american experiment. that s also why democrats, particularly the president, need to be more focused on persuasion, rather than just condemnation. naming the problem we face is important, but it is not sufficient. why you can t reason people out of something they weren t reasoned into, you can appeal to shared values and you can honor the republicans who protected the peaceful transfer of power. but the big picture is what we really need to keep in mind. defending democracy is a top concern for americans across party lines and we need to channel that in a constructive way, without falling into false equivalency and we can do that by staying true to the facts and applying principles without regard to partisanship. while also appealing to a set a spirit of patriotic grace. and that s your reality check. new day continues right now. an emotional back to school day in uvalde, texas. good morning, everyone. i m john berman with brianna keilar. the return to class has been a sou
and there are so few of them in the country right now. there are only 16 of them. in the whole country. that shows how polarized we are. almost every place, if you voted for biden you, got a democratic rep. if you voted for trump, you got a red rep. that number went up a little bit. the latest projections from both cook political report and axios show about 23 seats this time are cross over, a few more. why that matters is that s going to give a little more pull, a little more muscle to a moderating force in the mccarthy conference. we know the forces that are going to be pulling him the other way, but the fact that you have almost doubled the number of republicans this time who are in these crossover districts, that could be a counter veiling force. president biden turned 80 yesterday and he and his family over the thanksgiving holiday are going to start talking about his potential reelection bid in
has of course. but he d also been clearly told not to talk about 2020. he ad-libbed that part and then sort of said okay, but i know and moved on. ? ye yeah. and one of the main reasons people didn t want him to do this was because of what happened last tuesday and in the days since then, because so many of the candidates he endorsed did not win, in the primary and then in the general election. he tried to make the point that in the house all of these candidates he endorsed won. the people he s talking about were going to win no matter what because they re in ruby red seats. the only candidates in crossover districts, in swing districts he supported lost. four of them, they all lost. in the senate, in the governor s races, kari lake, blake masters, dr. oz, doug mastriano, and the lists go on and on and on and on and on. that s the reality. i want to note two things. one, there s a split screen
they turned on him in 2020. that s why joe biden is president. when you see these issues, pennsylvania senate race that the wisconsin senate race and the ohio senate race, that the ohio senate race and the wisconsin senate race are still in play, nine weeks out, tells you everything you need to know about the climate turning back toward the democrats. that doesn t mean the democrats are going to win. it means they have a shot. so watch those key senate races. is ohio and wisconsin, are they still competitive within a point or three a month from now? that will tell you something huge. i watch, one other thing i want to watch in the house, the crossover districts, the democrats who are in house districts carried by donald trump, the republicans who are in house districts carried by joe biden, the house is such a narrow swing back and forth, if you watch those 15 or 16 districts there, that s the first line. watch those, where are they? democrats actually think they can pick a few up espe
issues. reporter: in his upcoming book american reboot will hurd writes about the importance of appealing to those in the middle, not on the edges. my title is representative. i represent all people, people that voted for me, people that didn t vote for me, and people that didn t vote at all. reporter: congressional crossover districts where voters choose a member from different parties are virtually disappearing. in 1996 there were 108. in 2016, down to 35. and today there are only 16. the number of competitive districts here in texas, you were in one of them, has gone from 12 to 1. what does that mean for the way things work in congress or don t? well, you see more dysfunction because people aren t going to work together. and let me give you how is it possible there will be more dysfunction. look, because you can have even less people working