainly. He checks those boxes. Why isnton becomes someone like cory booker seeing the benefits of that . Explains his surgeon poll status in iowa and New Hampshire. ,he question and the problem the obstacle the Buttigieg Campaign has the sole is his his consistently lows status in South Carolina more is no whether for a socially conservative phone and a significantly more africanamerican vote. If you look at the successful democratic president ial candidates over the last dickstein years, carter, clinton, and obama were all relatively young new faces. The more establishment candidates did not do so well in recent years including al gore and Hillary Clinton. Guest it is a point that perhaps unsurprisingly mayor pete finds a way to make frequently on the campaign trail. In particular im thinking of a moment i witnessed in rock hill, South Carolina at a town hall when he was asked if america is ready not for a gay president at such a young president. By pointing out that every time in the last half a century that democrats had won the president the it had been with someone like him, someone who is perceived as not from washington or washington marinated so to speed. Something people someone people have not heard of. Like barack obama or jimmy carter. Whether or not that proves to be true in this cycle remains to be seen but he is not wrong in pointing that out. I think for audiences that are already leading towards leaning towards Pete Buttigieg it is a line that very much works. Host we are talking with Michael Kruse from politico. Asked the when i mayor pete about the pages he was taking from obamas playbook he did not push back. Should give americas credit for being able to move past old prejudices. When people are moved and inspired that happens in ways that cut across ideological and party lines. Is a simplehinks it way that he demonstrated what is possible. Guest one of the interesting things for me in this story was to look back at the poll numbers and how they moved in late 2007 and early 2008 from barack obama on this question of whether the country was ready for a black president. Those numbers shot up significantly once he started gaining traction right around this time in the 2008 cycle. If barack obama or Pete Buttigieg can win that early it convincesntest other people in other states that this is possible. To some extent it is a question of cascading polling affects. One other similarity between these candidates, candidate obama in the 08 cycle and candidate buttigieg is they do attempt to talk about these ideological lines appealing to a broad coalition. Talking in the context of hope. It is an unmistakable parallel as well. Something you cannot help but notice the extent to which buttigieg talks about hope, that was a touchstone of the obama candidacy. This is something people are always looking for. Maybe in particular in this 2020 cycle. Host this story is available at politico. Com. Michael kruse with the headline are your mayors ready for mayor pete . This tweet saying neither iowa nor New Hampshire is representative of the country as a whole and the media stops needing needs to stop giving them preemptive power. America is not ready for a gay president. Alex joins us from colorado. Caller good morning. I am from colorado and we have a governor who is gay and he is a wonderful governor. I did not vote for him but i support them in many things. The only thing i dont support him in his he is against the Electoral College. I think mayor pete is a wonderful person, i have no reason not to think that. He is very smart but i dont think he is mature enough. I called wasasons i want to thank you, susan, and greta from cspan. One evening you showed the state dinner for the governor of australia the Prime Minister of australia and it was wonderful. I like donald trump and i think that a wonderful person has been unfairly talked about. I think people need to look at his goodness. His life is beautiful. I dont see why she isnt in on the cover of every magazine. I am a republican and a catholic. Because he is gay has nothing to do with it. A good the governor is governor and i was really upset when people wanted to recall him. Thank you again for giving me a chance to talk. I love cspan. Host we appreciate the call and the complement of our coverage. Joining us on our line for independence. Mayor pete is leading the polls. What do you think of his candidacy . [no audio] to coleman in maryland, democrats line. Caller good morning, thank you for taking my call. I have a few comments. Problemsave much butng for president peter my problem is for the democrats. I dont see how that is going to work. The most important thing is to win. This morning i am so happy that mayor bloomberg is ready to jump into the race. The press wanted joe leave i like joe but i knew that he was not the right person. We really want to defeat donald trump and i am so optimistic that mayor bloomberg was jumping into the race that the poll would change. He may not win iowa, he may not even win the nomination but i see a situation where he is it will be late and like bill clinton coming into late. If he did not win iowa and went on to become the nominee and win the presidency. Host from the New York Times editorial page the moral injury of war crimes pardons. Just a moment ago the president with this tweet referring to a navy seal, eddie gallagher, who will be on fox and friends this have no fear, all will end well for everyone. Rumors that some in the Navy Hierarchy are threatening to resign because the president is interfering in the Navy Hierarchy. Connie is joining us on the independent line. Caller good morning. I am an independent who leans liberal, i generally vote for only democrats and i would not support mayor petes candidacy and i think this is ridiculous. This is being pushed by corporate democrats in new york and dce. I dont know who got him that cover when he first announced on one of the major magazines but somebody is behind the scenes driving this and i resent that and will not support his candidacy. He is too young, he has no perspective, as someone who is a little older than him i realized that crossing the 40 year mark threshold gives you more perspective on things you have gone through in your life. The Biggest Issue for me is corporate money. He accepts corporate money. I will stay home from the polls and if that results in donald trump winning again so be it, but i will not support a Democratic Party that pushes their corporate candidate with their influence in the media. Host when you saw the cover story from Time Magazine on may 2 on the mayor of south bend indiana and his husband and his his husband, his partner, what was your reaction . Caller the fact that he is gay is not an issue for me. That there would be a gay couple in the white house is not an issue. The issue with mayor pete is age and number two the is excepting corporate donations. The third thing for me, i heard on another npr show this weekend that he only won his mayoral spot in south bend, indiana with a total of 8000 votes. Who live inpeople south bend, indiana who voted for him. How will you translate that into a country that is extremely diverse . I agree with the tweets you read earlier. Iowa and New Hampshire are not representative of this country and to push him to the front, i will not buy into that. Host thank you for the call from florida. On the democrats line jenny is next from honolulu, hawaii. Caller thank you very much for cspan. Enjoy that you read newspaper headlines and excerpts from the stories. It is a nice way to get started. I am calling to say that i like mayor pete but he is not my candidate. I would vote for him over joe biden. I will not vote for joe biden. Host twice that . Why is that . Wayer a lot of things, the he sneaks up on women and smells their hair and girls. I dont like him. I didnt like him when he was the Vice President. Pete buttigieg is not my candidate, i also think he is too young and experienced and takes corporate money. I dont know anybody else in any other government that has a gay marriage of leaders, and he will be receiving people from all over the world and also be traveling with the president , the couple traveling over the world if buttigieg were elected. I understand how it would diplomatically work out in some places in the world. In arab countries, how what they receive a gay couple . How would they receive a gay couple . When america is hosting other countries, how what they perceive this . Host there are openly gay members of the house, and the senate. A governor of colorado is openly gay. Withr i have no problem it but i think that hosting diplomats when there are no other gay marriages in leaders of nations of other worlds i cannot see how would work out. I wish them well and down the line maybe they will pick up more experience and be a candidate i would vote for. Host thank you for the call from hawaii. Mayor pete has much more qualifications than the president. Carl is next from providence, rhode island. Caller good morning. The lady from florida made a lot of sense. Pete does reasonably well, lets say he takes New Hampshire and iowa. If he does reasonably well in isth carolina, joe biden going to carry that state, his primary support is from the black community. He has done nothing for them. He gets there vote than he does nothing. Joe biden is a swamp creature. He has been there since the 70s, he is older than me. As far as this other person about traveling overseas with his gay partner, i dont think he would be received to well in a country like saudi arabia. That is mostly muslim. Any of those very conservative muslim countries, that will not go over too well at all. The best candidate against donald trump no one is talking about him is mike bloomberg. Is a realke bloomberg megabillionaire. He is the real one. And a megabillionaire. He is up there with the coke brothers. One of them passed. He is up with them. For the call. U reportedly the Bloomberg Campaign preparing to set up spend upwards of 34 million launching a likely campaign by the former new york city mayor. Alabama,ates including indicating he may bypass iowa and New Hampshire in the first in the nation primaries. Petero your phone calls, joining us from alexandria, virginia on the republican line. Caller i am a conservative fiscal man and a moderate whatever the other is. I heard mayor pete Say Something to join people of america and get over the separation that we are living through. One of the things he mentioned was the National Service of some kind. I think the problem that we have in the division in america now is that everybody stays in their own home town, never gets out of their home on 10 own home town to meet other people and see how they live. Is the mayor pete only one who has mentioned what he would do to get over the divide we have in america today. Host from the daily news there the primeadline minister of luxembourg, the first openly gay gay head of state to speak at the u. N. , calling for an end to hate speech. Randy is joining us from michigan on the democrats line. Your thought about the mayor of south bend who is leading in iowa and New Hampshire polling . Caller good morning. I start by thinking you and all the men and women that it takes to bring us this program. You guys do good work. I think it is a great thing. I like what i see even in the first debate. Wise that has nothing to do with it. Less the they get the brain works if you want to push age. We have our he had enough old people that cannot do nothing. I think pete has his head together. We dont have to worry about the religious people coming out and have ing, after what we office now they dont have a leg to stand on on any believes or anything. Maybe he would bring the country together. V i amet off of this better than you because i go to i am bad sundays. During the week but i go to church to ask for forgiveness on sundays. I think pete asked good all the days without having a reason to go to church. Host this is from tom lewis Pete Buttigieg the establishments manufactured candidate. The Concord Monitor has the poll, petea new buttigieg is the clear leader in New Hampshire. Polling from cnn in iowa showing that Pete Buttigieg is ahead. Charles is joining us from South Carolina on the democrats line. Caller good morning. I dont have much to say. I dont have a problem with pete , im not a supporter of him but i like him. I like him better than the guy that is in the white house right now. He is one of the biggest liars out there, at least pete is truthful. The man that i think is in the closet gay is our senior senator, lindsey graham. You never see him with a female or talk about a female. Problem with pete i am not a supporter of pete. If he made halsey gabbard his bpe would be an interesting take it. Those who would have a problem with his Sexual Orientation would not and those who have no problem with it would. It would. Alex in silver spring, maryland i am a conservative christian and the u. S. Army vet and i believe that russian hacking and winced the 2016 election. I would rather vote for a gay man than reelect donald trump. Buttigieg andete being openly gay came up with the senior democratic representatives from South Carolina. Here is that exchange from a couple weeks ago. A new poll out of iowa places south bend mayor Pete Buttigieg firmly within the top four contenders. That is not the case where you are in South Carolina where he remains below single digits. A local South Carolina paper obtained a memo from inside the detailing ampaign, focus group with black voters who did not like that he was living with his husband. The report concluded that being gay was a barrier for these voters. Is mayor buttigiegs struggle for black voters in the South Carolina area because he is gay . That is a generational issue. I know of a lot of people my age who feel that way. My own grandson who is 25 years old, that guy is a big buttigieg guy. He does it because he believes in the guy, not because he is gay. For older africanamericans it is an issue . I am sorry . Are you saying for older africanamericans it is an issue . Yes it is, no question about it. I am not going to sit here and tell you otherwise. It is an issue not the way it used to be, my grandson is very much for him. He is a paid staff are working on the campaign. Working with hbcus throughout South Carolina. That is from congressman James Clyburn on cnn. There was this with senator toala harris, responding what congressman clyburn had mentioned. I wanted to get your reaction to what congressman James Clyburn said, he said for some older africanamerican voters it is an issue that mayor Pete Buttigieg is gay. What do you make of that . Here is what i make of it. Bias occurs in every community. I am never going to buy into that trope. I think it is a trope that has evolved among democrats to suggest that africanamericans or that there is transfer via in the black community as a community. That is just nonsense. I am not saying that about representative clyburn who i respect a lot, im talking about a trope that has developed. The reality is that sadly and unfortunately in all communities bias occurs and in particular homophobia and transphobia. To label one community in particular as being burdened by this bias as compared to others is misinformed, misdirected and simply wrong. Whenention the fact you talk about the iticanamerican community includes gay, transgender, lgbtq people who live in that community and are loved by that community and their family. Host that was on cnn with sender Kamala Harris responding to questions from wolf blitzer. From charleston, South Carolina womanere not ready for a president either but hillary won the popular vote. I support it the electrical college. College. Caller good morning. I want to thank you all at cspan for the work you do. I think you guys are fantastic. In regards to mr. Buttigieg, the one thing that i have against my fellow people in the press including cspan, you dont speak much living here in cinnati now i think most people would be concerned about his stance within the black community where he is the mayor of. I dont think he is being gay right now his being gay is a problem. As other people have said i love and new hamp black women are the sole of the Democratic Party in South Carolina. Woman. Churchgoing 70 of americans ok with a gay president ial candidate. This marked a big shift since 2006 153 that they would be very uncomfortable or have reservations about a gay or lesbian candidate. Both stories available at nbc news. Com. Joining us next from mechanicsburg, pennsylvania on the independent line. Newest brightthe and shining object which means bored with who are their current life will focus on the bright and shiny objects. People,rs to a lot of he is a neophyte politician, he. S young as one of your last caller said very few people voted for him last time, south end is not that egg. Maybe he has a future. I was in the service and i went to west point. I am not a big fan of all of the its ok,. It doesnt create problems in frontline units thates and is an issue needs to be addressed, it is not going away in the military. In the political realm it is ok but he panders. The reason donald trump got elected is he says the same thing all the time. Maybe some callers will say he lies all the time. You want to talk about lying look at lots of other people. Are youquestion of saying the same thing and what have you done . That should be the measure of any candidate. Call. Thank you for the sharing this headline, Pete Buttigieg is struggling with the black demographic. No democrat has won the partys nomination without claiming the majority of black voters, a i think mayor pete is a bright politician with a Bright Future geoeye will enthusiastically support if he secures the nomination. He has counterparts who are far prepared for the presidency who i am more inclined to support. Mayor Pete Buttigieg who is openly gay and there are a of he andphotographs his husband including this one from the associated press. Wanting to share with you what he said in april about being openly gay. Everyone in our generation, just like anyone who has gone overseas, anyone whose marriage is dependent on a single vote in the Supreme Court. Everyone in our generation knows that politics is not theoretical, it is personal. Level thate personal politics can make such a big difference in our lives. A bad one or a good one. My generation is the first to know that Marriage Equality is the law of the land for the majority of our adult life. [applause] that did not just happen. The was the result of political struggle, moral struggle, people with the courage to make change and defend the arc of history towards justice. The personal struggle for millions of americans will be when they see themselves represented at every level of political leadership. Thanks to support from people like you. [applause] here we are. It is 2019. America is in big trouble and we need a fresh start. I am as optimistic as ever. As every candidate who has been supported by this effort knows, candidates who often made a whether they won or not, by just being on the ballot , running for office is an act of hope. A Reporter Asks me if america is ready for a gay president i will tell the truth. I will give them the only answer i can think of that is honest. I trust my fellow americans but at the end of the day there is exactly one way to find out for sure. [applause] was back in april with mayor Pete Buttigieg who is openly gay. This from the former chair of the dnc. Mayor pete must convince these africanamerican voters of what they share in common versus our vast difference is of background , personality, or Sexual Orientation. The best place to start is by reminding these voters he is a person of a. Of faith. Apparently the people of america would like to see someone in the white house who can do a job, prepare to go over the cliffs like the lemmings. From the republican line, good morning. I am a republican and a conservative, i was a veteran and i was in vietnam and south korea. I like mayor pete but i will vote for President Trump. Mayor pete is smart and he is an and all candidates are thought to the americans before any identity is tagged to them. Trumpr heard president disrespect anyone on account of their Sexual Orientation. Has may be can find it and tell me where to go. Host this from the Washington Post for the gop the needle after twoudge. Weeks of extraordinary open hearings to shape public hearing on impeachment President Trump claims to be impervious to the because ofvelations heartening Republican Opposition to his removal from office. The proceedings have exacerbated the political divide. Some moderate republicans condemn his conduct but signal in recent days they would probably vote against his they do notbecause believe the president s actions me that threshold. The day was particularly damming for President Trump because a pattern emerged, a series of government witnesses testifying under oath implicating the president in a scheme to pressure ukraine to implement the 2020 election. Not apeachment is criminal or legal proceeding, it. S a criminal one a likely house vote on impeachment next month and a possible senate trial for republicans on capitol hill that are solidly behind the even ifnt they offer scattershot defenses of his wrongdoing. More stories Available Online and on the front page of the Washington Post. Former new york city mayor Rudy Giuliani was asked about ukraine. Are you afraid you could be indicted . Oh well. Wow. Do you think i am afraid . I dont know. Do you think i get afraid . I did the right thing. I represented my client in a very effective way. I was so effective that i covered a pattern of corruption. You should have jumped all over this in 2015 when this awful conflict was uncovered and hidden by the washington press. I am embarrassing you because you did not do your job. I will bring out a paper play scheme in the Obama Administration that will be devastating to the democrat party. As soon as i heard bidens name i told my colleagues they are going to try to kill me. The mafia couldnt kill me, your colleagues are not going to kill me. The wall street journal has reported that you will personally profit from a national gas natural gas pipeline. [laughter] you are laughing it off . Because it is not true, it is completely false. I have no financial interest in the ukraine. I am not going to financially profit from anything in the ukraine. If they know it i would probably have to tell my wife about it. Interest insiness the ukraine, it is untrue. I cannot keep up with the amount of false information. I am telling you if i were representing a terrorist and they were doing this to me because they did not like my client, all of you guys would be promoting me as a hero and a victim of a concerted effort by the press to destroy me. Host that on fox news yesterday with Rudy Giuliani. President with this we tweet polls have turned strongly against impeachment, you. Back to your calls and the issue of the mayor of south bend, indiana Pete Buttigieg. He is openly gay and also leading in iowa and New Hampshire. Going to winchester, virginia. Good morning. We will try one more time. We will go to rich in tennessee. Caller good morning. I have two points. One general and one specific. Like your frequent caller joe from South Carolina i am a supporter of the constitution and i would not vote for any candidate who supports a platform that includes support for abortion. It is thishe general idea of identity politics that really disturbs me that we think would be going down and checking as having this and that elected. How far are people willing to take that . Are they going to look for every characteristic and try to make sure this is what we are looking at rather than policies . I am not hearing anyone discuss buttigiegs policies, it is more about his orientation. Just like Time Magazine when it came in the mail and first family was on the cover i thought they are not going to do this with any other candidate. This seems to be the most important aspect of his candidacy. As far as the specifics of Pete Buttigieg, it seems dismissive i would like to ask democrats and others most of your and theyay mayor pete say that in print and debates online. I dont know if that is because of laziness of learning the fellows name, maybe you can help us out. I have heard it pronounced buttigieg and i have seen it phonetically spelled. On cspancan help us with the preferred pronunciation. When i hear mayor pete im thinking thomas the train. The man deserves more respect from that. Host the campaign itself and even Pete Buttigieg has said call me mayor pete. To start one who said using that which is why you are probably seeing it so often. , we seee see jeb bernie brose, we see hillary i think we need to have a little more lets refer to them like adults. President buttigieg is not that hard to say. Host thank you for calling. This is a text message from joe who lives in cincinnati. I will vote for the if he cuts taxes, limits government, and ends the endless wars. Toe buttigieg responding comments by senator Kamala Harris and congressman jim clyburn. Are you surprised by his comments . Buttigieg some of what we are hearing in South Carolina reminds me of south bend, a place with lots of democrats but lots of socially conservative democrats. The reason why people in my Community Moved past that to reelect me and why we will be able to earned votes in every part of the country is that elections are about voters ask you west in. How will your life be different if this person gets voted president . We have the best answer to that president. If i can do my job and get that answer in front of as many voters as possible it is amazing how many are able to move past old prejudices and make history. Getting a president who will serve them best regardless of the other noise that is circling around. In South Carolina and nationally with africanamerican voters that message does not seem to be connecting yet, so why havent your numbers move substantially with africanamericans . Here is what we are saying. In order to get a boat you have to earn it and deserve it. You have to put forward the answers that will make sense. Our response to asking what our agenda for black america is, it is the douglas plan, the most comprehensive vision put together by a 2020 candidate on how we will tackle systemic racism in this country. It affects every aspect of american life. It is not just criminal justice. We need major criminal Justice Reform. Economicareas like empowerment, which is why i have a proposal to support blackowned businesses, making sure we unlock the potential of minority owned businesses to create economic opportunities. Ofm proposing a 25 target purchasing and doing businesses with those businesses owned by people who have been historically not included. South bend, indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg on cnn. The left and the right still misunderstood his politics, that is from the Washington Post. This text from a viewer says as a gay vietnam era veteran i was brought to the verge of tears by ps speech to the victory fund. He told my story. I am a rightwing guy but he is the first candidate i have sent money to. He showed more strength and character that Anyone Running for office. For office. Bobby is joining us from mississippi on the democrats line. Caller howre you doing . I think the best candidate for the Democratic Party dropped out of the race three weeks ago, beto orourke. Lets get real. This is still america. Countrythink this whole will allow two men to lay in the lincoln bedroom. The Democratic Party, i dont know what is going on in iowa or New Hampshire, but i dont think its going to be a Winning Ticket with mayor pete, im sorry thats the way it is. Host from the New York Times book review, a new book on former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is called the disruptor. You have been elected to change washington, so how do you plan to do that . Lets go to ronnie in fort myers, florida. Thanks for taking my call. I haveblack american and voted republican and democrat in the past. I think it is insulting for joban, you guys do a great typically but to pose this question to black america is a real issue. Host we are not posing the question to black america, we are posing the question to everyone . Caller primarily it seems to be centered around black america. I dont recall you guys mentioning about Jewish Americans or any other ethnic or culture. For 70 years blacks of voted democrat. Speaking to democrats, if they dont trust the black beennow after they have begging and campaigning and asking for a for 70 years and it has been given to them, i dont know if this is a time for black americans if you are a democrat and you are listening to reevaluate if this party actually trust you. For this issue to even, for us as a race is ridiculous. Mayor buttigieg is the least corrupt candidate. You have joe biden who plagiarized, Elizabeth Warren who had the issue with her ethnicity, you have Bernie Sanders who has never held a job buttigieg ismayor the only candidate who has not had a scandal. If you were a black american listening to this, this is what that party thinks of you, they dont even trust you to elect a gay democratic candidate after 70 years of giving them your vote. Host another tweet from the president that came 20 minutes ago nancy pelosi, adam schiff, aoc, and the rest of the democrats are not getting important legislation done, do nothing democrats, gun prices, and infrastructure are dead in the water. Laura is joining us from hampton, georgia on the democratics line. Caller good morning, thank you for taking my call. I am a black woman in georgia who has lived many places. I have also lived overseas. I am appalled that people talking about the black vote. I am a black woman. I vote my issues. My issue with mayor pete was when the Police Shooting occurred there at the beginning of the year he was bagged to come back to handle it. As a black woman in america, no one has ever done anything for black folks. Some had to do it for themselves. They had to hold their own postcards and get out in march. No politician has ever done anything. , whenur current president he discussed the issue that he was having with the football baders, he called them names. When he fired the black woman in the white house he called her a dog. What is this about who we vote for . I vote because i have a black son in america. I get angry. Host who is your candidate . Caller right now i am going joe biden. When biden passed those bills it was the black clergyman who came to him who passed those bills about the mandatory sentencing. I dont need a white person to tell me about voting democrat, republican, no black person to tell me about voting democrat or republican. I have been an active voter. Host we will go next to omaha, nebraska. Good morning. I appreciate cspan and everyone that participates and tries to stay in warmed. Heard about the buttigieg is that he was not a very good mayor. He was not efficient, he was an absentee politician. I dont understand these people calling in saying they would vote for him as a president when he could not even efficiently run a city how would he run a country . That one of the issues came up during the recent debates that took place in atlanta, this question from andrea mitchell. Mayor buttigieg, lets talk about your record as a candidate. You were elected mayor in a democratic city, receiving just under 11,000 votes and in your only statewide race you lost by 20 points, why should democrats take the risk of betting on you . Because i have the right experience to take on donald trump. I get that it is not traditional Establishment Experience but i would argue that we need something different. In order to defeat this president we need someone who can go toe to toe, who actually comes from the kinds of communities he has been appealing to. Talk a big game about helping the working class while helicopter and between golf. Ourses, i do not even golf i never thought i would be on a Forbes Magazine list, i am the least wealthy person on this stage. I wore the uniform of this country and know what is at when decisions are made in the oval office and situation room. The infighting on capitol hill looks small where we live. Doing businessf in washington looks small and i believe we need to send someone in who has a different kind of experience. The experience on the ground of solving problems and working sidebyside with neighbors on the toughest issues that come up in government. Required ofwhat is executive leadership and bringing back to washington so washington can look more like our best run communities in the heartland. Host that is courtesy of the msnbc debate that took place this last wednesday. A text message from a viewer the reason mayor pete will not be elected is because of south bends abysmal crime stats. How is he qualified to run america . Lorenzo is joining us from michigan on the independent line. Thank you, i appreciate getting through. , generallyis speaking i think we are all progressing into spiritual suicide. We see thisecause in our desire for what we want in our leaders, ignoring our leaders we are complacent with an evil lifestyle whether it is fornication or thatexuality, these things our god we are supposed to have faith in he is not subject to Senate Legislation he is immoral and never changes are you changes. We seem to be numb to the fact that when we are divided on air it is because in our hearts we are divided against god we are debating in our hearts about his moral right and we dont want his moral right to establish in our heart and it causes the social ills we are presently going through and we have issues with more than just who was going to be the leader of our country. We have to serve us as individuals and towards god and jesus christ. Host this headline from usa today. Calling Pete Buttigieg to repent for the sin of being gay. By been targeted on twitter Franco Graham in his Franklin Graham that his comments that being gay ais a sin. Matt joins us. You get the final word on this, democrats line. Wanted to say strange. Me, it seems i listen to this every morning, in the week before i go to work, and now today, saturday mornings i noticed they have not talked about a single candidate like this on the callins. It seems ironic that come out of the blue, the one you would pick or the station would pick is buttigieg. Is following Bernie Sanders, who has cut the path for health care. Everyone is making this sound like everyone elses health care is his. The guy before who said he had no experience in working in the private sector, who cares . I would rather have someone who knows what they are doing. And sanders, if people check his record, he is the only one who has been consistent down the line for the better part of the entire career on where he stands and everything. Host thank you. By the way, we are live with senator Bernie Sanders. Watch it this afternoon about 5 00 eastern time here on cspan and on cspan radio. Tomorrow morning, Deval Patrick at a politics and eggs event getting underway at about 8 00 tomorrow morning, all part of our campaign 2020 coverage. Check out the full schedule on our website, cspan. Org. Coming up, we will turn to our sunday roundtable. Joe fuld will be here, republicans i, jim hobart, and later, our discussion with charlie cook. Among the things we talk about is, of course, the impeachment and how all of this is impacting the 2020 elections. A portion of newsmakers right now. [video clip] you cannot ignore the role of the resident. For every seat lost, that is part of it. He will be a major presence on the campaign trail. The republicans seem to be drifting away in the era of trump. There are 8 million trump voters who did not show up last fall. They will show up. This is an anomaly that people in washington, d. C. Do not understand. People across this country that are not on the northeast coast or the west coast, they are very frustrated with what happens here. They have somebody who they believe is fighting for them. Guard style, regardless of anything else. Again, this new socialist democrat majority in the house, they have let this thing come ecome all about impeachment. Whether it was the russian, we got collusion you spent two years and 200 million dollars, no collusion, no obstruction, and you move into this . You have not gotten anything done. Reduced prices on pharmaceuticals. Take care of of surprise medical billing. Usmca. Usmca pass the we have ag industry families that are struggling. That is what people want to c. P. A. Because they are not doing it, that is why they will lose their majority that is what people want to see. Because they are not doing it, that is why they will lose their majority. Eastern,at 5 00 senator Bernie Sanders holt valley with supporters in portsmouth, New Hampshire. 00, formero Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick will speak at the politics and eggs breakfast in manchester, New Hampshire. Holdsesday, the president a rally in sunrise, florida, the first since changing his residency from new york to florida. Live coverage on cspan and cspan 2. Orch online at cspan. Org listen on the go with their free cspan radio app. I think that a National Primary is probably one of the worst reforms we could implement. I would, if we were doing it in a rational way, have a rotating regional primary, so that we , indifferent elections, have different sort of groups of states go together, which would allow focused retail campaigning. Learn about the president ial nominating process tonight on q a. Lara brown of the George Washington university discusses how we nominate president ial candidates and what reforms may be in the offering. Watch tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. Washington journal continues. Our sunday political roundtable with joe fuld and jim hobart. Good sunday morning. Thanks for being with us. Lets begin with the issue of impeachment and how this will potentially play out in 2020. Your view . Guest i think what you are seeing is that it is there are so many there are 40 of voters who have wanted to impeach the president since he took office. There are about 45 of voters who want the president to stay in office and who support him strongly. Then you see the 15 in the middle that are not paying all that much attention. My anticipation was that eventually you were going to see more or less nonapproval would run ahead of approval, with more voters saying they are opposed of impeaching and removing the president then approve of him. Guest we are in a divided country. We have people who have been for impeachment, folks against it is a very small group of people that are persuadable on these issues. It is an important dialogue for folks to be able to hear and see what is going on. That is why i am happy to be here this morning. I think there are very few places left where people are actually having conversations and talking to each other, democrat, republican it is the fun part of being on cspan. Host this morning, the president with this tweet nancy, adam schiff, aoc nancy pelosi, adam schiff, aoc, and the rest of the democrats are not getting anything done. The usmca, gun safety, Prescription Drug isis, and Prescription Drug prices are dead in the water because of democrats. Guest republicans were in power prior to this. We did not see a lot of movement on those issues at all. I think we are trying, the democrats are. I disagree with that characterization. Guest the head of the Congressional Campaign committee for the republicans as our guest on newsmakers. Here is one ad that will be emblematic from republicans. [video clip] just talk. These days, it is all about impeachment. All impeachment, all the time. Power. Er pushing for if we do not impeach this president , he will get reelected. Control is the goal. Start solving problems. Host jim hobart . Guest that is a message from republicans. You are seeing democrats, especially from swing districts, voicing concern. That if they are not able to go back to their district and say this is not what we are able to do, their primary focus is passing some sort of trade deal, and their is concerned of not being able to come back to these shirts that voted for the president and say this is what i was able to accomplish in washington. Pollinge director of saying we are not really seeing a backlash, just people locked in. Guest yeah, and i think it will continue to see that. There is an opinion i do think, what has been important about impeachment hearings is you get to hear folks really servants speakc for themselves. As far as does it move public opinion, i think we got a little ways to see. Guest i think this stuff digs in a little bit, but you have a very small group of people persuadable. Host who is the Democratic Front runner today . Guest i am a fan of mayor pete. I think right now it is still up in the air, who is going to be the front runner. You will see it is moving. I am a political consultant, toch means i have no ability predict anything. I think you have a new front runners that appeal to different parts of the Democratic Party, and i think it will continue to move around. In theut he has surged polls, leading convincingly in iowa and New Hampshire, but you attribute that to what . Guest to having a really defined message in the debates. Being super clear about who he is and what he says and actually having a message. That is what i am seeing and that is what is starting to get through. Host if you look at this race, who was the front runner from your standpoint . That is difficult to say either joe biden or Elizabeth Warren is not a front runner because of the way they are performing and national polls. Yes, iowa and New Hampshire will make a big difference, but we can see someone win in iowa and that is the high watermark of their campaign. We have seen that before. But what mayor pete has been able to do is really impressive. One of the big things he has been able to do is raise money. One of the reasons he is leading the polls in iowa is he has been on television there at a high level, and Television Still moves voters. The let me share this from New York Times, talking about how Elizabeth Warren has fared in the polling. After nearly a year of slowly, and then not so slowly, rising to the top of the pack, senator Elizabeth Warren is facing her first period of apparent plateau. Her momentum stalled, according to polls and dozens of interviews, amid nagging doubts and the predictable price of success. Even more scrutiny. Make and file democrats have raised concerns about the viability of her medicare for all proposal. They worry about the blowback richsome of her the platform has inspired. The fact that senator warren is sliding in the polls former mayor Michael Bloomberg and former governor Deval Patrick appeared so unimpressed with the strength of the Democratic Candidates that they climbed into a field that is growing again. Again. Guest what is interesting is that maybe Michael Bloomberg and Deval Patrick is not impressed with the field, but if we look at the polls, democratic voters are very impressed the current field. Michael blue began Deval Patrick, it is almost like they see a problem where voters do not see one. It will be difficult for both. Will try to run a unique and television heavy campaign where he avoids the first four states. Patrick, it gets very difficult to enter a race this late and make an impact. We have seen on the republican side for, the democratic side before. Host to that point, how viable is that, to have somebody bypassing iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, nevada, and say i will get in on super tuesday . Guest i do not think it is viable. Historically what ive seen is momentum builds and that iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and nevada will have an outside outsized impact. He will be very hard to miss those states and then jump in. Other folks have tried before. I do not think it will be successful. Host the message of senator Elizabeth Warren we were live with her at a town hall meeting in manchester, New Hampshire. Heres a portion of what she said. [video clip] what you are doing today is about the things we are fighting for but also about fighting for our democracy. It is about fighting for a democracy where the rich and the powerful may have more shoes than we do, may have more cars than we do, may have more houses than we do, but they do not own a bigger share of our democracy than we do. [applause] [cheers] every time you knock on a door, every time you talk to somebody in line ahead of you at the grocery store, every time you make a phone call, you are repairing a little thread in our democracy. You are making this democracy work not just for those at the top but for everyone. So i am grateful to you for what you are here today to do. Host that was senator Elizabeth Warren. Again, the story in the New York Times warren has done the hard part. Now may come the harder part. Guest yeah. Me,ink health care, for still the underlying conversation, one of the big ones in the democratic primary. I think people like having their own health care. I think there is some concern among democrats about whether we are going to be playing defense on health care, if you have a universal Health Care Proposal on a candidate who supported going forward. Host is that why she has slid in the polls, medicare for all . Guest i think that is sometimes hard for folks to get their head around. I think it has been a debate going on in this country for a long time. I think it is needed, but the issue is people still have not come as voters, been able to figure out how that will happen. Guest the democratic primary electorate is still pretty moderate. The republican primary electorate is very conservative. The democratic primary electorate is not as liberal. You see a lot of voters who are radical change. You see former president obama coming out and being more voice do not that, same people want everything to change. There is more satisfaction with how things are right now than the way a lot of the democrats are running. Host what is the debate within the Democratic Party . What is it all about . Guest i think the debate is about finding a candidate that actually has a clear message. I think health care is part of that debate. But i think it really is still looking for a candidate that voters think can beat donald trump. Host part of that debate on msnbc, and senator Amy Klobuchar sharing her views on what is possible in the debate between the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party and the centerleft. [video clip] what ive done with all of my plans is i have showed how i am going to pay for them meticulously. I think that is really important, when we have a president in the white house right now who has told over 10,000 lies. When you look at my website, you will see my plans, and you will also see how i am going to pay for it. I think that is so important, because this president is literally increasing the debt, treating our farmers and workers like poker chips in a bankrupt casino, and really putting this country in a worse financial situation every single day. My plan is three months. I think that is good. I would love to do more. I would love to staple up diplomas under peoples chairs. I am not going to go for things i am not talking about senator harris plans, but some of the other ideas out here i will not go for things just because they sound good on a Bumper Sticker and then there in a free car. Throw in a free car. We have an obligation as a party to be fiscally responsible, think big, but make sure we have peoples backs and be honest about what we can pay for, which is everything from sending rich kids to college for free, which i do not support, to kicking 149 Million People off of their Health Insurance in four years. I think we have to be smart about how we do it. That courtesy of msnbc. Is that a message that excites democratic primary voters . Guest it is my view that delivery matters. Talking in an emotional way that engages with the general public is super important. That is what you are seeing candidates that are moving up and candidates that are not is based on how they can connect. No is the answer, that was not very connected. Host as you look at this from your side of the aisle, what do you think . Guest the challenges there is a wing of the Democratic Party that it does appeal to, but the problem is those are not the democratic voters who will be owners the Democratic Party that will be out there knocking doors for you. That is a challenge. Clearlyanders message really resonates with a certain part of the Democratic Party, and it is one that repeatedly gives a small dollar donations. It is one that creates 30,000 people, 40,000 people rallies. That kind of tension is we know that one message may play a little bit better to the middle, but in terms of what excites voters who show up at rallies who gave donations, it is a different message. Host if our viewers and listeners want to follow you on social media, how do they do that . Guest thejimhobart. Guest joefuld. From we are joined now oregon. Caller good morning. I would like to say little bit about myself i was in the itary from 1971 through 19 i served with honor. The way i feel about it is the republicans i used to vote both sides, but the republicans have gone to the point where they do not i do not believe they can ever call themselves the party of law and order anymore. I do not believe they will never be able to say nobody is above the law. I have a problem with that. So i will vote either pete or warren. Primary on wins the the democratic side is who i will really vote for. One thing for people my age of 67 is that it is better dead than red. Thank you. Host thank you for the call. You are shaking your head. Guest i think it is going to be a really interesting primary. I think it is, right now i really have to continue to engage and turn out there voters and get them ready for what will be a difficult general election. I think there are a lot of voters out there that used the vote republican who are looking for a place to go. So i think, that being said, historically, we have now had the past three president s have gone two terms. It will be a tough race, but it will be interesting. Host if you look at the center race on the republican side, which worry you most . Guest states like arizona and colorado will be challenging. The democratic challenger in colorado is raising an incredible amount of money. But i think in both states, we have incredibly strong candidates. Someone like cory gardner was not expected to win in 2014, was not expected to win the first time he ran for congress, and he has proven a really good votegetter in a difficult state. I am always amazed at the call is from hawaii, early in the morning our next collet is from hawaii. Good morning to you. What time is it there . Caller it is 3 30. [laughter] host have you gone to bed or are you just getting up . Caller i am laying in bed, watching you guys talk. Host well, good morning. Caller its aloha. In trouble. I watched that debate last week. It was appalling. And then i watched one of the things that is really getting to me and i voted for hillary, but i will tell you what. This guy trump is getting things done. The economy i got a brother who is a farmer in pennsylvania, and he loves trump. The longrump is going game as far as the farming. But lets revisit a couple of things. Lets be fair. We had an administration before that sent 3000 guns to mexico, to the cartels. The guns came back and killed our own guys on the border. Then we had an Administration Using the irs to spy on or do bad things against the conservatives. And then we had this ambassador that i watched the proceeding, she comes back from the ukraine, and she gets a cushy job in georgetown university. The last administration left and ambassador and three of our soldiers to die in the 13 hour benghazi. And then, what really made me democratse way the hearing. The kavanaugh guest first we can set with farming and trade. The tariffs policy has really hurt farmers and folks with Small Businesses in the u. S. Who are doing work. That is something ive definitely heard and is problematic for the current administration. I think it is one of these things of really understanding and having these conversations with folks. It is great to hear everyones opinions on cspan. I think, long term, it will be about democrats really having a policy around what are we going to do on trade . What are we going to do on health care that will be a difference and a question on whether or not we can defeat the president . Host this tweet senator Amy Klobuchar is moderate but not exciting. She is spot on for some moderates, honest and sincerity, cares about people. Send us a tweet at cspanwj. We go to south dakota on the democrats line. Caller good morning. You sound like a really smart man. The thing that you are having to defend the thing i cannot understand is why trump will not let his cabinet like homemade like a veiny and all them testify. It sounds to me like he is scared of them testifying, but i would like to actually see trump and biden swear in and we put a thinktector on them i biden would pass it. I think trump called me the lowest vial of human scum or something. There was a day where if he said that to somebody, you would be dropped like a bad habit. Host ok, we will get a response. The president ly, has a unique verbal style, especially on twitter. I would join with many of my fellow republicans who wish he spoke in a little bit of a different way and a way that is more fitting of the office. At the same time, if there is one thing that is true about donald trump, it is he is who he is. That type of authenticity has resonated with his voters, and it is one of the reasons he is so popular, especially with rays republicans. Host with base republicans. Host and we typically reelect our president s. Guest we do. The last three president s have served two terms. That being said, this is an unusual president , and how folks react to that, we will have to see in november. Host we go to keith in denver. Caller good morning. First of all, i have to say all this handwringing over trump he lost the popular vote. One of my questions for your strategists is when did the popular vote stop mattering . Has only happened four times. It is anomalous. Also, it is the expressed will of the American People. We told you we did not agree with your agenda. He no mandate. , parties would say we need you to moderate our agenda, because the American People are opposed to it. Host jim hobart . Thet i think, from republican perspective, we controlled the house, the senate, and the presidency. So it was yeah, we have a mandate to achieve conservative policies. I think that, in some ways, that is what the president has tried to do. So much attention gets paid to his rhetoric as people say why are republicans so supportive of him . It is because he has been able to achieve a lot of conservative policy solutions, whether it is unique asx reform he can be, he has also done some very almost ronald reagantype of policies. Host this is a story inside the New York Times. Mistakes in the 2016 trump polling could play out again in 2020. To the point in this New York Times story is doing a better based onting the polls education and keeping better track of late deciders. Some of the mistakes were what . Weighting by education was one of the biggest. Voters with College Degrees are more likely to pick up the phone then voters without College Degrees. Just in the same way you have to Pay Attention to gender, age, now it is pollsters, and many of us have done this, is we weigh it by education. There are many more voters without College Degrees than with College Degrees. Guest the way we are pulling is different now. The idea of getting a representative sample of voters will get harder and harder. Host mary, you are next on the independent line. Caller im calling to say that six of trumps closest associates are in jail. Doesnt that mean he is like a mafia boss . No. T [laughter] a lot of what people involved in the Trump Campaign were sentenced for were things they were doing with their own finances. Host did you want to respond . Guest i will say some of the folks in jail are in jail because of their behavior around the investigations. Message comes from the top. I think that is a huge problem for donald trump. Host go ahead. Thank you for waiting caller . Message comes from the top. Thank you for letting me speak. I sit here as a geologist. I see things coming out with the new green deal. People seem to be abandoning common sense these days. If you watch the impeachment hearing, read the transcript, people are making suggestions, my interpretation. Seriously . We can read what the transcript land and see where sond quoted the president saying no quid pro quo. Then we have joe biden making a video saying fire the guy whether he was crooked or not. Thank you. Guest some environmental things, fracking for example, has created an incredible amount created an incredible amount of jobs in swing states. Running on a platform that says you will ban fracking like Elizabeth Warren is really theycult to entice voters are going to need to beat the president. Host with every mistake or there was joe biden, a moment in the debate this past week in which he made reference to the first African American senator and the support he is receiving, the senator from illinois. I want to get your reaction. [video clip] biden i am part of the obama coalition. I come out of the black community in terms of my support. I have more people supporting me in the black community because they know me. They know who i am. Three former chairs of the black caucus. The first African American elected to the senate. A whole range of people. [indiscernible] [laughter] [applause] joe biden i said the first African American elected. Pickedthe reasons i was to be Vice President was because of my longstanding relationships with the black community. I was part of that coalition. Joe biden is running on his legacy with the Obama Administration. His message and what he is trying to do. He sometimes has trouble making a clear point. For ak voters are looking clear, forward thinking message from a candidate. I think biden struggles with that. Host in a general election with President Trump, how does he deal with it . Guest good question. I think there are times when joe biden can say clear things and stumpare times on the when he is not. It is hard for any candidate for sure. Host we will go to diane in ohio on the independent line. Hearing amyr klobuchar mentioning the 10,000 lies donald trump told, i wonder where this is coming from. 10,000 lies, did he tell 10,000 lies individually or one lie 10,000 times . I think the time president obama told me i could keep my Insurance Company and i could not, i think about the times he told me i could keep my doctor but i would have to pay 800 more a month which was not disclosed. It seems like all politicians it seems like all politicians lie. The 10,000 specific number takes me off guard. Host it came from the Washington Post. The factchecker says donald trump has told 10,000 lies or false claims. Caller so he is like a politician. Guest it is a huge number. People can always make the claim that all politicians lie. I think this is a huge number of false and misleading statements for any president. Host will it matter in the general election . Guest she raises a good point. We hear so much in the media about the president. We hear 10,000 lies. Voters say, really, is that possible . With the impeachment hearing, how many times since trump was elected has there been bombshell this and that . Out. S tend to tune it if im told theres a different ,ombshell seemingly every week did something really be cap and . Significant is this with twitter and facebook . Guest twitter is not as significant because they were not political a lot of political ads on twitter, less than people think. Google announced this week they would be limiting political ads. That, to me, is much more of a question of what will happen than what will facebook to. I think it is bad for discourse to limit political ads. There is a disclaimer at the bottom. I think we can be doing more to make campaigns disclose some ad backup. Overall, i think there should be paid advertising on television. People should be able to respond and get their message out. There is that on tv. Line as well. Be on host how can you limit one persons free speech . How can you limit one persons free speech . Guest joe raises a good point. We should not be placing limits on any type of speech. It is a solution in search of a problem. Problem isink the false, organic claims out there and these Companies Need to do a better job of the organic content on their sites versus the paid ads. I think paid ads are much less of a problem than faults, organic content. Host lets go to gary in indiana. Running a special tonight about the lives of the president. Cnn and msnbc, all they do is lie. Week wasentleman last supposed to have overheard a with the president he but he was dumbfounded when the congressman asked him questions. He did not know what he was talking about. I think there were a lot of lies by the democrats during the inquiry. Call. Thank you for the guest i think one thing that is very true is members of both parties have frustrations with the media. Democrats are frustrated with fox news. Republicans are frustrated with cnn, msnbc, and others. I think from both sides, we need to treat the immediate with more respect and be appreciative of what they are doing. But there is no doubt members of both parties see fake news in one lens or another. Caffe is calling from albuquerque, new mexico. Good morning. Caller even though it may not go anywhere, i think the impeachment inquiry was important. Just to hold him accountable. Otherwise, he will keep doing what he is doing. He is acting like he is above the law. They needed to do something. It is sad the republicans do not seem to be objective about it. Thought about asking whether independents lean right or left . Just a suggestion. Thanks for listening. Host in most cases, you can tell where they are leaning. Did you want to respond . I think impeachment is important. It is important to hear from those testifying what is really going on in government. I think it is good to hold people on the record and be accountable. I think this is an important moment and process. Formero paraphrase president barack obama, is the country revolutionary or evolutionary . Obama i think the barack think barack obama did Amazing Things in office. Forward to getting past the current president and getting back to a better discourse to solve our problems. One of the Biggest Issues going on is it is hard to have a civil conversation about how to solve big problems like Climate Change , health care, trade, and immigration. That is such polarization we need to figure out how to take solid steps. Host that is the debate in the Democratic Party right now. Ofst theres a big portion the democratic primary electorate that is revolutionary. That is what they want. They say we need to be more evolutionary. Barack obama ran as a revolutionary candidate in 20072008. I think it is easier for him to say as an elder statesman than if he was a candidate now. How the left and right still misunderstand the 43rd president. This past week, senator Bernie Sanders. [video clip] you describe your campaign is a political revolution. President obama said the country is less revolutionary that it is interested in improvement. The average american does not think we have to tear down the system and remake it. His president obama wrong . A we dont have to tear down the system. With thee to do American People want. The American People understand the Current Health care system is dysfunctional. You tell me how we have a system in which we spend twice as much as the people of any other country and yet we have 87 million uninsured, underinsured. In some cases, we pay 10 times more for Prescription Drugs as the people of canada or other countries. Bankrupteople go because of medically related issues. And come down with cancer that is a reason to go bankrupt. Some people here think we should not take on the Insurance Agency and the pharmaceutical industry. But you know what . If you think back to f. D. R. And j. F. K. And harry truman and barack obama, people have been talking about health care for a long time. You know what . I think now is the time. In the first week of my administration, we will inches medicare for all. That needs no deductible, no copayments, no outofpocket expenses. Host your reaction . Huge health care is a in this country. If you are running for president in the democrat primary, it is super important. This is what bernie has been talking about for a long time. He will keep talking about how to engage on the issue and build from there. Monitor, Pete Buttigieg leads. You attribute this to what . A clear message. He has a clear message of bringing people together. He has done well in the debates. He has been raising money and spending it smartly. All those things matter in a campaign. Host as you look a year out, who is the toughest democrat to face donald trump . Guest joe biden is pretty or hasently run ahead of done the best of any of the Democratic Candidates. I think we have to be careful doing that. Hillary clinton led donald trump in every poll of november 2015. It gets different when the candidates engage. Int we will go to grace quincy, massachusetts, on the independent line. Caller im going to focus on President Trump. First, i am an american. I am neither a democrat or republican. I am so tired of the president always putting down democrats. Women, ands down that disturbs me. Lets talk about donald trump. Number one, he went bankrupt. He could not get financed by the banks in the United States. He had to go to russia. He is a businessman. Number two, think about what he is doing. Everything barack obama has done, he has dismantled it. I would rather see them build on thanks. Putver heard of president down another president. And i am an old lady. This disturbs me. We had an agreement with iran. It was working. Was it the best . Probably not. But you can enhance it. The parisdeal with environmental, he dismantled it. We could have enhanced it. Host thank you for the call. Guest she makes a really good point. President to build on things, not tear down. I think that is what folks are looking for. I think this is part of trumps weakness. A specific weakness with female voters. I think that is continuing to grow. I think we need to look forward to how we can solve these big problems. Host harry from georgia, good morning. Caller thank you, sir. Good morning to you. I will say this. I dont want to sound adversarial to this gentleman, but i want to take issue with some of the things the callers have said. I keep hearing benghazi get brought up. At a time when republicans are complaining about process and all of these secret testimonies, everyone should remember trey gowdy held 108 hearings on benghazi. Over 90 of them were secret hearings. Kevin mccarthy came out and almost lost his position as majority leader by admitting all of these hearings were worth it because Hillary Clintons numbers are way down. Meaning, of course, they were a political deal. Host were they . Guest i think in both cases, the members of congress were investigating what they feel like their voters wanted them to do. , they said wee will not impeach. Ultimately, the democratic voters were calling their representatives and saying you have to at least begin impeachment proceedings. They had no choice but to do so. Rudy on theto democrats line from california. Caller good to see you again. This is to my democrat consultant. The black community will come out like gangbusters in pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin. It is not going to happen again. I am not impressed by 20,000 people in new york or berkeley. As a liberal democrat, i would like to see them get 50 people in billings, montana, and anchorage, alaska. Democrat consultant, you might bring that over to them. Thanks very much. Host thanks for the call. Guest engagement is important for these candidates. You are seeing these candidates getting out there and building. A ground game matters. Having people show up and have these conversations. Back toit goes president ial candidates having clear messages. Also, what will be interesting about next year is we have a ton of people on the ballot. Over half a million elected officials in the United States. There are races at all levels. It is not just getting voters on the democratic side and independents to come out and vote for the president also getting them to vote down the ticket in other races. It will be an interesting year. Host in live coverage from new , today at 5 00, you can watchs senator Bernie Anders in New Hampshire for town hall meeting. Headline. His Michael Bloomberg vowing not to take Campaign Donations as well as a president ial salary. He is worth 54 billion. He does not need the money. Guest it is a funny headline. He does not need to raise money. He does not need to take a salary. Our current president who says he is a billionaire, i would like him to take the same pledge. Host to be fair, he is also not taking the president ial salary. He is not taking the salary, but there are a lot of perks that come with being president. Host lets go to the caller in kentucky. Caller listening to both gentlemen, i can say for myself that i would want every person to really listen to the money. Follow the money. How much this person is spending, how much this person has. , iis sad that every caller have sat here this morning and listened. The gentleman on my left with the smirky grin, i watched him every time the opposite person called and puts down President Trump. He just grins. It is sad our country is where no matter our position in this life, forget the money and who is going to buy the position. Listen to what people are voting for. Vote your heart. The bible says we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. You can see that smirk on his face. E is not after truth t host we will get a response. Guest i think voters should be voting on issues. Happy to be here this morning. I want to see a dialog when it comes to issues like health care, immigration, and Climate Change. I think those are all really important. Say to ruthould you as a republican caller . Guest i think like joe, we are both happy to be here. We love hearing from every day voters. Of us is smiling, it is because we enjoy hearing from americans. Host bill in new jersey. Caller President Trump is correct when he says the s,ection will be about crime which the democrats rarely mention, and economy. The president has delivered on jobs for more americans. sanctuary cities are crimeridden, drug infested. The sanctuary cities and inner cities are hurting the very people the democrats purport to help. And they are denying black parents and inner city parents the right to school choice. Host thank you for the call. Guest i think crime is low. Aboute to be thinking more solutions. I want to think about the solutions around criminal Justice Reform and ways to get people out of jail and put them back working and having productive lives. Those are things i am looking forward to seeing. Afterwith democrats going what they call millionaires and billionaires, there is this headline from the wall street journal. The underdog fighting for justice. To these people have sucked out profits in a rigged system or put the economy in a stranglehold. They are using this in a new campaign ad. Lets watch. [video clip] it is time for a wealth tax in america. The vilification of billionaires makes no sense to me. She would ruin what we have. She probably thinks more of cataclysmic change to the Economic System as opposed to tinkering. I am most scared by Elizabeth Warren. You built a Great Fortune . Good for you. I guarantee you built it at least in part using workers all of us paid to educate. On the roads and bridges, all of us help to pay the bills. We are americans. We want to make these investments. Pitch in two cents so everybody else gets a chance. [cheers and applause] i am Elizabeth Warren and approve this message. Host your reaction . Guest the joke is when Goldman Sachs ceos criticize Elizabeth Warren, they should listen and contribute to her campaign. Populistcertainly a sentiment in this country. It is one of the reasons President Trump was able to win in 2016. When you are running against the swamp, you are running against corporate interests. In some ways the message of Elizabeth Warren or bernie toders has similarities trump in 2016. Attack the rich. We talk about Michael Bloomberg not taking donations. Donald trump not raise money aggressively. He is doing so now. I think the antielite message resonance on the democrat and republican side. Guest every time a Billionaire Hedge Fund manager criticizes Elizabeth Warren, it helps her campaign. Ohio. Lets go to dayton, caller if President Trump was not the president , he would be probably sitting in jail. Republicans feel like the Mueller Report did not matter. All those facts did not matter. All the instances of obstruction of justice. The instances in the Mueller Report. If he was not the president , he would be indicted. Republicans are Still Standing behind him. I dont understand that at all. That is really crazy. If president obama had done the same thing President Trump has done, he would be in jail right now. He would be in jail right now host thank you for the call. What are you hearing . Guest im hearing frustration from him, and i can totally understand that. I think the impeachment hearings have been really here and get out what is going on. I will say this to the caller. Whether you are a democrat or republican, get out and vote. Make your voice heard. That is really important. We still have low voter turnout. There are still a lot of people not registered to vote. , we are side you are on hearing this backandforth. We have thanksgiving coming up. There will be a Big Conversation around the table. Have that conversation. This is why shows like this are so important. Host it will be an interesting thanksgiving. What about in your household . Guest my brotherinlaw likes to tweet me a little bit. Hearing some anger but some passion on both sides. People are more interested in the 2020 president ial election than they were in a lot of previous elections a month out. Voters on both sides are incredibly engaged. I think we will see record turnout in 2020. Host you do what . Guest we are a research and polling firm for republican candidates and professional associations and corporations. Host and founder of the campaign workshop. Guest we teach people to run for office. We work on advocacy campaigns around the country. Democrat. We work on democrat kent haynes campaigns. Host thank you for being with us. Our conversation. Charlie cook will be joining us in a moment to look at not only 2020 politics on president level but other key house and senate races he is tracking. You are watching and listening to washington journal on the sunday morning. We will be right back. Tonight at 9 00 eastern, they discuss a look behind the scenes at the donald Trump Presidency from an anonymous source. President trump is the ultimate decider. He really follows his own instincts on everything from Foreign Policy to the marketing joe was talking about. Press secretary and communications director. He is his own National Security advisor. People in congress have given a weight power and authority steadily over the last couple decades. One way to not complain anonymously but to do something about it is to do something about it. Watch every weekend on cspan2. Cspans campaign 2020 has led coverage of upcoming events. Today at 5 00 eastern, senator Bernie Sanders holds a rally with supporters in portsmouth, New Hampshire. Devalday, on cspan2, patrick will speak at the politics and eggs breakfast in New Hampshire. President trump holds a Campaign Rally in florida, his first they are since changing his residency from new york to florida in late october. Live coverage on cspan and cspan2. Watch online or listen on the go with the free cspan radio app. Primary isa national one of the worst reforms we could implement. We should do it in a rational way, have a rotating, regional primary. In different elections, you would have different groups of states vote together which would allow focused campaigning. Learn about the president ial nominating process tonight. Of George Washington university discusses how we nominate president ial candidates and what reforms may be in the offing. Watch tonight at 8 00 eastern. Washington journal continues. Host for the past 35 years, we have turned to charlie cook to talk politics. Your first appearance was in 1984 or 1985 . We are glad to have you back. I want to focus on the senate. Ichael bennett said winning the house is important but winning the senate is imperative. What has to happen . Last year, there was more democratic exposure. This year, it is the other way around. Uphink democrats can pick one or two seats. Up one they could pick or two just having a good night. But to have a net gain of three , democrats have good chances in arizona and colorado and maine. Democrats have a vulnerable incumbent in alabama. They would need a way to get past that point to get over to a tom tillerson or joni ernst in iowa or john cornyn in texas. They would need a way of getting into that area. You had away in 2018. The democrat from michigan is listed as someone who might be vulnerable. Guest that is one we are watching. John james is a good candidate. Disliked. Not he is not welldefined in the state. That is what we are keeping an eye on. Host democrats elect a democratic governor in kentucky, the son of the former governor. People say this means Mitch Mcconnell is vulnerable. Guest kentucky is still a pretty red state. Every republican on the ballot won except governor bevins. He was something of a prickly person. There are things you could interpret out of kentucky where , butrats had a good vote that was a lot about bevans. About readingle too much into the democratic win in louisiana were john bel was unusually strong for a democrat. I would look at the Virginia Legislature and county elections in pennsylvania that suggested something was going on. Always extenuating circumstances. John bel edwards is prolife, pro n. R. A. , so he is a different kind of democrat. Guest he is a little bit of a unicorn. Point, army ranger, prolife, progun, conservative, white, democrat. There is still a little bit of a hangover where bobby jindal was the republican governor for eight years and the state was not in good shape when he left. They do not really have their atwo in louisiana. , the fewerlook messages you want to take out of these cases. Host the thanksgiving meal will include discussions over impeachment and politics. I want to share what he wrote recently. Why dont democrats drop impeachment and just censure trump . It will be a way to publicly censure the president with regard to ukraine. The house could easily pass a censure resolution and might even do so with a bipartisan majority. Right now, House Republicans feel no pressure to vote for impeachment. Agree trumps conduct is not impeachable. By censoring, democrats could easily turn the political calculus against the g. O. P. Will they do it . Probably not. Impeachment will be nothing more than an active censure anyway, why not censure trump and pressure some republicans to vote against the president and leave the decision whether to remove trump from office where it belongs, in the hands of the American People. Guest i think theres a lot of truth in that. You could have said the same thing to republicans with president clinton. I am not a lawyer. It is not my job to find whether this president did anything illegal or not tra. I look at things politically. I think it is problematic whenever a party tries to remove a president without broad support. You are looking at 48 in favor , 45 peaching or removing opposed. That is not broad public support. That is what happens when you have redistricting with heavily democratic and republican districts. They become ideological silos. Republicans had to deal with that in the 1990s against clinton. Democrats have it now against trump. Host if you could speculate today, what do you think Speaker Pelosi will proceed with based on what you said a moment ago . Guest i think Speaker Pelosi has long had a dim view of impeachment. She has said there is a 0 chance of conviction, so why do this and jeopardize some of her freshmen . My guess is she still thinks it is a bad idea. But when the ukraine stories started coming out, there was no stopping congress. At that point, i think she had to go along with them. I dont think she is enthusiastic about this. There is a 0 chance of conviction. The election is only a year away. There is not broad support for this. There are a lot of reasons why. The suggestion of censure would make a lot of sense, but that is not what democrats are going to do. Host six senators are running for president. They would have to be in Senate Chambers for a trial that could last five weeks. It is hard to see how this would be good for eddie money anybody in the senate. They have a lot of suburban voters where the president is not terribly popular. I think you could make a case the democrats have more to lose in the house from impeachment but republicans have more to lose in the senate in terms of where they have vulnerable members. There are 30 or 31 House Democrats in districts donald trump won. Guest 31. There are three republicans in districts Hillary Clinton carried. They picked up a lot of republican seats outside of atlanta, dallas, houston, oklahoma city, richmond. That is where democrats picked up seats last year. They have to be careful. These are not liberal places. Democrats have to be very careful there. Host you are listening on cspan radio. His programs carried live every sunday morning on sirius xm, the Bbc Parliament channel. Bob is next from tennessee. Good morning. Caller yes. Getting back to how we allow our president s to perform Foreign Policy, when barack obama was president , he did all that money to iran. They asked him after he gave the think that do you money would be used to fight against our soldiers . Said i believe some of it would be used. If that is not treason because you have some technicality where it makes it right . That is why we vote for donald j. Trump. Guest im not here to debate you. Do you know where the money came from . That was not taxpayer money. That was iranian money that had been in reserve here. We had frozen their money. Part of the Iran Nuclear Deal was freeing up their money that we had frozen here. Caller you gave it to them to kill our soldiers he give it to them to kill our soldiers guest it appeared to be working for a while. Now, we got rid of the deal and it is not working. You are looking at this from a very onesided view. On a lot of things, there are two sides. Host you look at the democratic polling with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and joe biden losing support. Guest you can look it every single one of the major Democratic Candidates and make a good case why that person cant win the nomination. Biden, he is too old. He shoots himself in the foot. Pete buttigieg, he is too young. He is the mayor of a small city. Amy klobuchar is not charismatic. Democrats are not looking for a billionaire like Michael Bloomberg. One of these sets of objections is going to be less compelling than the other because one of these people will get the democratic nomination. We could make a good case against every single one. That is what is so perplexing about where we are now. Host has the biden brand been damaged . Guest Vice President biden has more experience than the rest of the field combined and goodwill from being president obamas wing man. 77 years old. He is not as quick as he used to be. He does tend to go on longer than he should, as i do as well. There are drawbacks. I think it was the electability holding it together. While i dont think Vice President biden did anything , it is sort ofe guilt by association. Waiting one more straw down Vice President biden and is thatthe electability he was seen as ideologically electable. The case against his ghertability is building hir and making the race more open. Host the first add the Biden Campaign put out is he is the most electable. Isnt that a danger because then they can go after you and say you are no longer the leader . Have tested my aid, by the way, i am the most electable. I understand expense is not as valued as it used to be because people hate government so much that they have devalued expertise and experience. Audience, youic could make a case experience more than itnow might normally. We will go to henry on the independent line from new york. Good morning. Caller i look at this campaign inconsistencyof and some consistency. Consistency from the Republican Party because they support the president 100 . , weDemocratic Candidates thejust beginning to see issues they want to campaign on. The president has said things not wantexicans, did to do the muslim ban, said derogatory things about women,. Is comments on charlottesville and on twitter all the time. I think it is interesting senator mcconnell would not say anything. I think it is really interesting that despite all of this that nobody in the senate, republican members of the senate, have not stepped back and said the white house is one thing. Us in the senate have to take a step back from this because this is toxic hader from the president of the United States who is not only the buterinchief also also supposed to be a statesman. Host your point . Caller i think it is time for an ready to do what i said. Think about what the president has done and listen to the candidates. If you do go to a Campaign Rally and get the chance to ask questions, ask them questions about that. Host henry, thank you for the call. Guest there is a long history of members of congress of one party not being particularly critical of the president of their party. It was the same with democrats under president obama and president clinton. That comes with the territory. Little tolerance right now within the Republican Party for their elected officials criticizing President Trump. You saw what happened to senator bob corker and senator blake. They got pushed to the point where they could not run for reelection. Mark sanford president criticized the president and lost his primary. Raised the possibility of supporting an inquiry and had to announce his retirement the next day. There is not a lot of tolerance forhe Republican Party members being critical of the president. It is what it is. What do you want them to do . The last edition of profiles encourage has already gone to the printer. Host our viewers are showing their love for charlie cook. We approve that message. This is from the New York Times. Mistakes from 2016 could play out in 2020. You are working with the Kaiser Foundation in key battleground states. Bringing out the notebook. Guest i brought the whole thing right here. The Kaiser Family foundation is nonpartisan. They generally focus on health care. We did a project with them where we did polling in four key battleground states, the three that effectively elected President Trump as well as the larger state that was the closest for Hillary Clinton, minnesota, to look at the issues that drive these voters and who are the swing voters. It is a fascinating study. It is all public domain. G or the cookr political report. It was fascinating data. Host what was the Biggest Issue . Anger and frustration with Hillary Clinton . Trade and the economy . Flipdrove these voters to and vote for republicans . A total of 77,000 votes in those three states elected donald trump. Guest i dont think it was any one thing. With secretary clinton, you had 25 years of accumulated baggage. It wasmetoo came along, like president clinton had a teflon coating. Things did not stick to him much. For secretary clinton, it was more like she had velcro and stuff stuck to her. Baggage intoore the race. Mistakes. My guess is the word deplorable cost her a halfmillion votes. I think the campaign did make mistakes along the way. When you have 137 Million People voting and it comes down to fewer than 78,000 in three to. 0 that works out six. 06 . You can find a million things that would have made a difference in a race that close. Gone remarkable we had from 1888 to 2000 without having the electrical Electoral College go one way and the popular vote go the other. Then we have had it happened twice. Believes a guy democrat could win the National Popular vote by his many as 5 million votes, three or four percentage points, i could still lose the Electoral College because the republican vote is more efficiently allocated around the country. Democrats waste a lot of votes in california and illinois. I think the odds are pretty good President Trump will lose the popular vote, but the Electoral College is what matters. We will be watching those. I wont say one thing in a race that close. It was probably a dozen things. Host let me put a hypothetical on the table. Pete buttigieg wins the iowa caucuses. Vice President Biden wins in South Carolina. Where would that put the democratic race in late february . Guest we can see this race go really deep in a process without anyone getting anywhere close to a majority of the delegates. Host might there be a contested convention . Guest you will never hear me say brokered convention because there are no brokers in american politics anymore. Contested, that could happen because you could see and you could look at the father left and say one sanders warr en sanders. Anyone who thinks Bernie Sanders and his supporters will go away quickly and quietly, they are really wrong. And bernie has a decent amount of money. It will take Elizabeth Warren a while to consolidate that side. Booker so far not catching on. Pete buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. Each one could be winning just enough. I dont think i will live to see a convention go to 100 ballots like they have in history. But this one could get interesting. Remember, super delegates did not kick in until the second ballot. Host we are the only network that will carry gaveltogavel coverage of the convention. That to your phone calls back to your phone calls, from maryland, you are next. Are you with us . Caller good morning. Comments by some mr. Cook. I want to ask about accountability because it seems there is a watering down of what is happening and an attempt to make a comparison to democrats that covered for obama or even president clinton when he was impeached. They are not the same issues. Whenever there was talk about impeachment with bill clinton, it was over something totally different. With this president , you are talking about being a puppet to russia. I want to make sure that is understood. Sure. Not quite caller the kind of explain why he things there is a similarity between what this president is doing and what president s of the past have done on the democratic side and how they were held accountable or not held accountable by folks in congress of the same party. Host thanks for the question. Guest to anybody that comes from a very ideological bent, anybody trying to be in the middle will sound water down. I accept that. What President Trump did were allegedly did and what president clinton did were allegedly did, im not saying theyre the same thing. Im talking about trying to impeach or remove without strong public support. If you dont have more people wanting to impeach and remove, so that when a party tries to do it without broad public support, they are treading on thin political ice. That is all i am saying. Republicans did not have great public support then. Democrats do not have strong public support here. Take a look at the disapproval levels for President Trump, and then look at support for impeach and remove. There is generally about a four to eightpoint gap between disapproval and support for impeachment and removal. There are people who do not like but they dont support impeach and remove a year from the election when the campaign is underway. That is sort of the critical group. It got a little bigger for a while and it has frozen. The president s Approval Rating right now is not any lower than it was when the ukraine story broke. Not sure how much you watched, but in your mind, did the hearings moved the needle . Guest i have not watched 10 consecutive seconds of the hearing. Life is too short. It has not changed a thing. The thing is, normal people dont watch these types of hearings. Normal people meaning registered voters who are not addicted to politics. You have to have an addiction to be glued to the tv set for these things. No, i dont think it has changed. It is like the Brett Kavanaugh nomination. They make the blues bluer and the reds redder. It just pushes partisans more into their corners. They were already pretty much in those corners anyway, so that is what has happened. We are becoming partisan and ideological silos with incredible intensity. Host we have all 31 hours on our websites and you can watch it anytime you want. The hearings are available at cspan. Org. We also have highlights of some of the key moments during two weeks of testimony. Guest this is charlies last appearance on cspan. Host not at all. We have football on thanksgiving, you can watch the hearings. Lets go to mike in houston, texas on the republican line. Caller good morning. Mr. Cook, hi. I will be supporting donald trump next year and im from ohio originally. You mentioned that people out there hate government and hate politicians, i would disagree entirely. I think what we fear is tyranny. We fear a government taking over our health care which is a very personal activity, a personal life experience, and requiring our doctors to become Government Employees and complying with the department of cable workers. We fear tyranny. We fear guns and our selfdefense being taken away from us. We dont hate government. We fear tyranny. The second point i want to make, if i could. You mentioned jeff flake, he would not have won reelection by himself. Acondly, joe biden was democrat who was pushed out on the democrat party. Its not just republicans who have this fantasized version of the party. The democrat party, if you can or even prolife partially prolife democrat running for president , i will mow your lawn with my hand scissors. Guest tell me what prochoice republican is running for president . 17 candidates. Caller there are prochoice republicans throughout the state. Guest you defined that as running for president. Caller but we know who is running for president this time. Let me ask you this. Name for me one time there has been a question about the democrats about abortion in the five debates they have had so far. Name one question. Guest it is exactly symmetrical on the two sides. The prolife position is just as unwelcome on the democratic side of the prochoice on the republican side. It is symmetrical. Yes, every one of the democratic president s for candidate is prochoice. I believe of the 16 or 17 republicans, i believe every single one is prolife. But when i was talking about people who dont like government and the like politicians, that is the overall aim. One group of them are really conservative like you are and they are afraid of tyranny, but the other side, they think government should do more. They think medicare for all, that is what they think. But they all dont like government. It is just they come at it from completely different ways where they might not like politicians for totally different reasons. Know,cians, people, you use google. Its not hard to find poll numbers that show people dont like government, they dont like politicians. Some of the Competitive Senate races to watch in case senator garyested, peters of michigan and senator doug jones of alabama, that race is a tossup. On the republican side, martha makes sally of arizona and cory gardner of colorado and Susan Collins of maine. Carolina. Ter of north how did Orange County, the bastion of Ronald Reagans conservative Republican Party, flip to become a democratic stronghold . Real we are seeing a alignment in this country and it is two different groups. You got suburban america that once a that once was a republican stronghold. Particularly women, are moving away from the Republican Party to where the Democratic Party. At the same time, we have smalltown america, workingclass whites without a Fouryear College degree, and protestants and catholics who go to church at least once a week, they are trending away from democrats towards the Republican Party. We are seeing very much a real alignment in american politics. The problem for republicans is there are a lot more people in the suburbs. You are seeing the suburbs where democrats did incredibly well including four republican seats in Orange County california. Suburban america is becoming a real problem for the Republican Party but at the same time, because the Electoral College, smaller states have more clout, relatively speaking. Democrats are having more resistance in the senate. For exactly the same thing. Int heres the breakdown the senate. 53 republicans, 45 democrats, and two independents who caucus with democrats. The house of representatives, democrat at the majority. Deborah is joining us from kalamazoo, michigan. Caller good morning, how are you today . Host how are you . Charlie is a fan of kalamazoo, michigan. Guest i have been there lots of times. Has changed hands a few times. Guest go ahead, im sorry. Host the Pharmaceutical Company . Guest it was the biggest employer. Caller we have an even larger one now. With just had an issue republicans always going back, somebody mentioned the right to life and all this. All of it is kind of the same and i just happened to be and women bible should have a choice. They have to meet their maker and determine his judgment on their sins or whatever. When the president aligns beast, we dont really have a choice. Im really tired of being prorussia. Im afraid that pretty soon, hes going to be our dictator just like putin. Host thanks for the call. President trump just evokes very strong emotions. People either strongly approve of him or they strongly aboutrove, and generally 1. 5one. 8 of people who strongly disapprove for everyone that strongly approves. He has this intensity that we have never seen with president s before, and even within the Republican Party, there is sort of the republicans that love him and really approve of all his policies or most of his policies, then there is a group that may not like him personally , they may not like his style and his language and behavior, but they like where the economy has been. They like the tax cuts, they like less regulation, and they really like conservative judges, so they are brought in. Dropis why you got 88, 90 job Approval Ratings among republicans in time, the other side has Approval Ratings around 6 or 7 among democrats. And obviously, independents in the middle. Post trump at 7 34 this morning, he had a number of tweets including this. Polls have now turned very strongly against impeachment, especially in swing states. 75 to 25 . Thank you. Ive not seen a 75 in any swing state. But obama, ive seen a 55 in swing states. Our guest is charlie cook, the editor and publisher of political report. You can follow him on twitter. Good morning from washington state. Caller yes, i have a question about impeachment. In the constitution it says article one Section Three that the senate shall have the sole power to impeach. Now, is what the house is doing just a propaganda phase . Are they just trying to make trump look bad . Is, what theing house does, the senate doesnt impeach. The house impeaches and the senate tries the case. The house is roughly the equivalent of a grand jury. The senate is more like the trial. You are either convicted, acquitted, or whatever in the senate. This is all part of the process that is laid out and starts in the house. The house has to draw and pass articles of impeachment, and then he comes over to the senate where there is a trial to the Supreme Court presiding over the trial. You can agree with it or disagree with what republicans are doing right now. As part of the process. You know, i think because there are you need 67 votes in the senate if everyone was voting. There are only 47 democrats. Its not clear to me that there will even be one or two republican senators voting for conviction. We know the outcome of this movie which is why im not fascinated with the hearings. You know, we know the ending. Host let me go back to my earlier question. Do you think that this would put policy put nancy pelosi in a bind . And where would that put her among the democrats . Guest i think she was slow walking this. I think she wanted us to go away and as i said with revolutions revelations on ukraine, part of a redistricting where just as a republican district, most of them tend to be really, really republican. Once the Ukraine Development started coming out, there was no stopping that. She had to go along with it. To me, host what would you advise her to do . Guest i think she opposed as long as she could and now she is just trying to slow walk it. Try to make it so it hurts democrats as little as it possibly could. Democrat, i would want this election to be a referendum up or down on trump. I would not want it to be a referendum on impeachment. I mean, the thing is, there have been 68 Major National polls out since the president took office. In all but one, he has been upside down, underwater, higher disapprovals. No president is ever been there. He has never had a majority approval. Democrats should want this just to be a referendum on him. Impeachment sucks all the oxygen out of the room. I was here in washington during the nixon impeachment. I was here during clinton. It sucks the oxygen out of the room and these Democratic Candidates are not getting anything. That debate the other night was completely overshadowed by was going on in the impeachment hearings earlier in the day. Know, i would argue that democrats are not acting in their own selfinterest. That partisans get driven by hate and the hate that a lot of republicans have toward president clinton i think blind their judgment and when the push for impeachment without Strong National support, i think the same thing is happening the democrats right now. Host roseann on the democrat line, you are next. Caller good morning, thank you for taking my call. Are amazing. Everything i was going to say, you have already said. Political process is more controlled by corporations than anything. Because they are the ones, they have so much money being thrown into this effort. Job creation is dependent upon companies and corporations, and it seems to me they are the ones that are running the show. I mean, we have the decimation of unions, and now this divide. Ive never seen such a divisive country in my life that its kind of scary. I dont know where its all going to go. You have pockets of the country where you have cities and like you say, its different states that are more moral. The way things are run are different in both areas. So, i really dont know how we are going to be able to bring them together and really become united. Thank you for taking my call. Host thank you. Guest i think each side thinks the other side has too much power and one thing about Corporate America is in washington in the political legislative process, its always easier to stop something than to start something. Always easier to stop change, to stop reform. That comes into play a good bit. I share the colors broad view that our system is not working well. Its offtrack. I worry about how we get our country back united again. I really do. 9 11, whent after you had congress the democrats and republicans gather on the Capitol Steps saying god bless america, i felt maybe something good will come out of this horrific nightmare. And i dont blame either side exclusively, but then we invaded iraq. It pull those wounds that open again. What kind of horrible thing, do we have the magical, wonderful leader like we had several times in American History that brings the united the United Country together . I hope it is that a not some crisis. Something has to happen. Host jim says we dont even have an opponent yet but charlie cook is saying he is at risk. Please elaborate. All, i think we kind of know. You can look at job Approval Ratings, you look at questions like the election being held today, would you vote to reelect . Or do you think it is time for change . There are all kinds of metrics. One that was republican is getting more and more purple, more and more swing. We are going to have a lot more competitive races. When you look at the suburbs around charlotte, around the research triangle, this is getting to be a more challenging situation, and its not even anything he has done because if he were a democrat, the state is getting very evenly divided. They are going to see more races like this. Just like cory gardner, the marthacan in colorado, makes sally in arizona, or Susan Collins in maine. These are states that are very evenly split, in some cases more evenly split than they used to be. Youre going to have incumbents getting difficult votes. Host 40 republican california what percent of the vote is undecided . There is a lot of good data but let me talk on a national level. When you ask people if you consider yourself a democrat or a republican, and then you push them and find out how they 90 of theted, people who called himself republicans vote republican. You have close to half of the people saying im independent if you ask them ask them if they lean democrat or republican, of the independence is a they lean democrat, they vote for democrats like 80 of the time. Same thing with the independence of the republican. When you boil it down, there are only about six or 7 that are is,pendent and the thing they are not watching cspan, they are not watching much news. They dont read the newspapers that much. They dont Pay Attention until very late. It is that six or 7 that is the most persuadable, and then you have concentric circles out of who are somewhat persuadable. It just depends on how you define it. Host we will go to gym in virginia, republican line. You are on the air with charlie cook. Caller gentlemen, good morning. Charlie, im not sure this is directly for you, its not necessarily a republican or democratic question. I happen to be a military officer. And i happen to also notice that it appears to me, for the first time, there is an active military officer who is campaigning while in the military and announcing that fact. And i a little bit skewed in my understanding of the hatch act . Guest im not sure who you are referring to. Think she is reserves, isnt she . This is not my area, i think they are governed by a different set of rules. Youve got all kinds of members, look on capitol hill. All kinds of members of congress that run for reelection that are members of the reserve. Lindsey graham was air force reserve. Lots of people in reserves. This is not really my area. Im sorry, i cant help you. Host but thanks for tuning in. We will go next to alexandria, virginia. Caller good morning. I just wanted to thank mr. Cook for his perspective, for his time now. I just wanted to make a comment real quick, two comments real. I think that the democrats are actually not pushing as hard as they should be doing. For example, during the impeachment hearing, i didnt see tv ads talking about cohen whereen he mentioned that almost falling trump will end up in the same way as they ended up being in jail. The democrats should be forceful. This is the time for them to be able to show the difference between a corrupt president and the president who actually had every element of a dictatorship. I have been in a third world country before. I feel very, very scared. Ive seen it coming. If trump wins another four years, it would be a disaster for this country. All of the republicans of the halloween him, turning the other way, turning a blind eye with all of the things that this president is doing, nobody hates donald trump, its his behavior that people of poor. Host thank you for the call. Right now, the fight is not getting far except for the early state on television. We are going to have 10 months of attacks out there and for people who live in swing states, you say you lived in alexandria, i think . Will see some, although virginia may not be contested as much in 2020 as it was in the past. I think it is pretty likely that democrats will hold in virginia again. But the people that live in swing states, they are going to be seeing ads coming out of their ears. They are going to see more than one. For people who live in states either reliably red or blue, they will see a lot less of this. Just stay tuned, theres 10 months ahead. Host we saw this in the Washington Post, forming aipac indicating he might run in 2021. Speaking of that, Michael Bloomberg spending upwards of 34 million. This is a story from politico. Tomorrow, our first look at the Michael Bloomberg ad. He could have just been the middleclass kid who made good. Guy bloomberg became the who did good. After building a business that created thousands of jobs, he took charge of a city still grieving from 9 11. A three term they are helped bring it back from the ashes. Bringing jobs and Housing Units with it. Gun violence,ng he helped create a movement to protect families across america and stood up to the lobbies in the administration to protect this planet from Climate Change. On a country to restore faith in the dream that divides us. Where the wealthy will pay more in taxes and the middleclass get their fair share. Everyone without Health Insurance can get it, and everyone who likes it can keep it. More jobs will just help you get by, but get ahead. Of those things, like bloomberg intends to make good. Leader, problem solver. Like bloomberg for president. The first at the Bloomberg Campaign. A little while ago, i made the point that you can make about whyd arguments they can win the democratic nomination. He was one of the most impressive people i ever met in my life. Very, very smart and very able. A terrific mayor. Having said that, is the Democratic Party pining for a billionaire . Is it as open to a business oriented candidate as they were back in the 90s . Just as people are saying other candidates have problems with voters, i think he will have some problems with some minority voters and things like that. You can certainly make arguments against each one of them. One of them is going to win the nomination. Couldt sure that you forfeit iowa, New Hampshire, nevada, South Carolina, and then pick up in the super tuesday race and move forward, but at the same time, weve never had a self funder who is trying to do that. Not having to leverage doing well and i look, New Hampshire. This is uncharted territory. Hes a very impressive guy, but i think if mayor bloomberg clearly believes that parties should not go the Elizabeth Warren Bernie Sanders route. Elizabeth warren was not doing as well, it would not be getting in. She would be a lot more comfortable with a centerleft. There does seem to be something of a vacuum but the question is, can bloomberg fill that vacuum . Host lets go to jeff in carrollton, georgia. Caller good morning. I was born in america. I have the right not to be governed. The democrats since Abraham Lincoln decided that we should be United States. This is federal government. Old and ive years seen it all. Veteran, im in the military. The way america is going now is cracp. Guest im not sure what it means right now cannot be governed. You can like the government were not like it. We have it. Sure what to say. That lets conclude with point because just the division in this country. If i cr. You just wonder, where does this go . Historically, we have had great leaders emerge people who united the country and pulled us together. And i hope that could still happen. I dont care if they are democrat republican, i hope that could still happen. If the process really allows the elevation of the kinds of leaders that we have had in the past that united the country. Whether the process does. I worry about where things are. Now that i got a grandchild, i have to worry about generations down the way. We are not a good place right that the nexte generations us a little bit better job than my baby boomer generation. I hope they will. Host and we will conclude on that note. We hope you come back again. Congratulations charlie cook. And before we leave you, last night on snl, this caricature of President Trump. Exactly which part of the testimony proves youre innocent . Its right here in my notes of super important conversations. I will read one but then ive got to split. This is me and ambassador sondland talking. He says to me, what do you want . And i answer two large pies, extra cheese. Wait, that is a different phone call. Here it is. I said i want nothing, no quid pro quo, bro. See . It is right here in black licorice. Hold on, mr. President , that wasnt the only conversation had with ambassador sondland. i still tell him no quid pro quo at least one once. Thats on them. If you make a girl you say if you are a cop, youve got to tell me. I dont even know that guy, that is fake news. But he donated 1 million in the your inauguration. Well i know him, but i dont know him. Explain,ould love to but the battery on this is going to die very quickly. [applause] im holding everybody up. Mr. Trump, can you at least elaborate on your comments yesterday on auxin friends . Were you said adam schiff was the whistleblower. I never said he was. It is so great to finally meet you for the first time. Right, keep the quid pro quo on the low. Hang on, i just want to go on the record as saying you guys need to lay off my boy. Everybody loves them. Russia, they will do anything for this man. I know, i asked. in conclusion, no quid pro quo. there definitely was