clyburn. do you think pete buttigieg has articulated a way to bring in some of the black voters that he says he wants? because nobody really has in the race with the exception of joe biden. well, mayor pete is nothing but articulate. he s articulate about everything. i think his problem with the black community with black voters is simply a lack of familiarity. that s it. i don t attribute it to his sexual preference. i don t attribute it to, you know, his policies. i think his policies are probably, they are, not probably, they are very favorable in terms of equity, pay equity, educational equity. they are very favorable. it s just a lack of familiarity. and, beth, what s your take in terms of his ability to broaden his base? was it naive of him to say that this race has really boiled down to him and elizabeth warren so early on when clearly you are still seeing big momentum behind people like bernie sanders? yeah. it was very arrogant of him
a very optimistic picture for us to start this conversation. with me tonight new york times editorial board member and msnbc contributor mara gay, msnbc contributor mike barnicle is in the house and beth fuhy here on set. david ruecker joins us also. let me dip into your historical perspective if i can. the country as divided as it has ever been going into an election season. impeachment is ramping up. how do you explain how quickly the nation has pivoted from one point saying no to impeachment, no to removing the president to now this gap narrowing so quickly in a month. in terms of historical perspective, i could offer a bit, maybe. the a.p. s lead comparing the events and the conditions of this country to 1968, no way. okay.
i mean, two assassinations, an average of 230 young men being killed every week in vietnam to today. pump the brakes a little. as far as impeachment, people catching onto it, i don t think i think people are looking at it as trump rather than impeachment, i am tired of him, i am sick of him, get him out of here. the facts of impeachment, i think people are going to be slow to come to it. to that point, beth, one of the political calculations has been where nancy pelosi has been. now you ve got the ukraine thing being front and center really driving this. from a political perspective, what has changed in her calculus? is it simply this incident, or has he felt public momentum? i think it was a combination of both. the evidence came forward in this case from the whistle-blower now corroborated by so many other officials. in fact just reading president trump s, the transcript or the
you see it there on your screen. 53% of americans approve of the impeachment inquiry as we were just suggesting. that includes 89% of democrats. more than half of independents. but as beth was saying, it hasn t par layed into a strong number of republicans. only about 9% believe so. the president s approval rating remains more or less where it generally has been, 45%. his marks for his handling of the economy still among his highest. here s an interesting nugget about one of the president s closest men, rudy giuliani once polling at 84% in popularity after the september 11th attacks. he was america s mayor, after all. now polls at 24% when people are asked of their opinion of him. mara, let me get your thoughts on this. why hasn t this translated among republicans? do you think that this is purely a partisan issue of politics, or if there was substance, you would see republicans man up, if you will, and cross the line? well, there is certainly substance there. let s start with that.