gingrich because we ran against the extreme partisanship. today, everybody seems extremely partisan. the democrats were cruising in, they now look just as partisan as the republicans. neil: but i m looking at it in the presidential context mark and very very closely that s where i think it could give an edge to someone whose far far far left. well that s because of the caucuses that really should be eliminated in favor of primaries , that give activists such an edge. i think the democratic primary candidates have been playing into this, and i think they are also going to be in for a rude shock when they get through the rest of the primaries after iowa , that there are a lot more moderate democratic voters out there than they think. neil: we ll see if this california is upfront in that primary process. mark, always good seeing you thank you for taking the time. thank you. neil: all right, on the whole collusion issue and russia investigation, it s always been sort of a rule of thumb
developments in mr. cohen s plea agreement will not preclude him from an appearance before our committee as needed for ongoing investigation. john heilemann, not surprisingly, they d like to hear from him again. not surprisingly at all. and look, i mean, there s obviously going to be a lot of focus now, there already has been a lot on michael cohen. i do think it s important, we re seeing this reporting coming out, maggie haberman, you cited the tweet earlier where she says the white house is now much more focused on impeachment than it was before. and i think it s important to understand part of why. they have spent an extraordinary amount of time and effort since may of last year trying to discredit the special counsel, trying to discredit the deep state, now trying to discredit john brennan. all these people who relate to the thing the president likes to talk-b which is the collusion issue, the russia story. again, we all think that s a legitimate story but they ve spent a lot o
least in one of the earlier snippets i heard mr. cohen s lawyer said he would testify without any promise of immunity. i think it s most important that he testifies in front of us and it s also important that he talks to mr. mueller. clearly that s where most of the final action about the collusion issue will be decided. let me ask you about this supreme court question. is this just a convenient talking point for democrats? oh, look, michael cohen. let s now let s try this to stop brett kavanaugh. or is this a legitimate complaint in your view? well, i think i m going to go ahead and give judge kavanaugh the courtesy that was not afforded judge merrick gaurlarl. i ve had questions around the litany of traditional issues, health care, labor and human rights. i ve got serious questions about his expansive views of executive power. i believe there is no one, including the president,
trying to discredit the deep state, now trying to discredit john brennan. all these people who relate to the thing the president likes to talk-b which is the collusion issue, the russia story. again, we all think that s a legitimate story but they ve spent a lot of political energy on that. what they have not spent political energy on because it s really almost impossible for the president to do this, is to try to discredit michael cohen. what are you going to say? these are not he s not bogeyman. he s not a stranger. he s not a washington insider. he s not an establishmentarian. he s not a member of the deep state. he s the president s personal lawyer and fixer for more than a decade. and he s now in a position where having spent all that ammunition politically trying to discredit one investigation he s now faced with a much more credible witness who s implicated him in a crime and it s a political matter that s a much more dangerous place to be than even the russia inquiry, which o
moo mueller and his team face to face? i think he s using the media as a focus group. knowing the court of public opinion will ultimately influence the impeachment process, if there is one. i think it s in his best interest to speak with his attorneys president, which would not happen if he were subpoenaed. you want that harness and potential muz. around him and a script in front of him to answer questions that would not be allowed to be there if he had a grand jury. it s in his interest whether he ll follow suit is very different. one of the points that were made, maybe he ll answer questions on these allegations of, quote, collusion, but he s only going to do it in written form, any questions involving obstruction of justice. so you have three different things going on here. you have coordination conspiracy p pre-election. there s no executive privilege. he has a hard time denying mueller the right to talk to him about that. that s the collusion issue. then you get to obstr