Transcripts For MSNBCW State Of The Union Address Preview 20200205

Session of congress. On the right, that would be the iowa state capitol, where we are following the fallout from last nights caucuses. Brian williams here at our election headquarters in new york, with our special coverage. At my side again tonight, rachel maddow. Rachel . The big headline out of iowa tonight, at last, is that Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders are leading in the preliminary returns out of iowa. I would usually call these the early returns, but since they arrived a day after the caucuses, the terminology here has to be more awkward. With 62 of precincts reporting, again, this is last nights vote, buttigieg leads with 27 of the delegates earned. Sanders closely behind at 25. Sanders was favored in the polls coming into the caucuses. The big showing by Pete Buttigieg is more of a surprise, and his campaign, of course, is doing everything they can to turn that surprise finish into momentum into New Hampshire, which, lets not forget, holds their own primary a week from tonight. And its worth mentioning that chaos and delay and turbulence and confusion around iowa caucus results are not without modern precedent. And are not a matter of party. You may recall in 2012, we had a real doozy. In 2012, on the night of the Iowa Caucuses, mitt romney was the apparent winner, until a few days later, Rick Santorum was declared the victor. Still later, it turned out that a third and different candidate, congressman ron paul, had actually won the lions share of the delegates and thereby, technically, won iowa. Members of the ron paul campaign, it should be noted, were later criminally indicted for a bribery scandal in that years caucuses. So, yes, it has been a mess in iowa before. But that does not change the fact that it is a very consequential mess right now nor the democrats who competed there last night. Today, the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Intelligence committee reassured everybody, reassured the country that theres no evidence of any foreign interference or some hacking at work in the iowa chaos. Iowa democrats do have paper ballots as backup. They say they have confidence that the ultimate tally will be true and verifiable, if slow. Theyre promising a full investigation into what went wrong. Again, iowa only half the story tonight. Worth noting that the president will deliver the state of the union in the very room where he was impeached some 48 days ago. Speaker nancy pelosi, who provided who presided over said impeachment in the house will be right over the president s shoulder again tonight. The senate is expected to vote to acquit donald trump tomorrow, but as speaker palelosi told t New York Times today, quote, whatever happens, he has been impeached forever. There is a very small list of people who are at the nexus of both the state of the Union Address tonight and the ongoing iowa caucus results. Lucky for us, we get to talk with a few of them tonight. Senator Elizabeth Warren and senator Amy Klobuchar will be joining us live tonight, as will mayor Pete Buttigieg, as brian mentioned, at this point was 62 of the results in from iowa, does appear to be in the delegate lead in that state. We also, of course, will be checking in with our reporters on the ground in iowa and in New Hampshire. Joining us here in our studio tonight, claire mccaskill, former United States senator from the great state of missouri. Jason johnson, politics editor at theroot. Com. Veteran Campaign Manager for both democratic and republican candidates. And eugene robinson, pulitzer prizewinning columnist with the washington post. Steve kornacki at the big board, whose insight is even more critical than usual, if thats possible, in helping to figure out just what happened last night in iowa. Hey, steve. Brian, how you doing . Yeah, so what happened and how do we have this more to come in, but this discrepancy right now where one candidate is leading the state delegate total and another candidate leading that initial vote in that second round. There are two reasons for it. And let me take you through how to look at this. What youre seeing on your screen, that is the state delegate total. But lets start at the beginning. This is what it looked like with the vote thats come in. Again, so far 62 of precincts. This is what it looked like when folks showed up at their caucus sites last night in their precincts. Its a lead of ,03,000 for sans in the first preference. Klobuchar and yang come into play, because in those spring s precincts, if youre not hitting 15 , your supporters become free agents and they have a second round of voting. Same precincts, when you went through that second round, it changed. But you can see, sanders this is not solely the reason that buttigieg leads in the delegate count right now. Its not just because he was the second choice, but as you can see, based on second choice, sanders still leads. Buttigieg, its tighter, warren, biden, klobuchar. Remember, you can see, yang dropped four points here. Steyer fell down to zero. This is where the Biggest Movement was, it was these candidates down here in low to midSingle Digits, basically dropping down to zero and reallocating. And sanders continued to lead after that by a narrower margin. Part of the reason why buttigieg was able to close that gap, it was the second choice. Its not the reason, though, that he leads statewide, ultimately. The reason he leads statewide is simply that the distribution, the allocation of these state delegates, theres a its a little disproportionate. Essentially, the college counties, big college counties, heres a good example. Johnson county, university of iowa, iowa city, sanders did great here, warren did great here, buttigieg, not so much here. A lot of turnout, a lot of vote comes out of johnson county, more than 10 . Really, 11 , probably, of the statewide turnout comes out of here. What about its share of the state delegates . About 7. 5 . So you see the state delegate total in a place like johnson county, and you see, this is also true in like Poweshiek County right here, its true in Jefferson County down here. The state delegate allegation does not track what the turnout in these college areas. And so even if you run up big numbers there, youre not necessarily getting the bang for your buck when it comes to state delegates. Meanwhile, western part of the state out here, a lot of Rural Counties, about 10 of the turnout, about 13 of the delegates. So thats the imbalance. And that is ultimately here, when you look at the distribution of those dark blue counties, thats the buttigieg color there, dark blue, thats why right now, with 62 in, he is able to lead statewide in the state delegate count, even though hes losing on the first preference and the reallocated preference. Basically, its sort of an Electoral College thing. Hes getting it in the right precincts, getting it in the right counties right now. In terms of the closeness of the vote here, obviously, weve got buttigieg and sanders very close to each other in terms of those vote totals we were talking about and in terms of the delegates, but weve got 62 of the results in. What is still outstanding . And as more of those results come in, who do you expect to benefit . Yep, take a look here. This is the missing vote. This is whats left in the state. So the bigger youve got the bubble here, the more precincts there are that are outstanding. And the biggest here one by for a, this is pockelk county, des moines and des moines suburbs. Thats key. Just over half of pockelk count has come in is over. Sanders with a slight edge over buttigieg. The key thing to understand about polk, this is a tale of two counties within one. There is the city of des moines in polk county and a lot of sort of more upscale suburbs that are part of polk county. Heres why thats key. Take a look next door in dallas county. This is sort of an extension of those suburbs of des moines. This is the wealthiest county in the state, wealthy, upscale suburbs of des moines. This is the kind of place buttigieg, one of the kinds of places that buttigieg is doing very well tonight. You can expect thats probably carrying over to those areas of polk county. Thats what the precincts there are suggesting to us. But then the city of des moines, thats much more sanders, much less buttigieg. And it looks like, from trying to go through these precincts here, from what we can tell, it looks like they are city of des moines precincts that are outstanding than there are suburban des moines precincts. So that could be key in terms of what comes in there. Otherwise, you can see a pretty big bubble here. This is blackhawk county. There you go, university of northern iowa, a college town, but also cedar falls, waterloo, its a tight race there. Davenport, this one for buttigieg, a slight lead there. And also, dubuque, this is one where buttigieg has a slight lead. And also about half to come in. By the way, why is biden doing so poorly tonight . Theres a lot of reasons, but this county right here, dubuque, this is exactly the kind of county biden fought and hoped hed be able to do well in. 22 is one of his better showings around the state. This is the kind of place that biden thought he could win. This is a blue collar, old city kind of place. Bottom line, coming up on 24 hours out, we still have a lot of vote missing, still cant be definitive on the results. No. And because the most important outcome of iowa is momentum toward New Hampshire and toward the other early states and into the early days of the primaries, its very hard to know what the overall effect of this momentum is going to be. If we continue to have exciting days and nights of results out of iowa, maybe the candidates what do well there will get more attention. At this rate, well be talking about it during New Hampshire. At this rate, we are literally talking about it during the state of the union, which maybe thats a benefit. Joining us now from des moines is nbc political reporter, vaughn hillyard. Vaughn has been covering the Buttigieg Campaign and sticking very close to that candidate, but given the news, vaughn has stayed back in iowa, even as buttigieg has gone on to New Hampshire, to report on this ongoing situation there. Vaughn, first of all, tell us about that decision, figuring out where how you could be closest to the story, and tell us where the campaign is at tonight in terms of these results. Reporter how about this . It was our colleagues up with you guys over at 30 rock who called in and said, youre not going anywhere. Pete buttigieg will be taking place in eight events in New Hampshire, but youre not leaving iowa until this thing is over. Tbd, once these results get to 100 , we can renegotiate. But so far, as steve just outlined, 62 of results are in here. If youre looking at the Pete Buttigieg campaign here, so much of what the iowa caucus is, is about that momentum, about launching yourself forward. And he didnt take the stage until 12 30 in the morning last night, New Hampshire time. 11 30 locally here. But the Buttigieg Campaign, i just want to read you, because he had eight events here in New Hampshire. And he struck the chord, essentially calling himself the victor in this iowa caucus. But i want to read you what he said on that stage there after these initial results came in. And it was quote, we can have the same message. Connecting urban, rural, and suburban communities. We can reach out to independents and even some future former republicans to bring change to this country. That is the message that Pete Buttigieg is trying to roll through the rest of this primary process with. And its one that he needs to grab on to. Of course, iowa, he has had over the course of the entire year to campaign and introduce himself to this state. Ive been with him at nearly 50 events over the last three weeks, so while those senators were up on capitol hill, he had the opportunity to go into places like chickasaw county, a community of new hampton with 3,500 people, where he was able to stop and make that pitch. But now, if you look at polling in south carolina, in nevada, in those other later primary states, hes still at Single Digits in the polls. And if you are looking at that message, he is now contending that he is the candidate that is best equipped to beat donald trump in the midwest. Well, per what Steve Kornacki was just showing on the map there, he provided evidence to that in particularly iowa in places like dubuque and dallas county. Can he do the same thing and replicate that in michigan and wisconsin, where if youre looking at wayne counties and milwaukee counties, which have much more robust communities of color. That is still where Pete Buttigieg is going to have to penetrate and convince folks that he is worthy of more than just an iowa caucus victory, but hes very much relevant to this democratic nominating process. Vaughn hillyard, chasing the story still in iowa, and covering the Buttigieg Campaign closely. Vaughn, thanks very much. Great to have you with us tonight. To mike memoli we go. Hes covering the biden effort in next weeks New Hampshire primary. And mike, it was the sneaky big story last night that joe biden may not have had, absent any data, a good outing in iowa. It is the obvious big story tonight. If you went by mentions of the biden name during the impeachment proceedings, you would think hes the Presumptive Democratic nominee. Not so, according to caucusgoers last night. He comes out fourth and roars into New Hampshire. Reporter no. And that certainly speaks, brian, to what we could call the jonie ernst factor. Last week, we saw both escalating attacks from Bernie Sanders and his campaign on the former Vice President , but also the impeachment trial. The Biden Campaign tried to play the cards they were dealt. They leaned into this to try to tell iowa caucusgoers that you could get a twofer. Pu you could ruin Donald Trumps night and ruin joni ernsts night by caucusing for me. In the end, that effort fell short. As it relates to New Hampshire, joe biden is behind me speaking in this union hall. And ive learned a few things today, one listening to steve at the big board, the other that a astute New Hampshire audience likes nothing more than a joke at iowas expense. And biden began his night just in the last 15 minutes reacting to those partial results. He says, the numbers are still coming in at iowa. He says, at this rate, New Hampshire will have, in fact, the first votes. But he also said, theres nothing to come back from yet, but urged the New Hampshire audience, you can rocket me on to make sure that we win this thing. All right. Mike memoli covering the biden effort in New Hampshire. Mike, thank you. In terms of how these things what happens and what the meaning of iowa is moving forward, i mean, ultimately, the campaigns get to define how they, themselves are going to react to it. We saw the energy last night around Amy Klobuchar, making that taking your advice, perhaps, getting to the nearest microphone, getting in front of the nearest camera, before other candidates did. There was a lot of response to Pete Buttigieg essentially giving a victory speech last night, with 62 of the results in now, it looks like that might have may have been more warranted than people were expecting last night. The candidates and the campaigns are waiting to hear as much as we are. But theyre also defining their future in terms of how of these results reflect on them and how theyre taking this forward and whether or not theyre treating this like a boost for their momentum or something that was more of a disappointment. We should go now to shaq brewster, msnbc political reporter in milford, New Hampshire, with the Bernie Sanders campaign tonight. Shaq, hows the Sanders Campaign feeling about last nights results and about this screwy process out of iowa . Reporter it goes exactly to what you were just saying and the fact that the campaigns get to now define this and spin the results, the incomplete results, and get to spin it exactly how they want. And what youre hearing from the Sanders Campaign is a very positive tone on what theyre seeing so far. Lets begin with the fact that going into the Iowa Caucuses, this campaign was feeling really good. On the day of the caucus, that morning, jeff weaver, his Senior Adviser and 2016 Campaign Manager, were set expectations. He said, if they didnt get in first or second place, it would be a bad night for them. And youre starting to see why that is. You feel like they were doing really well in terms of that first part of the caucus, when people go in and make that initial selection. But where they were uncertain was what happens after that. And the realignment. Senator sanders just wrapped up a rally here in milford, New Hampshire. And at the top of his speech, he addressed that specific point. Im going to read to you what he said. It was just a couple of minutes ago. He said, last night, we received more votes on the first and second round than any other candidate. Its what they call the popular vote when im talking to senior aides and officials. They think that he will continue that lead in the popular vote through the rest of the caucus, as results continue to come in. The problem is, its not a primary, its a caucus. So that is not how we award the delegates. Thats not how we decide who the winner is. It will be the delegate allocation. So they feel like theyre really good on the popular vote. They feel like theyll do really well here in New Hampshire. But it will remain to be seen, as we see the results come in, where exactly they land and how they do in iowa. Shaq, is the Sanders Campaign contending at all, with the news that were getting from the Iowa Democratic party, that turnout may have actually been down. The Iowa Democratic party had said heading into the caucus that they expected potentially record turnout. Theyre now saying it will be more like it was in 2016, which is relatively low compared with 2018. Sanders electability argument has always been, you know, if theres a big turnout, we will win. But also, i will generate big turnout in the general election. Thats how i will beat donald trump. I will get people to the polls who dont usually vote. If there wasnt, in fact, a big turnout in iowa, are they contending with that at all . Thats an amazing question, because that was part of his closing message. His closing message was and you saw it on bumper stickers, you heard it in chants that the crowd has. Its, bernie beats trump. And he was saying that he can beat trump because he brings the energy and excitement needed to take on donald trump. And he said over and over in iowa, if theres historic turnout, he believes he will win. If theres not historic turnout, he believes he will lose. We just spoke to jeff weaver, who is the Senior Adviser, just a couple of minutes ago, and weaver told us that he doesnt think that there will be that historic turnout that sanders said he needed to win. And that does call into question whether or not he can bring in that energy. The Sander Campaign spent about 10 million on tv ads in iowa. They had hundreds of staffers on the ground organizing the thousands of volunteers that they had in there. On caucus day, we were in the field office and saw hundreds of volunteers coming in on buses from different states around the country. If they dont if they couldnt win with that excitement and energy, it does call into question what they could do if they are to face President Trump in the fall. Shaq brewster, milford, New Hampshire, thank you, as iowa also learns, when you release data in a set of three, you give candidates three ways to declare victory the night before, as it were. A quick break. When we come back, senator Elizabeth Warren will be ready to speak to us tonight. Youve been hearing a lot about 5g. But theres 5g. And then theres verizon 5g. Were building the most powerful 5g experience for america. Its more than 10x faster than some other 5g networks. 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Plus 0 interest for 24 months on all smart beds. Only for a limited time. Some people say thats ridiculous. Age is just an illusion. How you show up for the world, thats whats real. Whats your idea . I put it out there with a godaddy website. Its a tight threeway race at the top. We know that the three of us will be dividing up most of the delegates coming out of iowa. Im feeling good. We are back now with special coverage of all of the news that is happening at the same time. The president s state of the Union Address is coming up at the top of the hour. The senate will vote tomorrow on whether to convict that president on articles of impeachment and remove him from office. They are not expected to convict him. And were still sorting through what happened in the Iowa Caucuses last night, as the democrats try to pick their nominee to run against him in november. Joining us now is someone with a direct and personal interest in all of those stories, senator Elizabeth Warren of massachusetts, candidate for president in the democratic primary. Senator warren, its great to have you with us tonight. Thank you so much for taking the time. Thank you, its good to be here. So i know you are on to New Hampshire. Were still getting in iowa results. Right now, the results show you in third, behind buttigieg and sanders, in terms of delegates, ahead of Vice President biden. How do you view that result . How much confidence do you have in the results, given how things went a little pear shaped in iowa yesterday . Oh, look, obviously, we dont have all the numbers, but were coming out of iowa in the top three and straight into New Hampshire. And also, remember, weve got 55 states and territories after this. For me, this is about building a grassroots movement. Thats what its been about all along. Were now in 31 states. Weve got a thousand people on the ground, across the country. Weve got people who are really building this, from the ground up. You know, people who have made contributions online, they have gone to elizabethwarren. Com, pitched in five bucks, agreed to do phone calls, found places near them so that they could go and do door knocking. To me, this is about how we should be building a president ial campaign and, ill be blunt, its about how we should be repairing our democracy. I think thats whats really at stake here. And the fact that were talking about this primary at the same moment that donald trump is doing the state of the union, within 24 hours of when well be voting on impeachment really reminds us what it is thats at stake here. Our democracy hangs in the balance. And weve got to take this Government Back from the most corrupt administration in history. Among your competitors, Vice President biden has run, himself, for president several times. Senator sanders, of course, has run for president. The voting last night in iowa was the first president ial contest that you have ever competed in. It is. Given that milestone in your life, i have to ask, i guess, was there any distance between how you expected your campaign to perform and how you actually performed . Not necessarily reflecting on where you came in in the standings, but in terms of what you thought you would be able to do, what you thought you would be able to deliver. Are there Lessons Learned for you after what happened . What i was thinking about last night, ten years ago, i wasnt even in electoral politics. Remember, it was right after the crash. And i had been fighting to get the Consumer Agency in place, get that set up. And then when the republicans said that i couldnt stay and run it, i ended up coming back to massachusetts and getting into my first senate race. I sat there last night and thought about the fact of what we built together. We now have over a million donors across this country. Weve gotten 3 million donations. Last night, the most important part to me is, no surprise to you, we did a selfie line after the speech. And thats where precinct captains, volunteers, people who had been out knocking doors, just came through to give a hug and to talk about why theyre in this race. And its pretty clear, they see a government that works great for those of us at the top, its not working for much of anyone else. Its this core set of issues that as democrats we should be running on, we should be running on a government that doesnt work for those at the top, so much as it works for everyone else. And thats what i saw last night. Thats what i love. Senator, as weve all noted, here we are talking about iowa results during the runup to the state of the Union Address. It was by acclimation a bad showing last night for the Iowa Democrats. Yep. We had James Carville on as part of our live coverage today. He chose the need to repeat to his fellow democrats, the moral imperative is the defeat of donald trump. And he kind of surprised us by saying on Live Television he is amazed tom perez is still the chairman of the party. So its a fair question to ask someone who could be the nominee. Does the chairman of the Democratic Party currently have your complete confidence . And do you view them as battleready going into a campaign against donald trump and company . You know, im not focused on the chair of the democratic campaign. What or the Democratic Party. What im really focused on is how we, as the democratic candidates, are trying to build our campaigns and whether or not were building campaigns ourselves, that are going to be battleworthy going forward. Thats why i was talking about this grassroots campaign. You know that when i got in this campaign, i decided i wasnt going to spend 70 of my time out sucking up to billionaires and to Corporate Executives and to lobbyists in order to just raise a lot of money and be able to run a bunch of tv ads. That i thought the right way to do this was to do it with grassroots funding and with volunteers. Because the way i see it is the problem weve got is, yeah, weve got a lot of questions about process and so on, but the problem weve got is fundamentally about democracy. The problem weve got is how were going to bring our Party Together and how were going to run on a core set of issues that lets us keep our Party Together and that pulls in independents and republicans. When i talk about corruption, thats something democrats really get, but so do independents and republicans. When i talk about a twocent wealth tax, when i talk about expanding social security, those are those core Economic Issues that should be the center of what democrats run on and help us pull this Party Together. It also is whats going to help us pull in independents and republicans. Its how i plan to beat donald trump. Senator Elizabeth Warren of massachusetts tonight, joining us from New Hampshire. Senator, thank you so much. We know this is an incredibly busy time. Really appreciate you being here with us. Thank you, senator. A good to be here. A break for our converage. The president about to depart the white house to head to the capitol and the annual ritual, perhaps made more exciting tonight by the fact that hes in the midst of an impeachment trial. Hes in the midst of an impeachment trial. Limu emu doug and now for their service to the community, we present limu emu doug with this key to the city. 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At subaru, were taking on distracted driving [ping] with sensors that alert you when your eyes are off the road. The allnew subaru forester. The safest forester ever. It was during our 5 00 hour eastern time today, Steve Kornacki, having covered Election Night last night, with zero results, something weve never seen before, got partial results dumped on him on Live Television. They continue to come in. He continues to be on duty from the big board. We are here until we get all of this in. It may take months. Were going to find out, but we do expect from the Iowa Democratic party, they told us more vote coming some time tonight. Theyve told us a lot, but well see what comes through. And this one, one thing i wanted to let you know, you were talking about turnout, the Iowa Democratic party told us yesterday, they thought turnout was on pace with 2016. We wanted to see, when we started getting these results if that is actually happen. We have some counties that have reported 100 . You can see iowa county, heres a small county. Theyre actually down 18 people, it was 701 turned out tonight last night, 721 turned out in 2016. Hamilton county is down about 75 there. There are a bunch of Rural Counties throughout the state that are about 100 , not a bunch, but about a half dozen, turnout is down like this in all of them. The interesting thing, though, is, its not complete yet, but if you look at johnson county, iowa city, university of iowa, second biggest in the state in terms of the turnout its going to have here, it looks like its 82 in right now, theyve got 17,660 who have turned out right now. The number was just over 19,000 in 2016. And again, with 18 still to come in, so you may go over in a place like johnson and be under in the rural areas. Of course, that speaks to that broader sort of shift between the democratic and republican party, maybe with democrats being stronger and stronger in metro areas, maybe a little bit weaker in rural areas. Also speaks to something we saw in the entrance poll, which is the share of people under 30 in this democratic caucus, 24 this year, just 18 in 2016. So a jump there. Fascinating. Were going to be watching those turnout numbers in part because it tells you something about what happened in iowa last night, but also because i think its reasonable, from previous elections, to extrapolate a little bit from the amount of enthusiasm showed by Iowa Democrats toward the general election in terms of how Many Democrats are going to come out nationwide when it comes to running against the gentlemen you see on your screen right now. The president and the first lady in the president ial limousine on their way from the white house to the capitol for tonights state of the Union Address. I do want to say, just as Steve Kornacki was giving us those results, we got a statement from a man who you were just talking about, brian, with senator Elizabeth Warren, tom perez, chairman of the Democratic National committee, has just released this statement. Quote, what happened last night should never happen again. We have staff working around the clock to assist the Iowa Democratic party to ensure that all votes are counted. It is clear that the app in question did not function quality. It will not be used in nevada or anywhere else during the primary election process. The Technology Vendor must provide absolute transparent accounting of what went wrong. Our immediate goal is to ensure that every vote is counted as quickly as possible. Accuracy is our guidepost. As frustrating as the last 24 hours have been, let us not lose sight of our ultimate goal to defeat donald trump, to take back our democracy, and to improve the lives of millions by electing democrats up and down the ballot. Claire mccaskill . Well, a couple of things. First wing its really important how dark blue those Rural Counties are in iowa. So many of them. You know, this is a little bit of an echo for me. Because i remember all of the talk that white rural iowa would never go for a black man. And then i heard white rural iowa will never go for a gay man. And Pete Buttigieg has done very well at attracting rural and smalltown voters. And that, maybe its just too close to me, because thats where i got killed, was in the outstate areas of missouri. The two urban centers, we had recordhigh turnouts, recordhigh margins, recordhigh performance. But it was those outstate areas that were really a problem. So watch that going forward. And the other thing that tom perez said about the app, you know, they cant blame only the app on this. I know that there was someone taking phone calls last night from precinct captains. And you know why he quit after 1 30 at night . Because they were instructing him to call the precinct captains who had not reported. And you know where they were . They were asleep in bed. And he was being asked to wake them up to find out what their numbers were, because they had sat on the phone for two hours. Well, who decided not to have enough people on the phones or not to have enough phone lines. Im not sure you can blame that on the app. Did they have not enough people on the phone lines because they expected the app to do most of the work. And when the app failed, their backup plan wasnt robust enough to cover it. Thats exactly right. But if somebodys been running caucuses for 15, 20 years, and theyre over the age of 70, to put all their hopes that theyll be vassal with the app, many of these precinct captains said, im going to call mine in like i always have. Can you give us any insight wh into what happened on the vendor side of it . Into the development of this app . Why it was purchased in iowa . Why nevada apparently purchased it and is now scrapping it in light of what happened here . Whats your perspective on this . I really dont have any information. The first i heard about the vendors name was the last time on the set here. So, you know, acronym is a volunteer whos helping acronym describe what acronym is. Acronym is a digital firm. They put out a newsletter that tracks digital spending and creative is running some ads to defeat donald trump. They have also invested in this Company Called shadow. Its the first ive heard of it. But my assessment is, i think like claires, clearly there was a technological problem. Hard to argue if you are going to use apps going forward, you dont want to use this vendor. But i think the original season is, saying well have three different sets of data weve never had before, so that kind of overburdened the system. Clearly, a lot of these people, it wasnt mandatory to use the app. Theres reports that people tried to drive to the Iowa Democratic headquarters and couldnt get anybody to accept their results. So i think everything that went wrong did go wrong. And i think, listen, i think the question is going forward, in 2024 or 2028, are you going to be sitting on this set talking about a bunch of caucuses. I think its clear were not going to be doing that. Jason johnson, you have made an important point, i think, about the appeal of Pete Buttigieg going forward, what his prospects are in the forthcoming early states and down the road. In the turnout dynamics that Steve Kornacki was just describing, big turnout, potentially recordbreaking turnout maybe in some more populationconcentrated areas, urban areas, college areas. The rural areas that give us that big, dark blue map that claire is talking about, where buttigieg did so well, may have overall, precinct to precinct, had lower turnout, even though they seemed to be very strongly in favor of mayor pete. Going forward, its like, okay, that may work fine if youre in New Hampshire. That may work fine if youre in wisconsin. Thats not going to work in nevada or south carolina, its not going to work in maryland. Petes appeal has to grow bigger than just convincing people, because he sits down in their house and they think hes nice. Heres one of those things that hell have to really counter. Please understand the way im saying this, david. The attacks on him already and we have to see how he responds to attacks. The attacks on him from sanders supporters that ive been seeing online, about him possibly winning under these circumstances, i am seeing massive trending tweets about, theres an Organization Called acronym and shadow and it sounds like a bad bond film and somehow mayor pete is involved. We know thats ridiculous, but that sort of thing spreads. So how does pete weve talked about what theyre doing forward, how does pete handle potentially being a frontrunner on fridays debate. How does he handle, okay, youre coming out of this as the hero, are you going to go over that cliff, make that jump, move from 2 to 8 with africanamerican voters, or continue to be the guy who only works well at the Kitchen Table and the bedroom. And i dont know if hes capable of doing that, because he hasnt demonstrated that thus far. There was one iowa poll where he came in first in the poll and there was a debate right after it. He actually had a pretty easy time of it in that debate. But youre exactly right. If he is on top coming out of iowa, hell be facing that frontrunner adversity for the first time. Exactly. We shouldnt forget at the top of the hour, well be covering something vastly different. Parties are assembling on capitol hill. In the house chamber, you see the Vice President , you see the speaker. Our coverage continues right after this. After this as parents of six, this network is one less thing i have to worry about. vo why the aceves family chose verizon. We all use our phones very differently. These two are always gaming and this one is always on facetime. And my oldest is learning to be a pilot. We need a Reliable Network because i need to know hes safe. As soon as he lands, he knows he better call mama. Mama vo the network more people rely on, gives you more. Like plans your family can mix and match starting at just 35. And apple music on us. Plus, up to 700 off the latest iphone when you switch. Thats verizon. You make time. When you can. 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And my lack of impulse control, is about to become your problem. Ahh no, come on. I saw you eating poop earlier. Hey my focus is on the road, and thats saving me cash with drivewise. Whos the dummy now . Whoof whoof so get allstate where good drivers save 40 for avoiding mayhem, like me. Sorry hes a baby as we say, it is the annual ritual in the house chamber, made different this year by the fact that tomorrow in the Senate Chamber, were expecting a vote that will acquit the president of the United States, who remains on trial. He has been impeached in the house. The senate tomorrow will decide whether to convict him on those articles of impeachment, and thereby remove him from office. I will note, there is some continuity between these two stories were covering tonight. Nancy pelosi wearing white, as many Democratic Women will tonight. But you notice the pin that shes wearing on her lefthand lapel, thats the same pin that she wore when she opened the impeachment proceedings and got quite a bit of attention at the time. You see all the women in white, Democratic Women in white in support of womens rights and a nod to the suffragette movement. But that pin is the mace of the United States house of representatives. Its 13 bundled rods with a globe on top of them and with an american bald eagle on top of them. It is unsubtle. But this is a pin, a striking pin that nancy pelosi wore for the opening of the impeachment proceedings. Shes wearing it again tonight, which is a strong symbolic nod to the fact that the impeachment is underway. The Senate Impeachment trial is underway while the state of the union will be happening tonight. For those used to watching our coverage of the impeachment proceedings in the Senate Chamber, vastly different in size from the house chamber. There are statehouses larger than the u. S. Senate chamber, but this was built to house 435 members of congress. Claire mccaskill, what great memories come back, im sure, for you, watching your former republican colleagues enter the chamber. Lots and lots of memories flood back. The thrill of the first time i was there for a state of the union speech, looking around and doing, gee, whiz, i cant believe im here. The last time i was there, when donald trump was giving the state of the union, thinking i cant believe gee, whiz, whats happened to our country . Probably the most memorable one was the night that there was the blowup about whether obama snubbed Hillary Clinton when she came into the chamber and i happened to be right there sitting next to them when it happened and was able to kind of back up what president obama said happened. It was kind of a it looked like it was a snub, but it really wasnt. He was trying to give her space to talk to ted kennedy. That was kind of a historical moment, because it was the day that ted kennedy had announced that hed endorsed barack obama for president , and it was controversial, to say the least. There are some members of the house and members of the senate who do not attend the state of the union. And its often seen as an act of protest to not attend. Did you ever think about not going . Or did you ever have strong feelings about fellow members who decided to not attend . I would never have chosen not to attend, because of who was giving the speech. I will confess that there were moments you didnt want to attend because you didnt want to sit through the speech. But that applied across both sides of the aisle. It appears to me that the thing that we tried to do for a few years, which was to get dates to the state of the union, bipartisan dates, remember those days . It appears thats fallen away. Because once again, if you look out at the chamber from the speakers dias, most of the republicans will be seated on your right and the democrats will be seated on your left. Regardless of what you feel about bipartisan as a strategy for getting things done and its viability and its naivete and all of that, that brief moment, that was after the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords in 2011 the dean of the diplomatic corps. And thats when for a few years, in 2012 and 2013, members did sit with other members from the opposite party. And it was im sorry that it was so short lived. It was stressful, though, about getting a date. It kind of was a throwback to college when guys always thought i had too big a mouth to go out with me. So it was like, okay, what republican am i going to like get for my date to the its the Sadie Hawkins state of the union. But it worked out. And that we havent continued to work harder at the bipartisan ship. It matters in terms of getting things done. You dont get it done anything done without it. One of the things well see here tonight, again, a decision whether to attend, members of the supreme court. Not all members attend. Some always do, some never do. And some its year to year. So that will be interesting to see tonight as well. John roberts is said to be attending tonight. He goes back on duty tomorrow in the Senate Chamber for the vote. William rehnquist notably did not attend during the clinton trial. There are no rules for this kind of thing. There are some justices who dont attend. Roberts has tried to attend every state of the union since hes been chief justice. Well see various groups introduced as they come down. Joint chiefs. Supreme court and the like. Kasie hunt is in the chamber for us tonight. Rules prohibit us from using a camera to show her, but we can hear her voice. Kasie, what are we not seeing or hearing from television that you are seeing and hearing from the chamber . Reporter brian, it is quite a scene tonight. Youre right, you wont be able to see us. We are up to Nancy Pelosis Left Shoulder with a Vantage Point down. And i have to say, after covering these incredibly partisan and acrimonious impeachment hearings, it is remarkable to see the handshaking that goes on on the floor, these kind of moments between lawmakers that are basically at war. Right now joe manchin is has his arm around Martha Mcsally of arizona. He, of course, in the midst of, you know, trying to push forward with censuring the president. Hes chatting with mitt romney. Romney, a man alone in the republican conference on the senate side. Lamar alexander also there in that gathering, kind of the heart of everything weve been talking about playing out in the public eye. Across the chamber, you have the impeachment managers are actually all seated together next to each other in a line. The three of them, women, of course, wearing white in honor of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment. The only one thats missing from that group is hakeem jeffries. He, of course, has been a very visible presence among the managers. Hes actually a member of the Escort Committee for the president of the United States. So an interesting facetoface meeting there. Thats part of his traditional duties. Hes a caucus chairman, so i wouldnt read too much into that necessarily. But still, an interesting moment for this president. And, of course, as you remember, bill clinton did give a state of the Union Address when he was also in the middle of an impeachment trial, his unfolding back in 1999. But, of course, the big difference, it was not an Election Year then. This, of course, 2020, you have been covering basically a second iowa caucus Election Night all night. So its just setting the stage here, brian, some remarkable moments. And heres john roberts. Kasie hunt, we last saw her in iowa. She is back in the chamber. Youll have to trust us. We certainly can hear her. As if on cue, john roberts and the presiding members of the supreme court. Gorsuch, kavanaugh and kagan tonight. Four out of nine will be in attendance. A quick break for us. Our last before our coverage goes nonstop. [ distant band playing ] have you ever wondered what the motorcade driver drives when theyre not in a motorcade . [ upbeat music starts ] [ engine revving ] this one drives a volkswagen passat. Were back into the chamber we go. Senators from california, new york and connecticut and maryland, all of them democrats, but all of them talking. Two former democratic president ial candidates Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris speaking and Chris Van Holland next to them. The house Democratic Women wearing white in support of womens rights. Theres joaquin castro, not julian castro, who was the president ial contender, but his twin brother who is a congressman from texas. Nancy pelosi and vicepresident mike pence dont seem to be chatting up a storm. Not a whole lot of chitchat between the two of them. Theyre looking up from where they are up to their left is the gallery, the visitors gallery, officials guests, first lady we already saw ivanka and jared up there, and any official guest the president notes in the speech will be up there. Chris mathews, at the end much your hour tonight, you had some, i wont say dark, but pointed words about your expectations for this state of the union speech tonight. You know, hell give a good accounting of the numbers attached to dollar signs. The market is good, unemployment numbers are good. Hes created a whole new america comeback, and yet we all know the darker side of this presidency can be counted as well. Decency, abuse of allies, making fun of peoples appearance, at handicaps, all this kind of i think the people that like him should consider the bargain theyve made here. It is a dieabolic bargain. We have 50 , small high 60s, they love his economic stewardship. They love t. In your remarks you gave it a name. Its something they call in church. Its called a deal with the devil. Familiar with the deal. By the way, youre talking about how the vicepresident and speaker dont seem to be loving each other. I was there at the time chip was friends with the first george bush. I gave him the remarks attacking george bush. It was like he passed him a machine gun. What are you giving me that for . Ill be incriminated with the attack of my boss. By the way, Rush Limbaugh seated next to the first lady tonight. I would not have recognized him. I had forgotten about his beard as well. He announced just yesterday he has what he called latestage lung cancer. Some publications are reporting that in a, whats supposed to be an off the record lunch with anchors today, the president announced his intention to give the medal of freedom to Rush Limbaugh. And here are the members of the cabinet. Led by secretary of state mike pompeo fresh off his starring role in the impeachment proceedings. Followed closely behind by treasury secretary steven mnuchin. National security advisor and others. To remind people, there are no reserved seats here. People grab seats on the aisle very early to be able to shake hands with the cabinet and the president when they come through. That was elliott ingless great claim to fame. They will come and grab a seat early in the day and stay there all day long in order to have the seat on the aisle. Senators dont do that, but house members do. Elliott ingles always had an advantage in that he would come early in the day, park his mustache there and come back later. You see elaine chao there, transportation secretary, the wife of Republican Senate leader mitch mcconnell. Betsy devos, education secretary. We saw ben carson come in moments ago. Some of these are acting. I dont know who they are because weve had so many acting that havent been confirmed. For example, i couldnt tell you who is running Homeland Security right now. If they walked into the room and i was the Ranking Member on Homeland Security committee. I dont know who it is. C. I. A. Director gina haspel there. The trade representative. I believe the o. M. B. Director also fresh off his starring role in the impeachment proceedings. I saw lighthizer. I will tell you as we have note this had evening, this is splitscreen coverage. We are watching it with an eye on the door as well in terms of further information coming in. We are awaiting further results