Suck it up. It is a little bit of pain but its going to be for the future of our country. The latest 2020 hopeful. The corruption, fighting, lying, the crisis, its got to end. Exclusively when all in starts now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. President of the United States appears to have successfully intimidated a witness from testifying before congress and the country in a investigation centered on the president s own misconduct. Mr. Cohen has indefinitely postponed his appearance before the houses Oversight Committee siting threats against cohens family. That hearing was set to be the american publics first ever opportunity to hear sworn testimony about the president s hush money payments, efforts to build a trump tower in moscow and the ensuing cover up. Ever since cohen was sentenced for lying to congress about the moscow project and other crimes, the president and his lawyer have repeatedly, publicly suggested that cohens father in law should be investigated. He should give information maybe on his father in law because thats the one that people want to look at because where does that money thats the money in the family and i guess he didnt want to talk about his father in law. Hes trying to get his sentence reduced. What is his father in laws name . I dont know but youll look into it. Yeah. His father has millions im telling you it comes from the ukrain. The reason thats important is he may have ties to something called organized crime. Michael cohen is with holding it because to testify about that would be dangerous to the father in law and Michael Cohen and instead hes going after the president. There may very well be other reasons michael can cohen doesnt want to testify publicly. He has a checkered past. But asked about cohens claim he had been intimidated out of testifying, the president appeared to take credit he said hed been threatened by you. No, i would say hes been threatened by the truth. Hes only been threatened by the truth and he doesnt want to do that probably for me or other of his clients. His clients . Democrats Elijah Cummings and schiff responded in a joinlt statement quote efforts to intimidate witnesses, scare their family members or prevent them from testifying before congress are textbook mob tactics that we condemn in the strongest terms. Our nations laws prohibit efforts. Cohen is scheduled to begin his threeyear prison sentence, leaving a pretty small window to reschedule his appearance. And we may not get answers to some of the most urging questions about the president s conduct. Did the president direct con to lie to congress about the moscow project . And was he actively involved in talks about the project while he was running for president . According to rudy giuliani, no money was ever paid, there were no drafts, nothing in the file and then low and behold, wouldnt you believe it, buzzfeed published the contents of both contracts and drafts, including multiple detailed renderings of the proposed trump tower in moscow. Interior and exterior views with trump name on the top over looking russian and a break down of the licensing fee and cut of condo sales and other revenue. So like rudy said nothing in the file. And their Statement Today cohens post ponement wont stop them from getting to the truth. Yrb i guarantee you as sure as night becomes day and day becomes night that we will hear from mr. Cohen, period. I havent decided how we will go about it, but i promise you we will hear from him. A member of both the Oversight Committee and the Intelligence Committee. Congresswoman, what is your understanding of what happened here . Well, i know as much as you do, chris. This is a stunning declaration by Michael Cohen that his family is being threatened. He is being threatened by the president of the United States. This is called witness tampering. This is a crime. And the congress of the United States has to exert its authority against a president now whos acting more like putin every day. Exert its authority how . Well, we will find a way to have mr. Cohen come in and testify. And i dont think theres any question that Michael Cohen know as great deal. For 10 years hes been doing the bidding for then donald trump. Whether it was providing hush money to his girlfriends or working on the many projects that really are troublesome. The toronto hotel, the so hoe hotel and panama hotel all had russian connections, all mob money and i think thats what we need find out more about. Is intimidating a witness or tampering with a witness a crime, to your mind . Absolutely its a crime. Thats an attempt to silence a witness and thats what the president s doing because he does not want his dirty laundry aired. If youre saying intimidating a witness, tampering with a witness a crime, the president has committed that crime in full view. Its not like weve got leaked recordings. Hes been doing it in public and hes doing obstruction right in front of everyone . I think that will become clearer after we speak with Michael Cohen and thats going to be important to both mr. C can ummings and schiff as chairs of those two committees. I guess youre not chair so this is something the chair is probably working out. But are there sort of work with arounds . Would it be in private or are you all just digesting the news . I think at this point were digesting the news. But theres many opportunities. You can have a private interview much like weve done through the Intelligence Committee through the last year he can be subpoenaed. Theres many avenues that can be attempted. What does it say about your ability to function as a co equal branch of government providing oversight if the president is able to without facing any sanction publicly intimidate witnesses away testifying before you . I think its a gross abuse of power and at some point the president is going to pay for that. We have to build a case but i see the extent to which he has done things to Michael Cohen beyond the tweets are things that were going toing have to explore. Theres also the possibility and i want to get your reaction. Michael cohen wanted to testify for other reasons and this was pretexttural for him to get out of the public testimony he wanted to avoid. What do you make of that theory . I dont think thats the theory. I think Michael Cohen wanted to come and testify, much like hes done so publicly in a number of settings now because hes looking for a ways to hopefully reduce his sentence. Thats what i believe is the reason. So you dont think hes not telling the truth about the motivation he and his family genuinely feel threatened, pressured, intimidated by it president s words . Its certainly his declaration and the congresss obligation to find out what he means specifically for all of that. Chair cummings if he goes to prison, thats not a hard deadline. If thats what the chairman says, thats what will be the case. Thank you for your tonight. Im joined by former watergate prosecutor and pulitzer author of its even worse than you think what the trump aed ministration is doing to america now out in paperback. Youve been a prosecutor and feel theres a vital need for public hearings. What does the news today mean . This is terrible because we were just having a conversation in which there was question of possibly having private testimony instead of a public hearing. If that happens, then President Trump has achieved his goal of suppressing information that the public should have. The public needs to see and hear this. It helped dramatically in watergate to have public support based on their knowledge of what the witnesses were saying and who was credible. And to answer one question you asked her, section 1512 of title 18 give as 20year penalty for tampering with witnesses threatening a witness, making them feel their family is in danger is definitely witness tampering and a federal felony. Its remarkable the tactics of the president , mob like by the two chairs of the committee. They no one objects to it. You can madge an universe in which the two chairs are saying the president is acting like a mobster, but that doesnt even ruffle any feathers because the president does act like a mobster. Because he is. And if you go back two years, what was one of the big discussions we had on your show . Dont normalize this behavior youre going to see and unfortunately thats whats happening. Donald trump is engaging in witness tampering, engaging in trying all sorts of things he that should be absolutely improper for the president. Behaving like a Banana Republic dictator and its like thats what donald does. The logic is this is a crime the president has committed and hes going toing have to pay for it. Did nixon ever publicly intimidate witnesses just as on the don has done in his tweets of Michael Cohen . Nothing could compare to whats happening now in terms of the Public Knowledge of it but the other difference is nixon used more of the carat. Whereas donald trump seems to be dangling pardens and using sticks. He is definitely threatsing. Yes, i dont think nixon ever did anything quite as dramatic as this. I dont know that behind the scenes he wasnt. We know he had an enemies list and was going after people but it wasnt like this. How important is Michael Cohens testimony to your mind as someone whos covered the trump work for decades . With a skillful examination, he could be sitting there for weeks. They have he has a lot of information on many different deals. Many go right back to russian mobsters. Three of the hotel deals, toronto, the sojo. All have russian mobsters involved in them and so theres plenty that Michael Cohen can talk about. Were going to see is how skillful is the examination by Elijah Cummings committee and by the lawyers for that committee. And theres a key question, two, one is that buzzfeed report that is disputed by the spokesperson for robert mueller. Its unclear what was being disputed. One of the details was that the president received facetoface briefings 10 times on the moscow deal. If that is true, that is an enormously consequential fact and would be good to hear from Michael Cohen under oath whether he would attest to that. Absolutely. There are so many questions. I hope that the congress will get good legal prosecution advice, good litigators to draft the questions and the follow up. Because thats whats important. Not just the initial questions but the follow up thats important and i think theres a lot of there there. This gets to the bigger question, it seems to me. How involved was donald trump with these deals . How involved has he generally been on deals the deals youve looked at . Well, donald doesnt know the details of his own deals. He became disturbed and realized i understood the deal better than he did. But hes the motivating factor in the deals. In gross offense to our constitution announced he was going to go to the house of representatives to give a speech when he has no right to walk on that floor because its part of a co equal branch of government. He keeps aprized of who do i need pressure, who do i need to do a favor for . What kind of money am i go doing get . Those 10 meetings, thats deeply damming because he was claiming no business of any kind while running for president. That compromises our national security. Makes us less safe. And its a key point we dont know if thats covered by the denial of the special counsels office and Michael Cohen under oath would be someone to resolve that a at least or lend evidence one way or another. Thank you both for being here. The most powerful woman in the United States says he cant come in her house. Im a veteran and the army taught me a lot about commitment. Which i apply to my life and my work. At comcast were commited to delivering the best experience possible, by being on time everytime. And if we are ever late, well give you a automatic twenty dollar credit. My name is antonio and im a technician at comcast. Were working to make things simple, easy and awesome. President Trumps Campaign advisor and daughter in law, the wife of eric trump is offering a Marie Antoinette style message to the 800,000 workers going without pay because her wealthy father in law shut down the government. Its not fair to you but this is so much bigger than any one person. Its a little bit of pain but frirts the future of our country. Would tell them please stay strong. We are behind you and were going toing do everything we can i know the president is doing everything he can to resolve this quickly. Hang in there. People marched on capitol hill chanting we need paychecks, not more food banks. Now day 33 of the trump shutdown and we have tsa workers calling out at record rates, the president of the attendant Union Warning of possible gaps in safety and air travel. Hundreds of irs employees are skipping work. And trumps former chief of staff, has joined a letter to fund the department of Homeland Security. In addition the coast guards top officer is telling the world enough is enough. Ultimately i find it unacceptable that coast guard men and women have to rely food pantries and donations to get through daytoday life as service members. Trumps Approval Ratings are falling to levels we havent seen since he defended the white supremacist in charlottesville. Trumps Approval Rating down from 42 to 34 now. Joining me now one of the new democrats in the house, congresswoman katie hill of california. You have spent the first 30 days of your life in a Government Shutdown. What has been like . Its not what we expected and very much emblematic of what we have as a broken government here we are ready to start working and part of that is exactly the kind of activism weve begun to do since everything is on hold right now. My understanding is youre one of the members of congress who went to seek a meeting with mitch mcconnell. I was. Why . It is stuck with him. He needed to call a vote and were glad that he did but our plan was just to go over and say listen, as members of the freshman class, people with a mandate to do something, we need a vote. We need a chance for tuse see whos voting to reopen the government and whos not. And we can take our course of action based on that. I think theres a couple things at play. First, thats who was Holding Things at that point in time. But the seconds is these kinds of symbolic gestures are really meaningful. We have to do more than sit around and wait for him to finally dewhen he wants to do something. And you passed in the house i think nine different time, nine different bills to reopen the government. People go to congress and they have a sense of how youre going to interact with people, how things get done and the commit canny process. And what youre walking nothing to is a buzz saw of intransiance. What has taught you . Weve learned the norms are just not there. And i think the goal of the Democratic Congress is to try and restore a lot of that. I dont think that means we have to follow all the traditions and keep with the same kind of sense of oh, wait your turn, stand in line, be quiet, etc. Because thats not going to happen with this class. I dont think theres a playback at this point. With everything going on government, trump, the shutdown. This is unheard of and we have to react accordingly. Today news that mulvaneys asking agencies what would suffer if they go to march and april. This came from the National Air Traffic controllers just about an hour go and real ey made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. We cant even calculate the level of risk at play nor predict the point at which the entire system will break. Its unpres dentsed. The Regional Air Traffic Control Center that controls all the flights to Southern California is in palm dale and i met with them this past weekend and its truly terrifying. You dont want to say its going to take disaster or catastrophe to end this thing but if this continues, it could hit that point and its not because theyre not doing their job r its because thence laer supports arent there. Inspexzs arent able to occur. People are having to choose whether to stay home or what theyre going to do when they cant pay for child care and gas and people should be worried and thats why its important for us to mobilize right now. Final question on news today the Homeland Security thompson, whos the chair in the new Democratic House, that he and the speaker are working on a letter to potus with 5. 7 billion for Border Security and judges, money possibly to repair border wall and no money for new barriers. Is the thinking now that basically we have to given him a way out because utters with this thing is going to go on and something will break . I would say were going to always put forward some kind of a plan around our own Border Security package along with Immigration Reform and this is saying look, this is what we believe based on evidence based practice, its not a wall, a 2000mile long concrete barrier. Frankly, it never was going to be heres what were proposing and at the end of the day were going to have to see what the final product is and we need to have a place to go and we recognize not everybody is going to be happy. It has to be on the people. Mitch mcconnell has brought to a vote. And and im saying from my pursesinal capacity, i cant tell people in my official capacity but i come from an activist background and this is the moment senators need hear from people and theres a day of action happening on the day the state of the union was supposed to be, coordinating by activist groups that got us elect said and i would encourage people we need to hear from the people, not the president on that day. An immobilization and new congress and getting the fight, the introduction. Thank you so much for your time. Up next President Trumps very public attempt to sideline speaker of the house pelohsely backfire. This is not a bed. Its a revolution in sleep. The sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now during the january savings event. It senses your movement, and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. It even helps with this. So you wake up ready to put your pedal to the metal. Save up to 500 on select sleep number 360 smart beds, now ranked 1 in Customer Satisfaction with mattresses by j. D. Power. Plus 36month financing. Ends saturday. Sleep number. Proven, quality sleep. About the Colonial Penn program. Here to tell you if youre age 50 to 85 and looking to buy Life Insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. What are the three ps . The three ps of Life Insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. A price you can afford, a price that cant increase, and a price that fits your budget. Im 65 and take medications. Whats my price . You can get coverage for 9. 95 a month. I just turned 80. Whats my price . 9. 95 a month for you, too. If youre age 50 to 85, call now about the number one most popular whole Life Insurance plan available through the Colonial Penn program. It has an affordable rate starting at 9. 95 a month. No medical exam, no health questions. Your acceptance is guaranteed, and this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate lock, so your rate can never go up for any reason. And with this plan, you can pick your payment date, so you can time your premium due date to work with your budget. So call now for free information. And youll also get this free beneficiary planner, and its yours just for calling. So call now. The congress of the United States, as you may well know, is part of a co equal branch of government under our constitution. The person in march of 1 2 of that branch is the speaker of the house. The speaker has a lot of power, who is permitted in and she even controls the cameras and lights inside the gallery. And today Speaker Pelosi flexed those constitutional muscles after the president , unable to take a hint, informed her he would be showing up less than a week from today to giver his state of the Union Address, despite her asking him quite pointedly to reschedule. Quote i am writing to inform you the house of representatives will not consider a concurrent res wlugz in the House Chamber until government is reopened. Donna, ill start with you. What do you make of this back and forth . Well, first of all i think Speaker Pelosi continues to teach President Trump a lesson about the constitution. And about the separation of powers and the co equal branchs of government and she did that again today. She does control the lights, the microphone, the locks on the doors and so this is a nonstarter for the president , just the way his border proposal is a nonstarter. Its striking, senator boxer, as someone who work would nancy pelosi, there was 50 million put into making her enemy number one during that last election. Heres the polling right now from cbs news. Better hand job handling shutdown negotiations. 47 , and trump 35 . Ap has him at 34 . Cbs at 36 per. She is politically besting him right now amidst this tremendous unnecessary suffering. It is wild to see. Shes doing the right thing and in politics ive always believed and i know donna believes it because ive watched her. When you do the right thing, youre rewarded. The people may not get it at first but they come around. Look, i went to 35 state of the Union Addresses in my time in h productions. They are security challenges and the constitution doesnt say that President Shall go to the house. It says from time to time he should make a report to the congress on the state of the union. There is no necessity for him to do that these are not normal times. We are in a National Emergency because trump will not open up the government. And the people who we rely on for safe skies frrks safe food, for safe drinking water, i could go on, safety at sea, the coast guard. Theyre standing in food lines. We are not going to ha aanre everyone is standing and applauding while this is going on. So he needs to get a life, his family needs to get a life and they need to understand people are suffering, many more than a million are suffering because of this and yet whats so bizarre about this is the president has defied political gravity in many ways. He defied it throughout the primary season, won an election through a very narrow Electoral College win. Hes losing altitude. His ideas are unpopular, the shutdown is unpopular, the wall is unpopular and yet here we are. And its exactly the reason democrats should stand their ground on the question of opening government first, negotiating round Border Security and at the end of the day doing smart Border Security that really will secure the borders and thats what the American People are seeing is that the president s ideas are not ideas that will work and so that accounts for the his negative showing, apart from the fact that he really is acting like a child. Iver likened it to having a bully on the playground take all your marbles and come back a few weeks later and say by the way you can have your marbles back a little while if you give me your lunch money. Democrats should not be held hostage like this. The polling here is when you dig into it, senator boxer, is pretty striebing. This is new numbers. All women of all races, ethnicities, education levels. He has a 71 disApproval Rating. 71 of women disprove. Among independents, 71 . Among college grads, 76 . Have you seen numbers like that for a president , senator . Well, personally i have not. But i know when nixon was going down the tubes, he hit about 32 . And let me tell you why i think its so smart of you to bring up the poll numbers because when i was asked a week ago when is this all going to change . Its when the republicans in the senate crack. And they are beginning to crack. Mitch mcconnell came out of his shell. Hes going to offer up open up the government. I dont know how many will vote for that once their proposal goes down. Im telling you watch those numbers because at some point its too much pain for the republicans, many of a whom face tough reelections. Theres a few people like susan collins, cory gardner who is going to be looking at their vote on knees two votes. Radically changing asylum and wall money. Then the clean cr. Just reopen the government. What do you think well see . Mitch mcconnell says he wasnt going to put show bills on the floor of the senate. Thats exactly what hes doing because theres going to be a failure. Theres 10 bills that have been passed in the house and sent over to the senate that would reopen every part of government and negotiate again on Border Security. Heres where i think there is no end really for this president and i think what republicans are seeing is that theyre going to go home yet another weekend and its a weekend that should be another pay day, another weekend where 800,000 people arent getting paid plus contractors and plus all the misery throughout. Republicans, especially the ones up for reelection will not be able to continue to tolerate this kind of insanity. Senator barbara boxer, and barbara edwards, thank you. Indiana mayor declared his candidacy today and he joins me exclusively for his interview tonight and thing one, thing two next. danny let me get this straight. After a long day of hard work. You have to do more work . vo automatically sort your expenses and save over 40 hours a month. danny every day youre nearly fried to a crisp, professionally vo you earned it, were here to make sure you get it. Quickbooks. Backing you. Thing one tonight. Everyone who works inputs orbit has developed a very particular survival skill, the ability to pretend that nonsense hes saying is totally normal and makes perfect sense. So heading aught to space. I hate to say it. Whether we like it or not, its all heading out to space. We have tremendous support. Remember all that support, tom. Everybody loves the space. This is where its at. This is its at. Space is where its at. The problem with everyone going along like that is normal is that is how you get this. President trump will also sign a new space policy directive that will lay out our plans and our timeline to create a new sixbranch of the armed forces u. S. Space force. Yes, theyre actually doing space force. Or at least theyre pretending to keep trump happy. Who knows. But give him an inch and hell want a man on mars in time for the. For someone so obsessed with space, youd think the president might have actually learned something about it by now. He can even watch a scifi movie and pick opthing or two about how space works. But donald trump aint much for learning, not even from real astronauts. For mars, what do you see the timing for actually sending humans to mars . Is there a skenlal . I think as your bill directed approximately in the 2030s. Unfortunately space flight takes a lot of time and money. So getting there will require international cooperationing to get the to get it to be a planetwide approach in order to make it successful because it is a expensive endeavor but so worth while doing. Well, we want to try doing it during my first term or at worst my second term. So well have have to speed that up a little, okay. Just speed it up a little bit, lol. Except theres new reporting he offered the nasa administrator an infinity budget to which the administrator had to tell the president gently no, that he didnt think it was possible, like even if we left right now. The good news is it never came up again. Of course im kidding. It was our first catholic president john kennedy, himself of irish descent who said our nations sights on the moon. Were looking at mars, by the way. Trying to top him. Were going to get there. Moving along pretty good. A lot of things have happened having to do with that subject. Way ahead of schedule. Way ahead of schedule. Michael cohens february 7th hearing in front of congress is off for now, but house dmps still have a lot in the works. Acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker is set to appear beor the Judiciary Committee and nadler is viewing he would view with skepticism his declining to answer any questions. And the house is announcing an investigation into the trump transition team. This is one of the things that has a memory hold. But remember Jared Kushner had to refile his ethics disclosure over 30 times. Its unclear if he ever got top level clearance. But the Washington Post reported he was granted top seeberate status, one that dudoes not allow him to 12450e most closely guarded intelligence. And rob porter. He was the gentleman accused of violence by both of his exwives the white house knew that about him and was warned by the fbi and kept him in there without a clearance doing his job. And dont forget President Trumps personal assistant. He was fired after more than a year on the job when tan investigation found he was a frequent gambler mp Elijah Cummings has requested the nra send everything it has on Current National security advisor, john boltons interaction with nationals, in eresponse to his appearance in a video. And secretary wilbur ross will testify. He is exelkted to be answer about his out loo is to add a controversial citizen question on the kenss. The hhs is an Parent Agency of the office of refugee resettlement, the ones who over saw the ripping away of thousand oz of Migrant Children away from their parents and had no means of reuniting them again. In the last count there are ther 160 kids that still have not been reunited that man, the person that oversees all that, alex azar was overseeing the humanitarian disaster imposed by our government and is now refusing to come before congress to explain himself, but now facing democratic control of the house, its unlikely hell have a choice. Coming up, meet your newest candidate for president. Peter buttigieg joins me next. Im alex trebek here to tell you about the Colonial Penn program. If youre age 50 to 85 and looking to buy Life Insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. What are the three ps . The three ps of Life Insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. A price you can afford, a price that cant increase, and a price that fits your budget. Im 65 and take medications. Whats my price . You can get coverage for 9. 95 a month. I just turned 80. Whats my price . 9. 95 a month for you, too. If youre age 50 to 85, call now about the number one most popular whole Life Insurance plan available through the Colonial Penn program. It has an affordable rate starting at 9. 95 a month. No medical exam, no health questions. Your acceptance is guaranteed, and this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate lock, so your rate can never go up for any reason. And with this plan, you can pick your payment date, so you can time your premium due date to work with your budget. So call now for free information. And youll also get this free beneficiary planner, and its yours just for calling. So call now. Audible members know listening has the power to change us make us better parents, better leaders, better people. And theres no better place to listen than audible. With audible you get a credit good for any audiobook and exclusive fitness and wellness programs. And now, youll also get two Audible Originals titles exclusively produced for audible. Automatically roll your credits over to the next month if you dont use them, and if you dont like a book just swap it for free. Enjoy 100 ad free listening in the car, on your phone or any connected device. And when you switch a device pick up right where you left off. With our commitment free guarantee, theres never been a better time to start listening to audible. The most inspiring minds, the most compelling stories, the best place to listen. To start your free 30day trial, text listen5 to 500500 today. Early polling in a crowded primary field is notoriously unreliable and fickle. More often than not, its a proxy for name recognition. There is one poll that gives an idea of how wide open the race for president ial nomination is. A plurality of voters in a recent Usa Today Suffolk University poll named someone entirely new as their preferred candidate in the field. Well, today we got the president ial announcement of someone almost none of the democratic primary voters has ever heard of. In other words, someone entirely new. I belong to a generation that is stepping forward right now. Were the generation that lived through school shootings, that served in the wars after 9 11, and were the generation that stands to be the first to make less than our parents, unless we do something different. Pete buttigieg is the mayor of south bend, indiana, an out, and Rhodes Scholar who is elected mayor of his hometown at the age of 29. Today he announced he is forming an Exploratory Committee to run for president. And joining me now is pete buttigieg. Good to have you on, mayor. Why are you running for president . I believe we need new voices. Its time for a new generation to step forward to offer leadership. And as you noted, people are looking for something entirely new. Of all the people in the United States, why should you have the most powerful job in the world . Well, i get that you wouldnt expect to hear this from the youngest person in the conversation, but a lot of it has to do with experience. I have a different experience from a lot of the other people stepping forward. The experience of being an executive, being responsible for the wellbeing of the 100,000 residents in our city, the experience of being sent overseas on the orders of a president , experience that helps me understand how the decisions that are made in washington affect people at the level of everyday life. You know, at the end of the day, i have more years of government experience than the president of the United States. I have more executive experience than the Vice President , and i have more military experience than the two of them put together. My experience, my perspective, and, again, that of a new generation with a different outlook from the industrial midwest, and a city that in my view proves that resentment and nostalgia is not the formula for the middle of the country. I cant wait to share that with the rest of america. What does that mean . There could be new visions or new approaches that are good and new approaches that are bad. New doesnt necessarily mean good. What does that concretely mean, the newness or the sort of fresh eyes you bringing, being 37 and coming from where youre coming from . Well, for one thing, i think you just look at issues differently. Im thinking a lot about 2054. Thats the year when ill be the current age of the current president. I think if youre making plans for what its going to be like then you, have you a different sense of urgency around issues like climate change. If you know that your generation is going to be picking up the bill for reckless tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, you have a sense of urgency around getting our policies right when it comes to taxation. I know youve run for state office, if im not mistaken, state treasurer, and were defeated in that race. Why not run for statewide office, seek some other office . Its fairly unusual well, its unprecedented to go from being the mayor of a town of 100,000 to president of the United States. A lot of things right now in american politics are unprecedented. And i dont believe running for an office so you can some day run for another office. I ran for mayor of my hometown because i looked at what the city needed, i looked at what i brought to the table and i thought there was a match. Thats the same reason i ran for the chair of the dnc. I didnt become chair of the dnc, but im glad we got in there, and im glad we were able to introduce different ideas into that conversation. And right now when i look at whats going on in our country, when i look at whats going on in our party, i think we need a different kind of voice. A voice, for example, thats comfortable talking about themes like freedom, which weve allowed conservatives to kind of take from our party rather than insisting that there is a lot more than government that can make you unfree, that youre not free if you cant sue a Credit Card Company that gets caught ripping you off, that youre not free if youre a woman and your male boss gets to tell you what your Health Care Decisions are going to be based on his politics. We need to be ready to come with a different kind of vocabulary that will answer that question that handwringing democrats keep asking, how are we going to fit our values on a bumper sticker. I think we can do it. I think its freedom, democracy, and security, and im eager to share that message with the country. Youre in washington for your launch today. This is a question i think is the most important question for every democratic candidate in the field. What is your first big piece of legislation if you got elected president with a Democratic House and Democrat Senate . Well, weve got to make fundamental repairs to our democracy. That means legislation to secure access to the vote and a package that could also include some profound structural reforms. The Electoral College is at this point indefensible, and there are a lot of other things happening in our political structure that make it so difficult to deal with any of the other issues from climate to health care, to Economic Security that weve got to make sure that we have repaired our democracy at the outset. Should we leave afghanistan immediately . And if not immediately, when should we leave . Weve got to bring an end to endless war. We are getting to the point where people will be sent to afghanistan very soon who werent even alive in 2001. Now what you dont do is notify your pentagon by tweet that youre going to be pulling out. But there is no question that we need to bring a close to that engagement. And all of our wait, let me just stop you there, because ive heard that for most of my adult life. What does that mean concretely . I think concretely it means engaging with the parties on the ground, making sure there is some hope of stability there, but also recognizing that we cant be the indefinite guarantor of Economic Development and democracy in the afpac region. Its just not realistic. Obviously we have a Counterterrorism Mission that explained how we got there in the first place. Now its time to make sure that were focused here at home. You came out in public life as a mayor. What do you learn from that experience . Well, one thing i learned is people really will look at you based on what you have to offer. I came out at a time when mike pence was the governor of my home state of indiana. I was in the middle of a reelection campaign, but it was a time when i wanted to get on with my personal life, and i realized that meant coming out. And i wound up getting reelected with 80 of the vote. So i think it shows that if you give people a chance to evaluate you on your merits, then people will do right by you. But im not naive either. I know that there is a struggle for lgbtq equality that continues to this day. In fact, there are a lot of parts of my home state where you can still get fired just because of you who are. Peter buttigieg, thank you manafort, what he did and did not remember. And its turning the capitol into a thunder dome. Trump versus pelosi on a possible state of the Union Address during a Government Shutdown soon entering its 34thr day as the 11th hour gets do under way here on a wednesday night. And it goes on. Good evening once again from our