Winning the democratic nomination in florida has been a shot of adrenaline for the Democratic Party base coasttocoast today. It absolutely makes that one governors race a big national story. A point of National Focus between now and election day in november. Were going to talk this hour with the dean of Florida Political reporters who is and i say this in a nice way. He is a freaking cynical guy. Definitely ive seen everything you cant surprise me kind of guy. He today told us Andrew Gillum winning that race in florida and what it means for florida and democrats, broadly, is something he has never seen before. And he never says stuff like that. I know this is one candidate, one campaign, one race. But there is something about that surprise result in that one race last night na has grabbed even the most jaded political observers by their lap els and shaken them up. We will be talking about that, some of the reasons behind what happened there coming up. In addition, that Andrew Gillum race last night, heres another weird turn also about electoral politics. One of the border trends that is happening in Democratic Party politics this year for the midterms is that there is a whole bunch of people running on the democratic side for congress, who are people that have National Security background, people whose background is in law enforcement, intelligence, the diplomatic core, other National Security roles, for example, in florida, last night a former u. N. Ambassador, won a congressional primary in the district represented by republican ron desantis. Ron se san tis had to give up his seat in florida to become the republican candidate for governor. We know he will be rung against this guy Andrew Gillum. But in his district in the ron desantis district it will be bill clintons Nancy Soderberg running as a democrat to flip that seat from red to blue. Another national veteran, chris hunter a former doj prosecutor, he won a primary last night in florida as well to try to unseat republican congressman gus billa rackus. Another district where democrats are seen as having a real shot of flipping that seat from red to blue with this candidate chris hunter. Democrats have a whole lot of candidates all across the country, particularly and potentially in flipable districts, where the democratic candidate comes from a National Security background. And thats interesting in terms of strategy and its not a deliberate plan by the Democratic Party, what does that say about National Security . Professionals and their desire to get into electoral politics and trump. You can analyze it from a lot of different angles. But tonight, we have just learned from some interesting reporting from Spencer Ackerman of the daily beast, that the Democratic CongressionalCampaign Committee the committee in the Democratic Party in charge of electing house candidates. They have just warned, given a warning to all of the congressional candidates across the country who have a National Security backgrounds, people who have security clearances or who have had security clearances in the past because of their past work. The Democratic Party has now officially warned all of those candidates that they should be prepared for the Trump Administration to potentially illegally leak their security clearance applications so that those application can be used against them by the Republican Party in the general election. The reason for the warn secretary because it has happened apparently once already to one democratic candidate. The New York Times breaking the news late last night that this candidate, abigail spinberger, a former cia case officer, a democratic candidate in virginia. Hes the democrats to unseat dave bratt in virginia. She apparently had her full unredacted security clearance application, not just released by the Trump Administration without her permission, which is illegal, but the Trump Administration apparently released it to a republicanofopposition research effort, which then did immediately start using it against her in her congressional campaign. Applications for security clearance are incredibly intrusive and personal on purpose. They are designed to ferret out anything that a foreign adversary might try to use to black mail you to get you to hand over classified information that you will now have access to because of your security clearance. So application forms for security clearance are like deep, deep background checks. Theyre specifically looking for anything that anybody might try to use against you. So its, you know, medical information, its relationship information. Its very detailed questions about like you know have you ever smoked pot . Its very detailed information about your family, ability your extended family. Its super super intriefs. The Government Agency responsible for issuing your clearance is obviously supposed to protect that in your security clearance application, right . Not because its intensely private. Its by definition this is intensely private information about people who are obtaining security clearances. So its important to keep it secure. It is information that is of a personal nature, but its also of, its also of a sensitive nature when it comes to National Security. Thats why, for example, all journalists know you cant file a freedom of information request to get somebodys security clearance application. I mean, you can try, but if you get anything back from the agency you are footing, whatever you get back will be redacted to within an inch of its life to protect the Sensitive Information in that document and rightly so. At least thats the way its supposed to work. But for some reason, the Trump Administration responded to a request by this Republican Group looking for information from this excia officer Abigail Spanberger and what the Trump Administration sent a republican route was spanbergers complete totally unredacted security clearance, including her full security number. Her entire medical history. Right . Everything. The reason Abigail Spanberger found out this had happened is thereafter the Republican Party and a pac run by House Speaker paul ryan happily started shopping this document to reporters and started using it in political attacks against her in her congressional campaign. I mean, that is a legitimately new thing in politics. Were all supposed to be jaded observers in politics, there is nothing new under the sun. This is new. This is new. I mean, maybe we should have expected it anyway, it was all new when republican decided to yank security clearances from john brennan because of his role in the russia investigation and the president doesnt like the investigation. Apparently this is next. Once you break that seem. Now Republican Party is using the stuff if campaigns. We will have more including the strange nonresponse thus far from the agency apparently responsible from releasing this do you mean. If this document was released, if this wasnt an accident by some rocky employee, who will now be punished and prosecuted for having done this, of course, we should expect this will become a huge new legal fight with the Trump Administration, if theyre misusing National Security sensitive material like this in order to dock their Democratic Political opponents, you would expect that to become a gigantic new legal fight with this administration. Naturally, therefore, i comes at the same we learn the white House Counsel is leading the white house. News today about don mcgahn comes a week and a half, 11 days after the New York Times first reported don mcgahn had sat for more than 30 hours of interviews with special counsel mueller and they are reporting he fully cooperated. The white house has tried to play that off like, oh, yeah, no big deal. We totally knew mcgahn was doing that. Were fine. Nothing to worry about. Were so squeaky clean, what could we possibly have to worry about . But the times own reporting from its initial scoop and subsequent reporting all seems to indicate that actually the president and other Top White House officials really have no idea that don mcdawn was cooperating with mueller to that extent and they definitely have no idea what he might have told them. And if don mcgahn has been fully cooperating with the special counsels office and told them everything he knows and has seen that they might be interested in, hes potentially a sort of super witness for them. Hes been there, hes been right there in the room for all the highlights, for the firing of james comey. The fbi director, which is now reportedly a subject of an investigation by the special counsel, whether that was an effort by the president to obstruct justice him when National Security adviser Michael Flynn was having secret conversations and lying about those conversations. The person warned by sally yates of the Justice Department about flynns behavior. The person that got the warning, uhoh, big problem the serving National Security adviser seems to be compromised by a foreign government. The person that got that warning was don mcgahn. He was there for the subsequent 18 days in which the white house did nothing with that information despite that unprecedented and dire warning. When attorney general Jeff Sessions turned out to not have told the truth about his secret contacts, mcgahn was assigned to prevent Jeff Sessions from recusing himself in the russia investigation as a result of those revelations. That effort to stop sessions recusal did not succeed. Sessions recuse. We got attorney general Rod Rosenstein led by robert mueller. The times reported President Trump told don mcgahn to go fire robert mueller. Mcgahn threatened to resign and he would fought do it. So hes had this central role in all of those marquee events, remain under strut u scrutiny in their ongoing rechlgs on top of all that, dont forget don mcdawn was the top lawyer for the trump company. So to the extent the special counsel is looking for the intervention to help trump and the crucial question of whether or not the Trump Campaign was aware of that and whether they may have participated or cooperated in any of those efforts . Cgahn, was there, too, in a key role on the campaign for monthles. Even as recent as this week, don mcgahn has another role and key controversy involving the president in this ongoing scandal, all encompassing scandal that surrounds him and frankly his campaign. Vanity fair reporting this week it has been don mcdawn who has been insisting to the president that, no, he cant pardon his Campaign Chairman palm manafort ahead of manaforts second felony trial, which is due to start next month in washington, d. C. Vanity fair reports the president is so set on partdonig him, he has been considering bringing in a different lawyer to draft the pardon since don mcgahn wont do it. Now don mcgahn is leaving. It appears that a follow up report in the New York Times is don mcgahn is being fired as opposed to hmm leaving on his own. Axios report this morning said he was looking to leave sometime this fall, wanted to get through with the Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination. The times pounced on that story to basically fire don mcgahn of 26th, naturally, much to don mcgahns surprise. The president s tweet was precipitated by a report on the axios website that mcgahn planned to leave after the confirmation of the process. Mr. Trump grew tired of seeing reports that he might leave, according to people with his thinking, he decided to take away any wiggle room, he might have. As the Washington Post puts it tonight, quote, trumps announcement of mcgahns department cure came as a surprise, comma, including to mcgahn, he was not aware that trump planned to send the tweet. Apparently, that is how the white House Counsel got fired today. 11 days after we learned of the extent of his cooperation with the special counsel. In case are you wondering. No, this is not normal no. Other white House Counsel has been fired quite in this way. Its interesting that the white house and the president have tried to spin this today as something that it clearly is not. Right. They clearly tried to create a public impression this was the orderly long planned rollout of don mcgahns voluntary department cure. If it was a surprise to him what he saw on 26th that he was leaving, the public we dont know why theyve tried to concoct a false story line about it. We may find out in the future. You never know, sources of don mcdawn do have ways of getting their perspective on things into the newspapers, weve noticed. Well have nor on that story ahead with the report worry covered this closely. To the extent the current white House Counsel don mcgahn prevented the president from acting on his most destructive impulse, particularly with the russia investigation, don mcgahn leaving sort of creates a new xfactor, a new unknown in terms of us as americans trying to anticipate, trying to prepare for the ways this president might hands him or try to manage some of the increasingly intense legal stuff that is swirling around the president and the white house within it comes to the ongoing scandal. At the end of next week, for example, we are expecting another sentence. Prosecutors are asking for a custodial sentence for Campaign Adviser george pop tpapadopoulo. His wife said despite her earlier intimations he would fight the charges for lying to the fbi, she now said he will not fight. He will not withdraw his guilty plea she does expect him to be sentenced next week. She hopes it isnt to prison. If he gets sentenced to preseis that will be the second person to be sent behind bars, we dont know how the president will react to that. Ten days after mr. Papadopoulos is due to be sentenced next week, jury selection is due to start in that second felony trial of the Campaign ChairPaul Manafort. Today manaforts defense team asked the judge to move the trial out of washington, d. C. To more conservative roanoke virginia, instead. The judge should rule on that moke in the next week or. So discussions in open court about that issue yesterday suggested that the judge might not be inclined to move the case. We will not know until we see her ruling. Today was the deadline by which the special Prosecutors Office had to tell the judge, sorry, had to tell the judge for manaforts first case whether they wanted to retry Paul Manafort on the ten felony charges for which the jury in his first case was unable to reach a verdict. Prosecutors from the special counsels office today filed this brief with that judge, asking for more time to make that decision. Now, if the judge grants that extension, we think that means well go maybe another 30 days or so before we know if the president s Campaign Chairman isnt just going to start a second federal trial next month, but hes actually then going to go back on trial again for some of the charges he faced already last time in virginia. So, i mean, imagine Paul Manaforts legal fees at this point, right . And theres this lack of resolution around the manafort case in terms of his ultimate fate and how long hes going to keep twisting in this particular wind and paying his legal team and all the rest of it. There is also an interesting and hard to follow lack of resolution around the michael conpart of this case. I mean, part of it is so, the day manafort was first convicted, michael conpled guilty in a different federal court to eight federal charges. That wasnt the ends, though, now it seems like other shoes may drochl some of it may be federal. Some may not the new York State Attorney general has asked for a state criminal referral of Michael Conon state tax charges in addition to the federal tax charges hes already pled guilty to. We learned at the same time that we learned at the same time of that revelation from the new York State Attorney general that cohen also has already been suspended by new york state authorities to testify about the trump foundation. New York Attorney general has brought a civil lawsuit against the trump foundation. The new York District attorney is reportedly considering criminal charges against the Trump Organization, which is President Trumps business. That criminal investigation reportedly derives from the Trump Organizations role in the felony charges to which Michael Cohen already pled guilty in federal court. You know it does seem like the doors are starting to rattle on the business, over at the Trump Organization. Cnn reporting today that a second employee at the Trump Organization, someone other than cfo Allen Weisselberg has gone to federal prosecutors and asked for immunity for prosecution in exchange for his or her cooperation and testimony. We do not know who that person is from the Trump Organization, but heres how cnn puts it today, quote. A Second Trump Organization employee discussed a potential immunity deal with the federal prosecutors who charged Michael Cohen, President Trumps former attorney. That employee did not receive immunity after prosecutors for the Southern District of new york decided against granting such protection. The Trump Organization is not that big. Family business. They dont have that many employees. Now we know that not just the cfo but at least one other person who worked there has gone to federal prosecutors and asked for immunity. Immune from the prosecution in exchange for cooperating with those prosecutors. In an organization thats not that big, thats probably not a good sign, at least not a good sign for the people who arent cooperating. And now theres actually one more piece of this we can add based on some really interesting reporting today from the wall street journal. One of the things i think people truly will not believe about this era when they look back at it as american history, is that when all the stuff was going down with the president s personal lawyer, right, Michael Cohen pleading guilty to multiple felonies, standing up in federal court and directly implicating the president in his crimes. Right. While all that was happening, michael conwas the deputy finance chairman of the national Republican Party. All right. In the trump era Republican Party, two of the deputy finance chairman of the rnc have been michael con, for real and also this gentleman, elliot brady. The Washington Post reported recently the Public Integrity at the Justice Department is testifying whether he has been selling access to the president and the Trump Administration as an unregistered lobbyist or foreign agent. That follows earlier bombshell reporting that one of the things he was reportedly trying to sell to a foreign buyer was his self proclaimed availability to make Major Investigations go away. He and his wife offered a gigantic multimillion dollar contract to overseas buyers and the terms of these proposed contracts say they would be paid 8 million no matter what as a nonrefundable retainer if this contract were entered into. If they were able to get the Justice Department to drop this one particular Major Investigation within six months, he and his wife would be paid 75 million under this contract. If it took them a little longer, a year to get the case dropped or settled, then they would only get paid 50 million. Presumably 96 to their 8 million nonrefundable retainer. That case that elliot brady and his wife were reportedly offering to make go away, for those very large sums, that case that they said they could get quashed, settled, ended, that ways that karen offering that contract about is one of the largest alleged financial frauds in human history. It is a multibillion dollar heist from the government of malaysia. And now today the wall street journal reports that the department of justice is looking into whether or not elliot brady but lots of other people if trumps orbit have been getting lawned launders money in that giant heist from malaysia. They a investigating whether a financier laundered tins of millions to pay a u. S. Legal team, that includes former new Jersey Governor Chris Christie and a lawyer that represents President Trump the team of lawyers and consultants includes mr. Christie, mr. Trumps longtime lawyer Marc Kasowitz and bobby burchfield, a lawyer who served as an outside ethics adviser. Remember when the president decide he wasnt going to give up his business and form a trust. Dont worry, we are bringing in an outside ethics adviser to make sure everything is squeaky clean for me to be the first president in history to retaken his business interests. We have an outside adviser. Nothing smelly in this office. Everything will be fine. That ethics lawyer that hay brought in for the Trump Organization is bobby bus burchd is a part of an investigation whether he received laundered funds from the biggest heist in history, which is the subject of a Justice Department investigation. The single best part of this story is bobby burchfields response. Quote, he said in an emailed statement that the malaysian financier had retained his atlanta based law firm to quote advise him on investigations. Na they performed Due Diligence on sources of payment. Thats the wrong answer. Right . Think about that for a second . You did appropriate Due Diligence. You are the ethics lawyer who has been hired literally by the president of the United States to assure everybody that you are the guy looking into everything to make sure there is nothing weird at all that any of the money moving around and you, yourself, ends up under Justice Department investigation for a gigantic Money Laundering scheme, yourself and your own business . The right response to that is not, yeah, i totally looked into it. I completely checked this out. I did all my Due Diligence. Im totally sure all that money was fine. That money is not fine . Youre the Due Diligence guy. If it didnt work here, dont advertise that. With all these various strands of legal jeopardy describing the mr. President and his charity and business an closest associates, from before the campaign, from during the campaign and from now, with all of these different legal matters, swirling around the president and seemingly getting closer and closer to the president , with more and more people pleading and cooperating and asking for immunity and offering to cooperate, its a heck of a time to lose a white House Counsel, right . Bloomberg news reports tonight among the candidates considered to replace don mcgahn as white House Counsel is actually that guy, bobby burchfield, the Due Diligence ethics lawyer who apparently himself is caught up in a giant Money Laundering investigation. Yeah. You need a white House Counsel . Why not that guy . Sure, he seems perfect. Who else would you pick . Is Michael Cohen all that busy before he has to report to jail . Lots more ahead to get to tonight. Stay with us. I was going to talk about Something Else here, but the Washington Post has just broke in one of those stories that is sort of a landmark story. You know its good when they note a few paragraphs in. This account is based on interviews this week with 26 white house officials. President ial advisers and lawyers and strategists close to the administration. 26 sources in this new story the Washington Post posted. Let me give you the lead here. President trumps advisers and allies are increasingly worried he has neither the staff nor the strategy to protect himself from a possible democratic takeover of the house, which would up power the opposition porte to pursue impeachment charges. There is consensus his legal team is not equipped to navigate an onslaught of demands and there is new lawyers for white collar offense and scandals. The president and his advisers are discussed a veteran attorney abby lowell to the legal time if impeachment or fights with congress emerge after the midterm elections. Trump recently consulted his personal attorneys about the likelihood of impeachment proceedings. Still, according to post, trump has not directed his lawyers or aides to prepare an action plans leaving allies that the president does not appreciate the magnitude of what could be if store next year one other concern is that the white house which has struggled in attracting top caliber to staff positions could face an exodus because aides fear their mere proximity to the president could place them in legal imbo and result if hefty lawyers fees. One trump adviser telling the walk post, quote, it stast stops good people from potentially serving because nobody wants to inherit a 400,000 legal bill. The white house always seems like a fun place to work. According to Washington Post that may be all the more so right now. Its posted at the washington website. We will be posted by carol lennox next. Stay with us. D by carol lennox next. Stay with us thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats differently. For psoriasis, 75 clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. And for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. And the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. Otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Tell your doctor if these occur. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Other side effects include upper respiratory tract infection and headache. 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Winter is coming. Assuming democrats own the house which we believe will be likelihood, its like tumble weeds. Nobody is prepared for war. Joining us now is carol len no, National Team of the Washington Post, thank you for being here. I really appreciate the time. Glad to be here, rachel. So this is based on 26 sources, which itself feels like the occasion for everybody to salute you, just with the amount of work you and this team has done to put this together. The upshot to me seems to be two main points, one that there is concern in the white house, maybe concern among the president s allies, potentially signaling through the media, trying to get his attention the president may be in serious jeopardy, up to and including impeepments depending on what happens this november, your reporting on Detailed Planning or considerations to really change the president s legal representation. Am i right to take those two main thrusts of this reporting . Absolutely, rachel. The two weaknesses is that the president doesnt have a lawyer representing him personally who has some impeachment experiences or some congress am experiences and the other major weakness is the basically the gutting that we learned about over the last few days of reporting of the white House Counsels office. You know, don mcgahn has essentially been announced as leaving by the president s tweet, which was a surprise to him and many other of the president s aides. Even the president s attorney was surprised by it this morning. But that announcement made us look more deeply as well at and try to tab hate whatlate whats. This is the defense, the blockers for what would happen if democrats get subpoena power. And its a pale comparison of what it used to be, four of the five deputies for don mcgahn will be gone by the end of the week and that leevens one standing who mostly represented the white house on National Security matters. The news that mr. Mcgan, himself, was surprised by the president s announcement that mr. Mcgahn would be leaving the white house. When that emerged today, that left me i guess feeling like this was the firing of mr. Mcgahn, it may have been that he was looking towards the exits, that he was planning on arrangeing his departure, submitting his notice as it were sometime fairly soon. He may have been signaling so when that might have been. If he was surprised today by the president saying, yeah, hes out. Is this essentially andeparture . Its not an event as the tillerson tweet. Its not the same as the h. R. Mcmaster, the National Security advis adviser, you are out of here. Its not that see you later charlie kind of moment. Don mcgahn has telegraphed to many people, including reporters that he planned to go in the fall that kavanaughs confirmation was sort of the crown that he hoped to finish off. That would be the ending of his moment as white House Counsel. However, its just an indigerrous way to say goodbye to somebody. The president likes to do this manner to squeeze off exits or entrances. Thats the opportunity he sees today. Carol, you and your colleagues reported last night that the president has privately revived the idea of firing the attorney general. Do we see any connection between whats just happened with don mcgahn with the hollowing out of the White House Office all the of the deputies leaving or left. Is there any connection there with the potential firing of the attorney general . Obviously, that has big consequences for the russia investigation among a lot of other things. But don mcgahn has been described as somebody who has been sort of governor, sort of brake ped am for the president with his strongest impulses when it comes to the Russian Investigation if particular. Are these things linked . Smr its jusuch a good inferenc. Don mcgahn ask among the top three who barred the door from the president acting on his worst impulses. However, i dont think that it is linked. I do believe don mcgahns sort of message that he really was kind of done. I think there is something bigger going on and in the white house. People are tired, people are tired of the drama and the tilting and the careering and the daily sort of rush, rur, hurry up ap wait and everything falls apart. A lot of things done on the whim of the president , that wear people down. I dont think the departures of all of don mcfawns, almost all of don mcgahns deputies can be attributed to any one factor what i hear and my colleagues at the Washington Post here over and over again is people are wearing thin and it doesnt necessarily mean the president is pushing them out. Some of the president s ways of governing are. National reporter at the Washington Post, busy as ever these days, carol, thank you very much for being here. Much appreciate id. Of course, thank you, rachel. The Washington Post says the president culled his personal attorneys about the likelihood of impeachment proceedings. A reporting tonight, mcgahn and other aide versus invoked the pros sect to convention the president to behave in ways they would hurt him. Still he halls not directed his lawyers or political aides leaving them to say he doesnt appreciate the magnitude of what could be if store for him, particularly if democrats win the house. Well be right back. Stay with us. My mother said the only thing you should ask for in life is a chance. I want you to know if you give me the chance to not only be your nominee, to be the next governor of the state of florida that i will make you proud every single day of the week. So i want you to join me on this mission and together were going to take this state back, turn florida blue in 2018 and flip this country blue in 2020. You see the tag lines there, right, he pulls out, beat the nra. Not just fight the nra. Healthcare for all, 15 minimum wage. Abolish and replace i. C. E. Stand your ground, legalize marijuana, impeach donald trump. Andrew gillum, florida democrat, is testing the theory if you want to win, go bolt. Andrew gillum benefitted from absolutely juiced, democratic turnout in the primary yesterday in florida, 31 that is way up from turnout for Florida Democrats in terms of what they posted in the last two midterm primaries. Juice turnout like that is what democrats are counting on. On the republican side, gillum will face trump backed congressman ron desantis calling gillum way too liberal, he told fox news florida shouldnt quote monkey it up by electing mr. Gillum. He would be the first ever africanamerican Florida Governor if elected the dean of florida reporters says hes never seen anything quite like this in his state. Given which state were talking about, thats really saying something. That reporter joins us next. Heres more of how andrew campaigned his way to a big upset win last night that surprised everybody in the Political Class and has lit up the Democratic Base around the country. Whats impossible . The son of a bus driver becoming mayor of the capitol city . Or that mayor standing up against the nra and winning . How about running for governor and being the most progressive democrat who would invest a billion dollars in education and create medicare for ul . Is it impossible to come from nothing, be outspent 101 and win . Share this. Buy a tv ad and prove the impossible. He wasnt leading or in most cases in second place in any poll. But last night he won. Joining us is florida expert mark caputo. Thanks for being here. I dont think of you as ever being surprised by anything in politics. You have proclaimed yourself surprised by this. He was down. Convention wisdom holds you have to have a lot of money. You have to have a lot of organization to win. And there was this coalition of liberal groups and there were a variety of candidates in the race and it created this perfect storm for Andrew Gillum to sneak through and surge at the last minute and the shocker came on tuesday night. He was seen as a sort of symbol of one approach to democratic general election politics, which is dont necessarily try to be the crossover appeal candidate. Dont go to the center. Do everything you can instead to maximize democratic turnout. Get the Democratic Base excited and thats how you can win. Did we actually see in absolute numbers a kind of a spike in democratic turnout in a way that that sort of justified that strategy . Well, i can say he was certainly the admiral farragut candidate. It just caught on. I would go around and talk to voters and, you know, people i knew who were democratics. All of them loved Andrew Gillum. He gave them a reason to believe and it came together at one moment. What you have seen in the Democratic Party just for years in florida is this idea that we have to have this middle of the road candidate in the middle of the road, in the center. Meanwhile the republicans in florida have just run these base elections, inspire, in some cases inflame, get your voters to the polls, get them passionate, get them to turn out. The joke kept being on democrats. Now whether they intended to or not, the florida Democratic Party nominated someone who is using that same kind of technique that the republicans had used but now it looks like some of the republicans are a little nervous. Theyre like, wow, Andrew Gillum has a passionate following. Ron desantos won his election on the primary said. He spends a lot of time on fox news and he made this comment thats received National Condemnation when he said that florida shouldnt monkey it up by voting for Andrew Gillum. A lot of people seeing racial overtones in that comment. First of all, do you believe there were racial overtones in that comment . And what kind of campaign is he likely to run . Im going to take a pass on what was going on in his mind, but his campaign has been in damage control. They had already been looking toward the general election a few weeks before the primary. He was kind of ready to hit the campaign trail and define himself as his own republican and just, you know, by 9 30, 10 00 a. M. On tuesday he suddenly opened his mouth, stuck his foot in it and it has just been a really good gillun day. This is florida and we see their elections are pretty volatile. I will hesitate to call my candidate dead, but it was a bad day for ron desantis. And a humbling day for everybody that thinks they can predict what will happen next in politics. Thank you much. I should also mention that Andrew Gillum will be the feature guest of Lawrence Odonnell coming up right after me at the top of the hour. Stay with us. Hour. 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