the belief among democrats that a horrible political climate is improving some. plus, a high stakes trip. multiple officials now tell cnn the house speaker nancy pelosi will touch down in taiwan, ignoring dramatic warnings from china. and this week, democrats promised to put a vets bill back on the floor a second time. that after republican rejection prompts angry viral protests. we begin the hour, though, with death and devastation and sadness in kentucky. more heavy rain coming tonight and adding to the already historic and destructive flooding. at least 30 people are dead, including these four children, 2, 4, 6, and 8 years old and swept away when strong flood waters ripped them from their parents. the governor says they will, quote, be finding bodies for we weeks. certainly the deadliest and most devastating of my lifetime. we can now confirm we have lost 30 kentuckians to this flooding and that is going to grow. we know about additional bodies beyond these 30 confirmed
desantis. if he thought he was in trouble, he would back out on pride and ego. the other is his health. he was very aware of his brand and his vibrancy. if he feels like he s lost a step or two, that might encourage him to step back. he doesn t want to be perceived as tom brady or brett favre that has hung around too long and should have retired on top. neil: that was donald trump s former chief of staff, mick mulvaney. he says there might be a point of the roll out the former president might regret and might bow out. it comes at a time where the people are taking a look at the former president and the current white house occupant and don t want to see either of them. mark pen, democratic polster, fox news contributor on what he makes of that. what do you make of that, mark?
things where, like i said, they did not support it initially, but now they re having to deal with it and contend with it. i spoke to a democratic polster who told me he expects things to freeze once we get into the trial and once that consumes the media attention, if that is so, that benefits candidates like vice president biden who is leading nationally and mayor pete buttigieg who is leading in iowa, and then the candidates who are senators with smaller operations, fewer surrogates to go out. cory booker, amy klobuchar, that may not be good news for them as they re going to have to still figure out how to balance both a trial, but also a presidential campaign. live for us there in chicago, shaq, thank you for being with us. i want to bring in a democratic strategist who previously served as the communications director for the blue dog democrats. great to have you on the show. let s talk about the latest poll because it shows that last week s democratic debate as far as moving the n
with the debate with me she was required to answer the questions. the moderator said that s okay but will you answer the question? she is not very indepth she is good at ambush style comments to get attention and it certainly worked for her in that last format. ed: you use the word ambush and i m struck by the fact that the initial headlines boy she really got joe biden and i have been talking to democrats privately looking at data by stanley greenberg a long time democratic polster. test styles with democratic voters before the debate. some democratic voters were repelled by that felt like it was ambush significantly he got data suggesting that african-american voters. not all of them but some of them were actually rallying behind joe biden saying wait a second this was barack obama s wing man. this was unfair attack. yeah. it s actually a calculated risk she had took. she had fallen to fourth in the polls out here. nationally she was languishing. this was her big play. and since
several thousands more assembled outside. for more i m joined by democratic polster. look, the numbers are pretty competitive. what s this about? does he take on people he wants to run again or people he s afraid of? i can t tell if he s picking opponents? he s certainly elevating beto, which is good for him. not good for john delaney. or kamala or cory or other people. but i think he thinks warren and beto are the most beatable. really? i think so. who s he afraid of? kamala and klobuchar. depends what lane. i think if he look at his reelection from wisconsin and pennsylvania and ohio. i think the battle for the presidency, a lot of that is