highways, bridges, tunnels are falling apart, airports, it provides jobs. we ought to be setting that agenda and having trump react to that rather than we react to trump. as one that knew him personally fighting with him for 35 years, it would drive him crazy if we ignored him. if we went if we had a trump-free week on the media, wouldn t talk about trump, he would do anything to get attention. he d jog around the white house in his bathrobe to try to get attention. i mean, because he is the kind of narcissist that could not stand to be ignored. if i was the democratic nominee against him, i would ignore him which would drive him nuts and it would bring out a more bazaar trump. he might tweet about a christmas movie from 26 years ago. about the seven seconds that he acted like the door men. he acted like the doorman telling the kid where go. that s beneath you. let s go outside mar-a-lago
here we are talking about trump and in some ways we are feeding feeding bat feeds. they there are huge nishes this country that we don t talk about like a 23 tril job dollar deficit because we re so obsessed about what trump may have said in a conversation way foreign leader. i m not saying that that s unimportant. but to some extent we ve had a three-year experiment in free public glis bli bub u publicity for a president that thrives on it and he s doing so much better than should. walter. bret said it in his column and then mike and susan reinforced it. if donald trump had done an infrastructure bill, he could have transformed american politics and his own image in the sense that it would be something that would have had huge popular appeal and swro wo have had democrats and republicans together and he
the washington post columnist george will has a new warning to 2020 democrats. in his latest op-ed entitled democrats denial on health care may produce trump s re-election. in it george writes this. as this shabby year with it a dispiriting decade sags to ab end, there is an interesting symmetry. in 2010, passage of the affordable care act had a preoccupation, health care. this year they are defining the political competition that will produce the first new presidency of this country s third decade. in 2019, the democratic presidential candidates debates about health care as in 2020. if trump succeeds, he might owe his tattered success to the other party s combination ignorance and arrogance regarding health care.
the iowa caucus in just over a month, that democrats are really starting to say, not only who is the person who could best beat donald trump, but on what grounds? and i think for next several weeks we will be spending a lot of time talking about what should the platform look like for democrats? not only what say winning platform against trump, but what is a unifying galvanizing platform and set of issues and priorities for democrats nationally? we don t really have that yet for all the debates we ve had, he with still don t really have that. it s not surprising that during the did he baits whichdeh is how we cover things these days, health care is huge, education is big. russia, impeachment obviously is in there. what s surprising to me, and bret references in his piece, is people go to work every day, they drive every day over roads
the dot here in new york. friday, december 27th. i m willie geist. still with us, mike barnicle. the host of msnbc s politics nation and president of the action network reverend al sharpton. republican strategist and msnbc political analysts susan del percio. jiengd our conversation, national politics correspondent for the washington post ann gearrin. columnist for the new york times brett stevens. and professor of history tulane university, walter isaacson. good morning and welcome to you all. brett, i want to start with your piece, one that s got a lot of people talking this morning in the new york times entitled what will it take to beat donald trump? brett writes in part, bill clinton and barack obama both campaigned for and woman the white house on the watch word hope. what watch word it will take for a democrat to win this time? my suggestion, soap. nearly three years in donald trump s presidency, america needs a hard scrub and a deep cleanse. as with most bullies, the key