organization behind them than they did in 2016. i m sure the crowd was happy to see you, again, katy. yes, their boasting of that. annie and i were at the briefing the other day that the campaign held and it is striking how much more professional the organization is this time around and the group from 2015, 2016. they believe they have a much better data collection operation and boasting about the number of volunteers they will have and they will compete in 17 states. although to be fair, a lot of those to play defense texas, arizona and they are also leaning in on impeachment. senior officials at that briefing made this argument and we heard it from the president himself today in the oval office saying that since impeachment started the fund-raising numbers have gone up and he believes the poll numbers have gone up. looking at the polls, harder argument to make. his approval rating has held steady in certain states. and the campaign went one step further and they say, according to t
like the faces of the party. there was a disconnect there for sure. annie, thank you very much. jonathan, always good to see you, as well. still ahead, is it a good idea to look to the uk as an indicator of 2020? a predictor of 2020? i m not so sure. bill neely is coming up to discuss it with me. first, mitch mcconnell is already predicting the outcome of a senate trial. you have seen that sound bite over and over again. when it comes to impeachment, the process of impeachment and the trial in the senate, does he really have that much power? stay with me. liberty mu. line? cut. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. cut. liberty m. am i allowed to riff? what if i come out of the water? liberty biberty. cut. we ll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need.
is really turning off independents, particularly in the key battleground states they re going to decide next year s election. annie, expand on that. i wonder if they re just preaching to the choir. that is definitely what they are doing. everything fires up their base. so, brad the campaign manager told us fund-raising, small donors, voter turnout and registration is up because of impeachment. i spoke to some democrats yesterday just to see what the counterargument is to this and they say it is hard to tell what is unknowable, would they be fired up for some other reason? the base literally gets fired up by everything donald trump does. the question is, he is going to need more than just the base to win this re-election campaign. so, would they be able to create that excitement without impeachment? probably among those supporters. exactly. doesn t matter if the president is impeached. maybe they get mad because somebody, nancy pelosi said
committee debated article s of impeachment against the president yesterday, one of my next guests reports that trump staffers say the manhattan billionaire has transformed it into the beer and blue jeans party. a transformation that they believe will guide the president to victory next year, even after almost certain impeachment in the house. joining me now new york times white house correspondent annie carney and jonathan lamire. welcome to both of you. jonathan, i went to a rally the pennsylvania. this was the day that impeachment was debated and i was taken aback by how many people were lined up in the rain. maybe i shouldn t be surprised because i ve seen it before, but thousands of people there on the day he was being itch poomempeaa number of people trying to get them to register to vote. it seems like they have a much more capable get out the vote
those four the face of the democratic party because their polling numbers are so low, i think he thinks if he can show the every day american that this is the new face of the democratic party that it will be not good for them in a way. reporter: so campaign officials tell me to expect that kind of strategy to be on full display tonight and it s interesting because if you remember, chris, today was originally supposed to be mueller testimony day. right. reporter: so the campaign planned this rally as counter program, but when those plans changed so, too, did the focus, but of course that new kind of reverse strategy that annie refers to came over the weekend. this presented a perfect and clear new strategy for tonight that we can expect to see, chris. of course, all of that starting with those tweets over the weekend and everybody unsuspecting that it would lead us to this point for wednesday night. i think whatever the day there s always something in the donald trump news cycle